augmented reality, your iphone and you

The following is an homage to an awesome post I found over at Rubbishcorp. Go read it. Or read it here. Or whatever. Either way, its the best compilation of the affects of Augmented Reality on your fancy pants mobile device. It’s about to become as big a deal as Ron Burgundy…

Augmented Reality technology isn’t new, but it is taking on a whole new meaning in your mobile device. As positioning and recognition technology strengthens it will find a much more mass audience. Devices sporting geotagging, triangulation, recognition, wireless and compass technology have raised the virtual/physical mobile experience bar as they all work seemlessly together (behind the scenes) to now serve everyone with masses of information layered over the ‘real’ world.

No longer will you have to haplessly unfold a map at a museum, search endlessly for the semolina in a supermarket or not know exactly how much further to go before you reach your a bar, train, resturant, etc.

Your face is even free game! This TAT demo shows your social network(s) profile, media, personal data etc. all hovering around your noggin’ when someone points an at you.

Nokia are in on the act with their indoor location systems as well as Point & Find and apple has also raised the bar by getting involved with this little beauty.

Add to that ViPR technology which has been around for a while and can recognize actual objects (via a connected database) and best not forge RFID that registers objects within close proximity and again can pull data from a connected online source.

Time people spend with mobile continues to rise and compete with other sources as a direct result the increasing usefulness of the technology in making connections in the ‘physical’ space. And the raft of Augmented Reality applications that make use of a devices enhanced positioning and recognition capabilities are not limited to phones - increasingly gaming devices and MP3 players use the technology.

Screen-based experiences are increasingly overwhelming our experience of the physical world making, further blurring the lines and making the virtual a very “real” part of our lives. Social networking has already transformed our relationships and Augmented Reality looks to be the thing that does the same for shopping, traveling, culture, drinking, language translation and pretty much everything else.

Like the MP3 player and camera before it location and recognition technology will soon be ubiqutous on mobile devices. The influence that has on our lives cannot be underestimated, it will be massive.

bye bye Pantone books, helloz Loupe!

You never know where you are going to find the perfect color. Check out Loupe. You can capture your color inspirations so you don’t have to try and guess what that shade was when you are back at your computer. Simple and thoughtfully designed, Loupe lets you create color swatches from your photo library or using the camera to save colors as you find them.

Enjoi!

Fireworks toolkit for creating iPhone UX / UI mockups

The folks at Metaspark were kind enough to give you an inside edge on your iPhone UX development. Yay! Thanks dudes!

from their site

While designing Notespark, we did a lot of UI mockups. As it turns out, I prefer using Fireworks for this kind of work over Photoshop, because it’s easier to manipulate objects on the screen. After doing some Google searching, it appeared there weren’t any good templates for doing iPhone mockups, so we built our own. The file is pretty complete now, so we’re sharing it with the rest of the world. We started out with a combination of bitmaps and vectors, but we found that vectors were easier to edit, so every single item has been redrawn as a vector [*], which should make it easier to edit to your heart’s content.

Access the CS3 version here and the CS4 version here.

Kudos to Metaspark for this one. Enjoi!

Alternate reality meets the iPhone

Rad, rad, rad! Meet Nearest Tube, but Acrosshair. One of the first augmented reality apps to go live in the iPhone AppStore.

Wandering around the UK and want to locate the closest Underground station? Simply look at your iPhone! This app displays All 13 lines of the underground network, pointing them out with colored arrows.

Users can see the nearest station, what direction they are in relation to their location, how far and what tube lines/stations etc. If you continue to tilt the phone upwards, you will see stations further away, as stacked icons.

Available to Apple iPhone 3GS users. Enjoi!

fresh pizza made with computers

Italian food is famous for being cooked fresh with fresh ingredients, but an entrepreneur wants to popularize his automatic vending machine that will cook pizza with fresh ingredients, including the dough.

A new pizza vending machine will cook an entire pizza with fresh ingredients, flour, water, tomato sauce and ingredients in less than three minutes.

Claudio Torghele, 56, become successful by selling pasta in California, and now wants to sell his automatic pizza vending machines in Italy.

Rad.

buhnannaz!

We’ll be oooold fuckers before some of this UX hits paydirt. But man oh man this is sweet UX happiness.

Be sure to peep 4:30.

via neonarcade

these chairs are sofa-king awesome

Yes, it’s the yearly beach-outdoor-fun-time and these inflatable sofas for the beach are just what the doctor ordered.

Most people bring some old towels, some bring cheap plastic things that usually turns out to look like a duck, other people buy special blankets that looks very nice. But why not bring something completely rediculous - like your very own Chesterfield sofa.

The Blofield is all about surprise. It’s an inflatable PVC sofa, designed by Jeroen van de Kant. It comes in several seater editions, with an electric pump for sheer convenience.

It’s brilliant and I want five. Kthxbye.

lost robot asks people for directions

enjoi.

shoot the banker

Stop reading this and go to Shoot The Banker. GOgogogo!

Fantastic right? But get it while it’s hot! It’s LIVE and it will prolly disappear soon.

Get recession revenge by waiting in line (currently I’m 100th in line) to control a LIVE paintball gun for 10 seconds. It’s aimed at a LIVE (are you listening?!) banker. Then you shoot him. If you don’t suck.

Yay!

Oh, and turn up your audio. :)

meet ScaryGirl. go. play. now.

I’m not going to waste your time with commentary on this one. It genius and beautiful.

Go. Play. Now.

2009 web trend map

Wow. The Web Trend Map is a yearly publication by IA, Inc. This doc maps the 333 most influential web domains and the 111 most influential internet people onto the Tokyo Metro Map.

Intense. Yet - wonderfully simple.  Download the original here.

2009 fashion prediction: the boobie scarf

Are you chilly and suffering from a dearth of people staring at your chest? Well look no further my friends because have I got the solution for you. The Snuggie is SOOOO 2008. It’s time for the statement of all statements: the boobie scarf.

That’s right ladies (ahem, and dudes) nothing says class like a set in the breeze. And for your viewing pleasure - I’ve hunted down three options to get you going. Special thanks to Monica for the find.

Boobie Scarf Option 1: “The Droopy”

Droopy Link.

boobie scarf option 2: “The Perky”

Perky Link.

aaand… option 3 (Just Plain Weird)

Weird Link.

Definitive List of The 99 Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet Unless You're a Loser or Old or Something.

Found this last night. It’s awesome. Hat’s off to Greg Rutter.

01) Grape Stomp
02) Charlie Bit Me
03) Chocolate Rain
04) Dancing Baby
05) Post Secret
06) Charlie The Unicorn
07) Mentos and Diet Coke
08) Numa Numa
09) Peanut Butter Jelly Time
10) George Lucas In Love
11) You’re The Man Now Dog
12) Yatta
13) Star Wars Kid
14) Bubb Rubb
15) The Flying Spaghetti Monster
16) Dramatic Chipmunk
17) Homestar Runner
18) GI Joe Pork Chop Sandwiches
19) Fail Blog
20) Skateboarding Dog
21) All Your Base Are Belong To Us
22) Winnebago Man
23) We Like The Moon
24) I Can Has Cheezburger
25) Barney Vs. Tupac
26) Shining
27) Cute Overload
28) Rick Roll
29) Lazy Sunday
30) David After The Dentist
31) Powerthirst
32) Christian The Lion
33) Bert and Ernie Rap
34) Lady Punch
35) Leprechaun in Alabama
36) Where The Hell Is Matt
37) Boom Goes The Dynamite
38) Breakdancing Baby
39) Drunk Jeff Goldblum
40) Scarlet Takes A Tumble
41) Sepultura - Refuse resist (cover) By Gauchos
42) Gay Mount Everest
43) Afro Ninja
44) Cop Shoots Himself In Leg In Classroom
45) Tron Guy
46) “Leave Britney Alone”
47) Laughing Baby
48) I’m the Juggernaut Bitch
49) The Chairperson Falls
50) Take On Me The Literal Version
51) Bill O’Reilly Flips Out
52) Don’t Tase Me Bro
53) The Landlord
54) Breakdancing Baby Kick
55) The Pet Penguin
56) Ms. South Carolina Answers A Question
57) I’m F*#king Matt Damon
58) Will It Blend
59) Spaghetti Cat
60) Tom Cruise Kills Oprah
61) Little Superstar
62) Chad Vader
63) Pretty Much Everywhere It’s Going To Be Hot
64) I Like Turtles
65) Who Needs A Movie
66) Jake E. Lee Shreds
67) Hawaii Chair
68) Aussie Party
69) Hitler Plans Burning Man
70) Flirting with Magic
71) Look At The Horse
72) Asian Backstreet Boys
73) Leroy Jenkins
74) Pinky The Cat
75) Monkey Sniffs Finger
76) Sneezing Panda
77) Prison Inmates remake “Thriller”
78) Techno Viking
79) Ask A Ninja
80) Best Man Trips and Ruins Wedding
81) Best Wedding Toast Ever (Amy’s Song)
82) Kitten Surprise (how to break up a cat fight)
83) Katana Sword Infomercial Goes Wrong
84) Matrix Ping Pong
85) La Pequeña Prohibida
86) Angry German Kid (translated)
87) Evolution of Dance
88) Ok Go – “Here It Goes Again”
89) Battle at Kruger (lions vs. buffalos vs. crocodiles)
90) Daft Hands
91) Human Beatbox
92) Most T-Shirts Worn At Once
93) Zero G Dog
94) Cuppy Cakes Song
95) George Washington
96) Scary Maze Prank
97) Gay Referee
98) Tranquilized Bear Hits Trampoline
99) Reporter Gets A Fly In The Mouth

lose "wait"

So you show up at your favorite Cheesecake Factory ready to stuff your fat face full of fried foccacia, but the line is around the friggin’ block. You have two choices: Sit and wait. Forever. (Whilst holding the dumbest invention in all the land - the buzzing beer coaster.) Or head to the next spot on your list. Maybe their line won’t suck. But let’s face it you really wanted some fucking Cheesecake.

horray!

Now you have a new option (are you listening Cheesecake Factory?). Your mobile number. Yep. Your mobile number. Vis-a-vis the fine folks at Qless.

QLess is looking to provide a more logical system that uses your mobile phone. You can check into a line by sending a txt message or making a phone call, without even the need for someone to physically check you in. Then, you’ll simply receive a txt message or phone call when your turn in line has come up.

What does all that mean, fatboy? (Geez I’m angry today). Now you can go and walk the avenue with your hot date until your txt arrives. When it does, txt the hottie back at the Cheesecake Factory and let her know you’re 10 min away. (She’ll bump you 10 min in line) est voila! your seat is waiting. Neat, right? You might have even walked off some of that double order of corn fritters you’re about to order because you can’t help yourself every time you go. Too much info? :)

but wait, there’s more

In addition to making things more convenient for customers, QLess offers establishments that use it a number of marketing and research features. For example, you can send out coupons to customers that are waiting in line, and utilize analytics to see how your establishment is trending in terms of return customers or average wait time.

While restaurants are the most logical place for something like QLess to take hold, the company is also targeting kinkos, post offices, and the DMV, and pretty much anywhere you want to shoot your face off because “those fucking morons behind the counter can’t seem to get their shit toegether…”

As a customer, there’s not much more to see other than a txt message and a high five from your amazed friends, but as a business that might want to consider implementing its service, QLess’ website offers some more details on the features and how to get setup.

So what are you waiting for (ahem Cheesecake Factory, ahem…) get your asses over to Qless.com and make me a sandwich!

tune in to twitter radio

from the site:

Mark McKeague, a student at Queen’s University Belfast, has invented a radio that tunes in to and broadcasts messages posted on the social-networking site Twitter. In addition, the tweets are sorted by sentiment, such as happy or sad, based on their content. McKeague, who studies music technology, has created an interactive version of this radio twitter that allows people to listen to messages posted on the website in real time.

“I came up with the idea when thinking about the amount of information that is being broadcast on the internet, through numerous social networks and personal sites,” said McKeague in a press interview. “There is so much information being broadcast and most of it goes unread and unnoticed. I wanted to find a new way to use this information.”

McKeague found a radio when he was home for Christmas and liked its old-fashioned style and feel. He took it apart and added an Arduino microcontroller, commonly used in DIY electronics projects, that picks up on the radio’s tuning dial. He added a connection to the radio’s speakers and wrote software to download tweets and send them to the radio.

Via: Technology Review

business cards are soooo... 2008

Holy shit balls, finally!

Get out your pretty mobile and txt “ajello” to 50500 (no quotes) to see what I mean.

BAM! Introducing Contxts, a new service from ID345, a Denver-based idea company. It’s quite simple: you program what you want your business card to say on the website, and then tell people to text your user ID to 50500, or you can send it to them. Could it be any easier than that?

Several companies have attempted to solve the problem of paper business cards for some time, but Contxts takes the cake IMHO. You can even use the service without ever visiting the website. Just text “JOIN firstname lastname email” to 50500 and then when anyone texts your number to 50500, they will get your name and email address.

Enjoi!

rediculously simple and awesome

Ridiculously simple and awesome site that lets you make desktop notes for yourself. Meet StickyScreen.

wish i'd thought of that...

What better way to advertise Killzone, than to just let the target play the game? Awesome. Install the Killzone toolbar for your browser (Firefox v3 recommended or IE6/7) and as you browse your favorite webbasites you’ll get ambushed and thrown right into a battle scene.

Like I said, Awesome.

the game cake that takes the cake (and then some)

Ok, now I’m inspired. There are cakes, and then there are Game Cakes, then there are ones that “take the Game Cake.” I think this did that. Err, something. Anywayz, this Super Mario Galaxy cake is just friggin’cool.

from the site:

“Constructed of pure greatness, actual cake, fondant, Rice Krispy squares, fiber optic lighting, and pure love, the cake features several Super Mario Galaxy features and characters, including the under-glass pill-shaped puzzle area and Princess Peach’s castle. And then just when you think it couldn’t get any better, the damn thing moves.”

Enjoi. And as @stevekrzysiak says: “nice, don’t eat the servos and whatnot :)”

Found on Kotaku.

Google Latitude: schedule impromtu meetups or stalk people. the choice is yours

Welp, if you read my last post you prolly saw my rant about Loopt and Tweetie and how 2009 is the year for location based networking. Wait for it…waiiiit for iiiiit….

I told you so. :)

Meet Google Latitude. Google’s next foray into location based networking (miss you, dodgeballl. sniff.) It lets you see where your friends are on a map (Google Maps for mobile and iGoogle) so you can plan an impromptu meetup, see that a loved one got home safely, or you know, stalk people.

But that’s not the bad news. The bad news? (No iPhone support yet.) Grr.

It was only a matter of time before Google entered this market, and no doubt millions of people will soon be flooding the service with their up-to-the-minute location details. With the combination of Google Maps, Google Latitude, Google Friend Connect, and Android, it’s not very difficult to begin daydreaming about the potential for this service.

But it’s also a leap of faith as a user, entrusting Google with yet another piece of data that helps them figure out the puzzle of understanding you - and how and where you’re likely to perform actions that put money in Google’s pocket. It will be interesting to see where Google goes with this one - and interesting to see where you’re going, you know, now that I can stalk you.