It Happened Here: location-based iPhone, Android discovery app launches Philly version

It Happened Here, a location-based, news-driven U.S. city exploration application for iPhone and Android, has launched a Philadelphia version.

Featuring 200 geo-located events and growing for Philly — from the familiar Revolution-era notes to more modern sites like film locations and celebrity sightings — the application has versions for five other cities. The $2.99 price gets a user a single city.

Built by D.C.-based development firm Mobile Surroundings, the application adds to the discovery craze by doing a good job of including both the historic and the modern. Though the density of events are reliably highest near Old City, other inner-ring neighborhoods are represented, too.

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Augmented Reality by PhillyHistory.org and Azavea launches on iPhone, Android

Click to enlarge.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

In February 2010, the National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities awarded the Philadelphia Department of Records a Digital Humanities Startup grant to investigate the use of augmented reality applications for mobile devices.

The prototype application, AR by PhillyHistory.org, is available for free download on iPhone and Android. It allows users to view historic photographs as 3D digital information overlaid atop their current location using the camera, GPS and many other sensors that came stock with nearly all consumer smartphones.

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What if a tweet cost your nonprofit $18,000 in Comcast funding?: Roundup

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

DEFINITE READS

• Comcast yanks funds for nonprofit after tweet about FCC Baker’s jump [Post Tech: Washington Post] — Seattle nonprofit Reel Grrls tweeted in opposition to the hire of former FCC chair Meredith Attwell Baker, which prompted a Comcast flack to threaten the organization’s funding, a stance that was then reversed by the company. Now the nonprofit has said it had decided to not take any Comcast funding anyway because the instance had ‘raised too many concerns.’ The funding in question was $18,000.
• Dick Ebersol Resigns From NBC Sports [New York Times] — “Dick Ebersol, who had defined NBC’s formidable Olympic presence since the mid-1990s and who was the last of the high-profile TV sports impresarios, resigned abruptly on Thursday after negotiations on a four-year contract collapsed. ” Ebersol profile by LA Times here.
• As New Owner of NBC Universal, Can Comcast Merge the Corporate with the Creative? [Knowledge@Wharton]

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SEPTA subway iPhone app launches

Patrick Cassidy, the developer behind phillysubway, has a theory about mass transit iPhone applications.

“Transit systems have quirks and you need to be user of the system to write an app for it,” he says.

A SEPTA rider and the lone employee at Caffeine Fish, Cassidy followed up regional rail scheduling application Trainboard with phillysubway, an iPhone app that provides up-to-the-minute subway schedules. Users can hold their iPhone normally for the North/South Broad Street Line, or turn their phone sideways for the (mostly) East/West Market Frankford Line.

A functionality that, Cassidy says, had him fearful that Apple would reject the application form its App Store.

[Disclosure: Caffeine Fish is a Technically Philly advertiser. This post is not part of any advertising package.]

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Tap DJ: Creating a success out of the “touchy, black box” that is the App Store

No, it’s not because Jason and C.C. Laan spend their weekends deejaying local club parties that they decided to create Tap DJ, an iPhone app that lets users mix songs and create samples, mimicking the experience.

“It started with a coffee shop conversation. Our goals were initially based around the fact that Apple had released new APIs to access the iPod library. We asked, ‘what can we make with this?” C.C. says. “The first thing that came up was a DJ app.”

What was originally a few cool and interesting features, says C.C., grew organically. “Once we saw the features we had, we thought it could be pretty good app. We created a website and added the extra polish that might push it.”

And those extra features helped. Since launching after six months of development, Laan Labs‘ Tap DJ has been featured by Apple at least 3 times, placing the application in the spotlight, and bumping it within the top ten iOS applications in February. It has been one of the best successes for the company’s independent line of applications. “There were a lot of iPhone DJ apps that do similar stuff. Ours just put all the pieces in the right order.”

[Full Disclosure: Laan Labs will be demoing Tap DJ at Technically Philly's Switch event on April 26, a part of Philly Tech Week. Tickets are available here.]

So, is there a formula for great app sales?

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Jake and Amanda Feifer O’Brien call Philadelphia gritty, challenging, and home

Another in the Entrance Exam series, as part of the Why I Love Philly campaign from Young Involved Philadelphia and Indy Hall. Tell the world why you love where you live by tweeting #whyilovephilly.

Tonight at National Mechanics in Old City is the campaign’s kickoff event from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. RSVP here.

How did a girl from Michigan and a guy from California end up living in the Italian Market?

I met Jake (@flailmonger) and Amanda Feifer O’ Brien (@forkspoonknife) in early 2007, soon after they moved to Philadelphia. We were enrolled in a continuing education class called Center City Savvy. The class was epic – our persistent teacher managed to secure us private audiences with the Secret Service, Le Beq Fin chefs, and Mayor Nutter, among others.

Four years later, Jake and Amanda could lead their own tour.

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Shop Talk: When Apple makes a “strong recommendation,” don’t ask questions

When Peter Jauss of Berwyn-based computer accessory manufacturer PARAT Solutions approached Apple with his idea to design a Made For iPod multi-unit docking station, the engineers at Cupertino had a very strong recommendation for him.

“They said, ‘if you ever hear us ‘strongly recommend’ something, you do it. You might not understand why. It might add cost. But we’re seeing something that’s forward-looking that you can’t see.”

So when Jauss got the contract from Apple to be able develop PARAT’s solution with the coveted MFi Apple-supported sticker, he didn’t ask questions about some of the changes they made in the design specs.

“It was data communication stuff, something to do with the interference between multiple devices,” he explains. “But it was a great thing. Because we carry that badge, it adds credibility.”

Since, the company has been focused on improving its innovative docking solutions for Apple products. Take its PARASYNC product, which allows for the ability to charge and sync up to 20 iPod and iPhones to a single iTunes library. For institutions and large organizations — like schools, universities, museums and resorts — which manage a large number of the mobile devices, it’s a lifeline.

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12 iPhone apps by Philadelphians, for Philadelphians

Great news for all the iPhone-addicts out there: Philly’s ever-increasing number of techies has been up to more than just taking up all the seats at your favorite Wi-Fi café. They’ve been busy developing truly Philly-centric apps, from the genius (SETPA travel, local concert information and traffic reports) to the just-for-fun (zombie braining and saving kittens).

Some of these Philly finds may take a little digging through the app store, and with tens of thousands of apps to choose from, who has time for all that? Well, we do! Get those downloading fingers ready for these 12 awesome iPhone apps by Philadelphians, for Philadelphians.

Read the rest at Philly Post.

Disclosure: Trainboard, an app on the list is one of Technically Philly’s sponsors.

Philly Post: Philly 311 – There’s no app for that

Last week, while the City of Philadelphia was busy celebrating the country’s 234th birthday, another anniversary passed by with little fanfare. July 5 marked three months since the city announced it was developing its own 311 iPhone application to allow citizens to access city data on the go. It also marked the day the application was two months late.

In an April 5 announcement, Division of Technology chief Allan Frank said the application would be available in May, yet there’s still no sign of it on the city’s 311 site or in the App Store.

While we’re certainly on board with city government embracing new technologies, there were several alternatives to the city developing the application itself that would have sped up its development and saved precious taxpayer dollars.

Read more at Philly Mag’s Philly Post.

Museum Without Walls audio program tours the art of the Ben Franklin Parkway

The Iroqoius model at 24th Street north of the Ben Franklin Parkway by Mark di Suvero. The story behind the sculpture is part of a new audio initiaitve from the Fairmount Park Art Association.

Ben Franklin Parkway, the cavernous promenade that thunderclaps from City Hall to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, never developed the type of urban density that the French boulevard after which it was modeled in the 1920s.

In reaction, city and state officials announced this week the immediate launching of $19 million in improvements meant to make the signature thoroughfare more pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

Tomorrow, another, unrelated initiative launches to better connect the prize art and acclaimed cultural institutions that litter the parkway like trash blowing in a neighborhood breeze.

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