Back in February we told you about Lady Gaga’s social network “Little Monsters”, which could turn the concept. of how celebrities interact with their fans on its ear.

The site, powered by Palo Alto based Backplane and still in private beta, skips social networks like Twitter and Facebook, allowing Gaga’s fans to interact with her directly.

When celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Lady Gaga joined Twitter, it was a major turning point for the product. A whole new userbase flooded the micro-sharing network, who foam at the mouth for every 140 character update from their favorite singer or movie star.

With her own social network, Gaga is making her fans feel even more special, as well as setting them up for opportunities to sell albums and schwag to them directly:

What’s more intimate than that experience? A mobile one of course. According to one of the designers at Backplane, a “Little Monsters” app is in the works:

Check it out. Little Monsters App on @dribbble: drbl.in/ecRI

— Caleb Ogden (@calebogden) May 21, 2012

In response, Backplane’s CEO said that we might see Gaga on the iPhone mighty soon:

Soon! RT @calebogden: Check it out. Little Monsters App on @dribbble: drbl.in/ecRI

— Matt Michelsen (@MCMichelsen) May 21, 2012

What does the app look like? Take a look at the screenshots that Caleb Ogden shared on Dribble today:

While Little Monsters might not take a huge bite out of Twitter’s usage, it surely will steal eyeballs when it comes to Gaga fanatics. If the musician is posting exclusive updates to her own social network, there’s simply no reason to look elsewhere for the content.

Backplane is a community platform, meaning that the Little Monsters model could be spun out an infinite number of times for other celebrities with massive appeal. Justin Bieber anyone?

Nothing is more important than that great photo you took at the concert you went to last night, but the thing that’s almost as important is the data that goes with it. Sure, apps let you attach a general location to your photos, but to fully chronicle your experience at a live event, you can’t pin a photo to a specific spot at the venue.

A new iOS app called Picket lets you tag event photos with the exact seat you sat in when you snapped the shot. Maybe this seems like over-sharing to some, but as you decide to buy tickets in the future you want to know what the view will look like from specific seats.

The Picket app calls itself “the world’s first Social Ticketing Network.” While that is a pretty big statement, I will say that the nuance of tagging photos with seats definitely makes this the first such photo sharing app to tie itself closely to ticket sales.

What does it look like from row 9 seat 7?

The Picket app is powered by ticket purchasing platform SeatGeek, so it’s safe to say that all major upcoming events will be available in the Picket app.

You could purchase tickets to a baseball game through the app and when you take a photo you’ll be able to fill in your exact spot. That data will be tied to both the venue it took place as well as the actual event day and time:

Once people have started to fill up Picket with their photos, when you go to buy tickets you can see exactly what they saw at a previous event. Up until now, you’ve had to rely on 3D flash models of a venue, especially at baseball parks, and make a really good guess at whether the view is a good one.

Additionally, you can chat within the app with people who are at an event in real-time. You could ask them questions about how it was, or how the seats are. All of this interaction makes the ticket-buying process much more interactive and transparent. I could totally see myself buying tickets through Picket after checking out a few photos:

As location-based services get more granular, we’ll be able to make more educated decisions on where we choose to go with our free time. For example, I’d love to see a service that let people rate the actual seating at popular restaurants. Is sitting by the window during the day too sunny and warm? This is the kind of thing that interests me.

Picket is definitely on to something with its app, especially for people who go to a lot of concerts. It might be worth spending a few extra bucks on that better seat if you like what you see in photos.

➤ Picket for iOS

Panic, the maker of the popular web editing app Coda, announced that Coda 2 would be available on May 24th for the desktop. Along with that release, an app called Diet Coda will come to the iPad.

Nearly two years ago we wondered if we’d be able to use our iPad as our main workstation, but the fact that editing web documents on the fly wasn’t an easy process, it made this nearly impossible.

With Coda for the iPad, you’ll be able to use a built-in SSH terminal prompt built in, which will allow you to make quick content changes on your site.

Panic has incorporated many feature requests from its users for version 2, along with a complete UI overhaul. Some of the new features and changes are:

- Code Folding
Finally.
- Smart Complete
Autocomplete custom variables and functions.
- Workflow Improvements
Automatic indentation, smarter closing tags, etc.
- Streamlined Find & Replace
With our revolutionary Placeholder token.

Better UI

- New Tabs
Small, scrolling tabs. Large or small. Images or text.
- Super Sidebar
All your tools accessible with a customizable dock.
- Plus Button
A new editor (or terminal, or book, or…) one click away.
- Code Focus
Hide the sidebar, and go full-screen, to focus.

Being able to do all of this with Diet Coda on your iPad is going to be a fantastic and PC-freeing experience for developers. It will cost you $9.99 as soon as it launches. That price could increase as time goes on.

Coda 2 and Diet Coda are set to drop on May 24th, so get ready.

➤ Coda 2 | Diet Coda for iPad

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t valet my car. Ever. But it’s not that I don’t appreciate the convenience of the service, it’s that I don’t carry cash and I hate not tipping people in service industries. A new service called Flash Valet is aiming to make the experience better for both the customer and the ones parking the cars.

If you take the experience of Uber as a model, Flash Valet is pretty similar. It’s an app that lives on your iPhone. When you pull up to a valet stand that uses the service, you simply drop off your car, get your ticket and walk away. But on that ticket is a small set of instructions. Those instructions, and what they allow you to do, is what changes how the valet experience works.

Want to get your car delivered at a specific time? Send a text message. Your car’s ready to go? You’ll get a text message in reply. Not carrying cash? You can pay directly inside the app with any major credit card, or via your PayPal account.

On the valet end of things, Flash Valet ends the need for most ticketing and paper systems. Since the valet drivers will be carrying the phones with them, the person running the show will know exactly where they are, what their status is and when cars are being parked or returned.

It’s even set up to work as a stand-alone system, so companies who specialize in valet services for events can simply show up, provide their service, then take off when it’s done without the need for costly installations. Since it’s based on the phone, drivers can take timestamped pictures of vehicles to show damage (or lack thereof). Card swipes can even happen on the phone itself.

With a built-in loyalty program, VIN scanning, automated validations and more, Flash Valet is bringing a much-needed update to a business that hasn’t changed very much since it first started. Now all that’s missing is adoption, which will hopefully come fast.

➤ Flash Valet

Out this morning is GitHub for Windows, an application that will bring the popular Git repository and forking tool to the world’s most used operating system. Of course, GitHub has had apps out for both Mac and iOS for some time. That the platform has now come to Windows will likely be a relief to many.

Git, the version control framework that many developers use to help manage software projects, has been well supported by GitHub since the latter’s inception. According to GitHub, some 1.6 million people currently host more than 2.8 million repositories on its system. GitHub has both paid, and free plans for its users.

GitHub for Windows, which you can snag here, is 100% native, and supports Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 (in its current, beta format). According to GitHub, the application includes ”a complete installation of msysGit,” thus making it “the single best way to start using Git on Windows.” I’ll leave it for the coders to parse and judge that statement. Here’s a shot of the app, as provided by GitHub:

Users will be able to clone repositories to the GitHub Windows app with a new ‘Clone In Windows’ button that will exist on the GitHub website. Also, as with the website, normal Git-abilities are included, such as browsing commits, and creating branches.

The application will update on its own, so if you do use it, worry not.

TNW’s take on this is pretty simple: about time. GitHub is a critical component of modern software creation, and thus to have this sort of tool finally come to Windows is soothing.

Chances are, if you have a company then you’ve found yourself having to explain what you do time and again. Thousand-word emails end up taking loads of time, and they’re ineffective. If you want your message to be spread, video is the way to go. A new site called Video Brewery aims to make the meeting of buyer and producer easier than ever.

Video Brewery is the brainchild of the team who brought us Demo Duck. Where Demo Duck is aimed at those who need a quick project regardless of price, Video Brewery is targeting a lower-priced market, avoiding agencies. Also, it’s a meeting place where creatives can showcase their work, and where buyers can easily list projects that they need fulfilled.

A $25 listing fee (for the buyer) gets the project started. Then, creatives bid on the jobs and provide demonstrations of their work. The pool of creatives is hand-picked by the Video Brewery team, so it’s not an open field.

What’s interesting about the Video Brewery method is that you’re encouraged to provide feedback and work alongside the producer that you’ve hired. It’s yet to be seen how well this works out in the long-term, but it’s a unique twist. As a producer myself (though of audio, not video) I tend to like to get feedback on a draft, rather than during the process. Though I suppose that’s a matter of personal preference.

Pricing is about where you’d expect – Videos start at the $2,500 range and go up from there. With a typical 4 to 8 week turnaround time, this isn’t a service for those looking to pop out something quick without being involved. If you want that, refer back to Demo Duck.

The market for sites that provide demo videos is getting crowded pretty quickly, so it takes some unique moves in order to stand out from the crowd. With the small, curated team of creatives, and a more collaborative system than you’re likely to find elsewhere, Video Brewery has a real shot at making a sizable dent in the market. Need a video (yes, you do)? Give them a shot and let us know what you think.

➤ Video Brewery

One of the most interesting startups that manned a booth at last month’s The Next Web Conference was CanvasDropr, a Danish software company that is hacking together a product that is (and I quote from the email you get when you sign up) a “visual collaboration tool, kind of like a visual version of Dropbox mixed with the real-time collaboration possibilities that are known from tools like Google Docs”.

CanvasDropr is a free Web-based service that lets you – surprise – drop files onto a digital canvas. Users can upload images, videos, PDFs and other documents, presentations and whatnot to share them with others.

In a professional context, users can also collaborate on files in real time, by annotating documents, drawing and updating charts in presentations, and so on.

Presentations are also synchronized across platforms, whether users fire up CanvasDropr on the Web, their iPad or iPhones.

We tried it out last week and found it to work smoothly once you find your way in the menu and take some time to learn what you can do with it. It’s a beta product, which means the user experience is not always as good as it could be. At the very least, a clear tutorial when you get started is warranted.

Nevertheless, CanvasDropr co-founder Cathrine Andersen tells us CanvasDropr is gaining traction and currently boasts ‘thousands of users’ from more than 100 countries, a lot of them from Asia.

Andersen also promises more news is forthcoming. Consider our ears perked.

Until then, here’s a little gift for the first 50 The Next Web readers who sign up and write an e-mail to accounts@canvasdropr.com.

All you need to do is refer to this blog post, mention the email address that was used when you registered for the app, and thou shall receive unlimited space, unlimited organizations and projects for eternity. Thou art welcome.

➤ CanvasDropr

DMesh, created by Dofl Y. H. Yun, is a simple iPhone app that instantly turns your photos into artistic, triangulated images. Not unlike pxl, this app leads to some pretty wild results, turning a typical scene or portrait into an ultra-geeky shareable.

As you can see below, this isn’t an effect you’ll want to use all the time. But, if you are looking for something wild to experiment with, DMesh is worth checking out for just 99 cents.

The app isn’t 100% intuitive, so note the following:

• To save, swipe up.
• The top slider adjusts accuracy, the far left being the most detailed, and far the right being most abstract.
• The bottom slider adjusts transparency of the triangulated layer, with the far left being absolutely transparent.
• At the moment, you can’t load in photos you’ve already taken

DMesh for iPhone is just one piece of the puzzle for Dofl Y. H. Yun, as there’s also DMesh for the Mac and DMesh Pro, both of which pack some serious editing capabilities. Here’s a screenshot of the Mac app:

➤ DMesh for iPhone, DMesh for the Mac & DMesh Pro for Mac via Creative Applications Network

This is just one of many experimental apps that have caught our collective blogging eyes. For more, check out a few of the awesome projects we found at the Parsons Design+Tech Thesis Show, these video drawing experiments by Kynd and this hacked record player which turns tree rings into music.

The growth of camera phones and apps have together changed the way many people eat, or at least prepare to dine. Though tweeting about food was the classic early criticism of Twitter — how many people started out complaining every tweet was about eating a sandwich? — food-related photos seem to account for a sizeable amount of content on Instagram and other photo sharing services.

Burpple is a newly launched iPhone app that is zoning in on this segment, catering specifically for food-snappers with a service that combines elements of Instagram, Path and Pinterest to showcase daily eats, connect people and discover new ideas.

The basic premise of the app sees user post photos of food which are categorized by boxes (which act like albums) to give some semblance of order to the culinary collections. Location (optional) and date is added to each photo to give it some context for other users, helping it to be discovered.

A particularly nifty feature of Burpple sees it ‘remember’ the time and place of photos that are added via the iOS camera album, thanks to a integration with the data stored on the device.

Snaps can also be added from inside the app, using its camera, and Burpple itself adopts a familiar layout which users of other camera apps will be comfortable with.

Users can follow other ‘Burpplers’, comment on pics that have been posted, share to Facebook and Twitter and ‘Reburp’ images that they like. While a Reburp sounds much like a Twitter retweet, it is actually works like repin on Pinterest, as it adds the image to the ReBurppler’s boxes – allowing content to be curated across the service.

The updates flow quickly and with plenty of detail so, after following a few active people, it is easy to become initially overwhelmed with the stream. That’s particularly true for users of Twitter that are used to brevity and short notes over screen-hogging photos and other multimedia.

Early signs of encouragement

Burpple launched May 9, having been in beta for two months, and already its three Singapore-based founders say it has been downloaded in more than 50 different countries worldwide.

Understandably reticent to provide raw user figures at this early stage, the trio behind the app told The Next Web that China, Japan, Singapore and the US are seeing the most usage, right now.

They also revealed a particular impressive stat that is testament to the stickiness of the early user experience.

“We’re seeing that [of the "thousands" of users] close to 50 percent of registered users are active daily users,” co-founder Dixon Chan told The Next Web.

A recent comparison that paralleled Burpple’s early growth, when it entered open beta, against that of Instagram, produced more favourable figures, putting early Burpple adopters on a par with those of the photo service that Facebook scooped up for $1 billion.

“We did a parallel study of our early progress compared to how Instagram first launched and we have the same ratio of users who uploaded more than 50 photos (35 percent), and the same number of people who published more than 10 (15 percent),” Chan said.

Even before the site offered sharing with Twitter and Facebook, demand was high, he added, suggesting that the company is tapping into a market with significant promise.

“We’re surprised that people were uploading hundreds and hundreds of photos [during the beta] without any formal integration with other sites.”

Conceived in the US, baked in Singapore

For the vast number of startups in Asia, a possible move to the US is often the dream to pursue, however, Burpple’s first conception is a notable switch on that paradigm. It’s three founders — Chan, Elisha Ong and Daniel Hum — are proud Singaporeans but their paths crossed, and the idea of Burpple came together, while they were in the US. In Silicon Valley, no less.

While Stateside, Chan worked for Gigya, where he rose to lead the business social media service’s ad operations. Ong also worked at a Valley startup as lead designer for mobile video site Qik.

Hum’s time in the US was spent a little differently as he had been studying at Purdue University, however an internship with Microsoft took him to the Redmond, Washington. His past is particularly interesting, and includes two years as an infantry specialist with the Singapore Armed Forces and he co-founded local daily deal aggregator dealzilla.sg.

They could have stayed in the US, as all three turned down offers of employment, but instead they choose to return home to Singapore with their idea, richer for the experience in the world’s tech capital.

“The valley is inspiring. We each had opportunity to travel and view the world, and that has given us a global mindset for Burpple from day one,” Ong said. ”All three of us wanted to come back home. Singapore has a young and growing ecosystem and we were all keen to be part of the community,” he added.

Smartphone-based photography is hugely popular in Asia — to the point that many shops and restaurants set up ‘stages’ to encourage customers to snap away — and, combined with the region’s passion for food, the service certainly has many of the ingredients (!) to appeal to Southeast Asia and across the diverse Asian continent generally.

That’s a view that, understandably, Burpple’s founders share, saying that Asia has “lots of untapped potential” and plenty of mobile users to market apps to.

Already Burpple has enjoyed the backing of the Singapore Tourism Board for a campaign they started to help put ‘Kopi’, Singapore’s own brand of coffee, on the global map, after the organisation approached it to promote the coffee.

The founder’s estimate that the “How to Order Kopi like a Pro” infographic — which was also made in to t-shirts — reached more than 2 million viewers since its inception in November 2011.

The campaign has also generated interest in the service, thanks to the subtle but close branding the site has with the creative initiative.

Serving up a unique experience

Burpple isn’t the first dedicated food app but the founders do believe that it is offering something unique to the market with the app, which they say is inspired by Pinterest, Path’s user interface and the Instagram user experience.

With 3 million downloads to date, Foodspotting — which updated its iOS app last week — is probably the best known in the food app category, the Burpple trio argue, their app is complementary rather than a rival.

“We’re not really competing with it,” Chan says. “We’re focused on helping people to journal their food and share it with friends. It’s a different form of discovery to that which Foodspotting offers.”

The founders talk passionately about their belief that the app is about documenting users’ eats and love of food. However, they say, feedback from one user succinctly put their sentiments and beliefs to a neat phrase, which Ong shared on Quora:

Foodspotting is like my travel guide. And Burpple is my Moleskine for food.

Monetisation

While monetisation is not currently a focus at this stage, the team is developing its thoughts on how Burpple might generate income, in time, they explained.

Event-based tie-ups are one element under their early radar, following a successful pilot event that they undertook at Savour Singapore 2012, a gourmet cuisine event that got more than 12,000 attendees.

The app was soft launched in conjunction with the show and, the founders say, it accounted for more than half of all photos from the event shared that were shared to mobile social networks. The team is rightly encouraged by that and is looking into possibilities to build on that promise and help showcase events and get the app in the hands of food lovers.

Another, more obvious option is the involvement of restaurants and other food businesses. Already, Chan says, Burpple has seen restaurants jump onto the service to upload their menus to the app and share them visually with customers.

Given the use of location and the simplistic but effective organisation of boxes, it is easy to see how Burpple could appeal to the restaurant industry. An aesthetic, visually-pleasing menu, combined with discounts for followers or those close-by, could provide an interesting monetisation strategy, which would be beneficial to users.

Future plans

For now, however, the team is working to optimise and enhance the service, specifically by building its user base and providing a quality service for foodies.

“We’re still careful in rolling out new features as we dont want to lose credibility with our users and are focused entirely on the experience of the app”, Hum said.

The Burpple guys are not drawn into specifics on what is in the pipeline but, they say, users can expect the service to centre around the social experience. Upcoming features will build on the journaling aspect, and add to the curative side of Burpple.

The team hints at greater integration with Twitter — perhaps including sign-in via the microblogging site — although Instagram-style filters are a difficult issue. They want content on the site to be as real as possible, which is absolutely understandable. Where’s the fun in turning every meal into a master piece by simply adding a filter.

However, I get the sense that a compromised, with less ‘Insta-looking good’ type filters, could be a possibility in due course.

A more certain addition is an Android app, given the popularity of devices built on the Google-owned platform – which accounted for 50 percent of new smartphones bought in Southeast Asia alone, last year.

Those aside, we’d like to see the search option enhanced to help us find more of the doubtless interesting content that lies in hiding on the service.

For now, searching bring up lists of recommended users, presumably based on the description of their images, but this seems like it is underserving the thousands of photos on Burpple.

While in-app search is considerably more of a challenge that the open web — due to screen size among other issues — it seems a shame that reburpped or commented photos aren’t prioritised based on keywords, location or a Like-style system.

Indeed, there is no clear tally to endorse a ‘Burp’ — in the same way Twitter has retweets number and Facebook has Likes — though we’re sure that a feature to help measure the popularity of updates will be introduced in time.

Overall, we’re certainly a fan of this app, if no reason other than the fact that it stops overly-spamming Instagram pals with ‘about to eat this’ snaps. So, if you’re someone with a penchant for food snaps, new apps or are looking to ease up on overly food-piccing other services, then Burpple is certainly worth a taste (yes, that’s the last food pun for now).

> Burpple | App Store

Since About.me set the standard for how to create a splash page, giving users one place to link to their many online profiles, we’ve seen quite a few niche spin-offs targeting musicians, small businesses and professionals. The latest of its kind, Pictually has joined their ranks, with a unique twist which will appeal to photographers and visual artists.

Heading over to Pictually, you have to request an invite to sign up, but the site is actually in public beta, so there is no wait. You’ll instantly receive an email prompting you to create your Pictually profile.

Setting up your page

The process on Pictually is extremely easy. The first thing you’ll want to do is enter your profile information. This consists of a ‘subtitle’, bio, and profile photo. The profile photo will not be displayed on your homepage, appearing instead on a separate ‘About’ tab.

The next step is where you can get all of your social profiles featured onto your Pictually page. Supported services include social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram), blogging platforms (Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger), as well as a list of designer and photographer staples including Behance, Flickr, DeviantArt and more.

The final step is what sets Pictually apart as a splash page option. In addition to uploading a background full screen image, you can also upload individual albums, to be displayed on a separate ‘Gallery’ tab.

The catch here, however, is that you have to find a background image which will not distract from your photos, as albums are displayed one after the other, as a grid of thumbnails over that image.

Individual photos from your albums can also be featured on your front page, if you want visitors to see the very best of your work the minute they land on your Pictually profile.

If we had just one request, it would be the ability to change the background for each tab. That way, you won’t be limited when choosing a photo you want to showcase as a full-screen image on your homepage. Since this is the very first thing visitors are going to see – you want it to be good. A plain or minimalist image would then work best on your ‘Gallery’ tab.

Our verdict

Pictually is a great option if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to throw together a photography or artist portfolio. We’d be a little surprised, however, if a designer opted for a cookie-cutter site rather than come up with something themselves, particularly as Pictually still doesn’t allow users to tweak fonts, colours or layout.

Pictually makes it easy to get an online gallery up and running in a matter of minutes, with the added and essential bonus of linking to all your profiles around the Web. The site can be used to complement a more comprehensive portfolio, by showcasing the very best work you have to offer, while linking to a complete collection elsewhere.

What do you think of Pictually? Let us know in the comments.

➤ Pictually