Archive for March, 2008

Conceptual iPhone Apps

Mar 26

Posted by Richard Ting in Mobility

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Conceived by Phil Lu, a multimedia designer with experience working in various dynamic and collaborative environments, is this iPhone/iPod Touch application that allows users to purchase their favorite Starbucks drink without waiting in line. This application also includes QuickPay, a swipe transaction system using semacode technology.

Check out the iPhone Starbucks demo here.

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Nicholas G Panas of play/ unveiled his new idea for a iPhone Lego application. By using the iPhone’s touch interface to interact with a catalog of many Lego bricks and building blocks, users could create their own Lego creations right from the screen, adding color and form thanks to the multi-touch zoom feature. The creations could then be shared with your friends.

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Edward Tufte on the iPhone

Mar 25

Posted by Richard Ting in Interactive, Mobility

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Tufte deconstructs the goodness of the iPhone user interface. The main takeaways that I had after watching the video are that the iPhone does a great job of juggling many information elements by giving up the entire phone screen real estate to content and by reducing the number of ‘computer administrative debris’ on the screen. Scrolling and enlarging operations on the touch screen based iPhone now reside in the hands of the user, not in ‘computer administrative debris’. Also, Tufte talks about how Apple does a great job of simplifying information presentation by stripping away and starting simple. If the information needs to be clarified, then add detail. Having too much clutter and overload in the beginning is not an attribute of information, it is a failure of design.

Check out the video.

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Int13’s CrazyKart 2 coming to iPhone

Mar 20

Posted by Richard Ting in Gaming, Mobility

[via IntoMobile]
France-based mobile game developer Int13 started porting their Crazy Kart 2 game over to the iPhone. As far as we know, users should expect 320×320 pixels playing area, on-screen virtual steering wheel, 3 vehicle classes (karts, motorbikes, hovercrafts), 6 characters with different vehicles, downloadable content (new vehicles and tracks), and WiFi online multiplayer mode with match making and up to four simultaneous players!

According to Int13, the game which was originally created for Windows Mobile and Symbian platforms, was not too hard to adapt for the Apple iPhone, though they are still evaluating alternatives like tilt control and landscape display support.

Finally, the Int13 folks are already planning a sequel with a full 3D accelerated engine that will be specially designed for Apple’s handset. In the meantime, stay tuned for July when CrazyKart 2 is scheduled to be released… A demo video follows after the jump.

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Diigo V3 — Highlight & Share the Web. Social Bookmarking 2.0

Mar 20

Posted by Richard Ting in Interactive

If you browse or read a lot on the web, we believe you will find Diigo indispensable. Diigo is two services in one — it is a research and collaborative research tool on the one hand, and a knowledge-sharing community and social content site on the other.

Check out Diigo.

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NY Times article on Interface Design

Mar 10

Posted by Richard Ting in Interactive

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Check out the nice Sunday NY Times article on interface design. The article talks about the arrival of the Nintendo Wii and the Apple iPhone and how those two new innovations are beginning to re-invent how humans interact with computers. With the Wii, a wave of the hand can manipulate a tennis ball on the screen and with the iPhone, a flick of a finger can move an interface across the screen. The article also references early research work in multi-touch interaction by Jeff Han, a computer science researcher at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.

Read about it here.

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North Kingdom’s advergame for Coke Zero

Mar 7

Posted by Richard Ting in Advertising, Design, Interactive

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Swedish agency North Kingdom officially launched its international advergame for Coke Zero that ties into this summer’s UEFA EURO 2008 soccer championship. The site incorporates fantastic animation and film making with fast cars, hot dames, and four mini game challenges–Jump of Death, Powerball, Freestyler & Extreme Megaball. Users need to complete all four mini challenges to gain access to the Coke Zero lounge.

Read more about it on Creativity Magazine.

Check out the Coke Zero Game.

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Stuff White People Like

Mar 7

Posted by Richard Ting in Interactive

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This blog is devoted to stuff that white people like and it is one of funniest sites that I’ve stumbled across in a minute. The writing is so dead-on accurate, insightful, and very attentive to detail. In my opinion, the site is more about stuff upper middle class over-educated urbanistas like. Anyway, give it a read and don’t take too much offense. The author is just poking fun at a culture that seems almost ludicrous when analyzed from the outside-in.

Check out the site.

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Samsung and Adidas team up to launch Samsung F110 Fitness Phone

Mar 7

Posted by Richard Ting in Gaming, Music, Sneaker Culture

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It looks like Samsung and Adidas couldn’t just stand idly-by as Nike & Apple scooped up all of the consumers within the fitness meets gadgets meets training landscape. The new Samsung Adidas F110 is a quad-band GSM slider handset pre-loaded with fitness oriented features. The phone is capable of serving up heart rate, distance run, calories burned and running time data as long as the pedometer and heart-rate monitor are connected. In addition to the phone, pedometer, and heart-rate monitor is a workout-application website called miCoach which offers up to 220 different training programs that are downloadable.

Read more about it on IntoMobile.

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Twitter in Plain English

Mar 7

Posted by Richard Ting in Interactive

The Common Craft Show is a series of short explanatory videos by Lee and Sachi LeFever. Their goal is to fight complexity with simple tools and plain language. They call their presentation format “paperworks” and they publish a new video about once a month. This month’s video is Twitter in Plain English.

You can check out their YouTube channel here.

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2008 GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards

Mar 5

Posted by Richard Ting in Mobility

Robert Coren reports amidst the glitz and glamour at the Global Mobile Awards. This year’s awards celebrated the 4th and smallest screen with the likes of Robert Redford and Isabella Rossellini.

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NYTimes.com Bball info-porn

Mar 1

Posted by Richard Ting in Design, Interactive

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I love me some basketball and I love me some info-porn, so I just couldn’t resist posting this NYTimes.com special on the “The Defense Never Rests”. It’s a look at how NBA teams should defensively neutralize five of the top offensive plays in the NBA. Some of the plays that are examined are Steve Nash’s patented pick-and-roll with Amare Stoudemire and Kobe Bryant’s isolation play. Play-by-play court commentary is provided by the great ex-Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy.

Check it out here.

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Nokia N82 Review on G4TV

Mar 1

Posted by Richard Ting in Mobility

G4TV did a great piece yesterday on the Nokia N82 which unfortunately is not being carried by a U.S. operator. However, it’s a great device and available to be purchased as an unlocked device. The device is very close specs-wise to the Nokia N95 with a 5 megapixel camera, but the N82 sports a xenon flash and automatic screen rotation that trumps what the Nokia N95 offers in that area. The N82 also features the recently launched N-Gage gaming platform and the Nokia Music store. The device runs on Symbian OS v9.2 and on the S60 3rd Edition platform with Feature Pack 1.

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