ALAKAZAM IPHONE APP
By: Jonnym1ller London- Al Humphries
THE IDEA:
Have you ever felt like spinning a globe and catching a flight to the first place you land your finger on? No plans, no itinerary, just the open road. We all indulge in these private fantasies but practical constraints usually get in the way of our awesome trip ideas. The aim of ALAKAZAM is to recreate that magical childlike feeling of possibility by filtering out those countries, which you cannot afford to fly to. The hardest part is mustering up the 30 seconds of insane courage it requires to book a flight to a completely random location!
I’ve tried to recreate that private sense of exhileration and infuse the best of flight search technology with the kind of gorgeous elegant retro design that might inspire you to embark on a spur of the moment adventure! From my experience I’d argue that improvisation is generally more conducive to memorable travel experiences than extensive planning…you’ll never be as young as you are today and you’ve got nothing to lose!!!
SPENDING THE FUNDS:
I have completed the designs but need to raise a further £1000 in order to pay my genius programming friend for his valuable time in order for him to turn my rough sketches into a a sexy and gloriously functional iphone app!
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR COOL FEATURES:
The app is still very much work in progress, so please make full use of the comment space below!! If you have ANY ideas for fun or quirky features then don’t hold back… the best ideas will get implemented into the app!
THANKS FOR WATCHING THE VIDEO – ALL PLEDGES ARE REALLY APPRECIATED!!!
Jonny
PS. INSPIRATION AND AWESOME LINKS:
Check out the Alakazam blog for updates: http://alakaz.am or follow the project on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Alakazammer
Watch a clip from the last king of Scotland to find out where I got my idea from: http://youtu.be/1BzqH5zocUQ
Read Al Humphries blog for some great tips on how to embark on a ‘Microadventure’: http://www.alastairhumphreys.com/2010/01/manifesto-year-year-micro-adventure/
Read the ultimate guide on how to be a travel ninja: http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/the-ultimate-travel-hacking-guide/
Watch Rolf Potts fascinating talk on the art of vagabonding: http://www.dolectures.co.uk/speakers/rolf-potts/
Crucial viewing if you're looking to embark on a big adventure to distant lands! http://www.dolectures.co.uk/lectures/the-importance-of-jumping-in-rivers/
Spontaneous travel inspiration from Homer Simpson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSBNf50-VCI
Big thanks to Mr. Dean Fischer for providing the epic jingle soundtrack to the video...
If you are feeling especially kind and want to tweet or share this page you can use this link which is a bit shorter: http://tinyurl.com/c9nh9m4
Check out our 'New Year's' Special pledge as well...
Pledge £40 you will receive public thanks and a retro personalised 'Alakazam Telegram' as an old-school way of saying a thank you!
Update 3
15-05-2012 08:53 PM
Dear all,
Thank you so much for your support with this project. The response was truly overwhelming and special thanks go out to Mark Clemmow who pledged £200 out of the blue - without this, the app likely wouldn’t have happened. Just a quick message to say that the app is now live as of today and free to download as promised..
http://bit.ly/alakazamapp
Please check it out, play with it, abuse it and if you have a moment to spare, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Happy travels and make the most of the official international spontaneous travel day… enjoy!
Thanks again!
Yours spontaneously,
Jonny
Update 2
05-04-2012 03:08 PM
Buenas Dias fellow Spontaneous Travellers!
The carrier pigeons have been dispatched from Santiago, but just incase they get distracted along the way I’m sending a short update to let you guys know what the future plans are for Alakazam.
Apologies are due for the recent radio silence at my end. Skyscanner have had a major redesign recently and unfortunately this means that the flight search code behind Alakazam no longer works its magic. So, along with re-writing the flight search code, I am also in the process of injecting some more colour into the designs… since someone insightfully mentioned that ‘blood red’ was perhaps not an ideal colour scheme for a flight search app! The good news is that its going to look practically lickable when its ready 
Last but not least, I want to say another massive thanks for your support and helping spark the spontaneous travel movement! There are LOTS more plans in the pipeline so stay tuned!
Your spontaneously,
Jonny
**More alakazam screenshots can be found at the website (work in progress) :http://alakaz.am/wp
Update 1
26-11-2011 11:04 AM
Just a quick message to say THANK YOU for your support and pledges! Alakazam won the £500 grant with nearly 500 shares on facebook and is no
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