In a world where virtual and physical worlds are becoming indistinguishable, proximity is the name of the game. And it is also the focus of Rococo, an up-and-coming software developer. While they themselves do not have smartphone applications, you can expect to see their services everywhere in the near future, from games to social networking apps to location-based marketing tools. Using bluetooth, Rococo enables links phones to identities. For apps, this means that simply the presence of a person’s phone will signal his or her presence without any added steps or check-ins. Their primary platform, LocalSocial, will be of particular interest as it will not only facilitate the capabilities of a range of social media and LBS apps, but it will also present infinitely more proximity-based social opportunities for a wide variety of other apps and scenarios as well. For instance, checking-in at places or for events will become instantaneous, business owners will be able to better target potential and loyal customers, social networking agents will be enhanced, and gaming platforms will benefit from knowing more about who and where their players are. Read the rest of this entry »

The release of the iPad 2 on Friday had people lining up around Apple Retailers, salivating over the thought of getting their hands on the latest in tablet technologies. While the device itself is certainly a lot to get excited about (see my earlier post: Good Things Come in Two’s), there are two more reasons to grab ahold of it: GarageBand and iMovie. Priced at $4.99 a pop, these two apps were made specially for the release of the iPad 2 and enable you to do everything you could do with their computer counterparts. Side note: GarageBand existed for the first-generation iPad, but experts agree that it is a completely different beast on the iPad 2. Now that the iPad 2 has the enhanced graphics, gyroscope, powered-up processor, and oh, not to mention, dual-facing cameras, you can take your movie and music-making inclinations to the next level and on-the-go. With these apps on the iPad 2, touch functions and universal applicability make it so that you can literally mold your creations and carry them with you, and on whatever device you choose. Read the rest of this entry »

With so many things out there on the world wide web, how do you choose what web pages and images to focus on? What is also the greatest thing about the internet is also incredibly frustrating — namely that you can access everything (but there is only so much time in the day). Well, if you come across something that piques your interest, don’t worry about forgetting to revisit it or trying to archive it for later. Superstash is an enhanced web browser for the iPad which enables you to quickly and easily snap screen shots of any page on the web, add notes and comments, and file it away for later usage. You can also share your findings with friends through e-mail, edit the image by cropping or adding intelligent meta-data (such as tags, ratings, scribbles), and store it in the app’s built-in library, which you can organize with folders. Furthermore, Superstash contains a companion website that links you to interesting and creative sites, sorted by category, so you can surf, discover, and draw inspiration from the endless resources that exist on the web. Superstash will not only give you a certain peace of mind while perusing everything in cyberspace, it enables a much more engaging and efficient experience of the internet.