

Get all the photos your friends took with you, forward and backwards in time. - jmintz
http://blog.bu.mp/introducing-flock

======
Toucan
Flock was a web browser until last year:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flock_(web_browser)>

I know there are only so many names, but in this case both flocks are social
apps, tracking updated photos between friends.

I wonder if Zynga (the owners of flock.com now) will have anything to say
about this, though I find it hard to imagine it hasn't already been discussed.

------
tomstokes

        Flock uses new battery-friendly location technology and
        sophisticated algorithms to magically know which of your
        Facebook friends you are with when photos are taken.
    

My bet is that they're using the background significant location change
service. Each time iOS wakes the app with a significant location change
notification, Flock combs through your photos and sends their GPS coordinates
from the EXIF data to the Flock servers.

What I'm really concerned about, though, is that to pull this off the app must
send your location to the Flock servers for correlation with other users'
photo locations. This means Bump now has a reasonably accurate location log
for everyone using the Flock app.

I wrote a test app for the iOS significant location change service that logged
my location for a week, and it was surprisingly accurate. Enough to clearly
tell when I was at work, at home, driving down the freeway, etc.:
[http://www.tomjstokes.com/130/iphone-ios-4-2-background-
loca...](http://www.tomjstokes.com/130/iphone-ios-4-2-background-location-
service-observations)

------
swalsh
I wish there was a way for ordinary hackers to work on electric airplanes,
space shuttles, or robots on the side rather than photo sharing apps.

~~~
jmintz
Solar airplane: <http://solarimpulse.com/en/timestop/job-offer/>

Space ship: <http://www.spacex.com/careers.php>

Robots: <http://www.willowgarage.com/pages/jobs>

We are hiring also: <http://bu.mp/company/jobs>

~~~
swalsh
I only bring it up because in the first paragraph you said it started as a
side project. I apologize for my comment though, this was a bad thread to post
it.

My original point though, was that sometimes I feel like we make these apps,
because that's what we're capable of making by ourselves. The links you posted
are great opportunities for what we can do together. But I think there's still
a large opportunity out there. Think about how many people actually completed
the Stanford AI course. I think it was something close to 20k. There's a HUGE
amount of people who have day jobs, but have the potential to do BIG things on
the side. Except they're all off on their own, so they build iphone apps.

I'm starting to get an idea here :D

------
jsmcallister
How will this be any different than the shared photo albums built-in to iOS6?
Granted, I have not had the pleasure of using Flock or iOS6 - so this is not a
rhetorical question.

~~~
jmintz
The two problems we see with getting all the photos your friends took with you
are 1) you have to remember to share and whom you want to share with and 2)
its a pain to share them all with just a couple people (and have their photos
added as well). We think all that work is what prevents us from getting all
the photos our friends took with us.

With shared photo albums on iOS6 it will be really easy to share a set of
photos on your phone. It will not remind you to share and it will not
consolidate everyone's photos into a single album.

Watch the Flock video to see how this works: <http://vimeo.com/46398388>

With Flock you just use any camera app as you normally would and when you
leave the event Flock gives you a 1-touch page (not automatic, users still
have control) of what to share and with whom.

~~~
jsmcallister
"Flock is not just a brand new app; we see it as a brand new _kind_ of app.
While most apps today jockey for our ever-dwindling time and attention,
attempting to become one of the apps that we think about the most, Flock is
different. We designed Flock so you don't have to think about it at all."

Great quote that really stands out after downloading the app. Fiancee and I
are going to give it a try this weekend with some friends. I'm assuming, now
that I've used it for a few hours, that it combines location AND time to make
a best guess on what an event was. Very cool.

One thing that would be nice is to block out a certain location. For instance,
we both take a ton of pictures at our house on a daily basis. For me, it's
pictures of delicious things I'm pulling off the Big Green Egg. For her, it's
pictures of our dog and her freshly-painted nails.

However, the instant combination of our travel photos earned a phone call from
said fiancee. She loves it. Big props.

------
ivankirigin
I've been using this app in beta for a while and it is so awesome. I really
think this follows a new design pattern for mobile where the app is so smart
it pings you when you should use it.

------
daurnimator
forward in time? Break ALL the causality.

~~~
JacobAldridge
"Here are the photos of you dancing at the party next week. Do you still want
to go?"

~~~
jmintz
In-app purchase: dance lessons

------
jedberg
Somewhat unrelated tip: The font on this blog is too small. I just measured
and it is taking up only 20% of my screen.

I'd suggest a bigger font to make it more readable. Over 85% of people use a
screen bigger than 1024x768 [1]. Take advantage of that. :)

[1] <http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp>

~~~
icebraining
Over 85% _of w3schools.com users_ have a screen bigger than 1024x768. Most
people have never been to w3schools.

~~~
jedberg
I'm pretty sure their survey data comes from lots of websites, not just
theirs.

~~~
icebraining
I'm pretty sure you haven't read the statements right before the table:

W3Schools.com is for people with an interest for web technologies. This fact
indicates that the figures below might not be 100% true for the average
internet users. (...) Anyway, our data, _collected from W3Schools' log-files_
over ten years, clearly shows the long term trends.

But if you're not convinced, you can read in their forums:

    
    
        - The w3schools Browser and OS statistics are based on the data
          collected over the w3schools site or do have more sources? 
        - Only the W3Schools site.

<http://w3schools.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=35566>

By the way: <http://w3fools.com/>

~~~
jedberg
I concede the point. I'm definitely wrong.

------
pasbesoin
This, finally, is the fourth paragraph:

 _Flock finds the photos you take together with family and friends and
magically brings all the photos from each person's phone together into a
single shared album._

At least it stands alone, making it somewhat more (quickly) identifiable.

And such formulation (as in this comment, by the way) is what is known as
"burying the lede". [1]

I mention it because I'm getting rather tired of not just blog posts but also
essays, news articles, and even marketing copy (which the OP could also be
considered), that makes me read 200, 300, or 500 words before I learn what
they are talking about.

\--

[1] <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bury_the_lede>

------
jmarbach
How is this different from popset?

~~~
evan_
It has a different name, is made by different people, the two apps have
entirely different feature-sets and focus, etc

~~~
immy
Both have the same value proposition. Flock has far clearer messaging.

