[danielbigham]

App page on BlackBerry World:
https://appworld.blackberry.com/webs...countrycode=CA

Intro video:


Demo of "full screen mode":


PhotoStar has been 2.5 years in the making. The perfectionist side of my personality must have gotten a hold of me -- most PlayBook apps I made back in the day took anywhere between 2 and 15 hours, but I've ended up spending 500 hours on PhotoStar. (whoops!)

Even though the BB10 platform has come on hard times, hopefully people will still appreciate compelling new app additions to their devices. I'm a huge fan of efficiency, and so I've put a lot of effort into making PhotoStar as close as possible to the ideal of an app that gets out of the way and allows you to organize and share your photos as fast as humanly possible.

Here's a run-down of the app's main features:

Mutli-share: Simply tap on each service you'd like to share a photo to, and PhotoStar will queue your uploads. No need to re-type a description, and no need to open a dialog box for sharing. Supports: Facebook, Twitter, Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, Dropbox, Email (and if the app sells well, I'm happy to keep adding services, like OneDrive, etc)

Automate sharing: Create rules like "email 5 star photos of my kids to grandma and grandpa" and PhotoStar will automatically keep your family up to date going forward.

Automate backup: Create rules like "upload 3 star or better photos to my Dropbox account" and rest assured that your photos are safe, while not using up your valuable cloud storage with junk like some apps that upload everything.

Enhance with ease: Use the adjustment gesture to make your photos look great. It's so fast you'll have all of your photos processed in no time.

Search: Say you're preparing a wedding slide show and want "5 star photos of Hazel". PhotoStar allows you to search your photos by rating, tags, person, location, date, etc.

Full screen mode: Rating and tagging your photos requires a flexible user interface, but who wants their screen cluttered with controls? PhotoStar offers a unique hotspot and gesture based UI that can be optionally used once you become more proficient, allowing you to rate and tag your photos without them constantly being obscured by the UI. We think you'll love it.

De-clutter: One of the downsides of it being so easy to take photos with a smartphone is that you end up with hundreds of photos which are mostly garbage. But deleting each of the bad ones takes three taps: Most apps require you to tap the menu icon, tap 'Delete', then tap 'OK'. It's just enough work that you've probably never gone through and gotten rid of the junk. PhotoStar solves this by allowing photos to be deleted by simply swiping down, allowing you to quickly flip through your photos and clear out the bad ones. If you make a mistake, simply return to the previous photo and undo your deletion.

Face recognition: We make available the faceplusplus.com face recognition API to help automate tagging your photos with who is in them. Even if the API isn't 100% sure who is in a photo, it can identify the faces and short list who the person is likely to be, making manual selection fast and avoiding scrolling through long lists of people.

Geotagging: Automate tags like 'Home', 'Cottage', 'School', etc. by creating a geo fence around common areas that you take photos.

We think you'll agree: PhotoStar takes the BlackBerry Pictures app to the next level.

One disclaimer for the app is that it does crash sometimes, and there are still some bugs. But I felt I should release the app rather than waiting another 6 months, since who knows where the BlackBerry 10 platform is headed in the long term.

Hope you enjoy it!

[eldricho]

Congrats man! Had been following development for such a long time. I am excited to hear that you have finally been able to finish and release it. Good luck with the app!

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[FF22]

Good luck with it. And, well, what perseverance!

[marcaccioc]

Great job - looks great!

[amit kafle]

App page on BlackBerry World:
https://appworld.blackberry.com/webs...countrycode=CA

Intro video:


Demo of "full screen mode":


PhotoStar has been 2.5 years in the making. The perfectionist side of my personality must have gotten a hold of me -- most PlayBook apps I made back in the day took anywhere between 2 and 15 hours, but I've ended up spending 500 hours on PhotoStar. (whoops!)

Even though the BB10 platform has come on hard times, hopefully people will still appreciate compelling new app additions to their devices. I'm a huge fan of efficiency, and so I've put a lot of effort into making PhotoStar as close as possible to the ideal of an app that gets out of the way and allows you to organize and share your photos as fast as humanly possible.

Here's a run-down of the app's main features:

Mutli-share: Simply tap on each service you'd like to share a photo to, and PhotoStar will queue your uploads. No need to re-type a description, and no need to open a dialog box for sharing. Supports: Facebook, Twitter, Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, Dropbox, Email (and if the app sells well, I'm happy to keep adding services, like OneDrive, etc)

Automate sharing: Create rules like "email 5 star photos of my kids to grandma and grandpa" and PhotoStar will automatically keep your family up to date going forward.

Automate backup: Create rules like "upload 3 star or better photos to my Dropbox account" and rest assured that your photos are safe, while not using up your valuable cloud storage with junk like some apps that upload everything.

Enhance with ease: Use the adjustment gesture to make your photos look great. It's so fast you'll have all of your photos processed in no time.

Search: Say you're preparing a wedding slide show and want "5 star photos of Hazel". PhotoStar allows you to search your photos by rating, tags, person, location, date, etc.

Full screen mode: Rating and tagging your photos requires a flexible user interface, but who wants their screen cluttered with controls? PhotoStar offers a unique hotspot and gesture based UI that can be optionally used once you become more proficient, allowing you to rate and tag your photos without them constantly being obscured by the UI. We think you'll love it.

De-clutter: One of the downsides of it being so easy to take photos with a smartphone is that you end up with hundreds of photos which are mostly garbage. But deleting each of the bad ones takes three taps: Most apps require you to tap the menu icon, tap 'Delete', then tap 'OK'. It's just enough work that you've probably never gone through and gotten rid of the junk. PhotoStar solves this by allowing photos to be deleted by simply swiping down, allowing you to quickly flip through your photos and clear out the bad ones. If you make a mistake, simply return to the previous photo and undo your deletion.

Face recognition: We make available the faceplusplus.com face recognition API to help automate tagging your photos with who is in them. Even if the API isn't 100% sure who is in a photo, it can identify the faces and short list who the person is likely to be, making manual selection fast and avoiding scrolling through long lists of people.

Geotagging: Automate tags like 'Home', 'Cottage', 'School', etc. by creating a geo fence around common areas that you take photos.

We think you'll agree: PhotoStar takes the BlackBerry Pictures app to the next level.

One disclaimer for the app is that it does crash sometimes, and there are still some bugs. But I felt I should release the app rather than waiting another 6 months, since who knows where the BlackBerry 10 platform is headed in the long term.

Hope you enjoy it!

Can we have some redeems
If yes them email me at
[email protected]
My bbm 2B1B6BD0
My channel C001BE66F

BlackBerry q10

[danielbigham]

Can we have some redeems
If yes them email me at
[email protected]
My bbm 2B1B6BD0
My channel C001BE66F

BlackBerry q10

Hi Amit, the app is only 99 cents. Does that feel prohibitive?

[petertinh]

Hi Amit, the app is only 99 cents. Does that feel prohibitive?

Cheap but we want some Redeem codes.

Posted via my BlackBerry � Passport on newest OS 10.3.2

[tl000]

Looks like it's one of the most well made apps made for bb10 ever. I'll go buy it though I'm not much into photography.

[paulwallace1234]

Cheap but we want some Redeem codes.

Posted via my BlackBerry � Passport on newest OS 10.3.2

Nah, for minimum price the dev deserves some sales..

Posted via CB10 v....not telling

[petertinh]

Nah, for minimum price the dev deserves some sales..

Posted via CB10 v....not telling

Thanks for reply @Paul but I bought it and i want some promo codes for my Channel C0003C1A4

Posted via my BlackBerry � Passport on newest OS 10.3.2

[paulwallace1234]

Thanks for reply @Paul but I bought it and i want some promo codes for my Channel C0003C1A4

Posted via my BlackBerry � Passport on newest OS 10.3.2

Make sure to say please to the dev

Posted via CB10 v....not telling

[danielbigham]

Sent private messages to amit and peter.

[BerryRipe]

I will be purchasing this app! I support native BB10 devs. With all the hours that he's put into the app $0.99 is practically nothing. BB10 users should be more supportive towards the os.

Posted via CB10

[amit kafle]

Sent private messages to amit and peter.

I didn't recieve it dev.

BlackBerry q10

[John Vieira]

Wow, really? That's how you plan on driving traffic to your channel, by giving away codes that are literally costing devs money? Not cool.

I'm glad this App was released, but since blackberry gave up on bb10, I gave up on it too. Still, there is one more BB10 device in the house, I might pick it up afterall.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[amit kafle]

Dev I have no pm can you send me please
Or send me in BBM 2B1B6BD0

BlackBerry q10

[Richard Buckley]

You don't provide a support contact on the BlackBerry World page so I'll put this here.

It looks like I'm going to have to click OK on this dialogue for every picture on my device.




LeapSTR100-2/10.3.2.2639

[danielbigham]

You don't provide a support contact on the BlackBerry World page so I'll put this here.

It looks like I'm going to have to click OK on this dialogue for every picture on my device.




LeapSTR100-2/10.3.2.2639

Richard, the PhotoStar page here does have links for "Email Application Support":
https://appworld.blackberry.com/webs...ode=CA&lang=en

I'm very troubled to see that you've gotten that error... I've actually gotten that error in a certain context as well. Let me explain: I have PhotoStar installed on my device in two instances:

1. The download/purchased version from BB World.
2. Installed directly from my BB Momentics / Eclipse development environment.

I took a photo yesterday and what I noticed was that in #2 (I think?), I got this error. Alarmed, I tried this in the purchased version of the app, and there was no error at all. So there seems to be something strange going on where for certain files, depending on the instance of the application, it is unable to interact with the files properly.

I was hoping this only related to me having two instances of the app, but you running into this makes it clear that the issue can affect real users as well.

This is a real bummer, because as it stands I don't have any good theories about what's going on. The next time this happens to me, I'll have to try and very carefully examine the evidence to try and come up with some kind of theory.

Really sorry this has shown up for you -- obviously makes the app unusable. One random thought would be to try uninstalling and re-installing the app. The reason I wonder about that is that, as mentioned, I've found that some of my installed instances of the app can have this problem, while another instance doesn't. Maybe reinstalling the app would make it a "different instance" of the installed app, and save it from this error. (?)

[amit kafle]

No PM please send me redeem please you can email me at [email protected]
Or
[email protected]

BlackBerry q10

[danielbigham]

I removed the app from sale.

Over the last 4 days or so, there have been about 5 people who have bought the app.

Of those 5, two people have sent me 3 or more crash reports, and Richard has reported a very serious show-stopper kind of error. One user Tom had the app crash on him 10 times. Here is a summary of the show stopping issues.

1. PhotoStar for some people seems to get in a weird state where C code can't read or write photo files, while another instance of the PhotoStar app installed on the device has no problem. Some photos work, some photos don't. This is a super-mysterious issue that I don't have any ideas for, and I feel is a kind of show-stopper issue.

2. A user Tom sent a log file that shows the XMP library unable to read the metadata for all sorts of his JPG files. This is another show stopper issue, and again, I don't have any good ideas for what would be going on. I'll ask Tom to send me one of the affected photos to see if I can figure anything out.

3. Overall the app seems to be crashing a lot for people. Sometimes it's a kind of out of memory issue, but it can't be reproduced easily. Sometimes you can swipe through dozens of photos without any issue, so I'm perplexed.

I'm starting to wonder whether this app should just be put to rest.

It's kind of tantalizing, because a lot of work has been put into it, and I think the overall design of the app is quite good, but it's not going to make the world a better place if it's crashing too frequently for people, and if there are these super-mysterious issues cropping up that I as a developer don't have any good ideas about in terms of diagnosing/fixing.

Of course, one of the most important factors in all of this is whether the BB10 platform is large enough and active enough to support such an app financially. Over the first two days of the app being released, it was purchased twice. Those two purchases were my purchase and my dad's purchase. That's not quite comparable to when I released "iTunes Sync" in 2011 on the PlayBook and had $200 of sales in a single day!

If an app like this were to generate less than $20/week in sales, it wouldn't be a good use of my time, or even a good of any person's time trying to support and fix bugs.

I will have to think about what to do. Not sure what the best course of action is.

[tl000]

Well, I was one of those 5 who has bought your app. I tried it, it worked nice for me, not a single issue. I'm not much into photography, so I played with it and removed it. For sure it's up to you to keep developing for almost no income or give it up. That was a nice app idea anyways.
Regards.

[sam81]

I removed the app from sale.

Over the last 4 days or so, there have been about 5 people who have bought the app.

Of those 5, two people have sent me 3 or more crash reports, and Richard has reported a very serious show-stopper kind of error. One user Tom had the app crash on him 10 times. Here is a summary of the show stopping issues.

1. PhotoStar for some people seems to get in a weird state where C code can't read or write photo files, while another instance of the PhotoStar app installed on the device has no problem. Some photos work, some photos don't. This is a super-mysterious issue that I don't have any ideas for, and I feel is a kind of show-stopper issue.

2. A user Tom sent a log file that shows the XMP library unable to read the metadata for all sorts of his JPG files. This is another show stopper issue, and again, I don't have any good ideas for what would be going on. I'll ask Tom to send me one of the affected photos to see if I can figure anything out.

3. Overall the app seems to be crashing a lot for people. Sometimes it's a kind of out of memory issue, but it can't be reproduced easily. Sometimes you can swipe through dozens of photos without any issue, so I'm perplexed.

I'm starting to wonder whether this app should just be put to rest.

It's kind of tantalizing, because a lot of work has been put into it, and I think the overall design of the app is quite good, but it's not going to make the world a better place if it's crashing too frequently for people, and if there are these super-mysterious issues cropping up that I as a developer don't have any good ideas about in terms of diagnosing/fixing.

Of course, one of the most important factors in all of this is whether the BB10 platform is large enough and active enough to support such an app financially. Over the first two days of the app being released, it was purchased twice. Those two purchases were my purchase and my dad's purchase. That's not quite comparable to when I released "iTunes Sync" in 2011 on the PlayBook and had $200 of sales in a single day!

If an app like this were to generate less than $20/week in sales, it wouldn't be a good use of my time, or even a good of any person's time trying to support and fix bugs.

I will have to think about what to do. Not sure what the best course of action is.

Damn, just a few minutes late. Subscribed to keep track of development. It looks like a useful application as far as the quick delete goes. As of this moment I have some 12,000 photos on my SD card. And I've used my Z10 for about 3 yrs now. I do hope you get the issues fixed and put it back for sale. Good luck

[Richard Buckley]

Richard, the PhotoStar page here does have links for "Email Application Support":
https://appworld.blackberry.com/webs...ode=CA&lang=en

I'm very troubled to see that you've gotten that error... I've actually gotten that error in a certain context as well. Let me explain: I have PhotoStar installed on my device in two instances:

1. The download/purchased version from BB World.
2. Installed directly from my BB Momentics / Eclipse development environment.

I took a photo yesterday and what I noticed was that in #2 (I think?), I got this error. Alarmed, I tried this in the purchased version of the app, and there was no error at all. So there seems to be something strange going on where for certain files, depending on the instance of the application, it is unable to interact with the files properly.

I was hoping this only related to me having two instances of the app, but you running into this makes it clear that the issue can affect real users as well.

This is a real bummer, because as it stands I don't have any good theories about what's going on. The next time this happens to me, I'll have to try and very carefully examine the evidence to try and come up with some kind of theory.

Really sorry this has shown up for you -- obviously makes the app unusable. One random thought would be to try uninstalling and re-installing the app. The reason I wonder about that is that, as mentioned, I've found that some of my installed instances of the app can have this problem, while another instance doesn't. Maybe reinstalling the app would make it a "different instance" of the installed app, and save it from this error. (?)

So I think I know what happened, but I'll just tell you what I experienced and let you decide.

The link in the OP and your reply open BlackBerry World on my Leap but only shows the BlackBerry World main page. So I searched for Photostar and bought the app that showed up. However now when I do that search I don't get any results.

I'm out shopping right now, I'll look into it further when I get home.


Edit

Back home now. The only way I can get to the page I installed PhotoStar from is to go into MyApps, avaliable and select it from that list. If I click on your vendor link I only see three applications and PhotoStar isn't one. Looks like it was deleted from BlackBerry World.

LeapSTR100-2/10.3.2.2639

[paulwallace1234]

Does the App have low memory handling?
It should attempt to clear it's own cache when the Low memory high signal is fired and even low if it's bad.

Feel free to send me a copy, I'll give it a run through with a dev point of view

Posted via CB10 v....not telling

[danielbigham]

Does the App have low memory handling?
It should attempt to clear it's own cache when the Low memory high signal is fired and even low if it's bad.

Feel free to send me a copy, I'll give it a run through with a dev point of view

Posted via CB10 v....not telling

Hi Paul,

That's very generous of you, thanks.

Actually, that's one possible way forward for this app -- there was a very generous user (with Baarn in his name) that looked into a very serious show-stopping issue that had stumped me a month or so back, and he was able to find and compile more recent Adobe XMP sources for BB10. Maybe there are enough people in the community with dev experience and time that they wouldn't mind poking around in the sources and fixing issues that are confounding me.

The app is actually open source, so if people want to give this a go, they are more than welcome to. The GitHub project is here:

https://github.com/dbigham/PhotoStar

One part that's missing from the online sources are the private keys that allow the app to share to Facebook, etc, but so far as I know, that's not where the main issues with the app are, and I could probably easily create a dummy Facebook app account (etc) if people needed a way to test Facebook uploads, etc.