Scoop: App Attack Part 3

Finally, we come to the last installment in our three-part series on smartphone and tablet apps. First, we looked at apps specifically targeted to quilters. Then we rated apps that work for anybody who sews, not just quilters. And now, we examine apps that promise to unleash, inspire, or otherwise nudge your creativity.

Sketchbook Mobile
Autodesk, Inc.
$1.99
iPhone, Android

Sometimes, the best way to get the right side of your brain in gear and start the ideas flowing is to just…doodle. Paper and pencil is nice and all, but what if you had a functional art program right on your phone, complete with brushes and layers and all that  Photoshoppy, Illustrator-y-type stuff to play with? SketchBook Mobile lets you draw with several different types of brushes, gives you both a color wheel and swatches for picking colors, and lets you add text. Create fine detail with the pencil tool and create interesting effects with the mirror option.

Yay or Nay? This is a good tool for just doodling and a great tool for anyone with more artistic ability. There is a free version, but it has only one brush option, and we think $1.99 is a great price for an app with so much functionality.

Photography Trainer
Trailblazer Media
$1.99
iPhone, Android

Though our primary medium is fabric, most of us have a need to photograph our creations, whether for ourselves alone or to put on a blog or send to a quilt show, and we can’t show off our beauties with underexposed shots and flash glare, now can we? Photography Trainer is nothing more than a collection of small lessons on taking great photos, but sometimes this is exactly what you need when you are trying to get the perfect shot but can’t remember your f-speeds and shutter stops (or whatever). The advice is geared towards those who are using a DSLR camera, but many of today’s point-and-shoot digital cameras have options for setting the shutter speed, f-stop, and ISO so don’t let the fact that you don’t have one of those big, professional-looking cameras stop you.

Yay or Nay? Definitely, yay. No matter how many pictures we take, we still need a reminder of how to get the depth of field the way we want it—among other things—and we love having a reference tool on-hand that is easy to navigate and understand.

Roger Von Oech’s Creative Whack Pack
Creative Think
$1.99
iPhone, iPad

Author and motivational speaker Roger Von Oech has been selling products for awhile now that promise to spark your creativity, and one of his more popular tools has been the Creative Whack Pack, a set of cards that offers different strategies for stimulating your mind and challenging your thinking. Now the pack is available as an iPhone and iPad app. Select “Give Me A Whack” from the opening menu, and you’ll get a card with a small phrase, like “Check Your Timing” and an accompanying cartoon. Flip the card and you’ll get a pad to write notes and a list of questions to think about. Click on “Story” below the card, and you’ll get a few paragraphs of thoughts about the topic. You can also “Do A Workshop” where you choose from a list of issues you may be having and the app gives you several ways to access some of the cards by category.

Yay or Nay?  The sound effects that come with each card are more annoying than helpful, but this can easily be remedied by turning off your sound. Otherwise, these cards do offer an interesting way to jog your brain and start thinking about things a little differently.

Photo365
Benjamin Hsu
$0.99
iPhone, iPad

This app gives you a way to remember an entire year in photos. Sure, you could do that on your own, but this gives you a really nifty interface and will even remind you to take a picture each day if you want it to. Just think—you could chronicle a whole year of your quilting and sewing projects by taking a quick snap of what you have been working on that day. And if you got nothing accomplished on that quilt? Take a picture of the empty chocolate bar wrapper and the TV remote to show what you were doing instead! You can also share the photos you take on Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr or you can email them.

Yay or Nay? We love the calendar interface for this, which places a thumbnail of your shot right on the day you took it, giving you a lovely visual of your week, month, or year. It’s just too bad that Apple hasn’t seen fit yet to make a better camera for the iPad, but it does allow imports of photos, so you can still add nicer shots. Now if they’d just make it for Android!

Etsy Addict
Daniel Dickison
$0.99
iPhone

This is the perfect name for an app that lets us indulge our Etsy obsessions in a phone-optimized interface. You can browse listings, add your finds to your favorites, and shop directly through the app. Though the app is apparently not an Etsy product, it functions so much like the site, you would think it must be.

Yay or Nay? Though the app sells for only $0.99, you kinda need to factor in the cost of all the stuff you’ll be buying on Etsy now that you can do it while standing in line at the grocery store. Still, despite the cost, it’s an excellent way to peruse all that creative energy out there and get some inspiration for yourself (and a new necklace or a knitted seam ripper cozy).