A lot of people were surprised — the Sofa guys do great work but don’t seem to do the sort of things Facebook would be interested in. I don’t think this is the last such design talent acquisition they’re going to make. Facebook is building a serious, world-class design group.
Maybe this is just a design talent acquisition, or perhaps Sofa was doing exactly what Facebook is interested in. Take a look. This is the current state of the Mac App Store top free social networking page:
5 out of the top 10 apps are Facebook-based apps. And in the top spot? A 3rd-party Facebook app (ahead of the official Twitter app, I might add.)
I don’t believe that Facebook is going to take a crew of designers and developers that create beautifully crafted apps for Mac and shoehorn them into their existing web design groups. Those two worlds are very different. I believe that someone at Facebook has recognized that:
All Facebook needed was a talented, seasoned, willing team of world-class Mac developers to make sanctioned Facebook Mac apps. It looks like they got what they needed.
It’s been an exciting first month for Carousel but we were genuinely surprised when we launched the Mac App Store last night and saw this:
And just in time for WWDC!
Thanks to everyone who purchased a license through the Mac App Store and the Mobelux Store. It allows us to continue developing apps like Carousel. We can’t wait to show you what we have in store for 1.1!
So proud of Carousel and the whole Mobelux team. On a somewhat related note, Jamie will be our official WWDC representative this year so if you see him walking around Moscone or at one of the many parties, give him a congratulatory beer. Or arm-punch. Or both.
Taken with Instagram at Rhodeside Grill.
Carousel (our Instagram desktop app for Mac) was conceived, designed, developed and released in an eight week period between client projects. How did we pull it off? By building to our strengths and utilizing available resources. Carousel is the product of hard work by good people that work at Mobelux and hard work by good people that make open source software.
We proudly implemented these open source projects in Carousel and we want to thank all the contributors that made them happen.
In closing, making apps that people love is very difficult. Leaning on a community of talented developers that have done excellent work in a specific area makes any app stronger, and made developing Carousel possible for a company like ours.
(Source: mobelux)
All of us at Mobelux are huge Instagram fans, and while we love posting photos and checking our feed on the go, we also wanted a way to explore Instagram while we were working throughout the day on our Macs.
So today we’re releasing our first desktop app: Carousel.
Main features.
- Beautiful, vintage presentation aesthetic in a minimal desktop footprint.
- View your feed, popular photos and photos you’ve posted.
- Save photos to your Mac (drag & drop, too.)
- View full resolution photos, even in full screen.
- See likes and comments on photos with the ability to moderate comments.
- Like and comment on photos.
- Full keyboard navigation support.
- Open photos in your browser and copy a photo’s URL.
- See who you follow and who’s following you.
- See photos taken at a location.
- Notifications. Growl and icon badge.
- Four themes. Everything from Tenenbaum to St. Clair.
We’d love for you to take it for a spin. Head over to the Carousel site to learn more and download a 15-day trial!
So proud of the Mobelux team. Go try Carousel out!
“Include your photo/resume, demo reel links and your willingness to grow your hair/beard starting immediately.” That Lincoln film needs your beards, guys.
(thanks, tessshebaylo.)
Steven Spielberg is filming Lincoln in Richmond, VA this Fall and they’re looking for local extras.
Pros:
Cons:
Sounds like hell on earth.
What John is referring to is Airpush, and yes, it does sound like hell on earth. But the worst thing about a push ad service is that it’s a cure for a symptom, and the Android app market is sick.
Apparently, Android users aren’t spending money. And it’s not their fault. These are people that thought they were the on the bleeding edge of technology when they got a RAZR for $49. Two years later they go back to the same Verizon store to get their free upgrade and they get the Android deal du jour. They don’t care about apps. They never wanted an Android device. They wanted a phone. Just like they never wanted a Windows Vista. They wanted a computer.
So Airpush comes along and figures, “Hey, these people aren’t spending money. What can we get away with? Force monetize them! Push ads? Fuck it! Can Google stop us from doing it? Nope! Android is Open™! What are the people that download Airpush-enabled apps gonna do about it? Delete the app? Go ahead! They didn’t pay for it anyway!”
And it becomes a numbers game. If, as forecasted by Gartner, there’s going to be 630 million Android handsets out there by 2012 a good portion of those handset owners will download apps. A good portion of that portion won’t deactivate Airpush because they a). won’t care, or b). won’t know how and they’ll keep accidentally tapping ads and you’ll see it on your Mom’s phone and cringe, but it won’t matter. Because this is what Android is. This is what it has become. This is what happens when too many cooks are allowed in the kitchen. They start bringing chainsaws to carve the roast and slathering everything in grease and eventually your restaurant gets known for shitty food.
I hope Google is hungry.
Update. Looks like Google is flaking in and out about rejecting Airpush-enabled apps. I hope for the sake of the platform they affirm a policy to suspend offenders until push ads are removed. (Via Daring Fireball.)
Tumblr founder David Karp photographed on Cary Street for Richmond’s own fuckyeahporchchill.
I don’t even want to know.
Excited to announce Tumblr meetup with David Karp - at Cous Cous, Monday April 18th 8pm.
Featuring DJ Robot E Lee (Aka Phil - Bring On The Tragedy), and photobooth by Karen Seifert Photography.
Sponsored by Dirty Richmond, Rumors, and Neighborhoodr Richmond.
Poster designed by Adam Juresko
Big Tumblr meetup tomorrow night. I hope you guys are ready.
(Source: hugel)
The two year wait was tough, but the OP-1 is just as incredible as I’d hoped it would be.
Uh oh. What should I say?
Dear Tumblr,
I’ve taken Topherchris hostage and I’m not returning him until I see some serious reblog action on this post.
Mandatory racism: another vital part of the Consistent User Experience™.
I’ve decided not to use official Twitter clients until the trend bar is either an option or gone altogether. This situation is exactly why. To be clear, I have no issues with ad-supported software. If Twitter wants to run an ad at the top of the scrollview, Twiterrific-style, I’m all for it. It’s your platform. Monetize away. But the problem with the trend bar implementation is that I’m being subjected to what I find to be the poor taste of millions of mouth-breathing buffoons in my own timeline.
To put it another way, it feels like Twitter put up a Thomas Kinkade in my living room. While many people may truly enjoy the Painter of Light™, I am not one of them.
Matthew Guay (via Brian Chen):
The microwave isn’t easier for every cooking task, and perhaps it takes longer to prepare a complicated meal in a microwave. Perhaps no award winning meal will be created in one, unless it’s a special contest for microwave cooking. But it simplified simple cooking, and consumers around the world saw it as a necessary piece of equipment within in years of it becoming popular.
This is a must-read for those of you that still don’t get modern tablet computing. When iPad showed up no one had a clue what to do with it. Within a year it had widespread appeal to an immense audience and had defined clear use cases for its self.
And it happened organically, just like the microwave.
