The Client-Agency Relationship on Educreations

Have you told your ad agency lately that you love it?

Today I tested the Educreations' screencasting app on iPad with the client-agency relationship (oops, sorry, I called it "Educreation" in the lesson).

Like ShowMe, this app lets you make and watch lessons to teach, inspire, and entertain. The two apps are very similar, but I'd give ShowMe a slight edge for its eraser icon (a bit easier to understand than the squiggly undo line on Educreations).

The source material (the stages of the client-agency relationship) are as they're defined by: Arens, William, Contemporary Advertising Ninth Edition, McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2004.

My first podcast is about my favorite podcasts

It may not be pretty, but it's a podcast. And it's the only one I've got!

If you're interested in hearing it, just press play. If you're not interested in hearing it, just press play. 

If you're interested in recording a podcast of your own, here's how I put this baby together:

1. I recorded the theme music and "chipmunk intro" on my iPad using the GarageBand app - a most impressive app that's well worth the $5 it costs. Get it!

2. I saved the theme music to iCloud. However, when I signed in to iCloud on my computer, the files were not there - it looks like you can save the files to iCloud to save space on your iPad, but not to access them from the Web (unlike other Apple apps).

3. So, I emailed the files to myself, saved them on my desktop, clicked on them, and they opened in iTunes.

4. I launched the GarageBand program on my Mac laptop, and imported the files from iTunes. 

5. I plugged in my USB headset (Logitech) into the laptop and recorded the rest.

6. I selected "export to iTunes" in GarageBand and the file opened up in iTunes, as promised. In iTunes, I selected "Advanced" from the pull-down menu and "Create MP3 Version." iTunes generated a copy, and I dragged it from iTunes onto my desktop.

7. I imported the file into my account on Box. I selected "share" in Box, got the embed code and pasted it into the HTML view on this blog.

8. Then I posted my blog, and that was that.

Next time: I stop smacking my lips, saying "umm," and letting GarageBand automatically set the recording levels. I start singing the theme song, cursing, and saying what I really think. Or not!

Enjoy!

 

Apple's new Podcasts app. Nifty!

My favorite mobile apps for summer 2012

Hashtag app for Twitter and Instagram searches. 

Summer's here, and the time is right for apping in the street.

The mobile apps that are rocking my phone's world this summer:

1. Hashtag for Twitter and Instagram

This cool, little app lets you to follow Twitter and Instagram topics at the same time using hashtag searches. Even better: when you're done searching, you can pick and choose the tweets and photos that interest you and create a Hastagraphic for reporting, storytelling, and sharing.

2. Tweetbot with Storify integration

Tweetbot was already the best mobile Twitter app on the market, but it's now integrated with Storify, so you can capture Twitter conversations, create a Storify story about them, and share it with planet Earth.

3. Waze

This social-mobile-map app is supposed to be for "drivers" to make real-time updates to live maps. Yeah: bad idea. However, for car passengers and bus riders - like me - this app is nothing short of awesome. You can report construction, traffic jams, radar traps, and hazards in real time as you commute, giving everyone else a heads up before they head out.

4. Voxer

Roger, roger. Voxer turns your iPhone into a walkie-talkie. Text messages, photos, and - new! - audio, in real time or to play back later.

5. ReaddleDocs with Dropbox and Box integration

One of the great smartphone apps, ReaddleDocs saves documents from emails, the Web, Dropbox, Box, and the storage service of your choice, so you can access them anytime from your iPhone or iPad.

6. CardFlick

Digital business cards you can customize and share ("flick") from smartphone to smartphone or by email.

7. The new Foursquare

The mobile check-in app underwent a big facelift last week. I never much cared for being "the mayor" of McDonald's, and I guess neither did anyone else: the app's new focus is on recommendations, not sticking it to your friends because you eat more McChickens than they do.

8. Video-sharing apps: Socialcam, Viddy, Bambuser

Welcome to the new wave of apps vying to be "the Instagram of video" - filter, share, and (in the case of Bambuser) stream your video to friends, family, and your adoring publics.

9. MindMeister

Build your mind maps for creative, business, or organizational purposes (or Euro 2012) and share them with your friends and colleagues online.

***

What mobile apps are you lovin' these days?

What is your favorite social-media website or app? Tell Wallwisher!

When you wish upon a wall, makes no difference who y'all.

Wallwisher is another fun site - an online notice-board maker that allows users to create a virtual wall for brainstorming and feedback, get a custom URL, and share it with others to get a response.

Its intent: to allow users to collaborate, share ideas, and thoughts on a specific topic. Let's get started, shall we?

Click on the Twitter Gif of laughter

Click the image for the Gif experience of your life.

Twitter is for the birds. 

Here's the latest masterwork in my oeuvre, created and designed for the education-tech class I'm taking at Central Michigan University.

Aside from animating Gifs, I've learned how hard it is to find a service that allows you to upload, embed, and display one's Gifs in any kind of user-friendly way, hence the clickable thumbnail from Photobucket (above), which embeds my Gif at the expense of giving away its hilarious punchline. 

Cheep, cheep.

Glogging and blogging the next wave of apps

These are a few of my favorite, new apps.

I built this interactive poster using Glogster - a cool website that lets you mix up images, copy, video, links, and audio into one, kick-ass glog.

(As of today, we found out that Path was accidentally stealing our data, so you might want to hold off on that one.)

Download away!

Ted Kennedy's blurry head: a Fotobabble

You've seen the photo, now hear me babble. 

I've been fooling around with Fotobabble for my Master's, and it's a load of fun. Upload your photos, narrate, embed, sit back, and wait for the money to pour in. 

Visit the website or download the app now. Students: might make for an awesome first blog post of the semester. Hint, hint.

Steve Jobs made Star Trek a reality

At Apple, Steve was Jobs one.

In honor of the man and his inventions, I'm reposting a column I wrote a year ago about how Steve Jobs' inventions transformed a college instructor into Captain Kirk.


Set the iPhone for stun.

Today, I ran around from meeting to meeting in my orange, V-neck sweater, getting things done and saving the world with my iPhone, iPad, and a Jack Sack full of whatever I might need on today's season of 24.

I was feeling good about myself until I got a glimpse of my reflection in a window and thought: "Oh, crap: I'm Captain Kirk!"



We're surrounded by some serious sci-fi hardware. No, the cars don't fly, and the robot butler is MIA, but can you tell me that the iPhone isn't a Star Trek communicator? Or that the iPad isn't a tricorder?

Sadly, the orange V-neck sweater is still the orange, V-neck sweater. And I haven't sussed it out yet, but the receding hairline is either a tribute to William Shatner or a dying Tribble. The green-skinned girlfriend has yet to materialize. Boo!

The crazy thing is that I could time travel back to my technology-devoid CreComm days, haul out the iPhone, and completely blow people's minds:

"It's a portable computer. I use it to surf the net, play games, listen to music, make phone calls..." and that's where they would've burned me for witchcraft.

The future is now

Whenever someone tells me that he or she thinks the iPhone isn't all that - too expensive, or whatever - I like to remind them that not too long ago, any ONE of the 180 apps on my iPhone would've rocked their worlds.

(Take Shazam or SoundHound. Shazam recognizes whatever song happens to be playing and reveals the song, artist, and album from whence it came. SoundHound lets you hum a song - hum a song!!! - and it does the same.)

Don't beam me up, Scotty, because there's some pretty wicked crap down here on Earth.

It all reminds me of the time my friend's Dad couldn't find the fast-forward button on the TV remote control. After struggling for five minutes, he desperately asked, "How do you make this go to the future?"

We're livin' it, baby!

Eleven great apps and websites to enhance your book-larnin'

VoiceThread Demo

1. VoiceThread
Post photos and comment on them - in text, video, or audio formats. The perfect activity for radio, TV, and photography classes - and just, plain fun.

2. AnswerGarden
What's the meaning of life? Post the question on AnswerGarden, and embed it on your blog, website, or social network - answers are displayed in a wordy cloud of goodness, as though from (insert religious figure here) him- or herself.

3. Wallwisher
Create a virtual wall for brainstorming and feedback; get a custom URL for your topic and share it with others to get a response.

4. Idea Flight
The iPad app that allows "the pilot" to control the screens of the "passengers'" multiple iPads. "Is everybody on the same page?" Yes, because you control it.

5. Edmodo
A site for secure classroom sharing and blogging, organizing course work, sharing files, conducting polls, and communicating - in online and app formats!

If you're in one of these classes, just click on the above link and use one of these codes to join the group and see this semester's course outlines.

• Ad majors: 03fh0i
• Ad (year one): tiqxk4
• PR (year one): 2raj2c
• Comedy Writing: hbiua1
• Work Placement: vsvs0f

6. Marshmallow Challenge
How do you build the tallest freestanding structure using 20 sticks of spaghetti, a yard of tape and string, and one marshmallow? Through collaboration and teamwork. Or not.

7. Edutopia
The George Lucas educational foundation, where teachers, administrators, parents, and students talk about learning. A vast resource of great ideas. Makes up for Episode One.

8. Sync.in
A great, free site for simultaneous document editing and collaboration.

9. Google Docs for Educators
Like Sync.in, this site allows you to collaboratively work on documents, view and respond to each other's work.

10. Glogster
Multimedia poster- and moodboard-maker - copy, images, graphics, links, video.

11. LiveBinders
Create online binders and combine your projects into a digital portfolio.

They laughed when I said, "iPad" - but when it started to sell!

It's hard to believe it's been well over a year since I mentioned the then-forthcoming iPad to my students.

"It sounds like a Maxi-Pad!" blurted out a student, in a clear tribute to Beavis and/or Butthead.

Not long after, iTampon trended on Twitter. The Churchillian wit was spreading!

What a difference a year makes. Now, no one giggles when you say, "iPad." Those who have it get it, and those who don't are about to: it's outselling Android tablets to the tune of 24 to one.

I seldom watch TV now without an iPad on my lap - huh, huh: he said "lap" - for IMDB, Twitter, and Zite. My mother and her husband have iPads. My dad is talking about getting an iPad when version three comes out, reportedly this fall.

More and more soon-to-be CreComm students are emailing me to see if an iPad fills the tech requirements. The answer: of course. If all of my students had iPads, we could begin using the Edmodo, Idea Flight, and Blackboard Mobile Learn apps in the classroom in earnest.

And what of the girl who cried Maxi-Pad? She and her iPad are living happily ever after.

It's an honor to be honored with these honors

I'd like to thank God, my agent, colleagues, Steve Jobs, students, Mel Gibson, and anyone else I'm forgetting for this honor.

Big thanks to the School of Learning Innovation for recognizing Graphic Design instructor Diane Livingston and I with a Learning Innovation Award for our iPad ePub project, embarked upon by the CreComm Advertising majors and second-year graphic-design students.

The recognition includes the above video - put together by Michael Farris, manager of learning technologies and his team at Red River College - lunch with RRC President Stephanie Forsyth (so, no forthcoming blog about how I never get to eat lunch with the president), and these lovely, giant-sized framed awards, which crushed me to death yesterday as I carried them to my car:

It's just, plain nice to work for an employer that recognizes staff. Thanks for the thanks!

Is the iPad the future of music?

The Alesis iO Dock Pro Audio Dock for the iPad Dock Dock.

Stop using your iPad as a weapon, Pat Benatar.

While the Vancouver Canadiens were busy winning the Heisman Trophy or something yesterday, I had the good sense to attend New Media Manitoba's "iPad: the Future of Music?" seminar, attended by lots of other pale loners interested in learning about how to use their iPads as a musical instrument.

Taught by Andrew Yankiwski from Precursor Productions, a guy who clearly knows and loves audio as much as SCTV's Gerry Todd knows and loves video, the presentation covered a lot of technical ground. In other words: it was over my head.

However, I did get to learn about some insane iPad hardware add-ons coming soon (see the above video - wow!), not to mention Mr. Yankiwski's iPad app picks for the music maker, mixer, and master in you:

1. GarageBand

The default go-to studio app - and an insanely great drum set, guitar, and keyboard too - all for the low, low price of $5. Chump change.

2. Meteor Multitrack

Twelve tracks, a built-in mixer, and multi-effects processor: perfect for the composer and journalist in you. Journalist? "Meteor is ideal for creating musical compositions, and also a great tool for journalists...who need to splice and piece together voice notes, narration or dictation."

Remix that hard-hitting interview with Sam Katz today!

3. Korg iElectribe

Make music on a vintage analog synthesizer and beatbox - just like current hitmakers Human League, A-ha, and A Flock of Seagulls do! Cough, cough.

4. Korg iMS-20

A complete recreation of the legendary Korg MS-20 analog synth - including virtual patching! - plus an analog sequencer, a drum machine, and seven-channel mixer with 14 categories of effects.

5. ReBirth

Propellerhead's ReBirth brings the Roland TB-303 bass synth and the Roland TR-808 and 909 drum machines together in one, frightening interface that would make RRC tech guru John Pura cry. With delight!

6. FL Studio

The classic Windows studio app is coming soon to an iPad near you, as shown on this YouTube video.

7. AC-7 Core

Allows you to mix and fade and - oh, I don't know what the hell this app is for. If you do, I'm sure it will bring you hours of pleasure.

8. Omni TR

Omni Touch Remote Omni is designed for live, onstage performance or in the studio; a cool, remote control surface, but you also need to buy the Spectrasonics Omnisphere software synthesizer to use it. Keyboard solo!

9. TouchOSC

MIDI control? We have no problem.

TouchOSC supports sending and receiving open sound control messages over a Wi-Fi network, like Apple Logic Pro/Express, Renoise, Pure Data, Max/MSP/Jitter, Max for Live, OSCulator, VDMX, Resolume Avenue 3, Modul8, Plogue Bidule, Reaktor, Quartz Composer, Vixid VJX16-4, Supercollider, FAW Circle, vvvv, Derivative TouchDesigner, and Isadora. Whatever the hell they are.

Is the iPad the future of music? I'm full of bull. Ishness.

Updated tech requirements for first-year CreComm students

Message going out to next year's first-year CreComm students - in light of (we're told and hope) a new-and-improved RRC Wi-Fi system and global domination of tablet devices:

You are required to have ONE of the following mobile devices for your coursework:

1. iPod touch (8GB, 32GB, or 64GB)

Or

2. iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, or other mobile phone offering access to 3G wireless, apps, the Web, email, photography, and video.

Or

3. iPad, iPad 2, BlackBerry PlayBook, Motorola Xoom, or other tablet device offering access to Wi-Fi or 3G, apps, the Web, and email.

The iPod touch is the least-expensive option, good for mobile email, watching and taking video, playing music, reading news apps, mobile blogging, recording podcasts, tweeting, monitoring RSS feeds (like your classmates’ blogs), and understanding the app landscape.

With the iPod touch and Wi-Fi tablet devices, you require no contract with a service provider, as you can use Red River College’s Wi-Fi network for free.

Smartphones and 3G-enabled tablets allow you to do the same, in addition to having access to a 3G network wherever you are and – in most cases – make phone calls. However, they also require 3G cell service bought through a 3G service provider, which can be costly.

If you have any questions about these devices, we will be happy to answer them at registration on Monday, Aug. 29 at 11 a.m. in P107. You will be required to have these devices by the second week in September.

Great Web tools all the cool kids are usin'

As recommended to me by students, instructors, and guest speakers this semester:

1. Prezi

3D PowerPoint - just like the Na'vi use for their presentations on the great planet of Pandora.



2. LinkedIn

Almost everyone has it, but if you don't: now is the time to sign up for the Facebook of the shirt-and-tie set and those who would join them.

3. Lanyard, Meetup, DemoCamp, and An Event Apart

Conference and meetup websites - and the perfect excuse to get work to pay for a vacation.

4. Edutopia

A cool website about the state of young peoples' education in the U.S. and how digital media might be able to help improve things - bankrolled by George Lucas himself. The focus is on "the kids," but the lessons are applicable at the college level.

5. CultureWorks, Krop, 37signals, and IxDA

Creative job sites, most of which skew to the U.S. job market (CultureWorks is Canadian). Still, a worthwhile way to spend time looking around to get a fix on the North American job market.

6. Dribble and Behance

Show off your art and creative work here.

7. TuneCore

Sell your music, keep your rights, earn your royalties. A worthy and more lucrative alternative to selling your stuff on iTunes?

8. CRA

More people than ever asked me these questions this year:

• "How do you start a business?"
• "How do you start a non-profit?"
• "What's the difference between a non-profit and a charity?"

Only the Canada Revenue Agency knows for sure. Check in online or stop by the agency's office on Broadway (and enjoy lunch at the nearby Don Deli when you're done).

9. Zite (iPad app)

A personalized magazine for the iPad - the app syncs with Twitter, Delicious, and Google Reader and then suggests what you'd like to read based on your interests. And it works!

10. Vimeo

A more flexible YouTube for creative people - in app and Web formats.

Essential Chicago apps and tweeps

 

Time Out Chicago: the app

Incur roaming charges in Chicago? I don't mind, I don't mind.

Here they are: the essential apps and tweeps you need to be following on Twitter, in advance of RRC's Creative Communications student trek to the Windy City:

Chicago Tweeps:

1. Chicago Tribune
2. Chicago Sun-Times
3. Red Eye Chicago
4. Michael Phillips
5. Chaser Chicago
6. Chicago Art Magazine
7. Chicago Magazine
8. Roger Ebert
9. Chicago Art Institute
10. Broke Hipster
11. Chicago Architecture
12. Chicago Current 
13. NBC Chicago
14. Navy Pier
15. The Second City
16. Time Out Chicago
17. Oprah
18. The Field Museum
19. ChicagoBites
20. Threadless
21. Shedd Aquarium
22. Timothy O'Toole's
23. Adler Planetarium
24. Chicago Watch
25. Rahm Emanuel
26. Huffington Post Chicago 

Apps:

1. Chicago 2Go
2. Chicago Map and Walking Tours
3. Foursquare
4. Yelp
5. CBS 2 Chicago
6. Time Out Chicago
7. Chicago Way
8. iTrans Chicago CTA
9. Chicago Tribune
10. Broadway in Chicago
11. Police Radio Chicago
12. Buster: Chicago Bus Tracker
13. The Prairie Architect Around Chicago
14. Urbanspoon
15. EveryBlock
16. Art Institute French Impressionists
17. Chicago Gangland Tour
18. Front Desk Chicago 
19. Chicago Press Release

How I got the consumption on Reading Week

Reading week? They should call it "media consumption" week.

How I spent one glorious week of preparing for class by swallowing the media whole:

1. Movies

• All Together Now: the Beatles Love
• Best of Youth
• Client 9
• Copyright Criminals
• Jack Goes Boating
• Leaves of Grass
• The Maid
• Please Give
• A Prophet
• Waiting For Superman (trailer:)

• The White Ribbon

2. TV

• Amazing Race
• American Idol
• Big Love
• CNN (Mr. Blitzer and Spitzer go for a Spritzer)
• Colbert Report
• Dragon's Den
• Ebert Presents At the Movies
• Frontline
• An Idiot Abroad
• Jersey Shore
• Late Show with David Letterman
• NBC Nightly News
• Real Time with Bill Maher
• The Ricky Gervais Show
• Survivor
• ABC This Week

3. Magazines and newspapers

• Bloomberg Businessweek (actual magazine)
• Chicago Mag (iPad via the Zinio app)
• The Daily (iPad app)
• Fast Company (actual magazine)
• Globe and Mail (iPad app)
• Huffington Post (iPhone app)
• New Yorker (actual magazine)
• NY Times (iPad app)
• Q Magazine (actual magazine)
• Uncut Magazine (iPad via the Zinio app)
• USA Today (iPhone app)
• Winnipeg Headlines (iPhone app)
• Winnipeg Sun (iPhone app)
• WIRED Magazine (iPad app)

4. Books

• Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
• Louis Riel by Chester Brown

5. Podcasts

• The Adam Carolla Show
• The iPad Show
• The Joe Rogan Podcast (great recent interview with Dave Foley)
• TedTalks
• This Week in iPad
• WTF

6. Assorted apps

• Ad Age
• Blastr
• Dexigner
• Echofon
• EW Must List
• Facebook
• Foursquare
• Seth Godin
• Kindle
• Live Nation
• Lynda.com
• NME
• PS Express
• QRANK
• TagReader
• Twitter
• U of M Newsroom
• Vanity Fair Hollywood
• Wallpaper

7. Music

• Beach House - Teen Dream
• British Sea Power - Valhalla Dancehall
• Candy Skins - Best of (burned by me)
• Elvis Costello - National Ransom
• Foals - Total Life Forever

Foals "This Orient" from Sub Pop Records.

• The Go! Team - Rolling Blackouts
• PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
• Wendy James - Racine 1 and 2
• Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
• The Streets - Computers and Blues
• White Lies - Ritual

8. School

• Markin' first-year students' video storyboards with CreComm grad Jennifer Ryan
• Placin' second-year students on their last-ever work placements (sniff, sniff)
• Workin' the Open House with colleagues and students at Notre Dame Campus
• Attendin' Desiree Mendoza's Colours of Hope Independent Professional Project at Edge Art
• Readin' my mid-semester evaluations (thanks for the criticism!)
• Thinkin' about all of the great highs and lows that characterize every second semester of every year.
• Preparin' some good stuff for the rest o' the year.

9. Extravagances

• Innis and Gunn Highland Cask

• [yellow tail] premium wine
• Lilac Bakery
• Sleeping in
• Reading Twitter and Facebook feeds with care 
• Watching movies in the afternoon
• Bare-knuckle brawling down at the Alexander Docks

 Urp. See you on Monday!

The appsolutely best apps of 2010

Best app of the year: Flipboard.

1. Flipboard (iPad)

Flipboard is so great, Time Magazine named it one of the 50 great inventions of 2010. The app, says Time:

"...ends the chaos by grabbing updates, photos and links from your friends and other interesting people, then reformatting everything in a wonderfully browsable, magazine-like format. You can also add feeds from your favorite blogs and websites and share items with friends via social media and e-mail. With its oversize images and crisp typography, it's a glossy digital publication that feels as if it's been edited by your pals just for you."

Half social network, half magazine, Flipboard is conceptually new and totally awesome - a tantalizing glimpse of the future of the news business itself.

2. Pulse News Reader (iPad, iPhone)

The Pulse News Reader app is a visual news reader for your iPad. By simply choosing the sites and blogs you follow, the app creates a lovely and functional news ticker:

3. PressReader (iPad, iPhone)

PressReader is the best argument for your anti-iPad friends who painfully insist, "There's just something about reading a newspaper that I love."

PressReader lets you download thousands of the world's newspapers onto your iPad or iPhone in their original form - ads, classifieds, and all - for 99 cents an issue or a monthly subscription fee that's less than what I was paying for the Globe and Mail and Sunday New York Times by themselves.

4. Angry Birds Seasons (iPad, iPhone)

Peace on Earth, goodwill to ham.

Like millions of other iPhone/iPad users, I'm addicted to Angry Birds - die you damn stupid pigs, die! Die!

I downloaded the Angry Birds Halloween app for just 99 cents and was blown away when the free update turned it into "Seasons" and the first holiday advent game - one level of Angry Birds released every day up until Christmas.

Ask yourself: what game would baby Jesus play on Christmas? Duh!

5. WIRED (iPad)

WIRED is the Cadillac of iPad magazine experiences.

Available for $4.99, each month's mag is a separate app - and with each new issue, the magazine gets smarter with embedded video, interactive ads, and a bizarre-but-getting-better horizontal/vertical layout. I can't wait to see how the mag continues to evolve, and I'll keep buying the monthly updates to find out.

6. Pages (iPad)

Pages is the app that makes the convincing argument that it's time to turn the page on the laptop.

I've been using the Pages app - the iPad's word processor - since the day I got my iPad. I fully expected all kinds of hassles and wonky conversions to and from Word, and it's been a more pleasant experience than I could've imagined.

Pages is the "Word" part of Apple's iWork slate of apps, which includes Numbers (Excel) and Keynote (PowerPoint). The apps are available separately for about $10 each, which is a real steal - so important is it to the iPad's sales and Apple's profits to convince people that the iPad is a viable replacement for a laptop.

7. New York Times (iPad)

The New York Times app recently changed its "Editors' Choice" app to include every article in every section of the paper, including the NY Times magazine.

A shocking amount of information for the shockingly low price of free, I've seen grown men break down and buy an iPad on the strength of this app alone.

8. Zinio (iPad, iPhone)

This is a cool app that allows you to shop for, buy, and download a load of different magazines; I subscribe to Chicago Magazine, Uncut, and NME, but there are thousands more available here.

There's nothing here as exciting or interactive as WIRED, but it's a smooth app that has the jump on being the iPad's go-to destination for magazine shopping.

The app is free and comes prepackaged with five magazines, but you've gotta pay for the rest. Magazines range in price, but most offer year-long subscriptions for much less than the cover price.

9. Phaidon Design Classics (iPad)

Phaidon Design Classics will run you $20, but I justify it by considering it to be an interactive coffee-table book (the future of the Independent Professional Project?).

"This authoritative and meticulously researched collection charts the story of product design over the past 200 years. It was years in the making and was compiled via rigorous selection process by an international panel of design-world insiders, including architects, critics, curators, product designers, auctioneers, and historians."

Quite possibly the smoothest, most gorgeous iPad app around. As beautifully designed as its subjects:

10. Twitter (iPad)

You haven't used Twitter until you've used the Twitter-brand iPad app.

The rumor was that Twitter's online facelift was going to mirror this app - which it kind of tried to do - but nothing beats the perfect layout, simplicity, and beauty of fold-out tweets in landscape mode on a touchscreen.

The Angry Birds hate our freedom

Hooray for...Angry Birds. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da Angry Birds...

"Mommy, why are the birdies so angry?"

"Because they hate our freedom, son."

Like millions of other iPhone/iPad users, I'm addicted to the Angry Birds game.

The story: Green pigs eat the birds' eggs. This makes the birds understandably angry. So, you commandeer the birds to take revenge by launching them from a slingshot into the pigs and their dwellings, made of stone, wood, steel, and ice. Mmmm....chilled ham!

You only advance after you kill all of the pigs - the more creatively the better. Some birds dive bomb, some split into three, some blow themselves up, and some just bonk their heads against a piece of steel, fall to their deaths, and exact no damage at all.

For the low, low price of 99 cents, you get over 100 levels of mayhem with a locked level that promises even more bloodshed "coming soon."

What's not to love?

I was enjoying slaughtering the pigs - bacon for everyone! - but when I reached the city level, I realized that the game had tricked me into joining a terrorist cell of feathery suicide bombers intent on destroying the pigs' hard-fought and -won freedoms.

In this scene, you can't help but notice that I'm lobbing bombs at defenseless piggie children - Babe: Pig in the City, is that you? Is it wrong to hold them responsible for the sins of their fathers, who were only looking after the well-being of their little piggies by putting a few omelets on their plates?

I don't know how the pigs constructed a Tower of London made out of ice, but it seems like an overreaction on the part of the birds to lob bombs at it. I mean, the pigs just took your eggs! Destroying their meticulously constructed ice tower in return is kind of like bringing a bazooka to a knife fight.


Now, I understand that the Angry Birds are talking about building a nest just blocks from the downed ice tower, making some pigs pig-biting mad. Birds say the nest will be open to everyone, pigs and birds alike, it will encourage discourse between all species, and house a daycare, theatre, track, pool, and gym.

Is it too soon for an Angry Pigs app?

A kiss may be grand, but apps are a blogger's best friend

Feeddler RSS Feed: Blogaway, blogaway - I will follow!

Appy blogging!

These are apps (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) that I recommend to bloggers everywhere, especially novice bloggers like, say, the ones operating the new blogs on the CreComm Blog Network (click through the link and look for "Class of 2012" in the column on the right side of the page).

My colleague Melanie Lee Lockhart does the same here and here.

My picks:

• BlogPress – $2.99 - mobile blogging from your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch.

• WordPress – Free! - same deal, but for WordPress blogs.

• FeeddlerRSS or any RSS feed app – $1.99 - you sign in with your Google account, and it becomes easier to read all of the blogs you follow whenever they get updated. It’s how I can read 150 students' blog posts a week.

• Box.net or Dropbox –Free! - to help you store information and files for later.

• Dragon Dictation – Free! - converts your words to copy. Insanely accurate!

• Instapaper – Free! - syncs stuff you see on the Web to your mobile device, where you can “read it later.” The digital scissors for your online newspapers.

• Evernote – Free! - a great notetaking and ideas app.

• Echofon, Twitter, TweetDeck, Twitterrific – and more! – Free! - to publicize your blog and post messages on Twitter. All of the first-year CreComm students will be up and running on Twitter by the end of next week. You really only need one of these apps, but Twitterholics might want all of them.

• LinkedIn – Free! - Facebook for professionals. You can sync it to Twitter and your blog.

• AudioBoo – Free! - post podcasts and audio messages to Twitter, and embed them on your blog. Perfect for radio junkies.

• Facebook – Free! - you’re on the website, right? I'm not - "it's complicated." Why not download the app to make it easier to post and follow updates?

• News apps – mostly free! - stay up to date with the Globe & Mail, the New York Times, BBC, Telegraph, Huffington Post, NPR, PressReader, Fluent News and Winnipeg Headlines – a dude who steals from the Free Press, the Sun, and CJOB and gives to the poor: us!

• Apps related to your blog topic – just do a search of the app store to see who else is talking about your topic. Download the apps and follow them to become an expert on the topic.

• PR and Ad apps – mostly free! - Gallup News, the White House, Advertising Age, Consumer Reports, Dexigner, Whack Pack, Ragan News, AdFeed, PR Newswire, Seth Godin, Wallpaper*…

Did I miss any? If so, post 'em in comments.