Month: June 2010

Cross-posted from my latest article on Memeburn

With the release of Apple’s latest iPhone and iPod operating system iOS4 last week, the quality control team at the iTunes App Store has been hard-at-work approving updates to iPhone applications in the past week.

Not only does this mean loads of updates for users, but it also means a couple of new apps showing up on the app store which have taken advantage of the new operating system’s capabilities such as an improved battery life, the ability to create folders, and of course, multi-tasking.

Here are three notable apps which caught my eye and are worthy of a mention:

Farmville by Zynga (FREE)
The popular Facebook web app, which has almost 83 million active users playing the game, finally has its own iPhone app. The Facebook flash game, in which you manage a virtual farm alongside neighbours, now allows you to do so on the go, syncing back in real-time to the Facebook version. The free iPhone app also offers push notification alerts when it is time to harvest your crops, as well as a couple of added features to ensure your cows are always milked on time. Also included in the app are in-app purchases, which allows you to “top-up” your spending budget.

Twitter for iPhone (FREE)
The popular Twitter for iPhone app, previously called Tweetie, also received an upgrade this past week, taking advantage of the new multi-tasking feature from iOS4. With the update, once you exit the app it continues running in the background, allowing the completion of sending tweets, as well as keeping your place in your Twitter timeline. Twitter is one of the few apps to have taken real advantage of this great feature in the first week, and I’m looking forward to seeing a couple of more apps using the new technology in the coming weeks.

ooTunes Radio ($4.99)
The ooTunes Radio iPhone app allows you to stream live radio stations from around the world. A number of South African radio stations are included in the app such as 5FM, Highveld Stereo, TuksFM and others. The latest update to the app has included support for iOS4 multi-tasking, meaning you can now carry on listening to your favorite radio station once you have exited the app. This is a huge plus as previously you needed to keep the app open to listen to the stream. This must-have app brings radio to your iPhone, and is well worth every cent.

So iPhone iOS4 has been out for a couple of days and so far I have really enjoyed it. There are a couple of really cool features, so I thought I would do a quick list of 5 of the coolest tricks I have found so far:

• Turn on SMS character count
  This is something we have all missed previously on the iPhone, and now it’s finally here. Before we never knew when the 160 character limit was being reached and when the bill arrived at the end of the month, there would be loads of SMS’s sent. To turn on the SMS character count, simply go to Settings -> Messages-> And turn Character Count ON. The character count will now show when composing an SMS, but only appears after about 25-50 characters.
• Camera Zoom
  The camera speed in iOS4 has been greatly improved, and taking a photo now is such a pleasure. One of the new features on iOS4 is that they have included a zoom functionality. To get this working, simply tap anywhere in the camera view finder when you have the camera open, and a zoom bar will appear at the bottom. Bearing in mind that the iPhone 3 & 3GS camera’s are not the greatest  in the world, when zooming in, the images become pixellated
• Multi Tasking (App switching)
  For me this is probably the best feature in the new OS. Most of the apps are being updated to allow you to run them in the “background”. While this doesn’t consume any battery or degrade performance, this is extremely useful with apps like Twitter for iPhone (Tweetie). The app stays open in the same place you left off and can send tweets in the background when you return to the home screen. Another app that uses this functionality is Skype, which means you can still receive calls when not in the actual app. To get the Multi-Tasking to work, double-click the home button, and it will bring up a list of all the open apps. To exit an app, hold your finger on one of the open apps, until they start “jiggling”. This will bring up a “No-Entry” sign on the top left of the app, which you tap to exit the app.
• Folders
  Another awesome feature of the new OS. Simply put, you can now have loads more apps on your phone, by categorising them in different groups. To create a folder simply drag one app into another, and folder will be created. You can edit the name of the folder(up to 13 characters). You can then drag other apps into the folder as well.
• iBooks
  With the advent of iOS4 you can now make full use of the iBooks app which is offered on the iPad. But the coolest thing for me, is that with the latest release of iBooks 1.1, you can also read PDFs. To make use of this functionality, you just need to drag a PDF document into iTunes (you also need 9.2), which will add it into the Books folder. You can then drag this into your iPhone once it is connected which will sync it to the device. Once you are in the iBooks app on the phone, there is a PDF button at the top, which will display all the synced PDF’s which you can now read as normal books on the iPhone. I also came across a really cool site called http://www.ebookee.com which has loads of magazines and books in PDF format

These are just some of the cool new features, and I’m sure there are loads more I haven’t listed here. Be sure to leave a comment below with your favorite.

My latest article from memeburn :)

A Dutch mobile development company has shot to fame (or notoriety depending on your point of view) for building a Vuvuzela iPhone app that has quickly become the number one downloaded app in many parts of the world.

Love them or hate them — everyone will agree that the Vuvuzela has made the FIFA World Cup in South Africa the loudest in the tournament’s history. Everyone has caught onto the Vuvu bandwagon, and sales around the world are skyrocketing. In the UK, Tesco’s recently reported sales of one Vuvuzela every 20 seconds during one of the recent England games.

But it’s not only the piece of plastic that is making a noise around the world. A pair of Dutch iPhone app developers, Jeroen Retrae and Lyan van Furth, who own mobilo.nl, say they developed the Vuvuzela 2010 iPhone app to capitalise on the World’s greatest sporting event.

The Dutch pair are apparently also making “tens of thousands of dollars a week through advertising revenue” using Admob’s mobile advertising network.

The Vuvuzela 2010 iPhone app is now the number one ranking free app on many of the app stores around the world, including the likes of Germany, UK, France, Japan and of course South Africa. Even in the hotly contested US app store, the app is sitting in a healthy 6th position.

The company claims the app has now been downloaded a total of over 3,5-million times and with the final whistle to blow on the 11th July, the Vuvuzela legacy will definitely live (blow) on with the Vuvuzela 2010 iPhone app.