Recent Stories with tag app

Just as the wheel in the sky keeps on turning, The SunBreak keeps on growing. We now have an official SunBreak iPhone app, thanks to the good work of Instivate and Purple Robots. What can you do with The SunBreak iPhone app? What can't you do!

Rather a lot, really. Let's just focus on what it does. You get to read all our stories--DELIGHTFUL! You can follow our Twitterings--ENTERTAINING! Browse our SunBreak Flickr pool--EYE-RAVISHING!

And under More..., we've added two special buttons! You can check in our weekly events picks post, On the List, and the weekend news wrap-up, cunningly named the Weekend Wrap. That's just for launch. We have plans to add more buttons as soon as we think up clever names for them.

I don't want you to think The SunBreak is an Apple-only enterprise, though. As always, anyone can follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our stories via RSS, or catch the feed on Facebook by becoming a fan. Or, if you're a skimmer, you can get a daily email digest of our headline stories.

What don't we do for you! Well, again, let's focus on what we will do. Which is keep writing about Seattle, the people who live here, and where you can get good pancakes.

The top Twitter hashtag for Seattle right now is #WP7, as the smartphone crowd hashes out what the advent of Windows Phone 7 means. TechFlash has "what they're saying," and what they're saying is very complimentary (except for the name, Windows Phone 7). Gizmodo says it's "the most groundbreaking phone since the iPhone." But don't expect to see it until the holiday season.

The short story is that Microsoft has thrown out the old WinMo experience and adopted an augmented Zune HD interface that's heavy on live animation, so that its integration with external sources like Facebook is, to the user, seamless and always-on. "You never see an annoying 'loading...loading...loading,'" says Microsoft's Joe Belfiore.

This, combined with the news that two dozen cell phone providers are forming their own mobile app store, is keeping the mobile marketplace very interesting. That next iPhone had better be a doozy.

One of our Instivate network partners is Seattle Crime, the work of the indefatigable Jonah Spangenthal-Lee. Besides his reporting on crime around Seattle (Ex. A: "The Worst Jack in the Box in the Country"), another arresting feature the site offers is a Google map view of the city's 911 log.

This, not coincidentally, is what greets you when you open the new free Seattle Crime iPhone app. When you want to find out what the flashing lights down the street are about, this is the app for you. Version 1.1 lets you zoom in on your location, and also remembers where you were. Three tabs in total let you view the map, peruse the live 911 log feed, and skim crime headlines.

And yes, it looks like The SunBreak will be joining the iPhone app revolution soon enough. Now, in fact, is a good time for you to hit us up with features you'd like to see. We're kicking around events maps and listings, but if you have bright ideas, we, like President Obama, are listening.

If you own an iPhone, you've run up against the downside of dominant market share. Local software company Adobe is responsible for Flash, which, besides being a terrific way to annoy site visitors as they wait for landing pages to load or as they scramble to turn down music that blares suddenly, has become the default way to display animation and video on the internet.

But Apple has so far refused to allow Flash to play in the iPhone's Safari browser. They have their reasons. Adobe has responded to the more technical variety, but perhaps sensing that Apple wouldn't be happy with anything less than iFlash, they have been hammering and sawing on Flash CS5. (They're foregoing a public beta, in fact, to roll out the software faster.)

CS5 contains a packager that "will automatically convert any Flash app into an iPhone app," reports the Washington Post. (A Hulu app, that's what that means! Or it should. Get on that, Hulu. Oh, good.)

But the delay has already given Adobe (and Microsoft's Silverlight, for that matter) a competitor they weren't looking for.

Yesterday YouTube announced it's supporting HTML5 video players, which (currently) work in Chrome, Safari, and ChromeFrame on Internet Explorer. Today it's Vimeo. ReadWriteWeb explains that, "An HTML5 video player will allow videos to be viewed without Adobe's Flashplayer plug-in, videos will load faster and developers will be able to build all kinds of other intriguing features into a media delivery scheme based on the next version of HTML."

You can sign up for an experimental HTML5 video player here.

I am not backing a particular horse here--my hope is simply to maximize the streaming video I can watch via iPhone, as a way of paying AT&T back for their unlimited data plan pricing. Flash, HTML5--I just want to play Lawrence of Arabia in high rotation until a data center buckles.

Congratulations, Central Cinema! Besides being The SunBreak's most loyal advertiser, you're one of Google's Favorite Places in Seattle. Which means that Google has or will be sending you a decal for your front door with a bar code on it. When passers-by with smart phones scan the code, they'll be offered a link to your Place page, which has hours, reviews, a map, photos, and a link to your website.

Of course, the smart phone has to be able to scan QR codes. (Yes, there's an app for that.) To get things started, Google has partnered the makers of an iPhone scanner app, QuickMark, so the first 40,000 downloads are free. (It's normally $1.99, so not really a budget-buster in the first place.)

Google plans to send out 100,000 Favorite Places decals to businesses across the country, in 9,000 towns and cities. The "favoritism" is based on Google searches of business listings. Here are some of Seattle's Favorite Places, a list that looks more like tourists assembled it than residents:... (more)

It's tech day on The SunBreak, I guess. I've been wanting to write about Locavore, the Seattle-grown iPhone app, for some time, and their recent update announcement just gave me a reason to. (Full disclosure: I have been at parties at the same time as Buster Benson.)

Locavore responds to the notion that eating locally grown food is not just better for your green self-esteem, it's better for local farmers, the environment, and food quality. Plenty of people value locally grown food over an organically grown label, although you often aren't called upon to make that choice around Seattle. (Of course, there are trade-offs.)

The $2.99 app identifies your location in the U.S. and then tells you what's in season where you live. (It also tells you what's coming into season, and what's going out.) It also gives you a list of local farmer's markets and farms, with a description of what the market is like, and tells you how to get there. If you're into the whole social media thing, you can also announce your local eating... (more)

Photo by Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo.

The Woodland Park Zoo's new iPhone app ( iTunes app store ) costs 99 cents to download, but the proceeds go to support the zoo and its animals, so who can say no? It acts as a guide for your visit to the zoo--you can see where you are and where you want to go via GPS, learn more about the exhibit you're standing in front of, and time your arrival to feedings and talks.

• GPS-enabled zoo map with “Near Me” recommendations for animal exhibits, play areas, concession stands and restrooms
• daily schedule of zoo activities including zookeeper talks and children’s programs
• educational animal fact sheets
• special promotional offers redeemable at concession stands
• “Friend Finder” to locate other iPhone users in your party on zoo grounds
• zoo news and happenings
• easy access to Facebook and Twitter so you can share your zoo experience

Some of the features (not GPS) are available just by visiting http://www.zoo.org with your smartphone. The site should now serve up a mobile experience automatically.

By coincidence, the same morning I sat down to discuss the success of private bus guides like One Bus Away with King County Metro's general manager Kevin Desmond, One Bus Away released its iPhone application.

The question I had was this--given Metro's well-documented budget woes, was there more than customer convenience to be gained from letting private software developers take on a larger role?

OBA is the brainchild of Brian Ferris, a grad student in Computer Science & Engineering at the UW. Ferris is studying human-computer interactions, so in a sense, Seattle's bus riders are living inside Ferris's experiment.

"What he's done is terrific," said Desmond, who is thin, monologue-prone, and data-driven. In fact, data is the next thing he brings up, pointing out that OBA runs on top of Metro data. "The issue for us with the private developer world is how can we better meet their needs. What standards should we use? We're planning a developer's workshop, probably in late October."

OBA's website and iPhone... (more)

The big news today for Seattle bus commuters and iPhone owners is that One Bus Away has gone public with its native iPhone application. It opens with a check of your location, and then automatically displays nearby bus stops, with real-time bus info. You can also bookmark your regular stops, view a route's stops, and sort by a stop's routes and departure times. Seattle Transit Blog gives it a beta tester's thumbs up.