I was fortunate enough to be one of the beta testers for the as-yet-to-be-released 500px iPad app, currently in beta form. I am going to give you just my initial thoughts and then will likely do a follow up post once I have lived with it for a while longer.
NOTE: At the time of writing this, I was asked NOT to include Screenshots, thus there are not here. But since then, they have lifted that restriction. Please see THIS POST FOR SCREENSHOTS.
500px is a fairly under-appreciated photo portfolio site on the internet… in my humble opinion. There are dozens of great articles telling you about the site, what it offers and why it’s superior to most other portfolio offerings out there. But I’ll give you my quick list, just to add some context to the iPad app.
500px has successfully prevented you from ever having to login and see a given user’s 423 vacation pictures of Disneyland. This alone it what makes them a great home for photographers and photo-related artists. They do this by either charging a very reasonable fee for unlimited uploads, which scares off the majority of dump-loaders (those who dump their whole memory card into the service)… or limiting the number of images that the free users may upload to 10 per week. As a result… at least 75% of the images uploaded are worth a solid look. It’s my absolute favorite way to find new and interesting artists… hands down.
They also have a very unique rating system that successfully gives EVERY member a shot at the spotlight on the “Popular” images page. Over time (and by time… I mean… daily) ratings vastly change and you rarely see the same thing at the top of the Popular page.
In short… it’s not Flickr.
iPad BETA APP REVIEW:
Okay… on to the reason you’re here. I am going to cover mostly features and what I think (although I can never be sure) the product is going for. Minor bugs or things that I’m positive will be worked out will be sent to the developers but don’t need to be covered ad nauseam here.
LAUNCH: A splash page starts the software off. 500px is holding a contest to find an image to be the “cover image” for the app. From here, you flip into the app itself.
*** FULL REVIEW AFTER THE JUMP ***
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