Photobooth

The reviews are in!

clark — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:51:07 +0000

Well, sort of. Our app is still a baby, but we’ve noticed Photobooth making its way onto a number of big boy websites. We figured a roundup was in order. If you’d like some more Photobooth goodness, check out the following sites, who were awesome enough to blog about the initial launch:

Droid-Life
Tested
Phandroid
RedmondPie
Android Authority

We’re cruising towards 15k downloads, I’m sure due in no small part to the awesome blogs above. We even made it into the top 50 apps in the Free Photography category of the Market, something that’s really got me stoked. We’re officially sitting at #43 right now and I couldn’t be happier. Well, I could, but all in good time.

Photobooth hits 10k downloads in its first week!

clark — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:28:36 +0000

Jeez guys, that was quick. When we entered the Market last Thursday, we never figured you guys would download Photobooth over 10,000 times in just a few days. You did, though, and we wanted to send out a huge thanks to everyone that downloaded and rated the app in the Market this week.

To say thank you (and as proof that we’re listening), we’re currently prepping a build that adds a Save to SD button. The functionality has always been present (it actually happened behind the scenes when you clicked Share), but it’ll be nice to have it’s own button. We’re also updating a few of the icons to be a bit more consistent. Keep your eyes peeled for this update sometime in the next few days.

As some of you might know, we are hard at work on a set of Pro features for Photobooth, which we hope to release in the next two weeks. Along with the Pro version, we’ll be kicking off a contest with a couple of really great photography prizes, my favorite of which happens to be a handful of Flickr Pro accounts. I’ve used Flickr for years now, most of that time with a Pro account, and I’m not looking back. Flickr is my favorite way to host and share photos, so giving it away as a prize just felt right.

If you’re the nerdy type, I thought you might be interested in the following stats. As most of you know, the Android Market gives developers a few basic statistics about their apps, which I’ve posted below.

Force closes coming from HTC camera

clark — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:40:23 +0000

Update: we just pushed a fix we think will solve the HTC camera bug. Please update via the Market.

We’ve been getting a handful of reports that Photobooth will sometimes force close when trying to import directly from the camera on some HTC phones. The good news is that we are aware of the problem and think the bug comes from the way the non-stock camera handles sharing. The bad news is that we are still in the process of applying a fix, and working on weirdo, non-standard issues always seem to take more time than you want them to.

So, until we get it sorted out, we thought we’d make a quick blog post with some suggestions. If you’ve got an HTC phone and the camera is crashing inside of Photobooth, try taking your pictures outside of Photobooth first. Snap the pics, use the gallery to select the ones you want to turn into a photostrip, then tap Share > Photobooth. Using this workaround should avoid that dreaded force close. Or, feel free to use almost any other camera app available in the Market, it’s just something with that HTC camera that doesn’t get along with Photobooth.

Welcome to the new Photobooth website!

clark — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:35:14 +0000

To celebrate the launch of Photobooth in the Android Market, we figured a website refresh was in order. We’ve got some big plans for the website, namely a big contest we’re starting in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more details.

We’re also working hard to finish up the Pro version of Photobooth, which will increase the photo limit to 6, add new layouts, and enable XL export. The Pro features will be available via an in-app purchase, so if you’ve already got the free version of Photobooth, upgrading should be a snap.

Border options? We don’t need no stinkin’ border options!

clark — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 05:20:53 +0000

Yesterday Justin and I were talking about what to do with the border and we figured it could use some more discussion. The original goal of Photobooth was to act as a photo stiching utility. No styling, no effects, just an easy way to share multiple photos with a single URL.
When Justin first asked, I said for the first release I wouldn’t mind getting rid of the border all together. I had never imagined there in the first place, so I didn’t really mind. Justin said he thought it helped break up the images and that some users might want it, and he is probably right. Right now Photobooth is using an 8px white border, but there is no way to edit/change the settings.

I’m really hesitant to add any sort of border options for fear of getting lumped into the photo effect apps. Not that there is anything wrong with effects, it’s just a crowded space that I want no part of. I figure if you wanted to add style or borders, you could do it through one of the many quality apps already available.

The UI/UX is already locked up pretty tight, there just isn’t much space for border options. I’m trying to resist the urge to use Android’s menu button but I just don’t see many other places to stick it. I’ll figure it out, but I wanted to at least ask the question:

Do you want border options in Photobooth? If so, how extensive? Simply on/off? Or do you want full width/color/etc control? Thoughts? Arguments?