Posted on

OKCupid App Adds Geo-Location. Is This Awesome?

Recently, there was much ado about an Apple patent that was filed, where it would allow users to locate people near them, and browse a small profile. In a personal discussion, some friends and I agreed that it wasn’t that likely that Apple would ever actually make something like this, but here they were patenting it just the same. I thought to myself, “this seems like something OKCupid would do.” Lo and behold, that’s exactly what they’ve done!

OKCupid first came onto my radar because of their excellent blog, OKTrends, where they occasionally perform statistical analysis of the people using their site. Everything from what you should send in your first message through what types of photos tend to get the best ratings is covered. They recently wrote an article called, “What if there weren’t so many white people?”

A friend tried to show me her profile, but since it was private to OKC users only, I ended up making one myself. The site is so well designed that it gently pushes you along to fill out your profile and answer match questions, all the while rewarding you by moving a bar from left to right labeled “Profile Completion”. Needless to say, my profile is now complete. Damn you, gamification! Continue reading “OKCupid App Adds Geo-Location. Is This Awesome?”

Posted on

WebOS Is The New BlackBerry

HP made a large purchase last year — they bought Palm. And with that came Palm’s brand spanking new smartphone operating system, WebOS. Despite a rocky start thanks to under-powered hardware and battery-sucking early builds, WebOS has actually gotten decent reviews. Everyone who uses it seems to say that it’s a really solid operating system. And they say it with a glimmer of sadness, since it seems like nothing could unseat Apple as the king of Smartphone Mountain, nor Android as the rogue gathering an army and preparing to lay siege against the incumbent king.

And yet, HP might just have a fighting chance. Recently, they released the TouchPad, a tablet which in many ways rivals the iPad or the current favorite Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Critics will say that the TouchPad is crippled by lack of software, but they’re missing the point. Everyone has different needs from a smartphone, but remember when the iPhone didn’t have apps at all? It survived in part because, as 37 signals put it, “Ten Apps Is All I Need“. Do those basic apps well, and most people don’t need much more. Pretty much every app that you want to use is made to work with Mobile Safari, and should work fine with WebOS’ browser, which also runs on WebKit.

Did I mention it already has a customized Facebook app/web layout, something which even the iPad doesn’t have? Or that it has its own Skype client? Because it already has both of those. And that’s why HP is going to take the scepter of “business tablet” away from RIM and their PlayBook. HP has deep pockets to promote this thing, and they’ve already started advertising on TV. It’s currently priced the same as the iPad, and while it may not be flying off the shelves, we can expect HP will drop the price around the holiday season and advertise around then too. Continue reading “WebOS Is The New BlackBerry”