Apple, Mac, & iPhone News...
December 3rd, 2009
Hi everybody,
Happy Thursday! It's been a week since turkey day already, if you can believe it, and we're finally starting to get hungry again. The iPhone's always there, with its easy access and one stop shopping, but one app in particular is changing the face of online ordering.
We've got some serious news first, we promise!
Making Sweet Music
In a brand new college course at the University of Michigan called Building a Mobile Phone Ensemble, computer science and music come together in interesting ways. The class, led by Georg Essl, builds on his iPhone-as-wind-sensor technology that allowed the phone to transform air into sound. Now, though, students are creating music with all the iPhone's many parts; screen, mic, compass, accelerometer...everything can be programmed and manipulated to make sounds that aren't any kind of normal.
A public performance is scheduled for next week...and we hope that one of the really smart people in that room thinks to put it on YouTube. We know we're looking forward to it!
Safer FaceBook, MySpace
The two popular social networking sites work hard to keep their users safe all the time. Twenty five states have passed new laws, though, that are making it easier than ever for convicted sex offenders to get booted off. Since New York state passed the legislation that requires convicts to register email addresses, instant messaging handles and any other online nicknames almost 4,000 offenders have lost access to their accounts.
We realize it might be a little touchy, but we're glad about this...our families and friends deserve to be able to waste all their free time safely! The number of registered offenders is growing every day and state registry databases are growing...now we've got to get the other half of the country on board.
We Promised Pizza!
We've long promoted the use of the iPhone as a quick and easy conduit to junk food, and love the various apps from Chipotle to Pizza Hut. This week, Order Mapper released Order Pizza...a universal pizza app. It uses locations to find pizza joints in the vicinity and after initial setup (where you enter your name, address, phone number, payment info and pick a PIN number) all you have to do is enter the PIN. And then you get pizza. And the app is free. The app uses Twilio to automate web calls, so it can dial the pizzeria and place your order for you. You can even use the app with your iPod touch!
The company promises Chinese food on the horizon...and boy, are we looking forward to it.
What's your favorite iPhone guilty pleasure? Tell us on Twitter!
Till Monday, Newsies...