Photoshelf is a fun application that allows you to create your own personalized shelf made up of pictures, statues, lamps, artwork and tons of other items. With the ability to send your shelf to your friends through email or Facebook, it’s a unique way to share your interests with others.

The first task is to choose what shelf you’d like to begin customizing. There are eighteen shelves to choose from, each one offering a unique look. There are also spotlights in each shelf so you can highlight special items you like the most. Once you have your shelf picked out, you can begin adding items. You can add photos, miscellaneous items, or paintings. All you have to do is double tap a spot on your shelf and a menu will pop up with your item options.

After selecting a photo from your library, you can choose from over one hundred frames to make it look even better. These frames range from traditional designs and colors all the way to crazy bright colors and modern looking designs. Photos can also be cropped inside the frame and positioned in landscape or portrait mode.

There are one hundred classical paintings to add to your shelf as well. These paintings are replicas of actual artists such as Picasso and Michelangelo. Both the photos and paintings are obviously small to view when sitting on your shelf, but you can also tap on them to view in full screen mode.

Adding items is just as easy as photos and paintings. There are several subcategories for items such as sports, statues and lamps. You can even add a special spotlight to items you’d like to stand out more than others. If you decide you don’t like an item’s location, you can always move it around to somewhere else by tapping and dragging. There are many items to choose from, but for this app to be a real keeper, it’s going to need a much larger library of items and a faster way to search for those items. After playing with it for a while, I started to get a little bored with the selections. I’m hoping the developer adds new item packages on a regular basis. One unique feature in items is the ability to put a radio on your shelf to hear music from your iPod and a TV to watch a video podcast. This adds value and functionality to the application and really makes it fun to use. There are also some additional features that aren’t as prominent, but still offer more user customization. For example, you can create your own personal sign for your shelf. You can also add notes to any shelf item to remember special facts about it.

You can create multiple shelves and share all of them with friends through email and Facebook. When sharing, you can upload just a picture of your shelf, or you can upload a bundle, which is a picture of the shelf plus individual pictures, including the frames. However, when sharing, the photos are not uploaded in full resolution.

PhotoShelf is definitely a fun app to play around with. It kept me interested and entertained, but only until I started using up items and had no more to choose from. For this app to earn a spot on my device, it’s going to need consistent updates that add item packages of varying genres, such as bands, singers, television shows, movies and video games. If that doesn’t happen, I can see users getting bored with it very fast. I would also love to see more functional items. Right now, only the TV and radio actually do something. Maybe the lava lamp could be animated, or a plant could grow and need to be pruned before it covers up the rest of the shelf. There are endless possibilities with this application and I really hope it continues to expand. The best part about this app is its unique take on sharing your life and interests with your friends and family. For that reason, I strongly recommend making the purchase.