Stephen Keable » web

Twitter and TV, perfect companions?

Stephen Keable — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 16:42:06 +0000

Recently I’ve found myself flicking through the iPhone Twitter app whilst watching TV, it began back during the first leaders debate in the run up to the general election. It was was brilliant watching people talking with each other about it across the globe, as it happened rather than the following days at work around the water cooler.

It also becomes a great way to gauge popularity if you run a search or follow a hashtag through the show, as you can see how many posts are made every 30 seconds as the searches refresh.

The world cup has become a great example of this with the launch of Twitter’s own world cup site which uses the nation specific hashtags to filter a running commentary of matches (if you dodge the spam posts). Other sporting events give great live insights and commentary such as Lotus in the formula one racing who post pit lane and garage photos all through some races.

I just wonder how long before all live shows allow a ticker of Twitter posts along the foot of the screen?

BBC New Visual Language

Stephen Keable — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 08:46:18 +0000

In February this year Research Studios (Neville Brody’s Studio) told the world about the new visual language they had created for the BBC. There was a lot of buzz online about this for several months afterwards, however nothing seemed to materialise… until just recently. This year’s Glastonbury and Springwatch microsites on the BBC website seem to be adhering to the visual language and look great. Even if they do seem to break the rules a bit, but then what would designers do if they didn’t.

iPad and the final knife in Flash Player?

Stephen Keable — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:33:38 +0000

So the iPad is now available in the UK, I did the habitual trip to the Chapelfield Apple Store to smear my greasy little fingers over one in my lunch break. I’m very impressed by the product, it seemed larger than I expected and makes websites into something tactile at last, they really do sing on that backlit glossy display.

After a return visit and working through a series of websites that I work on, it made me realise how lazy I’ve been when it comes to keeping up with HTML5 and non-flash content (lets face it Flash Player is pretty much dead in the water now). So I’ve now been working back through my sites and making sure alternative content is available, even spent the time re-developing some applications in jQuery.