Path only works if you reject those friend requests→
An interesting point by Josh Constine from TechCrunch on how sharing with less people might actually improve the experience of using Path:
Path lets you share things that only people who really care about you want to know, like when you wake up and go to sleep, or when you travel more than a few miles. If you are friends on Path with anyone you might feel embarrassed by sharing that content with, or that you think wouldn’t find that stuff interesting, you’re much less likely to share. The maximum sharing volume likely comes with a friend count of between 3 and 5. As you hit 15, 40, or 100, you’ll censor yourself more, and find less reason to use Path in addition to other services.
I really like Path. It’s clearly similar to the Facebook timeline, only it brings in the functionality of a lot of other services as well. You can post pictures with photo filters (though not nearly as nice as those found in Instagram) or check-in to places (and it even syncs with Foursquare, so you can use Path as your one-stop check-in service) or post “thoughts” (which are similar to Twitter). Oh, and it also has a really beautiful interface to boot. The only thing it doesn’t do (so far, at least) is teach you how to write blog posts without overusing parentheticals (like this). [TechCrunch]
Stamped for iOS hasn’t earned my stamp of approval… yet.
I’ve been using Stamped since it launched yesterday, and while it’s dead simple and beautiful, I wonder whether it’s a service that I’ll continue to use in the long-term. I like that the rating system doesn’t mess around with stars or anything like that; you either like something or you don’t, it’s that simple. I also like how you can rate just about anything — restaurants, movies, TV shows, books, etc. But right now, all I see is a list of things that my friends have liked in reverse-chronological order. I get that you can sort items by type and quickly add things to your “to do” list, but I’m not convinced that’s enough for me. For example, as far as I can tell, there’s not even a way to sort items based on popularity amongst your friends.
I guess what I’m really looking for is an app that will tap into my friend’s opinions to help me find a great bite to eat when I’m out and hungry (or a great book to read when I have some spare time). Or at least an app that will “learn” what kinds of things I like so that it can then suggest things that I might also like. In that sense, apps like Oink and Ness seem like they offer a more useful service than Stamped, though I do prefer the look and feel of the Stamped UI over both of those apps.
Maybe I just need more friends on the service — I’m only following nine people — but at the moment, I’m a bit skeptical. It’s a nice looking app, though, and definitely worth checking out if you have an iOS device. [Stamped]
