Rod Cambridge
Chief Geek - Top-Tens
Helloooo! And welcome to Top-Tens! You know,
back in early 2006, before the iPhone was
released, I launched a
groundbreaking, new website called expodition.
The website was designed for users of
Apple's traditional iPod - and allowed
them to download and view 'snapshots'
of an area or neighbourhood directly on
their iPods. These snapshots were based on a
particular postcode/zipcode and were also
tailored to the user's profile.
So, if they
liked eating pizza, then all the pizza
establishments in that area would be
included in the snapshot. The same for
museums, nightclubs, cinemas, restaurants,
etc. Great for tourists and people visiting
new or unfamiliar places as they could store
all the info they needed about that place on
their iPod - so when they got there, they'd
know where everything was.
Pretty cool,
huh? Yeah. I though
so too ;o)
However... when Apple
released their iPhone around a year later,
the focus switched from traditional iPods to
the web-enabled iPhone and iPod touch -
which resulted in fewer and fewer people
using the expodition service as their new
iPhones and iPod touches allowed them to do
that.
Interest in
expodition.com began to wane, so at the
beginning of 2009 I made the decision to pull the plug
on the expodition website.
But fear not,
I've been working on a project just as cool
- Top-Tens. Because I like
working on cool things ;o)
Indeed, back in the early nineties when Apple released a revolutionary handheld computer called Newton, I
liaised with them while developing my ideas for a Location-Based
Service called NewtonPoint.
The project was stillborn, however, due to the fact that the infrastructure required would
have made it much too costly to implement.
Over the years,
the basic premise always remained with me,
and when I got my hands on one of the
original iPods, I knew that mating it with a
web-based service would enable my original
NewtonPoint concept to see the light of day.
Which it did, as expodition.
If you haven't
already guessed - I'm kinda creative. I love
nothing better than spending a sunny Sunday
afternoon lounging in the garden, dreaming
up The Next Big Idea (tm). In fact, I have
three US Patents in my name (in the area
where I specialize: computer security) which
were dreamt up that way.
It's been a long journey from my early NewtonPoint ideas,
through to
the expodition web site and now the Top-Tens iPhone
application. However, it's been fun!
And you ain't seen nothing yet!
Thanks for dropping by. I hope you enjoy
using Top-Tens!
Rod.
Rod Cambridge is a 41 year old father of four with an interest in cars, computers,
travel and Yang style Tai Chi.
"A
Tai Chi master came to the village to catch a
tiger. Upon finding the tiger, the master looked
into it's eyes. Without any struggle, the tiger
fell to it's knees. The master sat on the tiger's
back and rode it to the mountain. While sitting
on the back of the tiger, the master attained
enlightenment. Thereafter, the master returned
from the mountain to help enlighten others."
A Tai Chi fable
