Wednesday, May 16, 2012

ShelfLook Relieves Neck and Back Pain?

I don't have an iPhone, but I do have an iPad that I almost always take with me whenever I visit a bookstore.  Because iPhone applications generally have iPad versions, I regularly browse the new apps that are being pushed for iPhone users and I stumbled on one today that intrigues me.

You know how it is (and if you are bookstore fanatic, I know that you know this feeling) when you are scanning row after row of vertical book titles and you find yourself being slowed down by all of that neck tilting?  Well, now there's an app that will rotate everything from the vertical to the horizontal for you - so that you can read the titles without getting a crick in your neck.

Or, will you suffer from arm fatigue and eye strain?  Or, perhaps worse, will you be embarrassed by all the stares you will get from other shoppers?


ShelfLook in Action
Digital Journal explains how it works:
Using ShelfLook is exceptionally simple. Users just launch the ShelfLook app, hold the iPhone horizontally, and look through the screen. Book titles that were once hard to read are now easily read horizontally on the screen. For low light environments, ShelfLook conveniently provides enhanced lighting at the push of a button.
When viewing lower shelves, rather than crouching down, users can remain comfortably standing by simply pushing the record button and panning the iPhone across the lower shelf. When ready, they can play back a video of the book titles, horizontally displayed and easy to read.

This might just turn out to be one of those apps that solve a problem I never knew I had before reading the Digital Journal article - but at just a buck, what card-carrying book lover can resist it?  What do you think...overkill or great fun?

10 comments:

  1. who ever thought there would be an app for that? :P

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  2. All I keep thinking when I read about these different apps is "I've got to come up with one!"

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  3. I cannot think of a single situation in which I'd actually use an app like that... seems like overkill to me, but I guess some people might find it useful! Or, at the very least, conceptually entertaining.

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  4. I'm 6'5" tall and have long ago given up looking at books on the bottom two shelves. I imagin very short people have similar issues with the top shelves.

    However, after so many years spent prowling around bookstores I can pretty much read text horizontally or vertically with ease. ;-)

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  5. Yeah, Guiltless, this is one of those apps that make you wonder about the inspiration that created them...but I have to hand it to the designer for a job well done.

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  6. Stacy, just when you think you've seen them all, something like this one comes along. That tells me it's not too late...keep thinking.

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  7. "Conceptually entertaining..." That's the perfect description for this app, Biblibio.

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  8. Dang, Jamess...at that height, I imagine you haven't seen those bottom bookshelves since you were a child. LOL

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  9. Thanks Sam, we appreciate all your kind comments!
    David Kahan, Azymous Interactive, Creators of ShelfLook

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  10. David, I'm planning to download the app this weekend. Haven't had a chance to get to it yet...but I usually hit a bookstore or two each weekend, so now's the time.

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