App III – The Cult Movie Directory has landed

Cult Movie Directory

My third App (this time co-created with Mediatwin aka Phil Guest) has arrived in the iTunes store.

Each month the Cult Movie Directory offers you two monthly film recommendations and informative retrospective reviews from two cult movie lovers.

August 2011 Selections – Diving Bell and the Butterfly // Get Carter
September 2011 Selections – Wages of Fear // Society.

There’s also quick and easy access to the weekly cult movie bulletin blog of interesting news and features and an immediate connection to the unique Cult Movie Directory Twitter feed.

Buy From iTunes | More Information

Thomas Dolby and Bjork – Musicians Innovating With Gaming and Apps

As money from CD sales evaporates it’s always interesting to see how innovative musicians are approaching the multimedia world these days. Two real innovators recently have been Thomas Dolby and Bjork.

Thomas Dolby’s Map of the Floating City was a rich multiplayer transmedia game within a living world based around Thomas Dolby’s recent and past back catalogue of songs. Over the last two months I’ve been playing the game which through trades of items allowed users to travel across the sea towards the mythical floating city and at the same time build up a stack of Thomas Dolby mp3′s once all items in a set had been collected. There was a lot more to the game than trading but unfortunately time and work commitments didn’t allow me to fully explore it but it was a really different and interesting experience to some of the other online games I’ve come across.

Whats interesting is that Thomas Dolby funded it’s development himself: ”There is no record company behind this game, no marketing budget, no cynical ulterior motive. I dreamed it up as a way to fuse together all the mythology running through my songs and lyrics over the last 30 years, and to tie it in to my new album. It’s an extension of my own artistic expression. ”

App developers might like to consider getting hold of a copy of last month’s UK Wired where there’s a really interesting article about Bjork’s iPad app - How Björk’s ‘Biophilia’ album fuses music with iPad apps - and the development process behind it.

Some of information came as a surprise to me (for example, Touchpress spending $200,000 on R&D for the Hollow and Crystalline apps and Whitby and Gray selling 200,000 copies of The Elements where I’d have expected this to have made a lot more sales based on the press coverage it received) and again Bjork is releasing the apps independently to the record company.

Bjork – Biophilia (iTunes Store)

App Developers:

Cosmogony – Developer: M/M
Crystalline – Developer: Touchpress
Thunderbolt – Developer: Scott Snibbe
Virus - Developer: Scott Snibbe
Moon – Developer: Max Weisel
Hollow – Developer: Touchpress
Solstice – Developer: Max Weisel
Sacrifice - Developer: M/M
Mutual Core – Developer: tbc
Dark Matter – Developer: tbc

Other musicians dipping their toe in the water :  (courtesy of Word Magazine Bloggers)

 

New Publishing Models for Books (eBooks and Apps)

I was interested to read yesterday about the launch by Todd Sattersten of his new book “Every Book Is a Startup” who argues that authors and publishers need to be more entrepreneurial and treat each book like a startup business.

He is currently using the startup model with O’Reilly to publish his new title releasing it as an eBook even though it’s not complete (charging for two chapters), with future chapters promised as free updates, and as the book grows in length the price goes up. When finished, it will also be released in print.

This was quite exciting news as it’s a similar approach to what I’ve been aiming to do with the Social Media Friend although I’m releasing Apps (on interesting social media topics and phenomenons) rather than eBooks as  they seem to offer the opportunity and flexibility for future interactivity like integrating with Twitter and the latest Web Links on tablets and phones. I’m still not sure about the final format for my book when it’s hopefully completed next year.

I wonder what book publishers and agents think of these innovative new approaches or whether they’re still trying to work out how to approach new technology? At least they have a chance to influence what develops if they’re quick off of the mark (unlike the music industry which stuck it’s head in the sand and hoped that digital would just disappear and look what happened to them)…..

NHS Direct – The App (First Look)

NHS Direct has arrived on the mobile platform and unfortunately if you’re looking at it from a cold critical perspective the initial version looks like a great idea which has been poorly executed and thought out.

Initial responses to my own Social Media App from users and from Apple focused on criticism of it being too much like a mobile website and the NHS Direct app seems to be not a lot more than that.  It’s the NHS Direct Website bundled in a mobile wrapper so currently you could just as easily be looking at the web version through your mobile browser and I’m surprised it made it through the approval process unscathed in this iteration.

Unlike the NHS Drinks Tracker, the design and layout don’t appear to have been conceived from a mobile users perspective – the approach seems to have come from a web design view and it looks like a website rather than an App. Worringly, the Contact Us feature doesn’t have the NHS Direct Phone Number visible on screen (just a button to press to get an alert up) – begging the question has anyone actually thought this through from a usability perspective?

Also, as with most apps in their first version it’s slow to load and chock full of bugs on the version I tested on iPhone (computer bugs not thankfully the nasty variety)  – as an example Bites and Stings errored out and froze the App when one of the Next buttons was used and this won’t work unless you turn your phone on and off again.

Critics might also see this as another buffer zone inbetween actually managing to get to see a doctor at your surgery and do they really expect older users to be able to use it effectively? If you’ve ever been in some surgeries in the UK some of the older patients are unable to work out how to use the touchscreen technology to book in for an appointment (so where are the considerations for them in this new mobile world?)

The Android press release states that users have been involved prior to the launch of the app which is nice to see but I wonder whether anyone was asked from a mobile technology viewpoint and my heart sank when I tried it out as I really wanted it to be a great piece of software.

However, sadly this looks like a rush job that would have benefited from a few more months in development. The most interesting place to check in the near future will be  the comments section of the iPhone reviews (which seems to have more negative than positive comments at time of writing)….

NHS Direct for Android

NHS Direct for Apple

Thomas Hardy Trail – Version 1.6 Update Now Available

Version 1.6 of the Thomas Hardy Trail App is now available to buy from the iTunes store.

What’s New In Version 1.6

- Bug Fix – now shows correct map for Swanage on Outer Trail

Buy From iTunes | App Information

Thomas Hardy Trail – Version 1.5 Update Now Available

Version 1.5 of the Thomas Hardy Trail App is now available to buy from the iTunes store.

What’s New In Version 1.5

- A number of small bug fixes have been applied to increase screen load times.

- Information has been added on the Cerne Abbas Giant.

- Directions to Max Gate are now included.

Buy From iTunes | App Information

A Second Bite at an App

Thomas Hardy Trail

This week saw my second app see the light of day.

The Thomas Hardy Trail App aims to guide you around Dorset (known as South Wessex in his books) and allows you to discover, explore or plan a tour of Hardy’s birthplace and inspiration.

Version 1.4.1 debuted on the iTunes Store on 3rd May and a version for Android is also in the works in the near future.

More Information about the Thomas Hardy Trail App

Purchase Thomas Hardy Trail App (iTunes)

 

Like the Social Media Friend before it, the app has been written using Phonegap and this time I’ve utilised Jquery Mobile to give it a nice look and feel and for portability to other platforms.

I’m also maintaining a Twitter account for the App which aims to capture any interesting Hardy web news and this will hopefully be integrated into a later release:

Thomas Hardy Trail Twitter Feed

Developing Apps (in my spare time) has given me enough material to fill about three years of blog posts so watch out for more posts on this topic in the near future…

Social Media Friend

My first app has now been released !

The Social Media Friend has been created with the aim of helping everybody (whether young or old) to understand and navigate the world of Social Media and get to grips with the tools of Web 2.0.

In the initial version – which debuted on the iTunes Store on 24th March  – the topics covered are:

• An introduction to the world of Web 2.0.
• A handy hints and tips guide to getting the most out of using Twitter.
• A fabulous Social Media Glossary which provides a list of key terms in easily understandable language.

  

I’m going to be adding a lot more sections to the app as the year progresses too.  A version of the Social Media Friend for Android is also in the works and it’s currently awaiting approval before arriving on the Amazon App Store for Android in the near future so watch this space or visit the website:

More Information about the Social Media Friend App

Purchase Social Media Friend App (iTunes)

The app has been written using Phonegap which is a really great bit of software allowing you to write simple code for a range of mobile devices without having to know the in’s and out’s of Objective C or Java !!!

I’m also maintaining a Twitter account for the App which aims to distil the most relevant and interesting stories on the world of Social Media and this will hopefully be integrated into a later release (!):

Social Media Friend Twitter Feed

There’s also a Facebook page allowing you to express your love for it:

Social Media Friend Facebook Page

BackCare Back Pain App

In partnership with Pfizer Life, BackCare have recently produced an App for iPhone, iPad and iPod which distils and delivers the wisdom of the best back health care practitioners alongside exercise videos and fact sheets.

View BackCare App Link

BackCare is the UK’s only charity solely aimed at reducing the impact of back pain on society.

View BackCare Website

Practicing Hernia Repairs On the Move with Ethicon PVP App

The Ethicon PVP app is a course about umbilical hernia repair using a partially absorbable mesh patch. It has been designed for end users (physicians) and sales representatives to provide them with the necessary information, including anatomy and procedural steps, they need to understand how the mesh product is used……

iTunes Preview

Source : Macuser Magazine (Vol 26 Issue 13, p12)