The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘while-it-doesn’

Last October, developer Loren Brichter set the App Store on fire with the sequel to his brilliant iPhone Twitter client, Tweetie. It looks like he’s about to do the same to the Mac.

Brichter sent out a series of teasing tweets today indicating that Tweetie Two is coming soon for the Mac. One, from his atebits account, reads:

Ready… ready?! News about Tweetie Tw… ROOOOOAAAAR!! NOOOO DON’T EAT M *BLAM BLAM*. *CHOMMMPP* Aaaaararrrrrgghhhhhh.

While clearly he’s about to say “News about Tweetie Two,” that in and of itself isn’t very useful. The more useful tweet comes from his personal Twitter account, where he links to a “leaked” screenshot, “Shhh, @atebits doesn’t know I’m leaking screenshots.” To which he replies to himself, “Damn you @lorenb!” Cute.

Better is the screenshot itself (below). While it doesn’t show much of anything beyond what seems to be a frame for Tweetie Two (which he humorously calls “Tweetie Too”), the fact that it’s far enough along to for him to feel comfortable leaking anything is a good sign.

Brichter released Tweetie for Mac last April, following the success of Tweetie (the first one) for the iPhone. It costs you $20 for the ad-free version, but it is well worth it if you’re addicted to Twitter want want a native, non-AIR app (though Echofon has a nice one as well).

So what else do we know about Tweetie Two for the Mac? Brichter actually set up a Formspring.me account where he has answered some questions himself. Notably, the pricing for Tweetie Two will be the same as the first one. Brichter basically spends all his time on the project. And he even designs it himself. Also, “The interface is going to be substantially different,” he writes.

Finally, when asked if he plans to develop for the upcoming iPad, Brichter has just two words, “Hell yeah.” Tweetie for iPad, anyone?

Doodle Jump for the iPhone is something like a developer’s fairy tale: two brothers set out to make a game using only the talents they’ve got at hand, and end up striking gold. They keep pushing out minor updates, and the game just keeps selling.

Tomorrow morning, Lima Sky will be announcing that Doodle Jump has just surpassed 3 million sales — a feat they claim is a first for any Indie development house. If it seems like we were just writing about Doodle Jump surpassing the 1 million download mark, it’s because we were; that last landmark only just came in mid-December of last year. Less than 3 months later, Lima Sky has managed to triple an already impressive haul.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

8bitnyc is a fully interactive map of New York City that lets you drag, search and zoom in and out just like Google Maps. Except it is displayed as an 80’s style 8-bit video game map. The map was created using map data from OpenStreetMap.

Why? Who cares. I love it.

Creator Brett Camper says “I created 8-Bit NYC, mixing the lo-fi overhead world maps of 1980s role-playing and adventure games with the kind of geographical data that drives today’s web maps and GPS navigation. It’s interactive (like Google Maps), letting you zoom from a view of the whole city, down to an individual street — any address, anywhere in the city. Here are a few highlights: Central Park, Greenwich Village, World Trade Center.”

And he’s not done. Camper is asking for donation to help him build out fifteen more 8-bit city maps. The funds will be used for web hosting and the Amazon EC2 computing time needed for drawing the maps. Eight of the cities he has already selected, the other seven will be selected by donors. More information is here.

Every place and object in the world has a secret past: who lived there, who passed by, who touched it. The secret lives of objects are filled with such details. If only you could make them talk. But what if you could give any physical object a story simply by sticking a barcode on it and appending a message to that barcode? The message could be a photo, a text message, a video, or a voice note. All anyone would need to unlock the message is a phone with a special barcode scanning app.

Stickybits is that app. Founded by Billy Chasen (the original programmer behind Chartbeat) and Seth Goldstein (chairman and founder of SocialMedia), the startup just closed a $300,000 seed round from Polaris Venture Partners and Mitch Kapor. Officially launching this week at Austin’s SXSW festival, stickybits is a new mobile app for both the iPhone and Android. It lets you scan any barcode and attach a message to that physical object.

The barcode in a greeting card , for instance, could trigger a video message from the sender. One on a box of medical supplies could inventory what is inside. A business card with a code on it could link to a resume or LinkedIn profile. Museums and theme parks could use them for audio tours and maps. Local merchants could use the barcodes to track deliveries or place them in their storefront windows to distribute digital coupons and offers to passersby. The possibilities are endless.

The app is free, but stickybits sells packs of 20 vinyl barcode stickers for $10. You also can download and print your own barcodes for free, or scan an existing one on a physical product like a can of Coke. (Future business model: charge brands to claim their barcodes and place their own messages first).

Each barcode is programmable by the first person who scans it and and leaves a photo, video, audio, or text message. The next time somebody scans that barcode, the previous message will appear on their phone. Anyone can add a new message to the same code, resulting in a stream of messages connected to whatever object or place the barcode is stuck on. Each scan, and related message, is geo-tagged so you can see as an object moves around how its story evolves.

The app lets you follow people and see their object stream, or get notified whenever one of your objects is scanned, moved, or new bits are attached to them. You can toggle between stream and map views. It supports Facebook Connect for login and any scan can be broadcast out to Facebook, Twitter, or Foursquare. With Foursquare, it actually gives you the option to check into the place where you are by scanning the barcode.

If stickybits sounds like science fiction that may be because they share some attributes with author Bruce Sterling’s concept of “Spimes” (later fleshed out in his book Shaping Things):

The most important thing to know about Spimes is that they are precisely located in space and time. They have histories. They are recorded, tracked, inventoried, and always associated with a story.

Spimes have identities, they are protagonists of a documented process.

They are searchable, like Google. You can think of Spimes as being auto-Googling objects.

Sterling predicted Spimes will eventually be designed into all objects, and contain their histories, raw materials, ingredients, ownership history and other data. Perhaps stickybits are first steps in that direction.

The 2010 Ford Taurus SHO is quite possibly the geekest car to ever wear the blue oval. It’s packed with nearly every technology option that Ford has available.

Read more:
Video hands-on: 2010 Ford Taurus SHO

See the original post: 
If only this comic turned out to be true about Steve Job’s announcement tomorrow

This page just went live over on AT&T’s site.

View original here: 
AT&T confirms they’ll get Android phones from Motorola, HTC, and Dell in first half of 2010

I’m sure you’ve seen this ad online at some point in your Internet travels. It’s for the game Evony , an online Civilization clone that, while it doesn’t outright stink on ice, it isn’t the best, either.

Read the original post: 
Evony ad campaign: Where breasts trick you into playing a Civ clone

Paul W.S. Anderson , that’s who! Yes, the same guy who directed the first Resident Evil movie (and who wrote and produced the other two) is back for this latest installment.

Go here to see the original:
Guess who will direct the next Resident Evil movie!

There are a lot of cool cameras in Flickr user and camera collector John Kratz’s photostream — a lot of cool cameras — but I think this one takes the cake.

Original post: 
Voltron camera: “And I’ll form the lens!”