Mashable probably has the most lucid explanation of Fischer's methodology:

"The project lays out around 10,000 geotagged tweets and 30,000 point-to-point trips in cities like New York City to plot the flow of people in terms of favored paths... Using a base map from OpenStreetMap, he drew out transit paths using Tweets. Movements are indicated on the geolocation of a Tweet, with an individual's start point marked with one geotagged Tweet and ending with the next geotagged Tweet. This is what creates a mass of traffic routes."

The reason two sets of data are required, Fischer explains, is that "if you just draw lines from the beginning to the ending of each trip, you get a big mess." Hence the geotagged tweets in addition to the point-to-point trips. "The most plausible routes are ones that pass closely through places that other people have been known to go."

Although some have speculated that the resulting maps might show where transit planners should look to build infrastructure, that's probably a bit of stretch given the methodology and the nature of the base data. Not only is there a demographic bias based on smartphone usage, but it's unlikely that many drivers are incorporated into the trends (save for those who drive and tweet). The data also doesn't account for those trips that start or end out of the city limits (hence, as a Flickr commenter points out, the relative lack of activity along the Lakeshore GO line).

Nevertheless, Fischer's latest maps might hint at something akin to the desire lines of the featured cities. It's not surprising, of course, that the most popular corridors tracked in Toronto are Yonge, Queen, and Bloor streets. Not only are these hubs of activity in general, but they're also streets rich with pedestrian and taxicab traffic, two modes of transportation that are friendly to social media usage.

While admittedly narrow in focus, there are tantalizing hints at the way that we navigate cities to be found in these maps. For that reason alone, they deserve closer study. Leave a comment if you spot a noteworthy trend that Fischer has plotted on our behalf.

See also:

Towards a map of social media in Toronto

100% crops

Downtown Core

Triangle Below Bloor

Ferry routes

iRepair.ca
494 College St and 2109 Yonge St.
I've heard nothing but good things about iRepair.ca, and a quick Google search revealed the rumours are true. This place has tons of positive reviews. My friend with a cracked 3gs screen had it replaced here in under 30 minutes for $70. iRepair claims most problems can be fixed in under 40 minutes while you wait, which is comparable (and cheaper) than the service you'll get at Apple. They also offer free diagnostics and a 24-hour mail in repair service for those of us who don't want to brave the world sans-smartphone.

Ming Wireless
250 Dundas St. West, Unit 106
While Ming Wireless doesn't offer too much that's different from the other shops on this list, they do repair all iPhone models - including the older 2G for those who imported from the US before Canada got the iPhone. Ming Wireless offers one-hour while-you-wait repair or a mail-in service. There's no published prices (prices are quoted once inspected by an on-site technician) but for those replacing a cracked screen they'll toss in a free screen protector with the repair.

iRepex
6013 Yonge Street, Unit 302
For those a little more north of the downtown core, iRepex offers repair solutions for all sorts of problems in 30 minutes while-you-wait - the fastest service time claim I've seen yet. The techs here will deal with cracked screens, battery issues, dim or white LCDs, and will even take a look at - and attempt to tackle - a poor, water-damaged unit.

iShopRepair.ca
102A-1075 Bay Street
If you're feeling ambitious, iShopRepair offers clients the choice of purchasing strictly parts and bucking down for a DIY repair job at home - complete with free fix-it guides and technical support calls to get you through the challenge. Of course, they also offer free diagnostics, in-store while-you-wait repair services for the non-technical, and have a 24-hour mail in service as well. iShopRepair is more expensive than some of the other options - a cracked screen repair here runs between $70 (on sale) to $150.

RepairStore by Gamerama
2370 Yonge Street
RepairStore is one of the older electronics repair shops in the city - they've been around for over 16 years, meaning they have experience repairing everything from ancient, gargantuan antenna phones, to first gen smartphones, to the latest in cellular technology. They offer a one-hour while-you-wait repair service, and the cost to repair a cracked screen here ranges from $40 - $110, depending on your iPhone model and which part of the screen is broken.

Toronto Repair
4675 Steeles Ave. East, 2nd Floor, Unit 2B19
East-enders, fear not: we've got a store for you, too. Toronto Repair deals with any and all iPhones - whether first gen or fifth gen - and repair common and rare problems like cracked screens, button replacements, proximity sensor replacement, WiFi repair, and silver bezel replacement. Toronto Repair claims a 30 minute, while-you-wait repair time.

Apple Store
Multiple locations
Although likely the most expensive place to get your phone repaired sans-warranty, the official Apple Store also offers one of the best repair services in the city - if he who built it can't fix it, who else can? I've heard repairs for a cracked screen on the 3gs can run somewhere in the area of $199 - $250. It's always worth checking with Apple for a repair before going elsewhere, because even though they don't technically cover an iPhone smashing onto a bar floor, I've heard stories of kind Genius employees taking pity on the broken iPhone holder.

Have you had any experiences with iPhone screen and glass repair in Toronto? Is your favourite repair shop missing from this list? Leave a comment below!

Photo by jayhauf on Flickr.

Claire Buré suggested the app as an alternative for cyclists who are put off by the length of the city's reporting forms, and who don't call the police every time someone doors them. The app allows people to report the location, time, and details of an accident, with twitter/facebook ID, or anonymously. Given just a day and a half, Buré's small cadre of elite hackers had a web app up that collected and displayed crash data. They also have a really awesome name, Bikegeist.

With Sunday afternoon came the judging. A panel of judges from Microsoft, Doctors Without Borders, Red Hat, and the World Bank all gave advice to each of the programs on how to move forward with their app. Bikegeist was given a stern warning. It was fun, easy to use, and poised for incredible growth, but after gathering the data, there was no next step. The judges pressed upon them to consider how to use the data they are gathering to give value to their users, and display the information about bike accidents and trends in a way that was useful to people using their service.

After the hackathon was over, Bikegiest didn't launch. Awesome transformational apps really aren't built in a day after all. The developers are still polishing away, and they are hoping to add more polish and tools to the front end, as well as get a dedicated mobile developer. If you want to be a cool kid, you can follow them on twitter @bikegeist or check out what they accomplished in just one weekend at bikegeist.org.

Writing by Peter MacDonald. Photo by wyliepoon.

That's strange. The website formerly operating at this domain presumably was Craigslist itself, no? The note also goes on to say that the company "does not permit automated posting or the employment of posting agents (software or human)" and "may take action at any time against those jeopardizing the website or its user experience."

Is this evidence that the site got hacked? As of yet no confirmation or further explanation has been offered as Craigslist has yet to comment on the issue. The American sites remain unaffected.

Over at OpenFile Toronto, John Michael McGrath points out that should you really want to continue the search for that Febreze-soaked pair of skates you've got your sights on, changing your computer to use open DNS should get you back into the site. He's also right about something else, too. The help forums are hilarious if you've got the stomach for anonymous internet rage, which, you know, clearly I do.

Update (1:28pm):

Although Wired (and some of our Twitter followers) report that they can access the site, many others are now getting a domain registration webpage in place of the initial TOU note.

Update (2:00pm)

There are still lots of reports of users being able to successfully access the site, but one of our readers informed us that as of 2:00pm or so, those who can't get onto Craigslist are now getting a less cryptic (but no more informative) error message.

The most recent update to the app, however, ups the ante significantly. Now instead of merely using it to track down BIXI bikes, you can plot out annotated bike rides with your favourite cultural sites, restaurants and assorted retail. Where Spotcycle was formerly only useful to BIXI members, this new feature set opens up the app to anyone who rides a bike. Using the the GPS capabilities of one's phone — it's available on all three of the major platforms — the app will create a live map as you ride, which you can categorize and annotate when you're done.

Unlike the blogTO app, you'll have to do all of the annotation work yourself (sorry, I had to), but the ability to highlight placemarks along a given route could be quite useful for sharing amongst friends, those who are new to the city or a neighbourhood, or simply for helping you to navigate a confusing route on a return visit. You can also use the app as an odometer and/or speedometer, though I'd suggest the latter might be dangerous while riding a BIXI bike.

Here's a video demonstration of how it works. Too bad winter is upon us!

1. Seth Cooper
His name means something to people beyond those just in the gaming world. Seth Cooper is the co-creator and lead developer of FoldIt, a protein folding game that has helped scientists make recent breakthroughs in the study of AIDS. He is also a keynote speaker at Gamercamp LV3, and will be be giving two talks on how gaming can help to solve real-life problems.

2. Recess.TO
A chance to return to your former glory, which was inevitably stolen after that Grade 3 game of Red Rover went sour. Hosted Sunday at George Brown College, Recess.TO offers a chance to partake in grown-up versions of childhood favourites, as well as test out some new experimental games. Cheaters will be subject to traditional playground punishment.

3. 8-Bit Cereal Breakfast
Sunday morning at Gamercamp is the ever-popular 8-Bit Cereal Breakfast, designed with nostalgia and retro sugary cereals in mind. Aimed at reliving those epic childhood mornings, Gamercamp will be bringing in more than 20 kilos of cereal and 100 litres of milk, to be enjoyed alongside big screen projections of Pinky & the Brain and other classics. FInally, a chance to wear that with-feet onesie.

4. Play-Test Zone
It would be cruel to spend three days talking about gaming without actually trying some out. The Play-Test Zone allows participants to try out works in progress, as well as bring along their own projects to test out on the masses. Will the next Skyrim be found in the Zone? There's also an Emerging Artists Shocase held at the Bathurst Street Theatre on Saturday.

5. Retro Rec Room
Frogger is not dead. Nor are many of your other favourite vintage games. The Retro Rec Room has everything that will surely remind you just how old you've become, including games from the Atari 2600and Kinect, plus CRT TVs.

Photo of Gamercamp 2010 by Gavin Hay

And now there is. Enter Punchd, a new mobile app (available for both iPhone and Android) that stores digital stamps on your smartphone. I spotted this recently at Thor Espresso Bar and here's how it works:

• Once I have the free app downloaded to my smartphone I simply scan a QR code that the barista presents me after I purchase my drink. The scan takes about a second and immediately adds a stamp to my digital loyalty card. The app knows which loyalty card it is in part due to the geo-location of my phone. It knows which cafe I'm at.
• From there it's up to each cafe to define the rules for the promotion. In the case of Thor, the card says once I buy ten coffees I qualify for a free dopio espresso based drink that costs $4 or less.

Interestingly, it appears that Punchd isn't alone at making moves into this space. The Google-owned company has competition from Perka as well as Toronto-based CardFox which just unveiled itself a few days ago at Startup Weekend. They make their money by charging business owners a monthly fee. According to someone I talked to at Thor, they've been using the app for two weeks. They're one of two businesses to be doing so in the Toronto-area (the other is Burger Bar in Kensington Market).

What do you think of this idea? It it something you'd use? Add your thoughts to the comment form below.

The iPhone and iPad apps share a lot of the same content and functionality but each have been designed to optimize the user experience on each device. The apps are divided into four main modules (News, Best Of, Places and Events) and are built around a new profile system that allows you to create to-do lists, check-in to stores and restaurants, rate local businesses, mark favourites, bookmark articles and events; and share all of this with your friends. Each of these features is explained below in detail using accompanying screenshots from the iPad app.

NEWS

The news module is where you can find the latest news published to the site. Here, you can sort by post category (Arts, Music, Film etc.) as well as bookmark each article for future reading. This comes in especially handy for when you're offline like when riding the TTC subway. I usually bookmark a bunch of articles before I head into a station so that I have lots to read during my travels. All news articles can also be easily shared via Twitter, Facebook, Email and SMS.

BEST OF

The Best Of module houses all of the site's Best of Toronto articles. Here, you can quickly look up Best of Toronto topics alphabetically or by most recently published. The app includes the complete list for each Best Of topic and allows you to quickly view the locations on a map or access individual reviews and contact info for items on the list. Like the News section you can bookmark Best Of posts for future reading or quick reference.

PLACES

The Places module is where to go if you're looking for a restaurant, store or other local business in Toronto. You can sort places by type (Restaurants, Bars, Cafes, Fashion Stores etc.) and look them up based on what's nearby (closest to your current location), by neighbourhood (Little Italy, The Danforth etc.), address (ex. 30 Ossington Avenue) or TTC subway stop (Bathurst, Castle Frank, Glencairn etc.).

Once you find a business you're interested in, you can view photos and read our review, map the location, get directions, get the address and phone number, look-up DineSafe info (if available) and search for other businesses nearby. You can also rate businesses, create to-do lists, check-in and mark favourites (these features are explained in greater detail below). Lastly, the apps allow you to easily share what you've found via Twitter, Facebook, email and SMS as well as add a business' info to your phone/iPad's address book.

EVENTS

The events module is where you can go to look up events taking place in Toronto. Like the events section on our web site you can look up events by date, map their locations and add them to your iPhone/iPad or Google Calendar. You can also bookmark events for future reference.

TO-DO LISTS

To-Do Lists is a new feature available exclusively in the iPad and iPhone apps but will be rolled out to the web site at a later date. I find this feature incredibly useful. If I read a review of a restaurant in the app I can quickly add the restaurant to my To-Do list. I can then set an optional feature that permits the app to notify me when I'm physically near the location of the restaurant in case I want to pop-in and check it out when I'm in the area. Of course, I can also simply just pull up my to-do list when I'm looking for ideas of somewhere new to eat, drink or shop.

CHECK-INS

If you're familiar with Foursquare then you'll get what this feature is about. The blogTO iPhone and iPad apps come with our own check-in feature that allows you to check-in to places you visit. I do this both to keep a record of places I've been as well as to notify my friends of my whereabouts in case they're nearby and want to stop by and say hello.

FAVOURITES

I use the Favourites feature in the app to keep a list of places I like. I do this partly to share a list of my favourite places in Toronto with my friends but also to use as a handy reference. Many of the restaurants that I regularly frequent have been marked by me as favourites so I can quickly access phone, address and other important details without having to do a slightly more time-consuming search or look-up.

BOOKMARKS

The apps currently support bookmarking of individual news posts, Best of Toronto posts and individual event listings. It's handy to use bookmarks for quick-reference (look-up) as well as to read this content when not connected to a network.

USER PROFILE

As I mentioned previously, the apps allow users to create a User Profile. No unique usernames or passwords are required; instead we use your existing Facebook account to create your user profile. For Twitter users we plan to add Twitter support in the future. I should note that creating a user profile is not required in order to use the apps, but a user profile is needed to make use of some features such as To-Do lists, ratings, check-ins and favourites.

In the user profile module you can upload/change your profile photo, set your sharing settings as well as indicate your notification preferences.

FRIENDS

Since your user profile is connected with Facebook, the apps let you invite your Facebook friends to be friends with you on blogTO. This will then allow you (if you enable these features in your sharing settings) to see when your friends check-in to places, add items to their to-do lists, mark places as favourites or rate local businesses. You can add or remove friends at any time.

FLICKR

Last but not least you might notice that the background of the iPad app features some photos submitted to our Flickr pool. If you'd like your photo(s) featured in the app, please email them to us at editors [at] blogto [dotcom] along with the url from Flickr that we can link the photo to. The photos should either be 542x960 or 798x704 pixels.

QUESTIONS AND FEEDBACK

While the screenshots above all show the iPad app, please note that the iPhone app has basically the same features and functionality. If you have any questions, comments or feature requests for the apps feel free to add them to the comment thread below or email me directly at tim [at] blogto [dotcom].

Want to download the apps now? It's the same link for both the iPhone and iPad. You can download it here from iTunes.

Available on all three of the main platforms — iPhone, Android and Blackberry — the app has should make life a bit easier for commuters by locating the nearest station to a user, scheduling information for specific routes, real-time information from track-level at Union (maybe the best feature), and arrival alerts when one's train is nearing their destination station (i.e. no more sleeping through your stop).

It's all quite useful stuff that should help to make commuting a bit less painful. As a bonus, the app is actually quite nice to look at (even though I've never been a huge fan of GO's branding), and works lightening quick on my iPhone. And, of course, the best part is that it's free.

We hope to see you over there soon.

StartmeUp Ryerson
Sleeman Breweries may have lost its indie cred when it was bought by Japanese giant Sapporo back in 2006, but there's still no denying that founder John Sleeman remains one of the most recognizable brewery honchos of this generation. A fixture on radio commercials during the last decade, Sleeman will be speaking at this Ryerson sponsored conference on November 15th, taking place at the Ted Rogers School of Management. Tickets are only $5, less than a price of a pint of Sleeman at most local establishments.

TEDxRyersonU
The second annual TEDxRyersonU takes place on November 20th, this time in a new off-campus location at Glenn Gould Studio. Speakers scheduled to appear this year include former Al Jazeera head of strategy Tony Burman, 500PX co-founder Evgeny Tchebotarev and Ryerson President Sheldon Levy. The application deadline to attend has now closed, but as a sponsor of the event we're going to give away five free tickets. All you need to do is email contests [at] blogto [dotcom] explaining why we should give one of the tickets to you. The contest deadline is 11:59PM this Thursday (November 10th) and we'll be notifying winners the next day (Friday). Good luck!

Mesh Marketing
The Mesh folks are back with a mini-conference they're calling Mesh Marketing. Unlike their annual, two day Mesh Conference that takes place in May, Mesh Marketing is a one day affair (November 15th) where attendees can discuss and debate the future or marketing. If you're looking for an accompanying drinking game, bring a flask and have a swig whenever someone mentions Twitter. The line-up of speakers includes Klout's Joe Fernandez, PR guru Steve Rubel and Score Mobile's Benjie Levy. Tickets are $99 for students and $599 for everyone else.

Also worth mentioning is AccelerateTO (which is unfortunately already sold out) taking place tomorrow at the ROM. I guess we can always just follow along on Twitter.

I spoke with Co-Founder and CEO Aidan Nulman earlier today about their launch. It's something they've been working on all year as a result of their affiliation with the Next 36 program. While they plan to eventually offer service to select corporate partners, Winston begins its life today as a consumer facing offering with cars able to pick up customers at the airport and between Bathurst, the DVP, Eglinton and the lake.

There's a $20 minimum for each ride but Nulman tells me rates are "a bit more expensive than a taxi" but much cheaper than a limo. All drivers in the Winston fleet are behind the wheel of a Lincoln Town Car.

Are you excited about this new service? Do you plan to try it out? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

"It's spectacularly uneventful," Patrick explains. "But hey, that's the joke.

Probably best categorized as pleasant little time-waster, the game does have its humorous moments, particularly when the user chooses to "stare at people" as one way to pass the time on the trip to and from work. In general, all of the limited options the game provides are actually quite fun, so check it out if you a couple of minutes to kill. And kudos to Matt De Luca and Lukas Guyader for the soundtrack, which really nails the whole 80s video game experience.

Sample video (you can play the game at the link above):

Related:

• Toronto, the video game
• Queen West as a video game

If there's proof in Toronto of Android's rise it's that AndroidTO drew 300% more attendees this year compared to the inaugural conference in 2010 (about 620 vs. 225). Of this, about half the tickets sold were to non-developers indicating that entrepreneurs, marketers and other business types are paying closer attention to the platform.

Accordingly, AndroidTO was split into two streams: the professional track and the developer track. Highlights included much talk about Near Field Communication (NFC) which holds the promise of making wide adoption of mobile payments a reality; as well as a packed room discussing how to make money from mobile apps. Paired with sponsors like Rogers and Sony showcasing some of the latest Android devices there was plenty to look forward to in the months ahead.

After the conference I caught up with Paul Crowe, CEO of BNOTIONS (the company that puts on the event) about the state of Android in Toronto. Here's what he had to say.

What's the current state of the Android community in Toronto?

The Android developer community is still smaller in Toronto than the iOS community, but it is growing as fast, if not faster than Android's marketshare. I wouldn't be surprised if they were 90% there if not the same size this time next year.

The large turn-out from students on the developer side just goes to show where the next generation of developers' interest lies. In the past year since the previous event, the community has grown dramatically in size as well as strength. Events like the Google Technology User Group (GTUG) hosted by the Yorkville Media Centre have seen their turn-out growing and the actual community being created around Android is impressive. In one week we had over 50 volunteers reach out and offer their time for free, just to be a part of the event.

There was some talk at the conference about future Android devices that extend beyond the smartphone and tablet (ie. refrigerators, washing machines). I feel like I've been hearing this sort of vision of the future for at least the last 10 years. Why do you feel this is finally going to become a reality?

Samsung and Google have made a big deal of this in 2011. Google had demos and presentations at Google IO showing how Android enabled appliances can be controlled by an Android tablet or phone and Samsung has focused on their home automation in a number of demos and talks. Essentially your tablet and phone become the universal remote for large parts of your home - from HVAC to lighting, to stoves and washing machines.

What's great about Android and why this may finally actually happen is that consumers who have an Android Phone don't need to purchase another remote control or device. If they are already in the market for an appliance, have the phone and are comfortable with applications, then the consumer adoption of the technology should encounter little resistance.

I know you're still digesting this year's conference, but if you had to predict what AndroidTO would look like next year at this time what do you think would have changed over the next 365 days?

I truly believe that Android in the home technology will be launched and that we will have elements of this within the conference, but I'll predict the biggest change will be that the conversations around NFC will be less around "What is possible with NFC" and more around "What is being done with NFC".

The kids arrived at their respective pods Friday at 5pm, and just like MTV's The Real World, they were confined to their quarters with limited access to the outside world until they were released Sunday at 5pm. Unlike The Real World, there were supervisors making sure they didn't overdose on energy drinks or get up to any hanky-panky on the bean bag chairs--although the supervisor at the Ryerson location didn't seem to think this would be an issue.

There were hubs all across Canada. Toronto had two, one at UofT and one at Ryerson. At the Ryerson hub, seven teams were sprawled out working on their games. The coders comprised mainly of Computer Science majors from Ryerson and UofT and Game Programmers from Trios College. Most went the 48 hours with little to no sleep (except the only team of girls who rewarded themselves with a full night's sleep). The lack of sleep didn't seem to bother most. Oles Tourko from team "Mudkipz" told me that being sleep deprived was part of the fun.

The young coders were given the theme "Sports" when they arrived and were expected to develop a game from start to finish over the 48 hours. The teams at the Ryerson hub were all confident in their games, despite sharing a common dislike for the sports genre of video games--most prefer role-playing and fantasy games.

Some promising games that came out of the weekend included a 3-D racing game from team Mudkipz, which had anime characters racing against each other, team Wannabe's Tron style dodgeball game and team Darkside Production's game of pool in space.

The top 25 teams will be notified on October 7th. Then, on October 25th the top three will be invited to come to Toronto and play their games live at Dundas square and the winner will be announced November 2nd.

Photos by Jimmy Lu