Preview: Shout Postcard Beta
Original Link: Preview: Shout Postcard Beta - With Facebook Integration | BerryReview
Website: shoutpostcard.com
Rating: Pending full release
Cost: Free!
Compatibility: BlackBerry 8300 Curve Series
I was so impressed when I installed the new
Shout Postcard application that I decided to do a little minireview for you. If you are interested in the application I would highly advise installing it just to give it a run through the paces. It is a completely new genre for BlackBerry applications and is quite interesting.
As I mentioned before it is in Beta and does have
quite a few bugs but the features are impressive. I really think that this application just points out all of what the BlackBerry is now capable of and I really hope to see this tight of an integration with the BlackBerry OS in other 3rd party applications.
Read on for the whole preview:
Once again you can download it from:
http://www.shoutpostcard.com/downloads/com_meinc_shout2.jad
First things first I did not expect Shout to look so nice when I heard about it. The interface is impressive and new for the Berry. The controls may be a bit awkward because you shift between functions by scrolling left to right even though logically you would be moving around the postcard in all directions. I cant think of a better way to explain that so I will leave it at that and you can see for yourself.
The interface looks pretty nice and above you can see the bottom scroll bar that I was talking about. Each of them performs a specific function such a recording, adding a picture/text/audio, adding recipients, and checking your postcards.
The first thing you see when you start the application is a pop-up that asks you if you want to download Shout postcards that are sent to you automatically. I don't see why not unless you are on a limited data plan.
The next thing you have to do is hit the menu button and click the option sign-up/login. It then lets you create a user account with the options above.
There is also a Facebook integration where you can connect Shout to your Facebook account so that you can upload postcards to a photo album. I did not try this fully but it seems pretty good.
You can then add recipients for the postcard using the the address book. The first bug I ran into is that even though there is an address book import function to import your address book it does not actually work.
You then are taken to the address book where you can manually add recipients and also set it up to post to a Facebook album. It uses Shout specific albums so you can’t just upload to any album.
You then can go back to the home screen and add one image. I am guessing there are following the postcard theme by only allowing you to use one image. Not sure why else there would be the restriction. The software allows you to either take a picture with the built in camera or just choose one from your device.
It automatically takes you to the camera application and after you take the picture you hit the back button to get back to shout.
This is where the next bug I found occurred. If you first choose to use a picture from your device you will be prompted with this screen above.
The problem is that when you hit okay you just get a white screen. Even after giving it five minutes I finally gave up and hit the back button. This took me back to the application but cause another problem.
When you then try to take a picture with the camera it tells you that the media card is unavailable. The only way to fix this is to save the picture to the device and then close Shout. Hopefully they will fix this issue.
Above you can see what happens after you choose a picture that you took with your camera.
You can then also add text like this. It is a very simplistic text editor so don't expect anything fancy.
You can also add an audio clip that you record from your Berry. Just hit the audio button and you will get the following options shown above. This works like a charm!
Thats it you can then send off your postcard.
Pros:- Very innovative interface
- Facebook integration
- Multimedia features
- Free!
Cons:- Critical Bugs – This is a beta
- No way to add more than one picture
- Lack of any good documentation
- No mobile site to download from
Conclusion: This is a really cool application for BlackBerry that just shows what the device is capable of. I really hope they develop shout and fix the bugs currently in the version. Also they need to support more devices! With the new 8130 Pearl just coming out it will hopefully have support very soon.
Preview: Shout Postcard Beta - With Facebook Integration - BerryReview
