Shonzilla, a pattern-seeking animal

TAT augmented ID is an UI concept developed by TAT (The Astonishing Tribe).

TAT is a Swedish company which has previously developed UI for Android. If you look at that analog clock widget with Malmö written on it, it’s because this is where these guys are from.

On the other hand, Polar Rose is a face recognition technology company (BTW, also from Malmö) which exists for more than two years and is constantly being developed. There’s another face recognition company out the (face.com) which has hooked up with its name sibling (Facebook).

All in all, what you see here is quite possible and probably feasible.

Do you know anyone working on something similar?

[via TATMobileUI]

Rhodes framework

Here’s another open-source cross-platform mobile application framework I’ve discovered. It’s called Rhodes framework. This one is both very interesting and special because it does not use web browser as run-time environment but it rather creates native applications.

Cross-platform mobile applications are written in Ruby programming language using MVC architectural. This is definitely good news for all Rails developers out there and perhaps an additional push for everyone else considering finally learning the Ruby language and Rails framework as well.

The version 1.0 release a week ago, on March 24th, supports mobile platforms such as iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian, BlueBerry, and last but not least, Android.

Rhodes framework includes the first Ruby implementation for all the mentioned platforms except Symbian which already had one. Cross-platform mobile Ruby code gets translated into natively optimized mobile apps. One of the main components is client-side component called RhoSync which allows integration with web services and, consequently, integration with almost any back-end system or application. Some integrations already available with Rhodes framework are SugarCRM integration and Ligthouse integration.

How does it work? Nice people from Rhomobile explain it themselves:
“In general, developer productivity is much higher in Rhodes than writing to diverse native device operating systems and APIs since most of your UI customization can be done in HTML templates (ERB files). Rhodes also provides access to native device capabilities such as GPS and PIM data via an extended set of tags (e.g. <geolocation/>).”

Has Rhodes framework intrigued you? If so, have a look at Rhodes tutorial.

iFart economy

Q: What is iFart economy?
A: It’s the impact that a simple product, regardless how bizarre, can provoke in your immediate environment. Thanks to viral effects of humor everyone understands this effect expands to a wider audience and, consequently, creates its own market niche.

Watch the the commercial for the application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. One has to admit it’s fun as hell regardless of your educational background, ethicity, zodiac sign or your favorite brand of mobile phone. The reason why I’m writing about it is that it is sold through iTunes Store for $1. Joel Comm, the iFart developer, has revealed that it is downloaded over 10.000 times a day. Yes, that’s over ten thousand times every day, give or take. During last Christmas it was particularly popular and was sold nearly 40.000 times. Knowing 30% is sliced off by Apple – do the math and draw your own conclusions…

Perhaps more people should be making mobile applications, developing for the popular mobile platforms like the upcoming iPhone 3.0, Android, Symbian, WebOS (on still anticipated Palm Pre)…? Maybe developers should less enterprise applications and more fun ones that can be used and enjoyed by anyone?

You can tell that this cheap mobile app is viral with a potential to inspire some priceless moments. You don’t believe me? Watch what happens when a kid uses iFart during City Council meeting.