So, to give you a little history, there was this cheap little plastic camera that a small group of kids loved back in 1982.  It could be modded with different lenses, film and flashes to make all sorts funky prints.  Today, thanks to alien technology and Steve Jobs you can get all the Joan Jett and Hipstamatic camera action right on your phone.

The Hipstamatic ($2) camera app for iPhone is hands down my favorite app.  It takes your ordinary images that in any other case you would be embarrassed to show your friends and automagically turns them into quirky and vintage shots characterized by over-saturation, blurring and amazing vignettes.

Prints from the app can be directly uploaded to facebook, flickr or emailed to your friends.

Here are some of the photos I’ve taken with the Hipstamatic app.

Must Have App: Hipstamatic is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Here are the details on iPhone 4

• Better battery life, faster processor, sharper screen
• Improved 5MP camera with flash
• Shoot 720p HD video and edit right on your phone
• Second front facing camera so you can video chat (only over wi-fi)
• Updated operating system (available on June 21)
• Pre-orders start June 15, due out on June 24
• $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB

more details at Apple.com

iPhone 4 Details in 30 Seconds or Less is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Next time you’re in Times Square with your iPhone, download the Prius app and graffiti all over their billboard. I’m sure we’ll see more of these richer brand interactions in the future.

Prius iPhone App Gives You Control of Time Square Billboard is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Searching the App Store can be less than fruitful sometimes.  Check out uQuery, the search engine that indexes all the apps for the iPhone.

Searching the App Store Just Got Much Easier is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

The LA Times is reporting that augmented reality apps will finally be a reality in September with the release of iPhone OS 3.1.

Augmented reality software works to overlay useful info onto a real-world view using a mobile device.  Imagine the amazing apps that commercial ventures could create with the augmented reality technology like the videos show below.  You could walk into your favorite store, search for the products you’re looking for and potentially have information, coupons and offers pushed to you at the exact point when you’re ready to make a purchase decision. Both sides would benefit – stores would have to employee less people and customers would have a richer experience.

Imagine going to an outdoor concert, finding all the folks you know attending that same event and even exploring information about the bands and songs going on at that exact moment.  The list is endless.  Developers and marketers should be salivating like a wild dog over the potential.

Augmented Reality Apps Will Create Deeper Experiences, Be Available in September is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Facebook let it all hang out to a select group of members to test their new search interface.  The system would allow members to search their news feed for recent updates, photos, links, videos and notes being shared on friends’ profiles and fan Pages. Users who have made their profile and content available to anyone will also be searchable.

SEOMoz yammers it up during Whiteboard Friday to talk about visualization.  I think visualization is one of those new and sexy fields that you’ll hear more and more about in the near future.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Visualization from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

12seconds is updating their iPhone app to take advantage of the new OS 3.0.  The app, which should be available soon, will allow you to send short video messages directly to your friends via twitter.

Back ‘dat thing up and pick up some great tips about landing page design through CopyBlogger’s Landing Page Makeover.  Their most recent tutorial covers CarsHelpingAmerica.org.

If you’re a fan of Indie Rock, I highly recommend The Veils – Sun Gangs. Rock out this weekend.

Facebook Universal Search, Visualization, 12Seconds and Landing Page Design is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Here are the interesting posts at the top of my reading list this week.

The fine folks at the Red Cross are working diligently on crafting a Social Media Policy Handbook.  They’ve got a great start and are light years ahead of even most for-profit businesses. As it should, its available online for your viewing pleasure.

Staying with the non-profit side of things, NPR has a great feature of The Extraordinaries.  Its a micro volunteering iPhone app that allows people to give small blocks of time (< 5 min) and knowledge to a non-profit. Some of the first tasks available are tagging images for the Brooklyn Museum building a map of childhood playgrounds.  It’s a beautiful concept.

SEOMoz updated their SEO Best Practices to account for new industry data.  They clear the air and a lot of confusion in regards to new search engine optimization standards.  The synopsis is H1 tags are not all that necessary anymore, stop trying to sculpt PageRank with nofollow, use footer links, java and flash sparingly, traffic to a site doesn’t determine its ranking and quite a bit more.

Smashing Magazine compiled a great list of web design checklists and resources that will help improve your writing skills.

Rumor has it that Google is experimenting with product ads that would would work very similar to AdWords, but display an image ad along the right hand side of the SERP when the user searches on a particular term.  These ads would run on a pay-per-action basis rather than a pay-per-click (PPC) basis.

Non-Profits Kicking Butt, New SEO Best Practices, Web Design Checklists and Google Advertising Rumors is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!

Originally posted on September 29, 2008.

Just a quick FYI.  One Half Amazing! is now formatted to work perfectly with your iPhone or iPod Touch.  You have access to all blog posts, comments, audio and video – no special URL or subdomain needed.  Check it out.

One Half Amazing Is Now Mobile Ready is a post from Bob Hazlett, a digital marketer who writes at One Half Amazing!