“How does your environment impact your personal health?” One way to begin to answer the question is through “geomedicine“. Geomedicine is a new type of medical intelligence that aims to leverage national spatial data infrastructures in order to benefit personal human health and improve the quality of the care medical professionals can deliver.
Recently RIM (well-known as the developer of the Blackberry smartphone) introduced the Blackberry Playbook and joined the ranks of the heated tablet competition. This nice-looking 7-inch display tablet is loaded with a new operating system based on QNX. One big difference from the iPad is that it supports Adobe Flash. Yup, that’s right. Flash in the web browser AND Flash through the application development process via the Adobe Air platform. This opens up some doors for the development process. Here’s a quick rundown:
We just wrapped up the video edit for fashion designer Lauren Moffatt. Get a sneak peak of the upcoming Fall 2011 collection. Filmed by Gabrielle Revere, edited by Krate, and photography by Daymion Mardel.
Our identity / masthead design for Sweet Paul magazine will be gracing the cover of the new issue (due out March 1). Sweet Paul is published by Paul Lowe, master prop stylist and crafter extraordinaire. Everything he touches looks delicious or amazing. He’s so serious about his work he recently got a tattoo of a hot glue gun. Now that’s commitment!
Lately there has been a rise in the use of two dimensional bar codes. The traditional one dimensional bar codes still have their place in groceries and checkouts, but lack the additional capabilities for more complex needs. Two dimensional bar codes provide much more versatility and uses. QR Codes (short for Quick Response) are a popular standard.
Just because we spend our day designing websites and cranking out code doesn’t mean we’re all zeros and ones here at Krate.
Here are five websites we like to start our day with. We can always count on these sites to find something to desire and inspire.
Before we say hello to fall, let’s reflect on some of the hot town fun we had this summer (and share some tips to extend the season just a little bit longer).
S – Splishing and splashing. What with all the floating barges and free pools (including the Olympic-sized Astoria Park pool), the city nearly begged us to hang out in our bathing suits all summer. Krate local fave: We always look forward to Moma PS1′s YAP annual summer exhibition. This year’s installation, Pole Dance, features misters and a wading pool. Hurry, it closes today, Friday 9/6.
U – Under the Milky Way. It’s our favorite place to catch an oldie but goody on the big screen. Though we don’t have drive-ins, we do have free movies in the park. Jason is lucky enough to live across from one of the venues. Krate local (ish) fave: Spread the boroughly love and enjoy one last movie under the stars: The Life Aquatic, 9/7, Valentino Pier, Brooklyn.
MM - m, mmm, mmm. We always bookend our summers with leggy crustaceans. We start the season with soft shell crabs and a late August visit to Long Beach, punctuated with lobster rolls from Jordan’s Lobster Farms, marks the end. Krate local fave: No need to say good-bye to this summer ritual because Sage puts a lobster roll on their specials menu every Friday.
E – Eating outside. Food just tastes better in the open air, doesn’t it? And an al fresco brew or glass of wine, kind of makes us feel like we’re breaking the law. Krate local fave: Skip the beer gardens and head to LIC Bar. An evening in the garden at our dog friendly watering hole is never complete without a prosciutto and arugula pie ordered in from Bella Via.
R – Rising with the sun. Some of us at Krate are morning people and getting up with the sun is our equivalent to a cup of joe. But as the summer fades, so does that bit of early am sunlight that gets us going. Krate local fave: For those rainy days, grab your cuppa at the Stumptown brewing Sweetleaf.
Here at the Krate studio, all of our developers have migrated from iPhones to Androids. Though availability of apps leaves a bit to be desired (Sean is still waiting for a game worthy of downloading), here are five we find invaluable.
1) Google Goggles - Glenn eschews the more popular Barcode Scanner in favor of this visual search engine. His reasoning? Call me paranoid, but when I looked at all the permissions Barcode Scanner requires, it freaked me out. I just didn’t think it was necessary. He uses Goggles primarily for scanning QRs, but of course, can use it to photo and search virtually anything else he can think of.
2) Chrome to Phone – Use this app for its 1-click ability to push web content from your desktop to your Android. Jason’s application is mostly practical. He captures maps, directions and Yelp! reviews without the hassle of copy and paste. Quite the opposite, Glenn uses CtP as an ad hoc reader for articles and blog posts to browse during his subway ride home.
3) Latitude - Evidently, Jason has a very active social life with some very directionally challenged friends, because if you ask him about this real-time location tool, he’ll rattle off ten recent examples for why, when and how this app has improved his social life. Latitude automatically allows your friend list (and vice versa) to see your every move in real-time, so choose them wisely!
4) Gtask – Sean tried many task managers before settling on this one. He loves that it automatically syncs with all his Google Apps (Calendar, Mail, etc.), so there’s no need to export files or fuss with your mail client.
5) PDAnet - When DSL went down at the studio last week, everyone but our iPhone using leader was able to get online with this handy app. Bypassing your phone carrier’s $30 / month fee, PDAnet treats your Android as a modem, getting you online via a hard-wired USB connection.
Spurred on by a recent Smashing Magazine contest, Krate’s Sean Oh spent some time tinkering around with CSS3 to see what was possible in Safari, Firefox, and Chrome (sorry IE!). No Flash. No Javascript. No magic wands. The final outcome, CSS3 Charts, went on to grab first place in the Smashing Magazine CSS3 contest. Way to go, Sean!
We asked Sean to give us a quick download on the techniques he used:
