When Consumerist left Gawker to join Consumers Union, we lost access to the Getty image library, which had been the source for pictures like this and this. The new CatPaint iPhone app has already wowed some, but is it good enough for Consumerist? Let’s find out.
CatPaint is only $0.99, giving it a much lower cost of entry than licensing photos through Getty or using Photoshop to manually add cats to pictures. Because it’s an iPhone app, you can add cats on the fly, even when you’re not in front of your computer.
Controls are pretty intuitive. You select which cat stamp you want, and what size, and then go to town, touching the picture to add cats. You can’t resize or move the cat, so if you want to delete it, shake the phone. But be careful when shaking because you can easily erase multiple cats at once, which would be a travesty.
Also, it meows when you add cats. You’re like, touch, and it’s like, MEOW.
Here are some pictures from the Consumerist meetup, with cats. Much improved.
It even improves existing cat pics. Check this out.
(I tried to write “Open Thread” in cats.)
Pros:
- Cats
- Price
- It meows
Cons:
- No dogs
- Controls are a little awkward
- Needs business license for multiple users so Ben and Chris can use it
As I was writing that last part, Chris emailed me, in true Consumerist fashion, to say, “I make my own. No, seriously, I use Juxtaposer and keep a library of ‘stamps’ that I can apply to any photo.” Chris is a pro user though; Catpaint should suffice for most recreational cat photo augmentation.
I hate cats but I can meow like them and stop most dead in their tracks but I still hate them.
@NotYou007: I believe more people need to see this comment.
“No dogs”
Only seeing eye dogs should be permitted.
yeah to the so called 100k apps on apple store… how useful… shud have know “there is an app for everything”
Photoshop would be easier.
Just get some free cat images, photoshop the cats out, add an invisible background and save the image.
Then for the consumerist article, get any photo you want, put the cat in as another layer, resize (if needed) and place the image properly, and then save it, and upload.
For your cat images, make sure to save them as .psd or .png. .psd’s are best, png’s can be viewed out of photoshop, and save transparency.
Wouldn’t using any picture on the internet be considered “fair use”. You are not making any money from them.
Just send some broken, unwanted, or unused gold or jewels to cats4gold.com. Problem solved.
You got over 100,000 apps, and maybe like 10% of them are useful, the other 90% are crap. It seems like Apple cares more about quantity then quality.
These 10, 15 year old kids are buying these crappy apps, and giving them good reviews, so it makes finding the good ones hard.
And the people who are making these apps, are making them for these young kids that have a short attention span. And these kids don’t care cause they aren’t paying for them, their parents are.
These apps are gonna be one of the reasons the iPhone is gonna die within 5 years.
@Colonel Jack O’Neill: Aww, someone poured cold water on your kitten this morning!
LOL Good luck Jack… We’ve been hearing premature death predictions for years now. There are lots of ways to track down great apps. You’ld rather have fewer to choose from?
Old and busted: Getty Image Library
New hotness: Flickr + User submissions
Caveat: Must allow dogs.
Like there aren’t 800 million creative commons cat pics on Flickr.
“You’re like, touch, and it’s like, MEOW.”
oh, how far we’ve come since the gawker days… i think our journalism is at least improving!
All the kittys over Ben & Meg’s heads have a strange look of evil about them. I don’t know about this, guys…
(From above, a Meow is heard)
fdjahkjhkjkhfdkj gahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Or you could just park car my nearby and wait a few minutes with a camera and boom – cats. For whatever the reason cats come from all over to lounge on my car. I have paw prints down the windows on a regular basis. I wonder why?
This is relevant to my interests.
@bunnyblues: This is far and away the best comment in this thread.
Meow this is an excellent use of 21st century technology.
This app needs to come out on the andriod. I did find one that purrs when you pet the cat, but I want to paint with cats too.
@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: We don’t use that many cat pictures, though. We did on April Fool’s 2009, and I used them in all of my posts as a joke during the “Day Without Cats.”
@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: Hating dumb animals is a little…odd. Being bothered by pictures of animals really isn’t worth the bother at all. My advice is to ignore – if they start using goatse variants instead of cats, we’ll revisit.
Most people in fact, I’d wager really aren’t fond of cats.
@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer:
Well, almost 34% of households have at least one cat: [www.humanesociety.org] But there’s nothing to prove that the other 66% of households have a problem with cats.
There’s plenty of animals on Cute Overload that have photos I find adorable that I would never allow in my house.
@Laura Northrup: All you need is a couple hamsters and a blender.
@Laura Northrup: I’m waiting for DogPaint, PuppyPaint or even DachshundPaint myself.
Seriously. What is cuter than a dachshund puppy? Nothing I tell you! Nothing!
@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer:
You must be tons of fun at parties.
@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: I think Consumerist has wagered against you.
They seem to be doing all right.
@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer:
How can anyone hate cats.
@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: Eh, although I disagree with your main argument, I’ll point out that I’m emphatically a dog person, and Laura enjoys fake rat-like animals. I think Chris and Phil are agnostic.
@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: It’s actually a brilliant way of keeping costs down while producing a wide variety of imagery.
If you use images of people, you have to get permission from the person in the image. Running a blog that posts 26 times a day, that’s 26 images of people. Even if you had friends who were keen to be in pictures, you’re going to be seeing the same people over and over again.
If you use stock imagery, you have to pay for that.
When writing a not-for-profit blog about the bad parts of the consumer landscape, people could get offended if race is used the wrong way, or if someone’s’ image was used in a way they don’t agree with, etc…
Taking pictures of cats in relevant situations is a fun/funny way of getting around all of this.
@GitEmSteveDave_HazEnvy: Although I’m sure they’re quite warm, I bet they can get a bit uncomfortable.
@qwerty001984: Don’t forget the nearly hundred different fart app variations.
(seriously, go search for ‘fart’ in the app store, it’ll blow your mind how many results you get back.)
@hotdogsunrise: Beagle Puppies!
@Myrna_Minkoff: Gee, provide uninvited unsolicited inaccurate psych diagnoses much?
Just for you here is a little video tribute to cat-lover-psychos everywhere:
@bornonbord: VVVVRRRRRRRRRRRRRSQQQEEEAAEAREKAKASPLUPSPLUPSLUPVVVRRRRR….
@Telekinesis123: That bunny does not approve of the pancake on its head. Hmphh.
@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: That’s funny, since you are the only one complaining. I don’t see “many” in that equation.
@nstonep: You forgot claw, hiss, bite and caterwaul.
@diasdiem: This made me laugh, greatly. Give yourself a pat on the back. If you have no arms, ask a stranger.
@Areyouagoodlittleconsumer: I don’t think you understand what “psych diagnoses” means.
@Myrna_Minkoff: It means there is nothing wrong with people who don’t like cats and say they don’t like cats on non-cat forums. Shut up.