iSpicePhotos wants YOU (to vote)

(Don’t know what iSpicePhotos does? NO WAY! Check out a run-through at the end of this post).

We have just applied to the Mobily App Award competition, where prizes are given for the most popular mobile apps.

iSpicephotos needs you help and your vote to win!

It only takes a minute, just go to the following website:

http://www.mobily.com.sa/apps-award

- Type ‘ispicephotos’ in the search bar.

- In the screenshot of the app, click on the white square.

- Enter your email, click ‘go’, and finalize the voting procedure.

That’s it.

Each voter gets a massive digital hug from everyone at the iSpicePhotos team.

Cheers,

Fadi

………….

So, emm, WHAT is iSpicePhotos?

iSpicePhotos aims to be the best way to dive deeply into your Facebook photo collections, to discover how your friendships have evolved and to learn a thing or two about your online social self.

With 1000+ photos becoming the norm per user, viewing photos in albums ordered chronologically doesn’t cut it anymore. Social photos are a testament of great memories and meaningful experiences with friends. They hold a treasure trove of information, helping identify who your groups of friends were at any given time, how happy/crazy/bored you were, and a multitude of other social life indicators.

We’re a web/design trio from Beirut, and we fell in love with the concept of marrying a user’s social interactions with their Facebook photos to create a new experience. Thus, we built an iPad app out of it, stuffed it full of features and wrapped it all in a beautiful and unique design miles away from the bland blue-ness of Facebook.

It’s been a labor of love and we recently released to the App Store both a free ‘Lite’ and a paid $0.99 version.

With iSpicePhotos a user can enjoy photos with a twist:

- You can browse photos sorted by best friends for each year.
- You can enjoy the most popular ones. Our special algorithms takes into account both you and your friends’ photo interactions.
- You can view photos in various color modes.

In addition, we synthesize the insights gained about a user into fun “Life Stats”:

- Activity levels throughout the years.
- Photo ratios
- Biggest fans
- And more, all shareable for some funny back and forth with friends.

Here are some links:

- The free version link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ispicephotos-lite/id443688613?mt=8

- The $0.99 version link: http://itunes.apple.com/eg/app/ispicephotos/id427475499?mt=8

- Our website has screenshots and more information: http://ispicephotos.com

- We even did a spoof “Preview Guy” video introducing the app concept, for the sheer fun of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKvYH_Qdp1Q

- Even more info in a pre-release video interview we did at a regional web conference: http://blog.ispicephotos.com/post/5419211487/talk-too-fast-and-cool-tshirt-ispice-video-interview

Cheers,
The iSpicePhotos Team
@iSpicePhotos

iSpicePhotos Gets on The Next Web!

iSpicePhotos is a great add-on app for Facebook aficionados who have tons of photos posted to their account, and are looking for a fun and easy way to take a digital trip down memory lane.

Full article on The Next Web!

iSpicePhotos Is LIVE

The long wait is over, as iSpicePhotos is finally out in the App Store.

It’s available initially only on iPad for $0.99. (UPDATE: ‘Lite’ version just released. It’s free!)

However, we are offering a chance to win a free copy. Just do the following:

- Follow @iSpicePhotos

- Tweet (without the quote) ‘I have an iPad and want my free @iSpicePhotos app! http://bit.ly/lF0Hyn ‘

Winners will be announced on both Twitter and the Facebook page every few days so stay tuned!

Regards,

The iSpicePhotos Team

iSpicePhotos Just Submitted to The App Store

Fingers crossed now…

Talk Too fast And Cool Tshirt: iSpice Video Interview

Can’t believe I spent all 4 days of the Arabnet 2011 conference running around with that Tshirt on…

Facebook Is A Bachelor’s Degree, Users Want PhDs

UPDATE: iSpicePhotos is now live in the app store! More on that and on how to win a free copy here.

How many of you check Facebook first thing after waking up? Or use it during work hours?

The answers are up to one third for the first, and 77% for the second when possible.

With over 600 million users and growing, the above seems proof enough that Facebook does offer a lot of value. But will it continue to do so as it gets close to a billion users?

Conventional wisdom states that the larger a network, the more valuable it is to its users. And looking at the above stats, one would be inclined to say it applies to Facebook as well.

However, one can argue that there is such as thing as a network that’s too big.

I call it the ‘Oh No, my grandma just added me on Facebook!’ problem.

If you think about that statement, what’s happening is your circle of connections no longer has a unique identity (my school friends, my soccer buddies) and has instead become a shapeless grouping of people with little in common.

Imagine writing ‘Just hooked up with the hottie next door’ now that your grandmother’s listening…

Thus, for social networks (and trendy night clubs for that matter) when everyone’s ‘in’ it just stops being ‘cool’.

Could one then say that, at 1000+ friends per user, we are at a point where Facebook’s value is going down by virtue of a loss of character?

Do we need specialization, subgroups of friends and a higher level of control over our social graphs and the data flowing within?

Now, Facebook early on understood that it needed to let others create new and interesting ways to interact on its site, which is why it was keen on offering itself as a platform for developers to get creative. Dedicating itself strategically on building a solid developer platform has allowed a Facebook app ecosystem to flourish (Farmville, custom pages, etc..), which promoted innovation, variety and options to users that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.

Facebook was also smart enough not to let this freedom turn it into a MySpace, by constantly refining and enforcing rules for developers that aimed to maintain overall site quality and reduce spammy behavior.

However, when it comes to core features such as its social graph and its photos, Facebook still offers the same experience to everyone.

Take photos, for example. You mainly see them as albums and as a list of thumbnails, from the latest one to the earliest one. In other words, the valuable photos that you uploaded 2-3 years ago are no longer easy to access. And, with users’ photo numbers only increasing, this issue will not go away.

All this work of tagging friends, all those funny comments and discussions, what was the point if you don’t have an easy way to rediscover the ‘old’ ones?

That’s where apps like iSpicePhotos come in. You get more control over how you want to view your photos. With more ‘angles’ of view offered, you get to see different ones from different years.

Imagine comparing your most popular photos of this year versus 3 years ago. You can bet the people in them will be completely different. Or won’t they? What does that say about the evolution of your social life throughout the years?

In short, the Facebook basic site is now a firehose of data generated by you and your social graph. It’s like having a bachelor’s degree, where you get to see a bit of everything. However, more and more, people are asking for advanced and specialized ways to experience online social activities.

The same way they now consider a master in Facebook gaming to be essential (Farmville, Poker and so many other apps), by virtue of the network’s growth they increasingly will be asking for PhDs in photo discovery, friend subgroups and who knows what other features.

— Fadi Bizri

iSpicePhotos Screenshots + App Giveaway!

Enjoy :-)

And another one:

And then some!

Things are in motion as we put the final touches to the app. That’s why, every little while, we will announce winners who will get the app for free at release.

There are 2 ways to participate:

Either ‘Like’ our Facebook page and write ‘I have an iPad and I want the Spice!’ on its wall.

Or

Follow @iSpicePhotos and then tweet (without the quote) ‘I have an iPad and want my free @iSpicePhotos app! http://bit.ly/GiveMeTheSpice’

Winners will be announced on both Twitter and the page so stay tuned.

— Fadi and the iSpicePhotos Team

Facebook Numbers Timeline

Facebook: By The Numbers from Brian Fisher on Vimeo.

‘Where Does Apple Draw Its Design Inspiration? Meet Dieter Rams.’

Rams’ ten principles to “good design”

is innovative
makes a product useful
is aesthetic
makes a product understandable
is unobtrusive
is honest
is long-lasting
is thorough down to the last detail
is environmentally friendly
is as little design as possible

Read the full article on Kevin Rose’s blog here.

— Fadi

Don’t forget that we’re offering free apps when we release in the next few weeks! Let us know you’re interested and be the first to try it out.