Category Archives: Reviews

Qrator iPhone app: collect experiences

The social mobile market is quite a kerfuffle lately. Many apps try to do the same thing and carry out the same tasks without much (or, to put it better, useful) differentiation. For example, when I want to share a photo I have the following options:

  1. Instagram
  2. Facebook
  3. Path
  4. Twitter
  5. Flickr
  6. Google+, Tumblr, and more…

Options are good but after a point they can become overwhelming and crumbersome. Each service is a different medium, tells a different story, has different target group, content and privacy settings. On top of that, sometimes I have to manually re-upload a photo on another platform because there’s no API to bound them, these two services have different corporate strategy, are rivals, etc.

Enter Qrator.

Qrator is a new Greek startup recently out of private beta with the vision to change the landscape of social by focusing on storytelling. Qrator is available at the moment only for iOS, it’s free, and you can find it in the App Store.

Qrator homescreen.

Qrator’s homescreen; its news feed. Here we see master artisan Tind at work.

Combining boards, music, photography and geolocation, Qrator stands where others haven’t and has a good chance to solve the aforementioned problems. I’ve been using it since its first private beta and it always felt a polished product.

Storytelling is a different and a non-conventional approach. By choosing where to share each individual story outside Qrator it’s easy to maintain consistency on different stories in different services—no need to mix things up. Automatic location detection (this is really cool) saves you time and adds an “Aha!” moment and a bit of foursquare API magic. Just like when you add a music track in your Qrator experience. An experience can hold as many photos as you want.

A Qrator experience

A Qrator experience at Rave Up Records, a record store in Vienna

The best thing is that you can organize experiences in boards. So, a trip to New York can have its own board full of personal experiences from food to sightseeing, locations, soundtracks and more. A great way to take a walk down the memory lane.

What I’d like to see in future versions

Qrator is still in its early stage with solid foundations but I firmly believe there’s still room for improvements; especially in the UI front.

For starters, I’d love to see a bigger font size and action buttons (comment, like, “More”). I don’t know if it’s feasible, since Qrator has already a strong brand and a signature UI, but these two changes would make a big difference in the user interaction and experience. (Not to forget: double tap like.)

Also: scrolling. Focusing on content by removing superfluous UI elements is a great way to showcase it, but this back-and-forth of the re-appearing top and bottom bars when I’m changing my scrolling direction makes me dizzy. I don’t remember which app introduced this scrolling paradigm some time last year, but, personally, I think it breaks the experience.

Altogether, I can only recommend Qrator. It’s a new approach to digital storytelling and sharing with lots of potential. Get it here for free and try it out.

Why I love Strava app: a Review

I used to bike a lot. I only rode mountain bikes, on the slopes around Thessaloniki; famous Chortiatis and Seih Sou. After a year or two though, there was a hiatus — mainly because I sold my Scott dirt bike to a friend and lack of funds to buy a new one, plus all the ski and school work. Fast forward in the present, based in Vienna and having bought a new Create single-speed bike (hint: it’s super-awesome) I had to test-drive the Strava app which I found in the summer whilst based in my hometown. Continue reading →

Ifttt

Review: Ifttt.com, your digital duct-tape for the internets

It was 2008 and I was 16 years old. Nikos Anagnostou and me had this idea of when you share a Google Reader item it should be automatically submitted in Delicious. We separately had some ideas based on APIs and Yahoo Pipes but for reasons I cannot remember we didn’t develop or make anything.

Fast forward to 2011 Linden Tibbets developed this awesome app called If this Then that. Ifttt (it’s the acronym) is based basically on the concept of event-driven programming. The whole concept of event-driven programming is that during the execution of a program, the programmer has some ideas about what types of events may happen.

For example “a user clicks a specific button” or “a new message arrives in your inbox”. Knowing what these events are, you can then attach a bit of code that runs the same way every time an event is encountered. It is very much like cause and effect, except as a programmer you’re free to be creative with what effects match up to each cause.

In plain English ifttt provides a simple logical structure, if this then that, along with two properties that fit into that structure, called triggers and actions. That being said ifttt enables anyone to be creative in their digital environments. Ifttt though, isn’t a programming language or app building tool, but rather a much simpler solution. Internet’s digital duct tape in a way, allowing you to connect any two services together.

Ifttt is in beta mode and just today I got my invitation. My first impressions are extremely positive. You can imagine, the first task I did create is a Delicious to Twitter process. As of now, whenever I submit a link into Delicious it will be automatically tweeted. Other tasks I created include “if current weather condition changes to rain, send me an email” or “when I share an item in Google Reader, then submit it to Delicious” which leads back to the first task, from Delicious to Twitter.

If you’re creative enough you can make clever “if this then that” tasks. Not only that, but there are literally dozens of web services and tools ifttt supports (which they are called channels in ifttt). I liked ifttt because of its easy-to-use interface and approach. You just log in and click create a task. Then, there’s something I’d call an automated wizard, which in about 5 steps helps you create your brand new tasks with beautifully simple menus, prompts and design.

The least I can say is that I am very impressed. Well, I am and I cannot help it. Ifttt is awesome and I suggest you registering for their beta invites. And just now, while writing the previous sentence, the very first ifttt email arrived notifying me that it rains in Thessaloniki. It’s quite fast, should I add. Take a look for yourself:

Ifttt

Again, I repeat. Ifttt is awesome and I suggest you registering for their invites. Now.

Random rant: the biggest part of this post was written in WordPress’ iPhone app while raining in Thessaloniki and watching Champions League’s semi-final between Manchester United and Schalke. It’s a long time since 2008, isn’t it? I was 16 and now I’m graduating from High School in a month!

Update: I liked a Vimeo video and boom—here’s the relevant tweet from ifttt:

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/apas/status/65899036548411392"]

Working on a standing desk

“If you aren’t trying new things and failing, you aren’t learning.”

—Pedram Keyani, Facebook engineer

Pedram is right.

I first saw Pedram at MTV’s “The Diary of Facebook“. Apparently he is a very talented engineer, hacker extraordinaire, creator of Facebook’s infamous “Keg Presence” and has a radical approach regarding his work-desk. He doesn’t use a chair!

When I first saw this (for me at least, new) approach, I was in a way shocked. I was asking myself “is he crazy?” or “don’t his legs hurt a lot?” Well, the answer to both questions is no. No he is not crazy. Regarding legs, more in a second.

So today I thought why not try this. Experiment. Learn. Fail maybe, but learn whatsoever. I’m already working for 40 minutes at my standing desk and feels really cool. At first, I thought I’d dislike this new way but these 40 minutes prove me wrong. It feels a lot better as of working/writing/coding/killing time standing in the front of my Macbook while sitting on my chair.

Pedram’s arguments were that by standing and not sitting he was more active and busy all day long rather than getting too comfortable on a chair. My arguments are “just try it” and see if it fits you. I’m not sure if I can describe well the new feelings of the “standing desk” but I’m sure you’ll like it. For me it’s like freedom to stroll around brainstorming when you’re stuck with something (eg. writing this blog post), being more creative, having more luls, easier to interact with other people and fun.

Regarding legs as Gina Trapani wrote, the first two days will be a pain for you. That varies of course for each one. You might be athletic and you won’t hurt you a little or you might be not athletic and you’ll have to adjust yourself for a couple days or so. Really, it depends on your body type.

Most surprisingly though, medical studies have shown that the human body is not suitable for to work many hours while sitting. Excessive sitting might cause health problems. I guess though, all you need is some balance. When you see that your feet hurt take a 10-minute break to sit somewhere. Eat something, drink a tea—have a break basically.

Pros

  • Freedom, enabling you to work better in many ways
  • Focusing easier to your work
  • Unique desktop environment
  • It feels great
  • Brainstorm awfully easier
  • It’s better for your health!

Cons

  • Feet-ache in the first couple days (maybe)
  • New workflow for you to adapt into
  • I don’t know something else

So, who else is using a standing desk?

As Gina informs us, mighty former Twitter developer and founder of BankSimple, Alex Payne, creator of Instapaper, Marco Arment, podcaster extraordinaire Dan Benjamin, novelist Philip Roth and even former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

My setup

This is how my computer-standing-desktop looks like now.

If you’re still skeptical about it, I’d say give it a 1-day try. I bet you’ll like it. Already using or want to use a standing desk? Share your experiences in the comments below.

Also, tips for standing desks from the Boing Boing blog.