MacBook Power Plug vs. Pen 2: The Pluggening 

The iPhone doesn't record video, but it can make stop-motion movies––individual pictures played in rapid sequence to give the illusion of movement––thanks to Movie Maker. It scratches the surface of a directorial itch, but its limitations keep it from Oscar gold.

Movie Maker uses the iPhone's camera to get pictures. You can't import images from other sources, and each picture must be taken manually with a tap onscreen. This works alright, since you don't have to shake the phone by pushing a hard button, but we wanted the option of automating snaps to eliminate that risk. There's no time-lapse interval setting, way to trigger the shutter with the microphone, or other touch-free option.

You can accept or reject shots as they're taken––handy for correcting accidental nudges––and move and resize them before saving, allowing for simulated pans and zooms. Shots can be vertical or horizontal, but horizontal shots fill only half a movie's screen, leaving an ugly black bar below them, and camera controls don't rotate with your iPhone.

When finished, you can make simple adjustments to add title text, play the movie back onscreen at a fluid rate, or export through the Movie Maker website. (You can't export to your photo library.) But this is no iMovie in playback, editing, or export. Three playback speeds restart to the beginning of the movie when adjusted, making previews frustrating in production. And movies exported through the website become either Flash or QuickTime files; Flash won't play on the iPhone, and QuickTime movies stutter chronically when downloaded to a computer. While we had fun making videos on the phone, these weak export options severely limit the app.