via mashable.com
Some excellent social features captured here in this app called Pair that incorporates very similar elements to the pretty good app at Path.com.
Stephen Ross Scott.com™
Untangling the Interweb...
Web Geek™, Senior Manager, Digital @RMIT, a social media maven, Google-aholic, simplicity, UX and customer experience advocate, and a bit of a Star Wars nut. Hit my Google + profile below for more info. Kthnxbai! 
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Instagram for Android. At Least...Well, Kinda...
After months of barely a cheep, finally we get... a sign up form.
Taken forever and a day but the one last reason to have an iO/s device is very close.
Google Play.Strategically smart, and it's not iTunes so it's a plus, but not for Australia.
via play.google.com
No more one app marketplace, one G book store, one G music account, it's all in one area now called Google Play. Games such as Need for Speed, Music from Lady Gaga and many others, ebooks, movies and android apps.
Strategically this is a better way forward, it's all online, mobile, and all centralised for all your media. (Hurry up with that Google TV dammit!)
That said apart from a few lucky Australians like me who have Google music, this new play service is pretty useless here. It's the Android market with some new wallpaper. Meh!
Ideally less fannying with the name Google, more on sorting out region restrictions and inconsistent pricing for music, books, and (lack of) movies.
Still it's not iTunes and a humongous lump of bloatware I must drag around download and be forced to sync with (which invariably wipes your device more often than not) so it gets a bloody big plus from me : )
Why Mobile Apps Must Die. Yes Really...
I use multiple mobile devices on Apple & Android, and believe really strongly in a fair and balanced approach for customer experience. Why? Because we have evolved (partially) from the design for one browser mentality, and why would we waste time going back to that awful closed thinking?
Mobile is at a huge evolutionary step, and in all aspects of life we have to deal with other fanboys such as the iMyopia possee. Depsite the huge growth of Android and the benefits of HTML 5. Both of which I do admit are more attractive because they are open to me, but in honesty, neither platforms are perfect.
Only web apps can bring the balance that is needed and ease the development issues for cross platforms, and dammit as a customer and being involved in mobile development, choice is bloody important!
Would you open a shoe shop and offer only one shoe, in one size?
I'm trying to bring the choice wherever I can, and from a work perspective was very proud that my team & I were able to offer this to our customers this year with RMIT University's first HTML5 mobile web app.
So where do we all go from here? Enter Scott Jenson, an ex Apple, and Google employee and mobile developer and strategist. A great talk and worth watching for his valuable and knowledgable insights in to the clutter of apps surrounding us, and I thnk only backs up what I and others have been saying which is...'choice'. Bring it!
Microsoft Windows 7 Phone Marketing. Live on stage and... all a bit staged.
via mashable.com
Mashable in slightly suck up mode to MS I think here. 'Wild event?' Windows 7 phones are a solid product, and it's no Vista, but can't help seeing how ruined this is by the very staged marketing video. The cheap dig at Android with 'we are not robot's' also does them no favours.
Likewise Free pizza and a splash event in NYC doth not make yer product any better...perhaps I still can't get over their puketastic Windows 7 launch party video of last year.
Never seen it?
Prepare to blow epic chunks.
iGod has spoken. Let the Apple app commandments be known...
via techcrunch.com
Now I'm going by what Techcrunch says, as have not had time to delve in to the details, but they appear to quoting directly from the new iOS/App developer guidelines. Certainly sounds like Apple and they are without a doubt a new religion with this somewhat bible bashing set of regulations. Loved this one;
Apps with metadata that mentions the name of any other mobile platform will be rejected
Say Whaaaat? So obviously now since I've just typed, Android, Symbian & Palm, I'm sure to be off to iHell in an iHandbasket? (Is there an app for that?)
Most of the guidelines do make sense, and will bring many improvements to the disastrous amount of 'crap apps' that I see, but some are also just plain Jobs wanting to not let anyone play with his iToys.
Adults. Really just big kids...with money.
RiderLog. A very simple, yet smart iPhone app.
via bv.com.au
A brilliant, and beautifully simple idea.
The RiderLog app records basic details of your trips and anonymously uploads them to the Bicycle Network. (An initiative by the Victorian Government) All the travel logs are then aggregated to show when, where and why we are all riding. Allowing more informed choices for road planing and providing better facilities for bike owners.
Sadly iPhone only so far, but still a great idea.
Get the App: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/riderlog/id370727480?mt=8
Squeezing, tilting, pinching and flicking...aka developing an app for the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch.
I've always enjoyed designing mobile web sites. They're relatively easy to build given their need for simplicity, clarity, and the ability you get to truly focus hard on the customers experience of using it. If you think about it, nowadays your customers can not only watch and listen, but squeeze, tilt, pinch, and flick your site or application.
That's pretty interactive, and recently I had the pleasure of doing all these things for a site, in working with two incredibly talented guys; Christopher Cheong & Vincent Truong when we pulled together a marketing app for the iPhone. Credit where due, Christopher and Vincent did all the really hard work, I just got to design, and get to tweak and play with all their excellent code : )
Built for RMIT University's Open Day, this relatively one day use app was RMIT's first, and I'm eternally grateful for those two for helping us get this live, and all that I learned from them. Not only great developers but multi skilled, (Chris also lectures in several subjects at RMIT) and damn nice guys to boot. They put up with me and did so with a smile, despite my endless requests, so I'm looking forward to doing more with them in the near future.
If your not coming to our Open Day it's a little hard to appreciate what this will do on the day, but I'd love to hear any comments, good or bad so we can learn for future apps.
(And yes Android lovers like me, you are not forgotten, and I have already heard you on our RMIT social networks, but we need more Android developers out there! In the meantime, most functions on the app will also be available across the www.rmit.edu.au/mobile web site on Open Day.)
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