Two mobile apps for navigating the city in two very different ways:
Embark – maps plus some more hand-holding (i.e. alerts, underground access)
Via Laughing Squid
Serendipitor – maps plus simple instructions to follow along the way — for the more whimsical commuter
Adobe’s The Expressive Web demos the emerging capabilities that html5 and css3 deliver.
You may think their time has passed, but what if QR Codes were less ugly and more useful?
Designer Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino set out to improve this troubled medium with Mapcodes, a hyper-linking system that uses fragments of maps — instead of indecipherable blocks — to link to full maps.
http://designswarm.com/blog/2011/09/mapcodes/
Although still in prototype/idea territory, it’s refreshing to see more user-friendly (and beautiful) graphic languages being developed for connecting digital content to physical locations.
Contributed by Ralph Paone
If this then that puts the internet to work for you. The free service allows users to set up a number of ‘recipes’ that fit the structure: if this happens, then do that. For instance, if rain is in the forecast, then send a text notification or if there’s a new post on Craigslist for a certain item, then send an email. Simple utility.
Collect sounds from everyday life and use this app to make music with them!
Via Laughing Squid
Attention all creative directors who never bothered to learn Photoshop: here’s an amazing new Wacom tool that transforms your sketches into digital files.
Contributed by Collin Whitehead
Via Discovery News
The Trimensional app is a 3D scanner that generates models using the iPhone’s front-facing camera.
Via Laughing Squid
Continuing the Internet self-education theme, “Don’t Fear the Internet” is another great resource bank of instructional videos that explain how the Internet works and teach some basic coding.
The project was cooked up by designers and it, in their words, will “help demystify html and css coding so you can prettify your blogs and quit asking your nerd friends for freebies!”
Check it out: http://www.dontfeartheinternet.com/
Awesome free tool for learning how to code in Javascript! http://www.codecademy.com/
This just makes a lot of sense. People post needs, others who can help post solutions.
Needs vary from anything like “a dog-friendly hotel in Orlando” to “a good book on Python” to “an inexpensive, non-hydrogenated, corn syrup free powdered coffee creamer.” And if you’re not currently in need, you can browse and follow other peoples’ needs, loop in other friends who might be helpful or agree with posted solutions — all with a clean, easy to use interface.
Contributed by Sosia Bert