In order to make my iPhone videos look cool, I used to have to download them and fire up iMovies. But not after I started playing with Spotliter. My kids and I love this app–and we appreciate it even more because a Glen Ridge dad created it. Spotliter makes us look like we have skills–and let me tell you, we totally don’t. Try recording in sketch mode–just like in the fab NYC street video above.
We can make our background–usually the living room–look like a night time scene as we film. Other effects include freeze and magnify. Spotliter works great on our iPhones and iPod Touch.
It’s free, so check it out, and if you like it, tell your friends. Help local dad Kris Ramanathan get the word out. He dreamed up the app along with his scientist business partner for their company called netomat. It’s his third one, and he told me his kids like it. Or well, his teenager says, “It doesn’t suck.” You know how teens are–so Kris says he took it as a huge compliment. He has three boys ages, 17, 16 and 14, and an 8-year-old girl. All of the attend Glen Ridge public schools.
Here are Kris’ tips for using Spotliter: “Magnify is really fun for celebrity spotting in a crowd or to zoom in on one friend in a group. Or kids can make pretty strange-looking videos by using an effect such as Freeze to freeze one object or person who is moving while everything else continues moving. They can use Overlay to layer their face on top of all the videos they record.” Of course, he wants his idea to take off.
If you dream of creating your own app, Kris has some advice: He says it’s much easier and cheaper if you know how to build it, or code. Or just make your kids do it: “I’ve told them, learn to code and, if you have a really good idea for an app, I will pay you to create the initial test version that we can show to others to see if they like it too. Talk about something you can put on a resume or a college application! However, no takers yet in my family!”
Hey, The Hour of Code is still going on and the new L3 Academy in Montclair had a coding class for 1st and 2nd graders.
I’ll dangle it in front of my kids. I love apps–especially Spotliter–which is proof that coding is cool.