3D Camera 1.3 Submitted to App Store

We submitted 3D Camera version 1.3 to Apple today, and hopefully, it will be approved and available in the App Store within the next week or two (fingers crossed). Because it shares the same codebase, we also submitted an updated version of 3D Camera Lite, the free version of the app. Note that these releases of 3D Camera and 3D Camera Lite now require an iPhone with OS 3.0 or later. This was done so that we can begin to incorporate new features that are only available in the updated OS.

The biggest and—by far—the most requested feature is the return of the camera overlay. For those who haven’t been following along, Apple began rejecting apps that modified the camera view, and much to our dismay, we were forced to remove it from 3D Camera. However, Apple has now added official support for camera overlays to the 3.1 OS, and 3D Camera version 1.3 takes advantage of it. To use the new feature, make sure you upgrade your phone to the 3.1 OS, and it will appear automatically.

While we were at it, we also made the following additions and modifications:

• We streamlined the photo-taking process by removing the intermediate steps that required you to select “Use” after each photo. Now, two presses of the shutter/camera button and you’re done.
• We added the ability to send 3D photos via e-mail. This was a frequent user request, and the 3.0 OS made it easy to implement.
• We changed the default view to the alignment mode, since this step should always follow the capture/selection of left and right images. Again, user feedback drove this improvement.
• To alleviate the loss of color and brightness when viewing anaglyphs through filtered 3D glasses, we added an “Anaglyph Enhance” app setting that automatically boosts the saturation and brightness of color and grey anaglyph images. The setting is enabled by default.
• The iPhone camera tends to produce slightly dark images, so we added a gamma calculation to improve image brightness.
• We switched to using a high-quality JPG format (instead of PNG) when sending images to Facebook, Twitpic, and e-mail. In practice, the quality difference is negligible, but the file sizes are significantly smaller, so uploads are much faster.

3D Camera Lite picks up many of these advancements, but it doesn’t include any configurable app settings, and photos can only be sent to Twitpic (though in the new high-quality JPG format).

Thanks for sending us your suggestions and feedback! As you can see, we use it to shape each new release.

3D Camera 1.2.1 Update Now Available

Apple just approved our 3D Camera 1.2.1 update, and it’s now available in the App Store. This is a minor update that adds a few user-requested features:

• The introduction screen now has a “More” button that makes it easy to access the 4-minute 3D Camera Video Tour and online documentation.
• We’ve added the ability to touch the screen to remove the navigation bars when viewing a 3D photo. As before, the bars will still disappear on their own after a few seconds, but if you don’t want to wait, just tap the screen (just like Apple’s Photos app).
• We’ve added an app setting to enable/disable automatic saving of camera photos. If the setting is disabled, the left and right photos won’t automatically be saved to your album.
• There is a new app setting that enables/disables “alignment dots” on stereogram images. These dots can make it easier for some people to view 3D stereogram images.
• We fixed the stereogram border sizing so larger images have proportionally larger borders.

We’re also very happy to report that the next update will add the translucent camera overlay feature back to 3D Camera! Apple officially added support for overlays to its recent 3.1 update, and we already have the feature running in our development environment.

Macworld Reviews 3D Camera

Jason Snell of Macworld posted a review of 3D Camera for iPhone today and gave it 4 1/2 mice out of 5 (which ranks it somewhere between “Very Good” and “Superior”). Of course, we’re flattered by his kind words and thrilled that the review will introduce us to a brand new audience of 3D enthusiasts.

Here’s one of our favorite quotes:

If Apple could give Juicy Bits Software just a little bit more of what it wants, 3D Camera would be perfect.

Jason is referring to the translucent overlay feature that used to be included in 3D Camera. While the overlay is included in 3D Camera Lite, Apple required that we remove it from the full version. Fortunately, we believe that we’ll be able to add it back in a future update.

We hope you enjoy 3D Camera!