Portfolio Pro for iPad – app review

When I recently upgraded to the new iPad, my wife became the recipient of my trusty and much loved iPad 2. Since she is a photographer, I knew a portfolio app would be a must have for her. I’ve tried a few portfolio apps in the past but I couldn’t think of one that I was excited to recommend. I decided to do some research and see if I could find a portfolio app with the following features (which I new my wife would appreciate): Easy wireless transfer of photos from computer to iPad, customizable look, low learning curve of app setup and functions.
As luck would have it, I didn’t have to search too hard.

Soon thereafter Terry White posted a very positive review on BestAppSite about a newly released portfolio app: Portfolio Pro for iPad. This statement from his review piqued my interest the most: “Lastly it’s probably one of the easiest to use! Some of these Apps leave me scratching my head on how various features work. However, I had no problem getting up and running in Portfolio Pro within a matter of minutes.”

Terry wasn’t exaggerating. Including the installing of Portfolio Pro it took me all of 5 minutes to have the app displaying photos that I transferred from my Mac. Bam. It’s that quick.

For a full feature rundown follow this link to the App Store where all of Portfolio Pro’s features are listed. I’m just going to concentrate on the features I previously listed as being important.

Ease of wirelessly transferring photos: There a several different ways you can move photos to the iPad with Portfolio Pro. I chose Dropbox because I am already a Dropbox user. Under the settings menu I selected Dropbox under Services. After a login confirmation Portfolio Pro was linked to Dropbox.

I then grabbed a bunch of photos from iPhoto on my Mac and dropped them into my Dropbox folder. To add those photos to Portfolio Pro I selected the large + labeled “New Gallery” (a Gallery is like an Album) then after selecting DropBox (when prompted about where I’d like the photos to come from) my Dropbox photo folder became visible. All of the photos within that folder were already selected (with a checkmark) to import. Next I selected the “Import Gallery” button. Portfolio Pro imported all of the photos as a batch into a Gallery within the app. I viewed the Gallery. With a swipe to the left the photos swapped with a very fluid flip (similar to the “page turn” in Flipboard.) Everything looked great!

Customizable Look (themes): Portfolio Pro has many options for the overall look. From the settings menu you can choose from preset themes or create your own. With options to change the Background color, Slideshow Background color, Navigation Bar color, Photo Names font, Description Font, Thumbnail Title font and more, there are so many options you’d be hard-pressed to not come up with the perfect custom look. Best of all, you can make the changes then save it as a custom theme, which makes switching between your own themes a snap. Add your own branding by uploading your logo and you’ll have a fully customize portfolio unlike any other.

Low learning curve of app setup and functions: By now I hope it’s apparent that Portfolio Pro has met these needs and more. Setup is quick. Loading photos is easy. Changing between themes is a snap. Rearranging photos within a gallery is simple with drag and drop (you can even rearrange the order of the galleries in the same manner).

Viewing with Portfolio Pro: So far I’ve only talked about the Edit Mode, maybe you’re thinking “What about the Client Mode?” Client Mode (or viewer mode) is simple to use, which is important since the whole point is for others to easily view your photos. Portfolio Pro has a built in Home Screensaver, think of it as a “cover” like a magazine except this one is an automated slideshow (or not, your choice) for photos you’d like to feature. One swipe to the left (which is indicated by a large arrow on the right) and the “cover” opens to reveal the Galleries. Choosing individual Galleries or photos is done with a single tap or two finger spread. To move through photos, swipe left or right. All actions are very basic iPad gestures which means Portfolio Pro is ready for even the most novice iPad user.

Future Features I’d like to see: Even though Portfolio Pro is a great 1.0 version app, there are a couple of things that could be added to make it even better. I agree that synch support from Dropbox would be super handy as mentioned by Terry in his review. The lack of synching is not a deal breaker for me but it would make a very easy to use app even easier. I’d also like to see an option for other transitions between photos. The “flip” is visually cool but I could see how some users might prefer a couple of less flashy options like a fade or slide. It would also be nice to have the option of running every gallery in a continuous slideshow mode.

Should you buy this app?
If you’re a photographer, designer or all around creative and you need an easy to use (yet surprisingly robust) portfolio app that will show off your work the way you want: then absolutely yes. Even if you’re not one of those three types of people and you just want a great photo organization app that offers many more options than the stock iPad photo app you’ll love it too!

Screensaver (cover) before photo added, Edit Mode

Screensaver (cover) after photo added

Gallery Thumbnails

Gallery Edit Mode

Photo thumbnails inside gallery

 
Disclaimer: I was provided with a free download code for the purposes of reviewing this app. See my review policy here.

Top 5 Tim Burton Films – coregeek retrospective

Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows opened on Friday. Given the mixed reviews, tepid box office take and general reactions such as this, I’m re-posting this article which I wrote before the release of Burton’s Alice in Wonderland in 2010.

Beetle Juice

Macabre madness in a comedy where the phenomenal Michael Keaton (as Beetlejuice) steals the show from a very talented cast including: Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis. Beetle Juice is delicious mix of weirdness and laughs. A true cult classic.

Batman

Face it, comic based movies were a joke before 1989′s Batman. Burton ushered in a whole new wave of what comic based films could aspire to. Keaton proved to the world he was worthy of the cape. Nicholson turned in the performance of his career. Bassinger was gorgeous.

Ed Wood

Probably Burton’s most zany, yet a compelling drama at the same time. Depp and Landau were wonderful together. Is it the truth? Who knows, who cares? It’s a truly a celebration of what made Wood so captivating as the “worst director of all time.”

Edward Scissorhands

Sublimely eccentric fable about a boy with scissors for hands who falls for a girl. Laughs and tears ensue with a heartfelt bittersweet ending. Really? Could anyone else but Burton have made this film?

The Nightmare Before Christmas
Okay, okay, yes technically it isn’t a Burton film but he created the characters, wrote the story and served as executive producer. Nevertheless TNBC it quintessential Burton. Filled with quirky, funny and lovable characters (who aren’t always what they seem on the outside), great music and wonderfully designed sets in a world full of scares, charm and even life lessons to be learned. What’s not to love?

Agree? Disagree? Hit me back in the comments.

Marvel’s The Avengers – movie review

The History:
The build up to Marvel’s The Avengers been coming for several years. Marvel has made it known for sometime that all of the heroes who’ve starred in their own individual films (minus Spiderman) will team up in one colossal mashup to rule them all. While the majority of those films have been good if not great (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America) the Hulk films were only okay. I guess the biggest question about The Avengers was: “Could it be done well?”

When Marvel announced the selection of Joss Whedon to helm The Avenger’s, geeks everywhere rejoiced. Those who know Whedon know him well. Whedon, a multi-talented geeks geek, has written for comics, web-series, TV and film. He’s probably best known as the creator of the hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. He’s also the creator of the short lived series Firefly and Dollhouse. Firefly is considered by many as one of the best TV series to ever suffer a premature death. Firefly only lasted 14 episodes but the outcry from fans was so huge that Whedon convinced Universal to hand over $40mil to wrap up the series in a feature film tilted “Serenity”. Released in 2005 “Serenity” was not a box-office smash but it garnered good reviews from both critics and fans alike, most importantly it showed that Whedon had the chops to helm action/adventure on the big screen.

The Setup:
There’s an energy source of unknown potential known as the Tesseract (last seen in Captain America). The Tesseract is stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D. by Thor’s brother Loki (last seen plunging to his death in Thor). Loki wants to use the Tesseract to open a portal which will allow him to transport an army of Chitauri (an alien race on a mission to conquer the galaxy) to earth in order to subjugate it’s citizens. Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., re-activates The Avengers Initiative to assemble Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye to stop Loki and the Chitauri. With a clash of egos and braun this proves to be a difficult task.

The Execution:
A film with four main heros and a handful of secondaries could easily collapse under it’s own weight. Somehow, Whedon is able to juggle the massive cast without strain and serves an excellent mix of action with smaller character moments (which well serves Whedon’s flair for dialogue). Superhero films are all about tone (if the tone is off by being overly serious or not serious enough the film will seem “cheesy” or “overwrought”.) Whedon strikes the perfect tone with The Avenger’s. I’m sure having a stellar cast immensely helps in this regard. The cast has good chemistry and the story does a great job of giving every character ample time; even secondary characters like Agent Coulson get more than just a scene. That doesn’t mean one character isn’t focused on more than the others.

In many ways The Avenger’s feels a bit like “Iron Man 3 featuring All My Rowdy Friends“. It’s understandable considering Robert Downey Jr. is the biggest star and the Iron Man movies have been the most popular of the bunch. With his excellent delivery of snarky banter and the majority of the best one liners, Robert Downey Jr. continues to revel in a role he has mastered and steals the show; at least until the Hulk shows up. With one simple order of “Smash!” the monster within is let loose in all his green rage glory and unlike the other Hulk adventures is given a whole playground (Manhattan) of baddies to destroy. Fortunately by the time the massive Smackdown (which every fan knows is coming) culminates in the last third of the film the setup has been handled so well that the endless fighting is not just a bore. Oh, and what a colossal, and often humorous, battle it is!

The Bottom Line:
Despite the odds, Whedon and team deftly created a multi-hero mashup that lives up to the hype, they probably should’ve just titled it “The Avenger’s: Hell Yeah!“

Rated PG-13: In theaters now.
ps – Be sure to stay until both sets of credits have rolled.

Useless Mug – review

The History:
Marco Arment is one of the people I follow on twitter. He’s the sole developer behind one of my favorite iOS apps Instapaper (highly recommend). I enjoy reading Marco’s blog and getting a small glimpse of the behind the scenes of an iOS developer.

As an amusement to himself Marco created the Useless Mug which is based on an actual Instapaper review. At some point he must have had several people inquire about the mug because he made it available on Zazzle. After an initial copyright infringement banning snafu, Zazzle ended up fixing their mistake by offering a 50% off coupon code.

By this time I was thinking “sweet 50% off that’s pretty funny for a buy-in of only $7″. I caved and ordered my own Useless Mug. Apparently there was plenty of us out there who found the mug amusing; in only 3 days Marco’s joke turned into 479 mugs sold.

The Setup:
It’s a basic coffee mug. I like the shape of the handle which is comfortable to hold (something that must be right on a mug for me to continue to use it.) The two-tone color is nice compliment to the black and white text.

The Execution
As Marco mentioned in his own blog post the type is a little fuzzy. It’s not enough to be bothersome but not being Retina quality is a tad disappointing.

The Bottom Line
If you’ve spent any amount of time reading reviews on the App Store, then you’ll surely find the mug humorous as well, just be willing to get the “whatever look” from your spouse as you try to explain exactly why.

Hey Marco Tell Us How You Really Feel – Scathing Kindle Review

From Marco Arment’s: A human review of the Kindle Fire

“But that’s just about all I can say for it. It’s a bad game player, a bad app platform, a bad web browser, a bad video player, and, most disappointingly, a bad Kindle.

If I didn’t need the Fire for Instapaper testing, I’d return it.”

OUCH!