Pixlr Express - the best free photo-editing application

Pixlr Start Screen

Looking for a free photo editing application for your mobile device that can do just about everything you need? Look no further - Pixlr Express is the app for you.

With more than 600 effects, overlays, and borders for your images, you are sure to find the fun tweaks to make your pictures perfect for sharing or storing.  The usability of the application makes it perfect for quickly cropping, re-sizing, removing red-eye, and whitening parts of your images.  It is simple to control - making it perfect for people who aren't too confident using photo editing software.

Make sure to check out Pixlr Express on Google Play or the App Store before you think about buying the Adobe Photoshop application.

Apple Patents "Lightening"

Apple Snags Another Trademark

Apple snags another trademark and this time from an unsuspecting company - Harley-Davidson.  They patented "There's an App for that" in 2010 and recently was in negotiation for the word "lightening." Apple wasn't greedy and actually offered to limit the patent to certain products.  Harley Davidson can use the word "lightening" in their clothes and footwear lines, while Apple can use it on a limited number of products. 

Take advantage of Cyber Monday 2012

Cyber Monday advertisement

I know that many of you are rushing to malls and other chains looking for special savings on big-ticket items. However, many of you might be forgetting another (in my opinion, better) day of savings - Cyber Monday.  Cyber Monday is the Monday that falls after Black Friday.  It is a "holiday" that allows users to find many great deals without having to deal with the absence of parking spots, long lines, and frustrating customers that comes with the Black Friday experience.

CyberMonday2012
First of all, I would recommend visiting websites such as CyberMonday2012 to quickly see what some of the big deals are for this year.  From there, you can link to featured websites that offer discount coupons or price cuts on their products.

After browsing this website, I would also make sure to check out the big tech retailers online.  One of my favorites is Amazon Wireless - especially if you are looking for great deals on mobile devices and smartphones.  I guarantee you won't be disappointed (especially if you are looking for a new phone that comes with a contract renewal).

Be smart
As a whole, I think Cyber Monday is a better alternative to fighting the crowds for limited quantities of items that you may not totally want.  Be smart and browse the savings online.  Finally, make sure you don't end up like the people in the following video this Black Friday:

3 Must-Have iPad Apps

Going into an important meeting? Sitting in a lecture or exam review session? AudioNote allows you to take notes and also record the audio for later. You can attach the audio to the notes and fill in the blanks later. And we all know how frustrating it is not hearing an essential part of a lecture or meeting because we were too busy taking notes! This is a $4.99 app on iTunes.

Want to apply basic editing tools to your photos before uploading them to Facebook or other social networking sites? Photoshop Express is a free app on iTunes. These are the primary features of a photoshop program without the double or triple digit price tag.

Browsing for new recipes? Want to get some culinary inspiration? Epicurious is a free cookbook app. It allows you to browse recipes and automatically sync the shopping list with your smartphone. There are multiple apps out there that are very similar to Epicurious such as My Cookbook, which allows you to create your own digital cookbook. Some apps even offer incentives such as coupons and discounts for the items you need.

HDR Camera for Android - great for photo enthusiasts

HDR Camera app logo

If you love photography, then you probably know what High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos are.  For those of you who don't, I will explain.

Real life scenes have a wide range of light intensity, much of which cannot be captured by regular cameras.  This sometimes causes bright areas to look washed out and shadowed areas to appear as black spots (with no details).  HDR takes multiple pictures with different light settings and combines them into one image - creating a very detailed image that is more similar to real life.

Fortunately, Almalence Incorporated offers an HDR Camera application that is available for iPhone and Android devices, making HDR photography simple on smartphones.