In the early hours of Wednesday, the 15th of February 2012 (after weeks of hype) a new iPhone App was finally released from Apple’s review process. This is hourly news here at the Tribe and there are so many Apps that go unnoticed, but this particular App came to our attention a number of weeks back and we were excited. Nick Cunningham and April Meyer have now explored how it was promoted and whether or not it was worth the hype.

Nick - The application started gathering interest at Macworld | iWorld 2012 where Realmac Software, the creators, gave previews to interested users. While the Brighton-based company was in San Francisco spreading the news of their new App, word spread online. Twitter, blogs, promo videos, articles, word of mouth – you name it. The simple promo video created for this new App was only 51 seconds long, but it pulled you in and made you want to actually reach out and touch the App.

In the week following Macworld, Realmac Software kept interested parties and users at arms length by not giving away much information on when this App was going to be released. One response to a tweet asking when it was going to be released was simply “February ”. Then on the 6th of February came a simple but effective tweet: “In Review”. It had to be close now, didn’t it? But no, there was silence for four days. Four days! Do you know what you could do in four days? You could drive non-stop from New York to San Francisco and back again with four hours to spare (depending on traffic, of course)! That’s over 5,820 miles. Why you’d do that I don’t know, but that gives you an idea how long us App enthusiasts were wondering and checking for updates.

NY to San Francisco

When more news finally came through, just like before they kept us at arms length.

Sure, five more days couldn’t hurt. In these five days they gained more and more followers on Twitter and more and more articles were written, building the buzz even more. They did a very good job tweeting back to people’s questions, even if they had answered them a few tweets previously. The 14th came and I noticed in my Twitter feed.

Wait, so not only did they make us sit on edge but they’re now doing individual country releases? People on the opposite side of the world are playing with this new gestures based App and we can’t. No fair! Then it hit Ireland and Europe at €0.79 cent? Sure, no problem Apple. My feeling is that they did such a good job building it up through social media and the interface looked like nothing else out there that they made you want to buy it without thinking twice.

So what does this App do that it warrants the interest of not only me and the rest of the Tribe, but thousands of other App lovers… it’s a To-Do list! Yes, you read correctly, a simple but effective to-do list. And what’s the name of this magical App shouting around the internet? Clear and as the tag line says “Life is messy. Simplify with Clear”.

April - So now that we’ve had a chance to play with Clear, I must say, it is a brilliant concept. Very simple, very clean and a pure delight to use — which is after all, the whole point! Its lovely to see an interface that is so uncluttered, it lets the user focus on the content (their long list of things to do) and getting back to actually doing real work. On a more academic note, by replacing the typical tap-instead-of-click interface with one that uses swiping, pulling and pinching gestures, this is one of the first Apps I’ve seen that really transitions from GUI towards NUI.

One of the things I was most anticipating about this App was seeing how they handled the first run experience. How on earth were the developers going to teach users how to interact with this?! They opted for a handful of tour-style screens and I feel this actually let the App down. I know it’s pretty minor and has no impact on how well the App is built, but the pictures of a hand using Clear on a phone (stills from the promo video maybe?) were, well, dull. I’m aware of the irony here, having praised simplicity only  a paragraph earlier, but sometimes a little added visual interest is needed to engage users and these images and their lackluster text left me with some easily-avoidable disappointment. As good ol’ Mr Norman tells us, a typical user may hold on to this negativity and judge the App before ever getting to the good bits – but I am not a typical user. My perseverance paid off quickly as the second half of the first run is an interactive demo that I thought worked very well. That, along with the little hints that appear in context, make me think that the first run would work just fine without the boring images.

Clear First Run

The first run aside, I find the gestural interface really intuitive and the sound effects are so happy I can’t help but smile every time I mark an item complete and there is that little audio reward. I admit I still have to pause on some actions while remembering exactly what I am supposed to do, however I think this will happen less and less as I use the App more.

With a nod to my last blog post on Interaction 12 and the difficulties raised in developing software for an international audience, I imagine that this App was/will be relatively easy for the developers to localise – no traditional button labels to struggle to make fit, just a few contextual prompts and modal windows to replace. With any luck, developers will take note of this and more Apps in the future will be accessible to wider audiences through a combination of tap-able buttons and gestural interactions.

Marking Item Off

But will I actually use this App on a daily basis? Unfortunately, I’m really struggling to decide. There is no shortage of to-do Apps out there, and while this is infinitely faster and more fun to use than Apple’s own Reminders App, it lacks some features that I would really appreciate. Personally, I need a little push to get things done and tend to schedule notices or alarms for myself to do this or that at a particular time. Clear’s very distilled functionality means it won’t make my phone beep at me and thus it becomes just a list maker instead of a to-do tracker. And I don’t make many lists. What’s more, I also like to be to reference URLs, locations, phone numbers, etc in my to-dos and Clear doesn’t allow this either. Thus the only thing that I see using Clear for is my shopping list… and I don’t think that is worth €0.79 when Notes comes pre-installed. As a designer and a developer, I really love what Clear is trying to do with gestures. It’s a step towards the future as we break away from the click-able, analogous interfaces that desktop computers exploit. But it feels like a nifty way of interacting has taken precedence over more valuable functions… or perhaps I’m just not the target market.

Nick - Can I see myself using it? Yes, I probably can as I make lists for everything and with Clear, creating a new list item or marking something off is so easy, it just comes naturally compared to other to-do Apps. As April mentioned though, it would be handy to be able to tie alarms for a certain items. If Realmac Software do go down this route, I look forward to seeing how they keep the flow of the current App. Then maybe I can use it to list all the places I want to see on my mad trip from New York to San Francisco… and back.

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!

A couple of months back my iPhone kept popping the following message up for no reason:

Since then I’ve been meaning to let everyone know what I did to fix it as I remember how frustrating it was. A lot of the blog posts I came across said this happened when you plugged the phone into speakers that didn’t comply with it. My problem though was that it kept popping up randomly, either when I was just in the home screen or checking mail and there didn’t seem to be a pattern of when it was popping up.

The reason for the randomly popping up message was that there was a build up of dust within the dock connector. There was mutual discouragement of trying to blow the dust out as you could end up blowing moisture against the adapter (which isn’t good). The solution that worked for me was to get a dry unused toothbrush and brush the dock connector very gently or, for the big bits of dust get a piece of paper fold it and gently scrape them out, be careful though because the adapter is very sensitive.

The Furious Tribe team are delighted to see that we have had eight of our apps nominated in seven different categories for the Appys, the Irish awards for Mobile Apps. The awards take place next week in Dublin  - we’re really looking forward to it and hopefully we’ll come away with a few awards! Good luck to all the other nominees, we’ll see you there.

24/09/10

After nearly 6 months in the making, today we launched the TV3 App. It’s great to finally see all the hard work bearing fruit. We’re really happy with the finished App, we think it looks pretty slick and as I write, it’s just gone to number 2 in the ‘Top 25 Paid’ apps in the app store, and it’s number 1 in the entertainment category so we guess a few other people must like the look of it too. It’s also cool because it’s one of the first apps to stream entire TV programs to your mobile device.

We worked closely with TV3 throughout the whole process, prototyping everything at each stage to make sure the user experience was the best it could be.

Get your copy of the App here, its a steal at only €1.59  http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/tv3-app/id393340799?mt=8

Furious Tribe work with TV3 Ireland on their entire mobile strategy, we’re already busy working on the launch of new mobile experiences, coming very soon – watch this space.

Furious Tribe has just launched a revolutionary new “App Builder” platform, this news comes as the mobile market is tipped to grow to US$17.5bn.  The new www.ApptivateHQ.com platform will

allow anyone to easily and inexpensively build mobile App’s for their company or organisation. While ApptivateHQ will initially focus on the iPhone platform, Furious Tribe have plans to add iPad and Android support in the near future.

With over 4.6bn mobile subscribers world wide, the launch of Apptivate is a strategic move that will position Furious Tribe as a leader within in the European App market claims Managing Director, Patrick Leddy.

Furious Tribe has already done well in the enterprise market acquiring accounts ranging from O2 to Citibank, EMI Music, Royal Sun & Alliance, RTE, TV3 and more. While we have always seen a strong demand in the enterprise market, we have witnesses and “insatiable demand” for mobile Apps in the SME market Leddy claimed.

We realised that SME’s needed to go mobile as well, but more often than not, they lacked the budget to deliver meaningful mobile experiences.  We identified this gap in the market and 12 months ago, and work on ApptivateHQ.com began Leddy added.

The ApptivateHQ.com is provided as “platform as a service” it is entirely web based and allows anyone to build and manage iPhone Applications.  The product is based on a freemium business model meaning that ApptivateHQ.com is completely free to sign-up and build your first App. You can build a fully functional App and then preview it in the web based simulator before publishing to the Apple App Store.

ApptivateHQ.com charges $399 submission fee for publishing of Apps + a $25 monthly fee.  The monthly fee includes hosting of your App on the ApptivateHQ Cloud and on-going access to the ApptivateHQ CMS. Thanks to our patent pending technology this means that you can update your content at any time without the need to resubmit your App to Apple claimed Leddy.

The new platform is a perfect example of a disruptive business model, currently developers charge up to $500 per day for iPhone development services.  Our product aims to “level the playing field” and turn the market on it’s head.
Now everyone can have a mobile App to represent their business and engage customers on their own terms.

It’s a simple, pay-as-you-go service claims Leddy, no need for a contracts and you can cancel at anytime.  It is the simplicity of the offering that allows brand managers to bypass their IT departments, and simply sign-up with the company credit card. The platform is completely self contained, we manage the servers, technology & submission to Apple. We will substantiate a monthly fee through continually adding value to our offering – with improvements added weekly meaning everyone is always on the latest version.

The platform will be targeted primarily at the north American market and will focus initially on launching App’s for newspapers, popular blogs, bands & events.  Yesterday Furious Tribe signed a deal with EMI Music Ireland, one of their enterprise customers – to publish a number of Artists on the Apptivate platform – starting with artist “Codes”.

“Mobile is the future, and companies that do not adopt a mobile strategy in 2010 – will become reactive followers in 2011” Leddy warned.

Furious Tribe is really excited to announce that we’ve been selected by RSA Chile to work with them on a number of digital initiatives. From when we got the first phone call, to the proposal and pitch everything felt like a perfect fit.

We can’t share the specifics of what were working on together yet, but lets say it’s highly innovative and in the field of emerging technologies. We are really looking forward to working with the great people at RSA Chile over the next couple of months to produce some great digital experiences. Watch this space

The latest generation of consumer electronic devices have many more capabilities than ever. We can stream live television to a games console or pin-point exactly where we are in the world on a mobile phone. As a feature set of a device increases, so too does the potential for that device to go beyond the bounds of what it was originally intended. This principle can be seen in the Nintendo Wii and the Apple iPhone.

The iPhone has not only revolutionized how we interact with touch screen devices, it has also allowed developers to create truly innovative products. An example of this would be within the “Medical” section of the iPhone App Store. It’s full of reference guides and learning aids for the healthcare industry. These applications give medical students and professionals the power to learn and research the latest treatments and drugs as they are given up-to-date information from reliable sources.

The use of motion-sensing games such as those found in the Nintendo Wii is now being used to help with physiotherapy. Patients with muscle problems are being given games such as Wii Sports to play to help with their range of movements. Research is being done into the cognitive effects of such games also. “Boom Blox” is a game for the Wii that was developed by EA from a concept that was devised by Stephen Spielberg. It’s a puzzle game where the player uses the Wii Remote as a pointer to interact with blocks on the screen. The aim of the game is to knock over the blocks by using certain tools provided (for example one level may give the player a block to throw whereas another provides dynamite). Japanese research has shown that this game helps to improve the cognitive and spacial reasoning in children. The reason for this is the game prompts the user to consider the physics behind their actions, how falling blocks interact with each other etc.

“Thinking outside the box” has allowed developers to craft truly ingenious ways to use information that can be of benefit to everyone and allow researchers to see the potential for healing and rehabilitation in something as simple as a computer game. As more and more new features are added to these sorts of devices, we can only dream of what benefits they hold.