Ralf Rottmann – CTO at GrandCentrix, Blogger for The Next Web, iOS and Android Developer, Social Media Addict
Just a heads up that The App Dojo, an iPhone developer buddy of mine, will reduce the price for one of my favorite iPhone games to exactly zero very soon.
If you’re like me an like the puzzle genre mixed with some action, go checkout SIZZ (iTunes Link). It should be free by the time this post sees the light.
Here’s a quick how-to-play/making off:
Get the free iPhone app!
Today, my company announced the immediate availability of iMiles for the iPhone, the World’s first Mobility Rewards Program!
If you can’t wait, here is the direct link to the free iPhone application. You can become an iMiles member right from your device.
If you happen to travel a lot, chances are, you’re subscribed to one or more frequent traveler programs with your favorite airline(s). Unlike those programs that only reward you when you fly, iMiles participants earn miles for travel in any form, be it flying, driving, walking, using a bike or traveling by train. Using the iMiles application on their iPhone, participants earn miles as soon as they start moving. [Read more...]
Have you ever been in urgent need for a pharmacy that’s open 24 hours to get a drug? iPhone and iPod touch owners in Germany don’t have to worry anymore: Apotheken – the German word for pharmacy – is now available via the iTunes App Store. Grab your copy here! [link opens iTunes]
While the App Store has lots of applications that give you a list of pharmacies around you, Apotheken is unique in that it provides you with those drugstores only that are on emergency service and open at the time of your request. It’s the only official solution of the German Pharmacys’ Umbrella Organization (ABDA).
Each day the ABDA updates the list of roughly 2000 of the 21.500 drugstores in Germany which are on duty 24 hours. This exclusive data is available only from the ABDA – and now at your fingertips wherever you are.
The application has been integrated into ABDA’s backend services and makes use of the latest Google Maps features that have been introduced with iPhone OS 3.0. It requires just two touches two get directions to the nearest pharmacy which is available now. Apotheken can either locate you automatically or you can manually enter an address, which will then be used for the search.
The concept and screen design has been done by apertomove GmbH for the ABDA. apertomove asked acceleract GmbH to develop Apotheken for the iPhone.
With so many gimmicks with limited use in the App Store these days, I hope this application will add value for you and helps you being prepared if it comes to the worst.
Today Nokia has launched it’s response to Apple’s App Store, an event which has been eagerly expected by the industry. I’ve covered my first hand experience with the Ovi Store and more specifically how it relates to Apple’s offering over at The Next Web. Though I’ve got to admit being a bit biased, given that I’m an obvious Apple fanboy, I tried to comment from a pure end user’s and developer’s perspective.
Enjoy the article and feel free to comment at any time.
SIZZ has been reviewed by Apple and is now available worldwide. Follow this direct iTunes download link to get SIZZ!
The fine folks at The App Dojo are too busy to finish their website and if it would be up to me, they should forget about it and continue to focus on building intriguing games for the iPhone and other mobile gaming platforms.
I’ve had the pleasure to test drive an early version of SIZZ, their upcoming debut title for the iPhone and iPod touch. Being pretty much a casual gamer I loved Iconfactoy’s Frenzic and the now world-famous Trism by demiforce.
SIZZ is my personal new favorite!
I’ve rolled out the preview version to my entire family and we all became immediate SIZZ fans.
The game has all the ingredients which lets it easily stand in line with Frenzic and Trism:
Great Visuals
The App Dojo has done a great job in working out detailed graphics, smooth animations and an overall extremely polished look. In a mixture between the arcade style games of the 80′s and the modern, glossy look that we’ve all come so used to SIZZ delivers a pleasant, eye-pleasing overall user experience.
Simple and extremely Addictive Game Play
In SIZZ you’ve got to close path by placing and rotating tiles. The more you progress the more complex the tiles get and, of course, you constantly get less time to make your decisions. Most of the games that fall into the puzzle/Tetris category share an overall simplistic basic game idea. Many titles I’ve seen for the iPhone fail to deliver a great gaming experience. SIZZ is a fantastic exception: The fundamental game concept is based on a real-world board game, envisioned years ago by SIZZ’ graphic designer Peter Dahmen. The App Dojo’s Sascha Sigges has done an outstanding job in transferring this concept to the iPhone platform and giving it its unique ascetics and a high-performance game engine.
20 Preview Invites
The App Dojo is offering 20 readers to get access to the preview version while SIZZ is being reviewed by Apple. Simply use the Contact link at the top to let me know you’re interested and I’ll make sure you get a fresh copy of SIZZ right from the source.
SIZZ is currently under Apple’s review. We’re going to update this post once it becomes available for purchase. The App Store price will be 1.99 US$.
SIZZ for the iPhone
SIZZ for the iPhone
Reminder: On Valentine’s Day German developers offer their best iPhone apps for an average discount of up to 80%. Details will be available February, 14th. Visit AppsForSale.de and grab your copy while the special lasts!
Obviously straight2market’s Visual Dial made it on to the Hall of Fame, too. ;-)
I haven’t done many iPhone application reviews or recommendations on 24100.net because there are so many other sites which do just that. Today I want to quickly point you to Feeds (link opens iTunes) which got released to the App Store the first week of January.
Feeds
The German App Store returns more than 100 RSS related applications and I’ve certainly not tested them all but I did trie a lot. Google Reader syncing is one of my key requirements as I’m heavily using Google’s web based feed manager to go through my daily updates. If this is also one of your requirements, it significantly limits the number of options.
For almost a year I’ve been a loyal user of Byline. Byline has a decent user interface, syncs perfectly well with Google Reader and provides you with a good overview of what’s new and hot even if – like me – you’ve subscribed to 30+ feeds. The biggest issue I’ve had with Byline was performance and the fact that I could not add feeds from within the iPhone app itself. So in case I’d discovered a great new feed while I’ve been on the move, I had to wait to access a Mac to add the feed via Google Reader’s web interface and then sync it to the iPhone.
While Byline became recognizably slower with a growing number of feeds I always thought this might not entirely be the developers fault. Maybe syncing with Google Reader’s APIs did not allow for a better performance. It’s been Prime31 Web Design’s Feeds that told me the better.
Feeds feels about 20 times as fast as Byline! I cannot provide any real numbers but purely from an end user’s perception Feeds is just amazingly fast. Once I got used to its performance, I’ve never touched Byline again.
Besides this Feeds supports many other features, too:
Some of them depend on having a Google Reader account (sharing and tagging) but Feeds can also be used as a standalone RSS reader.
Feeds
Mark your calendars: German developers are discounting their leading apps up to 80%!
AppsForSale.de
Holger Frank, creator of the famous Mobile Butler application, is on a mission to promote German iPhone developers. So check out AppsForSale.de on Valentine’s Day and get the best German iPhone apps for less than anytime before!
Yesterday something cool happened: TAXIRUF, one of our iPhone applications, hit the “New & Featured” list in iTunes and the device store. We were experiencing a peak in downloads and wondering why. In the past we saw this happening when Mac Life, TechCrunch and others were reviewing our apps so we googled for reviews. Finally we found out about the updated and very prominent listing of TAXIRUF on iTunes.
Taxiruf iTunes Listing
While we definitely appreciate this move and do feel honored, we once again wondered about the statistical analytics Apple applies. We already knew that the review system is, well, far from ideal. Now we add “Featured & New” listings to the what-the-heck-goes on bucket.
Taxiruf App Store Listing
Here is why: TAXIRUF was submitted to Apple during the first week of September 2008. It got approved September 17th, 2008. Shortly thereafter it hit the Top 10 Sold apps. Since then TAXIRUF moderately continues to sell across Germany.
So what’s the reason for the application to appear on the “Featured & New” list five months too late? And in light of this how reliable are all the other ratings and listings? Or is it all a big mess?
By the way, just in case anybody from Apple happens to read this: We’re not asking to remove TAXIRUF from its current prominent place. In fact we do like heavy download days. Messed analytics constitute a problem but having an app on the iTunes landing page is just fantastic!
