Takes a little practice and it could use a few tweaks but still really cool! – Actable Review

This app work exactly as advertised on both my iPad and iPhone. It also works really well on my Galaxy Note II. I'd wager that this app and others like it are going to change a lot of the ways we access and interact with print media. I think that the kinds of experiences viewed with Actable could be justifiably (although maybe "arguably") called examples of a new, emerging medium in its own right. (Is it really called "Augmented Reality"? That's a mouth full and it would be hard to fit in a pop song too! Whatever you call it: please re-brand!) With that in mind, I try to consider that every page I aim this app at or experience I unlock is pretty much a prototype. No wonder people are having so many problems... Once I got past the novel aspect of the experiences, it occurred to me that there are so few of these made so far that maybe nobody has figured out "best practices"? My one suggestion for the app developer is to please give me a way to feel like I am scanning for something if I want it. Even if the camera is always quietly doing its thing without complaint, I want to be able to feel like I've "cleared" any perceived hang up or buffering issue and started "scanning" again. Maybe this is a small thing but I hate trying to show this to someone and not know if its working or not. A little more control would help avoid the "gotta love the live demo! Right?" comments. My suggestions from the December issue of Smithsonian are: 1. The camera seems to get confused by lighting glare. The cover of that issue was highly glossed. The magazine looked great but maybe a low-gloss or rougher print finish would help launch the hidden content better? (The app has an option to turn on the phone's flashlight on my SGN2. That seemed to help but no joy with that approach on my iPad...) 2. Some of the "experiences" (?) we're really long. If I lost the target image in the camera then it would simply start over. It would be nice if there were any way to simply "resume" the video or "presentation" (again, what-you-ma-call-it?). It could resume automatically or by provided option, whatever makes sense. 3. It would be great if you didn't have to keep the image in view of the camera after you got it all started. I've no idea how you would do that but it would be pretty cool to be able to follow the Space-X rocket off of the page about Elon Musk for example. Keep it up!
Review by Atleastihavechicken on Actable.

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