from tomes to taps; getting your feet wet with apps

*The following article was previously published on young adult author Laura Elliott's website, Laura's Magic Day.  I met Laura at Wordstock in Portland last fall.  She is a super dynamic individual, so you should check her out.

So you are thinking about publishing an eBook?  Maybe you have a book in ink and paper already published and want to get in on all this App action.  Or maybe you haven’t been published yet, feel empowered by the self-publishing option and think the App rage looks like easy money.   Where do you start?  How easy or hard is it?

A few years ago my friend, artist and author Carol Bolt, called me up and asked if we at salty snack studios could and would make an App.  As a happy coincidence, my partner, Bruce Tribbensee, and I make movies and had just started making iPhone apps. Carol’s books were already on our list of apps we wanted to make.  And Carol was on our list of people with whom we wanted to work.

Carol has written and published several books starting with The Book of Answers™.   The Answers series began as a large one-of-a-kind hand-bound artist’s book.  Many people wanted to buy a copy.  She had it published and it snowballed into one playful theme after another (Movie, Love’s, Literary, Mom’s, Dad’s, Soul’s) in multiple languages and countries.  The books draw on the ancient wisdom of bibliomancy, the art of fortune telling through using a book. As a divination tool, it provides guidance to any yes-or-no question.  You hold the book closed and concentrate on your question. While visualizing or speaking your question, you stroke the edge of the pages. When you sense the time is right, you open to the page where your fingers landed and, “Voila!” There is your answer.  It’s simple, endless fun.

Carol is a warm and generous dreamer who makes whimsical drawings and sculptures and clearly enjoys the turn of a phrase. While I describe Carol as a dreamer, she’s also incredibly grounded with a deep reverence for objects and things made by hand.  Did I mention? She’s also a fantastic baker!  Her connection to books and their meaning could not be stronger.  Even so, her adventurous forward-thinking spirit led her (and us) into an exciting collaboration. 

And as for salty snack studios, we prefer to work on inventive projects that personally and creatively engage us and we welcome a challenge.  Working with artful people to help them manifest an idea is what we do.  I’m the Producer, guiding projects from their concept and design through production and onto the market.  My training is in art and I’m a compulsive organizer.   Bruce is also an artist with many years of experience computer programming.  He writes code in multiple languages, including for iPhone, Android and Blackberry.  He’s also an imaginative and fearless problem-solver.

What kind of App were we going to make?

The three of us set out to make an app for The Book of Answers™. We knew it would not be a proper eBook like you find on a Kindle or the like. We wanted to make a related but different experience to compliment the physical book. The app would be more than a sequence of virtual pages bound together inside a screen.  We spent months working through how the user interface would look and feel.  Bruce labored over the foundation, the motion and the function. We shared sketches, early design layouts and notes over the Internet.  Between Seattle and Montana, we spoke on the phone often. Frequently outside her technical comfort zone, Carol powered through and was in there with us the whole way open to change and suggesting new ideas.  

And we did it.  We built a native app with a resemblance to a book, with the look and feel of pages, but a book that you don’t properly read.  It has the essence of a book but is not an eBook. We used the mobile device’s ability to detect location so when you tilt the device, you get an illusion of weight and object-ness.  Sound effects heighten touch features. The interactive thumbing across a book’s end-pages fabricates a window into the ‘magic’ of the app.  We built something unique that we are all proud of and that compliments Carol’s printed works.

 What’s the moral of Carol’s app story so far?  To make an app, 1) you don’t have to be a geek, and 2) you can think of something new.  If you are starting with already published material, like Carol, it might be ideal to have an App that compliments your published material rather than duplicate it.  Even if you publish, digitally and/or in analog (ink and paper), you might want an app that expands the world of your book. The sky really is the limit.  If you can imagine it, someone can probably make it.  I’m not even exaggerating. 

First, what kind of app do you want to make?

Do you want an eBook, the digital equivalent of black and white print on paper?  Do you want an Enhanced book fitted with motion graphics, hyperlinks and interactivity?  Would a mobile-optimized website be enough for you? Or do you want a stand-alone native App that operates separately and differently than a book? Should you go DIY or hire someone?

Can you imagine your story’s ideas in motion, with sound? What about with gestures and interactive qualities?  What’s really hot right now are Enhanced Books.  Before you imagine the CD-ROMs of old, take a look at Enhanced Books. They have so much artful potential it’s mind-boggling. Like pop-up books, they maximize on the interactivity of their medium.  By integrating the power of touch screen with sound, motion and more, these books delight and demand one’s attention. The most compelling and visually stunning that I have seen so far is The Fantastic Flying Books. 

Can your story be a game?

Can you take the content of your book in new directions from printed words? Can you imagine the characters on an adventure or in a competition?  If so, a game App might appeal to you.  The entire mobile app world is still young and a bit like the Wild West.  The rules are still being made.  The most competitive app category is games but it’s also one of the most exciting and liberating.

What if I want to do it all myself?

Whether you are a novice or an established published author, I would first point you in the direction of iBooks Author.  I haven’t used it yet, but I took a peek and it looks super user friendly with enough features to have fun and potentially make something on your own that you would feel good about.  I’ve encouraged Carol to poke around in there too.  Honestly, once she got a taste for the creative possibilities with mobile technology, she’s become a wannabe geek monster! If you want to get started with the least amount of money to produce a simple eBook and you have plenty of time and energy to DIY, I say, “Go for it!”  Let me know how it goes for you, too!  Be sure to look at ‘pubit’ and other self-publishing tools, too.

The next question is arguably the biggest: what can you afford?  If I had a nickel for every pitch I’ve heard from people who think an app (or movie, but that’s another story) costs less than a thousand dollars to make.  The next part of that fantasy includes lounging on a beach while the dough rolls in. Don’t let those 99¢ price tags fool you.  To build an app from code up is not a cheap venture.  And know right now that what you consider ‘simple’ might not be so simple to make. A ‘brand quality’ native app costs at least $30,000 to design, code and launch.  If that knocks you back into a dusty library in shock, consider why you want the app in the first place.  If you are publishing yourself and you want to easily share your work with a young contemporary audience on the most popular platform of our time, 30 grand might be reasonable. Also keep in mind that maybe you don’t need a native app. Perhaps you can have a mobile-optimized website built for a bit less and it will fit your needs. Maybe iBooks Author or pubit software is plenty for you.  Explore your options.

Did you read the fine print?

Apple’s take is 30% of sales and so is Kindle’s. Barne and Noble’s ‘pubit’ takes more or less depending on the price of your book.  They are all operating somewhere between old school publishers and booksellers.  They give you a storefront, but they don’t help with editing, design and marketing. Conventional print publishers take upwards of 90% after an advance, and theoretically they promote your work.   It’s up to you to decide if their take is worth it or not.  Be sure to carefully read the contract.  It might say that you can’t take your material that you just published and put it on another platform. You wouldn’t be able to go from Apple to Android for example. I highly recommend that you have an intellectual property lawyer advise you so you understand your situation.

What is the best platform for my app?

An App on one mobile platform will not work on another.  You can’t simply plop the binary of an iPhone App into an Android.  They are completely different languages and the screen sizes for images are different dimensions.  Within Android devices, there are several screen sizes.  I’ll save the raging debate over which is better between Apple and Android for the tech sites.  The debate keeps shifting and both platforms are powerful.  Personally, I prefer the cleaner aesthetic of the iPhone but I also covet the larger real estate of some Android platforms.  If you can afford it, I suggest you do both.  If you can’t afford both, you just have to pick and not look back.     

What can I do to about discoverability?

There is a sea of apps and eBooks out there.  The App stores (for Apple and Android) are behemoth imprecise places.  It feels like you need an experienced librarian and a card catalog to guide you.  How do you get yours noticed?  Marketing Apps and eBooks is unpredictable and changing fast right along with technology.  If you can get your app in Apple’s App Store promotions, you’ll have significant results. Success stories come from all angles, not just the top down, so be patient and tenacious.  Ideally, you should hire a marketing person.  After you’ve invested so much in your work, don’t drop the ball now. Use all of the free marketing tools and social networking that the Internet makes available to you (Facebook, Twitter, Blogger reviews) and use the paid ones, too.  Advertise. Pull out all the stops as soon as you can. 

First steps to your App development:

1.     Do your research.  Study eBooks, enhanced books and game apps to understand the differences.  Get an idea of how your material could best be represented digitally.  You’ll probably discover many ways, which is exciting, so then decide what is the best one to start your App Adventure.  Make lots of notes and sketches of what you imagine your app could be.

2.     Figure out how much money you can spend.  Some people might say this should be the first step, but I recommend one dream first then roll up their sleeves.

3.     Build a team.  Find an App Developing Firm with people you trust, whom you can talk over ideas and with whom you feel comfortable.  Not every studio works as collaboratively as Bruce and I do, either.  Maybe you prefer to pass off the material and have someone get it done.  When shopping for your ideal App Dev team, the best might not be the biggest hipsters and the worst might not be the cheapest.  They just need to make a good match with you.

4.     Be open to change.  Show the team your sketches and notes but keep an open mind for different ideas.  There is no one way to make an App.

5.     Consult with an Intellectual Property Lawyer before you sign and submit your material to anyone – iBooks Author, Kindle, pubit! or app developers.

6.     Study Internet marketing and pay attention.  Spend time on different App review sites, and find reviewers that reflect your content and style.

7.     Make friends wherever you go (virtually and in reality.) 

Our collaboration with Carol was so satisfying that we went on to make The Love’s Book of Answers™ iPhone App with her and this year we will release an Android version of The Book of Answers™.  Look out, cause Carol has jumped head first into animation software and you’ll be seeing many more clever things out of her. 

Enjoy this short movie by one of our interns, Cassandra James, featuring The Love’s Book of Answers™ App.   

Want a few more details?

For more information on the costs and creativity with apps and eBooks, I recommend these:

3 Things no amount of code can fix. by Carisa Kluver, August 18, 2011

http://digital-storytime.com/wp/?p=616

Are Reports of the Death of the Book App Premature? by Edward Nawotka, January 31, 2012

http://publishingperspectives.com/2012/01/are-reports-of-the-death-of-the-book-app-premature/

This is an excellent detailed article on the cost of app development and more:

“The development of the typical app cost $35,000 and the median paid app earns $682 dollars per year after Apple took its cut.”

Full Analysis of iPhone Economics - it is bad news. And then it gets worse. June 22, 2010

http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2010/06/full-analysis-of-iphone-economics-its-bad-news-and-then-it-gets-worse.html

9 Truths About ePublishing, Submitted by Emma Wright on Tue, 02/07/2012

http://futurebook.net/content/nine-truths-about-e-book-publishing

The digitization of the music industry vs. the book world: the ultimate overview (part IV), Submitted by Timo Boezeman on Thu, 11/17/2011 http://futurebook.net/content/digitization-music-industry-vs-book-world-ultimate-overview-part-iv

What’s the difference between native apps and mobile-optimized websites?  See:

Is Developing a Mobile App Wirth the Cost? By Aaron Maxwell, Mashable, Feb. 24, 2011  http://mashable.com/2011/02/24/mobile-app-dev-cost/

Self-Publishing Services, Statistics and more links through Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America: http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/pod/

Pricing and Payment Terms, Pubit! By Barnes & Nobles, http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=support

just ask love's; the movie

Happy Valentine's from salty snack studios 

a short movie by our fabulous intern from the University of Montana, 

Cassandra James.

fantastic flying books

App on Tap:

If you have fears and concerns with digital technology destroying the book, creativity and any art of the hand, you must spend some time with The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore on the iPad. The creators call it an 'interactive storybook,' that also fits into a fast growing trend called enhanced books.  This one, though, absolutely leads in raising the bar for interactivity and art direction in apps.  It's visually stunning for starters.  And it's creatively inspiring. 

The app-book evolved in conjunction with a short animated movie by the same creative team, Moonbot Studios.  Morris Lessmore is "Inspired in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, "Morris Lessmore" is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor."   Once you have the app, be sure to watch the 'Making Of' video to get a glimpse into some details and concepts of the craftsmen behind the finished work, including the 1/6 and 1/12 scaled sets.  Morris Lessmore is the vision of a passionate collaboration of artists, indeed.

And the film?  The short animated film is also a warm, elegant tribute to culture and humanity. They'll get my standing ovation when William Joyce and Moonbot Studios takes home an Oscar for outstanding achievements in animated shorts this year!  Bravo! 


Here's a video clip of the iPad app.

To get the app, it costs US$4.99 (click here).

The HD short movie is currently free through iTunes or Vimeo.

pocket music

Technology pushes everyone around it seems, especially artists I often think because there is so much to keep up with, adapt to and compete with and artists are a culture's innovators. However, in the end I feel artists get the last word.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not but just as the piano evolved from dulcimers, our idea of what defines an instrument continues to change and include what began simply as a phone.   Mobile apps are redefining the idea of a music band and expanding our options to make music.  I haven't developed much of an ear for techno synthesized music yet, but I am pleased with the inventiveness of what people are doing to make music with what they are carrying in their pocket.  In some ways the technology levels the playing field, helping set a beat and letting someone without musical talent 'play' an instrument.  The spread of digital music is an undeniable fact, but for me reveals less about technology and more of the human desire to make art.   

Here is a video (2008) of iBand; two iPhones and a Nintendo D combine to play app instruments (apps by MooCowMusic) much like any band formed by using other instruments. 

What if you are rocking four iPhones?  Then you have the option of a one woman (or man) band like South Korean Kim Yeo Hee (a.k.a. Apple Girl). She can and does play 'real' instruments, too, as she does for "Half" with a full band and backup singers. 

Watch below as she covers Lady Gaga's "Pokerface" with only iPhone 'instruments' using T-Pain, Beatmaker and a fourth app that I could understand what she says (please help me translate if you can).

Here's a bit of Michael Jackson's Black or White on an iPhone using the app iShred. (Video by alychg 2011.)

Here is one more song with irony hopefully not lost, "Life Is Greater Than the Internet," also from iBand using two iPhones and an iPod Touch.

 

If you come across more music produced on the iPhone or the iPad (I didn't even start listing iPad songs but they are out there!), please share ones that you like with me. 

It will be interesting to see how the songs evolve with the assistance of mobile devices and how more artists own (or abandon) the medium.  Besides, I'm inspired by the ingenuity.

360 panorama

App on tap:

Bruce just introduced me to a very cool iPhone app called 360 Panorama.  You basically move the camera around while it takes frames of images and they get combined into one shot.  Voila! A 360 degree panoramic photo. Tons of potential for creative picture taking with this app.

If you see me around town spinning in circles with my phone in the air, I might be playing with this!

Bruce took this panoramic snap to show me how it works.  

Update 29 November 2011: 


Okay, Bruce took another photo that is pretty funny so I must add it here.

oui, Paris

arrived, Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris, FR (taken with iPhone)

After the "100-year-old/good bones house remodel project" (even though there's still a bit left to do), my beau swept me off to Paris, France for a week.  

It was, how can I say? Tres magnifique!  

We returned last Friday. I'm still adjusting to the time (went to sleep before 9 last night and woke at 4am today) and adapting to the snowy weather, but mostly I'm gliding on the memory of the taste of fresh buttery pastries. 

Bruce, Rue Monge, Paris (taken with iPhone, adjusted with Tilt Shift Gen App)

I'll post photos and app reviews from the trip soon. Well after I rummage through about 800 photos. Plus I'll post about our previous trips to Boston, MA, Maine and Portland, OR.  And of course, more updates on the remodeling project in it's more finished state and the reflections that came with the project.

First evening's walk along the Seine river, Notre Dame across the river on the left

  

words with friends free

One of my twenty-something nephews hooked me on the app, Words With Friends.  At first, I made fun of him for the name of the game (not that he named it but how lame!) and he agreed, but regardless of the name, it wouldn't be long before I would be laying in bed playing a few rounds before finally tucking in. Then I roped Bruce into the game and we would be side-by-side, playing the game just before lights out.  Eventually another nephew started playing and I would have several games going.  One (or sometimes two) with Bruce at my side, another with a nephew in Alaska and yet another with a different nephew in Indiana.

Since we covered three time zones, someone would send a word while I would be in a meeting or having breakfast and I would reply with my word at lunch or after work and so on. It's like getting a little hello with play time attached.  You reply by playing your turn when you have a few minutes. It's great when maybe no on has anything big to report but you still interact.

The fanaticism wore off after a few weeks and now Bruce and I are back to British Murder Mysteries just before drifting off to sleep, but I still play a round here and there with one of my nephews. Don't get me wrong, the game isn't replacing talking to my nephews, it's just added long distance contact. There's a chat option in the app that we haven't taken much advantage of. The play is enough good scrabble-like fun, musing over the words each player chooses plus it feels like I'm still encouraging educational games and being a good Auntie.

Words with Friends Free is modeled after the game of Scrabble and like its name says, is free.  It's available for Android and iPhone. You can get an upgraded version, also named Words with Friends but without the 'free', for $2.99 which doesn't have an advertisements that pop up after your every move, literally when you finish a word and submit it to play, and is probably worth the few bucks.  The free version features the main aspects of the upgraded version. 

Features:
• The game plays as you would expect, like the board game of Scrabble
• You can simultaneously play multiple games with different friends who also have the app whether they use an iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone or even if they use a Droid instead of a Mac device.  You can play a round by taking turns passing the device back and forth. 

• Turn-based design lets you play up to 20 games simultaneously
• Play with your friends or match-make instantly with a random opponent
• It also supports in-game chat messaging if you like to trash talk
• Push notifications tell you when it’s your turn

Electronic Arts made the 'authentic' Scrabble iPhone app for Mattel Inc. which I haven't tried yet, and (at the time of this posting) it also costs $2.99.

So far, I only play with three different people and haven't sought out players through my contacts, Facebook friends and so on.  It's been a family game for me.  Saccharine as it sounds, I like the virtual check in, especially with those who are far away. Like the closing scene of the Walton's, at night I play a turn or two and they play a turn or so back.  "Goodnight John-Boy."  "Goodnight Elizabeth."

bleary eyed travelers return home

from tabling for Submishmash at a lively and friendly Wordstock Fest in lovely (and this past weekend, rainy) Portland, Oregon. 

Photo taken and adjusted using Tiltshift Generator App on my iPhone.

scouting for Love's commercial

This week and next we are shooting a commercial for The Love's Book of Answer's iPhone App.  The fairytale story is by our wonderful intern, Cassi James.  Here's some video clips of when the three of us scouted locations around Missoula. a few weeks ago  Yesterday was a successful day of shooting.  Even the train did it's job well. Stay tuned for the final short movie! 

Location scouting for Love's Commercial from salty snack studios on Vimeo.

chopping robot

Bruce put together this video as a little demo of another robot controlled with an Android app that was built (code and all) by our friend, Peter C.  Be sure to see the getting nowhere robot post for video of another robot he made- with wheels! 

the sniff test

Stinky Maps, our latest project at salty snack studios, snagged coverage in the Missoulian newspaper.    First off, it has been a great project for Bruce and I, to work on, talk about and share.  We have been really pleased with people's reception of it, too.

Click here for the Keila Szpaller article on our new app, Stinky Maps.  (There's a photo, too!)

getting nowhere robot

Our friend, Peter C., made this great little car robot which he runs with an app that he wrote for his Android.  Bruce shot and edited a fun demo video of both in action.  Many thanks to Peter's friend, Frank Lewis, for providing music, too.  I ran it around Peter's backyard for a bit, too.  It's really fun.  Go Peter!

Oh, and be sure to notice the tracking shots. Oh yeah, baby, we got some new gear and it's my favorite kind: wheels.  

have you seen the signs?

All imagery has meaning.  It's inherent, right?  As does any object.  Hiding messages inside imagery is as old as the hills of course. And it's everywhere, not just in art.  We depend on symbols daily.  

I am exploring communication through symbols and gestures in my studio.  I recently discovered (from Bruce) one obscure way to turn text into symbols or hide a message called QR (Quick Response) barcodes. They won't be obscure for long, I don't think, plus they are already big in Japan (where they originate). I am seeing them more and more in the margins of magazines, as ads, signs and on the web.  Have you?


Image is everything. Symbols and imagery as signage is so often more concise and simply more aesthetic than text, which so easily (and often) becomes clutter.  (When text is done 'right', it is a different thing of course, but save that for another time please.  And save for later another personal favorite - when symbols are more confusing than effective.  Love that too.)  

Today, I'm interested in how QR codes diminish text into clear tidy boxes.  They aren't only to hide a message but to condense them.

In order to read the message, you need a QR reader which now is as cheap as um, freeee and as easy and portable as an iPhone app.  (For any mobile device really.)  There are about a dozen apps for this.  I got the MAAD QR app and it works perfectly fine for me.  You open the app, point the camera lens of your phone at the code and zap, it pops up a translation which could be text, a number or web link.  It's super fast.  So, imagine reading a magazine and instead of jotting down notes on a new solar-powered gadget or ripping out pages to save recipes, you just zap a QR code with your iPhone and you get the additional information. Plus it's handily stored so you can revisit it later.  Love. This.

It's no surprise that artists are embracing the new method to add another layer of visual communication in paintings, music videos and fashion.  Techno and Mod styles merge so well in QR codes.  Beyond the standard bold black and white palette and hard edges, the concept alone can add a juicy layer to a piece for the avant-garde as well as Pop.  Or domestically, how about hiding a message publicly in a chain-link fence?  See below Kylie Minogue's video, All The Lovers, featuring some codes (and other more obvious symbols).

Beyond the artwork itself, galleries and museums (like the Mattress Factory) are using them to condense wall text - gawd isn't that refreshing? As well as use them to track art pieces just like your basic bar code does.  Educators are finding handy ways to utilize them in the classroom.  This site has a list of tips for creatively using QR codes. A downside for luddites is that without a reading device I can't see how a person would translate the messages with their eyes alone. So those people miss out.  However more and more even luddites carry a cell phone.


The appeal of QR codes is more than just being relatively new.  They offer a wonderful aesthetic compromise.  They have just the right ratio of high contrast portions that a person could ignore them if they choose, and say, appreciate the art nearby, be it natural or artificial.  And conversely, they are eye-catching enough to easily spot them among the clutter of the world.  Can't you just see them on t-shirts?

You can put a phrase into a QR generator at this site and make your own code.   

spinning plates

After months of work, we are beta testing our new iPhone app, Stinky Maps.  It has been so much fun for me imagining, planning, outlining, constructing, discovering and reshaping apps.  I love learning new materials and methods. I like what it does to my head - from the tingly sense of discovery to the burning pressure of unknowns.  Making iPhone apps has been a fantastic challenge and humble journey.  

Stinky Maps has been especially liberating because it is all our own and not for a client.  (Though so far we have been fortunate at salty snack studios to work with delightful and creative clients.)  It's been a playful collaboration between Bruce and I, swapping ideas and putting them in motion.

So, here it goes. Finally we are in the home stretch launching Stinky Maps.  Setting it loose on the world won't mean it is done.  We'll continue to add features, rearrange the app and recreate it.  In this way, it's like most of my studio work.  It never truly ends. Most of my sculptures, installations and videos have an ongoing status.  The trick, of course, is keeping up when you get so many plates spinning. If it turns out that I'm spinning too many then something inevitably drops and I keep going. That's always been my studio management process.  I wonder when I look back later what will still be in my hands and what I drop.

Some people wanted to know what some of the sounds would be on the Stinky Maps app, so I made a little sample video of the audio and a few graphics.

Stinky Maps sounds from salty snack studios on Vimeo.

See the Stinky Maps website for more images and updates.     stinkymaps.blogspot.com/

guides to App Land

You can't bump into apps while strolling through the mall, or impulsively pick one up at the grocery cashier's counter.  Not yet anyway.  The whole world of apps is new enough that many of us don't know what we are even looking for anyway, but like discovering a nifty garlic peeler or a more efficient weeding tool, we would consider using a new and possibly better tool if we saw it.  Talking into the phone and having it translate words into text when I'm composing an email or document is an interesting possibility to me.  (Dragon Dictation) Some days I speak with more clarity than I type.  (Can someone find me an app that helps if it's a day when I can't do either?)  Having an app use my geographic coordinate to show me diagrams of the constellations while I look at them in the sky is pretty spectacular. (Stars) I wouldn't have known about either if I hadn't heard from someone who had seen them. Shopping guidance from app users is the ideal way to learn about apps, obviously, so developers and marketers are creating app review sites.  Many are high on the marketing aspect and light on original or practical content.

The app review site I am enjoying the most at the moment is Appolicious.  It has a slight social networking aspect which in this case turns out to be a good thing.  Because people have more identity than just a cryptic web handle, and you can actually read their bio and see a list of the apps that they use, you can have some perspective on their reviews.  If a guy is way into shooter game apps, he probably isn't a good app curator for me.  But, when a marketing professional recommends a list of reliable time management and document conversion apps for the iPad, I'm going to follow up and see if the apps might work for me.  Or when a or photographer breaks down a list of photography iPhone apps, it is a huge help.  I'm discovering a lot of cool things that I didn't expect or even imagine could exist (details on those to come in future reviews of my own, no doubt). Sure, I would like it if Apple's iTunes had more search and category flexibility but until then, or maybe even if it did, Appolicious is turning out to be a great filter for me.  Reviews are typically brief and to the point which keeps the site a simple, quick reference guide to compliment the more in depth information provided by tech journals.  I've already posted a few reviews of my own there which sometimes also link back to ones that I post here. Follow the link above to visit the site and see for yourself.

Ringing in My Head

I have a thing for timers.  They help me get things done. Not just things in the kitchen but everything.  When I am operating at full capacity juggling deadlines,  timers help keep me on track.  

I first used them in the studio to discipline my production schedule fifteen years ago.  My internal sense of time is very, um, well, loose.  I get absorbed in repetitive labor like hand-stitching bits of paper or teasing wool.  Now that most of my work is on the computer, editing video clips or 'drawing' virtually, I still get lost. Making marks, pixelating and re-arranging.  So once again, in an effort to keep myself on track, I am setting off bells.  

I set a timer when I start a task so that one, I get a truer sense of how long that kind of work really takes me and two, to make sure I move on to the next thing sooner rather than later.  

Okay, I'll admit it.  Timers are irresistible objects. I like looking at them.  I like winding them. I use a few at a time. A lot of noises - beeps and alarms - really bug me, but bells on timers are different.   They've become a familiar tune for order amidst chaos. 

When I saw the Gourmet Egg Timer iPhone App  made by Scott Marsden, I was curious if I would like how the timer 'works' compared to physical ones.  Would the bell be as effective? Give me the same push? Would I miss the quality of physically handling a timer as an object?  

So I tested it. And I went ahead and made some eggs while I was at it.

 

I found a video demo of the app on a blog in Kazakhstan that shows the app's user interface of an egg in water. The video has a strumming harp-like loop (that is an example of the kind of noise that bugs me) but  the video still does a basic job of showing you the app in motion.  When you tip your iPhone (or Touch), the water level and egg move accordingly.  The water bubbles and makes sounds like it's boiling.  And also through sound, time ticks away just like a wind-up.

The Gourmet Egg Timer doesn't try to be a game and compete for adolescent hearts.  It just works.  When it opens, you set the size of your egg and the GPS determines your altitude to refine the cooking time.  When the timer starts, you can further choose your boiled egg preference from soft to hard.  

As a design, the simplicity of the imagery matches the function beautifully.  

By taking advantage of the device's tilt action capability, the app reinvents the timer in a new format and yet still satisfies as an object. It feels comfortable to handle. You feel the invitation to 'play' a little with the water but no pressure to totally lose yourself with or like a zombie.  I set it and go back to work until the alarm goes off.  

This app, as simple as it sounds, does just what it needs to do and does it beautifully. For me,  that is plenty and a welcome addition to my collection.

  

Little Instants

Here is a low commitment, immediate satisfaction kind of fun. 

 

My friend Chris told me about this desktop application called Poladriod that makes your digital photo look like you took it on a polaroid.  

It's super simple and goofy and I like it.  

You drag and drop your digital file onto the apps polaroid icon, and it plays a sound effect of taking a polaroid photo. 

A picture pops out and gradually 'develops' into a new image with a polaroid frame format and darkened edges around your image as if it really had squeezed through polaroid camera rollers.  

You can then save the JPEG files of your Poladroid pics to email friends or make a little faux album.  Like I said, it's a silly little thing, but why not?  

Sometimes, I need a little instant gratification in the studio.  Or just in a day.  

The app developer offers it on a donation basis from his website.  It is very quick and easy to download and start playing with pictures.  I highly recommend it.  Have some fun.  

(Thanks, Chris!)

A Light Read

Beyond games, I want apps to make my life more organized or lighter - literally minimize the stacks of bound leaves of processed wood pulp that collect in every room of my house until I trip over them, then eventually haul them out to recycling.  Publishers may cringe or jump up and down depending on how they see this, but apps hold enormous tidiness potential.

McSweeney's has a subscription iPhone app that they call Small Chair. If you know McSweeney's, you know they are solid.  If you don't, McSweeney's is a reputable publisher with varying content from whimsical to heady.  Just one example, "An Open Letter To My Artistic Potential" by Jamie King is a great tongue-in-cheek creative kick in the ass.  They publish great interviews with top notch creatives.  Check them out through the built in links. My point is that you can trust McSweeney's to pull together good collections of works.  Plus, they aren't sell outs for advertising (so far) so you can rely on a clean, uninterrupted read (at least on their end - you can't blame them for the neighbors dogs barking incessantly).

With Small Chair, Russell Quinn and McSweeney's did a beautiful job building a simple, smart interface that bridges the distance between a conventional magazine subscription and a virtual one.  Because it is in my pocket, I can pull up the app and read a bit of fiction while I'm waiting to meet a friend at a cafe or watch an art video when waiting at the dentist or what have you.  And because it is in my phone, it's with me most of the time but not as cumbersome as a collection of magazines.  Further, if I like an author and am interested in their other works, I can pop over to Google seamlessly without need for scraps of paper for jotting web addresses that eventually wind up in that recycling pile.  And if I do want to make notes for follow up, I put it in my iPhone and get this: my notes are kept more in order by being in one place.  It's a revolution, I tell you.  Not to mention a purge from the guilt acquired by physical magazines not fully read that lay under foot waiting to be 'finished.'

It works just like conventional subscriptions.  You pay a six-month subscription rate that includes the app purchase (right now the whole deal costs only $5.99) to receive weekly uploads of articles, stories, interviews, and videos culled from their publications plus additional exclusive content. I picked a combo of two of their magazines, Believer (more literary) and Wholphin (art & video).  With conventional hard copy subscriptions I would have had to commit to just one.  And I would have had a magazine and a dvd to dedicate my attention to separately.  And because the app is always on the run with me, I get more reading done this way.

Finally, I am not advocating that all printed material belongs in an app or is by any means better than gripping a hard cover, nose down and turning pages of a novel.  Nothing truly replaces that kind of experience.  Subscriptions like McSweeney's are perfect for apps probably because they are ongoing and short format plus they also have videos and music combined with the 'printed' word.  I'm not so ready to see The New Yorker do this. Partly because I can't picture it.  (They have an app for their cartoons that apparently reviewers feel is overdone with ads but don't have a full blown subscription deal like Small Chair.) The sequence of how you read a New Yorker is so important, I think.  Even if you start with the cartoons, as many of us do, the structure, scale and layout are integrated into that reading experience.  But hey, if they put Russell Quinn to work on it, no doubt they can figure it out.  And I'd be thrilled to give it a go, especially if it is as lean and smart as my Small Chair.

Directions

(photo © Toni Matlock)

Designing instructions for an iPhone app is challenging. The trick is to find the right place/s for the instructions, keep them super brief to fit the medium (small frame plus an expectation for immediate gratification) and still be clear enough to get the points across.  I'm still wrestling with how to do this well for the apps we are building.  Today I am refining the directions above and working on others for apps soon to release.