GITweekly

So, there’s this obsession kind of thing going round these days. What with the prevalence of iPhones and their ilk.

It’s called Chronic-Random-App-Downloaditis (err…CRAD for short).

However, in Australia at least, this obsession soon leads to a sister condition. Normal-App-Disappointment Syndrome (NADS for short).

So why is it that most Australian app down-loaders suffer from NADS?

Because there’s too few of us.

Consider the very clever social mapping application Waze. This could be a cracker of an app – and I’m sure it is over in well populated areas of the world – but in the expansive and underpopulated locales of Australia’s suburbia it can’t help but under perform.

So what is this Waze of which you speak?

According to the Waze folk, Waze is apparently the “way to go”.

To do this the Waze boffins are trying to create the world’s first live map. At the same time they’re layering, over the top of the map, content generated by your good selves.

So in simple terms, that us GITs can understand – as you drive, your smartphone maps the roads and sends the data back to Waze servers. Info, like your speed, will give other Waze users an idea of how fast traffic’s moving and events, like accidents, can be marked with a couple of button presses so that other Waze users can avoid the area (although some road law changes in Australia will make this button mashing a big no-no even when stopped). The killer feature is the apps ability to do turn-by-turn navigation that bears in mind the live traffic data. Bumper to bumper on one road? Route around it! Sweet.

Other features are planted firmly in the social networking scene:

• Pinging other Waze users to have a chat.
• Seeing where other “Wazers” are on the live map. Click on them and you’ll see how fast they’re travelling.
• Earning points by finding prizes on the roads as you drive.
• Checking your score on the scoreboard (earned by marking new roads, driving over certain roads, marking incidents).

So here’s the thing. If everyone downloads this app and uses it we’ll see how truly amazing this kind of technology can be. As more people get on board, more roads will be mapped, and then we’ll get to use the Waze app in its full glory – as an intelligent turn-by-turn navigator with a community spirit.

Until that time (and I fear that time will never come) we’re just stuck with a map that’s in pieces (see the image below for an Australian example) and aching for a Google cash and maps injection.

Grabbitnow.

As much as I despise the sites that cut and past press releases as content I must admit I was a little tempted when I received this one.

It came from the producers of one, if not the, best iPhone apps available. Runkeeper.

Runkeeper, if you’re at all interested, tracks your running/skiing/walking/cycling via GPS. It maps your routes and stores them online for later viewing. It also tells you how many rolls of fat you’ve just excised by calculating the calories you’ve combusted. To do the calorie calculation it takes into account your current weight (that you’ve plugged into their website). Nice.

Thats where the latest press release comes into its own. They’re trying to flog Withings Scales. What’s interesting about these scales is that they’re connected to the interweb through the marvelous black magic of WiFi.

Why is this interesting?

Although a tad gimmicky and entirely cool,stepping onto these beautiful looking scales sends, through the ether, the mass-ful details of your gelatinous assets. This instantly updates Runkeeper’s calculations without you having to log into their site and manually fiddling. Absolutely sweet.

Like I said this may be a little gimmicky but anything that promotes a reduction in coronary artery disease is fine by me. It could be quite the motivator.

Check out our technical drawings of the system below:

In this day and age it’s too easy to feel overwhelmed by life, the universe and everything. We’re all time poor and super stressed, just wishing to shut-down and rest when we’ve got down-time. Or you just might be a lazy slob who can’t be stuffed. Whatever, I really don’t care in the nicest way possible.

But hang-on a minute, is that an iPhone in your sweaty sausage-like fingers?

Here is a brand new (for Melbourne) way of getting off your behind and exploring our great town..

Foursquare is a social networking, location based, smartphone and web-based game of sorts that runs on iPhones, Android phones and the venerable Blackberry. The nutshell version is that you run the app and, by using the inbuilt GPS and 3G connection, get a list of nearby funky places. These could be pubs, clubs, cafes and the like. The idea is that you go to the venue and “checkin”. You then score points for said “checkin”. Easy as pie. I can see you getting up of that Futon already.

How many points do you get? Well, for the first visit to a venue you score yourself 5 points. You get bonus points for stopping at other places during the night out (weekdays 4pm to 8am and anytime on the weekend) and, to promote cirrhosis, you receive extra bonuses for going out more than one night in a row.

What about during the day? Yes, you can still score the “first visit” 5 pointer and points for visiting places anytime on the weekend. Sweet.

Why would I want to do this? Well there are other cool features and apparently more to come. You’ll:

• know where your friends are on your nights out. You can even give them a “shout” to tell them to head on over.
• find out which places are pumping – click on the place and see who’s there.
• find out what’s done at each place – click on tips and find out that they have a huge beer menu.
• get maps to places.
• earn badges based upon how prolific you are or how adventurous.
• become the Mayor of a venue by checking in there the most times.
• see if you’re the king of your whole town by looking at the Leaderboard- your stats are the red ones. And yes I am the king of Melbourne (for now – until the weekend/people start using foursquare).

King of Melbourne

So what will the future hold for Foursquare?

Location based technologies are taking off in a huge way thanks to the accessibility of GPS enabled smartphones. In the States, where Foursquare began, it is huge. People vie night after night to be mayor of any place. But what about other aspects of this technology? By my reckoning you could soon expect (probably from Foursquare – thanks to their huge userbase):

• Location based advertising – walk past a McChucks and your phone may vibrate with the message “buy a burger – you look hungry”
• Location based discounts – this I would like. Visit Brunswick street and as you walk past Polyester Records you get sent a flyer that gives you 20% of anything in store if you walk in within 20 minutes – sweet.
• Instant friend notifications – if a friend is nearby your phone will buzz and let you know – privacy be gone!
• Plus lots more – I have too many ideas!

Lastly a word of warning.

While the website lets you set levels of privacy you should always be careful about who your friends are. I could easily see some bloke befriending you only to find out when you’re away from your jewelry at home.

Be warned – play nice.

According to Dictionary.com a GIT is a foolish or contemptible person.

To be honest with you, the foolish bit may well be true of us here at GITweekly. It’s also part of the reason we’re called GITweekly.

You see, it probably is a little bit foolish to believe that GITs like us could comment about tech, especially compared to the super brains out there. But here’s the thing.

We know what we like. And we know what works for us. For the average computer user that’s going to be more than enough.

So let’s get on with it with our first GITtip.

If you don’t have a dictionary handy – type in www.dictionary.com and you’re set. It even pronounces words for you if your struggling.

For those with a bit of smart phone styley going on, and we’re talking iPhone here, try the Dictionary.com iPhone app. It’s free. How cheap is that!