Tag: review

Photo-editing app: Snapseed

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Snapseed – an app that I use for all my iphone photo editing.  I simply love it.  It gives richer texture and color to my food pictures too.  FYI – the food pictures that you see on my blog are all taken with an iPhone 5.  Some are edited with Snapseed, ok most are edited. hahaha!

Reasons I like Snapseed:

  • Easy to use
  • FREE (free is always good!)
  • Distinct difference after editing
  • Can be saved/emailed easily from the app

You can see the difference for yourself, here’s a picture of coconut scones with chocolate before editing:

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Here’s one after editing:

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The difference is pretty obvious.  The colors look more vibrant!!

 

Verdict:

TO DOWNLOAD OR NOT TO DOWNLOAD:  TO DOWNLOAD

Hope you enjoy editing your pictures!

xx

B

 

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Technology Tuesdays : DOTS … … …

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DOTS: In the end – everything connects.

A new game app that just came out in May this year has created a wave of fresh new downloads.  This has caused a rise in inefficiency and a decrease in productivity in America by 20-25%.  In 16 Days this app was played 100 million times. I had to try it after hearing this bizzarre statistic.  When I first played it – I didn’t think much of it.  Although saying that, it did remind me of connect the dots.  A basic game – simple yet addictive.

But after playing it a few times – I too got addicted.  SO DO TRY IT OUT if you plan to procrastinate.

The objective of the game:

  • Connect all the dots.  This can be done vertically and horizontally.  Diagonals can’t be done.
  • SQUARES are the key.  A square gives you the most points.  Swipe squares off!

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It’s only a minute long.  I find this terribly intelligent to engage players to play just another game, as it’s just a minute.  The snapshot above illustrates the dots connecting in a horizontal and vertical fashion.  If the green or purple dot next to the connecting dots were yellow an obvious square would be there.  That would result in far more points.

There’s apparently a strategy to get more points.  I came across this link.  One of the strategies I do use is to pre-empt my move.  To try to see if swiping two dots would give me a square of dots for the next move.  That helps me!

Also – an article illustrating that its the most beautiful game ever!  Hope this entices you to download it and give it a go.  It’s a free app which means there’s really nothing to lose.  Except a lot of minutes of your life 😉

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Technology Tuesdays: Articles in my “pocket”

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When you’re on the go, having what you need in your pocket is always convenient.  The Pocket App stores articles and videos. Once the article is downloaded it can be read offline anywhere. This proves to be extremely useful when I am on the tube (assuming I get a seat that is, which is unlikely – but anyways!)

My husband and I have been doing various research on the current app market. When he comes across interesting articles that would shed some light on the launching on our first app, he puts it in my pocket.  Although, I’d prefer a cheque book in my pocket, but articles for now would do 🙂

How the app works: 

I have a desktop client on my iMac which allows me to save links and send them to my app. In addition, another user (in my case, my husband) can add to your individual pocket list.

It’s a good sharing platform.  Also, it’s compatible with Flipboard (you can check out my review on that app) that makes it easy for users to read articles offline later.  Once the articles/links are saved they appear in a list format.

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The picture depicts the list format.  Furthermore, it shows the articles that have been sent to my list by my husband – Amit Bajaj.

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The app also simplifies searching for your saved material with the categories above.  This functionality makes it easy if you have numerous articles/videos saved and want to search for a specific one.

This app is pretty handy – download it and give it a shot and put it in your “pocket”. (Couldn’t resist being cheesy – sorry! haha)

xx

B

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Foodie Fridays : Afternoon Tea

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So there I was, gracefully stuffing my face with scones and tea.

My love for food extends to tea.  London’s traditional Afternoon Tea is the icing or rather clotted cream to my scone.  One of the perks of living here!  I met a friend on Wednesday in the city to catch up over tea.  We both love Afternoon Teas and have tried various ones around the city.

The picture above illustrates the beautiful way in which we were served.  I especially liked the modern three tiered serving style as opposed to the traditional type.  We went to Marylebone Hotel.

There was a vast variety of tea.  I enjoyed the citrus lemon tea and the hibiscus fruit tea the most.  My friend indulged in Earl Grey.  The tea was unlimited in case you were wondering.  We were both given a variety of sandwiches and they catered to my veterinarian request with a variety (grilled veggies, cream cheese and chives, mozzarella with vine tomatoes).  I was satisfied.  However,  I simply could not make it to the top.  The second tier was my limit, and I knew the next day I had to go for my workout without any excuses.

Let’s have a moment of silence for my over-indulgence.

X
B

Technology Tuesdays: Paprika (Recipe Manager App)

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Today’s app – PAPRIKA.  My favorite Recipe App!Image

Hello there!  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Weekends we mainly eat out and try different restaurants.  Or we go to the same restaurant and end up ordering exactly the same thing to avoid disappointment!  Sounds ironic but when you get to one of your favorite restaurants, you know exactly what would satisfy you and the risk of a new dish is almost frightening.

Weekdays we eat at home, which means I get to show-off my culinary skills or the lack of. haha! Which brings me to today’s featured app – Paprika.  It’s actually the only app I use for recipes.  I usually download mainly free apps unless the paid app proves to be very useful.  I’m quite frugal when it comes to apps (not so when it comes to designer handbags).  We have to save somewhere! 🙂  This app is usually $4.99 and you can check it out here: http://www.paprikaapp.com/blog/ (apparently there’s a sale at the moment!)

Firstly, the APP lets you search for recipes from all over the web through your internet browser.  It also provides suggested supported sites which are very useful.  I especially like to go to AllRecipes and BettyCrocker.   However. there are times I like to go to other sites and Paprika gives me this flexibility.  When you come upon a recipe that you would like to save – instead of a snapshot, it will save it in a uniform template into your recipe organizer.  Prior to this app, I used to snapshot what I liked and had to go through my photo gallery frantically when I was about to try something new.  That was pretty inefficient and time consuming.  Now I am able to save, categorize and store in an effective manner.

Sometimes, you come across a site that is not supported by this app as it cannot differentiate the text in the blog from the recipe.  There is toolbar at the bottom of this app that overcomes this problem.  You are able to manually copy the ingredients, method, title and store it in the template where you can then save.

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The picture above is a snapshot of my Paprika Recipes.  This demonstrates the way in which my recipes are stored.  There is a search button on the top which allows the users to search their own saved recipes.  Also, you are able to save your own recipes in the same format to add to this collection.

Secondly, if technology isn’t quite your “thing”, it allows you to print recipes so you can have them in a recipe file if that’s how you are used to storing them.  I have to admit, that I print some of my recipes instead of taking my iPad or iPhone in the kitchen with me all the time.

The last feature that this app is able to do is – plan meals.  Frankly, I do not use this feature much as I rather plan my recipes weekly.  Also – my husband sometimes doesn’t quite like sticking to the plan and has spontaneous food cravings.  🙂  Eitherway, the picture below shows how this feature can be used.

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