I'm a full-time mummy

I came across this image software and when I saw that it has watermark capabilities, I decided to request for a review copy of the full software. Being a SAHM who blogs and takes tons and tons of pictures of her 2 kids EVERY DAY, it is crucial that my pictures are copyrighted and protected. Of course, I'm no celebrity and my kids' pictures won't sell for big amount of money, but I feel it is important that the pictures I took and posted on my blog and Facebook page are protected and watermarked so that they do not get stolen and being used simply. Anyway, long story short, here goes my review for the "PearlMountain Image Converter":

Description from the product page:
"PearlMountain Image Converter is an efficient and convenient picture converter for batch converting and processing images.It allows you to convert images to other formats, resize, rotate, crop, add watermark, apply effects and add border to thousands of images at a time. With one click your digital photos will be just right for the Web, blog, e-mail, photo printing, Facebook, MySpace, mobile phone..etc. This batch image format converter supports 60+ image formats, including the most popular ones: JPEG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, PSD, GIF, TGA, ICO, PDF, RAW and many others."

The software is easy to download and install. The .exe file is about 5.5MB in size and once you installed and run the program, you will see the screen below. The user interface is simple and easy to navigate around. You choose the settings (on the left hand side area) which you want to set for the image and you load the image you want to convert or edit onto the right hand side work area. 

At the bottom of the screen, you choose the destination of the output image and you can also see a big blue Start button which you click when you want to start the conversion/edit process. Easy peasy!

The 2 features that impressed me most are the Border settings and the Watermark features. I get to put the border on my image, select the border colors, the width of the border by percentage or pixels. It would be great if there are ready made border templates to choose from hehehe!

As for the Watermark features, I love that I can select to use image as the watermark or put in text as the watermark. For those of you who are familiar with the watermark logo I put on my images, I actually use Powerpoint to do the watermarking process, I am not a graphics person and that's the way I've been used to doing and since it works out great so far I've got no complains! But when I try out the watermark feature in this software, whoa... I'm blown away... I love it! It totally cuts off a number of steps I have to take in order to watermark a picture and this is one feature that got me hooked to this software! I'm impressed! I can choose where to position the image watermark, then choose whether to rotate it or the opacity of the image watermark! Cool, cool, cool!

I like that I can choose the output format of the picture! One glance of the settings on the Format and I can easily choose which format to output to (normally I would have to select from a drop-down menu bar in some of those image softwares I use prior to this)

I totally like that I can save the settings I commonly use under a profile, meaning if I normally use certain settings for images I put on my Facebook page, I can save it under a profile name 'My Facebook' for example. This will then allow me to continue using the same settings over and over again in the future without needing to reset everything again. How convenient!

Room for Improvement?

* Currently, under the Correction settings, you can play around with the brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness/blurness and the effect of the picture (original or grayscale). I would very much like it if they can come up with a button to auto correct the image for me (like in one of the image software I use prior to this). You know, just a click of a button and it auto corrects the image to the best possible outcome (better adjusted brightness, sharpness, contrast etc) I would also like if they can have a button to choose the bloom and/or backlight settings for the image.

Summary of Feedback

This is a very good, useful and user-friendly image software! I would definitely be keeping this on my computer and continue using this! Check out the 2 images samples I played with! Lovely, lovely!

You can purchase this software at: http://www.batchimageconverter.com/image-converter/purchase.html

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product for free using Tomoson.com in order to facilitate my review. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

I received an email for the opportunity to review some upcoming apps from Auryn Inc and after browsing through the many apps available on their website, I have decided to request to review the "Teddy's Night ". Anyway, my review as below...

* Title:  Teddy's Night
* Price: $4.99
* Category: Books
* Updated: Apr 25, 2012
* Version: 1.1.6
* Size: 127 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Auryn, Inc
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later.

Description from the product page:

"As a follow up to the groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed iPad storybook "Teddy's Day", Teddy's Night boasts a world of imagination as young kids often wonder what their teddy gets up to when they sleep. The charming illustrations of Birte Muller really come to life through hundreds of interactive touch points. If you're looking for the perfect bedtime story to read your kids, you must experience Teddy's Night!

Things to try:
- Interactive animation on every page
- Customizable wall drawing
- Block stacking and memory matching games
- Interactive harp playing
- Physics room"

What's good?

* This app is engaging and interactive, there are surprises everywhere in the book as you move along the pages! 

* The illustration is so cute and beautiful! I love the details as well!

* I love the idea of hidden activities on some of the pages - such as the block stacking game (which is also affected by the way you tilt your iPad whoaaa...!), memory matching games on a bath tub tiles, or drawing activities from the wall painting picture and more!

Room for Improvement?

* Nothing I can think of, though I think Ben is not very excited with this app as he does not have a teddy bear, so probably that's the reason he does not relate himself to the story in this app.

You can purchase the "Teddy's Night" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"

Like I mentioned in one of my recent review, I go ga-ga over apps with the word 'collection' or 'big book' in it. When I saw the press release for this app, I immediately requested for it as Ben is a huge fan of the "Five Little Monkeys" stories. Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: Five Little Monkeys Collection #1
* Price: $11.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Apr 25, 2012
* Current Version: 1.08
* Size: 75.1 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.1 or later

Description from the product page:

"Five Little Monkeys Collection #1 features five entertaining adventures of five clumsy but well-intentioned little monkeys who don't always get things exactly right, but always have a good time!

–Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed is a charming bedtime story sure to send children giggling off to bed . . . hopefully without any clever new ideas!
–Five Little Monkeys Bake a Birthday Cake finds the monkeys cooking up a special surprise in the kitchen. But in the end, they're the ones who get the big surprise!
–Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car proves that with determination, team work, and a little bit of luck, nearly any task is possible!
–Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree teaches the monkeys a lesson in teasing (and hiding) when Mr. Crocodile SNAPS at them with his sharp teeth!
–Five Little Monkeys With Nothing to Do follows the monkeys as they enthusiastically scrub the house for Grandma Beesie's visit. But amid the excitement, a few things get overlooked! "

We have some of the Five Little Monkeys' story apps on our iPad such as "Five Little Monkeys Go Shopping", "Five Little Monkeys With Nothing to Do" and "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed".

What's good?

* It is engaging and interactive and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen and the words pop out to tell you what it is!

* In "Five Little Monkeys Bake a Birthday Cake", Ben gets excited when he sees the fire engine rushing over to help. From this story, I explained to Ben to be careful and not play with fire and repeated the function of a fire engine which is to help put out fire. 

* In "Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree", I used the above page to teach Ben on counting (1 to 5) and I kept reminding him that it is dangerous to be climbing up on a tree and playing tricks on the crocodile.

* In "Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car", Ben gets excited seeing the Five Little Monkeys helping to wash and clean up the car as he can relates himself doing this task (he helps out when daddy washes our cars sometimes). I used this opportunity to teach him to be helpful when doing house chores and to be careful as well at the page where the car ended up in the muddy swamp with crocodiles.

What's not so good?

* I like the "Five Little Monkeys Bake a Birthday Cake" storyline where the Five Little Monkeys are so thoughtful to bake a birthday cake for their mummy's birthday but I don't like the idea of the monkeys shushing to each other to be quiet and then got into mischief. I think Ben got the idea that he needs to shush if he is planning to do something without mummy knowing as hubby and I experienced this few times already. For example, Ben asked to go to the playroom but I was busy tending to Alyson and Ben crept to hubby quietly and said 'Shhh, daddy, let's go playroom'. That's when I realised he learned the shushing motion from this app.

You can purchase the "Five Little Monkeys Collection #1" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"