MacPaint, HyperCard creator turns to iPhone with PhotoCard

Bill Atkinson’s name is synonymous with the Mac, and now he’s turned his attention to the iPhone. He has released Bill Atkinson PhotoCard, a $4.99 app that helps iPhone and iPod touch users make and send custom-designed postcards.

Atkinson was responsible for some of the most formative technology to be developed during the Macintosh’s early days. His successes include MacPaint, the legendary bitmap painting program included with early Macintoshes. He also developed QuickDraw, the Mac’s early graphics technology, and HyperCard, a hypermedia system that preceded the Web by years.

Atkinson’s interests outside of programming include nature photography, which inspired him to create Bill Atkinson PhotoCard, an application for the iPhone and iPod touch that lets you create postcards – physical ones you can have printed and mailed through a Bay Area-based printing service, or virtual ones you can e-mail to contacts. You select a photo from your photo library, crop, edit, rotate and adjust the brightness of the image, then type in a message to include with it.

You can also adorn your virtual card with stickers or add a voice annotation.

The $4.99 price includes one free printed PhotoCard (priced at $1.50); you can purchase additional ones using a PayPal account or a credit card. And, of course, you can send an unlimited number of PhotoCards by e-mail.

Bill Atkinson PhotoCard debuted in December and has since been updated with new nature photos, stickers and stamps. Bill Atkinson PhotoCard Lite is also now available if you’d like to kick the tires before dropping your money.

System requirements call for an iPhone or iPod touch running iPhone OS 3.0 or later.

Sue

Love love love this app! Keep thinking of reasons to send cards to people. Fun for me to make, fun for them to receive.
CJ Vanston

Wow…Bill Atkinson…Hypercard….I remember his address was the top card in the stack. Fond memories. And MacPaint, it was like magic. Welcome back, thanks for the memories.
Still kinda miss Hypercard!

http://www.facebook.com/flargh Peter Cohen

One of my real joys last week was having the opportunity to sit down and talk with Bill for an hour or so. He's a true polymath, interested in so many things, and he's so bright and moves so quick, you have a hard time keeping up with him. If you ever get the chance to meet with him or listen to him talk, take it.

Allan

What happened to Bill's offer at Macworld to make the full version free for one day? I guess he figured word would spread and he'd lose out big time on the one free print.