All posts tagged ‘iPhone Apps’

by SarahApril 29, 2010

MobileBehavior TV: GateGuru's Dan Gellert on Socializing Air Travel

GateGuru is an iPhone app that helps users locate the best food, shopping, and service options within any airport. It is a service that aims to socialize air travel and provide users with airport specific mobile utility. We recently caught up with Dan Gellert, founder of GateGuru, where we discussed the company's iPhone application, future plans, and recent feature in an Apple television commercial.

In this episode of MobileBehavior TV:

  • Dan talks about GateGuru's utility in airports
  • Apple features GateGuru in a TV ad about family travel
  • Dan outlines the opportunities for mobile coupons and advertising
  • Demonstration of the iPhone application

MobileBehavior TV is a running video series where we meet and interview thought leaders and creators in the mobile community. Click here to view past episodes and here to subscribe on iTunes.

by SarahApril 19, 2010

MobileBehavior TV: SuperGlued's Rush Doshi On In-Concert Lifestreaming

SuperGlued is a music app that we have been following for a while now. It looks to organize lifestreaming activity around concerts and the new morning-after primetime. We recently caught up with Rush Doshi, co-founder of Superglued, where we discussed the company's iPhone application.

In this episode of MobileBehavior TV:

  • Rush talks about the ideation of Superglued and how it started
  • Demonstration of the iPhone application

Watch it here.

MobileBehavior TV is a running video series where we meet and interview thought leaders and creators in the mobile community. Click here to view past episodes.

by SarahFebruary 16, 2010

Meebo Brings Its Multi-Client Chat Experience to Mobile

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Meebo, the popular web based multi-client chat service, has launched an iPhone app. It brings the strengths of its desktop offering to mobile, letting users chat with friends and family via AIM, MSN, Google Talk, and Facebook (to name a few).

By delivering new messages through push notifications, it finds a way around the iPhone's lack of multitasking, meaning users can leave the app to check the weather and still receive a message. While Meebo supports most other chat services, it does not support Skype, so users will still have to download the sole Skype app.

Meebo for iPhone contains three main tabs: Buddies, Chats and Accounts. Buddies shows a list of your contacts, Chats displays your active chat conversations, and Accounts lets you manage your status and settings for the various chat services.

While there are other apps that syndicate chat services on the iPhone, Beejive for example, Meebo is the first free app that provides superior quality. Many users already enjoy the Meebo experience on both the main website and through the Meebo Bar, found across a variety of websites. With a mobile presence, Meebo brings its fans both a familiar experience and a great (free) way to keep in touch with friends on-the-go.

[via techcrunch]

by MBFebruary 11, 2010

A Growing Market for iPhone, Branded Apps in Brazil

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In Brazil, a country with a population of 190 million, there were 173.9 million mobile phones by the end of 2009 -- that means 9 out of 10 people have one. While Brazil is only the world’s 10th largest economy, it has a higher cell phone penetration rate than that of the United States.

While pre-paid phones dominate the market--82.55% of the market, vs 17.45% post-paid--the iPhone has become an object of desire  in Brazil and is increasingly in popularity. It's also changing mobile behavior. Of the total number of mobile web hits in Brazil in February, almost half of them were made by the Apple phones, according to a recent survey.

The most awaited phone of recent times, the iPhone draws the attention of Brazilian consumers primarily because of the media player and web browsing. While those features are common in most modern cell phones, the difference is in how they work. Songs, pictures and videos are accessed through an interface similar to the iPod, one of the most popular players in the world and in Brazil. The web access interface is similar to that of computers, so it's a more robust experience for users. For the Brazilian advertiser Tomas Prado Felicio, who bought his iPhone in November 2010 through the Claro carrier, the number of applications available, the touch screen, the built-in iPod and web access through a larger screen are the main qualities of the device.

There isn’t an official survey tracing the iPhone's  Brazilian user profile so far. But in an informal consultation with some executives from operators Vivo, Claro and TIM, we learned that the majority are likely male-- about 70% --aged 20 to 40 that love technology and make more than USD $30,000 per year.

Brazil App Store

According to a list released by Apple, the top three apps in the Brazilian App Store last year are all utility-focused. The most downloaded was Sygic Mobile Brazil, the first turn-by-turn GPS to come with domestic maps. The office document editor was Quickoffice Mobile, which publishes and creates Word and Excel documents directly on the iPhone. Not surprisingly, eight of the apps on the list are mobile games, which many people play during pockets of down time.

As a result advertisers of this growing popularity, advertisers in the Brazilian market  are investing in creating iPhone applications.

Centauro, a large network of sporting goods stores in Brazil, created an app with customized running tips as part of its customer acquisition strategy. The company hired Marcos Paulo Reis, a famous Brazilian Triathlon coach, to provide the tips, and the app has turned out to be a great branding tool for the company.

The Brazilian subsidiary of Pizza Hut also launched an iPhone application that demonstrates how a well-designed campaign can generate significant revenue. It offers a video game in addition to an order function. This app allows users to build and place their orders, choosing from many choices of pizzas, pasta and chicken wings. The user can choose the size of the dish, add ingredients through a drag and drop function and even shake the iPhone in order to add seasoning to the order. Using the locator function of the iPhone, the app automatically sends the order to the nearest store. In only three months, the application was responsible for over one million dollars in sales. McDonald's in Brazil has followed suit with their own iPhone app.

There is an obvious hunger for this new technology that will grow the market in coming years.

More than one year before being officially launched and available for sale in Brazil, iPhones already accounted for half of the mobile internet traffic in the networks of Brazilian mobile carriers. Now Brazilian consumers can buy an iPhone--unlocked or subsidized, with a contract--from any of the four major carriers that operate in the country. But prices can be steep: A 32GB iPhone 3GS can cost upwards of $1,500 Brazilian Real (USD $885), and an unlimited voice and data plan will cost roughly $270 per month or USD $150. To be fair, monthly plans and cell phone handsets tend to be much more expensive in Brazil than in the U.S. because of heavy government taxation. Consumers choosing other smartphones will likely only find the same pricey options for unlimited voice and data.

But despite this price barrier, the iPhone market will surely grow. In addition to the better user experience it provides and the growing number of applications, there is an economic incentive. Since it is possible to provide content to be accessed for offline, without an Internet connection, data traffic can be less expensive. Mobile broadband is also becoming more popular in Brazil, and prices will become increasingly more accessible.

This article was contributed by Edvaldo Acir, who does Business Development for FOX Latin American Channels in Brazil, and Andre Bodowski, a Brazilian-American Marketing Manager who lives in New York and São Paulo.

by SarahJanuary 19, 2010

app.itize.us: Curating Unique and Indie iPhone Apps

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A new site, app.itize.us, curates some of the best designed iPhone apps available in the app store (both free or paid). The site presents apps that you may not have heard of or seen before.

"it is intentionally a very small hand picked selection compared to what is currently available via the app store (now upwards of 100k) due to the fact that its very difficult to find many of these apps since they are not part of any of the top rated/grossing lists."

Three creative featured apps on the site:

  • Vellum: A simple drawing app that looks like a pencil drawing with a minimal user interface.
  • Stay: The object of this game is to keep the shapes balanced on the scale; the app has creative graphics that look like water colors.
  • Beats: This is a user-friendly DJ mixing app with a BPM counter, advanced DJ metronome and a key-mixing aid.
by AllisonNovember 10, 2009

Don't Laugh. Stalqer Is Where Mobile Social Is Going.

stalqer

When buzzd's Nihal Mehta mentioned Stalqer at OMMA Mobile, he got a chuckle from the crowd. But while the name may be funny, this app is no joke. Stalqer is a new mobile friend locating service that is pending Apple's app store stamp of approval.

While similar to other location based services like Loopt and Foursquare, Stalqer does two things that those don’t: it passively gathers information, and it pulls in friends from other networks.

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As CNET explains:

On the mobile platform that matters, the iPhone, there's no way to do real-time location reporting without running an app all the time, and the iPhone doesn't allow background processes. And even if it did, it would draw down the battery. The Stalqer solution is to create a dummy e-mail account that pings the Stalqer servers whenever the phone polls for mail, which is, by default, every 15 minutes.

Competing mobile social apps require the app (Foursquare, Loopt) or site (Latitude) to be open for the user's location to be reported. Or they require a phone that supports background processing, like an Android device.

This makes Stalqer a good example of the Mobile Crowdsourcing trend we highlighted last week, in that it passively gathers data from people’s phones, using them as a type of sensor.

Your friends aren't on your friend-location service… Stalqer takes data from your friends' Facebook locations in combination with the live data from other Stalqer subscribers to give you a pretty comprehensive map of everyone you know.

Unfortunately, Facebook data is often wrong, and Stalqer doesn't yet divide location data from content posted in wall messages or on Twitter. [Stalqer founder Mick] Johnson says it will do that eventually. He says that the data is about 70 percent accurate at the moment but that "I think it will be enough."

What the app does is aggregate and match—combining what you can see with your Facebook login with your phone's contact list. It assumes that if you have the person's e-mail address on your phone that they're a real contact of yours, thus letting you track and contact them. While this sounds like a dubious assumption, Johnson says managing privacy well is a big part of the app. Stalqer doesn't break privacy settings or report data that isn't otherwise available to its users. Those running the reporting app can turn it on or off, control the granularity of its reports, and report different levels of data to different groups.

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Johnson told CNet that all social networks will become mobile social networks and that location reporting must be a big part of their feature sets. We agree 100%. Right now, a lot of users are checking their Facebook and Twitter accounts from their phones, and this number will only increase. That is why the idea of pulling in friends from other networks is so smart; it will decrease the barrier to entry and spur viral expansion.

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One more aspect worth highlighting is the app's augmented reality component, which shows you which friends are nearby and sorts by distance. This remind us of Aka-Aki, which essentially hyperlinks people, showing information about users nearby via Bluetooth. Combine Aka-Aki's functionality with Stalqer's friend viewer and you have the future of SNS--the ability to hover over a person and see all their profile information on your screen right there. And yes, this may sound creepy now too, but come on, it's truly amazing stuff. And likely a harbinger of apps to come.

You can follow @stalqer for updates from the company on their App Store status and other news.

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by MBJuly 31, 2009

Staff Picks: JustBought.It, Gossip Cop, Washington Post's App and More

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Tristan

JustBought.it

When I am on Twitter, I sometimes don't care that you tripped in the street today. Yes, useless bits of info from people I don't know really is of no use to me. But, when Twitter helps me know about good deals, I am all for it.

Meet JustBought.it, a fusion a between Twitter, Google maps, and a shopping service. Users tweet a purchase to I#justbought and it is automatically sent to the site. You can even take a picture and locate yourself on their map, so others in your area can profit from your find too.

Obviously, if you found some sick pair of shoes that you don't want anyone else to have, you might keep the info to yourself.

Allison

Gossip Cop

A new site launched this week that aims to bring a whole new slant to celebrity gossip – finding out if it’s true. As described by site producer Rex Sorgatz: “Think of it as TMZ meets Smoking Gun. Or maybe Perez Hilton meets Columbia Journalism Review. Whatever — the prevailing idea is that even seemingly unknowable information can be investigated in today’s info-rich economy.”

Co-founded by Dan Abrams and Michael Lewittes, the site has a fun feature called Twit Happens, described thus: “With its direct interaction and unfiltered access, Twitter could end up being the greatest invention in celebrity journalism since the camera. It is quickly become the ultimate device for determining how impressions are made, rumors are debunked, and celebrity battles are fought. This hand-picked list contains the best tweets of the day.”

Considering the celebrity angle Twitter is flirting with and new sites like omgicu, I definitely agree that real-time crowd-sourced reporting will revolutionize this industry.

Reming

JK Wedding Entrance Dance

I’m sure most of you were forwarded Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz’s gem of a wedding video featuring them walking down the aisle to Chris Brown’s song “Forever”. As of today, the video has received almost 13 million views and some say this homemade, unassuming video is proof that Google/YouTube has the potential to create a positive relationship with the music industry. In a smart move Sony Music, Chris Brown’s label, used YouTube’s content management tools to claim the song and place a click-to-buy ad on the video, which sends viewers to download the song either from iTunes or Amazon.

In a recent blog post, YouTube said that the video sent the Chris Brown song to #4 on the iTunes chart and 3# on Amazon’s MP3 store. Now although YouTube won’t specify how many sales are a result of the video, the company did say the number of users clicking through to buy the song is 2X the average of other videos on the site. Although one must beg the question if Chris Brown’s career actually deserves a revitalization, it’s definitely an interesting case study.

Andrea

Texts From Last Night BlackBerry App

Remember when the site Texts From Last Night blew up a few months ago? Now you can get instant satisfaction with the new Blackberry app that keeps you up to date on the best of the best. The app also lets you click open individual posts to glance at all the comments. Caution: don't use the app's content as fodder the next time you're out on the town.

Jeremy

Washington Post App

As more and more readers access digital news sites using their mobile devices, the user experience with mobile news is increasingly coming to the forefront. Sites like the NY Times now recognize their mobile traffic as important source of revenue and have been able to secure blue-chip advertisers. Commensurate with this trend was the launch this week of a redesigned mobile site by the Washington Post.

Rather than attempting a “kitchen sink” approach to their mobile property, the Post chose to focus on key mobile optimized subjects including politics, business, metro, arts & living and sports. DC Metro Area users will also get access to location-specific and e-commerce functions including real-time traffic data and the ability to make restaurant reservations and buy movie tickets. As print publications continue to see declining print revenues, we can expect to see more of this type of “mobile-optimized” news hub approach in the coming months.

Matthew

OCT

"OCT" (obsessive compulsive texting) is not only an issue for today's youth but has also invaded the lives of older individuals...especially while driving. New studies from Virginia Tech Transportation Institute show that truck drivers are 23 times more likely to be in an accident if they're texting. But these stats are not likely to change behavior. With the advent of Blackberries, iphones, and other email capable handsets, most people feel the need to be constantly accessible and prepared. Many have noted the ease of pausing and restarting a conversation while texting, which is simply not an option with live phone conversation. Until states begin to place unilateral bans on texting (like California already has) it will continue to be a balancing act of convenience and safety, unless Congress steps in.

Michael

OMGICU

"Shout out" to OMGICU. This week I became "that guy" who intrusively snapped a pic of a celebrity while they were just trying to live a normal life. Don't judge me. I'm in love with the Twitter feed on my blog and need daily "Twitpics" as I tend to be lazy on my posts. I needed the Queen. Three hours later I received a direct message from OMGICU saying, "Wow, nice sighting! You should report it to @OMGICU. Nice work! Way to create dialogue in an unobtrusive way! I'm now a participant in celebrity gossip and I feel dirty, but props to OMGICU.

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