iPhone App Review: Oyl In Tokyo

There is a new app out in the iPhone application store that allows you to follow the postings, photos and tweets of the author of Oyl In Tokyo, Oyl Miller.

The application has value when the content of this prodigious self-publisher is more universal than self-centered. Users will have to pardon the occasional personal aside that seems to make few more than the author himself giggle in delight.

Content of value includes street snaps from Tokyo, Japan, periodic insightful looks and commentary into Japanese culture and glimpses behind the scenes into the fruits of the writer’s day job as a creative at Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo.

An archive of television commercials are available in this application through a link to the creator’s YouTube account. The app would be better served if more content were actually viewable within the application itself, as opposed to sometimes only serving as a link to outside content.

The app offers no exclusive content which is a bit of a disappointment coming from a creator who endlessly chimes off wild and fantastical creative aspirations. We were hoping for a bit more of a random factor, but the application comes pretty straight faced.

The link to the author’s Twitter feed proves to be largely self-serving as it consists of mostly headlines and links to this blog and rarely shares anything of value beyond the occasional forced witticism.

In the end, because all of the app’s content is available through existing public media channels, we cannot recommend download of this version of Oyl In Tokyo. Perhaps with some redesign, and attention to customization and creating a new user experience, this app will be worth the price of its free download.

View App and rate for yourself.