iPad App of the Week: Storehouse

Image Source: Julia Sabot, via Storehouse

Great and unique apps are a big part of what has made the iPad such an amazing device, With that in mind, we offer up a quick review of one outstanding iPad app a week here each week.

Our weekly picks for Best iPad App of the Week are published here every Saturday. Check out all our picks via the link at the end of this post and you’ll soon have a collection of stellar apps for your favorite tablet.

This week’s pick is Storehouse, an app that claims to be ‘the easiest way to create and discover beautiful stories’ and does a great job of living up to that promise.

I’ve seen a large number of iPad apps with similar purposes, but Storehouse stands out right away due to the spectacular photography in the stories and the app’s wonderful, gesture-based interface.

Here’s a slice of its App Store intro:

BUILT FOR MOBILE
Storehouse was designed for mobile, from the intuitive touch-based interface to the way we allow you to create and share on-the-go.
UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVITY
We’ve made laying out photos, videos, and text so easy that anybody can create beautiful stories. Easily add photos and videos from your iPad Camera Roll, Dropbox, Flickr, and Instagram. You don’t need to be a designer to put together something stunning.

Image Source: Matt Maniego

You can feel that ‘Built for Mobile’ principle in every interaction with the app. It’s one of those great iPad apps that’s just a joy to use.

I’m a lousy photographer, so I don’t imagine I’ll be creating many stories in the app – though I’m sure anyone who is even an enthusiastic novice type can find plenty of inspiration in the stories contained in the app.

The stories are a mix of just about any topic under the sun. These are a few of my early favorites:

Neil Dacosta’s tribute to his best friend, Loki  – such a beautiful dog:

Jim Richardson’s ‘Island Obsession’ on his travels in the Scottich Hebrides:

And Unni’s ‘Magnitude 7.0’ with its powerful images and short story on Haiti as ‘a collage of hope, disaster and fate’.

The app makes it incredibly easy (even I can manage it) to create new stories, add photos and videos to them, save them as drafts, and publish them. It’s also easy to share your stories via email, Twitter, and Facebook. You can have a video as a story cover and choose to make certain images full screen.

There’s a story entry that is a very good quick starter guide too – titled ‘Creating Stories – Some tips to help you get started’.

Storehouse is an app that will be easy and enticing to spend a lot of time with, whether you’re a creator of stories or just an admirer of the superb photographic stories shared in the app.

Here’s an App Store link for Storehouse; it’s a free app and requires iOS 7.0 or later.

If you’re after more great iPad apps, be sure to check out our previous choices for Best iPad of the Week. We’ve also recently put together a best of the best of our free app selections in a Top 25 Best Free iPad Apps list.