The estimated reading time for this post is 6 minutes
Photo 365 is a simply brilliant app. The app is simple in both its design and use.
The concept of the app is simple. Add a photo to a calendar for each day of a year.
The use of the app is simple. When you first open the app, you see a calendar with the current month. Press a day and you are prompted to either take a photo or choose a photo from your album (the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad). Once you have chosen or taken your photo, you can add a caption and/or share the photo. Returning to the month view of your calendar, you now see the photo you have selected for that date.
This app is simple to explain and to use.
Now to the brilliant part: the uses for this app are only limited by your imagination. What can you do in a year? What changes occur in a year? What difference can you make in a year? Record progress, changes, growth, experiences, travel and anything else you can think of.
In fact, this app is so brilliant, all of the uses for the app have yet to be discovered. As I considered the many ways to use this app, ideas flowed swiftly. My ideas for using this app fell into three categories: fun, educational and scientific.
Fun
1. Take a picture of your baby every day for the first year of his or her life. People had suggested this to me before my daughter was born, but that was way back in the days before smartphones and digital cameras. Lots of colic and little sleep meant that idea went out the window quickly. But with this app, preserving those memories would be a snap! If you know an expectant mom with an iPhone, Photo 365 would be an amazing gift.
2. If you’re working on a home renovation, construction or decorating project, use this app to track pictures of your progress. It’s fun to look back and see how far you have come. Perhaps there is a building being built outside your office window. Have fun following along each step of the way.
3. Try a different recipe for a year. I loved the movie Julie & Julia where a blogger made one of Julia Child’s recipes every day for a year. That movie inspired me, though I never did try to de-bone a duck. If you want to follow in Julie Powell’s footsteps and make a different recipe every day for a year, Photo 365 is a great way to record your progress.
4. On a diet? Use Photo 365 to help. Take a picture of your dinner plate every night to record what you eat. Or take a picture of yourself every day to notice yourself getting slimmer and trimmer! Considering cheating on your diet? Open Photo 365 and remember how far you’ve come toward your weight loss goal. This app could inspire you to resist that cookie!
5. Are you planning an adventure? Use Photo 365 to record your experience. My dear nephew Jason just started a year-long bike ride across the United States with two friends. If Jason had an iPhone, this app would be ideal for him to record his adventure. (Here is a link to his blog recounting their travels: Couple a’ Weirdos Takin’ a Bike Trip.)
6. Are you getting a new pet? Watch your puppy or kitten grow and record their changes daily. If you’re wondering when your puppy turned into a dog, Photo 365 help you pinpoint that day!
Educational
1. Become a better photographer. Try taking a picture every day for a year to improve your techniques (I recommend Wonder of Tech reader Mike Maynard’s series on Neodigital Art for helpful instruction on how to improve your photography skills: Neodigital Art Update 22). With this app you can discover the progress you are making as your shots improve.
2. Does your child’s teacher have an iPhone? Gift her this app so she and her students can follow the growth of a class pet or plant from the beginning of school year to the end.
3. Photo 365 can help with homework. Does your child have a project where he has to document his progress? Use Photo 365 to record the work and share the photos with others on the team.
Scientific
1. If a doctor ever tells you to keep an eye on a suspicious looking mole, growth, etc., it can be difficult to remember to keep track of any changes. Even if you remember to take that initial photo, you may forget to record changes on a regular basis. It’s easy to forget, either because you are busy or have a mental block about the issue. Photo 365 can help you remember to take the photos, document the changes and share the information with your doctor.
2. Whether you’re a scientist in a lab or a science student, Photo 365 can help you organize and document the daily results of your experiment. On Saturday night I saw the movie Contagion and I kept thinking the scientists could have used this app to record the changes in the virus as it grew and mutated.
Okay, I’m not a scientist, but I still think this app could have saved the world in that movie.
Brilliant Features
The app has a very handy feature called Daily Reminders. By pressing the “i” button at the bottom of the screen, you can set the app to remind you take your daily photo. You select the time you want the reminder. Even better, the app doesn’t bother you with a reminder if you have already chosen your picture for the day.
In addition to helping you organize your pictures and reminding you to take the pictures, this app can help you share information. You can send your calendar, a month at a time, to others via email, Twitter and Facebook. You can also share your calendar with others using Flickr. All of this sharing can be done easily from within the app.
What makes this app so useful is that you usually have your iPhone handy. If you have to use your camera at a set time every day, you may not have it with you, but chances are you have your iPhone close by.
Photo 365 is available for $0.99 in the iTunes App Store and is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Here is the link to check it out: Photo 365 in the iTunes App Store.
Bottom Line
If you have an iPhone, grab this simply brilliant app for $0.99. You may not even realize what you will use it for, but perhaps you will be inspired to embark on an adventure, start a project, or launch a blog! I have one request: if you discover a new use for this app, please leave a review in the iTunes App Store and share your discovery with others!
What uses can you imagine for Photo 365? Are you considering a long-term project, travel adventure or science experiment? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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For more information on fun and useful apps, please check out my guest post at Search Engine People: Apps That Care About Your Opinion!
* Image by Meredith Stewart
** Image by Sman
Thank you Carolyn for the wonderful review of the app! You’ve mentioned some great ways to use the app. It’s really up to the user to decide what pictures they want to keep.
Thanks again!
Hi Benny, You’re welcome. This is a quality app and The Wonder of Tech enjoys letting the world know about quality apps!
Best of luck with future success of Photo 365. 🙂
What a great post about Benny’s new app Carolyn.
I think he did a great job with this creation and I have a plant that a friend of mine gave me so I’ve been taking photos of it growing and just now starting to bloom. With each new flower I’m so amazed so I’ve been shooting photos of that right now so I can look back and see it’s progress.
You gave us some great ideas of what else we can do with that. Thanks for sharing. My uncle will be in town this week for a visit so I’ll be marking that one of my calendar. I’m also taking my Mom to her high school class reunion this weekend so I have no doubt that one will also be included on my calendar.
Thanks for the post, loved this review and I already know Benny appreciates it but so do I!
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, What a great idea, using this app as a personal journal of your life. A day in your life. This is a wonderful use of this app.
Note to readers: Adrienne first suggested that I review this great app. If any other Wonder of Tech readers discover a quality app that you would like me to review, please let me know!
Thank so much, Adrienne, for suggesting this app and for your visit and awesome comment! 🙂
Great usecases of a great app! And yea, my fishies in the aquarium just had babies. We first noticed them 3 weeks ago, and boy, they are growing up fast. 3 weeks ago they were hard to even find, now they are toddlers. May be Photo 365 would be a great app to record their growth.
BTW, duplicate app alert: when you search for “Photo 365” in the appstore, you come across the first search result “Photo365” (even the icon looks similar, and is a free app). This app comes as the second search result.
Hi iRewardChart, I love your idea about using Photo 365 to photograph the fish in your aquarium. I bet the pictures of the entire month will be beautiful!
Thanks for letting us know about the duplicate titles. I have been fooled before in buying the wrong app with just the title. That’s why I like to include the icons and links to apps in my articles. 🙂
As alsway, iRewardChart, your visit and brilliant comment are greatly appreciated!
Thanks for pointing that out!
Yeah when I submitted my name, it said someone had “Photo 365”. So i had to make mine “Photo 365 – Remember Your Year One Photo at a Time”. I had to add something else to it if I wanted to keept it Photo 365. Hopefully people will see my app and the ratings and be drawn towards that one. 🙂
Hi Benny, When I searched for your app on iTunes and ZoomAppy.com, yours was the only one I found and the longer title didn’t show. I did not mention your app’s longer title, sorry about that! I didn’t realize this was an issue.
Carolyn!
Don’t worry about the longer title. I don’t call it that. I just had to add something at the end so I could keep the main part, Photo 365.
So no worries! 🙂
Benny, great to meet! Your app is an awesome app. And ratings do reward in relevance. So when multiple search results found, I think Apple brings the better rated apps on the top. On the search suggestion currently, you come on the top when one types Photo 365, but on the result, its 2nd. I think if you keep gathering good reviews, you’ll get there soon.
Best wishes!
Thanks, iRewardChart, for the helpful advice from an experienced developer. I have no doubt that Photo 365 will have lots of 5 ***** reviews in no time! 🙂
Thanks for your advice! You have a great app as well! I noticed you have a lot of press for your app. How did you get press? I’ll send you an email through your contact form. Thanks!
That’s really cool. I’m addicted to Amazon’s app store app. It has a free premium app every day so that is how I usually discover the majority of my apps. However I must say, Amazon is getting some new competition from your blog as far as where I go for discovering new apps.
Bryce
Wow, thanks, Bryce! I try very hard to bring quality apps to Wonder of Tech readers. I test a lot of apps, but I’m not going to write about apps that are less than awesome. Why waste your time with a less than stellar app? I have many more awesome apps I will be writing about. I get so excited when I get to share these great apps with my readers!
I agree, I try to check Amazon daily for their free apps. If I’m on the fence, I grab the free app of the day. I love that you don’t have to download the app until you want to.
Thanks so much, Bryce for stopping by and leaving your brilliant comment! 😀
Carolyn,
Not only do I want this app, but I want an IPad, too! I want something to take videos instead of my PC which is in my son’s bedroom and….
Anyways, I read your comments over at Stacey Herbert’s (MyLifestyleMax )and realized what a great resource you are. As soon as I invest in something like an IPhone or IPad, I definitely want this app. I think I would do “A Day in the Life” of our family. Sort of like a scrapbook of memories. Everyone is changing so much so quickly!
Love your site!
Besty
Hi Betsy, Aw, thanks. I’m happy to help others to understand tech and discover exciting gadgets, apps, websites, etc. I think you’d really enjoy an iPad, not only for recording video, but for editing it as well. It’s really easy to do on the iPad.
I have mixed feelings about using this app on the iPad vs. iPhone. The photos and calendar show up better on the iPad because of the larger screen. But I always have my iPhone with me and I have to admit, there are times when I don’t have my iPad with me (shocking, I know). Photo 365 works on both devices. I think the answer for me is to use the app on my iPhone to take the daily pictures and then send the results to my email so I can load the months of pictures on my iPad to see them on my larger screen.
Thanks so much, Betsy, for sharing your great ideas for using this app! 🙂
My friend has an Android phone and is thinking of doing a travelogue around England; so this app might work for that.
Take a look at this app too, it seems like a voice recorder for the Android, useful for taking notes on travels. I have a voice recorder in my camera case!
http://www.appbrain.com/app/voice-recorder/com.tokasiki.android.voicerecorder
I found out the name of my ‘Enchanted’ woods this morning. It’s Merrion Wood and it’s historic woodland where deer was once hunted. It was part of Great Barr estate, I might photograph the mansion there at some time.
Hi Mike, Unfortunately this app is available only on iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) for now, but the developer (Benny) has informed me that he has plans to bring this amazing app to Android at some point. Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech for further developments! 🙂
That’s so great you found out more about the Enchanted Woods. That series of pictures is my favorite of your work. The subject, lighting, colors, mood and setting all work together beautifully in those shots.
This app is so cool and you are right… there is so many ways you can make use of this 🙂 i really do love the concept of it and all the possibilities 🙂
Hi Gabriella, I’m so glad you agree this app is cool. It has lots of possibilities, some we haven’t even thought of yet!
Thanks so much for your visit, comment and Tweet! 🙂
Carolyn,
The app looks very impressive and lot of features will be very useful. Great. Other than the app, the way you have described the things are really awesome and can clearly understand your effort and dedication you carry out to bring it very lively. Thanks for sharing the great article.
Hi Manickam, yes, this app has many unique features. The notifications feature is a great example of that. Daily notifications alone would be great. But the fact that the app doesn’t notify you if you’ve already entered a picture shows how well thought out this app is. Brilliant.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this article, Manickam. Thank you for your very kind words! 🙂
This sure looks like a cool app! Imagine if you would take a picture of yourself everyday for 10 years and then play the pictures on fast forward. That would be shocking!
Hi Jocuri, well, I look just the same as 10 years ago, I’m sure. 😉 But a 10 year daily photo album would be really great with kids. When I lived in England and came back to the US in the summers, I was always surprised at how much my kids’ friends had changed in a year!
Thanks so much, Jocuri, for your visit and another awesome comment! 🙂
Wow, sounds like you can do some really neat things with this app. I think the picture a day would be fun.
There is so much stuff you can really do some creative things out there and it’s so much easier now. It’s amazing how fast technology moves at times. Remember the fax machine?
Thanks for sharing this, and yes someday I will have apps…….:)
Hi Bill, Fax machine? What’s that? 😉
It’s so true, tech keeps changing rapidly. The site I wrote about today didn’t exist when I published this post two days earlier. There’s always something to write about with a tech blog!
Thanks so much, Bill, for your visit, awesome comment and helpful tweet! 🙂
Its really better photography on here. and, its really nice too 🙂 So, i would like to say thanks for given great post on here 🙂
Hi Kavya, You are right, this is a great app. I love sharing quality apps with readers. I’m so glad you enjoyed this post! 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.
Hi stumbled onto your site recently and just wanted to reach out and say hi. Great review of photo365! I’ve been using it myself to take a picture of my face to see my looks change over the course of a year.
Benny, the app creator, is also a great guy and deserves all the press he can get!
Hi Paul, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you enjoyed this review. Very cool use of the app. It will be interesting to see if you notice any changes to your face in a year.
I agree, the more people who learn about this amazing app the better!
Thanks so much, Paul, for stopping by and saying hi! Have a great weekend. 🙂
Paul that’s nice of you to say! I’m glad you’re using the app! I’ll send the check in the mail for the compliment!
Now, we could actually take note of important things in our daily lives using this app at a very low cost. It’s just like a diary of photos that can help us keep track of all day to day happenings in our lives.
Hey Mark,
I love taking photos and think they are a perfect way to remember our memories. I want this app to do that in a single location.
Thanks for reading!
I totally agree with you. With pictures, we can capture all the memories that we would like to share not only to our family and friends but also with other people around us.
this is a new released app for iDevices, that shows the concept behind the app is also new & unique which will surely make this app grow a lot.. Thanks Carolyn for sharing this..I will share this app will my blog readers also.. Hope they find it fun to use.. 🙂
Hi Rohit, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech. Yes, this app is a quality app. Fantastic purpose and executed well. I hope your readers enjoy discovering this app as much as Wonder of Tech readers have!
Thanks for visiting The Wonder of Tech and leaving an awesome comment!
SO COOL! I instantly thought of this app for recording progress on acrobatics training or stretching. And I love how this can be use not only for weight loss, but also for tracking progress on muscle building. I’ve also always been super curious about how I look when my hair grows out. Those tiny day to day changes are so subtle that we forget how they add up to major changes in our lives! You’re seriously having me consider an iPhone now. =P Haha!
Hi Samantha, you thought of some great uses for this app! What a great way to get motivated about a fitness routine: daily pictures! I also like your idea about growing out hair. One of my daughters is growing her hair out for Locks of Love and this app could encourage her to keep going.
Always great to have you visit, Samantha! 🙂
Wow, this Blog is wonderful;) im a tech noob and this helps me so much. Keep it up;) now I’m off exploring now;)