The BlackBerry PlayBook features a 3 megapixel front-facing camera and a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera. These cameras and the PlayBook’s portability lends its self to bringing out the photographer in us all. Wouldn’t you like to edit and add effects like vintage and retro looks to your pictures? How about change the filter on the camera, save to your picture albums, all that and more for free? If so, here comes the good news.
Pixlr-o-Matic is a website that allows you to do just that. It works seamlessly on the PlayBook’s browser, as it should, and even saves the edited pictures right to the device’s memory (in the “Pictures” app). When you start, you can double tap then screen which will give you a full screen view of the page. This is nice because it gives it an “app” feel. You start off with two options: 1. Webcam and 2. Computer. If you select ‘Webcam’, it’ll ask permission to access your camera. (I tried several ways and could only get the front facing cam to work)
(You can also use it in portrait mode but the camera won’t rotate)
If you select ‘Computer’, it’ll give you access to your existing pictures on the PlayBook or BlackBerry Smartphone (if it’s bridged to your PlayBook).
Once you’ve selected a picture, you have three main categories (red, blue, and yellow) and within those categories, you have different types of filters and effects. To select a category, you simply tap the color. Then to select a filter or effect, you swipe through the options horizontally.
As I mentioned earlier, once your done, you can save it online or to the PlayBook’s memory. All you have to do is tap ‘Save’.
Then you can name the file.
Being able to use the web browser this way can save you money on apps since it is free. However, the only downfall here is that you need to have an internet connection to have it work. Furthermore, if you wanted to upload to FaceBook, Twitter, Flickr, etc., you’d have to do it manually versus an app that would probably do it with a single tap. In any case, this is a fun and great way to make your PlayBook pictures artistic and different. Click here to access this site from your PlayBook or computer. Below are some pictures taken on my PlayBook and then edited on Pixlr.
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