Techmeme News Site Goes Mobile and Lands on iPhone
One of the strongest aggregators of tech news online, Techmeme, has gone mobile and is now available on several smart phones, Apple’s iPhone being chief among them. The new site has been designed specifically for readers using a mobile device and is substantially easier to look through than its online cousin. The site will allow users to browse it and choose headlines, expanding them to read each article they choose to, along with the ability to view discussion threads that are related to each article. This goes above and beyond what the actual site itself provides since it does not expand individual stories into their own pages.
After bringing on board an additional three more editors, Techmeme intends to use its expanded staff to bring more of what it is known for to its viewers, that being tech news from all around the web. For many users, the web site was something they checked on a regular basis, multiple times per day, in order to keep abreast of the latest happenings in the swiftly changing digital world that the site covers. The added benefit of being able to browse with convenience while on the go holds high appeal for the site’s core user base, tech enthusiasts and web business people in need of timely news.
Student Created App Helps Keep Track of Homework
With over one hundred thousand apps currently available for Apple’s wildly popular iPhone, consumers have come to believe that there is an app for just about everything. With the popular mobile device’s primary demographic consisting of young people such as teenagers and college students, traditionally among the first to embrace new technologies, it comes as no surprise to mobile industry experts that students would begin to create apps themselves. These apps, according to experts, can be expected to focus on the primary concerns of students, chief among them, their homework.
A fourth year student of computer engineering, Paul Pilone, recently got the idea to create an app that would help students put their iPhone or iPod Touch to solid scholastic use by organizing and keeping track of their school work and impending assignment deadlines. Instead of using an old fashioned planner, students can now keep track of everything with their mobile devices. To do lists and reminders are a big part of the app, and Pilone met with students to develop his program to suit their needs. With the app priced at the standard $0.99, Pilone has already netted over $15,000 in profits.
ShopSavvy Makes Its Way to iPhone At Last
After impressing users of Google Android with its ShopSavvy app last year, developer Big in Japan. At that time, the app was known as GoCart and it won the grand prize of the Android Developer Challenge, it was expected that the app would make its way over to the Apple iPhone and meet phenomenal success. It has taken some time, but ShopSavvy app is now available for users of the iPhone and users can scan the barcodes of any product to perform a product look up.
This feature is expected to woo in consumers in droves because it allows them to find a wide variety of products they encounter while shopping. The app use’s the iPhone’s built in camera to scan the barcode and then return information to consumers such as the product’s availability online, its price online and its price and availability in nearby stores. While it would seem that retailers would despise such an app due to the power it hands to consumers, they are actually turning to ShopSavvy in increasing numbers to help make it easier for shoppers to keep their dollars within their store.
Now that the iPhone’s camera is equipped with an automatic focus feature, users can download the app for free online.
My Maps Now Available on iPhone via Google Earth 2.0
While iPhone users were definitely wowed by access to Google Earth when it came out last year, some key features were not provided that many had reported wanting to see from this powerful app. The ability to scan a virtual replication of the globe was definitely a strong feature, particularly since it could be accessed anywhere that an internet connection was available. However, the tool itself didn’t have a lot a direct application for user’s day to day lives because the crucial mapping and turn by turn directions features were not part of the package. This meant that it was primary an entertainment tool, rather than an essential must have for iPhone owners.
Thanks to recent innovations, fans of Google Earth 2.0 for iPhone will be able to utilize the My Maps feature that is part of the Google Earth website. The process easily allows users to log directly into Google Earth and import all of the maps from the Google Earth site into their iPhones for immediate use, allowing them to get an idea of where they are going through routes that they have saved onto the site. The tool will not have the same directions offering feature, but this is expected in upcoming updates of Google Earth for iPhone. Thirteen languages will be supported in this particular release of the app.
Headphones for iPhone Becoming More Important to Consumers
When Apple first released the now world famous iPhone, many users were startled to discover that the headphone jack would not fit standard headphones. As a result, they needed solutions that were custom designed for the iPhone. Some turned to adaptors, but other users wanted headphones that actually worked with their cherished mobile phone.
Headphone technology has long been a standard in consumer electronic devices, especially those of a portable nature. The portable cassette players of the 80’s and the portable CD players of the 90’s were important developments because they allowed consumers to transport their music along with them and listen to it privately. The emergence of the iPhone as a popular consumer device is due not only to its function as a communications device, industry experts say, but also because it allows users to listen to music while on the go. This crucial feature is believed to be largely responsible for the iPhone’s popularity because instead of carrying an MP3 player and a cell phone, users could carry one device that met all of their needs, a breakthrough in both mobile communications and portable music device technology.
With the arrival of high quality headphones for iPhone users, the market expanded to offer durable and high fidelity listening devices from a wide range of manufacturers. Now a variety of styles exist to suit the tastes of different consumers, some of whom want Bluetooth technology capable headsets that allow them a cord free experience. As the market expands, consumers are expected to demand increasingly more complex headphones, particularly as the iPhone rises in popularity as a music listening device.
In the current age of real time web searching, streaming video and instant MP3 downloads, consumers are expected to become ever more reliant on their mobile phones and Apple has poised its iPhone to lead the charge. This means more manufacturers will step forward to offer more products specifically tailored to the iPhone’s unique design, giving consumers precisely what they want at the price they’re willing to pay.
Experts agree that it will not be long before the iPhone ascends to the place that both the Walkman and the Discman once held as a generation’s primary music listening device.
Spotify Allows Users to Stream Music to iPhone
A new app from Swedish music streaming service, Spotify, allows users who purchase a £10 subscription to listen to unlimited songs from the reportedly vast library of music the company offers. The app not only enables users to search out new music, it also allows them to store playlists on their phone for times when there are no connections available to them such as when they are on a plane or underground.
The company has been seen as a rival to Apple’s iTunes because it offers an alternative model of music sales that many in the industry believe could be a viable and competitive way to sell songs online. The Spotify music library contains millions of tracks and the company has over two million subscribers in the UK alone, with over six million subscribers having been garnered across Europe since it began only a year ago.
The Spotify app is available for free via download for Spotify Premium subscribers at the Apple App store. The company has plans in place to expand into the US by the end of 2009. It is expected that the US market will be readily open to the idea of subscribing to a music service due to the popularity of the now outlawed file sharing networks that experienced such heavy traffic due to music trading.
Order from Pizza Hut with Your iPhone
With an iPhone app coming out for seemingly every conceivable activity you might want to do, it’s no surprise that there would be one to come for ordering pizza. That’s right, thanks to modern technology you can now order a range of food from this well known pizza franchise.
“We recognize that there’s something big going on,” Bernard Acoca, Pizza Hut’s senior director of digital marketing was quoted as saying, “Apple’s technology platform enabled us to create an experience for our customers that makes ordering easier, faster and more fun.”
With over 1.5 billion apps downloaded by user of the iPhone, it isn’t surprising to hear this. Pizza Hut has traditionally embraced innovation, being one of the first pizza restaurant chains to offer pizza deliveries ordered over the internet.
The Pizza Hut app will play like a video game, allowing users to utilize the iPhone’s technology to create their own pizza by dragging and dropping their favorite toppings, shake the virtual Chicken Wings and even take a sale coupon from a refrigerator within the app.
Pizza Hut hopes that consumers will want to enjoy the game and be motivated to buy more products, all while having an entertaining time doing so.
OurStage Radio
OurStage Radio is a new iPhone application from OurStage that can be used to find and listen to new songs by emerging and indie music artists from a wide array of music genres. OurStage radio app also allows iPhone users to evaluate the songs that they listen to, using a thumbs-up thumbs-down feature. Moreover, the app makes new song recommendations to the user based on their music preferences. OurStage Radio is a free app and is currently available at the app store.
Mobileyes
A free app called Mobileyes has been released for the iPhone by 3rd Dimension Inc that allows iPhone users in various cities to access live traffic cameras. Through Mobileyes, iPhone users can see how traffic is moving in various areas and can use the information to avoid traffic jams and choose the optimal routes to travel. A user can also choose between low, medium, and high resolution images. Mobileyes currently covers many large U.S cities including New York, Houston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington among others with more cities to be covered in the future.
Voice Activated Application for iPhone 3G
The iPhone is set to offer voice activated dialing and music play list navigation. These features come through the efforts of Fonix Speech. The voice activated application for the iPhone 3G is called Fonix iSpeak and will connect users simply by saying the phone number of name of the person in the contacts database. Users will also be able to navigate their music libraries and launch a song or play list by just speaking the name of the song, artist of play list. The application includes a runtime engine that will sit on the phone and allow users to interact with the personal contents of their iPhone. The software is made available directly from Fonix Speech, and through the App Store.