Ian kicked off the July meeting by showing an Amazing (with a capital A) video if an iPhone app that helps you to navigate the NYC subway system. Ian notes (and I agree) that something like this could be used to navigate a library or the library system. Very cool: New York Nearest Subway Augmented Reality App for iPhone 3GS from acrossair: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH6r2tIaRXU
Phil introduced us to the absolutely cutting edge Google Wave tool, yet to be released. It integrates IM tech into a sort of “conversation management” tool. Also it translates various languages (using the Rosy Robot – see below) in real time as you type! It is not out yet, but you can apply to be a tester.
Here are some notes about it that Phil sent to me via email:
The official Google Wave site: http://wave.google.com/
Highlight Reel: http://lifehacker.com/5285944/the-google-wave-highlight-reel (most of the videos I showed were from this page)
Rosy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOHwPgMXsNY (the Rosy robot feature wasn't on the lifehacker page, for some reason)
Google Wave Abridged Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itc4253kjhw (This is a chopped-down version of the official hour and twenty minute presentation - the first two video pages are all just reworked footage from this)
Karen showed us Locavore, a really useful iPhone app for identifying local produce. It tells you where to go, and what is in season! http://enjoymentland.com/locavore/
The Locavore site lists these functions:
- Automatically detects which state you’re in (currently only covers the US)
- Food that’s in season near you
- Food that’s coming in season near you soon
- Farmers’ markets near you
- Browse all 234 fruits and vegetables to see where it is currently growing
- Links to Wikipedia articles and Epicurious recipes from each food detail page
- Browse all 50 states to see what’s in season in other parts of the US
Karen also mentioned the social cataloging presentation from earlier this summer, and that she had been trying out Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/ Karen said that someone from Turkey had contacted her regarding her excellent taste in reading choices. International Social Networking is Real!
Anne described the explosion of Twitter (http://twitter.com/) use on campus: UWDCC tweets about newly scanned images, then these are read by UW-Athletics, and then they tweet about their upcoming events. The images and athletics tweets are then read and tweeted on by UW-Communications... cool! as the twitter site says "you can stay hyper–connected." Yes, you can.
See you all in August!
