Today I’ll be going to a local meetup that focuses on apps, organized by my good friend Dan Parks on a regular basis. The guy gives those that attend some printed packages on what he’s discussing to take home. He goes to a lot of trouble and puts in more effort than most would for what is essentially a light info session contained inside a lunch.
Today’s meal: Burgers.
Why do I mention this? Well, two apps over the last week or so have grabbed my attention – one is new to the iOS marketplace and another has made enough compelling and stellar changes to warrant me jumping back into it.
Stamped
I’m not a big fan of Foursquare, Yelp or apps of a similar nature. I use Foursquare mainly to let those following me (or wishing to follow me) the chance to see where I am when doing business stuff. I rarely publish those check-ins to other social networks and I never, ever use it when doing anything that isn’t business-related. I just don’t think what I’m doing outside of that warrants sharing beyond those I’m doing it with.
As for Yelp, Urbanspoon, etc. – I like what they do but using them just doesn’t fit into my lifestyle. I see the value in using them to check out places so that I cna figure where to go based on the opinions of others, but I’ll leave the leaving of said opinions to those folks that do want t spend – and enjoy spending – time doing so.
Stamped, however, is different. It’s an app that – despite its simplicity – is adaptable to each user in how they choose to use it. You can stamp things like crazy, “like” things like crazy, inform people of the things you stamped like crazy, and so on. Or you can be really selective about all of that.
Stamped has been the talk of the app world since its launch and I’m not going to go into much detail here as to how it works. What I will say is:
- If I stamp something, it means I think highly of it.
- If I “like” something, it means I, er…like it.
- If I tell people about what I’ve used Stamped for on Twitter or Facebook, it means I really think highly of it.
Path
I started using Path when it first came out because it seemed like a good idea – a selective social network of sorts. But I didn’t get it. I didn’t see the need for another social network to keep tabs on. In fact, I wasnt even sure if the Path team knew what they wanted the app to do up until its latest update. Path had never been on the right path, so to speak.
Then yesterday happened.
Path got a much-needed update that makes it a more pleasing and complete app to use. Adding options such as what music I’m listening to is just one of the many little things that Path has added with this upgrade to 2.0, and it looks as if they’ve been listening to their user base during the entire development process. While a lot of developers seem to do this, not all of them pay attention to them to the point that the recommendations actually get incorporated to the level that Path did with yesterday’s update.
Again, I’m not going to wade too deep into why I’m back on “the Path” right now. But Patrick Rhone offers his thoughts on Path 2.0 right here. I’ll think more on what my intention is with Path going forward over the next week or so and get back to you on that.
Right now, I’m off to get myself a burger.
