Getting started with photo app EyeEm for iPad
Shoot, filter, and share photos with this free app for iOS or Android.
Instagram is the current king of the photo-sharing hill, but it's no longer ad-free and there is still no iPad version of the app. If an Instagram feed interrupted by ads has you headed for the exits, or if you like to view and share photos on a tablet, then I suggest you give EyeEm a whirl. It's a free app whose most recent update for iOS introduced iPad support, and it's also available for Android.
Launch EyeEm and after signing up via Facebook or email, you'll find yourself staring at a grid of nine subject areas. The app asks you to select three of these collections. In the next step, you are given the chance to enable locations services.
After creating an account and choosing your topics of interest, you are taken to your EyeEm feed. At the top is a narrow belt of thumbnails of photos taken in your area. Below that, are albums that fall under the topics you chose. You can swipe to view the thumbnails in an album, while tapping on a row opens the album. Once the album is open, tapping on a photo expands it. You can like and comment on a photo and follow other EyeEm users and let others follow you. Tapping on an expanded photo hides all menu options, and you can then swipe to view other photos in the album in what EyeEm calls its slideshow view. It's a great way to flip through photos on your iPad.
On the home screen, however, I found myself fighting for control of the feed. For starters, I have yet to find my way back to the main collections screen, something I was hoping to do in order to add to or adjust my original three selections. The albums listed on the feed are a mix of Trending albums, Favorite albums, and Popular Photos, but I don't know why I started out with a dozen favorites. Tapping the three-circle button on the right edge of the albums listed in your feed lets you add or remove it from your favorites, or "Hide from Discover." I am left to assume that Discover = EyeEm's home page (it's labeled as Home in the menu accessed from the button in the upper-left corner). Removing a favorited album does not remove it from the Discover page (that is, home page) -- only the Hide option does that. I did find, though, that albums I had hidden would sometimes reappear after pulling down to refresh my feed.
Tapping the white circular button in the center of the bottom edge of the screen opens EyeEm's camera mode, where you can snap a shot or select a photo from your library. You are given four tools to edit photos: filters, frames, enhance, and crop. There are 17 filters and 13 frames from which to choose. The enhance tool provides one-touch color and sharpness correction, which you can toggle on or off. Lastly, and oddly, the crop tool only lets you crop your photo into a square, despite not offering Instagram as a sharing option.
There are five sharing options: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Foursquare.
(Via AppAdvice)