It won’t surprise anyone who knows me that I have a bias for the Apple ecosystem over Google. When I hear people complaining about the new Apple Maps app, I find myself asking why people are so upset with Apple over this.

Consider the following:

1) While it’s true that Apple made the original iPhone Maps app that was powered by Google maps, Google has provided no intentions to release a stand-alone Google Maps app like the stand-alone YouTube app. Rather than make users happy by launching a stand-alone app, Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt prefers to make foolhardy statements like, “We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what do I know?” Speculations have surfaced that Google is working on a stand-alone iOS maps app, but not anytime soon, so we’ll have to wait and see.

If it had been possible or easy for Apple to incorporate Google Maps features like turn-by-turn directions that gave the Android maps app a boost in popularity, I imagine they would have.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Gadgets

If you are a Web designer or developer, you are either already implementing responsive (adaptive) design or are scrambling to figure out how to do it. Why? Because it has become best practice for accommodating the increasingly huge number of mobile devices with wildly varying screen sizes and user interfaces.

For those who don’t live in our world, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the evolution of Web design for mobile devices.

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Andy Swindler Categories: The Web

“Gamification” is a term thrown around a lot in the tech world these days. It’s one of many new trends that you’ll see incorporated into everything from mobile apps to electricity bills. The basic idea is that applying game mechanics to technology will make even the mundane exciting and motivate people to do things – namely spend more money.

In my own personal exploration of this concept, I came across some varied efforts to make household chores and other to-do lists into games to help us all avoid any part of our over-stimulated lives becoming boring.

For the past few months, my girlfriend and I have been playing Chore Wars, created by Kevan Davis, which lets you create a “party” and “adventures” (or chores) for everything that needs to be done around the house. It also goes by the equally witty pseudonym, World of Chorecraft. For those who have ever played Dungeons & Dragons or any of the numerous spin-offs, this will seem very familiar.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Astekology, ePiphany