The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore iPad App Trailer (by Moonbot Studios)

Learn more about this awesome project here.

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"Explor is slick, easy to use and contains enough social options to encourage user activity. It’s this activity from users that should help us all find those hidden gems that so often get overlooked."

Aww thanks Chris!
via: iPhone App Reviews

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The Future of Apps In The Hands of Today’s Teens

“The new urban harvesting mobile application will allow users to locate fruit trees within a specified geographic area and to be notified as the fruit is ripening (and thus ready for harvest) and contact Oakland-ers (and eventually users in other cities, but Oakland will serve as the pilot city) who are available to assist with harvesting in exchange for a certain quantity of excess backyard fruit. In addition, the application will allow fruit tree owners to donate (or barter, if they choose) their glut to a local non-profit that is in need of a regular supply of fruit.”

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Most-liked apps for the week (July 8th)

The most-liked apps for the week ending July 8th are:

This is the first time we’ve seen two iPad only apps (Flipboard & GarageBand) make the cut!

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Interview with Lauren McCarthy, creator of Inneract


Photo by Jeff Lieberman

We’re big fans of Inneract, which bills itself as the app to ‘play beyond the limits of acceptable behavior’, so we sat down with its creator, Lauren McCarthy for a quick interview. If you’re in need of an introduction to this delightful app, visit inneract.us or read our review. In a nutshell, Inneract warps public space by facilitating interactions with strangers.

Below are a few questions that I whisked off to Lauren in NY:

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Fingertips: On the about page for Inneract we read that Inneract was created “in response to the expectations of appropriate and polite behavior.” There are a number of communities that have grown out of near-ubiquitous smartphone use: Foursquare, Twitter, Gowalla, etc. Do you think those communities have created jumping-off points for Inneract? Or another way of putting that question: do earlier forms of smartphone-based communities inform the behaviors in the Inneract experience?

Lauren McCarthy: Looking at these other communities definitely informed the design and development of Inneract. Often, we see familiar patterns of face-to-face interaction played out again through social media. Rather than reinforcing the norms, Inneract is intended to create a space where people can explore alternatives. Additionally, services like Foursquare and Twitter often function like funnels, condensing the depth and breadth of individual experiences into 140 characters, a low-res image, or a check-in. With Inneract, I was trying to go the other way - the experience begins with a simple text invitation, and has the potential to develop into something much more meaningful and expansive.

FT: On the website, Inneract is a ‘space where you create the rules’, and in general the app is framed as a reinvention of public space as opposed to an antidote or a reaction to it. However, reviews of the app call it an “antidote to restrictive social norms” … “that exposes your deepest fetish” (TUAW) or an “app for the soul” (HuffPo). Personally, I prefer the ‘reinvention’ angle that you’ve created. What do you make of this alternate interpretation that reviewers have latched onto?
LM: I think all of these interpretations are totally valid. While the framing and functionality created a certain tone and suggested a realm of potential uses, I released the app inviting others to appropriate and use it as they pleased. The point was to create a tool, and whether this is used to attempt to live out your fetish fantasies or soothe your soul, I embrace it all.

FT: Previously on Fingertips we’ve interviewed the lads behind ‘The Situationist’, a purportedly ‘Marxist’ app that sets up predefined ‘situations’ between strangers much like Inneract. The Situationist was released only three months before Inneract, which leads me to think you both were working towards a release at the same time. Why now? What about early 2011 brought about these new experimental ‘situation’ or ‘act’-based communities to connect strangers?

LM: Smartphone use is growing (and location services are becoming more accurate and efficient). At the same time, as we are together in public space, people are increasingly focused on their mobile devices. Inneract, and probably others like it, recognize a desire to use the capabilities of these devices in ways that connect us, rather than isolate us from others around. The lure of following the information streams of the people we know spread across the globe is always there, but at the same time, can we also tap into the interesting and unique qualities of those immediately present?

FT: If you could remake the app, what would you change, if anything?

LM: I would make some small modifications to allow interactions to happen more easily. For example, an option to receive a short vibration or ding when another person using the app comes into your area, so you don’t have to constantly be checking. Maybe also a sort of ping function to let someone know you are trying to find them to perform their desired interaction with them.

It is a location based application that relies on a heavy density of users, so it really needs to reach a critical mass for it to function as intended. I was aware of this challenge going into the project, but actually building the app and putting it into the app store for download was a step toward opening up a new area in the developing mobile application space. Rather than reinforcing existing social patterns, mobile apps could create and inspire new relationships between people.

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Go grab Inneract in the app store, or check out some of Lauren’s other projects.

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Mystery Creation #1

Can you identify the app used to make this? (Hint: It’s not released yet, but we may have written about it on this here blog)

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This is Slowdown an app that decreases the pitch of your music if you exceed the speed limit.
Featured in ‘7 apps that make cities better. ’ It’s not clear how well it works in the U.S., but it’s an interesting idea nonetheless.

What apps make your city better? Let us know @explorapp

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Kill Screen in NY on July 27th (2011)

In New York at the end of July? You must check out the Kill Screen event on July 27th at MOMA.

PopRally invites you to Arcade, an interactive evening of games selected by Kill Screen and inspired by the exhibition Talk to Me. Guests can play games in a variety of spaces throughout the Museum and the Sculpture Garden, including Bit Trip Beat, Canabalt, Limbo, and a new motion-based Kinect project from Ryan Challinor and Matt Boch of Harmonix, creator of the hit music game Rock Band. Heathered Pearls (Ghostly International, ISO50) provides the soundtrack for the evening.



Talk to Me focuses on design objects that involve direct interaction, such as interfaces, information systems, visualization design, and communication devices, and on projects that establish an emotional, sensual, or intellectual connection with their users. Examples range from computer and machine interfaces, websites, and video games to tools, furniture, installations, and entire environments.

Snag your tickets here.

If you’re not convinced that Kill Screen is awesome yet, take a peek at their latest issue: The Intimacy Issue. It’s extremely exciting to see them teaming up with MOMA and taking gaming to new heights.

We were lucky enough to attend an event in SF hosted with the Copenhagen Game Collective in March and it was a freaking blast. Get on this.

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How did Flipboard test the flip-ability of their recent update? Meet the Flip-o-matic 2000 by @avh.

No humans were harmed in the testing of Explor. We do not use robots.

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Meet the iPB-10, a programmable Pedalboard for the iPad. 87 pedals, 54 amps, and 26 cabinets. WHUT!

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Art Lovers and Creators - Apps for Art Lovers

Apple is now featuring Apps for Art lovers over at iTunes, with a good set of apps for browsing the collection of museums like MoMA (NYC) or creating your own paintings with Brushes, or Sketchbook Mobile. It’s awesome to see Apple promoting apps to help dig into the history of art, engage with a museum, or create something themselves. More like this, Apple!

A couple I would add to their collection:

Holding an entire museum’s permanent collection in your hands is incredible, and it’s tempting to take it for granted. Before Wikipedia, the Internet, and the power to distribute information across the world immediately, this idea could only be found in Blade Runner, sci-fi novels, and the dreams of mainframe engineers. Welcome to the future yall! On a related note, I hope you enjoy this blast from Apple’s archives, the ‘Knowledge Navigator’ concept from 1987: