I spotted this in the New York Times Bit Blog, with more on the band Atomic Tom and their iPhone-powered performance. Awesome idea.
via kickmap.com
KickMap is an is a rethought out version of the New York City subway map. In my opinion it is better in a number of ways - mainly, the clarity on the different lines. It's available for iPhone now, but hopefully it will come out on Android before I get my Android phone :)
via doubletwist.com
doubleTwist is a good-looking software package that can manage your media (music, photos, video, podcasts) so that it can be accessed by your mobile device (Android, Palm, BlackBerry, etc). If someone wants the media skills of an iPod with the flexibility of an open platform, this might be the killer app.
As I look to transition from my BlackBerry to likely an Android-based phone, this might be just what I need.
via android.com
I use a BlackBerry Bold now (from AT&T) and planned to switch to an iPhone next, but am thinking more and more about an Android-based phone. I'm always looking to tweak my phone, push it to the limits, and a closed OS like iPhone just doesn't allow for it. Unless "there's an app for that," I'm out of luck.
I was starting to get used to the idea of not carrying a phone and an iPod around, but I think I can live with a phone if it does everything I need it to do. I am going to have to assume all the vendors/software packages I use (Google, Outlook, Remember the Milk, Evernote, BaseCampHQ, etc) will all develop Android apps.
The App Store is for Suckers
by Jonathan Stark
Submitting (pun intended) to the App Store is for suckers.
Do you really want to:
- Give up 30% of your profit?
- Learn Objective-C?
- Endure approval delays, rejections, and yanks?
- Navigate labyrinthian code signing issues?
- etc…The cheapest, easiest, fastest way for folks to get in on the mobile gold rush is to build killer web apps. Web apps can access location data, utilize client-side SQL databases, and even run offline.
In addition to side-stepping the App Store minefield, web apps run on more than 100 mobile handsets with zero modification.
And on desktops.
And on the iPad.
And on anything else that has a reasonably modern web browser; which will likely include everything from sewing machines to cereal boxes in the next few years.
The App Store paradigm (Apple and others) is an out-dated business model based on scarcity, middlemen, and control. It is newspapers. It is travel agents. It is used car salesmen.
The world has moved on. Don’t get suckered.
I love this commentary by Jonathan Stark on developing iPhone apps. I've sort of known that I wanted a web app for our school for a while. Athletics schedules, blog posts, access to our Moodle server, etc. But then I couldn't figure out if we should develop for BlackBerry or iPhones (and what about the Palm Pre!), but then this post just made it all clear.
Closed models = bad. Didn't the Internet teach us anything?