All posts in iPhone

Spare Time Project! The InstaBAM! iPhone App – Find Instagram Photos Around The World

No Comments Posted On December 8, 2011

At the beginning of 2011 the popular photo-sharing network Instagram announced they would be opening up their platform to allow developers to create their own funky applications and tools.

I hooked up with expert dev Brendan (@fraislocht) and got right on the case to create a mobile website called InstaBAM (works on desktop too) which uses the location information attached to photos uploaded on Instagram to enable people to view pictures around where they are standing.

It was a very simple site for a simple concept – ‘View the world around you through the eyes of others’ . We knocked it together one Sunday evening and launched. The site was surprisingly popular and still is to this day, it should pass 60,000 view by the end of the year.

This led to a conversation with my iOS dev homeboy Jonathan about what we could do next. We decided to use some of Brendan’s hard work and quickly create a iPhone App version of InstaBAM.

In May InstaBAM hit the App Store, available to download for free, it was pretty much a replica of the mobile site and after a initial burst of downloads, they dropped heavily and we left the app unloved, languishing in the depths of the store.

I never blogged about the app or told many people because I always knew it needed more work to get it to a point where it could be used regularly.

Towards the end of the summer we decided to give InstaBAM a refresh, add some new features and a whole new design. We’ve both managed to nick a few hours here and there each week and get something out which is pretty interesting tool to explore photos.

All of the credit has to go to both Jonathan and Brendan, two insanely busy developers that are still willing to take time out and stay up late to work on my crackpot ideas.

So if you have a iPhone click the button below (or click here) and download InstaBAM, it’s completely free and you don’t need a Instagram account to browse local photos.

Credit for the photo donation goes to Chris Constantine, photographer and head of design at Sponge.

Augmented Reality Cinema App Overlays Scenes From Movies Into Real Life

1 Comment Posted On June 21, 2011

How cool is this? Really love the concept, reminds me of Dear Photograph and StreetMuseum

“There need never be another iPhone commerical after this one – and it’s not one”

No Comments Posted On February 21, 2011

I picked up this tweet by Glue and it’s very true.

Apparently Atomic Tom got all their instruments nicked and decided to improvise by using their iPhones. It’s a great video with nearly 5 million hits on YouTube.

“This video was filmed unannounced on Friday October 8, 2010 aboard the New York City B Train, over the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn and edited from 3 iPhone cameras. All footage is performed 100% live and executed in one take. 4.5m views and climbing.”

There need never be another iPhone commercial after this one — and it’s not one. http://t.co/6CxHGvmless than a minute ago via Twitter for Macglue Isobar
glueisobar

[Via Andy Kinsella]

Forrst iPhone App Mock-up

No Comments Posted On January 11, 2011

I’ve been using the design community site Forrst for inspiration quite a bit recently, it’s a great mix of developers and creatives all sharing pieces of work, getting feedback and asking questions.

Forrst doesn’t have a mobile presence right now and a few days ago a member posted their own mockup of what the iPhone app could look like. I decided to quickly hack together some of my own ideas and post it to get some feedback.

I tried to carry the look and feel from the site onto the app using the eye-catching wood texture for the navigation and the green/beige colour scheme.

You can check the post and the responses here. I might have another go at the actually IA as it’s not right at the moment.

Update: It’s topped out at 343 Likes and 85 comments. Success!

I Love Instagram Because It Fools Me Into Thinking I’m A Awesome Photographer

1 Comment Posted On December 23, 2010

Instagram is currently my favourite iPhone app, it’s just reached 1,000,000 users in only 10 weeks and just goes to show if you really have a sweet idea, the app store can be your ticket to success. Don’t believe all these ‘experts’ that say it’s ‘fools gold‘ … but that’s a post for another time.

If you haven’t heard of Instagram, it’s basically like a really condensed version of Flickr, it centres around taking pictures and adding filters to them, making them look about tens time better than they really are. Once you’re done filtering, it is submitted for the community to view – instant gratification. You can ‘like’ photos and follow other users Twitter-style, all in a simple to use interface.

Whenever you speak to a Android or Blackberry user they don’t really get what all the fuss is about Instagram but it’s so nicely done and incredibly addictive.

It’s so good that I’m taking about 20 photos a day in the deluded hope that applying a filter called 1977, Toaster or Lomo-fi will make them amazing, then confirming (in my twisted mind) that my true destiny should have been being a photographer for National Geographic or erm, FHM.

Here’s a few snaps, if you wanna add me username: morz

Father And Son Launch iPhone Into Space (Along With HD Video Camera)

No Comments Posted On November 9, 2010

Check out this cool video of a HD Camera and iPhone 4 being sent into space from New York using a weather balloon. Luke Geissbuhler and his son put together the mission and used the iPhone’s GPS to track the phone when it came back down to earth and found it up a tree 30 miles from the launch location.

Obviously Luke could have used any old GPS unit and not a £500 high end smartphone, but without all the attention how else is he going to raise funds for the next voyage?

[Via Mashable]

Volkswagen’s iPhone App Generates $4 Million In Revenue By Simply Re-skinning A Car Game

12 Comments Posted On October 11, 2010

There’s endless amounts of iPhone apps that are generating some serious money for big brands, all the way from Pizza Hut ($millions) to eBay ($billions). While ‘mobile strategists’ bang on about ‘mobile web first’, there’s no denying that the right idea mixed with an app at the right time, can drive big revenues.

Check out this iPhone app from Volkswagen to mark the launch of the Golf GTI Mark VI in the states. One thing to note is that there was no paid media surrounding the launch, it was purely off the back off the iPhone app.

Volkswagen, with the help of AKQA, decided to create a car game, but rather than go through the risk and cost of building one from scratch they decided to reskin a already established racer on the market. So they took the popular racing game called Real Racing (retailing at $4.99) and created a sponsored version of the game, calling it “Real Racing GTI”, then gave it away for free.

As you can imagine the game features the Golf GTI as the selectable car and features VW branding throughtout.

The clever bit is that users were invited to use the iPhones GPS functionality to locate their nearest dealer. This data enabled AKQA to directly trace purchases of the GTI Mark VI directly back to the app.

On top of all that, VW added incentive by challenging players with the reward of winning one of 6 real Golf GTI. Spot on.

So what were the results -

175 cars sold to registered players of the application, 50% of those sales to new customers.

The car retailed for $23,000, making at least $4 million in revenue.

Clickz.com makes a very valid point in that those are only the sales directly linked with the application. Once you look at the huge amount of ratings the app received (50,000) as well as it hitting number one in the download charts, the brand awareness must have also been sky high.

Congrats AQKA on a wicked exection and VW for putting promotional muscle behind the app.

Excuse Me, Has Anyone Handed In A New iPhone 4G Prototype?

1 Comment Posted On April 20, 2010

I bet that volcano in Iceland must seem tame compared to the reaction of Steve Jobs after hearing this news. A few weeks ago Gray Powell, a (now probably sacked) software engineer at Apple, left the new iPhone at a bar in northern California.

Apparently the guy who found it did his utmost *cough, bullshit, cough* to get the phone back to Apple before selling it for FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS to the super-blog Gizmodo. It seems to have been a great investment, the story is now rocking over 10 million views on Gizmodo alone, with the sort of global coverage that would give Nokia wet dreams.

Apple Patents Show iPhone & Macbooks To Feature NFC | This Is BIG

9 Comments Posted On February 25, 2010

Let’s face it, there is only one manufacturer that can create mass adoption of NFC services and devices, they are called Apple.

The NFC market today is in its infancy, a few shops are installing terminals BUT I guarantee you that if the following patents filed by Apple are due to appear in the next iPhone, then we’ll see the rapid uptake of contactless technology by retailers, appliance manufacturers and rivals. This is going to be BIG.

We are talking about handset manufacturers redefining mobile advertising here. What kind of things could happen?

Real Wood iPhone Cases

1 Comment Posted On February 1, 2010

If I had a iPhone and didn’t think phone covers were a bit silly, this would most definitely be attached to my handset.

The case is made from bamboo and hardwoods, and just so you don’t feel guilty the manufacturer Vers will plant 100 trees for every 1 tree used.

There’s loads of different colours and version for around $39.99 each , head on over to Vers to check them out.