Like to send personalized postcards in the mail from your own photo collection? The new Shoot It! iPhone app makes it even easier, allowing you to shoot out a postcard directly from your phone.

The app lets you take a new photo or choose from your picture library, add a personalized message, type in the recepient's address and have it mailed as glossy postcard. The entire process takes about one minute on your handset, with the actual glossy prints created and mailed the very next day.

Interface is fairly simple, although the app doesn't exactly tell you what to do next. For instance, we ended up staring at the photo for a few seconds waiting for instruction before eventually realizing we had to click the "+" icon on the bottom of the screen. Once you get the hang of it, though, everything's fairly simple.

Shoot It! charges a 99-cent fee for the app, which we thought was quite dumb. Their business revolves around having people pay for postcards, so why add an obstacle for downloading the facility to do that? With that said, the 99 cents can be redeemed as the first postcard you send out, which lets you try the service once without paying for anything extra.

In case you want to continue using Shoot It!, though, you'll have to sign up with your credit card from their website. From that point on, you can send as many postcards as you want, with the charges automatically debited from your card on file. Price for the service is listed at $0.99 for US addresses, $1.25 for UK deliveries and $1.50 for Western Europe.

Shoot It! is also scheduled to launch apps for Blackberry, Android and Windows Mobile phones in the coming weeks.

Via Dvice

One of the best things to come with the iPhone 3GS is a much-improved camera module, which facilitates better image captures than the mere one megapixel upgrade probably hints at. As such, photo apps are all the rage among new owners, along with ones that help users share them.

FlickIt is a free iPhone app that allows users to upload photos taken on their handsets directly to Flickr. While there are many downloads available from the App Store that purport to do the same, this product from Green Volcano Software is the simplest we've seen around.

The app's interface gives you two choices, a camera and a library icon. Hitting the camera lets you take a picture on your phone, after which, you're taken back to the main screen. Tap on the photo you've taken (which will be displayed below the icons) and add various details for Flickr, including title, description, sets to include it in, visibility and tags. Alternatively, you can pull a photo from your current library by choosing the appropriate icon. All of that is done without much delay or difficulty, using a very simple layout that makes uploading considerably easier compared to firing up a browser.

On the downside, FlickIt doesn't allow uploading to groups, which is quite a popular feature among Flickr users. Also, I was hoping you can actually flick the photos (for novelty's sake) to upload to the service, but all you get is a large button (which works well enough, though not as fun). Other than that, the app capably gets the job done, all without costing you a cent.

FlickIt

Even though iPhone comes with some amount of photo filtering, it is decidedly inadequate, especially for those of us who enjoy dressing our images in interesting manners. For the most part, I don't find it that much of an issue since I can fashion photos in a myriad of ways once I put them on my PC. However, I sure would appreciate being able to do fancy modifications right on the phone as well.

The 99-cent app 101 PhotoFilters fits the requirement nicely, offering 102 (yes, missed the mark by one) different alterations to images stored on your phone. It comes with a nice set of options that include traditional filters (like grayscale and overburn), creative new modifications and some inanities. Quite a few of the filters do border on the frivolous, though I count at least 30 or so that I'll probably be using regularly.

Using the app is not the most intuitive process, though it's usable enough once you get the hang of the controls. The opening sequence is particularly dumbfounding, basically going against your natural navigation instincts.

Filtering is pretty fast, with a progress bar showing you the status of the update. Changes are not automatically committed so you can easily try a different filter or revert to the original photo in case you choose one that's not to your liking. You can also layer multiple filters on a single photo, which can lead to pretty impressive results.

With 102 filter options, 101 PhotoFilters is a pretty good use of your app dollar. It's a very worthwhile tool that I wouldn't mind keeping on my iPhone for the long haul.