Last week Mulvey and I were talking about the mental fork created by Apple’s app strategy. Specifically, I mentioned I sometimes get confused when I want to “switch” my context from one thing on my iPhone to another – I’ll hit the home button and search for an app if I’m looking for a web page or vice versa. This usually results in me leaving mobile Safari by hitting the home button, only to quickly realize my mistake and relaunch mobile Safari. A mental hiccup that isn’t a big deal, but is annoying nonetheless.

I just read a report on macRumors that states:

Between the developers I spoke to, the consensus was this: Apple doesn’t appear to be opposed to ‘app generators’ and templates per se, but in the last month or so it has started cracking down on basic applications that are little more than RSS feeds or glorified business cards. In short, Apple doesn’t want people using native applications for things that a basic web app could accomplish.

Good! Of course I would never sacrifice the amazing interactive experiences that native apps provide, but do the Huffington Post and NYT really need the speed and power of a native app to accomplish what their apps really do vs a full-web experience?

I have no problem with Apple guiding app builders and leading the strategic direction apps should take. Especially if they’re able to clean up the little mental hiccups that occur along the way.

I had the opportunity to team up with the folks over at Drop.Io over the summer for a redesign and brand-study of their entire application and I can’t say enough good things about Chad, Sam and the entire Drop.io team. They’re a super-smart, super-passionate bunch of geeks and they deserve all the good things that will, I’m sure, flow their way as a result of their simple, private sharing platform. Check it out.

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Looks like there’s another Twitter-like contender out there called BrightKite. I just received a private invitation (as an aside, I hate that crap – enough of this exclusivity, in-crowd, 8th grade schoolyard nonsense) and created a profile. There is automatic Twitter integration which is nice, and I love how you can see locations, posts and people on a map of the area you last checked in from. I’ll write more as I play with it more.

I’ll write moe about this in the future, but I attended the AIGA/NY Fresh Dialogue: IN/VISIBLE talk last evening and Fernanda Víegas demoed Many Eyes. This groundbreaking collection of data visualization tools and datasets is bound to make lots of noise as the months and years progress. Taking a youTube/wikipedia approach to democratizing data visualization and advocating its acceptance as a medium, Many Eyes allows the average joe to upload any dataset (e.g. sock colors I own) and wrap a data visualization around it (scatter-plot). The result is a fresh new way to look at the world around you – one that maybe only Andrew Kuo truly understands.

Has anyone noticed the integration of geo-tagged images when doing a Google Map search? I just did and it turns out that Panoramio is what’s powering it. Go play with it.

The folks at Digg Labs have some pretty sweet data visualizations on their hands utilizing Digg data sets. Fans of data viz go check it out. Fans of digg – stick to the lighter, more usable, straight-up digg, no rocks, no salt.

Check out Aviary – a new suite of RIAs that enable image editing, pattern creation and (soon) much more.

I’ve posted here in the past about hyper-local content and its potential power & usefulness. I’ve also linked up one of the original hyper-local sites out there (one I’ve contributed to): Outside.In. As well as pointed out a very thought provoking essay by Steven Johnson, The Pothole Paradox.

Well there’s a newcomer to the party and I can honestly say it’s interface is very nice and easy to use. I’ve been perusing it for a little while now and can immediately see how I will visit it on a very regular basis. Check it out:  Everyblock.