Ford releases its iPhone app – Flex Photo Lab

Car makers and/or their marketing agencies seem to love the idea of creating an iPhone application to get some media attention. We’ve seen Audi and Mercedes going this route, and now we have the good ol’ Ford releasing its own app for Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s handset and the iPod Touch. However, instead of simply praising their new car, Ford’s marketing decided to offer something at least semi-useful and made it sponsored by the all-new 2009 Ford Flex.

Tao Agency is the software developer behind the Flex Photo Lab, which is touted as a “mini Photoshop-like” app. It’s far from Photoshop, let me make that clear — all it does is allows users to take new or archived photos and apply filters to improve image quality or add effects with the touch of a finger, or a tilt and a twist.

The Flex Photo Lab consists of two parts – “Darkroom” and “Discover FLEX.” From the former, users can add such effects to their images as kaleidoscope, adjust brightness/contrast and hue/saturation, add the so called electric lines, darken/burn (Spot Burner) and lighten (Spot Lighter) select areas of their photos.

The latter part of the app puts Ford’s latest vehicle in the spotlight through 360-degree exterior and interior views, vehicle information, and a photo gallery. There is also a “Locate the Flex” feature that uses Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps to help users find their nearest Ford dealer.

Flex Photo Lab is available as a free download and you can grab it from here.