Friday Q&A: Keith McGinnis on Philadelphia Weekly’s free Happy Hour Guide app

No one is suggesting that iPhone applications are going to save legacy media. But the conversation so often turns to profitability on mobile platforms, that it may be a surprise there are so  few truly local products from Philadelphia media.

NBC10 and 6ABC have free apps developed with the help of their national parents. Shopiks offers Philly coupons, and there’s the popular Philadelphia Concert Hub.

A screenshot of the app's interface. Click to enlarge.

“The rest are tour guides, canned content, RSS readers of Philly feeds or some sort of national content that is supposed to relate to our area,” says Keith McGinnis, who recently left a role heading up IT for Review Publishing, whose flagship brand is Philadelphia Weekly.

In December, PW likely made the region’s strongest big media play into mobile by launching a McGinnis-led Philly Happy Hour Guide application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The application offers users the chance to search and find the best happy hour deals at specific locations, specific bars, specific neighborhoods or wherever is nearest. There are options for calling a cab, getting directions and tracking just what’s your favorite.

Last month, the app became free to use, after a paid trial version, and so now, McGinnis says, PW has an excellent opportunity to test the waters of localized mobile profitability, ahead of anyone else in Philadelphia (No particular provision is being made for the few hundred who paid $1 for the app, McGinnis says, “I figure you saved $1 on your first drink special.”)

McGinnis is now joining the staff of Northern Liberties Web development firm o3world, but the Happy Hour Guide is still close enough to his heart that he took the time to chat with Technically Philly about how the app plans on making money, how it got made and what it means for PW’s always active competition with crosstown rival CityPaper.

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TNT: “The Carrier” gives comics the iPhone treatment

A quick read of Ben Franklin’s bio will tell you that Philadelphia is home to many American firsts. Now you can add another: the first iPhone-exclusive comic.

According to the publisher, StopWatch Media, “The Carrier” is the first comic available only on the iPhone. That is, it was not also published in print or online. [iTunes link: paid, free]

“The Carrier” is a story about a man who awakes in Thailand to find a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist and must figure out the origins of the briefcase while he regains his memory.

“If you are a fan of the Borne movies, you’ll love it,” says writer Evan Young, who lives near South Street.

The story takes full advantage of all the features available in a programmable, GPS-enabled device. The story’s 35 chapters unfold in real-time. If chapter two takes place 45 minutes after chapter one, it will be available on your phone exactly 45 minutes after you view the last panel of chapter one.

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Comcast Roundup: Inqy helps bring Phillies baseball to retirement home, NBC Sports is pissed and More

Every Thursday morning, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup.

Ninety-four-year old Jessie Foyle probably wouldn’t get a personal patch into her beloved Phillies games from Comcast if not for old media, it might be fair to guess.

The “legendary” fan now lives in a city retirement home that has a subscription with DirecTV, which doesn’t send nearly as many televised games from the Phightins as the ‘Cast, but, as Inquirer columnist Dan Rubin wrote last week, Taylor got some special treatment after he wrote a column early this month about her dilemma.

Six residents and four guests showed up for the first showing against the Cubs, Rubin reported, after Comcast wired the home so they could get all the Phillies games.

“We made an exception with [her retirement home],” Jeff Alexander, a Comcast spokesman, told Rubin. “We took into consideration the fact that Mrs. Foyle is such a legendary fan and the property was quick to partner with us.”

Rubin, a newspaperman of the truest order and a Hell of a columnist to boot, brought the popcorn.

After the jump, more Comcast iPhone app buzz, ESPNU on board and eight more Comcast stories for the faithful.

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Ten Philadelphia iPhone apps that don’t exist but should

The iPhone application news has to be getting a little tiresome, no?

Google says the mobile application collection is a fleeting concept. The iPhone store is completely flooded with more than 36,000 and few are making money or much worth the time.

Still, they keep coming. We reported that Comcast has its own new iPhone and iPod touch mobile app. Educational software company Blackboard and freakin’ Harry Potter have apps. Newspapers on occasion have them, but big ones like the Wall Street Journal and USA Today are trying to figure out how to charge.

Philly has many apps made by Philadelphians, like one about old Abe Lincoln and a righteous one for Philly concerts, but they are hardly comprehensive.

So why doesn’t Philadelphia, rife with culture and on the cusp (and perhaps in need of a bit) of a technology renaissance, have more of their own?

That profit problem, of course. Because, really, with rare exception no real money is being made, so it isn’t likely that a crush of Philadelphia-specific iPhone apps are going to be made anytime soon. But it sure is fun to indulge.

So, after the jump, find the 10 Philadelphia iPhone (or Windows mobile) apps  that should exist, but don’t and probably never will.

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Comcast Roundup: TV Everywhere balloons, Shaq and Stein are back and More

Every Thursday morning, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup.

Seventeen more cable TV networks have agreed to put their content on Comcast’s TV Everywhere, the proposed online video service that would be offered to subscribers only. That brings the total to 23, according to the Associated Press.

Though some public discourse has remained skeptical of the authentication model, Comcast has continued to move forward with its unprecedented experiment of paid content on the Web.

HBO is in that number of participants. The cable channel recently announced it will put at least 750 hours of its programming on the service scheduled to be rolled out for 5,000 trial subscribers in coming weeks, as reported by the Philadelphia Business Journal. That’s nearly as high profile as the thunder heard after CBS announced it was following suit, as reported by MediaMemo, which followed Time Warner becoming the first big fish in the pond with Comcast. Others, like Starz, added their own buzz.

Details on the security of the system aren’t yet clear, but it’s unlikely 23 networks, including major players like Time Warner, CBS and HBO would join so quickly if something wasn’t clear.

After the jump, more social media praise, a Comcast technician turns to crime and six other stories for the faithful.

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Friday Tech Links: Big Brother in Lancaster, girls still hate tech and More

Lancaster security cameras on the streets are monitored by civilians working for a nonprofit group. They pan, zoom and call police if they see a crime. Linda Johnson / For The L.A. Times

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

You’re probably being watched in Lancaster.

This city of 54,000 in the middle of a rural county of the same name just may be the most closely scrutinized place in the country, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.

As many as 165 closed-circuit TV cameras that will soon bring constant live surveillance of very nearly every street, park and other public space. That would be more outdoor cameras than cities as large as Boston and San Francisco.

Two more things are unique about the camera network, as the L.A. Times story suggests: it was built and maintained by a private nonprofit group and few seem concerned about the privacy implications.

The group, which hires civilians to move and follow the cameras and dispatch police to suspiscious activity, hasn’t found much public outcry.

“Years ago, there’s no way we could do this,” said Lancaster’s police chief Keith Sadler told the Times. “It brings to mind Big Brother, George Orwell and ‘1984.’ It’s just funny how Americans have softened on these issues.”

There is some question as to the effectiveness of cameras, though. In what the Times report calls the largest U.S. study, US Berkeley researchers evaluated 71 cameras that San Francisco put in high-crime areas beginning in 2005. In December, they released a report that found “no evidence” of a reduction in violent crime, though it did note “substantial declines” in property crime near the cameras.

Hat Tip Philly Tech News.

After the jump, the continued spat over a state film tax credit, robot-loving high schoolers and eight more of the week’s tech stories you shouldn’t miss, including our best read story of the last seven days.

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Emerging Technology for the Enterprise conference rolls into Philadelphia

Unlike the last major expo to roll through the city, the Emerging Technology for the Enterprise conference was all business. The event, presented by Chariot Solutions, had a target audience of developers and IT managers, so serious businessman were rubbing elbows in the lunch line with young 20-something programmers in XKCD t-shirts. If you listened, you heard the names of management philosophies mentioned in the same breath as up and coming programming language, and yet, everybody was on the same page.

The day’s sessions were organized in “tracks.” Two of the five rooms  focused on development and programming. Another room was devoted strictly to topics pertaining to the AGILE development model. Cloud computing and management rounded out the other rooms. Until Technically Philly masters the art of omnipresence, we could only attend a few of the first day panels including the keynote by RedHat’s open source evangelist Michael Tiemann. We were also unable to swing by today for an anticipated keynote by Jascha Franklin-Hodge, CTO of Blue State Digital, which spearheaded Obama for America’s online initiatives. If you were able to attend, be sure to let us know your thoughts in our comments.

Our take on yesterday’s keynote and sessions after the jump.
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Technically Philly now even awesomer: introducing our iPhone version

Finally, purchasing your iPhone has paid off.

Technically Philly has now been optimized for the iPhone and Andriod mobile operating systems. We’ve reduced some of the clutter that is useless on a mobile device and given you an easy way to  catch up on all of the region’s technology news and interviews while on the go. And by “on the go” we really mean every second you are not constantly refreshing the site at your home and office computers.

Versions for other mobile devices are in the works, and if something looks funny, be sure to let us know.