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Discoblog
« Nerd Bling: 13 Gift Ideas for the Geek Who Has Everything
NCBI ROFL: Beer consumption and the 'beer belly': scientific basis or common belief? »

Texting and Walking Made Easy With iPhone App

For those too busy (or self-important?) to pocket the iPhone while walking down the street and too safety-conscious to blunder out into traffic while texting, we’ve got just the app for you, via Gadget Venue:

The application is called Type and Walk and makes use of the camera on your iPhone to push video in to the background of an application where you can type on top of the video, thus being able to see obstacles as you are walking.

Type n Walk was designed to work with your favorite apps — not try to replace them. Use it to compose your email, text message, status update, or tweet and paste it into your target app (or the browser) to send.

Yes, the app shows you the same thing you’d see if you just looked ahead of you without the iPhone, the same way people have for thousands of years, and animals before them for millions of years. Is it genius? A signal that our species has really, finally gone too far with this technology thing?

Related Content:
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Discoblog: iPhone Translator App Speaks for You, Using Your Mouth

Video: YouTube / typenwalk

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December 17th, 2009 11:54 AM Tags: app, iPhone, text messaging, weird iPhone apps
by Brett Israel in Technology Attacks! | 3 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

  • Elissa

    I think it’s interesting how we are experiencing more and more of life mediated thorough technology. We don’t just watch an event, we watch it through the lens or on the screen of a camera as we record it. The captured/created version is becoming more primary than the actual experience.

  • Amos Zeeberg (Discover Web Editor)

    @Elissa: Does seem that way. I assume the change is good in ways and bad in ways. You agree? Should we accept it as inevitable? Can we accentuate the positive elements and minimize the negative?

  • Elissa

    It does make me uncomfortable; I think we’re losing something of the immediacy of human contact and life experience. That does seem inevitable, but at least when we’re using communication technologies like cell phones and email they balance that by providing means of connection we didn’t have before. In the case of the cameras, videorecorders, and now this application, our lives are being mediated to us through technology, but I don’t think the value of the pictures or videos really offsets the loss of the immediate experience.





    • About the Blog

      Discoblog is DISCOVER's compendium of quirky, funny, and surprising science news from the edge of the known universe. It's written by Veronique Greenwood and Valerie Ross. Email tips and suggestions to vgreenwood [at] discovermagazine [dot] com.

      Discoblog also includes the daily feature NCBI ROFL, in which two prone-to-distraction grad students post real scientific articles with funny subjects. Email your tips to ncbirofl [at] gmail.com. Follow the ROFL feed here.

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