Posts Tagged ‘Apple’

Writing On Virtual Walls

9 Mar 12

What happens when you take the interaction of Facebook, combine it with the word count limit of Twitter and then top it off with augmented reality? Wallit. A new, free app released Tuesday that creates virtual walls in physical spaces.

Say you’re in a stadium or out somewhere site seeing, you would launch Wallit and see a radar function indicating that a wall had been created where you are (or point you to where other walls exist). You could then view the wall through your smartphone camera screen to see posts, photos, videos and other “marks” made by people who are there at the same time or got there before you.

The app only allows you to post if you’re actually at the place, but posts can be viewed from anywhere. The cool thing about Wallit is that you physically have to be at the place of interest to actively participate in the conversation. Apparently, Apple thinks it’s pretty cool too. The creator of the Wallit, Veysel Berk, says that Apple is already planning 326 Wallit walls to go up in their stores for the launch of iPad 3, all of which will link to a “Super Wall.” The idea is to get the people waiting in line to talk to one another about the product and their experience.

It’ll be interesting to see if, and how, this technology is implemented in other commercial spaces and if it catches on among users.

Steve Jobs, Apple And An Amazing Impact On Advertising

25 Aug 11

While the world is reeling at the news of Steve Jobs’ resignation as CEO of Apple, the ad community is rallying to look at the amazing impact the Apple brand has had on advertising. From 1984 to Think Different to the iconic iPod work and everything in between, it’s a massive breadth of work with some of the biggest contributions to both ad and pop culture. Check out the AdAge and Creativity list of 10 top Apple ads here. And if you haven’t seen his official and touching resignation letter, check that out here.

Image via Mashable

Oh THAT’S What My iPhone Is For

20 Oct 10

If you were on the B train crossing from Brooklyn to Manhattan on October 8th, you can stop reading. If you weren’t here’s the scoop: indie Brooklyn rock band Atomic Tom used the B train to perform live the track “Take Me Out” from their new album “The Moment”. They did so, however, without instruments. Using only their iPhones, specifically the apps Shred, Drum Meister, Pocket Guitar and Microphone, they played the track to a packed house. The resulting YouTube video has received over 2 million hits in less than a week.

According to this article, the band has already been approached by Apple. Translation: do not be surprised to see this pop up during a commercial break of your favorite TV show in the very near future. Now stop reading, download Shred to your iPhone and get iLoud.

Social Media Makeover

22 Jul 10

Are you a magazine lover? Prefer flipping through glossy pages rather than scrolling down an endless computer screen? Well, now you don’t have to wait for your monthly subscription. In fact, you can get your magazine fix as fast as your friends are posting stuff on Facebook and Twitter.

Yesterday, Flipboard launched as the “world’s first social magazine.” The new app, created only for iPad, is changing the way we view our constantly updating, sometimes cluttered social media spaces.

Flipboard syncs to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as other popular news sources you choose. It then searches those feeds for highly engaged items, ones with the most likes, comments and retweets. Once it finds everything of interest, it displays the content in a cleanly designed magazine-like layout on your iPad. You can read everything your friends are reading with the flip of a page.

Flipboard is backed by some pretty heavy hitters, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and Ashton Kutcher. Its creators Mike McCue, former CEO of Tellme, and Evan Doll, a former iPhone engineer at Apple, are hoping the app will revolutionize the way we browse multimedia.

I’m all for giving clunky social media sites like Facebook a facelift, but for right now that would require me owning an iPad. Someday…

Turn Off Your TV

19 Apr 10


Rent, electricity, phone, car insurance. What if you could ditch one of those many monthly bills? Like, say, that insane cable bill you’re paying. Think about it, 130 bucks for hundreds of channels you aren’t even watching.

New reports by the Convergence Consulting Group show that an estimated 800,000 U.S. households cut their cable in the past 2 years, opting to watch their favorite programs online through Hulu, Netflix, Apple iTunes and an increasing amount of streaming broadcaster websites. Though, that number still represents a small percentage of “un-subscribers,” it is expected to double by 2011.

Being an extremely content “cord-cutter” of many years, one big argument I hear is that hovering around a computer can’t possibly offer the same viewing experience as soaking up a sweet 42″ flat screen. Here’s a secret…for 20 measly bucks you can buy a super simple adaptor that transforms your beloved TV into a 42″ high def monitor. Don’t want to plug in your computer? Take a small amount of that money you’re saving from your cable box and buy a Boxee Box, or one of the many other devices that manages your media and brings all your favorite TV shows and movies from the internet to your TV. Take advantage of technology and start watching what you want, when you want, without paying for what you’re not.

Now that that’s covered, some cons? You may be left craving a few of your favorite shows (like Weeds and Dexter) which currently aren’t available for legal download until well after their DVD releases. Personally, with so much other content readily available, I’ll happily sacrifice those shows in exchange for costly cable. 

And with the online-only market expected to scale to 1.6 million households by 2011, I predict that those stubborn content creators may eventually have no choice but to jump on the online bandwagon. Stay tuned.

iCan’tBelieveApple

6 Apr 10

Building a new web site? Modernizing your current site? As if those two tasks weren’t daunting enough (and having done this a lot with clients, we already know the answer), now it seems Apple went and muddied up the waters even further. Here comes the iPad, Apple’s new tablet entry. It does everything (better digital book reading, better digital content viewing, etc). It does everything except for one small thing: it isn’t compatible with Flash. Darn it, Apple. You’ve messed everything up, because everyone knows Flash is the only way to do cool stuff on the Internet (isn’t it?). In fact, the New York Times has already built an iPad-ready version of it’s site, with The Wall Street Journal and NPR following suit. Now what?

First off, breathe. While you inhale/exhale/repeat, let’s review. Sure, the iPad’s lack of compatibility with Flash is pushing companies not only to rethink web development but to actually execute sites specifically designed for the Flash-less tablet. This is seen as a huge boon for HTML5 and to mean the imminent demise of Flash. But before we storm Apple with torches raised, let’s remember that the rise of HTML5 and the death of Flash isn’t a web development revolution that begins with the iPad. Designers, developers and information architects have been hating on Flash for quite some time, and while HTML5 (which has been in development for over 6 years) indeed appears to be a welcome alternative, the iPad didn’t start that fire. Maybe it stokes it a little, but it certainly didn’t bring the kerosene and the matches.

What’s this mean for you, new site wanter? Honestly, nothing. And that’s a good thing. Developing a site from hereon out will not be affected by the iPad because the issues don’t stem from the iPad itself, but rather industry standards. Sacrificing the glitz of Flash for clarity of information architecture is the king nowadays anyway. This site itself as well as another site we are just finishing now (check back soon to hear about it) are nice examples of just that. As for you, current Flash-driven site owner, if the iPad audience is who you want, then a sister HTML site appears to be in your future. But, before you do that, you really need to ask yourself if that audience is worth it (my guess is they are).