New app: Radar - think Twitter with photos

[MacToddB]

Some of you know that in addition to app development (100sounds), I write for iPhone Life Magazine. So I attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas earlier this month and got to see some apps that had not yet been released.

Radar, from Tiny Pictures (http://www.radar.net) is one of those apps, and it just hit the AppStore, so I can finally talk about it!

I've been fortunate to beta test Radar for a few weeks and I can tell you it is addicting!

It's true that a picture is worth a thousand words. Twitter came about during a time when we were limited by short SMS messages. Radar makes it easy to communicate with photos, and gives context to your text messages. Going from Twitter to Radar is kind of like the difference between text-based adventure games and first person graphical video games. There's no turning back! But don't give up your Twitter account yet... Radar integrates with it!

Radar could be the killer app for the iPhone, especially if Apple upgrades the iPhone camera to meet the quality level of the screen, and of apps like Radar.

Did I mention it's free? I have no business relationship with them, other than I got to play with it before it went public!

 

[KRAPPS]

Thanks for the insight ... agreed, this one definetely looks interesting and I've already signed up for an online account

 

[severe]

Brightkite

Also free. And developed.

 

[deadsouls]

ok so this is basically twitter with thumbnail images?

is this a new service or something? i don't know a single person who uses this.

 

[MacToddB]

ok so this is basically twitter with thumbnail images?

is this a new service or something? i don't know a single person who uses this.

new to iPhone

and it's full images.... you can click on the thumbnails

and integrated with twitter so not an alternative per se.

 

[deadsouls]

ehhh...useless to me then since i don't know anyone who uses it so i'd basically be posting for myself. i can already post pictures to twitter anyway (they just come in link form of course). ahh well.

 

[skyrog]

i can already post pictures to twitter anyway (they just come in link form of course). ahh well.

I actually work at Radar, so I hear this point from time to time when people first hear about us.

As Todd points out at the start of the thread though, Radar gives your pictures/tweets "context" through actual conversation.

You might have noticed that other services which allow you to attach photos to Twitter either don't post immediately or blast each friend's comment out as a tweet, turning their comment into network noise. As a result, others either discover the moment after the fact or are hesitant to do anything but look and move on. Radar's easy Twitter integration and conversation-centered approach give people a lot more than a visual status update, thus adding not only context but value to your efforts.

If you haven't found any friends using Radar yet, It's easy to expose and leverage your Twitter network or send friend request to your contacts right from Radar's iPhone app. Also, since the app's launch (about 36 hours ago), it's already hit the top ten in the Photography category, so there might be more people you know there than you think

I'm obviously biased on which service I prefer, but maybe take a look at the pictures you and your friends attach on twitter and gauge how much interaction you're getting out of it. If you'd like, shoot me a friend request or browse through my network to see how my friends and I use Radar, or how my followers are able to add to what I'm posting.

Thanks for the great coverage Todd.

On Radar: http://radar.net/people/skyrog
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/skyrog

 

[MacToddB]

I actually work at Radar, so I hear this point from time to time when people first hear about us.

As Todd points out at the start of the thread though, Radar gives your pictures/tweets "context" through actual conversation.

Right. This would have been a great app to have during the inauguration. Imagine if Yo Yo Ma had shared his photo from his unique vantage point, and others could have commented on it in real time?

The superbowl is another such event. Hey SkyRog, wanna send an intrepid reporter to cover the event, via radar?

Thanks for the great coverage Todd.

My pleasure!

 

[skyrog]

Right. This would have been a great app to have during the inauguration.

Absolutely. The native iPhone app came ~just after inauguration, but fortunately Radar works on any web-enabled phone out there. You might have seen this, but we actually found a user with press access covering the inauguration with Radar. It was nice to see the events happening in real time, but she also got to jump in and interact with the community from her phone between status updates (we picked up her channel on our blog).

Check out the results from user 'cremebrulee' here: http://radar.net/people/cremebrulee

Bit of short notice for me to swing you tickets to the big game Todd , but we'd be more than happy to support anyone interested in providing this kind of unique coverage with Radar in the future. Keep in touch.