MealSnap for iPhone: A Picture Is Worth 1000 Calories

MealSnap

Using your smartphone to capture an image of your meals is one of the most common clichĂ©s of social media oversharing. Naysayers are always eager to say, “Why should I care what people have for breakfast”.

If you’re taking pictures of what you eating anyways, then MealSnap from Daily Burn can help you out by estimating the number of calories you’re about to consume (or have already consumed). Daily Burn produces other smartphone apps for health and exercise tracking including an app to scan food packaging barcodes to access their nutritional information.

I was skeptical when I first heard about MealSnap back in April. Could it really identify the food I was eating from just a smartphone picture. I grabbed a few photos of some past meals to see what kind of results MealSnap would give me. I included a stack of pancakes with blueberries, a burger and fries and a slice of pepperoni pizza. Not exactly a snapshot of a healthy lifestyle, but I can assure you these were not eaten on one day.

The MealSnap database of 500,000 food items identified the breakfast as pancakes and the blueberries (601-902 calories). It also did a great job of self-identifying the burger and fries, even the ketchup (454 -681 calories). The pepperoni pizza was identified too (198 – 297 calories). A quick check over at FitDay.com profile suggested that these estimate were in the neighbourhood.

So, what is MealSnap good for? It does make a good food journal. If a person is looking to change their eating habits, one of the first things they should do is create a food journal of what they are eating now. MealSnap makes this process relatively effortless, and with a brief description to the image you can improve it’s accuracy with calories.

I’m still amazed that the image recognition works at all. MealSnap is available in the App Store for $2.99

ToyToyota’s Backseat Driver Turns Every Car Trip Into a Game



ToyToyota iPhone AppI’m typically the guy that always calls “shotgun”, but if I had a fun iPhone app like this I would be calling “backseat driver way more often. This app allows kids (and people like me) to sit back and truly enjoy the ride from the back seat.

In the Backseat Driver iPhone game from Toyota’s newly launched ToyToyota division the player follows along behind the “Papa Car” (that’s what they call it) which uses GPS to mirror the route that the real car is travelling. The player can steer the Game Car along the route to pick up objects that the guide car drops, as well as icons representing the stores and facilities that exist along the real life route.

The objects that are captured are worth points than can be exchanged later to customize the player’s car. The route and the game car design can then be shared over Twitter.

The app was created by Tokyo/NYC creative super-shop Party, which were featured in Fast Co Design back in June.

Mosquito Report App Gives Swedes the Latest Buzz on the Outdoors

Thermocell - Swedish Mosquito ReportIf there’s one thing that Canada and Sweden share besides short summers, it’s the bugs especially mosquitoes. Who hasn’t come back from a picnic, camping trip or even an evening on the back deck covered with legs and arms covered in itchy mosquito bites. Wouldn’t it be great to know what the mosquito conditions are before you head out.

In Sweden, Thermacell, a maker of mosquito repellent devices may have a solution with their Myggrapporten (Mosquito Report) iPhone app. Users of the app can report the mosquito conditions at their location, helping others who will be visiting that spot help prepare.

The app is ready to make recommendations about the type of mosquito repellent device that will help with the reported conditions. It quickly became one of the most popular apps in the Swedish Appstore.

This app is only a hint at what we see in the next few years with users reporting weather, traffic (or mosquito) conditions at their present location. Sensors that attach, plugin or are built-in to mobile devices will make self-reporting easier.

The app was created by Stockholm agency Deportivo.

Ballatine’s Leaves an Impression with World’s First Interactive Tattoo

Scottish whisky-maker Ballatine’s is taking their tagline ‘Leave an Impression’ to the next level with 3 art events streamed live from their Facebook page. The Human A.P.I. campaign features artists wearing head-mounted cameras for a first-person view of the creative process, as well as allowing Facebook visitors to ask questions and make suggestions.

Ballatine's - the Human A.P.I.The first event was streamed on June 16 and featured Paris based tattoo artist K.A.R.L. creating an elaborate animated tattoo. The tattoo took four hours to complete and included a matrix code that when scanned by a mobile phone played a short animation. You can see the video from the event above.

The next event in the Human A.P.I. campaign took place on June 30 and featured J.A.M.I.E., an amazing ice sculptor. The third event will take place live on July 14 at 15:00 GMT (which I believe is 1pm EST) features Bristol, UK graffiti artist 45.R.P.M.

The Human A.P.I. campaign was created by the Work Club with live streaming provided by The Streaming Tank.

Pringles Crunch Band Wants You to Rock Your Smartphone


Pringles Crunch Band

This summer Pringles Sweden have unleashed Crunch Band, a fun new app for chip munchin’ music fans. Created by the creative folks at CP+B Europe, the app wants to turn everyone into a budding rock star just by shaking and swiping their Android or iPhone mobile smartphone.

The app uses the phone’s accelerometer to create the sounds of an electric guitar, bass and drums. More instruments can be unlocked by scanning the UPC code on the side of other Pringles cans. As the instruments are unlocked special badges are shared to a user’s Faceboook profile, and if your smartphone speakers aren’t loud enough you can order a special speaker attachment (in exchange for 3 product seals) that can turn your empty Pringles can into an rockin’ amp.

If you need help Pringles have provided a Rocktorial direct from Tomas the rest of the hard rocking development team. 🙂

Gowalla and Frigidaire Team-Up to Promote Farmer’s Markets

GoWalla and Frigidaire support Save the Children’

Gowalla has been overshadowed recently as Foursquare (and Facebook Places) steal most of the attention within the location-based service world. It’s user base is hovering around the 1 million mark while Foursquare reported it had 9.3 million users in mid-may.

The lack of attention is unfortunate as Gowalla seems to be less focused on commerce and more on fun and sharing interesting experiences with friends and other users.

Users can create and share  their own trips featuring customized badges and rewards. The Scott Pilgrim vs the World trip is a favorite trip here in the Toronto-area, featuring locations seen in the movie.

With this focus on it’s users and their communities, it’s wonderful to see Gowalla announce a partnership with Frigidaire to promote Farmer’s Markets across America. It’s all in support of the appliance maker’s Make Time for Change program.

Starting this week, when Gowalla users check-in at their local Farmer’s Market, Frigidaire will donate $1 to Save the Children as part of their larger $500,000 commitment to the cause. Make Time for Change spokesperson Jennifer Garner has already checked in at Brentwood Village Farmer’s Market.

In addition, Frigidaire will also donate $1 to Save the Children for every person who makes a commitment to exercise and better eating at their Make Time for Change website. People who register through the website are eligible to win a Frigidaire Gallery French door refrigerator.

Andy Ellwood, director of business development at Gowalla said,

“We’re proud to be partnering with Frigidaire and Jennifer Garner to raise awareness for such an important and mobilizing issue. We’re working together with our community to encourage people to participate and show their support for Save the Children. It truly embodies Gowalla’s philanthropic mission, and is a great example of using social media for social good.”

The campaign uses Frigidaire’s Facebook and Twitter accounts to spread the word.

If you haven’t tried out Gowalla, download it and give it a try. It’s available for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry.

The Warmer the Day, the Less You’ll Pay for Budweiser in Ireland


I unfortunately missed this campaign from Budweiser in Ireland when it was first launched in late April.

The first you may be asking yourself is, “If I am in Ireland – a land of awesome beers like Guinness, Harp, Murphy’s and Beamish – is a Budweiser Ice Cold draught going to be my beer of choice?” Maybe, if you can save a few Euros or if it’s free you will.

Budweiser Ice Cold IndexThis summer Budweiser has launched the Ice Cold Index app offering beer drinkers throughout Ireland special deals based on the temperature. The campaign developed by DDB UK will award drinkers a free pint when the temperature in their area reaches 20°C. If the temperature reaches 18°C or 19°C outdoors the app will offer €2 off the user’s next pint, with €1 off if the temperature reaches 16°C or 17°C.

How it Works

A user checks the app to see what the daily offer is in their region. Temperatures for the current day are taken at noon in four different locations Ulster, Connacht, Leinster and Munster.

Once the offer is active, the user can use the Pub Finder to locate one of the 2,500 participating venues across Ireland.

In the pub the user requests the unique pub code from the staff. After the code has been entered the mobile voucher is active for 2 minutes before it expires. It must then be shown to one of the barstaff to claim your savings

Beer drinkers are eligible to use the app for one beer purchase per day. But, in a valiant effort to save drinkers from themselves they can access a voucher 4 out of any 7 day period.

The app is available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Nokia. For instructions on other mobile phones, users can text the word ‘INDEX’ to 5040.

Eat Your Way to a Free Trip to Ireland on Foodspotting

Irish Breakfast on Foodspotting.comI knew that enjoying the occasional Sunday morning Irish Breakfast at The Brogue would eventually pay off. OK, well maybe not for my arteries or waistline.

Last Monday, Foodspotting.com announced that they have partnered with DiscoverIsland.com to celebrate everyone’s favorite Irish drinks and dishes.

Until July 31st, if you share one the eligible Irish dishes using the Foodspotting site or mobile apps you’ll be entered to win an all-expense paid trip for to Ireland.

The eligible foods include:  Black Pudding, Boxty, Corned Beef, Cottage Pie, Guinness, Irish Breakfast, Irish Coffee, Irish Soda Bread, Mead, Smithwick’s Beer and Whiskey

And now for the bad news, the contest is only open to U.S. residents. Looks like I’ll need to order another Guinness, and maybe a couple of more slices of black pudding.

Find out more about the Foodspotting app for iPhone.

SocialGuide is Your Social Media-fueled TV Guide

Social Guide iPhone App

It should come as no shock to anyone who watches live TV events such as the The Oscars or weekly shows like Glee or Mad Men, that viewers are using both the internet and the TV at the same time. Increasingly that internet time is being taken over by mobile devices (smartphones & tablets) rather than a traditional computer.

Neilson and Yahoo revealed that 86% of mobile phone users use the internet on their device while watching TV. Of those people, 33% were using mobile apps, 37% were browsing the internet and 40% were interacting with their friends on social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Checking-in on TV shows

Applications such as GetGlue, Miso and Into_Now have been launched to allow users to ‘check-in’ to TV shows in the same way that they can check-in to real-world venues using Foursquare or Gowalla.

One of the latest apps to cater to these Internet/TV multi-taskers is Social Guide, recently included in Time Inc.’s 10 NYC Startups to Watch.

How SocialGuide Works

Unlike the other media check-in apps listed above, SocialGuide works like a Social Media- fueled TV Guide. Like any interactive TV Guide it first identifies your local cable company. (The application is US-only, so I used DISH Buffalo as my default).

Users can choose to view all shows in each time period or filter them by Regular Series, Reality, Movies, Sports and News. The shows are listed in order by how many mentions are being shared through Twitter and Facebook (I only saw Twitter posts in my time using the app). All the tweets mentioning the show are visible in the default view, or they can be further filtered by Friends and tweets by the Cast.

If you are just interested in which shows are being discussed the most, then SocialGuide will help you out. It’s amazing (maybe shocking) to see just how many people are posting comments on a Sunday morning while watching Spongebob Squarepants, iCarly or Yes to the Dress.

SocialGuide is available for iPhone and Android.

Tiffany Shows What Makes Love True on Microsite & iPhone App

Tiffany & Co. - What Makes Love True

On June 1, Tiffany & Co. launched the What Makes Love True microsite and iPhone app featuring stories of love and romance in the city of Manhattan.

The site and app both feature the same content but After clicking around I found myself far more engaged with the iPhone app rather the microsite. The site seemed to present far too many options on each page while on the iphone app focused on one thing at a time and most features seemed only a tap or two away.

The What Makes Love True app is divided into four sections:

Love Stories includes a short film by Ed Burns called ‘Will You Marry Me?’ and a series of 10 stories of couples finding love in Manhattan. The intriguing stories are told through still images and voiceovers from the couples themselves.

Tiffany’s New York features a selection of the most romantic spots in Manhattan for a couple to have a romantic meeting.

The Art of Romance features a collection of exclusive tracks and classic songs from artists such as John Legend and Stevie Wonder. This section also includes a list of romantic Hollywood movies that featured Manhattan as a backdrop. If you’re ready to take your romance to the next level Tiffany’s has a list of 40 tips for romance.

Love is Everywhere allows you to place a heart at any location along with you and your partner’s initials, and a short message explaining why that location is special.

The site and iPhone are being promoted on Tiffany’s Facebook page, YouTube channel and the website home page. After playing with the app for nearly an hour, even I was ready to head on over to Tiffany’s to check out some bling.

The What Makes Love True iPhone app is available Free in the Apple App Store. A video demo of the site and app can be found on YouTube.