Uber Iris on the BlackBerry PlayBook lets you edit photos right from your tablet.

Uber Iris for the BlackBerry PlayBook

While we're still waiting for Instagram to be developed for the BlackBerry platform, other developers are pushing through and creating their own variations to help fill the void. Today I wanted to share with the CrackBerry nation Uber Iris from Xlabz. Now, the Xlabz team isn't new to the BlackBerry platform and have a few productivity applications available on the BlackBerry PlayBook (like GroovyNotes, StockPulse, and Vault) but they’re no stranger to consumer-orientated apps like Sketch W Friends and now Uber Iris. Follow me after the break to see how this photo-editing app stacks up to the rest.

The Review

Developer: XLabz Technologies Pvt Ltd Version (at time of review): 1.0.1
File Size: 2.5 MB OS Requirements: Tablet 1.0.0 or higher
Cost: $2.99 Website: http://www.xlabz.com
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Uber Iris is an application much like Instagram that allows for adding filters to photos you’ve taken with the PlayBook or photos you’ve loaded onto your tablet. One of the cool things about Uber Iris is they’ve gone a few steps further and have allowed you to add effects, crop the image, rotate, and adjust various levels of color and saturation.

Features:

  • Extremely smooth and user-friendly interface which allows for quick photo edits
  • Take pictures from within the app or import photos from your camera roll and edit them on the move
  • Edit and view your pictures in both portrait and landscape mode
  • Choose from 30 different filters and effects to give your photos both artistic and fun effects
  • Sliders to fine-tune each effect and style strength
  • Get creative and apply multiple filters to the same picture to get interesting effects
  • Editing tools like crop, rotate, flip and adjustments for hue, saturation, brightness and contrast.
  • Save your masterpieces on your PlayBook or share them with friends and family via Facebook, Twitter and 

Photo editing options

Orientation switcher

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This option doesn’t need much explanation other than it allows you to rotate your photo in any direction. This lets you correct the photos you may have taken in an odd orientation that just don’t look right.

Image flip and mirroring editor 

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The image flip option gives you the ability to flip (or mirror) the selected image. Doing so will allow you to alter the location of objects on your photos and give the appearance that they are on the opposite side of the photo.

Image cropping

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This is probably one of the most important features that a photo editor could have, and that’s the ability to crop an image. With the 5mp camera on the BlackBerry PlayBook I often find myself taking print worthy photos, but sometimes an object or a person gets in the way of what was otherwise a good shot. With Uber Iris you have the ability to crop those images and remove the unwanted objects. Within the cropping editor you can select a custom crop, a golden crop (which is almost a 16:9 ratio), square crop, 3:2 crop, 4:3 crop, and a true 16:9 crop.

Color, brightness, and saturation editor

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Within this editing page you have the options to change a few of the key characteristics of a photo. Now I warn you that within this page you can really mess-up a good photo. Without an individual reset option, if you alter one incorrectly and can't get it back 100%, you will need to undo any changes and start over.

FX editor

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This screen is most like the editor you would find on an app like Instagram and contains the ability to add filters to your photos.

Filters included

Black and White
Sunkissed
Lomo
Polarized
70’s
80’s
Ebony
Sharpen
Rewind
Purple Haze
Mystify
Luminous
Tungsten
Nostalgia
X Pro
Sepia
Old Sketch
Aura
Autumn
Twilight
Haze
Photocopy
Hallucinations
Retro Poster
Negative
Black and White Halftone
Sandpaper
Scanlines
Posterize
Noir

The developer has made selecting a filter and its intensity really easy. To select a filter all you do is scroll through the rolodex style selector and stop on the filter of your choice. Once you’ve selected a filter you are able to increase or decrease the intensity by moving the slider up and down. All of the filter options are nondestructive, meaning that if you apply one and don’t like it you are always able to undo and revert back to the original.

Photo sharing options

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When you’ve created something awesome, what is the first thing you want to do? Share it, of course. While you could walk around with your PlayBook yelling at people saying, “look, look what I made” there is an easier way and it has a further reach. Xlabz has included the ability to share your creations over FaceBook, Twitter, and Flickr. Sadly no support for Tumblr or other blogging services just yet, but hopefully in a future release. They’ve made it quite easy to share to via the available services. All you need to do is tap the share icon in the top left corner and you’re well on your way to showing the world what you’ve made with the BlackBerry PlayBook and Uber Iris.

Uber Iris Pros and Cons

Pros

There is actually a lot going for this application, and I think users will see its value quite quickly. First thing that I wanted to point out is the quality of the easy to use UI, and if you’ve read any of my other reviews you’ll know I stress this as one of the most important factors in an application. Uber Iris has an easy user interface with quick access to all the function buttons. I also liked how easy it was to share and add a caption to your photos, though I wish there were a few more sharing options.

Cons

While Xlabz has done a fantastic job at making the user interface of Uber Iris quite functional there were often points when I had to think if I actually hit the button or not. Also I did notice that if you moved a little to quickly through the application there was a bit of lag. Hopefully with the BlackBerry 10 NDK making its way to developers soon, Xlabz will consider using that and rebuilding the application. 

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a good all-in-one photo editor for the BlackBerry PlayBook then check out Uber Iris. With its low price tag and high feature set I’m sure you’ll enjoy editing photos of family, friends, and anything else you find worth a thousand words. While I did mention that there was a bit of lag in the app I didn’t find it so much that I would stop using the app; the ability to do what I can with Uber Iris is worth it. I also felt that the user experience throughout the app made it quite easy to load up a photo, edit it, and export it either to FaceBook, Twitter, Flickr, or to my PlayBook's internal storage. For $2.99 I do recommend giving Uber Iris a shot. It can be found in BlackBerry App World on your PlayBook via the link below.

Uber Iris
by XLabz Technologies Pvt Ltd

Pros

  • Uber Iris for the BlackBerry PlayBook has a few compelling features that make it stand out. The vast library of filters, the ability to rotate and mirror an image, and the ability to share it via your favorite social networks make this application great for those who need to have a photo studio in the palm of their hands.

Cons

  • I did find that when I was working on larger images the application did lag and became slightly less responsive then it was at the start. Also I wish that Xlabz had offered a few more sharing options like to Tumblr or other blog services.

The Bottom Line

Would highly recommend Uber Iris for those looking for on-the-fly edits to their photos. With the features and large library of filters and effects you’ll be able to make those memories look even better, and with a price of $2.99 you can’t go wrong. Purchase Uber Iris for the BlackBerry PlayBook

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