What it is
For those that do not know what Picplz is, they claim to be the easiest way to share pictures of people, places, or some combination of the two. The application is available on the iPhone and Android phones, however I only tested it on the Android so please comment after reading my review and tell me if the iPhone version is much better.
Is it an app?
When I first signed up for Picplz I noted that the interface was not really a mobile application, but a website. That’s not terrible and I can deal with it, but it was slightly slow and the touch buttons weren’t very responsive at first. It took some getting used in order to touch the X next to a recommended person you don’t want to follow and for that person to disappear. Technically it is still an application. Heck, if you view my website on an Apple product (iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch) it turns on Web App mode, making it have the appearance of an application even though it’s just a website.
Question 1 for iPhone users, is the interface also more website than application?
Integration
The cool part of Picplz is the services it syncs with. Picplz integrates with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous & Foursquare. When adding the integrations you can set Picplz to automatically follow your friends from many of these services.
Flavors
The coolest part of Picplz is not that you can take a photo and send it to your favorite services, but that you can add some fun effects. Next to Retro Camera on the android, Picplz is the best camera application available. For the iPhone I know it’s a different story because you have Camera+, Best Camera, Instagram, Hipstamatic and 100 Cameras in 1.
Features
(as per Picplz.com)
Android
- Lets you snap, upload and share pics with ease
- Clean and simple UI
- Background photo uploading
- Integration with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous & Foursquare
- (as of 1/20/11) Android now has the live thumbnail preview like the iPhone version
iPhone
- Lets you snap, upload and share pics with ease
- Clean and simple UI
- Uploads photos in the background
- Integration with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous & Foursquare
- Free photo effects: Get a live thumbnail preview of what you’re photo looks like with a variety of filters
Downside
Here is my complaint about Picplz… Although it is a kick butt camera application it runs in the background (on the Android at least), constantly telling me when people want to follow me. That annoys the crap out of me. When I install an application that runs in the background, draining my battery, and doesn’t give me an option to turn that feature off, I uninstall it even if I love the application.
note: I don’t mind background uploading, just can’t stand not having a way to turn off background notifications.
So Picplz developers, fix that I will continue using the application. Don’t, and I won’t. End of story. On the bright side, cool camera application with some amazing potential for sure.
Question 2 for iPhone users, do you have an option to turn off background notifications?
You can see some of the photos I took with Picplz on my Phone Blog. Thanks for reading and happy shooting,
Scott
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