Adobe Photoshop Express App ~ Quickly & Easily Transform Your Photos
I take a ton of pictures on my iPhone. With 1000s of photos on my phone, I might just have a problem (but I will never admit it)! I do most of my photo editing in Instagram, but I’m also very curious to learn about other options for editing pictures on my phone. I was excited to learn about Adobe’s Photoshop Express, a free app that is optimized for the iPhone5, which just so happens to be what I have.

Getting the app is easy – I headed to the app store on my phone and searched for Adobe Photoshop Express. It popped right up and installed without a problem. Adobe Photoshop Express has a free version and a paid version. I tried out the free version and found it very easy to use.  And it’s really easy to share the pictures on Facebook, Twitter, or email them to whomever you may want!

Requirements of the Adobe Photoshop Express App: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. Head over to iTunes for detailed information.

Before I tell you about this app, I have to share a really cool feature I learned about my iPhone!

Did you know, you can take a screen shop of your iPhone by pressing at the same time, the on/off button at the top of your phone, and the control button on the bottom middle? Yup. I did not know that. I learn something new every day. Knowing this tip is really going to simplify my life. I am so grateful to my helpful hubs for pointing that out to me!

And now, on with the review…

To get started, install and open the Adobe Photoshop Express app on your device. You can take pictures directly from the app, or use pictures you already have saved on your camera roll.

I chose to use pictures I already had, so I scrolled through my camera roll until I found one I wanted to play around with and I selected it.

It’s very easy to crop, reduce red-eye, add borders, and preform some basic picture magic. It was pretty intuitive. I was able to swipe my finger across the screen and change colors, sharpen, and change the lighting and exposure. It was really easy to undo and redo changes. It has a fun auto correct feature that decides how to improve pictures and then fixes them.

Top editing features of the Adobe Photoshop Express App include:

• Basics: Crop, Straighten, Rotate, and Flip

• Color: Exposure, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, Tint, and Temperature

• Filters: Black & White, Colorize, Sketch, Soft Focus, Sharpen, and Reduce Noise

• Effects: Vibrant, Pop, Border, Vignette Blur, Warm Vintage, Rainbow, White Glow, Soft Black and White, and 45 additional effects that can be purchased

• Borders: Rectangle, Rounded, Oval, Soft Edge, Vignette, Rough Edge, Halftone, Film Emulsion, and 40 additional borders and frames that can be purchased

Overall, the app was pretty intuitive. Most everything I did was straight forward and simple to figure out. Cropping was easy ~ simply move the box with your fingers and accept or reject the changes.

Changing the colors around was very easy as well. I like to play with brightness and contrast a lot and was pleased to see that as an option. I also really liked the sharpen feature.

There was a large assortment of free borders to quickly add to pictures, but some of the fancier versions require the paid version of the app.

After playing around with all the features and editing your picture to your satisfaction, it’s really easy to share the photo to Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr, or to email it as well. Just click the share button, and pick your poison!

Pros of Adobe Photoshop Express App ~ it’s quick and easy, it’s free, the free version has a lot of fun features and it is very easy to share to social media.

Cons of Adobe Photoshop Express App ~ it doesn’t interface with Instagram! That’s my biggest complaint. It does save a copy to the camera roll so I can go back and add an edited version to Instagram, but some other photo apps I’ve used share directly to Instagram and I like that a lot better. I’d also like the ability to write on my pictures, and I didn’t find that option in the Adobe Photoshop Express App.

All in all, I would recommend this app if you want basic photo editing capabilities and like to share pictures to Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr very easily. Personally, I’m glad I played around with Adobe Photoshop Express App, but I probably won’t use it all that often until it is able to share directly with Instagram!

Michelle Marine blogs about life in Iowa at Simplify, Live, Love and provides tips for leading a simpler and more holistic life. SimplifyLiveLove is an eclectic mix of real food recipes, green and frugal living tips, gardening and food preservation, and homeschooling efforts, with an occasional craft and grammar tip thrown in too! Michelle can be contacted via email at michelle@simplifylivelove.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Google+.

What has been your favorite campaign with Social Fabric?

My absolute favorite Social Fabric campaign has been the Unilever Cross off Hunger. It was a great campaign that brought awareness to Unilever’s anti-hunger efforts, plus it inspired me to get creative using a Bertolli jar as a flower vase. I got to share the great ideas that Unilever has about sustainability and show my readers how to upcycle an item they use every day!

What do you enjoy most about the Social Fabric Community?

I love the friendships I have developed in the community. Everyone is so willing to help each other to become the best they can be. It can be a blogger eat blogger world out there, but Social Fabric is not like that. I have never encountered someone that wasn’t willing to share some tips or help with a campaign. It’s been the best!

Please share a link from a campaign you have participated in so we can all go check it out!

http://crunchyfrugalista.com/hazelnut-caramel-latte-and-hazelnut-cheesecake-better-than-the-coffee-house/

Any fun or interesting facts about yourself or your blog that you would like to share with the world?

Though now I won’t shut up, as a kid I used to hate writing in school. I have also been blessed with a quick wit and sarcastic charm that get me in trouble from time to time, but it definitely keeps my husband on his toes.

If you were sent to a deserted island with one other person, who would it be and what 3 things would you bring with you?

If I was on a deserted island, I would have to say I would bring my husband, aka Mr. Crunchy, with me. He’s an amazing man and an ex-Marine, so he can help make sure I survive. The three things I would bring with me would be an air mattress that never deflated, a never ending supply of SPF 1000, and a lifetime supply shampoo. (Have to look my best while deserted)

Ashley’s Links ~ Check her out, follow her, give her some Social Fabric love!

Blog ~ http://www.crunchyfrugalista.com

Facebook ~ http://facebook.com/crunchyfrugalista

Twitter ~ http://www.twitter.com/crunchy_f

How many times have you worked on a document on your computer and then had to rush out the door, wishing you could keep your work going, while on the go?

With Google Drive App, you can do that easily!

Google Drive App

Google Drive allows you to keep all of your stuff in one place and then access it anywhere you go, from any device! You can store your documents, pictures, and files — even the big ones — using Google Drive and share them with anyone.

Not only can you store your files, but you can also continue to edit and create Google documents and spreadsheets. It’s perfect for those on the go. And, aren’t we all on the go??

The app is free to download and just starting out, you get 5GB of space free. You also have a couple of options to pay to upgrade your allotted space.

Getting Started

Once you download the app, you can scroll through the screens to learn a little more about what Google Drive does, or you can click the “Get Started” button and then sign in to your Google account.

Right away, you’ll land on your dashboard, which is where you’ll find all of your work.

Moving Around in the App

My Drive is everything in your Google Drive that you have created, synced, and uploaded. You can automatically sync My Drive to the Google Drive folders on your computer. Tapping the name of the file will open it up for you to view. Tapping the arrow next to the filename will show the details of the file, such as who has access to it and whether it’s available to work online or not.

Shared with me includes all of the files, folders, and Google Docs that have been shared with you. To sync files from this view, move them to My Drive on your computer.

Starred includes all items you have marked with a star. If you star something on the app, it will appear in the starred folder in Google Drive on the web. It makes it easier to find important things in your drive.

Recent is the section that contains all of the private and shared files you’ve opened, in reverse chronological order. This also make it easy to quickly find files you’ve been working on.

Offline is the section that shows all of the items you have made available to view offline on your mobile device. You can easily make items viewable offline while in the individual file. This is great for working on a file when you know your cell service is low or unavailable. The file will update on the drive as soon as you are back within cell service.

Uploads is the section of the app where you’ll find the most recent files uploaded to your Drive app. You will also find the option to upload files to your drive, from here. As a mom, I’m sure you know I take a LOT of pictures with my phone. This is a great option for me to unload some of those photos off of my phone, being mindful of my allotted space, of course.

PROS:

• This Google Drive for sharing files, and collaborating with others on the same file. Each person who has access to the file can see all changes made each time the file is opened.
• You can set files to work on offline so you never have to worry about cell service.
• If your phone is lost or stolen, you don’t have to worry about lost files because they are already saved on your Google Drive, which is accessible from any device.
• With a new phone, there’s no stress about copying files over from your old phone.

CONS:

• Right now, there is no Trash section in the app. Anything removed to trash on the app will be available to find, view, and restore on the web only. Other than that, it’s the only issue I ran into with the app.

Overall, this is such a valuable tool for making your work more efficient. As a blogger, I get lots of files from campaigns I’m working on and this is a great way to keep them all together, for quick reference, no matter where I go. It’s so much easier than digging those files out of your already overflowing email inbox. I’m a big fan of Google and everything they offer their users. I know this app will only get better with time.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Jamie is a wife, baby snuggler, toddler wrangler, step-mom, and blogger, who loves photography, traveling, and DIY projects. You can find her writing all about it on her blog, Roubinek Reality. Whenever she’s not spending her time as the organizer and captain of her busy family of seven, she loves watching sports like Texas Rangers baseball and SEC college football.

Jamie would love to have you connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, or Google+.

What has been your favorite campaign with Social Fabric?

I’ve only done the Boots heritage campaign so far but I loved it because I’m forever shopping there.

What do you enjoy most about the Social Fabric Community?

There’s a real camaraderie here and a commitment to high standards. I’m looking forward to getting even more involved!

Please share a link from a campaign you have participated in so we can all go check it out!

http://circusqueen.co.uk/2013/04/this-is-the-way-the-toddler-shops/

Any fun or interesting facts about yourself or your blog that you would like to share with the world?

I have a weird accent that morphs depending on whom I’m speaking to and what we’re talking about. I regularly have to insist to people that I am from the Caribbean and am not a second generation migrant. They all just think I’m Welsh.

Circus Queen wasn’t necessarily supposed to be a parenting blog. In fact, I’d thought I’d mainly blog about feminism. It just kind of happened. In my daughter’s early months I discovered a passion for parenting “consciously”, so I started to blog about that.

If you were sent to a deserted island with one other person, who would it be and what 3 things would you bring with you?

Is it really bad to say I’d want it to be my daughter because otherwise I’d spend the whole time worrying about her? It is? Ah well. I’d bring a journal, a knife (I’m not sure what I’d do with this but it seems sensible) and waterproof eyeliner.

Adele’s Links ~ Check her out, follow her, give her some Social Fabric love!

Blog ~ http://circusqueen.co.uk

Facebook ~ http://facebook.com/circusqueenblog

Twitter ~ http://twitter.com/adelejk

Although the title is Type-A Parent, the conference was so much more than just blogging as a parent. Collective Bias was one of the many sponsors and I was lucky enough to hang out with some fabulous people in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania! Now, a brief disclaimer- I have a special spot in my heart for all places in Pennsylvania, since I went to Penn State! Anyways, below I detail out my trip to this awesomesauce conference.

Friday night, April 19th

Brandi Jeter and myself arrived in Philadelphia and went to eat at the Hotel Restaurant. Within no time at all, bloggers who knew of Brandi came over and joined us and other people who were at the conference. I was a little shy, because heck they all seemed like great friends…that’s when I realized, most had never met in person before! I was blown away! The kindness and interest in each other’s blogs was so genuine- eight women I had never met before immediately enamored me. I could not stop laughing and smiling, I felt so welcome. Especially since- I don’t have a blog. GASP …and I was attending an advanced blogger conference!

I thought I was going to be practically shunned. Instead they were supportive and said that they believed in me and that I could start a blog! What great women!

Saturday, April 20th, was the full on conference.

I was a little intimidated to say the least, especially since I didn’t know anyone. After spending 30minutes at the brunch, I met some fabulous Social Fabric Community members and also some people who were interested in what Collective Bias does.

I attended all of the following sessions:

• “Blogger, Brands and Pay”
• “They’re Just Not That Into You- What Turns Brands Off and How to Fix It”
• “Traffic Building”
• “ShareASale.com Power Lunch”
• “Free Expo Time”
• “Legal Issues When Blogging For Profit”
• “Advanced Affiliate Marketing”
• “Collaborative Closing Keynote: 90-Second Open Mic”
• “Walt Disney World Closing Reception”

I feel like most people get bored with sessions, but I felt just the opposite, I loved it and learned so much! It is always fascinating to learn more about the Blogging world and how it intersects with what I do as an Account Executive for Collective Bias. I loved the conference and all the sessions. I was truly honored to mingle with so many talented bloggers and I look forward to attending many more conferences!

What has been your favorite campaign with Social Fabric?

I loved doing the Bigelow Tea Life of Pi Academy Awards Party! It was so much fun and I always love hosting a party!

What do you enjoy most about the Social Fabric Community?

I feel like I am a part of a family – except it’s online. I’ve had members reach out to me individually when dealing with personal issues and it felt so good to know they cared about me and not only from a business perspective. I also love Social Fabric because it has given me the opportunity to work from home and be able to take care of my kids while earning a living.

Please share a link from a campaign you have participated in so we can all go check it out!

http://www.themommy-files.com/2013/02/how-to-host-an-academy-awards-aka-oscars-party-with-bigelow-tea-americastea-cbias/

Any fun or interesting facts about yourself or your blog that you would like to share with the world?

• I am the oldest of four girls, but had three boys.
• I was a Girl Scout and earned the second highest award in scouting – the Silver Award.
• I have been blogging for almost 5 years.
• Thanks to my blog, I have had the opportunity to travel around the United States, as well as to Mexico.

If you were sent to a deserted island with one other person, who would it be and what 3 things would you bring with you?

I would be with my boyfriend, Frank. We would bring water, blankets, and chocolate.

Shannon’s Links ~ Check her out, follow her, give her some Social Fabric love!

Blog ~ http://www.themommy-files.com/

Facebook ~ https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Mommy-Files/175638405059

Twitter ~ https://twitter.com/themommyfiles

Erin Conrad,  Senior Account Manager.

Erin Conrad has lived in many places.  She considers Chicago as her home, where she was born and raised. She has also lived in Gainesville, Georgia, and Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, Texas. Additionally, she spent a considerable amount of time abroad, living in Puebla, Mexico and most recently 5 1/2 years in Barcelona, Spain.  She is fluent in Spanish, but was notraised this way.  Erin became interested in her Hispanic “roots” when she was in high school and vowed then to become fluent and live abroad in order to gain a better understanding of the language and culture.

Erin initially attended the University of St. Mary’s in San Antonio, where she played volleyball.  She quickly learned that varsity athletes are not given time for anything outside of sports and studies, so she left the team her sophomore year to go study abroad.  After Erin returned she transferred to the University of Texas to study Advertising and has worked in the fields of Marketing and Advertising ever since.  Erin has always been tied to and influenced by the Hispanic culture in both her work and social life. It has become a deep part of who she is. Kim is competitive, fun-loving and social in nature.  She enjoy the outdoors and am drawn to anything that smells of adventure and discovery.  Last, but not least, Erin is a proud mom to two incredible boys.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/erin-conrad/3/b56/88a
Twitter: @ErConRad

Kim Harris, Account Executive, San Francisco.

Kim Harris (hailing from Oakland, California) is so incredibly excited to be joining the Collective Bias team as the newest Account Executive! She cannot wait to get started and up to speed so that she can start contributing to the fabled “awesome sauce” of Collective Bias. This is Kim’s first-ever visit to Arkansas (and only second time in the Midwest), so she is ready to experience it all!

Most recently, Kim was in charge of managing social media word-of-mouth-marketing campaigns as a Customer Success Manager at SocialChorus (located in San Francisco). This role gave Kim the opportunity to directly manage and foster relationships with the bloggers who would create amazing, unique content for our clients and their products. While she loved SocialChorus and their mission and values, Kim began to realize that she truly missed having direct client interaction and client-facing time and ultimately decided that it was time to move on. That is where Collective Bias and the Account Executive position entered the picture!

As far as her life outside of work, Kim loves to run, she loves good coffee, food and cuddling with her dog. She can never say no to a good episode (or five) of Mad Men. She loves to cheer on her favorite baseball team in orange and black, and is enthusiastic about any and all live music.

Kim can’t wait to meet all of you and is excited for the next few days she has in Bentonville!

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kimberly-harris/21/b35/b01

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kimberlyharris7

Every morning I wake up, put on my three-piece suit and make the trek to Bentonville.  Upon arrival at 201 S. Main, I enter the office, take a seat at my cubicle, and begin crunching numbers and analyzing data for hours upon hours.  Sometimes, if I am lucky, I even get to step away for a few minutes and have lunch.  But, I usually don’t get my hopes up.

Ok, surely by now you have figured out that this is absolutely not the case.  In fact, the culture at Collective Bias is quite the opposite, and one of my favorite things about being an Intern.  Intern alley, sometimes referred to as Diagon Alley for all of you Harry Potter fans, is a work hard, play hard environment full of awkward stretching, nerf gun wars and farting unicorns.  And yes, I said farting unicorns.

The culture in the office is very inviting and fosters numerous opportunities for professional development and educational growth.  On top of that, in true Collective Bias fashion, the internship program delivers the awesomesauce and affords several occasions to step out of the office and have a little fun.  This semester, the new interns were welcomed to the company with pizza and Bowling at Fast Lanes in Rogers.  This semester we also did an all intern brunch at the delectable Café Rue Orleans in Fayetteville, called the Hogs as the Diamondbacks took on LSU at Baum Stadium, and celebrated the end of an awesome semester with a Crawfish Boil.

Collective Bias truly is a family, everyone from the office dogs to the interns and all the way up to the CEO.  I can’t think of a more unique and exciting place to intern during my last semester of college.  Just like Dorthy feels there is no place like home, I believe there is no other place like Collective Bias.

This is Earth Week and the beginning of conference season for bloggers. In less than two weeks members of Social Fabric will be gathering in Bentonville, AK for the first SoFabCon. It is an exciting time to connect and network with brands, other bloggers and the Collective Bias team. Amid all the fun of a blogging conference is the inevitable exchange of business cards. An overly social attendee can end up with a briefcase full of cards. What do you do with them?

Help is on the way in the form of CardMunch Business Card Reader 3.2 by LinkenIn. It is a FREE app for idevices** that converts that stack of business cards to address book contacts and then adds them as connections on LinkedIn. How cool is that?

It’s so easy to use, it’s smart plus it is a green alternative for those concerned about their biological footprint. You just take a picture of the business card with the app and it is converted to a contact automatically. You really do not even have to take business card as all the info, plus an image of the card, is in your phone. On the flight home you can view their LinkedIn profile, see the connections you have in common and add them to your phone contact list if you so desire.

Here is a quick step-by-step:

1. Search for CardMunch in the iTunes app store. It’s FREE!!!
2. Click to Install Version 3.2 with the newly revamped user interface and visual experience.
3. The app quickly installs and is ready to use.
4. Sign in to your LinkedIn account.
5. Tap the camera icon to begin the capture process. A camera screen will appear.
6. Align Card with frame edges. This version has an improved card capture experience for faster and easier card scanning.
7. Tap the camera button to read the card. It tells you the info is being transcribed. It helps if the text on the card is not too fancy. The app is pretty intuitive and can read some of the more off the wall fonts. Manual transcription ensures high accuracy for scanned cards.
8. After a few seconds, the contact appears on your screen. All of the LinkedIn info is there (left) if you want to read. Plus it creates a nice contact card (right).
9. You can allow the app to send you Push Notifications also.

Pros of using the app

I really liked the ease of use and the ability to have the information at my fingertips, without sorting through a mound of business cards. Perhaps my favorite feature is that it connects to LinkedIn profiles. Since I was one of 2012′s Top 10% Most Viewed Profiles on LinkedIn, that means a lot to me. I like the quick access and the option to add the person to your contact list*. It has a ‘sort contacts by company’ feature you can access from the General Settings app on your iPhone. It also has Flash support which lets you capture cards in low-light conditions.

Cons of using the app

There were not many cons for me. I had some difficulty scanning cards with funky or out of the ordinary fonts, but that is to be expected. The app got stuck once when using with Wi-Fi, but that could have been the service not necessarily the app.

I would recommend CardMunch for those who have an avalanche of business cards to sort through…especially if you are an avid user of LinkedIn. I plan to test this app more thoroughly during SoFabCon…hoping it saves me time.

=================

* There are now 3 different ways to add contacts to your iPhone address book:

1. Click the ‘Edit’ button in the contact list,
2. For each contact press the Arrow button to Add to iPhone, or
3. Visit your General Settings app for CardMunch to auto-add all contacts to your iPhone and discover additional power features!

** CardMunch app is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation), iPad Wi-Fi + 4G, iPad (4th generation), iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular (4th generation), iPad mini and iPad mini Wi-Fi + Cellular. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Rebecca E. Parsons, an Artfully Domestic Renaissance gal with designers eye and the gift o’ gab, is the Chief Creative Force behind Cre8tive Compass Magazine, Cre8Tiva’s Blog and Artistically Speaking Talk Show. A Professional Blogger and Social Media Pioneer and Strategist, Rebecca has been blogging since 1999. Cre8tive Compass Magazine ~ Transforming Your Life into Art, is ALL about exploring, creating and most importantly LIVING the creative life. She explores the creative lifestyle daily writing about DIY and craft projects, sharing delicious recipes and party ideas and so much more. Rebecca is an award winning artist and graphic designer and her work has been shown at The White House, The Smithsonian, The Olympics. She has appeared on HGTV, DIY and TLC channels and writes for several other well-known blogs. Rebecca is a blogger for Lifetime TV show’s The Balancing Act and Designing Spaces, Create Mixed Media, The Blogger Connection as well as several other food and decor blogs. In her spare time, Rebecca is a digital and photographic mixed media R-tiste, Retreat Leader, Dreamer, Possibility Coach, Lifelong Communicator and Blissful Wordsmith…just one inspired creative soul on a journey to Cre8Topia. Unconventional and delightfully curious, she is passionate about helping others embrace the artist within and create a life around their passion. She believes that every dream is possible and possible is everywhere!

Make sure to follow Rebecca at:

Blog: http://www.cre8tivecompass.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/RebeccaEParsons

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/C8CMagazine

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/rebeccaeparsons/