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tag photo apps

Cinnamon pitching private photo sharing to the Southeast Asian market

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At the Startup Asia conference today in Singapore, Cinnamon – a startup led by CEO Miku Hirano – pitched a new photo app called ‘Seconds.’ I recently had a chance to meet with Miku, who gave me a preview of the soon-to-be-released app. To be launched first on the Android platform, she says that she would like Seconds to replace your native camera app, with private photo sharing features targeting the Southeast Asia market to start. The app is is simple and easy to use. You just take a photo, and choose your desired album for upload. Photos added are immediately visible to members who have access to that album, and those members can also upload pictures as well. You can also create any number of albums, which differ depending on who has access – it could be your family, friends, or your significant other. With photos being automatically uploaded, you don’t have to worry about losing your pictures if you misplace your phone or have it stolen. Cinnamon plans to release the app first in Thailand, says Miku, a country known for its love of photo sharing. They’re targeting the huge population of Southeast Asia because private sharing is…

At the Startup Asia conference today in Singapore, Cinnamon – a startup led by CEO Miku Hirano – pitched a new photo app called ‘Seconds.’ I recently had a chance to meet with Miku, who gave me a preview of the soon-to-be-released app. To be launched first on the Android platform, she says that she would like Seconds to replace your native camera app, with private photo sharing features targeting the Southeast Asia market to start.

The app is is simple and easy to use. You just take a photo, and choose your desired album for upload. Photos added are immediately visible to members who have access to that album, and those members can also upload pictures as well.

miku-hirano-cinnamon
Cinnamon CEO Miku Hirano

You can also create any number of albums, which differ depending on who has access – it could be your family, friends, or your significant other. With photos being automatically uploaded, you don’t have to worry about losing your pictures if you misplace your phone or have it stolen.

Cinnamon plans to release the app first in Thailand, says Miku, a country known for its love of photo sharing. They’re targeting the huge population of Southeast Asia because private sharing is a little bit more popular in Asian regions. They hope that more mature mobile markets like Japan, China, and Korea will help make it profitable.

Cinnamon was founded in Singapore back in October, and received seed funding December from CyberAgent Ventures and other angel investors. Currently the company has a headcount of like 10 people including its president at Hajime Hotta.

There are many ways in which they hope they can monetize Seconds, likely with premium features or with ads. If they go for premium model would mean extra features like storage, filters, decoration, or Facebook sync.

Tomorrow is day two of Startup Asia, so it will be interesting to see how Cinnamon fares in the field of 20 Asian startups. I had the pleasure of being a part of the last Startup Asia event in Jakarta last year, where the winner of the startup event was Moso, the sole Japanese entry in the competition.

seconds-app

Uniqlo drops a unique pop-up shop at Tokyo’s Shibuya station

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A rather historical event took place at one of the biggest train stations in Japan Shibuya just a few weeks ago. The old Toyoko train line, which has a history of 78 years, closed down as part of a large scale urban renewal project. The train service was re-routed to the 5th floor underground lane. The switch-over construction at the station was done overnight in just four hours, leaving a large empty space right in middle of Tokyo. Uniqlo found the vacant 660-square-meter space convenient for a pop-up shop called UT Pop-up Tokyo. The Toyoko-line Shibuya terminal is now filled with more than 1,000 kinds of items and over 12,000 t-shirts. The shop opened on March 28th as a part of the Uniqlo pop-up shop World tour, led by well-known Japanese creative director Kashiwa Sato. The project is planned to launch in different cities around the world including (but not limited to) London, Paris, New York, and Singapore. Visitors can even shoot videos of themselves at the site using a new mobile app called UT Camera, which converts their original movie into a unique animation. The resulting content is displayed on a big screen at the pop-up store as well…

uniqlo-popup-tshirts

A rather historical event took place at one of the biggest train stations in Japan Shibuya just a few weeks ago. The old Toyoko train line, which has a history of 78 years, closed down as part of a large scale urban renewal project. The train service was re-routed to the 5th floor underground lane. The switch-over construction at the station was done overnight in just four hours, leaving a large empty space right in middle of Tokyo.

Uniqlo found the vacant 660-square-meter space convenient for a pop-up shop called UT Pop-up Tokyo. The Toyoko-line Shibuya terminal is now filled with more than 1,000 kinds of items and over 12,000 t-shirts. The shop opened on March 28th as a part of the Uniqlo pop-up shop World tour, led by well-known Japanese creative director Kashiwa Sato. The project is planned to launch in different cities around the world including (but not limited to) London, Paris, New York, and Singapore.

Visitors can even shoot videos of themselves at the site using a new mobile app called UT Camera, which converts their original movie into a unique animation. The resulting content is displayed on a big screen at the pop-up store as well as on a dedicated website.

The pop-up shop works for shoppers looking for fun t-shirts, but it also functions as a form of interactive entertainment. It will be open until April 7th, selling unique t-shirts in collaboration with Star Wars and other artists. This UT line of t-shirts has sold over 160 million worldwide.

unqlo-popupuniqlo

With over 25 million downloads, FX Camera is one of Japan’s most successful photo apps

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We’ve written a lot about unusual photo apps from Japan here on SD. There are decorative purikura apps like Decopic or Snapeee, or off-the-wall apps like Face Stealer or the stealthy Ninja Camera. But one of the most successful photo apps from Japan is not nearly a niche as these. FX Camera is more straightforward, with a repertoire of photo filters and effects, plus simple social sharing. It doesn’t over-complicate things. I finally took the plunge and spent some serious time with FX Camera over the past few weeks. Given the relatively normal feature set I didn’t have huge expectations. But there were a few things that pleasantly surprised me: the filters consistently produce photos of an unexpected quality, especially the ‘Oldie’ filter under the ‘toy camera’ filter collection [1]. There’s also the fun symmetry effect collection, which can make for some great images if you use it wisely (see my attempt, lower right). Recently the company behind FX Camera, Bit Cellar, announced that their app has surpassed 25 million downloads, which is certainly an impressive feat. Although it should be noted that the app was first released for Android all the way back in 2009, a big head start…

fx-camera

We’ve written a lot about unusual photo apps from Japan here on SD. There are decorative purikura apps like Decopic or Snapeee, or off-the-wall apps like Face Stealer or the stealthy Ninja Camera. But one of the most successful photo apps from Japan is not nearly a niche as these. FX Camera is more straightforward, with a repertoire of photo filters and effects, plus simple social sharing. It doesn’t over-complicate things.

I finally took the plunge and spent some serious time with FX Camera over the past few weeks. Given the relatively normal feature set I didn’t have huge expectations. But there were a few things that pleasantly surprised me: the filters consistently produce photos of an unexpected quality, especially the ‘Oldie’ filter under the ‘toy camera’ filter collection [1]. There’s also the fun symmetry effect collection, which can make for some great images if you use it wisely (see my attempt, lower right).

fx-camera-photo 3fx-camera-photo 2

Recently the company behind FX Camera, Bit Cellar, announced that their app has surpassed 25 million downloads, which is certainly an impressive feat. Although it should be noted that the app was first released for Android all the way back in 2009, a big head start on its competitors, especially here in Japan.

If you try out the app these days, you’ll find that there is a new ‘water’ effect section. I understand that if you use these photo effects that BitCellar will donate a penny for each photo to the Japan Water Forum. Check out their promo video below for more on that.

FX Camera is not my primary photo app (that honor goes to Big Lens) but I expect I’ll continue to use it as one of my favorites. My only complaint so far is that it kills my podcast player when I open it, which is a little annoying.

If you’d like to give FX Camera a try for yourself, it’s available over on the App Store as well as on Google Play.


  1. A photo took of my new daughter ended up bearing a bit of a resemblance to ‘The Girl with the Pearl Earring’.  ↩


With contributions from Rick Martin

5 photo apps with fantastic skin filters that Japanese women prefer

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It is probably safe to assume that on every Japanese girl’s smartphone home screen, they have a photo sharing app of some sort. Instagram is pretty mainstream in the country, but other popular photo apps seems to have one thing in common: Photo filters to make your skin look whiter and smoother. Here is a list of five apps with such filters that are likely to have nabbed a spot on girls’ smartphones. Bihaku Camera ¶ Bihaku Camera has an impressive 4.2 rating on Google Play so far, and with the app’s skin-whitening and smoothening features, freckles and wrinkles magically dissappear. This app is well-known among girls and according to R25, a popular free-paper by Recruit, members of the popular pop group AKB48 are fans of the app too. MoreBeaute ¶ Available on iOS, MoreBeaute is yet another such app which is popular among females. Skin-whitening and smoothening is done automatically whenever a photo is taken or chosen from photo library. The app easily creates the sort of pore-free skin that girls dream of. Prunelle ¶ In the past few years, Japanese girls — especially those in high school and college — began wearing colored contact lenses as part of…

It is probably safe to assume that on every Japanese girl’s smartphone home screen, they have a photo sharing app of some sort. Instagram is pretty mainstream in the country, but other popular photo apps seems to have one thing in common: Photo filters to make your skin look whiter and smoother. Here is a list of five apps with such filters that are likely to have nabbed a spot on girls’ smartphones.

Bihaku Camera

BihakuCamera-icon

Bihaku Camera has an impressive 4.2 rating on Google Play so far, and with the app’s skin-whitening and smoothening features, freckles and wrinkles magically dissappear. This app is well-known among girls and according to R25, a popular free-paper by Recruit, members of the popular pop group AKB48 are fans of the app too.

MoreBeaute

MoreBeaute

Available on iOS, MoreBeaute is yet another such app which is popular among females. Skin-whitening and smoothening is done automatically whenever a photo is taken or chosen from photo library. The app easily creates the sort of pore-free skin that girls dream of.

Prunelle

Prunelle-icon

In the past few years, Japanese girls — especially those in high school and college — began wearing colored contact lenses as part of their fashion. And this photo sharing app, which was just recently released, is lets girls try out different colored contact lenses. Prunelle, which means pupils in French, has over 200 kinds of colored lenses, available in various sizes. If you find a favorite, the app allows you to purchase the product directly from the app.

DecoPuri

At traditional purikura photo booths, skin whitening filters are a default feature. DecoPuri is your own personal purikura app that comes with over 400 decorative materials including stamps and photo frames. But it also provides five levels of skin whitening and smoothning. The app also deletes the camera’s shutter sound, which can be handy for those who want to create selfies when out and about!

Megami Camera

Available for both iOS and Android, this app does more than just provide features to enhance the skin, but it also has twenty different filters for the eyes. Making your eyes sparkle or change color is just a tap away with Megami Camera. It has a 4.4 rating on Google Play, and you can see how it works in the video below.

With 4 million downloads for iPhone, popular Japanese collage app hits Android [Video]

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Japanese photo application Papelook has just announced that it has surpassed 4 million downloads on iOS. The application, which very much falls in the ‘kawaii’ apps category, is a very handy way to repurpose your photos in a stylish collage which can then be shared with friends. And for those of you not on iOS, the company has announced that an Android version is being released today as well. Check out our video demo above for a general idea of how the service works. Currently the majority of its users are young women (80%), and the feminine style of the photo decorations certainly reflects that. Nonetheless, I put together a collage of baby pictures just now, and I expect I’ll make a few more like this to share with family in the future. The application has been around for a long time (since mid 2011), but it wasn’t until its 2.0 release last May that it saw some real momentum. The company says that it has about 1.2 million active users currently, which is certainly an impressive total for an app in this genre. Papelook also publishes its pape.me girls fashion magazine app for iOS which itself has 250,000 downloads….

Japanese photo application Papelook has just announced that it has surpassed 4 million downloads on iOS. The application, which very much falls in the ‘kawaii’ apps category, is a very handy way to repurpose your photos in a stylish collage which can then be shared with friends. And for those of you not on iOS, the company has announced that an Android version is being released today as well. Check out our video demo above for a general idea of how the service works.

papelookCurrently the majority of its users are young women (80%), and the feminine style of the photo decorations certainly reflects that. Nonetheless, I put together a collage of baby pictures just now, and I expect I’ll make a few more like this to share with family in the future.

The application has been around for a long time (since mid 2011), but it wasn’t until its 2.0 release last May that it saw some real momentum. The company says that it has about 1.2 million active users currently, which is certainly an impressive total for an app in this genre. Papelook also publishes its pape.me girls fashion magazine app for iOS which itself has 250,000 downloads.

Geographically, 71.6% of its users come from its home market of Japan, with 10.7% and 6.5% from Thailand and Taiwan respectively.

As for its future business, Papelook may offer print services since many people make such collages for birthdays or weddings. And given the focused audience, advertising tie-ups are possible as well.

papelook-growth

Awesome Japanese iPhone app serves up surprise centaur photobombs

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Over the past month or so, I’ve been seeing this unusual photo app here and there on the Japanese interwebs. It’s called Kenstagram, and it claims to be ‘the number one centaur camera’ (that’s actually part of the app’s name) — although I expect that’s a pretty niche space. Like Instagram, Kenstagram has a number of filters, and after choosing one you can snap off your picture. Once you’re satisfied with how it looks, that’s when the centaur sweeps in from the edge of the screen, typically ruining your perfectly good photo. It’s really, really bizarre. So far Kenstagram hasn’t seen too much traction, although I expect if it can move up in the photo app rankings, then that could change. It’s totally a novelty app, and not something that you’re likely to use for a long time. But it’s still really fun, and that counts for a lot. Kenstagram was developed by Nanameue, a team that has done some photo apps for the likes of Line and WeChat. If you’d like to check it out, you can get it for free over on iTunes.

kenstagram

Over the past month or so, I’ve been seeing this unusual photo app here and there on the Japanese interwebs. It’s called Kenstagram, and it claims to be ‘the number one centaur camera’ (that’s actually part of the app’s name) — although I expect that’s a pretty niche space.

Like Instagram, Kenstagram has a number of filters, and after choosing one you can snap off your picture. Once you’re satisfied with how it looks, that’s when the centaur sweeps in from the edge of the screen, typically ruining your perfectly good photo.

It’s really, really bizarre.

So far Kenstagram hasn’t seen too much traction, although I expect if it can move up in the photo app rankings, then that could change. It’s totally a novelty app, and not something that you’re likely to use for a long time. But it’s still really fun, and that counts for a lot.

Kenstagram was developed by Nanameue, a team that has done some photo apps for the likes of Line and WeChat.

If you’d like to check it out, you can get it for free over on iTunes.

Otaku Camera for Android gets a boost, rockets past a million downloads

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Tokyo Otaku Mode’s popular photo app Otaku Camera has recently received a big boost by recently being featured on Google Play in 42 countries, including the US and Japan. We’re told that this has helped the Android version of their app has hit the one million download milestone within a very short time. Currently the iPhone version of the app is doing ok too, with about 400,000 downoads to date. And if the momentum can continue over on Google Play, then perhaps two million total downloads is not too far off. We did a brief video demo of Otaku Camera last month, highlighting some of its main features (see video below). The company has been providing downloadable photo frames in the app via its frame shop. Currently the frames are free, although I expect later they will introduce some paid frames. Tokyo Otaku Mode is perhaps best known for its wildly popular Facebook page, which has more than 10 million fans. Currently the Tokyo-based startup is making an effort to monetize that fan base, and developing a mobile presence is one aspect of that initiative. You can learn more about TOM by checking out our in-depth feature from back in…

Otaku Camera Featured-smallTokyo Otaku Mode’s popular photo app Otaku Camera has recently received a big boost by recently being featured on Google Play in 42 countries, including the US and Japan. We’re told that this has helped the Android version of their app has hit the one million download milestone within a very short time.

Currently the iPhone version of the app is doing ok too, with about 400,000 downoads to date. And if the momentum can continue over on Google Play, then perhaps two million total downloads is not too far off.

We did a brief video demo of Otaku Camera last month, highlighting some of its main features (see video below). The company has been providing downloadable photo frames in the app via its frame shop. Currently the frames are free, although I expect later they will introduce some paid frames.

Tokyo Otaku Mode is perhaps best known for its wildly popular Facebook page, which has more than 10 million fans. Currently the Tokyo-based startup is making an effort to monetize that fan base, and developing a mobile presence is one aspect of that initiative. You can learn more about TOM by checking out our in-depth feature from back in February.

Japan’s ‘Kiddy’ is a photo diary for iPhone that keeps grandma in the loop

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Having recently joined the ranks of parenthood, I’ve been in the market for useful apps with which I could privately archive pictures of my new arrival. I don’t want to be one of those over-sharing parents on Facebook, nor do I want to publicly photos far beyond my immediate family and friends. Kiddy is a photo sharing application from Japan which attempts to solve this sort of problem, letting you keep a calendar-like photo diary of your child’s development in a more private environment. If you do want to share your photos, you can push images to Facebook, or send them via email from the application. But the most interesting sharing feature for the app is what’s called the ‘Kiddy Card.’ This feature allows you to select five of your best photos, and create a sort of postcard which you can then send to family members in the mail. Currently Kiddy is offering a free Kiddy Card campaign for the first five hundred applicants. If you’d like to send to one address, it’s $2.59 per month; two addresses is $4.99 per month, and three addresses is $6.99 per month. In Japan in particular, with its rapidly aging population, this function…

kiddy-japanHaving recently joined the ranks of parenthood, I’ve been in the market for useful apps with which I could privately archive pictures of my new arrival. I don’t want to be one of those over-sharing parents on Facebook, nor do I want to publicly photos far beyond my immediate family and friends.

Kiddy is a photo sharing application from Japan which attempts to solve this sort of problem, letting you keep a calendar-like photo diary of your child’s development in a more private environment. If you do want to share your photos, you can push images to Facebook, or send them via email from the application.

But the most interesting sharing feature for the app is what’s called the ‘Kiddy Card.’ This feature allows you to select five of your best photos, and create a sort of postcard which you can then send to family members in the mail. Currently Kiddy is offering a free Kiddy Card campaign for the first five hundred applicants.

kiddy kiddy-2

If you’d like to send to one address, it’s $2.59 per month; two addresses is $4.99 per month, and three addresses is $6.99 per month. In Japan in particular, with its rapidly aging population, this function is a good way to ensure that grandparents aren’t left stranded across the digital divide.

Kiddy has been around for just a few months, but so far it seems to have found a surprising niche in the ‘medical’ category on Apple’s Japanese App Store. And an Android app is said to be on the way as well. Kiddy was created by the same folks behind Compath.me, a Tokyo startup which many of you may recognize. Check out their promo video below:

Other alternatives

Another made-in-Japan baby diary app on the market that parents might want to check out is Daiby, from Hakuhodo DY Media Partners. As for my own baby diary of choice, I still plan to use Notabli, primarily due to its ease of use, support for audio and video moments, and its promise to liberate my photos and data if I choose to quit the app in the future. (I’m glad to see however that Kiddy also plans to have this function soon.)

Kiddy’s service of delivering your pictures on paper is somewhat reminiscent of Mixi’s Nohana photo book service. That application, amazingly, lets you order one free book per month, not including a minor shipping fee. I recently ordered one, and I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

Discover an old world aesthetic with Kyoto Camera for iPhone

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Kyoto Camera is a new iPhone photo app that recently joined the already very saturated photo app market. This application is somewhat unique however in that it isn’t about enhancing photos with filters, sharing with friends, or decorating photos with cute stamps. Interestingly, it simply focuses on discovering the colors we traditionally associate with the city of Kyoto in your everyday surroundings. By placing the white dot at the center of your photo preview, the app detects the object in the screen and displays name of the traditional color, and a corresponding color swatch is shown next to your shot, acting as a sort of stylish border flanking to the right in a polaroid-style snapshot (see above). Photos can then be saved to the camera roll. You can point to anything in your surroundings such as a convenience store, your shoes, a painting, or even Tokyo Tower. The app is sort of similar to Color Hunter except that it can be used for things in the real world. Kyoto Camera might come in handy for people who are looking to redo their walls in the style of old Kyoto. Or better yet, if you happen to be visiting Kyoto anytime…

kyotocamera

Kyoto Camera is a new iPhone photo app that recently joined the already very saturated photo app market. This application is somewhat unique however in that it isn’t about enhancing photos with filters, sharing with friends, or decorating photos with cute stamps. Interestingly, it simply focuses on discovering the colors we traditionally associate with the city of Kyoto in your everyday surroundings.

By placing the white dot at the center of your photo preview, the app detects the object in the screen and displays name of the traditional color, and a corresponding color swatch is shown next to your shot, acting as a sort of stylish border flanking to the right in a polaroid-style snapshot (see above). Photos can then be saved to the camera roll.

kyotocamera-appYou can point to anything in your surroundings such as a convenience store, your shoes, a painting, or even Tokyo Tower. The app is sort of similar to Color Hunter except that it can be used for things in the real world. Kyoto Camera might come in handy for people who are looking to redo their walls in the style of old Kyoto. Or better yet, if you happen to be visiting Kyoto anytime soon, you might use this app to snap off some pictures of key landmarks while you are there.

The city of Kyoto is filled with traditional buildings of beautiful colors. You can even find a brown McDonald’s there, which avoids its usual red so as to not disturb the surrounding landscape. If you’d like to try it out, the app is availabe over on the App Store for 85 yen (or about 90 cents).

Tokyo Otaku Mode keeps improving its manga photo app [Video]

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Just last week we reported that the up-and-coming Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode had raised a new round of funding from three VC firms. And while the company’s progress on the web appears to be going well (see our feature on TOM from a few weeks back) the company has also made some recent updates on its most prominent mobile initiative, Otaku Camera. If you haven’t tried it yet, the basic feature of the app is that it turns any photo into a manga-style picture. But earlier in the month, the company announced new downloadable Hello Kitty photo frames for the app, and today it’s rolling out Tiger & Bunny photo frames, from the famous anime TV series. Currently all frame sets are marked as ‘Free’ in Otaku Camera, but I expect that in the future we’ll see paid photo frames rolling out as well, as Tokyo Otaku Mode makes and effort to monetize. When we last heard from Tokyo Otaku Mode, we were informed that Otaku Camera has over 500,000 downloads. I think this figure will get larger, given the company’s enthusiastic base, with over 10 million fans on Facebook. For a quick video overview of Otaku Camera, check…

Just last week we reported that the up-and-coming Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode had raised a new round of funding from three VC firms. And while the company’s progress on the web appears to be going well (see our feature on TOM from a few weeks back) the company has also made some recent updates on its most prominent mobile initiative, Otaku Camera.

If you haven’t tried it yet, the basic feature of the app is that it turns any photo into a manga-style picture. But earlier in the month, the company announced new downloadable Hello Kitty photo frames for the app, and today it’s rolling out Tiger & Bunny photo frames, from the famous anime TV series. Currently all frame sets are marked as ‘Free’ in Otaku Camera, but I expect that in the future we’ll see paid photo frames rolling out as well, as Tokyo Otaku Mode makes and effort to monetize.

otaku-camera

When we last heard from Tokyo Otaku Mode, we were informed that Otaku Camera has over 500,000 downloads. I think this figure will get larger, given the company’s enthusiastic base, with over 10 million fans on Facebook.

For a quick video overview of Otaku Camera, check out our video demo above. If you’d like to try the app for yourself, it’s available on both iOS and Android.