At Furious Tribe we’ve been quietly working away for the last few months on improving our Apptivate platform.

When we first launched Apptivate in 2010, we created a highly disruptive business model that allowed enterprises to build and manage their own Apps for iPhone.

Since then, we’ve sold thousands of Apptivate licences all over the world and we’ve also added multi-platform support and a host of other new features to better meet our customers needs.

Today we’ve added the biggest and most exciting feature since Apptivate’s initial launch and we think it’s going to be a game changer for both our product and our customers.

We’ve introduced an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) into Apptivate so our customers now have total control over their Apps. Using our IDE, our customers now have the power to break free of our pre-built modules and templates and completely customise everything about their App, from the placement of a button to complex user interactions. Now our customers can edit or create code within the Apptivate IDE and make use of web technologies like jQuery mobile, CSS and javascript to make their mobile Apps come to life.

Files and folders are easily created and saved, and users have the option to choose their preferred colour theme to code in.

We’ve changed the user journey for creating new Apps a little bit. Users now have the option to create either a ‘Simple’ or an ‘Advanced’ App. Users can only use the IDE with an Advanced App, however for clients who don’t need the IDE our pre existing modules are still available via a Simple App. Within our new system, users can create multiple Apps within the one account, and you can assign version numbers and notes to go with each App.

We know from working with some of our Enterprise customers both locally and internationally that this is exactly the kind of feature our clients want to be made available to them. All our product development is directly influenced by what we’ve learned by working with clients such as RSA, AXA Global Distributors, Davy and Danone to name a few.

We’ve recognised that there is a strong demand from the Enterprise market for strategic mobile consultancy coupled with innovative technology that allows enterprises to have control over the maintenance of their Apps. We believe the Furious Tribe offering is meeting our clients’ needs but we’re not stopping there. We’ve already moved on to developing new functionality and we’re looking forward to releasing even more innovative features for Apptivate in the very near future.

On the 8^th of July, two iPhones will be aboard the last shuttle launch ever Atlantis!  The iPhones have had an App installed, Spacelab for iOS. The astronauts on board will then use the iPhones to conduct experiments. The four experiments are:

• Limb Tracker- The astronauts will take a picture of the earths curve, this then will be allow for the iPhone to calculate its altitude.

• Sensor Calibration Tool- This uses the phones pictures and the inbuilt motion sensor to attune the phones gyroscope (allows the phone to know which way it is facing) and accelerometer (measure the acceleration force).

• State Acquisition- Using images of the earth from the phone, this will calculate the iPhone’s position in relation to where it is passing over.

• Life-cycle Flight Instrumentation- This will monitor the effects of radiation on the iPhone. In space everyone maybe exposed to certain level of radiation, not just iPhone’s!

The Spacelab App can be bought in the App Store, which will allow for users to gain the ability to conduct some of these experiments. Though some of the experiments will be simulated due to the fact we live in a gravity enriched environment.

Apple this time has out done themselves.  Though they probably had nothing to do with suggesting putting iPhone on a shuttle. They will be delighted even 200 miles up, a group of individuals will be going “wow that’s a cool app, I must get that one”.

Source: Venturebeat

Here at Furious Tribe we are always fast onto new research on mobile Apps. This morning we came across some research, done by MTV, which was found on mobilemarketingwatch.com. Which is aptly named “Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em: Adoption, Abandonment and the App-Addled Consumer”. The research’s objectives was to find out why consumers keep and cherish certain apps and delete others minutes after receiving others.

Everybody’s favourite music channel took 1300 app users and gave them in depth interviews about their usage and interest of apps. The study produced, that Apps are an extension of a users life and that this extension was done through digital means- Deep Stuff!

83% of people studied admitted to being addicted to certain apps. Here at HQ we know what that feels like, we shed a little tear every time one our apps, leaves our doors to the big world of the App store.

The study produced that 68% of men would give up coffee for a year, to have their favourite apps. While 68% of woman would give up Fizzy drinks to have their personal much-loved Apps.

The study concluded what we always knew here at Furious Tribe, that Apps are not just a simple gimmick on your mobile but can become an essential and integral part of an individuals activities throughout a day. For instance the study shown that 77% of people think of apps are their personal assistants. Everybody can now have an entourage.

So we believe its now time we listen to our doctors and give up the caffeine and get a new fix with your favourite apps!

Further to our nominations for the Appys, we discovered today that the App we developed for TV3 has been shortlisted in the Mobile App category for the Eircom Spiders awards. Very exciting!

I truly am baffled by the Apples rules when it comes to the iPhone app approval process. I recently heard of an app that was denied as Apple said the music it used was being streamed which was stupid as the music turned out to be embedded. Its bad enough you have to wait about two months before your app can be launched but there is also a very big chance your app could fail the approval process. This can be incredibly frustrating for developers as a scheduled release date can be held back for months. Many are beginning to believe the approval process is being outsourced to different companies that don’t even review the apps properly let alone know the iTunes App Store rules.

Some developers who’ve submitted their applications to the iTunes App Store in the past few days have received an email from Apple informing them that due a massive approval queue their app might not go live before Christmas. Sadly the culprit, besides the incredible slowness of the entire process (groan), appears to be a surge of apps trying to hit the app store in time for Christmas and bask in the glory of a million unwrapped iPod touches and iPhones (extra groan).

While the current backlog issue might simply be the result of a flood of app submissions Apple didn’t quite predict, it still doesn’t take away from the fact that there is serious flaws with the approval process. One of the things that really gets my goat is one of the main rules you must adhere to that’s being ignored which is the Objectionable Material rule stating that no app can boast nudity or ridiculously high amounts of violence and sex, yet the amount of apps that can easily find in the app called iBoobs, Adult swim, Asian boobs etc that surely break this rule.

All i can say is Apple get your F***ing act together as you may be biting the hand that feeds you.