"PhoneGap is an HTML5 app platform that allows you to author native applications with web technologies and get access to APIs and app stores. PhoneGap leverages web technologies developers already know best... HTML and JavaScript."

"There are objects that are timeless in design. You can’t improve much upon simple tools like a spoon or a compass. Brands can do this too—Dieter Rams designs for Braun fit in almost any decade and it is hard to imagine much by Muji looking dated. But a digital device is not an alarm clock or a shelving unit. It will grow obsolete very quickly. Which makes the atemporal look of electronics by Apple more uncanny, more rarefied. The personal computer as Holly Golightly's little black dress... The iPhone in particular seems born out of years of science fiction fantasies of handheld gadgets with boundless capabilities. It appears to have arrived not from China, but from just a few years ahead of time. A little piece of the future we were lucky enough to receive early... There are two prevailing science fictional design aesthetics. One is a worn, rusty, lived-in-looking future. It is the junkyards in Philip K Dick novels and the dust collecting on Star Wars flight control interfaces. Then, there’s the world of tomorrow imagined as a sterile place of white and translucent surfaces... A willingness to try Apple products at all suggests appreciation for, if not commitment to its value of simplicity over ornamentation. Design asceticism was a way of life for the company’s founder... To return the favor, some Apple consumers practice a kind of Western interpretation of Shintoism, valuing and caring for the products as if they were living creatures. They respect the objects — their painstaking craftsmanship, and the promise of a better, less dirty, less vapid world —by keeping them in just-unboxed condition."

"Toca Boca is a play studio that makes digital toys for kids. We think playing and having fun is the best way to learn about the world. Therefore we make digital toys and games that help stimulate the imagination, and that you can play together with your kids. Best of all – we do it in a safe way without advertising or in-app purchases.

What we believe in
1. A balance between the different needs that kids have. Kids have many different emotional needs, and we believe that digital products should try to address a wider spectrum of these than just playing games or teaching ABC. Used correctly, digital products can be an amplifier or synthesizer of kids emotional development too.
2. We think it is important to play. But not just games. We believe we can make digital products that can be a part of, and facilitate, different types of play. On screen, and away from the screen too.
3. Products that allow you and your kids to play together. Far too often, digital products are used as pacifiers for kids. We believe there is a place for digital products that allow kids and their parents to play together. More fun for both of you!
4. A positive view on technology. We believe that the development of technology is something positive, and that it should be embraced and used for good.
5. A safe digital environment for your kids. We believe safety should come first when your kids are using our products. That’s why we don’t have banner advertising or in-app purchases for kids in our products.
6. You will like our products, but your kids will love them. We make products for kids, and our highest wish is to make them smile. When we develop products we test and co-create together with children to make sure that they like everything about them. No matter what the purpose of the product is, we believe that it should also start with a smile."

"A simple way to organize receipts and manage expenses"

"OpenPaths is a secure data locker for personal location information.

Using our mobile apps you can track your location, visualize where you've been, and upload your data to the OpenPaths website. You can then download your data from the website in a variety of friendly formats, including KML, JSON, and CSV. The OpenPaths API enables you to integrate your own software with the platform, and you can import data from location-based services like Foursquare.

You can keep your location history to yourself, or you can share it with specific research initiatives, art projects, or educational programs as you so choose. The OpenPaths online interface allows you to manage who has access to your data. Regardless, your data is always encrypted on the OpenPaths servers, and cannot be accessed by anyone without your express consent."

Khoi's "icons" bookmarks, a lot of good stuff in there.

Three iPhone/iPad wooden docks that turn them into old-time devices: alarm clock, portable radio, CRT TV from frog design creative director Jonas Damon.

Kraftwerk release Kling Klang Machine No. 1 for iPhone & iPad. It uses real-time data based on geographical location to generate music.

The guys at Threadless talk about coming up with the mobile version of their website.

How to use the iWebKit free framework to create web applications that behave like iOS native applications.

Good overview of the steps your web application needs to perform in order to behave like a native iOS application:
* strip away the browser chrome (the url bar and button bar);
* prevent viewport scrolling and scaling;
* respond to multi-touch and gesture events;
* use webkit CSS to get the iPhone OS look and feel;
* cache the app so it runs without internet access;
* get a custom icon on the home screen; and
* have a splash screen load at the start.

Getting under the hood: how to write an iPhone app without XCode or Interface Builder.

"Meet Nelson, Coupland, and Alice — the faces of tomorrow’s book. (...) What new experiences might be created by linking diverse discussions, what additional value could be created by connected readers to one another, and what innovative ways we might use to tell our favorite stories and build community around books?"

Nelson = the book in its bigger context; follow debate/conversations on certain paragraphs; double-check the facts; see materials that reference it and material that are referenced in it.

Coupland = reading in context; key reading material based on professional network; popular reads in your organization; suggesting books to people.

Alice = augmented experience of reading; unlocking secret paths in the book; unwind a larger narrative; interact with characters;

A ton of ideas!

How small details in Canabalt enhance the game's enjoyability. (Generally the game is more forgiving than it looks of player errors -- jumping too late off a building or over an obstacle).

"One of my goals when I was building Canabalt was to emulate the animation from step platforming games I grew up with, like Flashback or Prince of Persia. These games had realistic, rotoscoped animations with a lot of frames, and have a very distinctive, "smooth" look."

"Singing Fingers lets you fingerpaint with sound. Just touch the screen while you make a sound, and colorful paint appears. Touch the paint to play back the sound again!"

"Horizons is a interactive sound toy which brings together the atmospheric sounds of Eli Murray (Gentleforce) and generative visuals of Lukasz Karluk. The app is an exploration of colour, sound and form.

The design of the piece focuses on creating subtle colour refractions in a rich colour scape using an algorithmic process known as triangulation. Fluidity of interaction is achieved using real-time physics made using the Box2d library and openFrameworks."

Reminds me of: Brian Eno's Bloom, Delaunay triangulation (scriptographer tool)

This week in WTF apps.

"iButterfly, a new product of Tokyo Innovation that incorporates augmented reality, motion sensor, global positioning system and location based services."

"SoundPrism enables you to create beautiful music immediately without any previous knowledge. With its unique visualization of pitches and intuitive controls composing sophisticated melodies, tone and chord patterns becomes child's play."

"I take photos on my iPhone 3Gs, photographing what moves me, observing and curious about people around me and the world I live in. I mostly photograph in black & white, often because it’s what pleases me and gives the range I’d like for expression.

Street photography elicits the small candid moments full of vitality and serendipity. Exciting and varied strings of moments that make sense and meaning, this is the appeal and reward. I’m working to be a better photographer and appreciate hearing from you."

"By simply singing into your phone, Voice Band transforms your voice into ten different instruments in real-time (...) It features a recorder which lets you build a song, one instrument at a time. Auto pitch mode helps you stay on key, and if you're a musician, you'll appreciate the adjustable scale and metronome. Voice Band also includes a built-in effects processor with distortion, reverb, and delay."