Apple stuns WWDC crowd with pulsating App Store hyperwall
In a rare treat for developers at this year's WWDC, Apple is showcasing 20,000 of the most popular iPhone apps on a massive hyperwall built out of Cinema Displays -- one that pulses in sync with each and every App Store download.
The array, mounted on a wall inside San Francisco's Moscone Center West, is made up of twenty edge-to-edge 30-inch Apple Cinema Displays, each of which are powered by a Mac Pro running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. One eyewitness says the systems are pooled together in one large, monolithic black box.
Quartz Composer is employed to render the icons rapidly and to automate their behavior. All of the icons are sorted by color and, importantly, aren't there just for show. While not quite a by-the-second recreation of what's happening at the App Store -- as the results are delayed by five minutes -- the "live" mural has each iPhone app's icon pulse light outwards in a ripple whenever someone downloads that app.
While certain apps tend to pulse more often than others due to popularity, the effect produces an animated digital landscape that draws the attention of nearly everyone in its path.
Apple's intention with the grid is not just to show the popularity among developers of the App Store -- which has swelled to over 50,000 apps in total -- but to illustrate that many of the apps they publish are frequently downloaded. The company reminds WWDC attendees that 3,000 apps are downloaded every minute, guaranteeing that the influx of developers descending on San Francisco this week are very much in demand.
The array, mounted on a wall inside San Francisco's Moscone Center West, is made up of twenty edge-to-edge 30-inch Apple Cinema Displays, each of which are powered by a Mac Pro running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. One eyewitness says the systems are pooled together in one large, monolithic black box.
Quartz Composer is employed to render the icons rapidly and to automate their behavior. All of the icons are sorted by color and, importantly, aren't there just for show. While not quite a by-the-second recreation of what's happening at the App Store -- as the results are delayed by five minutes -- the "live" mural has each iPhone app's icon pulse light outwards in a ripple whenever someone downloads that app.
While certain apps tend to pulse more often than others due to popularity, the effect produces an animated digital landscape that draws the attention of nearly everyone in its path.
Apple's intention with the grid is not just to show the popularity among developers of the App Store -- which has swelled to over 50,000 apps in total -- but to illustrate that many of the apps they publish are frequently downloaded. The company reminds WWDC attendees that 3,000 apps are downloaded every minute, guaranteeing that the influx of developers descending on San Francisco this week are very much in demand.
Comments
I'm sure over a longer time period you would see more randomness, but it's a little ironic that this mighty wall of icons makes it clear at a glance that most of the action is centered around a relative handful of apps.
Must be fun, though, if you have something on the app store that's included on the wall, to stand around and wait for it pulse. Especially if it's one of the almost continuous plusers, which must be hypnotic indeed.
I want one.
Must be fun, though, if you have something on the app store that's included on the wall
Or completely disheartening when you get to the 20,000th icon on the 20th display and find that your app wasn't included.
Now could somebody think about porting those apps over to OS X? expanding on them perhaps?
Because OS X sure could use a infusion of third party developer talent of that magnitude. Some of us need larger screens too.
There is the SDK and it runs the iPhone apps in there.
Not much more but a mouse button click to compile it for OS X.
Apple?
30-inch Apple LED Cinema Displays
Did I miss an announcement, or is this wishful thinking? Aren't the 30" still just CCFL?
Did I miss an announcement, or is this wishful thinking? Aren't the 30" still just CCFL?
Right you are, good catch.
This is SO Apple.
I couldn't make the trip this year do to timeline/deadline constraints, but I'll be first in line for next year.
Anyways, quite awesome indeed!
Quartz Composer is teh freaking rad. People are just starting to hit on what it's capable of.
Agreed, quartz composed is one of the most under appreciated technologies apple has ever released.
Why would this need 20 Mac Pros?? You would think five of them with quad DVI port Quadro cards could do the job...
Anyways, quite awesome indeed!
Two dual port cards should do the job as well. I wonder if you can stuff four cards with two dual link cards and have it work, I'd think that 3 Mac Pros should be able to run a display like that.
That page was a pain though. It crashes Safari repeatedly, Opera wouldn't show the flash elements and Firefox won't play the entire clips.
Really cool.
Now could somebody think about porting those apps over to OS X? expanding on them perhaps?
Because OS X sure could use a infusion of third party developer talent of that magnitude. Some of us need larger screens too.
There is the SDK and it runs the iPhone apps in there.
Not much more but a mouse button click to compile it for OS X.
Apple?
Funny I felt that same pang of what about some MB app's for me and my monkey.
This is a brilliant idea. Just noticing, however, that there are a lot of duplicates on there. Maybe they're different versions of an app that all use the same icon?
Maybe they are the "free" and/or "light" versions? and surelly developers who are lazy to make icons for their apps and use a generic one with their logo, lol.
Where were the fart apps?
probably in the back