There are a lot of first generation iPhone applications promoting social activism available in the iPhone store, but you're probably not going to find them by keyword. I've found the easiest way to identify promising new iPhone applications is by searching the blogs that target that audience and then looking for posts or recommendations there first. That's exactly how I stumbled upon SnapImpact. Essentially, SnapImpactis a free application that uses your current location to identify upcoming events in your area related to a myriad of socially conscious causes. Categories include: - Animal Protection and Welfare - Arts and Culture - Civil/Social Action - Disaster Relief - Education - Environment - Health and Medicine - Religion After downloading the app, you're treated to a screen that looks like this:

You can then scroll through the events, find one that you like, and learn more about it:

The final screen allows you to sign up to attend the event:

At first I was surprised to see that there were no upcoming events in my area (the closest was an Alzheimer's Memory Walk in Westchester County), but after a little research into the SnapImpact website, I saw that the app was only approved by Apple in June and the creators only announced it was ready for download a few weeks ago. This application has a lot of potential. As someone who does not regularly check-in with many socially active websites and might miss their updates on Twitter or Facebook, SnapImpact not only gives me an easy way to access upcoming events, but lowers the barrier to participation by allowing me to register as well. One additional option I'd appreciate is the ability to submit my own events through the application instead of having to visit the website, but that's pretty minor. You can read more about the development process here. Overall, this application has a ton of potential once it gets populated with more activities in a greater number of cities. I'm psyched to follow its development.

Did you know that you can take a screenshot with your iPhone? It's pretty easy. All you have to do is hold down the top button and the front button at the same time for a few seconds, and it will snap an image and place it in your photo album. Please take one and send it to me for my Mobile Media class. I'll show you how:

Please help me with a project I'm working on by taking a screenshot of the icons on your phone and sending them to me at: aaron.itp@gmail dot com

I will collect them for a week and post them to a page where you can see how we organize and prioritize the applications on our phones.

Here's the step by step instructions:

1. Hold down the front button of your phone and just tap the top button (don't hold it down).

2. Your screenshot will appear in your Photos under 'Camera Roll'

3: Use the button in the bottom left corner (as you see above) to email the image:

Finally, send the image to me at: aaron.itp(at)gmail(dot)com and in the subject, put your first name:

And that's it! If all goes well, you should receive a thank you note automatically.

NOTE: Right now, only Gmail and Yahoo accounts will work.

You can view all of the entries here, but I'm still tweaking it so please be gentle with your comments.

Thanks for your help!

For 1',2',10' this week, our assignment was to create iPhone buttons to convey emotions for 22 words using only typography and colors. For me, this was an especially challenging assignment because I don't have any design experience. I started by doing some research into colors and psychology. Colors like black suggest stress or anger, so I used those on words like angry, nervous and scared. For autumn, I used a palate of browns and oranges. Probably my two favorite buttons are childish and happy because I was able to convey the words easily using simple typography and iconography. My least favorite buttons were my search and free buttons. The colors and type just don't seem to work. It's amazing what you can convey with just a font choice! I probably could have used more images or been more creative had I not constrained myself to the actual shape of current iPhone buttons. My reasoning was that if you use different shapes, then it makes difficult for the user to know what is a button and what isn't.  Anyway, it was a useful exercise and really helped me to see what types of considerations I need to make when designing for different screens. View my iPhone buttons.