Exploring Virtual Reality apps.

I managed to get hold of a VR headset not long ago and took the opportunity to explore several VR apps and view some fascinating films designed for that format.

To fully immerse yourself in the VR experience, you really do need a proper headset or a Google Cardboard Viewer (or similar) but if you can view VR films on your phone and sometimes on the web to get an idea of what they are and how they are a different visual experience.

I thought I’d just mention three producers (or portals) exploring the medium. These companies are creating interesting content in a medium that is still finding itself. There are still a lot of picturesque nature documentaries but now you’ll also find films that explore narrative and tell stories.

Jaunt TV

https://www.jauntvr.com/watch/

Film,  news, sports, music and more. Check out the Horror channel for some Zombie experiences.

New York Times VR

You’ll have to download the app for this one but it’s worth it.

Some eye-popping content.

http://www.nytimes.com/marketing/nytvr/

Ryot VR

You can sample and interact with Ryot VR on their YouTube channel but again, it’s best to download the app to get a fuller range of films and 360 news

Samples on YouTube.

https://www.ryot.org/

Some tips for Viewing VR

I’m no expert but here’s what I recommend

1. Get a headset. It’s simply the best way to view VR films. You’re not distracted by other things and will get immersed in the VR world. Watching it on a PC doesn’t really cut it.

2. Don’t forget your headphones. It’s an aural experience as well and film-makers are using sound creatively to enhance the experience.

3. Watch the length. Remember you’re essentially watching streaming films and the data charges can add up. Log in to some free WI-fi if you can.

4. Most important. Sit on an office swivel chair that spins all the way around. This was the way I first experienced a VR film and it really does allow you to view it 360. Remember – You choose where you look. Things will be happening around you so look about.

5. You may get dizzy. Don’t fall off the chair.

 

Is anyone else exploring VR apps? I’d like to hear what other people have been looking at. Recommendations and links appreciated.

 

 

Working with Word Swag

One photography app I’ve taken a shine to is Word Swag, a very intuitive app that allows you to add professional looking captions to your social media photos.

Everything can be done on your phone including customizing for Instagram and other formats, as well as choosing font size, shape, color and positioning.

One of the first things I noticed about it, is the professional look to the fonts. You’re not just scrolling through your font bank and settling on Comic Sans because it’s the best option. The supplied fonts and styles look magazine sexy and pep up the most ordinary picture.

It also allows you to scroll through the different options quickly for comparison and gives you several ways to use the same font or style in the picture.

Did I mention it was fun?

I’ve been pleased with my results and it’s great to see they’ve added a whole new “swag” of font designs in the latest update.

Recommended. You can explore Word Swag here and see more professional examples.

http://wordswag.co/

Available on iTunes and Google Play stores

Playing with Pearltrees.

With the demise of Storify, I’ve been exploring alternative organisers to create and share digital stories and lists. Pearltrees seems the closest the Storify model. Curation looks quite simple and curated collections can be shared in several ways across social media platforms.

One disadvantage is that you don’t seem to be able to save drafts, meaning that incomplete projects appear online. I guess this is one of the drawbacks of the free basic level. There is also a size limit to your account.

Nevertheless, it looks quite efficient and I’ll give it a try. There are videos on YouTube from users but I think this is something you just jump into.

Will be using in tandem with Wakelet for the time being.

https://www.pearltrees.com

Any Pearltree users out there with pearls of wisdom? Is there a support community somewhere?

Skills update: OneNote

I’m required to use Microsoft OneNote for work ….soooo Skilling up in yet another software platform. OneNote is an Office-based collaboration tool that can be accessed from a variety of devices and, to me, seems similar to Evernote (which I’m familiar with).

So you can update notes and images and webclippings etc to a central OneNote site linked to your workplace and share information with colleagues.

To help me on this learning journey, I ventured to the local library and borrowed OneNote 2013 for Dummies.

Links

Microsoft OneNote  https://site.onenote.com/?public=1&wdorigin=ondcauth2&wdorigin=ondc

OneNote info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_OneNote

Working with Wakelet

The end of the social media curation tool Storify has meant I’ve had to search for a similar product and Wakelet was one suggested to me. I really hadn’t used Storify as much as I’d hoped but was planning to invest more time with it when news of its demise scuttled those plans.

Wakelet offers a service where it imports Storify content to their platform I’ve done this and it seems to have worked.

So… I have created a Wakelet account and downloaded the app to my phone and now testing out it’s features and shortcomings on desktop and mobile.

Also looking at Pearltrees (which I keep hearing about) as well as my existing Paper.Li to see if that can be modified to something that will work in a manner that I wish.

Will also revisit my old Feedly account to what that has to offer and explore other alternatives

Has anyone discovered / selected a good alternative to Storify?

Keen to hear what others are doing.

 

 

LINKS:

Pearltrees https://www.pearltrees.com/

Wakelet https://wakelet.com/

Feedly https://feedly.com/i/welcome

Paper.Li  https://paper.li/

 

Getting scary with PhotoLab

PhotoLab was an app I was playing with a lot last year and for October (Halloween month) they promoted an array of face changing photo features that I had fun experimenting with.

PhotoLab is an image manipulation app allowing you to quickly change a photo of your face into something artistic. There are dozens of these apps available but I’d never seen a feature quite like this.

Now, you are supposed to use this app with a picture of your own face but for the purposes of experimentation, I chose Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allen Poe, 1849 – not long before he died. (handout art input on 01/04/06) emailed.

And manipulated him into a series of horror characters, with no real effort, just choosing the horror “face” that I wanted.

So here’s Poe….

as a Zombie

as the evil clown from IT!

With the face hugger from ALIEN attached to his face.

As another evil clown. Remarkably effective little effect.

PhotoLab can be found on iTunes & Google play

https://photolab.me/

 

For some reason I found myself picking on famous comedians for zombiefication. Particularly like the way Buster Keaton turned out. It seems to suit him.

Laurel and Hardy

Jerry Lewis

Buster Keaton

My Reading hack!

When not playing in my digital playground, I like to read. I also like to tear pages from magazines and keep these pages to read later.

But I never do.. I really never do. And these clippings and pages are all over my house now.

Spying an unused plastic pocket, I decided my reading hack this year would be to turn it into a Reading Pocket, a folder in which to place all those little snippets and pages that I’ve been planning to read (forever)

It was even big enough to put in some full size magazines. That Reader’s Digest has been sitting around since 2014.

The idea is to slip it into my back-pack, which goes with me often, and read from it on the train or in the cafe. Thus eliminating the scrappy to-be-read pile.

Every time I come across another clipping, It goes into the Reading Pocket

So far, it’s been working quite well. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.

 

 

Augmented Reality: Robots and Dragons.

For the past few years I’ve been engaging with VR and AR apps and programs. Sometimes referred to as Mixed Reality. There are some amazing programs out there and I recently tested out the TagSpace AR app.

PauseFest is a technology conference held annually at Melbourne’s Federation Square and this year TagSpace were promoting their app to experience an AR experience in the Square.

After downloading the app, I ventured into Fed Square eager to see what they had in store. By viewing their app through my phone I could see giant robots stomping around the square and robotic drones fly overhead. It looked very effective.

The photo above actually doesn’t do the experience justice but gives you an idea of how it looked. I was able to take this pic via the app.

When I returned home, I discovered that the techno-trickery wasn’t confined to just Fed Square. I discovered that I could I could make dragons and robots in the app appear to fly around my house. I could see them as I moved the phone around and sometimes they disappeared from view (as flying creatures would),

Dragons flying above me. That’s my ceiling. It really was rather cool.

That’s my fridge. A robot drone flew about and studied me. Notice the shadow? Touches like that heightened the realism of the illusion.

You can learn more about TagSpace, their technology and projects here.

https://tagspace.com/

The app is available on iTunes and Google Play

Exploring more photo-imaging apps

For the last year or so, I’ve been playing with a lot of different photo-imaging apps. There are hundreds out there and they basically do the same sorts of things with different interfaces or with different approaches.

All allowing the user, via their phone, to manipulate, distort or enhance their photos.

Some of the programs I’ve been using include ToolWiz photos, Prisma, CoolArt, ColorPop, Hypocam, Pip Collage, PicsArt, Pic Collage, PhotoLab, PhotoEditor Collage, Fusion Free and AfterFocus (all from the Google Play store)

Some of the effects are quite astounding and can transform even the most ordinary of photos into interesting works of art. Although similar, some are more intuitive than others. Some allow for more manual control to get the image as you’d like it.

I put many of my efforts on my Instagram feed here.

https://www.instagram.com/glen_hannah/

I guess it’s just a matter of finding photo apps that do what you wish them to do in a manner that suits you. All these apps are free but prompt you to buy the full version. You occasionally notice some functions blocked from the free version which, I suppose, is fair enough.

Some samples

Further samples here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRPd-C3gNf-/?taken-by=glen_hannah

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRPg11NgN3i/?taken-by=glen_hannah

View this post on Instagram

#glenferriefestival

A post shared by Glen Hannah (@glen_hannah) on Mar 4, 2017 at 8:36pm PST

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRcoRaDgfnP/?taken-by=glen_hannah

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTqaohZg9ry/?taken-by=glen_hannah

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVrH4OUABLE/?taken-by=glen_hannah

Taking on Twitter Moments

One of the features of Twitter is that you can create Moments (basically a slide show) from your own tweets (and other peoples tweets) on any given subject. This is relatively easy to do and I’ve created several of my own from my own tweets.

The Halloween month of October had been designated as Scary Movie Month and last year I made the effort to watch a lot of horror movies during that month and tweet about them. At the end of the month I created a Twitter Moment from those tweets and tweeted/ shared this one link that leads to the Moment.

Creep-tober! Movies seen in #scarymoviemonth.

https://twitter.com/i/moments/916994674937573376

The following month was Noir-vember, a month dedicated to the film noir genre of crime film. Again, an opportunity to watch film and share with others using the #noirvember hashtag.

So I did the same thing with Twitter Moments, compiling all the crime films I watched in that month into a slide show.

Noirvember 2017

https://twitter.com/i/moments/928756397663141888

Technical note:

For some reason, when you view these links on a desktop you see the Moments in a completely different format. It’s almost like a standard blog. Not how it looks at all.

The experience is completely different when viewed via Twitter. The entries are presented as a slideshow that you manually flip through. Particularly suited to a mobile phone.

 

I’ll continue to experiment with this. Twitter Moments is evolving into a story telling tool that has great potential.