List of places here.

ViaAdverblog.

‘Stamped is a new way to recommend only what you like best—restaurants, books, movies, music and more.No noise, no strangers, just the things you and your friends love.’

Nice.

Here.

adidas + Flick Kick (Pik Pok) partnership that basically puts you in the position of a midfielder passing the ball to your team mates a few times before creating the final pass for the goal (with your finger obviously).

web + app.

Very nice.

Play here.

App here.

ViaWeizy.

Vocre is a free app that enables people that speak different languages to talk to each other live.

Smarts.

And apparently it’ll soon work on phone calls.

Wow.

Download here.

Amen is a mobile application for “broadcasting a strong opinion.” Users input a place, thing or person (context based) and decide whether they think it’s “the best” or “the worst.” You can add a few lines of text after that, but most messages end up something like “This thing is the worst thing in the world.”

Each statement has a permanent link, and anyone can then vote up or vote down the statement by giving it an “Amen” or a “Hell No.” If you dislike a statement, you have to give another object that you think is “the best” or “the worst” in that category. For example, If you don’t think rubbishcorp® is the worst, you’ll have to tell the world which blog is.

A list for each topic emerges over time and the top-voted comment shows up at the top of the list. So if users are talking about shoes, the best-rated and most popular shoe shows up at the top of the list.

Interesting…

Here.

Pac ‘n’ Twit (not to be confused with Touch ‘n’ Fresh) is a Pac Man themed Twitter client for iPhone and iPod Touch designed to make middle aged men that work in the media look even more like massive divvies.

Download yours here.

Well Barley.

That includes your phone number and email address…

Prolly best go foursquare/settings/privacysettings/contactinformation

Backseat Driver, the first product introduced by ToyToyota, is an iPhone application which enables users to enjoy driving from the back seat of their car. The player controlling My Car follows Papa Car, whose moves mirror the route of the real car in which the player is riding, using the iPhone’s GPS functionality. By steering My Car left and right to follow Papa Car’s path and pick up objects, the player can score points. Backseat Driver offers the passenger a new way to enjoy the driving. The route that you took will be saved automatically so that you can look over. You can gain points by collecting the items Papa Car drops, and the Landmark Icons of shops and facilities that are from the real maps. After you gained some points, you can customize your car with your own designs. The designs of your car and the saved route you took can be shared via Twitter.

Sweet.

Here.

ViaIain.

Lookmobileon provides you with web access to your SMS, calls log, contacts etc. With instant web notifications for calls and texts. Just install the mobile app, (Android Marketplace) then sign in to lookmobileon.net using your Facebook details. Once your phone is synced, you’ll be able to visit the website from anywhere.

Perfect if you forget your phone.

Here.

Google Wallet is an Android app that makes your phone your wallet. It stores virtual versions of your existing plastic cards on your phone. Simply tap your phone to pay and redeem offers using NFC.

Roughly translated as Google Wallet is the future, which is here.

Using almost every publicly available profile available, Facebook, Linked, Foursquare, Instagram, Eventbrite etc, mobile app Sonar, attempts to show you who, how many, and why particular people in a room are relevant to you. Providing you want to talk/be talked to by a randome stranger…

Here.

Site.

Hype Machine evolved into a lean back, non-stop rich radio experience. The app differs from the site with an even sharper focus on discovering new music – de-emphasizing ways to go back to familiar artists or songs. There is no artist search, on-demand playback. Your favorites are still in the app, but they are mixed with what the blogs you follow are posting, so that you’re always finding something new.

App.

Site.

Planetary is a way to explore your music collection on your iPad, via the space.

Here.

Throughout the game, players are given eight tries to accurately predict whether either team will score within the next 30 seconds. A correct guess wins big points, with the first scoring more highly than those who call it closer to the actual goal. Free kicks or corners result in a quick decision making prompt, with each outcome – goal, miss, save, clear – offering a score in proportion to the likelihood of that outcome. Other ways to score include quiz moments, with a question popping up on the screen to which a quick, correct response can gather more points. Players can also opt to use one of three ‘power-ups’ throughout the match; either an additional goal chance, a chance to double up on pop quiz points, or a 50:50 style hint when answering questions. A small button at the bottom of the screen ensures that your friend’s scores – updated in real time, of course – can be checked against your own.

Players can also win different badges, visible on their profile. ‘Free kick hero’, ‘goal master’ and ‘corner king’ are mini trophies to be picked up for a particularly accurate winning streak in any of those facets of the game.

Facebook Connect functionality also enables players to publish results, and those of your league, to your Facebook wall for bragging rights.

Very, very smart.

Be really interesting to see what the adoption rate is as Star Players is effectively asking football fans to stop thinking about football and remember to interact with a phone during the most important moments of the game. This is a very big ask. I’m not saying it won’t work, I’m just saying this is the first time the second screen theory has actually been tested – props to AKQA and Heineken for that. I’m guessing the answer will depend on the level of devotion from the fan in question – the more casual the more likely to play, which still makes this genius.

One thing, it just me or is the decision to launch this late in the competition a bit weird?

Anyways, well nice work Heineken + AKQA

Here.

ViaTheWholeFuckingInternet.

App here.

ViaPetaPixel.

An extract from the data gathered by the iPhoneTracking tool. This open-source application maps the information that your iPhone is recording about your movements. It doesn’t record anything itself, it only displays files that are already hidden on your computer.

More here.

Record companies and artists are beginning to realise that Apps can replace albums and bring fresh revenue streams to a model decimated by piracy. The D.C. band Bluebrain created the world’s first album that doubles as a location aware mobile application. The app will sync songs, and even melodies to a listener’s location as they travel through The National Mall in Washington, D.C. The app ensures a unique listening experience based on the whims of each user based solely on location.

‘The National Mall’ is the first in a series of location-aware musical works that Bluebrain will compose and design for sites around the world in the coming months and years. The second work of this nature, designed for Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York will debut later this summer followed by a piece that will stretch the entire length of California’s Highway 1.

More here.

Google is rapidly moving towards NFC (near field communications) as their technology of choice for closing the physical loop between consumers and themselves/partners. They’ve built the NFC chip into their Nexus and they are testing NFC in both a payment and POS environments.

As a result Google has seemingly axed support for QR Codes in their Places service. Could this be the beginning of the end for QR?

Can’t say it would really be a massive surprise, QR has always been a pretty unsatisfying experience. Fire up your phone, open camera/QR app, line up the QR Code and take a photo. After all of that you basically get a URL – which mostly just delivers you an ad.  Of course, NFC could easily turn out to be as mediocre, but to be fair it’s gonna be pretty hard to fuck up the experience of pulling your phone out, holding it up to a sensor and having it pay for something/grab information.

Just saying.

Here.

More here.

There are/will be a lot of these. This (iPhone only version) enables users to create as many text messaging groups as they like and send as many messages as they like free of charge. Like Convore, TextPlus and others . Interestingly this one is by a company owned by the Google.

App.

Site.

Mobile NFC (Near Field Communication) is about to properly arrive on you phone. Nexus S has a chip installed, Blackberry are saying all their new handsets will carry the tech, the latest Android supports it across numerous devices and iPhone 5 will almost certainly follow suit in the summer. That, twinned with the emergence of contactless pay points in a few common retailers, like EAT (in the London), is a big indication of the inevitability of a mass mobile payment system.

If you’re not familiar, NFC is a short-range wireless technology that enables transaction over close physical proximity – typically requiring a distance of 4cm or less for an exchange. Basically it’s the tech that lives in your Oyster card – but in your phone, making it much more accessible and practical. The chips involved are small, which means the variations can take very simple forms in stuff like tags, stickers, key fobs, card receivers (Oyster) etc – none of which require batteries. NFC peer-to-peer communication is also possible, so by putting you phone next to another you can swap data – not unlike Bump.

All of that basically means that your phone will be able to talk to payment terminals, so, against the wishes of the Daily Mail,  there’ll no longer be a need for any debit cards, credit cars or cash. And eventually this tech will replace your whole wallet and your keys. None of which is really news, and I’m pretty sure you all already know about it – which kinda brings me to my point.

It’s not that it is happening, it’s what can be done with it that is interesting.

AirSync not only enables Android to wirelessly sync media via a PC or Mac, but it acts as a DLNA media server so you can  stream content wirelessly to a TV through via 360 or PS3. The desktop media player looks a lot like iTunes (see above), and has added support for the Android App Store, a music store through Amazon MP3′s API, and a directory of Podcasts. I love that it all runs ‘live’, meaning whenever you walk within range of your wireless network, DoubleTwist will detect any new content on either device and auto sync – meaning no more annoying tethering.

Sweet.

Here

DLNA is short for Digital Living Network Alliance, and defines a standard for moving movies, photos, music and other media from device to device. DLNA servers can store media in one location, and, without any setup or configuration, can stream the media to DLNA compliant players, like the PS3 and Xbox 360. The big draw behind DLNA is to throw away major configuration, and create a simplistic way for consumers to get media from one device to another.

GroupMe is a social texting app that incorporates geo-location via FourSquare. Meaning that if a group of friends check into the same vicinity, the app invites them all to a closed text based chat room. Ideal for parties, concerts, SXSW and the like.

Bit like YapTime.

Here.

OpenSignalMaps uses Android smartphones as probes, crowdsourcing locations of cellular towers and their strength. The service displays the info on a Google Maps mashup, in two different ways: pinpointing cell towers and then showing a heat map of cell coverage. And there are plans to enable users compare download speeds over various networks, which again is of value.

Here.

NoteSlate is low cost ($99) tablet device with true one colour display, real paper look design, 180 hour battery, together with very handy usage and very simple and helpful interface for pen and paper. This easy, compact and portable gadget is used anywhere you want to make any notes, drafts, sketches, any ideas for future reference.

Here

App here.

Reka here.

Shame it’s on a slowly dying operating system.

Bless.

More here.

Wheretheladies.at, the a web app that aggregates Foursquare checkins by female gender and location, is now available as an iPhone app. And when I say app I actually mean a huge big compass that points in the direction of ladies (see left).

The app ranks nearby locations by the number of ‘ladies’ that have checked in and  then helpfully points you in the direction of that local critical mass. Currently the app only works in San Francisco, but the team is working on getting it to other cities.

I guess we’ll soon be seeing Wheretheguys.at.

Or Wherethedonkeys.at..?

A bit like Assisted Serendipity.

Download the app here.

A year or so ago some people I talked to at Google claimed that Translate would eventually be bigger than search. If that means what I think it means, that’s a fairly big claim, especially given the infancy of the tech. But you have to admit, the idea of variants in spoken language no longer being a barrier is a very powerful one.

ViaGoogleMobileBlog.

Here.