The AppsLab

Interesting and seemingly simple approach to separating your work and personal lives on your smartphone, h/t Fast Company Design. More to the point, do tools like this even matter anymore? Yes, IT and IS will always want division and security to protect digital assets, but have we moved into an era where people know enough… Read More

Last week, I was complaining about how boring smartphones have become. Check out OmniTouch, which allows pretty much any surface to become a multitouch input, including body parts, walls and notepads. There’s a longer video over on TechCrunch. Now this is cool. The shoulder-mounted unit is a bit clunky, but I can see definite potential… Read More

This is part generational study and part truth. The short version: two kids meet, don’t hit it off, one starts taking secret shots of the other in public and posts them to a fake stalker blog, the other finds out, isn’t pissed and interviews him for a school assignment. That’s as short as I could… Read More

If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, you should be. It’s a fantastic way to get your pet project off the ground without pounding the pavements looking for investors. Well, they just reached one million backers and one hundred million dollars pledged. Interesting stuff out there, including projects like TikTok, the svelte iPod Nano watchband which started… Read More

This will sound a bit get-off-my-lawn, but smartphones are too much alike nowadays. Recently, I saw several smartphones laid out at my gym, and I was struck at how much alike they looked, despite being produced by different manufacturers and rocking different carriers and OSes. It’s all black bricks with big screens anymore. I’ve followed… Read More

I’m a nostalgic person, so this type of thing fascinates me. I would totally waste a day wandering through this place. For Design Researchers: The NewProductWorks Collection, a Supermarket Featuring 40 Years’ Worth of Product – Core77 This massive warehouse of old product packaging doesn’t appeal to my consumerism; it appeals to my design sense.… Read More

I saw this post and reactions to it floating around, but honestly, I thought they were floppy disk memoirs or something. 3.5 Inches – Dustin Curtis When I first read the post, the assumption that the iPhone’s 3.5 inch screen is a design decision based on thumb-reach radius sounded very plausible. After all, Apple does… Read More

Google announced something very cool today, Chrome Remote Desktop beta, an app in the Chrome Web Store that allows desktop sharing between any two computers. Each machine needs to be running Chrome, as well as the web app, but that’s it. No additional software to install and manage. This is huge for IT, support, and… Read More

Recently, I’m reminded of how much people depend on email to GSD. Despite all the flashy (and useful) content management solutions out there, the most common way to share files is still by attaching them to emails. By now, everyone understands the limitations and issues wrapped up in this practice. We only have 1 GB quotas… Read More

In yesterday’s afternoon keynote, the Oracle Social Network was officially announced. Check out friend of the ‘Lab Peter Reiser’s (@peterreiser) coverage for details. A few of you who’ve been reading here for a while have asked if this new product is any part of the socials apps we built and operate internally, Oracle Connect and… Read More

Tons of coverage of today’s Let’s Talk iPhone event out there, as usual for Apple events. The smartest: Apple will continue to sell the iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4 at lower prices, free with contract for the 3GS and $99 with contract for the 4. This is a great move against pressure from middle and… Read More

While reading Nik Cubrilovic’s post on how to set up secure and private Facebook browsing, I stumbled across some interesting copy and messaging. People correctly complain that Facebook’s privacy and security options are too complex, and here’s an example of why. Check out the boilerplate and label for Facebook’s Instant Personalization feature: Carefully read the… Read More

Despite my concerns about the privacy of purchasing data that goes into Google Wallet, I’m stoked to try out NFC payments. I guess the promise of a less bulky wallet is too attractive, and plus, I love shiny objects. So, when I received my $10 prepaid card offer from Google today, I jumped at the… Read More

I’m a bit sad that one of the few social apps I actually use anymore, Untappd (@untappd) has released native apps for Android and iOS. I’ll explain. First, what is Untappd? With a motto “drink socially”, you can probably figure it out on your own. It’s a social app for beer drinkers with a bunch… Read More

Noteworthy in today’s Kindle fanfare is the new Amazon Silk browser that will run on the Kindle Fire. Introducing Amazon Silk | Amazon Silk Amazon is using its EC2 infrastructure to optimize content before sending it to the browser, similar to what mobile proxy browsers like Opera Mini do. This should make the experience much… Read More

Firefox 7 dropped yesterday. So now I have seven profiles to test the last seven versions of Firefox that my users could be using: 3.0, 3.5, 3.6, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, and now 7.0. And this doesn’t count the dot releases for each major version. This is a major pain when issues arise, since users could… Read More

Amazon announced its long-rumored Android tablet today, the Kindle Fire. The price is a scant, at least compared to other tablets, $199, which many, including our pal David (@dhaimes) are excited, but skeptical. Amazon Just Won The Android Tablet Wars With The $199 Kindle Fire | TechCrunch During the announcement, Jeff Bezos didn’t discuss specs, but rather… Read More

This is either an interesting experiment in complete transparency, or Facebook’s new admin console watching you surf. Browsing over the shoulder Interesting stuff, especially given the highly disturbing news that Facebook tracks you even if you’re logged out and apparently everywhere, even to sites without a Like button or other Facebook integration. Update: Maybe not every… Read More

You’ve probably heard by now that Apple is having a big “Let’s Talk iPhone” press shindig on October 4. Rumors continue to swirl, people are excited especially those iPhone 3GS owners who are out of contract and ready to upgrade. One of my Twitter pals, John DeRosa (@johnderosa), whom I’ve actually had the pleasure of… Read More

If you need a reason to start a blog or continue blogging, check out this post on the half life of a link on various social networks. Mobile Phone Development » Blog Archive » Shared Link Half Life Sure, Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus are easier. Short format is easy and fits nicely into the… Read More