How To Draw A Window Sill

Being offered over at the Zune Marketplace for Windows Phone 7, the $.99 app is a finger-friendly doodle pad that has tons of options for tapping into your creative juices. Draw! can be used in portrait or landscape orientations and has multi-touch support (you can draw with two fingers at once).

Controls are lined up at the bottom of the screen and include your brush, fill and stamp tools; color selector; eraser; a magic button for image effects (ripple effect, glow, twist, etc.); picture tool to insert pre-drawn cartoons or a Bing Image; undo/redo controls; and file options.

Many of the main controls have a secondary set of controls or options. For example with the brush tool, you have the options to choose from an assortment of brush styles ranging from a small line to a splatter pattern. The stamp control pulls up options for a wide assortment of stamps that include animals, planets, vehicles, household objects, and the option to use one of your photos from your picture galleries as a stamp.

One interesting feature with Draw! is with your Picture tool. You have the option to search Bing for a picture to doodle on. Simply tap the Bing button in your Picture options, type the name of the image your wanting to search for, and Draw! will randomly choose an image from Bing for that subject. If the picture that is chosen doesn't suit your fancy, redo the search.

Settings are found in the file control options (the + sign on your tool bar) and are labeled as advanced. The settings range from locking your tool bar for younger artists, sound options to language options. I'm particular to the "Pirate" language option.

Draw! isn't going to be for everyone but the more I used the Windows Phone 7 application, the more it grew on me. You have the ability, under the file control options, to save your artwork but it lacks the ability to email your masterpieces. This may be the apps only shortcoming.

If you like to doodle or have children that like to doodle, Draw! is a very good option. There is a trial version available at the Marketplace and the full version will run you $.99. I have to admit that Draw! is growing on me but my kids found the app to be well worth the investment.

Surfacepalm

I wanted to love the Surface Duo 2, I really did

I tried it, and lasted about a day before I had to call it quits, once again, on the Surface Duo. I'm holding out hope for the Surface Duo 3, but the Duo 2 has shown me that very little progress has been made since the first Duo.