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Category: iPhone

Platial finds Apple iPhone App Store with Nearby

Rick Turoczy on July 22, 2008

Platial iPhone iconPortland-based Platial, the mapping site that helps folks tell the backstories about locations that deepen the meaning of “where you are,” just got a lot more mobile, now that Platial Nearby is part of the Apple iPhone App Store.

I got the chance to see a demo version of Nearby at Platial’s iPhone App launch party a few weeks back. And it’s a pretty slick little application. Nearby takes advantage of the location-aware features of the newest iPhone, allowing users to dig into Platial content that is pertinent to both where they are—and where they might like to be.

Like most mapping applications, users can find the typical “publicly available” information about locations. But with Nearby, they also gain the advantage of tapping into Platial user data—the stories about the spot you’re standing. That means litterally thousands of notes, images, tags, and reviews for some areas. Stories of personal experience. And insight. Stories that you don’t usually get, unless you have an actual person or two to guide you.

Long story short, Nearby is a virtual tour guide, providing the backstory for the world around you. And with the iPhone app, you’re getting that story as you walk through that location.

Platial Nearby on the iPod Touch

“This reinforces our mission to create the Peoples Atlas,” said Di-Ann Eisnor, CEO of Platial. “For two years we’ve been collecting information about all kinds of places that are meaningful to people; user-generated content that goes beyond commercial listings and into architecture, activism, street art, playgrounds, local history–things you can’t find anywhere else. We still have a long way to go, but we’re closer now with Platial for iPhone.”

Nearby is currently available for download from the Apple iPhone App Store. No registration is required, so users can begin using the app right away.

Well, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch with the 2.0 version of the firmware.

Have you tried the Platial Nearby app? I’d love to hear about your experience.

Platial is a free online mapping resource where people around the world every day share and discover all kinds of places. Anyone can map just about anything including their towns, lives, travels, feeds, files, photos, video, and stories in one simple interface.

toonlet phones it in

Rick Turoczy on April 21, 2008

Portland-based toonlet, the only Silicon Forest based service I’ve found that holds the promise of turning you into the next Jim Davis Scott Adams Matt Groening, has released a couple of recent updates that have made the joy of creating toonlets more, well, joyful.

Much like Bruce Banner gaining superpowers after being accidentally irradiated, the toonlet team has discovered that a series of recent Safari-focused improvements have imbued toonlet with superpowers of its own. And you reap the benefit.

So—wait—maybe it’s you that has the superpowers and toonlet is more like the radiation giving you those powers?

I don’t know. My analogy kind of fell apart there.

Anyway. Suffice it to say that, thanks to these Safari improvements on toonlet, you gain the ability to create, compose, and edit toonlets from your Apple iPhone (or someone else’s iPhone if you wish).

In fact, I created the toonlet below from my iPhone. (Yes, I agree. It’s unfortunate that they have yet to fix the “lacking humor” problem. Baby steps.)
http://toonlet.com/embed/strip?i=9156

Second, and easily more important, toonlet has added an “edit” feature for its strips. So now, when you make typos, pick the wrong character, or write something unfunny… Not that that happens to you. I mean, you’re always funny. But if someone less talented than you were to make that sort of mistake, now they can go back and make the toonlet better.

As always, toonlet remains the conversational comic strip service, allowing you to comment on other’s toonlets with toonlets of your own. So please, by all means, head on over and tell me how unfunny that strip above is by creating your own toonlet.

ORBlogs releases iPhone interface

Rick Turoczy on February 18, 2008

Corvallis-based ORBlogs, the Oregon-focused blog aggregator, has announced the release of an iPhone interface. Interested users can access the simplified iPhone version via m.orblogs.com. (You can access that URL via a Web browser, as well, if you’re interested in a really big interface.)

ORBlogs’ new interface provides a stripped down view of its site content:

[Y]ou can browse all posts, Oregon-related posts, popular posts, and the top 15 topics from the last seven days. Clicking a post excerpt will take you directly to the post on the original blog.

iPhone users will also be happy to know that there is a custom icon for your iPhone desktop, if you choose to add it as a Web clip.

More is planned for the m.orblogs.com, including city-focused pages similar to those found on the ORBlogs site.

ORBlogs is run by Paul Bausch, one of the original developers on Blogger. An admitted side-project, ORBlogs provides a valuable resource to all Oregon-based bloggers by aggregating stories from across the state. For more information, visit ORBlogs.

iStrands brings MyStrands to iPhone, iPod Touch

Rick Turoczy on January 2, 2008

Corvallis-based MyStrands has announced that they are releasing their latest lab creation into the wild: iStrands.

What does iStrands do?

iStrands enables you to build your profile at http://www.mystrands.com in realtime while listening to your music on an iPhone or iPod touch.

If you’re up for jailbreaking your iPhone or iPod Touch (or if you already have), this may be an interesting application to try. If you do, I’d love to hear back about your experience.

Grabb.it releases incredibly cool interface for iPhone

Rick Turoczy on August 16, 2007

Tired of the music on your iPhone? Point it to the Grabb.it iPhone interface and you’ll be surfing new tunes in a matter of seconds. Find one you like? Click and you’ll be listening—to the whole song.

Just flip through the iPhone friendly scroll list or search, then click on a selected tune, and voila! That’s it. It’s playing on your iPhone. Just like that.

The new Grabb.it iPhone service worked flawlessly on wifi, with no interruption. It played the songs as if they were stored in my iPod library. With Edge, it was a little choppy.

Still, worth checking out.

[UPDATE] Great insight into the development challenges, on Chris Anderson’s blog.

Designed to support independent musicians, the Portland-based Grabb.it service makes any Web-accessible MP3s—from local favorites, relative unknowns, and popular artists—more accessible by indexing MP3s as they are posted by artists and fans.

iPhone Whois

Rick Turoczy on August 15, 2007

If you’re anything like me, you come up with domain ideas in the most random—and often unwired—places. I mean like the grocery store. What were you thinking about?

Never mind that now. We have important matters to discuss.

Matt King has just released a Whois application for the Apple iPhone. So now, no matter where you are—as long as that “where” has Edge or wifi access—you can check that domain name and see if it’s available.

To try it out, head over to whois.onmyiphone.net.

Of course, then you have to go try to register it on the very non-iPhone-ish registry sites. Baby steps.

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