While the iPhone does technically make it possible to take photos while taking a video, it’s tough to pull of well in the real world. That’s mostly because it’s kind of hard to concentrate on two things at once. If you’re taking a good video, you probably can’t take a really great photo at the same time (and vice versa). Other times, you just don’t think about it; you capture a moment with a video and regret not having taken some stills later on. In any case, there’s a new app to help you have your cake (videos) and eat it to (by extracting photos from said videos). Taplet lets you easily pull HD photos from your videos. 

Aside from the reasons I’ve already listed above, Dustin Pourbaba, Taplet’s founder and CEO, gives another good reason why you might want to use Taplet: timing. “Taplet makes it easier to take better photos. It’s impossible to time a perfect picture because you never know what’s about to happen,” he says. “With Taplet, users can record or upload a video instead, which ensures they end up capturing the whole experience. They then are able to pull out their favorite shots from the footage using our powerful imaging technology. The app supports any video from any device and uses an insanely intuitive interface to help you take magical photos.”

Taplet is already being used in some interesting ways. For instance, a pro-surfer used Taplet with a GoPro to capture underwater images as he fell and tumbled under the waves. On the next wave he captured the complete opposite—a perfect shot of him catching an amazing swell. In the end, the surfer had amazing shots from both the highest and lowest parts of his day all thanks to Taplet.

The way taplet works is so cool: simply tap the screen to extract images from videos! Taplet has taken a gesture that is fundamental to using your smart phone—tapping—and turned it into an addicting, useful feature.

Here’s Dustin on Taplet’s early adoption:

“In Taplet’s first weeks we saw tens of thousands of images extracted from videos. It’s becoming a new form of photo capture and we’re seeing people use the app in ways we never imagined. The concept of pulling stills from videos isn’t new, but we’ve built the app in such a user-friendly way and managed to hide all the complicated, highly powerful technology to make it work seamlessly in the background.”

Taplet is intent on trying to become the default app people use to capture content. “Once we control the creation process, we can introduce ways of distributing content and build a worthwhile platform,” Dustin says. “We’re continuously releasing new product updates with better recording options and tools and as long as we keep innovating we’ll get to where we need to be.”

That’s Taplet’s plan for the future. But Dustin explains why Taplet didn’t try to release a built-in social network from the get go: “There’s tons and tons of apps trying to build networks without understanding how their users are even creating content in the first place. Launching as a super powerful, much needed, and much loved camera was a no-brainer for us. Connecting people through content is a concept we’ll be constantly iterating and may eventually go full force with in the future.”