Monthly Archives: January 2012

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Why iPhone Shoppers Buy More Apps

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¶Do Apple consumers have more money? Possibly, but that’s not why app developers seem to like them more.

¶Tango, a free video calling service with 33 million customers, introduced two pay services on Dec. 15. One is video voice mail, which subscribers can use to leave each other messages; the other allows overlays of animation on the calls, like Valentine hearts that descend on a loved one in midcall. While the first animation is free, unlimited use of a set costs $1.98. The video mail is a storage play, with five videos stored for free, and increasing charges for saving additional messages.

¶The service works on both Apple’s operating system and the Android operating system developed by Google. Fifty-five percent of Tango’s subscribers come from Android, a not surprising number given the sheer number of phones now using Android. Even with that slight edge, however, the conversion rate from a free to a paying customer is four times higher on an Apple iPhone.

¶“Apples to apples, no pun intended, Apple just does a much better job on conversion,” said Eric Setton, a founder and the chief technical officer of Tango. “It comes from years of collecting credit card numbers on iTunes. People can use their stored credit card numbers and purchase things easily. Punching in a credit card number on Android is more work.”

¶Mr. Setton said each service had picked up two million subscribers since being introduced. While he did not say how many of those were paying for the service, he said an informal survey of customers indicated that 25 percent of those who tried the service were willing to pay for it.

¶At least for now, as Mr. Setton noted, the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, offers to load credit card information into the phone. That is useful for the phone’s “tap to pay” function for retail purchases, buying from the app store and, Mr. Setton no doubt hopes, loading up on Tango video storage.

via Why iPhone Shoppers Buy More Apps – NYTimes.com.

Mobile Apps for Home Appliances

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Use Your Smartphone to Run Samsungs Wi-Fi-Enabled Washer And Dryer [VIDEO].

Samsung revealed its latest washer-dryer concept at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. The electronics giant has equipped a 5.2 cu. ft. capacity WF457 front-loading washer with a Smart Control system, allowing users to stay connected to the washer without having to manually control it at the machine. Consumers can, via a smartphone application, monitor cycle selections, remaining time and finishing alerts, as well as remotely start or pause the washer from anywhere in the house.

Moreover, the new model boasts a new feature called Water Shot Technology, which delivers a cleansing shot of water with dissolved detergent and then a rinsing shot for dual rinse performance. The result is a cycle time that is up to 25% shorter, making it much more environmentally friendly compared with conventional washers. Samsung is setting the bar for Wi-Fi-equipped electronics, rolling out new notebooks, smartphones, tablets, computers and even smart TVs have wireless internet. The WF457 washer and dryer will be available at major retailers in spring 2012.

via Use Your Smartphone to Run Samsung’s Wi-Fi-Enabled Washer And Dryer [VIDEO].

5 Free Mobile Apps for Valentine’s Day

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Let out your romantic side with the help of your iPhone

Next Tuesday is Valentine’s Day and if you feel like declaring your love for your sweetheart, there are plenty of ways your smartphone can help in your quest to shower your beloved with affection. But rather than a text or a phone call, why not check out the hundreds of Valentine’s Day related apps that let you do everything from send personalized greetings cards to find a partner online with your Apple iPhone. Here’s our five favourite iPhone apps for Valentine’s Day.

Touchnote Postcards

With this app you can print photos from your Facebook or those stored on your Apple iPhone into unique postcards and greetings cards, that you can add text to and then have delivered right to your beloved’s door.

ChuChuTune

If music is the food of love, then it’s well worth checking out how compatible you and your sweetheart are based on your musical tastes. To do this, simply download this free app on yours and your other half’s iPhone, then press Play and face the screens of the handsets together. The app will then play a random playlist from the tracks stored on your phone and work out if you’re compatible.

Plenty of Fish

Of course, if you don’t have a partner to shower with gifts and affection this Valentine’s Day, why not employ the help of an internet dating service to find one. Unlike of services, such as match.com, PlentyofFish allows you to send emails to potential suitors for free.

Happy Talking Cupid

Not only does this cute cupid repeat anything you say to him, you can also tickle him and even have your photo taken with him, which you can customise with a Valentine’s message and share with friends and family.

Romantic Ideas 500

If you’re stuck for something romantic to do on Valentines Day, this free app offers hundreds of ideas that are sure to get your in your partner’s good books.

via Best iPhone apps: Five free apps for Valentine’s Day – PC Advisor.

5 great GPS apps for your iPhone

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It’s happened to all of us: You’re meeting your friends at a local bar that no one’s been to before, and you’ve gotten yourself a bit turned around. Luckily, you’ve brought your trusty GPS-enabled iPhone along with you. You know all you have to do is type GPS into the App Store search bar to find something that’ll have you sitting at that private table with bottle service in no time. But wait — the results list goes on and on forever, and many of results aren’t related to driving. Other than the star ratings and listed price, how are you to know which one will get you where you want to go with the least hassle?

There are a vast number of GPS apps listed in the AppStore, and not all are created equal. To be honest, some free apps are just as good if not better than several of the large-cost alternatives. We’ve tested some of the most common in order to see which app is best suited for getting you back on track once you’ve lost your way.

1. Google Maps

Price: Free

Download: Preinstalled on your iPhone

Google Maps was likely your first foray into mobile GPS apps on your iPhone. Considering the power and resources Google has, its iOS app leaves much to be desired. You’re stuck with a top-down view of the route, even though we all know and love street view.

The biggest annoyance with Google’s Maps app is that there is no option to read the trip summary in one screen. In order to find out what to do next, you must push the arrow buttons on the top of the screen, which makes traveling without a passenger to help navigate just about out of the question. If you get lost or make a wrong turn, Google will not automatically reroute you, but you can press the edit button on the top of the screen and let Google start over from your current location.

Also, the overhead map will help you see your position in relation to your destination. If you’re familiar with overhead maps, you’ll find your way relatively easily, but if not, you want another option.

Pros

—Directions for driving, walking and public transportation

—Finds almost any business or address easily

—Detailed traffic info

—Navigate to contact

—Free

Cons

—Must manually advance the directions

—Top-down map view only — no street view

—No route summary

—Lack of voice guide

2. TomTom

Price: $39.99

Download: TomTom USA for iPhone or iPad

TomTom is one of the biggest names in GPS, and it delivers with a very solid app. In fact, most of the other GPS options base their features off of TomTom’s. TomTom offers voice-guided navigation assistance, 3-D maps, and our favorite feature, Lane Assistance. The Advanced Lane Guidance images help you discern which lanes to take at those complicated freeway transitions. When we intentionally got lost and opened TomTom to lead us home, it found our location and destination faster than expected. We even made several more wrong turns, and the reroute feature put us back on track in no time.

We do, however, have a few grievances with this app. The $19.99 per year charge for HD traffic info is odd, as it is a feature several of TomTom’s competitors provide for free. Also, the points of interest database is still very limited and won’t find many small businesses. We ended up using the included Google local search to find our destinations when we didn’t have an address.

The biggest issue we’ve found is that TomTom is simply too robust. In order to access its other useful features, you will have to navigate through several layers of menus — very difficult to do when you’re traveling alone. We’ve still got to hand it to TomTom here for releasing a sturdy and reliable app, though, that provides a model for the smaller brands to challenge. If you’re willing to spend the cash, this app is a solid buy.

Pros

—Lane selection assistance

—3-D maps

—Local search via Google (great addition)

—Fast and accurate rerouting

Cons

—Fee for live traffic info

—Full address required for default navigation (city, street, address)

—Included points of interest severely limited

—Can’t interact with map while driving (besides zoom)

3. Motion X GPS Drive

Price: $0.99

Download: Motion X GPS Drive for iPhone or iPad

Motion X GPS Drive is the most downloaded GPS app available, and it’s easy to see why. Not only does the price tag look amazing compared to the big names, upon opening it, you are greeted with a beautifully simple interface. All search options are displayed in a wheel with easy-to-recognize icons.

A cool feature not found with other apps is the Wikipedia button that will give you a summary of, directions to, and a link to an article about locations of interest that are near you — not so helpful if you’re lost, but great for learning more about the history around you.

When we intentionally got lost using MotionX, we found out about its limitations. MotionX has no live traffic data to speak of. It is something we didn’t think would be a concern for this particular test, but when it rerouted us to our destination, it directed us right into a traffic jam with no way out. We did look up and receive alternative routes, but MotionX failed to tell us that all but one way had been closed due to construction.

Pros

—Simple interface Wiki links

—Easy-to-search destinations

—Quick switch between maps and text direction summary

Cons

—Hidden fees (turn-by-turn navigation with voice guidance ends after 30 days; must make an in-app purchase for either 30 days or a year)

—Predictive traffic info

—Provides nonoptimal routes

—Limited local search results (fast food restaurant search displayed results for the McDonald’s 4.5 miles away but missed the In-N-Out half a mile away)

4. TeleNav GPS

Price: $0.99

Download: TeleNav GPS for iPhone or iPad

TeleNav GPS is another popular option people are using. Since most of TeleNav’s best features expire after 30 days on the free app, we’ll be reviewing the paid version. TeleNav includes some Facebook integration with its newest version, allowing you to check in to your wall and mark locations for your friends to meet.

The avatar representing your vehicle is way off scale, causing some difficulty recognizing the distance to the next turn while traveling. When we took a few wrong turns to see how well TeleNav would get us back on track, TeleNav gave us the option to reroute. This is where we found that the app lags a bit, and by the time it provided new directions to us, we were already off course.

One saving grace here is the a button on the navigation screen called Summary. It will provide you with the option to check either the text directions or an overhead map similar to one you’d find on Google. In summary, if you get lost using TeleNav, you must pull over for a moment to allow it to catch its bearings and get you where you need to be.

Pros

—Easy-to-read street names

—Voice-assisted turn-by-turn

—Auto rerouting

—Voice commands

Cons

—Auto rerouting lags

—Traffic guided routing is predictive, not live

—Price: $2.99/month $21.00/year

5. Waze

Price: Free

Download: Waze for iPhone or iPad

Waze 3.0.1 is another free option that is currently picking up a following. Waze seems to be attempting to revolutionize the navigation experience by adding a bit of social networking to the mix. We know, other apps link you into Facebook or Twitter to share your destination for meet-ups and such, but Waze takes it a few steps further. Instead of linking into an established social network, Waze is building its own.

With the exclamation button on the bottom right of the screen, you can report traffic accidents, speed traps, and more. The map on the navigation screen is clear and simple to read, allowing zooming, scrolling, and (unlike the others we tested) rotation. This helped immensely when we intentionally made wrong turns in an unknown neighborhood, as we were able to look behind us and see exactly where we had gone off route — not that that mattered much, as Waze rerouted us back to our intended destination in under five seconds.

Waze enables you both see and communicate with other people using it in real time. Just to see if it would work, we messaged a user in close proximity to our destination and asked if they would help us get back on track. The user replied by sending a snapshot of our destination as they drove by, so we were able to recognize the building when we got there. Super bonus points for that feature.

Pros

—Community-sourced traffic and road info

—Voice-guided turn-by-turn assistance

—Live, real-time rerouting

—Call from search feature

Cons

—No text directions summary

—Tediously repetitive voice assist (you’ll likely turn it off)

—Downloads map as you drive

—Road condition reports that pop up too frequently

Guiding you home

Every app we’ve listed has the ability to get you to where you want to go in decent time, provided you don’t miss a step along the way. In regards to getting you back on track after you’ve lost your way, both Waze and TomTom have to share the prize. Both reroute you quickly and efficiently without a hassle of menus and button pressing. We’re still sore about sitting in one-lane traffic thanks to MotionX. TeleNav is still a respectable competitor, but if you’re going to spend the money on a GPS app, you’re way better off with TomTom. Waze still has a way to go until it is completely on par with TomTom, but the community aspect makes it almost equal.

vi 5 great GPS apps for your iPhone – USATODAY.com.

Did Google ever have a plan to curb Android fragmentation?

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Summary: Make the users care about updates, and the people standing in the way of those updates will sit up and pay attention to things.

Another day, another set of Android fragmentation stories. And while there’s no doubt that there is wide fragmentation within the platform, and there’s not real solution in sight, I’m starting to wonder if Google ever had a plan to prevent the platform for becoming a fragmented mess.

How bad’s the problem? Jon Evans over on TechCrunch tells it like it is:

OS fragmentation, though, is an utter disaster. Ice Cream Sandwich is by all accounts very nice; but what good does that do app developers, when according to Google’s own stats, 30% of all Android devices are still running an OS that is 20 months old?

More than two-thirds of iOS users had upgraded to iOS 5 a mere three months after its release. Anyone out there think that Ice Cream Sandwich will crack the 20% mark on Google’s platform pie chart by March?

He then goes on to deliver the killer blow:

OS fragmentation is the single greatest problem Android faces, and it’s only going to get worse. Android’s massive success over the last year mean that there are now tens if not hundreds of millions of users whose handset manufacturers and carriers may or may not allow them to upgrade their OS someday; and the larger that number grows, the more loath app developers will become to turn their back on them. That unwillingness to use new features means Android apps will fall further and further behind their iOS equivalents, unless Google manages – via carrot, stick, or both – to coerce Android carriers and manufacturers to prioritize OS upgrades.

And that’s the core problem with Android. While there’s no doubt that consumers who’ve bought Android devices are being screwed out of updates that they deserve (the take up of Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ is pretty poor so far), the biggest risk from fragmentation is that developers will ignore new Android features an instead focus on supporting older but more mainstream feature sets. After all, developers want to hit the masses, not the fringes. Also, the more platforms developers have to support, the more testing work there is.

OK, so Android is fragmented, and it’s a problem that Google doesn’t seem willing to tackle. But the more I look at the Android platform and the associated ecosystem, it makes me wonder if Google ever had any plan (or for that matter intention) to control platform fragmentation.

But could Google have done anything to control fragmentation? Former Microsoftie (and now investor) Charlie Kindel thinks there no hope to curb fragmentation. In fact, he believes that most things will make it worse. I disagree with Kindel on this matter. He also believes that Google’s current strategy amounts to little more that wishing that everyone will upgrade. On this point we are in total agreement.

I disagree with Kindel that that there’s nothing that Google can do to at least try to discourage fragmentation. I believe that one of Google’s strongest cards are Android users themselves. Look at how enthusiastic iPhone and iPad owners are about iOS updates. They’re enthusiastic because Apple tells them why they should be enthusiastic about new updates. Compare this to Google’s approach to Android customers. Google (or anyone else in the chain for that matter) doesn’t seem to be doing much to get people fired up and enthusiastic about Android. In fact, it seems to me the only message being given to Android customers is ‘buy another Android handset.’

I understand that Google isn’t Apple and can’t seem to sway the crowds in the same way, but it might start to help if the search giant seemed to care about the OS. The absence of enthusiasm make the seem Sphinx-like and uncaring. Why should anyone care about new Android updates when Google itself doesn’t really seem all that excited? If Google created a real demand for Android updates from the end users, this would put put pressure on the handset makers and the carriers to get updates in a timely fashion to users.

Make the users care about updates, and the people standing in the way of those updates will sit up and pay attention to things.

via Did Google ever have a plan to curb Android fragmentation? | ZDNet By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes.

National Weather Service hold on mobile apps stirs controversy

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Weather apps. There are hundreds – perhaps thousands – of them, for mobile phones, tablet PCs, e-readers, and other portable electronic devices.

The vast majority of these weather apps are made by private companies, using data provided by the National Weather Service and other sources. The Weather Service itself does not currently have an iPhone or an Android app, despite the explosive growth in the use of these devices, and the fact that many more people already rely on them for hazardous weather information than, say, NOAA Weather Radio.

In light of recent developments in communications technology, it seems rather strange that NOAA hasn’t developed a comprehensive weather app of its own. The agency has only recently embraced social media, and it has an increasing Facebook presence.

Since December 21, 2011, the Weather Service has prohibited its employees from developing apps for specific mobile devices.

Employees received a pre-holiday memo from Weather Service deputy director Laura K. Furgione, which reads in part:

“There are thousands of weather applications available for iPhone, Android, iPad, and similar wireless devices. Many of them are provided at little or no cost. Many of them use National Weather Service (NWS) warnings and other weather products and some explicitly identify NWS as the source of their information. Given this well-established and growing market for device-specific weather applications for wireless devices, NWS is declaring a hold on use of any NWS resources, including on-duty time of NWS employees, to develop such applications. This will avoid using NWS resources to duplicate products readily available in the marketplace and give NWS time to carefully evaluate our appropriate role.”

In case you don’t speak weather bureaucracy, the memo essentially states that NWS is going to stay out of the apps business for now, since so many private companies have produced many good (and oftentimes free) apps that communicate Weather Service products.

Why is this such a big deal, though? Well, it has been met with resistance from the agency’s rank and file, who see it as a move to privatize a core function of the federal agency – the delivery of timely weather warning information via a new generation of communication technology.

“It’s pretty clear to me that the world wide web is old technology and in the next 10 years… it’s all going to be on apps. If you want to be able to communicate to people, that’s the future,” says Dan Sobien, the director of the National Weather Service Employees Union. “The Weather Service has to be on the cutting edge of that in order to succeed in our mission.”


Screenshot of weather section on Washington Post’s Android applicationSobien sent a letter to NOAA administrator Jane Lubchencowarning that the employees union views the new policy as an attempt to privatize the dissemination of NWS products and services, which the union has been fighting for years, mainly under Republican administrations. The most far-reaching attempt at privatization was contained in a 2005 bill sponsored by Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum when he was a Pennsylvania senator.

“This all hands memo from Furgione has done more to demoralize the NWS workforce than anything since the Bush Administration proposed to close Weather Forecast Offices,” the letter states. “All our members want to do is save lives, enhance our nation’s economy and do what we can to protect the environment. Tying our members’ hands from doing so is counterproductive for them, the NWS and NOAA.”

The Employees Union’s argument is that since taxpayers pay for the information the Weather Service gathers and the forecasts and warnings it generates, they should not be forced to pay to download an app from a private company in order to receive this information on their wireless device.

On the other hand, NOAA can’t be seen as overly competing with the private sector, since that would go against its longstanding policy support a vibrant private sector community that specializes in customized weather info, including companies such as the Weather Channel, whose free iPhone app is the most popular free weather app, according to iTunes.

“It’s important to maintain the complementary services provided by the commercial weather sector and to ensure the most appropriate and effective use of our internal resources,” said Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro via email. He noted, the apps hold “applies only to apps developed with specific devices in mind and not apps that can be applied universally.”

Sobien said he’s hopeful that a policy will be crafted that will allow the Weather Service to expand its presence in new media without crowding out private companies.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” he said. “I believe the administration [of NOAA] has stepped in to fix this problem to make the Weather Service more transparent and to give the people the information that they own in the most convenient means possible for them, but until I see a signed document my optimism is cautious.”

National Weather Service hold on mobile apps stirs controversy – Capital Weather Gang – The Washington Post By .

Mobile-First World

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In the last day, I’ve gotten two notes from start-ups that began on the web but have seen their businesses transformed by mobile, as users increasingly shift their consumption to mobile apps and browsers. This might seem obvious in a world in which services like Twitter and Pandora now get most of their traffic from mobile. But it bears highlighting because the trend is happening across all sorts of apps and websites and that has implications for developers, publishers and businesses, who must now consider what a mobile-first world looks like.

The latest examples came to me from online design store Fab.com, which just launched in June and then pushed out its first mobile apps for iOS and Android in October. In just three months, it said that 30 percent of its traffic is now on mobile. MyYearbook, a social networking site that was bought by Quepasa last year, said, thanks to a big holiday push, it now has 54 percent of its traffic coming in on mobile.

Now, these are just two examples, but it shows that though they both got their start on the web, they’re increasingly running mobile services. Twitter’s mobile traffic is up to 55 percent while Pandora is up to 60 percent according to Mary Meeker, of Kleiner Perkins. That’s happening quickly with Facebook as well, which has 350 million of its 800 million users actively accessing the social network through mobile channels.

Meeker highlighted this at the Web 2.0 summit in October, showing how mobile search, payments and shopping has taken off in the last two years. Online shopping destinations like eBay are seeing more and more sales via mobile devices. IBM said that 18.3 percent of all online sessions on retailers’ sites on Christmas were initiated from a mobile device, compared to 8.4 percent in 2010.

Meanwhile, Google is increasingly capitalizing on the growth of mobile searches by encouraging businesses to think mobile first. It has said that 44 percent of last minute holiday shopping searches was expected to be by mobile and 79 percent of smartphone users currently utilize their phones to help with price comparison, product searches and locating a retailer.

The fact is, thanks to smartphones and tablets, the way people are going to services and destinations is changing. People are accessing stuff all the time on the go and that requires developers and publishers to think mobile first.

Om Malik touched on this last month when he talked about the redesign of his personal website Om.co. Here’s what he wrote:

When mulling over these changes, I began to wonder how a blog designed primarily for a mobile-first experience might fare. Of course, there would be a web-based version, too, but it would be not the primary focus. Mobile first meant — a great reading experience that allows readers to focus on things that matter — words, photos and videos — not the design flourishes and other elements such as social sharing icons.

Mobile first meant that the layouts would adapt themselves to the display. The iPad version would adapt to that device’s screen size while the iPhone/smartphone version would be even more barebones. The beauty of thinking about “mobile first” is that you get to use the latest in browsers, forget about backward compatibility and at the sometime are able to deploy newest technologies and hacks.

This is increasingly how publishers and developers need to prepare their services. There is still an obvious need for a traditional website but the shifting habits of consumption mean you can’t make mobile an afterthought. People notice if you’re not optimizing for mobile and ignoring mobile users and their experiences can cost publishers. Google quoted a study last year that found that 61 percent of mobile users won’t return to a site if they have trouble accessing it from their phone.

It also means you can’t just water down a site or gin up a simple app. It still needs to have robust functionality because people want to do a lot of things on mobile. And they look to developers to also leverage the unique capabilities of devices, which are location aware and have cameras and other sensors. Some developers may want to think twice about how they implement some web-only features if it can’t be enjoyed by mobile users.

We’re already seeing more mobile apps and start-ups that are beginning on mobile and then looking toward online. But there’s still a ways to go for traditional websites, businesses and services to embrace mobile. With smartphone penetration expected to cross over 50 percent soon in the U.S. and adoption unlikely to slow down, it’s going to mean people going online through the small screen. Those who prepare for a mobile first world are going have the jump when it comes to attracting those consumers.

via It’s becoming a mobile-first world — Tech News and Analysis  by Ryan Kim.

Identify Your UDID

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Everytime we build a new iOS application – for iPhone, iPad or iPod – we ask the client to send us their UDID. Often times either the clients don’t know what UDID is, or they don’t know how to get it. 

Each iOS device has a Unique Device Identifier (UDID), which is nothing more than just a bunch of 40 numbers and letters. The developer needs to register your UDID with Apple so that Apple can approve the beta app exclusively for your phone. Here are the simple steps to getting the UDID of your iOS device so that your developer can register it with Apple.

1. Connect your device to your computer and start iTunes.
2. Click on your device on the left navigation bar under devices.
3. Under the summary tab, there is a label – Serial Number.
4. Click on the label – it changes to Identifier (UDID). Note that this label looks like nothing more than just text — it’s not highlighted or otherwise marked to indicate that you can click on it.
5. Hit Ctrl C or Cmd C (if on a Mac) since you will not be able to simply select the UDID and copy it.
6. Paste the UDID in your email, notepad, word, etc and save it for future reference or send to your developer.

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