WorldWatchr - for the iPad

Webcams, radars, traffic, ... See the webcams from your WorldWatchr collection on your iPad.

New: World Watchr in the App Store

Webcams, radars, traffic, ... See the webcams from your WorldWatchr collection.

Welcome Chrome

It's good to see that there is a new contender in the desktop browser game: Google Chrome. Especially its speed and the support for standalone web applications looks very promising. All of my web applications seem to work fine and fast so don't miss the chance to give them a try:

CountDownr - Countdown counters, generic and from Google Calendar

SpeedyMarks - Visual bookmarks

WorldClockr - Animated world clocks with sunrise and sunset times

WorldWatchr - Webcams, radar, traffic, ...

Don't miss the chance to add application shortcuts to your Windows desktop, start menu or quick launch. Just open the menu and select Create application shortcuts.

Login to WorldWatchr and Share Your Webcams

After storing your SpeedyMarks on the server you can now do the same with your webcams on WorldWatchr:



Just login using your (existing or to be created) Google Account and all your webcams are stored on the server (on the Google server farm to be precise). This makes it possible to access your camera collection from everywhere even with multiple browsers. And the best, it works with the iPhone version as well, where you will see exactly the same webcams:



Don't worry, WorldWatchr doesn't ever see your Google Account password, rest assured. If you logout you are back to the local cookie based storage specific to each desktop and browser (and you have the option to clean your server storage before you leave).

Now you have the choice to either use the server and share your WorldWatchr webcams or keep them completely local and private.

How To: Turn your iPhone into a Digital Photo Frame

Just before Christmas it's almost impossible to oversee the digital photo frames in the shops. They work like standard photo frames but allow you show slideshows of your pictures and just one.

But did you know, if you own an Apple iPhone (or iPod Touch) you already have a device which you can turn into a photo frame while you are at home? The iPhone comes with a clear, bright and not to small display which makes it perfect to display your photos. There is only one change you will have to do:

• Just go to Settings, the General and and change the Auto-Lock setting to Never

That's it. It keeps the background light on all the time and doesn't put the phone to sleep. Now you can go to the Photos application and start a slideshow of your photos and there you have the digital photo frame. Of course you will want to put the iPhone into the dock or at least connect the cable to not use your battery.

The nice thing about using the iPhone as a photo frame is the built in internet connection. Means you are not restricted to your own photos on the phone but you can load and display content from the internet. Here are some ideas:

• Get photos from Picasa by running slideshows from Googles Mobile Picasa Webalbums
  


• Have a look around the world by watching webcams from WorldWatchr
  

Of course you aren't restricted to photos at all:

• Display the latest news by running an RSS reader.
  


• Don't miss new mails coming in.
  


• See world clocks from WorldClockr or countdowns from CountDownr.
  

This way your iPhone becomes a much better (but of course more expensive) digital photo frames than most devices you can buy today.

New Project: WorldWatchr

I just started my new WorldWatchr project (http://www.worldwatchr.com).

This application makes it easy to monitor web images which are continuously updated (like web camera pictures). Now you can stay in touch with your home, famous places of the world, the current traffic conditions and much more by watching your favorite web cams. It can cycle through all your cameras and updates the images periodically.

The images don't have to be produced by web cams. You can monitor any image which is updated over time like weather radars, traffic maps and so on.

You can link from your web site to WorldWatchr so that your web cam can be easily added. Just use

http://www.worldwatchr.com?add=URL&title=TITLE

with your web cam URL and an optional TITLE as parameters (make sure it's properly encoded).

WorldWatchr - iPhone version

WorldWatchr has a special iPhone version:



Please open http://m.worldwatchr.com on your iPhone and take your web cams with you.

Hint: Send your web camera URLs by email to get them easily on the phone.