Who hasn’t got one: A BILLY Closet from Ikea. To celebrate its 30th birthday, Ikea and Ogilvy Frankfurt created the Billygram app for Facebook. The app allowed users to post animated messages, written with books in a BILLY closet on each other’s walls.
Cool idea, especially if you realise the brief for this job must have been something like: “Can you make a campaign for our most boring product?”
Was the iPad presented as the savior magazines, here’s an app that will seriously undermine that position again: Flipboard. What it does is gather all the links people share you follow through social media, and present this in a magazine like format. Finally the overload of information you are bombarded with is bundled in a comprehensible manner. Just check out the movie.
Just subscribe to your favorite blogs and you don’t even need RSS feeds anymore. Can’t wait to get my hands on this!
Sitting here at the bottom of Brooklyn bridge in the sunshine I fell in love with the Hipstamatic iPhone app. Therefore it seemed like a good moment to write my first post here. The app allows you to take pictures with your iPhone and give them a magnificent ‘Lomo‘ look. With this app, everybody (even I) can be a great photographer. Just check out the result above.
The app comes with three standard lenses and film-types, and two different flash effects. The cool thing is that you can buy extension pack with additional lenses, flashes and film variations. All these options will surely will allow you a ton of variation, and a lot of nice pictures. Go get it, and shoot away!
Thinking about a name for your company, product or website? Frustrating isn’t it? It should feel and sound good, must not be already used by someone else, should have the potential to become a brand, and preferably with as little Google search results as possible. Fear no more! Wordoid is here.
Wordoids are words that are made-up, but sound right. They follow the rules of phonetics, and if done properly, roll off the tongue. And now there is Wordoid.com which helps you create these little gems that will help you create a name or simply inspire you.
Just choose one or more languages, select the preferred quality level, type in a fragment you would like the wordoids to contain, and press Create. And there it is, the name you couldn’t come up with. The cool thing is that it checks the availability of the domain name right away too and shows you how much it turns up on Google. A one-stop-shop for all your naming needs.
App.itize.us is a must for every iPhone owner out there. As they state themselves they are a painstakingly curated presentation of the best produced and designed iPhone applications that are available for download via the App Store. And a great collection it is, nicely categorized for easy browsing. Check back regularly!
Augmented Reality is becoming bigger and bigger. After introducing you Layar earlier (and the issues it brings with it) and Zugara, my latest find, SARA, shouldn’t be missed either.
SARA was created by the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) in partnership with IN10 Communicatie and Layar, is the world’s first mobile architecture application featuring augmented reality with 3D models. Simply hold up your smartphone to see photos, video, 3D models, scale models and other details about buildings, whether already there gone or planned to be there. The app currently only shows the new Market Hall in Rotterdam’s Blaak district. Although it’s still under construction, those with the app can view a 3D model of the finished building.
SARA also allows users to add their own information about any building or map tours of their favourite architecture. Beginning next month, the entire city of Rotterdam will be viewable through SARA; within five years, NAi expects the whole country to be covered. The technology was launched last month on the Layar platform and will be downloadable from the Apple App Store and Android Market beginning next month.
Amazing isn’t it? I hope they can get enough data to fill the app to an interesting level which I think is critical for app’s like these. But compliments for pushing the boundaries!
Through: Springwise
The Sleep Cycle alarm clock, developed by Swedish developer LexWare Labs AB, is an alarm clock that analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you when you are in the lightest sleep phase within a 30 minute timeframe before the wake up time set by yourself. Since you move differently in bed during the different phases, Sleep Cycle uses the accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your movement to determine which sleep phase you are in. You just tuck in under your sheets and close your eyes!
I have been trying the app now for a couple of days and I must say in most cases it did wake me up in a feeling better, less tired. Whether it is real or just a placebo effect I don’t know, and frankly I don’t care: It works. What’s also pretty cool is the readout it gives you of your sleeping pattern. Nice to see what happens when you are passed out, and how it differs each night.
Anyway, a very nice new use of the iPhone’s capabilities, and for only €0,79 it is definitly worth a try! Get it here.
Fashion behemoth Gucci is jumping on the iPhone bandwagon with its own branded app. And to be honest, the app feels a bit like I have experienced the brand for a while now: lost.
On one hand this free app provides you with the latest collections, sneak peaks, a store locator and gives you updates on new products etc. All stuff you’d expect in a Gucci branded app, right?
However, in trying to created a branded utility they have added a ‘hip’ function which allows you to remix some Mark Ronson created beats. Why people?! Besides the fact that it doesn’t work and crashes all the time, how does this suit the brand? The added playlists of head-designer Frida Gianni and Mark Ronson don’t help either. Is Gucci moving into the music industry now? It just feels scattered, hasty and ‘me-too’ all the way. Why not spend some more time on creating a truly remarkable app for the lovers of the brand out there? What a waste…
After Sherwin Williams launched their ColorSnap app for the iphone, now Pantone have launched their own app too: MyPantone.
The app allows users easy access to the Pantone color libraries, serving as an on-the-go color reference guide. It also allows the user to create and share color palettes in addition to saving and storing them for later. Similar to ColorSnap, myPantone’s Color Library comes in handy for designers or anyone seeking to make an exact color match. Sounds like a handy tool for every art director, stylist etc…
It’s available from iTunes for $10.
Through Coolhunting.
Vitaminwater is going 2.0! The brand is putting the people incharge of creating its next flavor through the launch of their Flavorcreator app on Facebook, marking the first time that fans of Vitaminwater can collaborate to create the next flavor.
Vitaminwater enthusiasts will have the opportunity to name the flavor, write the bottle copy and design the label via a contest with the winner receiving a $5,000 prize from Vitaminwater.
Another company has joined the movement of the future! Now go create your own drink!!
