Writing and sending postcards is a traditional vacation ritual and, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, can cost you no more than a little time and energy.

Don’t be forced to choose among cheesy print postcards at your vacation destination — use your own iPhone photos with one of these fabulous, free apps that creates electronic postcards you can email.

While your dear old grandma may still prefer a card of the paper variety, next time you’re on a trip away from home, why not drop a line to your friends, family and colleagues using one of these apps?


1. SodaSnap



SodaSnap offers a simple app interface that matches the simplicity of the final product. To get started, choose an image. You can either select a photo from your iPhone's camera roll, snap a pic of your surroundings, or use your location.

Using your location brings up the maps app from which you can screengrab. This doesn't make the most compelling picture postcard, but it may be a useful tool for meetings and invitations.

Once you're happy with your image, you can add text and hit the "Share" button. The way the app is designed, it's pretty much what you see is what you get, so you'll have a good idea of what the recipient will see in the inbox. As well as email, there are options to share to Twitter and Facebook.


2. Photocards


The Photocards app allows you to snap a pic or grab one from your camera roll. When you've sized the photo to fit the frame, you can choose a background.

The available backgrounds display classic stock photography — the sky, greenery, sand, landscapes, etc. — but the pleasant surprise is that the images are actually decent quality. The not-so-pleasant surprise is that you have to pay for some of them.

With your background and picture in place, it's just a matter of penning a few lines before emailing your creation.


3. Montager


Montager is a little different because it acts as more of a photography tool. However, we really like that it lets you get creative with your pics.

It offers a number of templates that allow you juxtapose three images into a mini-montage. You simply double-tap the empty space you want to fill, and then create your triptych either on-the-fly with photos taken with the iPhone's camera, or from pics saved to the camera roll.

Although there's no built-in text options, you can email from within the app, so add your message there.


4. Current Postcards


Once you've snapped a photo or grabbed one from your camera roll, the Current Postcards app lets you select a font (a big bonus in our book) before opening the theme gallery.

Themes categories include Birthday, Special Events, Holidays, Everyday or Just For Fun. While we'd struggle to pick a theme from most of the clipart-esque options, the simple postcard in the "Everyday" category (as seen above) is quite classic.

You can send your Current Postcards creations via email or post to Facebook.


5. Postino


Creating a postcard with the Postino app is a four-step process. First upload a photo from your camera roll or capture one anew with your iPhone.

Next write the message, and then you're onto the really fun step — adding your signature.

You can scrawl your John Hancock on your iPhone screen with your finger. We think this would be a really nice touch if you're sending postcards with a child — although, if your finger writing skills are as rubbish as ours, your signature may end up looking like a child's anyway!

Once you've added that personal touch, email your postcard.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Steve Moses

More About: app store, apple, iphone, iphone apps, iphotography, List, photography
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Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have the worst memory. I also have a bad short-term memory. This makes it tough to remember the things that pop into my head throughout the day, and it makes it especially hard to keep track of tasks and other actions that I must take. I've wanted to use my iPhone to "bottle" these fleeting thoughts for years, but nothing on the App Store allowed me to do this without some sort of distraction.

Enter Captio, a new app from Ben Lenarts of Boonbits. It's a small note taking application that allows you to capture thoughts, ideas, tasks, and other tidbits of information as they come to you. You may say, "But there are a million of those apps on the store, Josh, you handsome man!" Given, but Captio has one killer feature that everyone else has failed to deliver on: nothing. For example, here's how it works:

Step 1: You open the app.

Step 2: You type what you need to remember.

And that's it. Your idea is in your email inbox. That's what makes Captio so great. You can add a quick photo before Captio whisks the idea out of your mind, but the feature is hidden quite well under the keyboard (as not to distract you). It's one fast app, too. I don't mean that in the same way that reviewers normally say it, either. Captio could outrun Usain Bolt strapped to a rocket cheetah. My iPhone 4 loads it from a cold start in about a second, and it's even quicker when loading from multitasking memory.

If you're looking for something to capture everything you need to remember (and capture it quickly), I highly recommend picking up Captio. It's available now on the App Store for a fantastic $0.99. Just be prepared to break the news gently to your iPod icon, though; he won't be happy to lose his spot on the dock.TUAWCaptio: The simple app that just might change your life originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Museum of Modern Art in NYC is one of the best museums in the world, but it can be a little overwhelming. But the new MoMA iPhone app should make visiting a more manageable experience. More »

Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, web 2.0

While I am not an Evernote user myself, I hear it's great. It's a very well-known app, but in a nutshell you could call it a "complete capture tool". It comes as a desktop or mobile app, and lets you save "your ideas, things you see, and things you like".

And now, with the Trunk app store, I just discovered Evernote has its own little ecosystem. It turns out the company has many partners developing products that tie into Evernote itself (this is news for me), and Trunk now makes all of these products available in one location. VentureBeat reports that the store has about 100 apps from 67 different companies.

One interesting note is that the store actually offers hardware too; I am not sure if these devices count as "apps" in VentureBeat's tally. These are devices like scanners and printers from Canon, Fujitsu and Lexmark, and even the Nokia N900 phone which has an Evernote Sharing plug-in.

Does anyone know how good Evernote's right-to-left language support is? For me, the main drawback for these capture systems is that they often support only left-to-right languages, thus making them less than ubiquitous.

Share Evernote launches Trunk, its own app store originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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