Best NASA Videos Ever!

Using the Helium 8K high definition (UHD) video camera by RED, NASA just released the first ever 8k video from space. Imagine if this was available for the Moon landings. The first steps on Mars should be incredible, like being there.

RED is a digital cinema company. These 8K videos are specifically 8192 x 4320 pixels. The RED camera is the same brand used to record The Hobbit trilogy, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, and television programs like Lost in Space.

“This new footage showcases the story of human spaceflight in more vivid detail than ever before,” said Dylan Mathis, communications manager for the International Space Station Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “The world of camera technology continues to progress, and seeing our planet in high fidelity is always welcome. We're excited to see what imagery comes down in the future.”

The original video is available from HERE. But be warned, the vid is over three gigabytes. And good luck finding an 8K display to view it. But imagine future Virtual Reality with a resolution so high that you cannot tell the difference between virtual and real. #BaseReality.

These awesome 8k displays are coming though. Samsung demonstrated a TV using artificial intelligence to upscale 4K to 8K.  It's not real 8K, but it's close.  Sony has a prototype  TV with true 8K resolution. 

Now the good news. Sharp is shipping a 70-inch 8K Television in Europe. The cost is around $14,000 US dollars.  Sharp apparently colluded with RED to design and build their TV.

Smaller screen TVs do already have 8k, but what's the point? With a 32 inch display, you cannot experience the magic of real life 8k. 

Below is NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold shooting on the International Space Station.

#HashTag Marketing Campaigns for Apps

This article on Medium by one of our contributing writers, Robert Adamson, went through several revisions while he was experimenting. It now has some valuable information. If you are looking to market a Mobile App or anything else that can benefit from Hashtag Campaigns, this is a good read and recommended by Best Camera.

At first, he appears to be promoting his new book, but then you can tell he is sharing his hard-earned knowledge about how to start a Hashtag campaign and how to combine a Hashtag with a Hyperlink.

Click Below

Have You Evers Seen a #HyperHash?

Thanks, Robert, and here's your hash #BaseReality 

Next time publish here first :)

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The Computer Industry is stuck in the 1950s

This article is popular on Medium. I wanted to share this with you on Best Camera.

Click here

Rob Adamson

Coding is good for your brain

Tap here for a great article by one of our contributors 

Apple Restricts Templated Apps for Good or Bad?

• App Store Review Guidelines for 2018

• 
  
• 4.2.6 Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app’s content. These services should not submit apps on behalf of their clients and should offer tools that let their clients create customized, innovative apps that provide unique customer experiences. Another acceptable option for template providers is to create a single binary to host all client content in an aggregated or “picker” model, for example as a restaurant finder app with separate customized entries or pages for each client restaurant, or as an event app with separate entries for each client event.

At first, all Templated Apps were completely banned. But now, as long as the owner of the App submits the App themselves to the App Store, Apple will accept them. 

This seemed unfair. It felt like eliminating social media websites or something. But in retrospect, this current policy seems to make sense. Websites are not installed. When a user installs an App, they traditionally want to know who owns the App. They expect to know who created the App and who is responsible.

This new policy has no impact on third-party Software Development Kits (SDKs). And third Party Web Services (APIs) are not targeted by Apple. That would be weird because the backbone of Apple's entire global industry is based on the building blocks of SDKs and APIs. 

Also, cross-platform environments like React Native appear safe for now. 

Let us know your thoughts on this policy from Apple. There is definitely food for thought here. 

The Magic of Detectng Fonts

Let’s look a three Apps for discovering fonts used in Web Pages, Mobile Apps and even in the real world.  *Important, for significant projects be sure you have the appropriate licenses. 

WhatFont is a free App (IOS Only) for discovering the font used on a web page right from your mobile device.

Install WhatFont App from here.

Ok, so why would you want this App? If you develop software or design web pages, this App is valuable. Once you spot fonts on a web page, you can use them in your own designs. Once you know the name of the typeface, you are able to search and license the fonts. This App only works in Safari. No real magic here.



WhatTheFont from MyFonts is free (IOS Only). This App uses your camera or photos and scans for fonts using advanced image recognition. Like magic, this App works on everything from web pages and mobile app interfaces to real-world snapshots.

WhatTheFont finds the closest matches from their own database. From there you can purchase the MyFonts directly from within the App. They also have a forum that you can use to submit fonts that are not recognized.

Adobe Capture from Adobe is free (IOS and Android). Like WhatTheFont from MyFonts, this App also uses the camera to scan for fonts. Besides fonts, it scans for colors, brushes, patterns and more.

Adobe calls the fonts discovery feature Type. This App looks for matching fonts in Adobe's Typekit library where you can purchase directly from the App.





Because all three of these Apps are free,  you could use them all (at least on IOS). You can also compare prices between MyFonts and Adobe for fonts you love and discover.

App Design Matters

There are over 2 million IOS Apps and 3.8 million Android Apps to choose from. So an excellent App design is critical. 

It only takes 3 taps for a User to delete your App. That happens if the User gets frustrated or has no emotional connection to the App. The bottom line is that users fall for an App because of the design and how easy it is to use. Features and proper coding alone will not sell an App.

Today just a few developers are able to crank out remarkable Apps. But the key for developers is to think like designers. Programmers are famous for brushing aside Design. They care about the beauty of their code and the number of their features. 

Color is critical. Developers need to stop and think like Designers. Designers think about colors and typography. They learn about the emotions of colors.

Josef Albers, a famous painter, and educator came from the German Bauhaus. He wrote Interaction of Color in 1963. This writing has remained the Art Design Bible for designers; a terrific resource. And there is an Interaction of Color app that teaches this stuff. Developers should play with this App and learn to think like a designer. 

The next fundamental of design is typography. How do you select the best fonts for both form and function? How do you choose fonts that work together? The right fonts will make your App or website attractive, easy to read and functional. 

Color Mood

Red sells energy, intensity, love. 

Yellow sells joy, happiness, and intellect. This is an attention-grabbing color. This is a good color for App screenshots in the App stores.

Green sells safety, food, and growth. Use these colors in food and health Apps. 

Blue sells stability, serenity, and trust. Medical Apps use Blue. So to make your App more trustworthy use Blue

Purple sells feminity, royalty and wealth. Money Apps use this color.

 

To combine colors, grab a color wheel. With the color wheel, you can select adjacent colors that are harmonious or opposite colors that are complimentary. Color wheels are also useful for picking split colors and triadic colors (not a fan). Monochromatic colors are also in use today. All these schemes are possible with a color palette. 

But an even easier approach is to use a coolors.co that builds color schemes based on a primary color. Browse for the scheme that makes the most sense for your App.  Use colors that look and feel good together. Hunt for the best or popular schemes that might work for your App. Another useful website is ColorHunt. 

One of the most popular color palettes in modern Apps can be found on FlatUIColors. You would be surprised how many Apps use the FlatUIColors.

Typography

With so many fonts, how do you pick the right fonts for your App? Does it matter?

The two most important families of fonts are the Serif and Sans Serif. The image below shows the difference. Serif is an older font and has small feet. They were derived from stone carvings. Sans Serif is better for modern and contemporary. 

Serif fonts are organized into Oldy Style, Transitional, Modern, Slab Serif, Script, and Decorative. 

Slab Serif was developed for newspaper printing because of the poor quality of the old paper. 

Sans Serif fonts

These are the more modern fonts and they are also divided into categories.

News Gothic, Grotesque, Helvetica, Neo-Grotesque, Arial, Humanist and Geometric. 

So why does all this matter? It's about the styling, but it is also about the readability. So let's get to the meat.

The common rules of fonts. 

1. Sarif Heading Fonts with Sans Serif Body Fonts make a good design. You can also go the other way around and still be ok. Just don't combine a Serif Heading with a Serif Body or a Sans Serif Heading with a Sans Serif Body. This is a poor design. 

2. Too many fonts are bad. Try not to exceed three fonts on a page. 

3. Just like colors, fonts sell a mood. So do not mix together different typeface moods. It is confusing to the brain. Keep the fonts that are displayed together in the same time era. 

4. Use font weight (like bold) for contrast. But don't clutter with multiple weights. 

5. Never use these fonts: Comic Sans, Viner, Kristen, Papyrus, Curlz. 

Like colors, there are tools to help you select fonts. Grab WhatFont for Chrome or Firefox. This little browser extension or the App version will let you find out about the fonts you see on web pages. So if you see a website with a beautiful look and easy to read fonts, use WhatFont to find out what those great fonts are. Then use them in your own App or Web. 

A great website that has free fonts for commercial use is Font Squirrel. 

Another tool for grabbing and testing fonts in your Apps is Sky Fonts. This lets you test drive fronts from many font repositories such as Google, Fonts.Com, Monotype, and MyFonts. 

Thanks for reading. 

Best Camera Apps does not sponsor or derive revenue from any products reviewed or mentioned.