see a puffin eat a fish

I have a jesus phone. I wasn’t planning on it or anything but an unstoppable convergence of events led me to the kool-aid. My N95 was getting pretty beat up (a couple of the keys were permanently recessed) and i’ve been itching to give iPhone development a shot. Then, when Anna and I were at the Apple store to buy a DVI to S Video/Composite adapter (Otis A/V media system!!) she said “Why don’t I get you an iPhone?” And I didn’t really know why she shouldn’t get me an iPhone, so now I have an iPhone. Just like that.

I’ve only had it for a couple of weeks but I think it’s made me a little stupid. Like forgetting how to find a parking spot on the streets of Brooklyn after parking in a garage for a few months. The iPhone is making me lose my edge. I now have a hard time working with interfaces designed by engineers. Which I guess is a compliment to Apple, except that the iPhone is going to make me slow. Maybe there is an app I can buy to screw up the interface?

Overall I dig it but I am not enamored with it. The browser is super dope as is visual voicemail and the location services but I have the usual litany of complaints (Flash, MMS, video, cut and paste, etc.) Also WTF is with running one app at a time? Such a bad call. That’s what I really miss about Symbian.

Since I am on my phone a lot more than my macbook, the convergence of my mobile and desktop interfaces has made me feel like my laptop is a giant phone. The iPhone is the closest thing i’ve used to the computers I use every day. Not bad.

The phone keeps on correcting ‘ooh’ to ‘pooh’. I don’t say pooh.

The past week i’ve been working with the Plodt team as part of the the Twitter Vote Report project. Lots of buzz words in the previous sentence. I’m pretty excited about it. On election day, people will be able to send in their voting experience via SMS, Twitter, iPhone, Android and voice. Good coverage. We in turn will localize and visualize the data showing polling place wait times, issues with voting machines as well as positive/negative experiences with the whole voting process.

Also this past Tuesday I was a guest critic in Family Feud Dennis’ Designing Around Place class at ITP. Lots of great projects and always nice to come back. Dovetailing with the Twitter Vote Report, check out one of the projects from that class, The New Vote with fancy custom mapping tiles.

A few weeks ago I went to Philly to watch Shawn do a live webcast in a Boston gallery. There’s now a review up here. Here’s hoping Shawn does more of these.

So we end up going down a country road to a yard sale where this Monty Hall-esque seller was more intent on getting rid of his stuff than making any money. Certain items had money squirreled away within them (paper money, not coins, he insists). If you buy those items you could end up making money on the deal.

We wanted two books and a blanket for $4 but if we bought this decorative bowl w/dipping tray for $5 (which we had no interest in), we could have the $4 worth of items for free plus whatever money was hidden in the bowl. We went for it and there was $2 hidden in the bowl. So $4 – $4 + $5 – $2 = $3 for 2 books, a blanket and this garish bowl. Is the bowl something? Should I bring it to the antique roadshow or “accidentally” forget it at someone’s house?

Check it:

I take a photo and my location is updated on my blog. This will really motivate me to take even more photos as I am getting a tangible added value from photo documentation.

This would be nice to have embedded in Facebook, as an iGoogle widget or possibly something much more lightweight that you could embed with javascript anywhere.

Also, unrelated — Jake at Local Projects has launched his City of Memory project, curated stories from the five boroughs. I had a small hand in this project a few years back, well worth checking out.