App. Comp. Update
The winners of the Victorian government's App My State Competition have been announced and the winner is an app which helps you sort your rubbish into the correct recycling bin.
The logically named Which Bin, is far more interactive in its iphone format, where it uses its inbuilt GPS to work out which council area you're in, then 'reads' the barcode, which tells it what sort of packaging It is based on a community created list of items. The result the user gets is a picture of the correct bin to use.
The web version requires you to type in your postcode and barcode. It's not a particularly sexy thing - but then maybe sex doesn't sell recycling – and it's annoying to have to learn the recycling ropes when you move house.
Second prize went to Transportle which is a journey planner that, as well as giving you a variety of options for getting from A to B and telling you how long each will take you, it also tells you how many calories you'll burn, how much carbon you'll pump into the atmosphere or how much it will cost.These are your journey options between Federation Square and Luna Park:
It's also got ways to select routes the have bike racks, service station, car parks or taxi ranks.
The people's choice award was another location based tool called RemindAnyWay, which basically reminds you to do things when you're in the vicinity – like getting a reminder to post your letter just before you pass the post office, instead of remembering it about a kilometre down the road. The team behind it built it for Android but they're planning to roll out a full web version, with lots of additional features – including the ability to be notified when friends who also use RAW are in the area.
