effects

One of my favorite apps of 2012, Bad Robot Interactive's Action Movie FX, just got even better.

Available for iOS, the app lets you add Hollywood-style special effects to videos you've shot with your iPhone or iPad.

What kinds of effects? Suppose you're making a movie that involves blowing up a car (as all good movies should). Action Movie FX includes a missile-attack sequence that ends with a gorgeous fiery explosion. All you do is record at least 5 seconds of video (in this case, footage of your car), then wait for the app to render the … Read more

iMajiCam does something the vast majority of image and video editors don't and shows you exactly how the content will be edited in real time. The result is a jarringly effective image and video editor with a number of features that give you much greater control over how your final creations look. While the interface is cluttered and some functions will slow the app down quite a bit, overall it is very well made.

When you first open iMajiCam, you'll notice the sheer volume of onscreen buttons. From a slide-out left menu with different app modes (of which … Read more

How can you get a tipsy man in bar not to drive his car home?

One thought might be to shock him so much when he goes to the bathroom that he has to rush (on foot) in the direction of the nearest ER to have his heart-rate reduced.

This highly entertaining PSA shows a bathroom in an unnamed British bar. It was created on behalf of the U.K's Department of Transportation.

Many Brits like to drink more than they eat. And with many bars still having very limited opening hours many men (and an increasing number of … Read more

Funny Face Effects lets you melt, bloat, and warp your face into all sorts of bizarre images. This app is fun for a little while, but you'll probably wipe it from your device once you see all the ads it brings with it.

Before you can get started, the app tries to get you to agree to let it install nasty ads. These mostly take over your browser, so you might miss them if you don't surf with Android's default browser. Though it's called Funny Face Effects on the Google Play store, it appears as "… Read more

Analog Camera is a simple photo editor from RealMac software, the same folks who made the to-do-list app Clear. Like Clear, the app is as bare bones as it gets, but the minimalist design and intuitive controls make photo sharing incredibly quick and easy.

Analog Camera is not a full-featured photo editor in the same vein as apps like KitCam or PhotoToaster. Instead, it offers only a couple of features in the interest of convenience and quick sharing. When you launch the app, you immediately see the viewfinder so you can take a picture right away. But at the top … Read more

Moo0 Audio Effect is easy-to-use freeware that applies basic special effects to audio clips. Audio Effect can alter the volume, pitch, bass, treble, and other tonal aspects of MP3 and WAV files. It's a very basic tool, which means you can finish a job in less time than it takes to learn which buttons to press on that "full-featured" audio editor. Moo0 Audio Effect is suitable for Windows XP to 8.

We could resize Moo0 Audio Effect's compact user interface by dragging the corner, or we could toggle between Minimum and Advanced Options views. A Language … Read more

This cool app will let you create great, filtered photos, but has too many ads. If you can get through the inevitable swarm of them to get to the actual camera, you can take some decent shots with Live Camera With Effects.

Before you can get to the app's camera, you have to sift through not one, but two different ad agreements. You can opt out of them if you want. Even if you don't, Live Camera With Effects will slide ads all over your phone, including the browser and status bar. As for the actual camera, it … Read more

This app inches so close to being the all-in-one photo app you need on Android. Sadly, it has some weird quirks and one glaring omission that make it just miss the mark. Magic Effects Studio Camera is still a solid editing app for your smartphone or tablet. If you like to shoot with your gadget, give it a shot.

One of the first things you might notice about this app is its layout. It's easier on the eyes than a lot of other Android apps, even though the ads it has often make some of the buttons disappear on … Read more

Funny Photo Effects offers to put your face on all sorts of goofy characters. Sadly, it seems way more interested in hitting your phone or tablet with ads than helping you laugh.

Funny Photo Effects is supposed to find your face in the photo you submit and paste it on the cutout you want. However, the facial recognition sometimes takes forever to complete. More often than not, it will tell you your photo won't work and won't even bother to try to find a face. What's worse than the app's shaky performance is the infiltration of … Read more