Help Us Make a Baby

Hello world! It's me, Brian! I see things look a bit more girly around here since my last post. Serves me right for abandoning the blogging world like that.

As you know from Isa's posts, we've been busy creating a new Android application (for those of you that are less tech savvy than others, there are four basic types of smart phones out there - iPhones, Windows phones, Blackberry's, and pretty much everything else is an Android phone). Our application works on Android phones. It finds your location and points out spots around you where you can sit down and relax. If you haven't seen the demonstration video yet, watch that here:

We entered the video into a citywide contest, with $50k in prizes. We're eligible for about $23,000 if we win all the categories we're entered in. (Could you even imagine?!?!!!!) Most winners are based solely on the judges' discretion and criteria, and we just hope they love our app as much as we do. :)

But there is one $4000 category called the Popular Choice Award. And that's where you come in. We need votes. You can vote once a day, so keep coming back each day to help. And tell your friends. It's really easy.

For now,  here's what we would LOVE for you to do:

1. Create a profile (which is super easy) on the BigApps 3.0 page:
http://2011.nycbigapps.com/ (top right corner, click sign up)

2. Go to your email and click the link to confirm your email address. That will open up the BigApps 3.0 page again.

3. Find the RelaxNYC app. Click the submission gallery and search for "relax" or just click this link: http://2011.nycbigapps.com/submissions/5799-relaxnyc

4. Make a comment below the app. It could be about the video, about the app, about the idea, just saying hello, wishing us good luck, or complete gibberish. You can't vote yet, but you can leave a comment.

Voting doesn't start until tomorrow (Thursday) at 10am, but commenting now helps put our app toward the top for people who don't know what they're looking for. :)

You're the best! Thanks!

Oh, and how, you may ask, does this help us make a baby? Well, babies are expensive. And our savings account could use a boost so that we'll be financially ready for offspring.

So your votes = $ = baby sooner than later. :)

1 Week of Glorious News!

We've had a pretty crazy week with me back in school and Brian finishing up the app!

I started classes. My schedule was one class a week, 4 out of 5 beginning at 9am. (!!) But quite thankfully, one of the classes wasn't my cup of tea, so I rearranged my schedule. I now have a Wednesday off! (Still classes at 9am the rest of the days though).

Brian finished the RelaxNYC App!! Right now, we only have it available for Android phones. You can find it in the marketplace. You can also like our Facebook page or check it out on the website at www.relaxnycapp.com.

We also entered the app into the BigApps 3.0 competition in NYC. You can read about that and find our entry Here.

I've been hired onto a campaign for Zagat. It works super well with my school schedule and luckily it's been in the 40s (50s tonight!) so I've been staying...well, I haven't gotten frost bite.

The deal is that Zagat wants to hear from you! Your witty reviews on your favourite shopping locations in NYC (even if you don't live here!). Because you help us in creating the Zagat guide(s), once you submit at least once review, you can get a free Zagat Shopping 2012 guide (that you commented in and maybe are published in!) or the Zagat Food Lovers guide 2012, which reviews gourmet food shopping locations. Click HERE to register!

(I completely back Zagat. Not only are they backed by Google now, but they are also a great company and I've participated in this promotion before. It's a great deal!)

Working towards this (kinda) and my eye on it for awhile...I got the Longchamp Le Pliage bag! in Bilberry. :) Most money I've ever spent on a single item that wasn't a piece of furniture or good jewelry, but it's a great bag!

During my Zagat stint at Union Square main entrance today, Ames from Ashley's season of The Bachelorette (last...summer? Fall?), looked me right in the eye and semi-politely denied the free Zagat guide I offered him!

(We really want to run into JP and Ashley though...)

Here's the sad news: The Chuck series finale is tonight. Goodbye Chuck. Sarah. Casey. Morgan. Alex. General Beckman. Jeff. Lester. Good show. It shall be missed.

(There was even a short article in AMNY about this today. They are sad too.)

Relax NYC

Brian has been hush-hush (kinda) about his app for awhile now, but it's almost finished! And now we need help!

For those who don't know, he's created an app that can search for places to sit (parks, street benches, playgrounds, etc.) while you're walking around NYC. The app is called Relax NYC.

It's meant for both locals and tourists, kind of along the same line as NYC Mate (has subway and bus maps with schedules).

The issue we're currently having is deciding what direction design-wise to go in: more fun and playful (1) or more polished and city-like (2). Photo here:

We like how appealing number 2 is, but like the idea of number 1. Number 1, however, also looks more like a game than a tool. But number 2 looks very similar to NYC mate (unintentional):

Any comments? Helpful ideas? Do you like #1 or #2 better? Which would you rather use and download? Which reflects the app better? Which reflects the city and appeals to its users better?

Anything would help! Thanks!!

Android Games

I have about a 30 minute commute to and from work every day, and much of that time is spent playing one of two games: Angry Birds (which, if you haven't heard of yet I'm just going to assume you live in a cottage on a lake somewhere completely cut off from society and I'm mildly surprised that you even have access to the internet to read this blog) and Drop (which you probably haven't heard of yet, but now you have). It's super fun and ridiculously addicting. The concept is simple, you tip the phone back and forth to make a ball fall through the gaps in the floor, which constantly rises and moves faster and faster as you go. (Watch a demo online.) I defy you to beat my high score:

Unless, of course, this person happens to read my blog. In which case you can keep your scores to yourself, thank you very much.

What is your favorite Android/iPhone App game thing?