I rarely take photos with my phone because I am a lousy enough photographer with a real camera. The various app markets brim with software to help people like me. But I recently stumbled onto something far more useful: apps that take your lousy shots and help you turn them into something ridiculous, bizarre or maybe even beautiful. The short list includes, for Apple users, ToonPaint ($2), SketchMee ($3 for iPhones, $5 for iPads), Unicorn Shots ($1) and Color Splash ($2). For Android are free apps like PicSay and Pic Paint. On BlackBerry, Picture Magic ($5), Doodle ($1) and PhotoColor ($3) are worth a look. As is almost always the case, there are more, and better, apps in this category for iPhone users than for those with Android or BlackBerry devices. For people who are contemplating their next phone, the broader issue here may be worth quickly noting. IPhone app developers can create programs for one platform and just a few (very powerful) devices, and sell them on what is arguably the best software market, iTunes. Android and BlackBerry developers have a potentially bigger market, given the number of devices in circulation. But developers grumble about tailoring their apps to so many different types of BlackBerrys and Android phones, only to have the apps sell weakly on the less popular software stores -- the Android Market and BlackBerry AppWorld. Those factors could change, of course, but for now it means Apple users will benefit from better software. Take, for instance, ToonPaint. The app lets you quickly choose an image from your iPhone and transform it into a cartoonlike sketch. Using a small range of options, you can tweak the thickness and spacing of the lines, and then apply a Technicolor dash. ToonPaint's developers deserve high marks for making software simple enough to figure out on your own, yet not so simple that you feel as if you have exhausted its possibilities in one sitting. SketchMee is similarly good. This app turns your photos into pencil sketches of remarkable quality. You can adjust the pencil strokes in eight ways, and each option includes a brief tutorial that increases your odds of making art. I had recently taken a shot of my two youngest children with a friend. The framing was typically horrible and the flash reflected off of a cabinet behind my son. With SketchMee, though, it looked almost lovely. (SketchMee has a companion iPad app for $5, and there is also PaintMee, a $3 iPhone app. Both titles have free 'lite' versions.) If you want something more ridiculous than sublime, Unicorn Shots is a far better call. Take a shot of someone you love and overlay the image with huge eyeballs, fake eyelashes and other effects from your recent Caricatures 101 course. Drag your finger around the screen and the person's eyes follow. (Try not to entertain existential thoughts about how you just spent the last two minutes of your life. Better still, hand the app to your children when they face their next existential crisis.) If you have an Android phone, PicSay will fill a similar role. You can add word balloons and graphics and distort the image in a handful of ways. PicSay has a 'Pro' version that includes some useful features. But in keeping with the Android Market's pricing chaos, that version is available only if you pay in euros, so you could end up with a currency conversion fee on your credit card. Pic Paint is another free photo editing app that lets you paste up to 35 pieces of clip art onto a photo, or apply up to eight photo effects. Many more effects and clip art images come with Pro Pic Paint, which, thankfully, you can buy with American currency ($2). Many of my photos would arguably look better in a thousand pieces. PhotoPuzzle, another free Android app, makes it happen. The app has different levels of difficulty, although some users have complained about buggy performance with the most difficult puzzles. BlackBerry owners who want to enjoy a little throwaway fun with their cameraphone images have long faced a more expensive process, since the AppWorld store only last week allowed developers to sell $1 or $2 apps. At the $1 level, apps like Doodle make much more sense. The program, which previously sold for $3, lets users paint on their photos or just scribble on a blank page, and undo their previous mistakes with a press of a button. Picture Magic still costs a whopping $5. For that price you can make caricatures of your photo subjects (with mustaches, jewelry and such) and superimpose text bubbles on the image, among other things. The app allows you to share the final product on Facebook, Twitter and other sites. PhotoColor is a $3 app that does the same thing as the ColorSplash iPhone app ($1), just not as easily. Select parts of your photo and the app will make everything else black and white. Doing all of this is more difficult with a BlackBerry that has a trackball or a trackpad, but if you are a commuter with a few minutes to kill and a little artistic itch, it will do. While these apps will not fool anyone into thinking you are a great photographer, you may just emerge with something that could pass as art -- or something that's at least good for a laugh. QUICK CALLS Sccope, a new BlackBerry app ($3, with free trial), is a mobile comparison shopping tool. Take a photo of a bar code and compare prices, log an item on a wish list or buy it at an online retailer. Electronic Arts has released Madden NFL 11 for iPhones ($8) and iPads ($13). The game has received high marks among iTunes users for graphics and game play. ... The PrivacyStar Android app adds caller ID to AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile smartphones, even if the caller is not in your contact list. The service costs $3 a month, with a free seven-day trial. 