Apps Magazine Issue 59 - 2015 UK.pdf

BECOME A SOCIAL SUPERSTAR
INSTAGRAM
Instagram is a social media
behemoth yes, but it’s also
undeniably a trailblazer for
photo-editing apps all over the
app market. Giving your pictures a feel from
a bygone era, Instagram uses light-bleaching
and sepia tones to instantly transform images
before you get the chance to share it with
all your followers and post to various other
social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It
works like any other social network, you get
to like and comment on pictures and, if you’re
running the latest version of Instagram, you
get access to a whole host of secret, advanced
editing tools guaranteed to help out any digital
photographer. As you’d expect, implementing
one of the editing tools and customising it is a
straightforward affair. With an image selected,
there are three editing options to initially
choose from: Filters, Lux (a leftover from old
versions which adjusts colour) and Tools, the
home of Instagram ’s new editing suite. This is
the menu to use if you want to add a vignette
or tilt shift effect, adjust contrast, sharpen an
image and much, much more.
iPhone | iOS 7.0 | Free
Android | Varies | Free
“Instagram uses
light-bleaching
and sepia tones
to instantly
transform images”
TUMBLR
The world’s biggest
microblogging platform now
has an app to be proud of.
Recent updates have given you the
chance to fully customise your blog,
whether that’s uploading posts packed
with text and multimedia or tweaking
the themes on your main page. All
this used to be confined to only the
desktop version. Now you can proudly
share your blog with the world.
iPhone+ | iOS 7.1 | Free
Android | Varies | Free
HAVE
A GROUP
CONVERSATION
Perfect for business users looking to
hold a video conference call for up to
ten people. And it’s completely free and
cross-platform.
HANGOUTS
iPhone+ | iOS 7.0
|Free
Android
|Varies
|Free
Tumblr lets you post
literally anything you
want to your blog
MUST-
HAVE
CLASSICS
FACEBOOK
Facebook is a service
synonymous with social
networking. See what your
friends are up to on your News Feed
and share your own updates, photos
and videos to your Wall. You get
notifications when friends like
and comment on your posts. Mark
Zuckerberg’s brainchild is an
essential download.
iPhone+ | iOS 7.0 | Free
Android | Varies | Free
MESSENGER
Rather annoyingly, Facebook
turned its Messenger feature
into a separate app. When
you receive a private message and
click on it in the app, you’ll be
automatically directed to Messenger.
The app is perfect for group chats
(adding people is simple) and you can
shoot videos and take pictures in the
app and share them instantly. It’s just
like texting, but without the charges.
iPhone+ | iOS 7.0 | Free
Android | Varies | Free
SWARM BY
FOURSQUARE
Swarm is the brilliant
companion to location-based
social network Foursquare,
enabling you to see who is nearby
and who wants to hang out. You get
to check in at any location you wish
and message your nearby friends
from within the app. Messaging is a
lot of fun, based predominately on
nifty icons and stickers.
iPhone+ | iOS 7.0 | Free
Android | Varies | Free
GOOGLE+
It might not be the riveting
success that some of its rival
can claim to be, but Google+
has its uses, especially for business
users. Fill your stream with great
content by following interesting
people, pages and communities, while
connecting with other users who
share similar interests. Google+ is
even a place to back up all your
photos and videos too, and engage in
some pretty advanced editing.
iPhone+ | iOS 6.0 | Free
Android | Varies | Free
TWITTER
Another app that needs no
introduction, Twitter is one of
the first apps you should
download. The premise is to send a
tweet that contains no more than
140 characters. It’s supposed to
happen in a real-time, spur of the
moment style. The official app lets
you tweet, retweet and favourite
anything. Find out what celebrities
are up to and be the first to hear
breaking news.
iPhone+ | iOS 7.0 | Free
Android | Varies | Free
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