Posts Tagged with ‘platform’

Facebook, Scrabble and Scrabulous — Why all the Hulabaloo?

Triston McIntyre

There couldn't be a better time for the intertubes to erupt in controversy over social games than the day after I post on the merits of real casual gaming in social media versus the self-proclaimed phenomenon of casual gaming, Nintendo's Wii.  I'm not sure what feeds you readers might check throughout the day, but a large group of my own feeds have been focused on the sensational Facebook game Scrabulous being shut down in the U.S. and [...]

Social Gaming, not the Wii, Should Hook Casual Gamers

Triston McIntyre

Though I would hardly call it a vice nowadays, gaming is very much an active hobby of mine. For some time, the golden tubes that carry our internet have been clogged with nothing but praises for Nintendo's dream console, the game machine that is helping all demographics realize their inner "casual" gamers. Maybe I'm just a skeptic, but I'm failing to realize how that little angular piece of whiteness that is selling for outrageous prices both on eBay [...]

Facebook and Mobile Social Location - The Day Real Privacy Concerns are Realized

Triston McIntyre

Last week I attended the Twin Tech media event in Washington, D.C, and one topic that kept popping up in conversation was the issue of privacy in this relatively new world of mobile social networking.  Mobile social platforms designed to keep track of users' locations are all the rage, just like VGA camera-phones were many, many moons ago.
Though we may not be at the point where everyone can be found at the touch of a mobile screen, that day [...]

Apple’s iPhone Apps Stunt Mobile Social Growth

Triston McIntyre

You have the most successful touchscreen handset on the market, your brand image could sell contacts to the blind, and guess what?  You are largely responsible for a roadblock in the advancement of mobile social networking.  What I'm referring to is the fact that new iPhone applications are not allowed to run continuously as a background processes. 
Of course, I doubt Apple or its head man Steve Jobs directly intend to inhibit the advancement of mobile social media by [...]

Twitter Takes Needed Steps Forward

Triston McIntyre

Though I'm not a parent, I do feel like a relatively close uncle, being able to watch Twitter grow up and get big.  Twitter experienced quite a significant growth spurt today when it acquired the separate Twitter search platform Summize, a buyout that fellow writer Leslie Poston recently explored.
Now Twitter is starting to look like a much more grown-up platform.  It would be unfair to say that Twitter has been doing it wrong all along by not having [...]

Find Fitness Fuel with Fitlink

Triston McIntyre

If I had to make an educated guess as to what keeps most people from leading a healthy and fit lifestyle, I would say that the lack of a training partner, a gym membership, and applicable real-life guidance are the biggest factors. I consider myself a relatively healthy individual, but I quickly admit to anyone that without a gym membership, training partner, and knowledge of proper workout routines that has been engrained over years of repetition, I would probably [...]

Bluepulse: On-the-Go Social Simplicity

Triston McIntyre

There's a lot to be said for simplicity.  Simplicity can mean focused and directed, but it can also mean lacking.  Reaching a balance of features and complexity while maintaining clarity and simplicity is a difficult task for any mobile social platform developer.  Though I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, I think the best mobile social platforms will be ones that aggregate the most popular computer-based platforms natively as full-time applications run over the data networks of mobile handsets.  [...]

New Facebook App for iPhones Takes Cues from Twitter

Triston McIntyre

There's nothing quite like the smell of a copy-cat early in the morning.  But then, what else would we expect of our trusty social network Facebook?  Aside from the many other cues Facebook has taken from different social platforms, when the Facebook app rolled out this morning as part of the iPhone Apps store, there were more than a few people who noticed striking similarities between the Facebook App and one rather popular micro-messaging application. 
Its hard to miss similarities [...]

Sell Flickr Photos on Getty? Say What?

Triston McIntyre

For whatever reason, when I read that a select few Flickr users will be able to license their photos through Getty, the Black Eyed Peas song "Where is the Love?" came to mind — not because I believe aspiring professional photographers who participate in the Flickr community have a particular affinity for the BEPs, but because the whole proposal has a sort of Willy Wonka's golden ticket air to it that rubs me the wrong way. Though [...]

Out with the Spam, in with Presdo for Facebook

Triston McIntyre

Now that I've been able to rid myself of those pestersome "Pet Hotties" application invites (thanks to the wonderful "Block Application" feature), I genuinely look forward to receiving invites to creative and helpful applications. Though many are still lack-luster and questionable, I'm quite pleased with the direction many developers of Facebook applications are taking.
One application I can legitimately say I look forward to using is the forthcoming application for Presdo, a social calendar application that intuitively allows users [...]