Hidden Gems and City Tours From Your Neighbor’s Perspective at Trover.com

A new mobile discovery network, Trover, gives users the chance to introduce local explorers to hidden gems right outside their door. Trover is a free smartphone app, which is also accessible from its web site at Trover.com.  The app is designed for sharing discoveries, interesting things to see or do, in your city or a city you happen to be visiting, in order to help someone else enjoy the discovery just as you did. In other words, it’s a place exploration tool.

GPS drawing is hot. On Spoon & Tamago (great blog for Japan enthusiasts) we came across the Tokyo Zoo Project, a website that builds upon this idea as it transforms Tokyo’s map into one big zoo of GPS-drawn animals. The project, powered by Sony, presents a series of cycling routes around the Japanese capital that trace outlines of different animals, such as a panda that covers Shibuya and a big gorilla that crosses the city’s Haneda district.

Apparently it is very intriguing to superimpose digital concepts on physical reality. But how can comment walls like on Facebook be applied to real-life objects? The people behind QRawr came up with a partial solution. QRawr enables users to transform any object into a digital discussion wall. By pasting a QRawr sticker with a unique QR code on an object, others are invited to leave comments and join a discussion about the specific object. This way real life objects can be turned into online discussions, which could be great for discussing design objects, restaurant menus, architecture, or public services.

BBC reports that touchless smartphones and TVs could hit the markets in 2012. So no buttons any more, a gesture is enough. It’s just a matter of time before the good old visual interfaces have totally changed, as well as the ways to control them. Google is secretly working on Augmented Reality-powered glasses that “provide a display with a heads up computer interface”, turning Augmented Reality-powered worlds with digital layers of information into an integral part of the urban fabric. (Click here for an ironic Augmented Reality future scenario byKeiichi Matsuda.) By the way, who needs glasses if we will be able to implant micro-computers into our eyes? Computers are close to becoming our sixth sense. And the city becomes an interface.

Peer-to-peer renting services focus on specific stuff and commodities. TakeSpinlister, a fresh initiative from Los Angeles that enables people to earn a little extra money by renting out their bicycle. Besides offering cheap bicycle renting opportunities in any city in the world, Spinlister also connects the worldwide bicycle riders community. Even for renting luxury recreational vehicles such as boats, sport cars and even planes there is an online peer-to-peer marketplace called Qraft. In addition, Campinmygarden offers private gardens as micro campsites. Parkcirca does the same for parking spaces in crowded cities.

A wide range of smartphone apps contributes to the revival of psychogeography. An appealing example is Serendipitor, a free iPhone app that enables its users to “find something by looking for something else”. Begin by entering a destination, from which Serendipitor suggests various routes, which are shorter or longer, depending on how much time you have. As you navigate your chosen route, the app suggests actions and movements to generate interactive encounters. A similar project we wrote about isDérive, a web-based app that presents users randomly drawn task cards that tell them what to do. Highly recommended is the Inception app, that was also part of our top 5 apps for exploring the city. This app uses augmented sound to induce dreams through the headset of the iPhone and iPod Touch, changing your perception of reality. Interested in more? Adam Greenfield compiled a list of iPhone and Android apps that support surprise and drift.

Wifis.org is a start-up that aims to be a “contact form for your Wi-Fi network”. The new company, founded by Mathias Nitzsche, provides a free service that enables its users to be contacted by others through their wireless networks. How? People register a unique ID with the site (for instance wifis.org/example) and then rename their wireless network into that URL. People who spot your network can easily leave you a message by using the contact form on your personal page. Why would you use it? The company suggests that their service could appeal to “friendly neighbors might invite you to a beer, or ask if you want to share your Wi-Fi for a monthly payment”. What makes Wifis.org interesting is that it is a digital communication channel attached to place. Furthermore, it enables users to get contacted by others without revealing their personal details — the existence of a Wi-Fi network is enough to receive messages.

South Koreans don’t like time-consuming activities and they are always on the run. So how can they make the most of the waiting time at train and metro stations? In the Netherlands we would get some coffee and read a free newspaper to kill time, but in South Korea they have the chance to get some groceries at a virtual supermarket! 

Street Tag is a free app that turns your iPhone into a can of spray paint. Recently launched by Channel 4, this neat application makes use of the phone’s camera mode to enable users to virtually graffiti the street in real time without fear of being arrested.