On Thursday, I finally was brave enough to upgrade the firmware on my iPhone. Since I wasn’t seeing any reports of major crashes from people upgrading, I figured it was safe for non-techies like me to upgrade. I’m really glad I did – because now I can access all the apps in the iTunes Store. All the application links in the post are direct links into the iTunes store. If you don’t have iTunes installed on your computer, I’m not sure what will happen but I wouldn’t recommend clicking on any of the links.
In just a few days of checking things out, I’ve found a few applications that are going to be really helpful for me as a photographer. My four favorites (so far) are
Astromo from Gandreas Software. Astromo lets you know when sunrise and sunset are for your location – and what planets are visible in the skies in the Orrrery view. The Armillary view provides detailed starmaps. The Ephemeris view has detailed information about rising and setting times for the sun, moon and all the planets. This will be great when I’m out in the field and can’t remember when and where the sun or moon is rising or setting. Astromo costs $ 9.99.
iCSC Clear Sky Clock from Microprojects. Designed for astronomers, the clear sky clock lets you know when in the next 48 hours the sky is likely to be clear or dark (cloudy). The program includes a list of specific locations in the US and Canada. All you have to do is choose the one nearest your location to get a forecast. As photographers, we’ve used the online version of a Clear Sky Clock, to figure out likely conditions when we’re hoping to photograph the moon. The data I look most closely at on the Clear Sky Clock are Cloud Cover (the darker the blue – the clearer the sky), Transparency (the darker the blue the more transparent the sky) and Darkness (the darker the blue/black – the darker the sky). The iCSC Clear Sky Clock is free.
Weatherbug from WeatherBug. There are several apps available that provide weather forecasts. What Weatherbug provides in addition a basic weather forecast is radar maps. It’s a much easier to make a decision about going out photographing if the weather forecast is iffy when I can take a quick look at the radar map and see for myself how much and how heavy the precipitation is in the area. Weatherbug is free.
Exposure from Connected Flow. Exposure and Exposure Premium are great interfaces for accessing your Flickr account from your iPhone. You can easily access your photos, sets, tags, and favorites. You can also browse your contacts photos. Flickr can also show you photos taken near where your current location. Exposure is free with advertising displayed at the top of each view. Exposure Premium costs $ 9.99 and does not have any ads.
The non-photography related apps I’ve installed on my phone are eWallet, eReader, Shazam and Twitterrific.
Finally, there is a video on YouTube about an app that I’m sure most photographers would be amused to see on the iPhone knowing what a memory hog it can be on desktop computers – Photoshop for the iPhone.
I’d like to thank Dan van Moll, Michael Domingo, and Phill Price who all answered my twitter request for help on how do I create links into the iTunes store. Without their help, I would have had to give you directions on what to search for in the iTunes store rather than the direct links.
If you’ve found any iPhone apps that you think other photographers might like, please leave a note about them as a comment to this post.