iBlazr 2 could solve your mobile flash headaches

Way back in December of 2013, I wrote a blog post about an upcoming mobile accessory product called the iBlazr (click here for the original post). At the time, I was excited because one of the chief concerns many appraisers I talked to about adopting mobile technology was that pictures typically came out too dark, especially in bathrooms or other areas where lighting was already poor.

I bought in on iBlazr's initial Kickstarter campaign because I believed in the product. And I wasn't disappointed. The original iBlazr was a great accessory to have in your toolbag, solving that lighting problem for many appraisers and enabling many to go mobile who otherwise might not have considered it. It reduced the number of devices many appraisers carried because they could leave their old point-and-shoot camera in the car most of the time. In fact, the device became so popular that Apple even began carrying it in their stores.

That first generation wasn't without its own challenges. Chief among those was that in order for the iBlazr to be triggered automatically with the camera's shutter (rather than simply held as an "always on" extra light), you had to use iBlazr's dedicated camera app. It worked, but it was slow and buggy, and the pictures were stored in your device's gallery. For appraisers, that meant you had to add the pictures to your report in TOTAL for Mobile separately, rather than point-and-shoot from the form itself. Not a huge deal, but a factor nonetheless.

Now, they're introducing their second generation device and working to get funds to start mass producing it. The iBlazr 2 has some key improvements over the first device that are worth mentioning:

• Now works with the native camera application of your device, which means that you can once again take your pictures directly from the photo page slots within TOTAL for Mobile.
• Now pairs via Bluetooth, allowing better control and not relying on your device's stereo jack to power and trigger it.
• Allows for pairing of multiple iBlazrs with simultaneous triggering.

You can find out more about the second generation iBlazr by clicking here, or watching the video below. The original iBlazr was highly recommended, and I expect this one to be even better. I'll be ordering one for sure.

Paul