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MakerBot's contest winners print a better birdhouse
Like The Longines Symphonette before it, Thingiverse's army of 3D printing enthusiasts don't rest, so when MakerBot put them to the task of building a better home for wayward birds, they naturally jumped into action. Not to put too fine a point on it, but while we're still a ways from indoor plumbing and the like, the American Craftsman Bungalow is surely the sort of thing any upwardly mobile winged friend would want to call home. The first place winner gets (fittingly) an Eggbot, some PLA filament, display space at the MakerBot NY store and the admiration of birds everywhere. And if Hitchcock has taught us anything, it's that you want those buggers on your side. You can download the schematics for all of the winners in the source link below, complete with the standard whistles and bells.
The iPhone app showdown
This was an intriguing experiment undertaken over at Minimal Mac: Patrick decided to play a little Homescreen Survivor with his iPhone app icons -- he cleared everything off his homescreen, and then only let those apps back on which he used more than once throughout the course of a week. The result? You can see here which ones made it back on. Contacts, Calendar, Camera all showed up, not surprisingly. Photos did as well -- I don't use that one much, but I can see why. Everything else seems to be his own personal use: Tumblr's app, two different Twitter apps (Birdhouse and Tweetie), and then Simplenote and so on. But the real point here isn't what apps he used, it's just how different his homescreen looked when he only put what he used on there. I'll admit it: my iPhone is a mess -- I've got icons all over the place, and they don't seem to stay organized even when I try to organize them. But organizing according to actual usage is a great idea, and undertaking the same experiment on your iPhone might actually clear some things up for you. It's also worth pointing out all of that empty space on his homescreen: he has four more slots there that aren't used at all. Apple, are you listening? I'd guess Patrick's usage is more common than Apple may think -- there's plenty of room on the homescreen for other functions and information.
First Look: Interview with Tim Haines, creator of Favit for iPhone
If you read Twitter for laughs, you might be familiar with Favstar, a website which compiles the funniest Twitter posts each day, as determined by the number of 'stars' (which Twitter calls 'favorites'). The developer behind Favstar, Tim Haines, has released a new iPhone app called Favit [iTunes Link] which is now available in the App Store. I've talked with Tim about Favstar since shortly after it was released and I've been a beta tester for Favit. If you are familiar with other Twitter clients like Tweetie or Twitterrific, I should tell you right away that Favit is nothing like them. Favit is part of a small group of "helper" apps for Twitter. For example, Birdhouse [iTunes link] is an app meant to help you write (and rewrite) your best/funniest Twitter posts (see previous coverage of Birdhouse). Likewise, Favit is meant to help you find the best/funniest Twitter posts from others. Favstar, like Favrd, is open to everyone, but tends to cater to a specific group of Twitter users. Favit will appeal to that group, but also has the potential to help you find a host of new and enjoyable folks to follow on Twitter, especially if you're there for the funny. How It Works Favit has a very simple user interface. When you launch it, you will see one Twitter post, shown in the image here. If you want to add it to your favorites, tap the star and it will turn yellow. If you want to see another, simply swipe from right to left. Lather, rinse, repeat. Oh, did you notice anything missing from the Twitter post? It's anonymous, with no indication who wrote it. As the saying goes, it's not a bug, it's a feature. Those who are familiar with Favstar/Favrd know that sometimes it seems like some people get stars just for scratching their backsides. By reading in Favit, you can make sure that you are responding to what was said rather than who said it. In fact, it can be fun to try to guess who wrote what. What do you do when you're ready to have the author revealed?
Let your tweets incubate with Birdhouse for iPhone
Twitter is many things to many people. Some folks use it to keep up with friends or the latest news; others make it their primary tool for online coversation. There exists, however, within the throng of Twitter users, a group of people who use Twitter as the stage from which they deliver their own special brand of humor. For these types, a tweet isn't something that's typed and quickly posted a few seconds later -- it's a chance to make his/her followers chuckle. To that end, they take great care to ensure that each tweet is finely honed and worded to deliver the maximum amount of gag within the 140-character limit. Birdhouse is an application for these people. Dubbed by its creators as "A Notepad for Twitter," Birdhouse isn't your typical Twitter client. Instead of reading, replying to and favoriting your buddies' tweets, it focuses on composition. Got an idea for a really hilarious joke? Plug the idea into Birdhouse, then come back to it when you have time. Tweak and refine it until you've got just what you want, and hit publish. There's no hard limit to the number of drafts you can keep at once, and it maintains a timestamped history of all of the tweets you've published. You can rate each message using a 5-star system, and it also allows you to email yourself a complete list of all pending and published tweets in case you're staring at the business end of an iPhone restore and you don't want to lose that truly golden mom joke you've been working on. Birdhouse [App Store] is available now for $3.99US.
