Author: Mel Martin

I first got a look at Perfectly Clear when it came out for iOS. It was a nice, quick and easy, one-touch solution for improving photos without a lot of editing pain.

Perfectly Clear now works on the Mac as a plug-in for Photoshop or Lightroom and…

FireScribe (US$0.99) is a cute app for sending something beyond a typical text message. The app creates fireworks against any background you choose, then spells out your custom message in pyrotechnics, letter by letter.

You start be selecting a…

I’ve always been fascinated by time lapse photography, where you capture a still image a few times a minute, then create a movie with a very speeded-up effect. The 1982 documentary film Koyaanisqatsi is really striking with its creative use of time…

Glympse has been my favorite app for letting people know where I am with a real-time map and estimated time of arrival (ETA) information.

Now, Apple has announced some new features in iOS 8 that that mimic some of the functions of 3rd party…

Blue Sky is a free iOS app coming out of China, where skies are often gray and air pollution is often out of control. Of course, China isn’t alone with that problem. Blue Sky is sponsored by the World Wildlife Federation and an advertising agency,…

Now this is clever: Card Table (free) really isn’t a card game. As the developer says, “It’s every card game.” What you get is a virtual deck of cards. Your iPad is the table, and an iPhone or iPod touch holds your individual hands. You can move…

Traffic Cam apps are pretty popular. Traffic Cam Viewer (free for a limited time) is basic but does the job, and it works for traffic cameras just about anywhere in the world. Most of the traffic apps are specific to a region or particular road,…

Sonos, the company that develops the popular self-named wireless music system, says it is giving the apps that control it from Macs and iOS devices a complete overhaul. According to the company, the apps have been:

“rebuilt from the ground up, this…

Speaky (free for a limited time) is an interesting iOS app with a simple goal: paste in some text or give it a URL, and it will read it to you. Speaky works in the background, so you can be doing something else while a news article, story, or…

Photo Grid is a free (ad supported) app with lots of options for creating collages, as well as video slide shows accompanied by music.

You can select the aspect ratio for the photos, and choose from more than 300 layouts. The layouts that appear…

Later for iOS (free) is one of those apps I thought about inventing myself. It’s a simple app that sends you a notification reminding you to send a text, email or tweet at the appropriate time. You may have thought of something you want to message…

Apple’s Voice Memos has been around since iOS 3, and in iOS 7 it got a new look and a new icon, but no new features. You can record a voice memo, trim it, and email or text it and Voice Memos also supports AirDrop.

It’s a good audio recorder, but …

Sochi is hosting the 2014 Winter Olympic Games next month, and for most visitors, it will be their first time in the Russian coastal city.

Sochi is a free app that gives you places to see superimposed on a map of the city, locations of historical …

If you’re a bit tardy getting those holiday cards out, here’s an app that might get you out of a jam. VideoCard is a free for a limited time and allows you to create a clever animated card to send to family and friends.

Here’s how it works: You open …

It’s the holidays, in case you hadn’t noticed. You’ve decorated the tree, hung some lights outside and probably have some LED-flashing snowmen somewhere around the house.

So how about that Mac? Here’s a look at some free and inexpensive apps that …

I finally found a weather app that isn’t just more of the same. MoWeather (free) for iOS is a graphically compelling weather app with all the usual stuff you want to see, along with a 15-day forecast. The weather background is nicely animated, like the…