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Tag: iphone-app-store

  • Twist: an iPhone app that estimates your arrival time

    Twist is here and can become your favourite iPhone app, if you are usually running late.

    Are you among those that are never on time at their meetings with partners and friends? If you lose track of time without even realizing it, there is an iPhone app just for you. Twist is a new iPhone app that was released exactly for this kind of people. By the time you leave home, its algorithms calculate your estimated arrival time, in order to notify your friends. The most interesting part is that the algorithms take into account all the factors that might make you turn up late, such as traffic, transportation, but also your own habits. This means that before calculating your arrival time, it measures all the variables that might affect you, even your tendency to lose track of time.

    And just when you feel like you are running late, you can send a message to a list that you will have previously created, in order to tell the app to notify your friends about you being late, letting them know of your arrival time, too.

    As Bill Lee, the CEO of the Twist app, told to Mashable:
    "At its core, we like to think Twist is the easiest and most accurate way to let people know when you’re going to arrive"

    And he continues:  “We’ve really reduced that to a few keystrokes. It’s better than what Google Maps has today and better than what Apple Maps has today.”

    Even though there are many fans of Google Maps and Apple Maps, Twist is here to stay and we can predict that it would be useful for many of us out there!

  • App 'market' for Google's Android mobile platform

    Google has opened up about its plans for Android content – only don’t call it an app store


    Google is to offer an applications “market” for its Android open mobile platform but has sought to distance itself from Apple’s iPhone app store.

    Eric Chu, a member of the Android team, said on his Android Developers’ Blog that they would be offering “an open content distribution system that will help end users find, purchase, download and install various types of content on their Android-powered devices”.

    Stressing that it was to be the Android Market, he added: “We chose the term ‘market’ rather than ‘store’ because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available.”

    Describing the Market, Chu drew camparisions with YouTube. “Content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it,” he said.

    “We also intend to provide developers with a useful dashboard and analytics to help drive their business and ultimately improve their offerings.”

    Earlier this month, Google announced that it was expanding the Android team, with openings for designers, engineers, and developers.

    Due out in the US this fall, the first Android handsets are to offer a beta version of the new Market.

    “At a minimum you can expect support for free (unpaid) applications, “ said Chu. “Soon after launch an update will be provided that supports download of paid content and more features such as versioning, multiple device profile support, analytics, etc.”

    Chu promised to share more details in the coming months as they become available.

  • High Definition footage of action adventure game for iPhone released

    Apple has released HD footage of a demonstration of the upcoming iPhone fantasy game Krull created by Barcelona-based Digital Legends Entertainment.
    The 3D mobile game uses a combination of touch-based controls and accelerometer mechanics.
    Dynamic shadows and other handheld-level effects are also on display in the footage received by Shacknews.
    Xavier Carillo Costa, CEO of Digital Legends, said his team only got the iPhone SDK two weeks before the demo, and that the port itself took just four days to create.
    Krull is expected to be available available from the upcoming iPhone App Store in September, following the July launch of the new iPhone 2.0. Based on Apple founder Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote address other original games should also be available, which iPhone users should be able to download wirelessly from their phones.
    Earlier this month it was announced that iTunes will be launching movie rentals and sales via iTunes in the UK, with 100 being available in HD.
    The move, as with that for Canada, is a result of deals signed with 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., MGM, Sony Pictures and Lionsgate.
    Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, said the iTunes Store in the UK would have over 700 films for purchase and rent.
    “We think customers in the UK are going to love being able to enjoy their favourite movies on their iPod, iPhone or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV,” he said.