iphone Archive

The Apple iPhone developer’s blog has an interesting entry from yesterday that discusses location-based advertising in iPhone apps. The usage of GPS functionality to deliver local information must provide “beneficial information” to the user.

The entry notes (my emphasis), “If you build your application with features based on a user’s location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.”

MacNN has a good look into what this decision means for developers and for Apple. “Many analysts believe Apple is preparing to launch a mobile advertising network that will serve ads through free apps on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. The company recently acquired Quattro Wireless, a mobile advertising specialist, after reportedly failing to sign a deal to purchase AdMob. The latter company was later picked up by Google,” MacNN notes.

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Sesame Street has launched a new iPhone application aimed at kids called Elmo’s Monster Maker. I’ve embedded a video demo of the iPhone app below. The app costs $4 and can be downloaded from the iPhone app store. It’s pretty amazing that little kids are using the iPhone for games but after watching my sister’s 5-year old niece playing a variety of games on the iPhone, I see how well it works as a game console.

The Elmo Monster Maker app is pretty simple. You can customize the monster’s face including the nose, hat, eyes and mouth. After you are satisfied with your monster, Elmo will dance with it. It’d be neat if you could somehow post your monster to a gallery on Sesame Street’s website.

What I think this app (and other similar apps) shows is how popular the iPad will be with children and young kids. If they like playing on a tiny screen, their excitement will only ride with a screen that’s 3x bigger. I’ve previously shared my thoughts about why I want an iPad. I think the iPad device will be a hit for families once it drops to $349 for the WiFi version. I think the price drop will come just before the holiday season. Will the iPad be a bigger gaming hit than the Nintendo DS or Playstation PSP? Only time will tell  but if the price drops, look for at least strong competition.
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NY-based startup Udorse launched last year at the Techcrunch50 conference. The company has raised $500,000 in an angel round of funding. The company describes their service as, “the new picture game where your endorsements unlock exclusive rewards…For you, and your friends!…By endorsing hotwords in your pictures, you unlock exclusive-to-Udorse rewards for you and your friends. Hotwords can be designers, brands, products, places, etc—anything cool in your picture that you want to spotlight. Whoever endorses a hotword the most holds The Exclusive status, which is the key to getting elite rewards.”

Last night at the Hackers and Founders event in NYC, the Udorse team provided a preview of their upcoming iPhone application. I’ve posted the video below. The idea is that you take a photo with your iPhone of anything you want to “udorse”. You then receive rewards for “udorsing” something and for using certain keywords in the endorsement. The example in the video shows the founder taking a photo of his sneakers and then receiving a coupon for the store that the sneakers are sold in. I guess the idea is that if enough people endorse a product, Udorse will be able to sell the brand or store on offering discounts via their service.
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There are only a few Twitter users where I always click the links in their real-time stream. One of those accounts is from placeSpotting, an app we reviewed- a year ago.  placeSpotting founder Martin Fussen tells us that since March 2008, the game has seen over 20,000 user-generated quizzes (I call them riddles) and over 3.3 million quizzes have been started. Sadly only about 10% of the riddle locations have been correctly identified.

Here’s how placeSpotting works. They have found certain spots around the world using Google Maps and they lock the map onto that particular location. The bottom panel has a moveable and zoomable map where you try to find the exact same spot — not close, but exact, the zoom, the absolute exact spot. You can create riddles as well. There is a search which lets you decide where the riddles should be based, voting score along with the difficulty level for the riddle.

I find placeSpotting to be a good way to get 3-5 minutes of brain break each day. While I rarely solve the riddles, it’s neat to check out other locations around the world. I did solve one last week although it was set to the very easy level.

Martin also let me know that they have launched a new iPhone app which allows you to attempt to solve the riddles and also create new riddles while you are on the go. So when your subway doesn’t arrive on time, the bus is late or your ride forgot to pick you up, why not try to find out where in the world is this tiny square on a Google Map. The app is available for 99 cents.

Earlier this year I wrote several times about the mistake that I believed Yahoo was making with regards to wanting to get the developers on board with their apps and programs. It seemed (and continues to seem) that Yahoo wants to win over the valley developers when they are so locked to Google and Apple that it is near impossible for the “big win” that Yahoo is seeking. My take is that Yahoo should go after other developer markets and then come back to the Valley with the world’s developers behind them (that is if they would even care about the valley at that point). Yahoo is bringing their OpenHack event to NYC this week and as I mentioned to the team responsible for the event, they should work to own the other major startup centers around the world.

Let’s move forward to October 2009. I see that Palm is making exactly the same mistake that Yahoo has. Palm held an event earlier this week in San Francisco to discuss the state of the hardware, the platform, etc. There were also several major announcements at the event including the ability for users to install applications without using a store and some open source changes. You can read more about the announcements on GigaOM and SFGate.

Palm also provided a free Palm Pre mobile device to everyone that was in the audience. The Pre came with a free month of service so look for a flood of Pre devices on eBay in about 40 days.

The issue for Palm is about winning over developers and getting startups to want to develop on their platform. Just like Yahoo, Palm could work to “own” the developer communities around the world…instead they decide to try to woo the developer’s who would do anything to touch Steve Jobs. The “Apple Magnet” is very tight in the valley but isn’t as strong as you move further away from 94103. My take is that Palm should have announced these features (and all future releases) in different cities. Palm executives could easily attend the local Meet the local mobile developers and startups – get them excited about the Palm Pre and WebOS platform.

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A couple of years ago we reported on the launch of Pac-man for iGoogle. Today we’ve learned that Pac-man is now available for the iPod Touch and the iPhone. I wonder what the gameplay is like seeing as you have to hit tiny buttons on the iPhone screen. The game costs $5.99.

Want to feel old? Read this line from Jonathan Kromrey, general manager for Apple Games for Namco Networks, “With tricks and traps, special items and battles against giant ghost-bosses, this isn’t your parents’ PAC-MAN.” Luckily the “old” version of Pac-Man is also available.

Without looking, can you name the orange ghost?

Pacman is great, but where is that hottie Ms. Pac-man? Useless bit of info: I won a Ms. Pac-man tourney in Atlantic City when I was a wee little kid.

After walking past the Moscone Center where the Apple WWDC is being held, I noticed the sign below outside a coffee shop. It is from Symbian – they are having a “hackathon” in San Francisco this afternoon. They are pushing hard to get iPhone developers to switch to Symbian. It appears if you show up you get a free Nokia phone. In addition, they are offering free food and video games — what more could a developer want?