Lunch-time fun with QR codes

Starting with a B/W Oscar the Grouch image, and running it through the QArt Coder, got me here http://research.swtch.com/qr/show/e27c9ec04e3013fe - Paint.net took me the rest of the way...

Read about how this works at http://research.swtch.com/qart

archive.rollingstone.com – another feather in our cap

With the successful launch of the new iPad-enabled Rolling Stone Archive, I figured I’d take the time out to congratulate our client, Bondi Digital, and my team at Applied Information Sciences (AIS): Jim Jackson, Robin Kaye, Ian Gilman and Siva Mallena  (with additional help from Leslee Sheu and Kevin Hanes).

Built on the same technology that we used to launch i.Playboy.com, the Rolling Stone archive combines our Silverlight viewer and the Html5, touch-optimized iPad viewer in a single site, sharing peripheral components such as menus and search features.  Per client requirements for Rolling Stone all desktop users will get the Silverlight-based viewer, with its keyboard and mouse integration, and deep zoom of images, while iPad users are automatically switched to the Html5 viewer.

Building and optimizing a highly graphics intensive app like this for the excellent, but admittedly limited, iPad browser has been a thoroughly enjoyable challenge. Showcasing our work to the public through another premier publication like Rolling Stone makes it all the more satisfying.

Our team is already onto the next publishing project – stay tuned…

SwiftKey

Also features A few*** weeks ago I installed Swype on my droid and promptly posted a boot blog post from my phone using the new keyboard.  It went reasonably well,  but it caused me to accidentally submit the post halfway through.

Nevertheless,  Swype quickly became my preferred input method on my phone.  Until tonight.

Tonight I installed SwiftKey.  SwiftKey is much more like a regular keyboard in that you type your letters (rather than draw a path over the letters, like in Swype), but the HUGE differentiator that SwiftKey brings to the table is that it predicts the NEXT word you're going to type.  Let me say that again: SwiftKey predicts the NEXT word you're going to type!  It does this through a combination of statistical analysis of the language of your choice and what you have typed in the past.  Rather than merely working reasonably well,  SwiftKey really works REMARKABLY well.  So well in fact that it predicted each of the last seven words in the sentence I repeated above.

Not only that, but it also works with the Droid's slide out keyboard,  bringing the best of tactile and predictable typing together.

This is a good one,  and a worthy installation for any (an)droid user out there.   Let's hope it's not too expensive when it comes out of beta.

PS!  Would love to see this on an iPad.

***Update: nothing like raving about a new keyboard, and then starting with two incorrectly auto-completed words.  Links added post hoc in Live Writer – still the best blogging tool (for Windows at least)…

 

PPS: Video of SwiftKey in action:

SwiftKey vs Standard Keyboard

SwiftKey vs Swype–a very close call, though the Swyper is hardly using Swype to its fullest.