[Tech Talk] Painting and Photography Collide with Prisma

August 8, 2016August 9, 20161 Comment

Have you ever wanted to marinate inside of a moment? Venture into mind melding visions of alternate realities while mediating comfortably in place? If you’re my kind of human, then you’re answer is undeniably, unequivocally – yes. In my opinion, we’re all several shades of guilty – from real dreaming to daydreaming, and everything in between, as humans our escape fantasies eagerly, effortlessly and egregiously effuse from our souls like pheromones in search of a higher purpose, catalyzing creativity and breaking us free of old molds and mindsets. To me, it’s part of the reason we create, coddle and crave the arts: through music, literature, art and theater – we discover new, previously hidden parts of our personalities while filling our soul with passion like a warm meal on a cold night.

Photography is an out of body experience where distortions of reality, mind melding visions of what’s possible and bends in time and space, painting – double so. But unfortunately some of us (waves hand), weren’t blessed with a drawing gene or with a paintbrush in their hand My stick figures are relatively lackluster and the cat face I’ve been trying to draw for the last 31 years hasn’t gotten much better. Suffice it to say, I’m in awe of true artistry when it comes to painting, drawing and all things in between and will try ad nauseam. So, when I caught wind of a photo app that alters your images with filters of popular artists – I was immediately sold; hook, line and sinker.

It’s happened before, and my heart swoons as it happens over, and over again: every once in a blue moon, a smart phone photography fad stops me dead in my tracks and requires hours of endless exploration. Now that we’re 7 solid months into this year, I can safely proclaim that Prisma has been that app. Just a quick upload of a square sized photo (thank you, Instagram), and you’ll be on your way to fantastical results. Once inside the app, Prisma applies an intricate and advanced learning algorithm to your photos that combines artificial intelligence with neural networks. Basically, it’s like Deep Dream, Photoshop and Instagram had a psychedelic love child and it doesn’t matter if that last sentence made sense to you or not – because any way that cookie crumbles, the results are simply stunning.

Try on the tantalizing stylings of esteemed artists ranging from contemporary pop art legends Roy Litchenstein and Andy Warhol to classic stylings of Van Gaugh and Picasso, with detailed renderings that from a repository that looks like the lovechild of Android Jones art, fractals and street art. There are also nods to artists such as Miyazaki, Kadinsky, Mucha, Chagall, Hokusai and Kadinsky – as well as eras of artistic prowess like Impressionism, Gothic Art, Manga, and more. Once your new work of art manifests in front of your eyes, you’ll have the option of taking the photo at 100 proof, or adjusting the edits down to a smaller scale. If you just tap into your settings you can remove the watermark from the app, and last but certainly not least – it’s free! The only slight downfall of the application is the need to be connected to the Internet to query the algorithms to work – as the app gains popularity, the servers are also noticing a surge and have rendered themselves as over capacity; quick solution – just try, as try again – you’ll get through eventually!

From top, Left to Right: Tears, Urban, Tokyo, #GettUrban, Illegal Beauty, Dreams, Mononoke, Gothic, Curly Hair

My current favorite filters include Tokyo, Urban, and the Natalie Ratkovski-inspired Illegal Beauty – and I think I’ve even found a favorite way of manipulating the photos a second time using Instagram’s Layout app and creating a photo stack from the same image. The results? All sorts of magical.

Did I pique your photography curiosity? i surely hope so, this is one of the most fun photography apps I’ve played with in a while – and admittedly, I play with a LOT! The proof is in the blogged pudding, head here to check it out

Download for iOS | Download for Android

For fantastic edits and more information on Prisma, head to their website or social channels:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

[Traveling Tales] The Best iOS Apps For Roadtrips

December 7, 2015February 22, 2016Leave a comment

From the second I got my first car at 17, I realized that curves are for hugging, being on the road is physically cathartic and that the shortest distance between two points is me in my car with the windows down and music up. Though I’ve developed a map-titude over the ages, I’m constantly praising the cell phone gods that smart phones exist and that developers are willing to share their genius with us. From directions to attractions, a place to lay your head and places to explore – I’ve found a good set of phone apps that have you covered. Just remember – whatever you’re trying to do, wherever you’re trying to go: there’s a better way, and there’s definitely an app for that.

Lodging.

Make sure you’ve got a birds eye view into one if not more, of the following apps so you can get a comfortable roof over your head for pennies on the dollar. My personal favorite is AirBnb, especially because you can snag an entire domicile for an incredibly low rate – or just a single room if you’re flying solo or traveling with your best friend or significant other. HomeAway and VRBO are great resources if you’ve got a larger group in tow, while CheapTickets can find you a discounted hotel room in milliseconds.

So Much Room For Activities.

One of my favorite things about road trips is that they can take you wherever your little heart desires – want to head to the beach and cruise the coast? Do it! Or how about a detour through the desert or a romp near the river? A road trip is the quintessential choose your own adventure experience and you’re the captain. Sometimes, it just takes a wish and a will to find something novel – but if you’d like a little assistance, download Roadtrippers for a nifty guide around your location and it’s comprehensive for the entire United States. After signing up, you can save and share travel routes, not to mention a look into a broad range of activities within a close proximity to your travel path plus the net value of gas for your trip.

Find Yourself

If you’re an iPhone user and you’re trying to get anywhere important, or just find a specific location in general – do yourself a favor and stop using Apple Maps. Seriously. Download Google Maps and Waze immediately, sit back and enjoy the seamless integration and easier to use directions that don’t lead you into the ocean, or into a dead end.

Stay organized.

I don’t know about you, but I love lists – sometimes I even have lists of lists, others I’ll purposely put a few things on it that I’ve done that day so I can instantly feel the struckout satisfaction of what’s been accomplished. But for some reason, When it comes to buckling down and actually packing for a trip I always tend to forget the little things. So a few years ago, I made a master list and saved it to my hard drive; when I got sick of referencing it – I tossed it up into a list on Evernote. A great alternative to a bulky Google Doc, Evernote provides a simple forum for staying on task and on top of your life.

What are your tricks of the trade when it comes to traveling?

Let me know in the comments below!

[The Audiofiles] ‘Listn’ Up, Music Lovers – There’s A New App For You

November 6, 2013November 6, 20131 Comment

One of the many amazing benefits to growing up in an excessively digital age, is our constant accessibility to music. Whether it’s by our choice or not, it feels like our brains are being bombarded by beats on the daily: it’s the hold music on your company conference calls, the muzack playing in the elevators between the floors at the doctors office, your iPod at the gym, the SiriusXM radio in your car, the Spotify app you hooked up to your Facebook account or the occasional stop off on Soundcloud. Believe you me – I’m not complaining by any means; in fact, if possible I would have an ongoing soundtrack to my life and I would always be in charge of the volume.

Listn’s Dashboard

Throughout the years of being expertly plugged into the interwebs, I’ve developed a network of sites that I use to feed my thirst for tunage. Back in it’s inception, I dove right into Soundrop.fm – which is a great social resource for new music; slowly but surely, all that came from that was a reintegration into Spotify. I currently dabble in Hypem and Soundcloud when I’m on the prowl for something new, Spotify when I’m curious what my friends are groovin’ to and then the occasional YouTube video for some visual treats. The only downside to having multiple music platforms is that there hasn’t been a quick or easy way to streamline all of the sites into one. Thankfully, with the growing popularity of websites like Klout that aggregate your social media presence it only makes sense that some group of music loving techies thought to do the same with all of the streaming media around the web. So, world – meet your new best friend, Listn: a social way to aggregate your audio and find out about the latest and greatest in the music scene.

Trust me when I say – you don’t want to know how many tabs I have open in my browser right now and about a third of them are devoted to the pursuit of music. There are a host of stites that Listn uses to manifest user data, and right now that’s iTunes, Spotify, Hypem, Youtube and Soundcloud. The latest and greatest to addition is Rdio – a website that lets you stream high quality audio for a minimal fee: after 6 months of free listening, $4.99 a month or $9.99 for unlimited listening capabilities. If you’re like me, you’re thinking- WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER – and if you’re not, we might want to rethink the future of our relationship.

The brainchild of Montreal’s MFive Labs, Listn is currently being funded through Kickstarter – where creative endeavors (like Apps, Movies, etc) go for funding. As of right now, they have raised approximately $500,000 and have released the application for free! Right now the application is only available for the iPhone (le sigh) so if you’ve been eating your Apple a day, you’re in luck. As with most everything in life, good apps come in due time for Android. The iPhones have an essentially seamless interaction between their applications that Android simply doesn’t have yet, so hopefully there will be a a version that can work with the upcoming Android KitKat 4.4 OS installation in January (fingers crossed).

Listn’s Userpage

Weekly Dose of Wisdom

August 21, 2013August 22, 20131 Comment

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had an knack for throwing images and quotes together in the perfect symbiosis. Every so often when I go back through old journals and tumblr accounts, it becomes increasingly obvious to me how much they not only move me, but my audience. Visual beauty paired with moving words – let’s be honest, there’s nothing quite like it! I don’t know why I didn’t get the idea sooner but over the past few weeks I’ve been developing my own visual quotes! For editing purposes, I’ve been turning to Mextures on the iPhone and Pixlr Express on the Android; then for the kicker, I add text using an awesome iPhone app called ‘Over’ – it’s pure genius and I highly suggest you guys get them! With so many amazing fonts and filters to choose from, it’s hard not to get completely sucked in! These are just a few that I’ve made this week – and I’m looking forward to making more and turning this into a weekly segment; wee!

Quotable: Love Should Make You Fly

Oh, Snap: Globe Photo

April 3, 2013April 18, 2013Leave a comment

At this point, I both think and hope y’all understand that I have this ridiculous love for all things technology and photography related; when I discovered Pixlr-o-matic I went a little crazy and started editing the shit out of my favorite pictures. Well, seems life has come relatively full circle because now I have a new admiration for an Android application – this one is called ‘Globe Photo‘. I know there are a few out there for you iPhone obsessives as well, but hey – that sounds like a personal problem 😉

Essentially, what the application does is take the left and right edges of your image and stitch it together to make a circular, planet-esque, image. After a few hours of playing around with horizons, lines and fun edges in my old pictures I have a nice little album going of my own images – enjoy

Porter Robinson World

Cosmic Gate World

All Day I Dream

Ingrosso

Coachella

Kaskade

And last, but certainly not least:

San Diego Train Tracks

Tech Tuesday: Add, Detect and Delete

October 16, 2012August 14, 2013Leave a comment

One of my favorite things about having a Droid is, rooted or not, how highly customizable the phone is; from the layout, to the font face and down to the type of smiley face used in a text message – almost everything on an Android phone can be manipulated with ease. You can go to the Google Play store and perform unique searches for each element you’d like to change. Or, if you’re feeling super efficient use an application like Zedge, a nice and breezy tool for personalizing your phone, which come with a lovely conglomeration of live wallpapers, ringtones, notifications and games.

Unfortunately, having a highly customizable phone is a double edged sword. On one hand, there are so many nifty apps that you can essentially make your phone look like anything you’d like. On the other hand – because there are so many different applications and links downloaded to your phone, you increase the chance of downloading malware, spyware, and adware by roughly 1000% (don’t worry, I’m a statistics major).

A few weeks I decided I wanted a new live wallpaper or two on my phone; instead of going straight to the Google Play store, I went through Zedge. I was stoked, too – I had one of those Matrix looking scrolling wallpapers and felt uber high tech. It wasn’t til about a week later that I noticed my phone behaving strangely. I would wake up with new applications downloaded to my home screen and wonder if I was “sleep downloading” or if there was a ghost in the machine. I’d scratch my head in confusion, but wouldn’t get anywhere. Truly bizarre! Then came the coup de grâce – instead of receiving normal notifications, I was getting banner ads; ads on my freaking phone. After a few deep breaths, a beer and some web browsing – I found the culprit: some of the applications I downloaded in hopes of beautifying my GUI were actually feeding me ‘push ads‘ and hindering it’s performance.

One would think there would be a simpler way to ‘opt out‘ of receiving these ads, but it’s deceptively difficult. First, when the notifications pop-up there’s a hyperlink that comes with it – only the hyperlink is cutoff typically halfway through, making it harder than necessary to stay calm and carry on. Secondly, if you’re lucky enough to actually pull it together – you could be asked to enter your IMEI / MEID number and (a) I don’t know what the hell this is, (b) I don’t know where I’d find it and finally (c) why would I give private phone information to a company that is spamming my phone with ads. Instead, I downloaded a few fabulous and highly recommended applications to keep my phone in pristine condition: AirPush Detector, Lookout Ad Detector, and TrustGo Ad Detector.

It’s as simple as pressing ‘start scan and the Ad Detector goes to work; analyzing the applications on your phone for suspicious activity and kicking back the results in a clean, straightforward format. As it turns out, two of my new live wallpapers – Cheetah Print Live Wallpaper and Zebra Live Wallpaper, were responsalble for the banner ads I was receiving in my notification window while another, Brightest Flashlight Free, was downloading applications without my permission straight to my home screen. So far, I’ve used the Ad Detector from Lookout Labs – and with a few click throughs, you’re able to go straight to the offending application so you can hit ‘uninstall‘ immediately; amazing!

Almost all applications that are amazing on the Droid you can purchase or download from the Google Play store; but here and there, you’ll find something that you think is so rad that you don’t mind it comes from a third party. The problem is: you should because third party applications are some of the biggest culprits of mobile ads and spyware. So, to ensure you don’t accidentally download one of them – take this precautionary measure. In your Android menu, go to Settings > Security and you’ll notice you can toggle the menu for “Installation of non-Market apps”; if you ever choose to allow a third party application, you’ll get the following warning – just remember, it’s there for a reason!

Tech Tuesday: An App a Day keeps the Doctor Away

September 4, 2012September 4, 20121 Comment

I’ve always been an Android lover; in fact, I can’t recall ever wanting an iPhone….granted, I’ve also had Verizon Wireless for my entire life so I didn’t exactly have the option of getting an iPhone when it came out…but, I digress. I’ve watched the Android market evolve and expand over the past few years, and I’m almost in love with what I’ve seen. The OS has gotten sleeker, potentially even sexier – if you could call an OS sexy, that is. Though the phones have gotten larger in height x length dimension, they’ve also become thinner, lighter and with better quality resolution on the display. Not to toot the horn for the HTC Rezound, but beepbeep: it boasts the first HD screen for a carried branded phone in the United States. How you like them apples, Apple?

Now, originally – one of the great things about the Android phones is the fact that unlike the iPhone – it contains(-ed) Adobe Flash. I have to phrase it that way because Adobe has decided to discontinue its use after this November, and has started with devices that have already upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich 4.1 One of the draws of having Flash was that you could view any web page in its full entirety. But who needs fully supported web browsing when there are so many fantastic applications for the Droid?!

Sometimes, it can feel overwhelming figuring out which ones you should download. Not to mention, how to handle re-downloading applications after upgrading to a new device. Well, first things first -in the Google Play Store you have the option to view every single application you’ve ever downloaded on your phone. Simply go to the Play Store, toggle the Menu button (the middle left button on the bottom of your phone) to access the pop-up menu and you’ll have an option at the top called “My Apps“. Click through and swipe your finger from right to left to see “All Applications.”

The pink oval represents an application that was downloaded in the past, paid for even, yet not reinstalled when I upgraded my phone. The blue oval is an application that’s currently on my Droid.

Now – onto the fun part, the applications. Some of these are pretty straight forward, especially ones for social media and some deserve a little bit of an explanation. The great thing about the Google Play store, is once your Google account is linked to your phone you can actually pick your applications out online in a more hunt and peck friendly atmosphere, and then send them to download on your phone. It’s pure genius.

Hit the jump for my should have applications, and anything that is in italic or bold is a “must-have” – enjoy!

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