spreading jam

Tweetbot rivals Twitter for iPhone.

I took Tapbot’s new Twitter application, Tweetbot, for a spin this week, and, as predicted by the hype, I was extremely impressed. With intuitive features, that easily highlight the restrictions of the official Twitter app, it’s a strong application for the tweeter on the go. And bar a couple of obvious oversights – most notably the lack of ‘@’ and ‘#’ options in the publishing page – it’s certainly the best app I’ve used.

Arianna Huffington: Slave owner or crowd sourcing pioneer?

This week, Arianna Huffington was slapped with a class action lawsuit for $105m. The claim was filed on Tuesday (.pdf) by Jonathan Tusini, a well known New York labor activist and now – we can only assume – ex-Huffington Post blogger.  Filed on behalf of others in his situation, this case really highlights the plight of bloggers and freelancers, who, though unpaid, are offered ‘exposure’ for their work. Tusnini described Huffington as a ‘slave owner’, but as Mathew Ingram asks, is she a slave owner, or a crowd sourcing pioneer? It’ll be very interesting to see how this case unfolds, and also how many other claims come out of the woodwork, in light of this story.

Adobe set to release 3 custom Photoshop apps for the iPad.

Putting the ongoing Apple vs. Flash argument aside, Adobe is set to release three custom Photoshop apps for the iPad. Adobe Eazel, Color Lava and Adobe Nav, bring Photoshop functionality to your fingertips with a range of exciting features, including remote control of Photoshop CS5 (Nav), intuitive colour mixing (Lava) and the ability to create works of art using the iPad’s touch screen functions, and transferring these seamlessly to Photoshop CS5 over a network connection (Eazel). It’s fantastic to finally get some good image creation software on the iPad – a platform which was born for these types of applications – and I’m certainly looking forward to putting these to the test, when they’re finally released.

Glasses-less 3D technology for the iPhone 4 and iPad 2.

Everyone’s talking about 3D technology, and the video below demonstrates the EHCI Research Group’s idea of 3D without the need for glasses. It’s a fantastic idea – I just wish they’d picked better music to accompany it!

Playful productivity with Dunnit!

New app, Dunnit!, takes marketing’s current favourite buzz word, gamification, to the next level – turning your todo list into a game, where task completion gets you points. With Openfeint integration, you can even compete with friends and strangers alike, to become the King or Queen of productivity. I’ve yet to try this out, but coincidentally, I’ve always strived to become the King of Productivity, so game on, people, game on. (Now, if only task completion got your pints…)