Nunok's Blog: September 2009

September 27, 2009

Now There's Even an App That Lets You Pay for Coffee at Starbucks

Sent to you by nunok via Google Reader:

Now There's Even an App That Lets You Pay for Coffee at Starbucks

via ReadWriteWeb by Frederic Lardinois on 9/23/09

Starbucks just launched two iPhone apps. One app, myStarbucks, allows users to find stores, build drinks, and browse the coffee chain's menu and find nutritional information. While this is interesting, the second app is far more exciting. Starbucks Card Mobile gives users a virtual Starbucks Card and in 16 select stores in Silicon Valley and Seattle, users will be able to use this app to pay for their drinks. The app will display a barcode that the baristas at these stores will be able to scan.

Sponsor

In addition, the mobile payment app will also allow users to check their card's balance, reload it with any major credit card, and view their transaction history. For now, this feature will only be available in these two test markets, which, according to Starbucks, were chosen because of the high usage rates of iPhones and Starbucks' loyalty cards. After this trial, Starbucks will decide whether it will bring this feature to other markets.

While similar and more sophisticated payment schemes that use mobile phones have already become relatively widespread in other countries, the US is still lagging behind, though some interesting mobile payment projects have already made it to the market. Just last month, Nokia announced its Nokia Money service, but it remains to be seen if this service will be able to gain any traction.

Starbucks, on the other hand, already has a large user base for its Starbucks Card and given that customers have to use their card to get access to Starbuck's Wi-Fi network, customers already have a pretty strong incentive to use the card and the app.

Discuss

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to ReadWriteWeb using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Beautiful Examples of Kinetic Photography

Sent to you by nunok via Google Reader:

Beautiful Examples of Kinetic Photography

via Smashing Magazine by Vailancio Rodrigues on 9/25/09

When you hear the word 'kinetic' for the first time, probably the first thing that comes to your mind is motion. Kinetic Photography, also known as 'camera tossing', is a technique of shooting photos with the actual physical movement of the camera. However, it does not necessarily involve tossing of the camera — you can also shake, bounce, swing or spin it; the goal of the technique is to obtain unpredictable results which are sometimes fascinating, always abstract and rarely boring.

The main rule of kinetic photography is simple: do not hold your camera stationary! Obviously, it is a quite uncommon and bizarre technique that involves risk of damaging your camera. The concept is extremely simple and really fun to use. Though the outcome is uncertain, kinetic photography sometimes produces beautiful abstract, random and motion blurred images. The results often look like a computer generated graphics.

Below we present beautiful examples of kinetic photography for your inspiration. All images are linked to photographer's web sites. You can explore further works of the photographers we've featured below by clicking on the images presented in this showcase. And feel free to add links to some beautiful works in the comments to this post!

Beautiful Examples of Kinetic Photography

QuakkauQ | Jens Ludwig

clickykbd

quinet

Matt Gorecki

QuakkauQ | Jens Ludwig

Further Resources

Camera Toss Flickr Group
Camera Toss – The Blog
A showcase photo-blog for the "best of" camera tossing and general musings on this form of kinetic photography. Created and maintained by Ryan Gallagher.
Camera Toss Collection on Flickr

About the author

Vailancio Rodrigues is a college student, webmaster and webdesigner who likes to learn new things and share them with others. He likes to work in the creative field and is constantly improving his skills. His field of interest are Web Technologies, Photography, Motion Graphics, Art and Technology. You can follow Vailancio on Twitter.

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to Smashing Magazine using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites