I was extremely excited to find out today that MUJI, the Japanese “no-brand” brand, which sells a wide variety of minimalist designed consumer products has just launched four iPad / iPhone apps – a calendar, notebook, travel companion, and an apparel catalogue.
It seems fairly obvious that Apple is betting the future of computing on multi-touch interfaces built around a two-tiered architecture of browser-based HTML5 web apps and local apps more closely tied to the operating system – iOS. Google are also taking a similar path, albeit with a more web-centric approach. I’ve been thinking about this recently and want to talk a little about where I see it all going.
With its many sensors (touch, proximity, direction, sound, camera) the iPhone has become a versatile platform for both developers and artists alike. Apps like Drum Meister, Bassist, iDrum, NLog Synthesizer, I Am T-Pain, Ocarina, and BeatMaker (to name but a few) turn the iPhone into a veritable collection of musical instruments in a single device which you may or may not look stupid using!
Without a doubt the iPhone is the most useful electronic product I own. Aside from its plethora of inbuilt functions the ability to download and install apps basically gives you unlimited scope for what you can do with it and with over 85,000 you’re spoilt for choice (even if 70% of them are rubbish). Living as an expat in China presents its own unique challenges but as the advert says “there’s an app for that”. Below is a list of what I consider my essential apps for helping with everyday life in China: (N.b. If you brought your iPhone abroad you’ll probably need to unlock it first to accept a foreign SIM card – PwnageTool usually does the trick but be sure to back…
If you like cool technology that looks like it could have come from the future then this is for you. Augmented Reality (AR) uses the combination of real-world and computer-generated data to blend computer graphic objects into real-time footage. The best way to understand this is to take a look at a few examples: New York Nearest Subway The acrossair iPhone app overlays directions to the nearest subway station on live video using GPS and compass data to guide you. Forget boring 2D tube maps but just be careful you don’t trip down the escalator while using this! There’s also a version availiable for the London Underground. AR Business Card This ingenious concept shows how a business card has been designed with a symbol…
After the initial glitches Apple had with their iPhone 3G launch and 2.0 software update launch last Friday settled down I was pleasantly surprised to find that, aside from all the new features, there are some pretty useful 3rd party applications already available and even better many are free. One which particularly caught my eye is the Mandarin Audio Phrasebook made by Lonely Planet. While I usually take a phrasebook when I’m going somewhere I don’t speak the language to be honest I rarely use it. The problem I have with paper phrase books is that its a pain to find what you want quickly which is the majority of situations when you need it. This application goes some way to solving the issue…
Edward Tufte, undisputed master of information visualisation (described by The New York Times as “the Leonardo da Vinci of Data”) and PowerPoint hater extraordinaire, has posted a very interesting article and video about the interface design of the iPhone [via]: “The iPhone platform elegantly solves the design problem of small screens by greatly intensifying the information resolution of each displayed page. Small screens, as on traditional cell phones, show very little information per screen, which in turn leads to deep hierarchies of stacked-up thin information–too often leaving users with “Where am I?” puzzles. Better to have users looking over material adjacent in space rather than stacked in time.” He makes some interesting observations about the user interface and offers some advice for areas which…
I think others have already said enough about the iPhone but sufficed to say it’s living up to my expectations so far. Having phone/ email/ internet/ ipod/ calendar/ photos/ camera/ maps etc. all in one slick device is very very nice. Getting it on Friday evening was an interesting experience in itself. Surprisingly, having queued on Regents Street for about an hour and a half, it only took 15 mins to make the purchase from the time the doors opened amid the crowds of cheering Apple staff (perhaps a little much!). I quickly headed home, praying not to get mugged on the way, and activated it through iTunes – a process which was surprisingly simple (my old phone number transferred directly without any wait).…
Looking at the submitted designs in the “Love Your Earth” designboom competition, for artwork to raise awareness about the environment, there are some are pretty cool entries ~ in particular these two which are very simple but effective ~ the left one was the overall the winner [via]. I can’t help that worry that “being green” has become fashionable for the sake of ones image rather than the sake of the environment (no, recycling does not justify your Chelsea tractor). Climate change has certainly gone a long way up the news agenda in the past year, which can only be a good thing, but at the end of the day actions speak louder than words… Elsewhere… Here in the UK it’s finally iDay which…
September was all about Korea so it’s about time to get back to the basics and a little more random! The past few weeks have been predictably busy at work. I’ve been busy designing a web service API (Application Program Interface) for a major organisation which basically allows it to syndicate it’s content and data to others for various purposes. It’s been an interesting challenge with many different aspects to it, not just technical, but that’s about all I can say here! iPhone UK Launch We’ve been waiting so long for this magical piece of technology to hit British shores that you would imagine the hype would have died down by now but since getting my hands on an iPod Touch for a few…