Archive for the ‘App Review’ Category
Taylor Swift Joins the Mobile Roadie App Family
posted by Michael Arcand
She took the Grammys by storm and now it’s time for Taylor Swift to take over the iTunes store (again) and make her mark in Android. Starting today the much anticipated Taylor Swift app is now live and available for both iPhone and Android users.
The Taylor Swift app takes advantage of the versatility of the Mobile Roadie platform, creating an interactive experience for her fans. The application is enabled with push notification so that any time Taylor releases new music (both to sample and to purchase directly from within the app), videos or photos (and more), fans will be instantly updated directly on their iPhones. Fans can also see all of Taylor’s most up-to-date tour information, find and connect with other Taylor fans in their area as well as share their personal photos from Taylor shows with other fans in the application’s network.
Many of these features are easily configured by Taylor Swift and her team because they are using the Mobile Roadie content management system. Instead of requiring each and every change to go through a series of requests, designs, re-designs, etc., we provide a simple way for our customers to modify and organize their application’s functions and menus to their specifications. And with the Android platform now on board as well, it’s literally as easy as pie to keep your mobile app up-to-date with fresh material and to notify your fans or customers using push notifications.
Want it? Get it here.
The Next Twiistup is Coming Soon, Get the App Here
posted by Michael Arcand
Twiistup has become not just another tech conference, but literally the hottest tech event in the Los Angeles area. It’s a great showcase for people with new ideas and entrepreneurial spirit as well as a great place to network with media and investors all under one roof. The next event kicks off on January 28th and will feature 10 startups showing off their demos featuring some of the top up-and-coming technology out there. Speakers run the gamut from CEOs, startup founders, new media managers and the people who fund such ideas, seed investors and capital investment managers.
So how will you ever keep up with all the happenings before, during and after this Twiistup event? It’s easier than ever before with the new Twiistup iPhone app from Mobile Roadie. The app features official news, official tweets, and other buzz from the Twitterverse about Twiistup. There’s a fan wall where app users can get together to discuss news and events, as well as a full list of all the sessions available during the event. Join the mailing list or browse through photos and videos, both of past events and as they are published during the upcoming event.
If you’re going to the event, this app will help keep you on schedule and network with others who are there. If you can’t make it to the event, this will literally be the next best thing. Get yours in the Apple Store today and don’t miss out on all the buzz surrounding Twiistup!
Mobile Roadie Welcomes Dan Pink
posted by Michael Arcand
Mobile Roadie recently completed an iPhone app for Dan Pink, a former vice-presidential speech writer, and author. As a free agent, Dan’s work has appeared in publications like The New York Times and Wired. He has also offered his expertise as a business trends analyst for major news networks such as CNBC, CNN, and NPR. As a speaker his schedule always seems to be booked, with notable appearances including his talk on drive during the TED conference.
So, it was a privilege when Dan contacted Mobile Roadie to do an iPhone app for him. The official Dan Pink app is now live in the iTunes App store and available free of charge. With his iPhone app, Dan shares a lot of information with his fans and followers, including excerpts from his four published books as well as his audiobooks. If you want to find out when Dan will be speaking at a venue near you, it’s easy. Just pull up his speaking schedule under Tour and click on the venue you want more information on. You can confirm you are attending as well as interact with other app users in the comments section. Watch the full length TED talk, or clips from other interviews and speeches given by Dan. Using push technology, you can even sign up for notifications direct to your iPhone with the latest news and information from Dan.
All in all it’s a great app for anyone who reads Dan’s books and follows his revolutionary ideas about what motivates and drives us as humans. Not to mention he’s happy with it. In fact, we’re so happy that he’s happy, that we are offering a promo to those reading his blog who decide to get an app from Mobile Roadie. Simply use code DANPINK during checkout and get 15% off.
Taryn Southern App Now Featuring Ustream
posted by Michael Arcand
If you’ve been following along with Mobile Roadie’s adventures, then you are probably already aware that we were the first to bring Ustream to a third party iPhone app with the announcement of the official LeWeb iPhone App. Since the app debuted earlier this month in Paris, over 5,000 people have downloaded the app and watched live Ustream videos from their phones.
We are now pleased to announce that Taryn Southern’s iPhone app will also feature the ability for users to watch Ustream videos from within her app. This is sure to be a boon to Taryn’s already well-known status as one of the faces of new media. Her online videos include projects that she has written, produced and starred in, with success coming to the tune of over 50 million hits. She’s currently writing a half-hour comedy for MTV called Private High Musical, as well as starring in Comedy Central’s Senior Skip Day.
Her accolades are literally so numerous that I could not do them justice here. Let me just say that her endeavors are quite prolific and her successes have been nothing short of stunning. She has been nominated for numerous awards in the online and offline entertainment industry, including a Streamy Award; while winning the 2008 Spike TV Guy’s Choice Award.
If you are into the new media scene, or even if you’re just trying to keep tabs on who’s up-and-coming in the entertainment world, fans and newcomers alike will be wowed by the live streaming ability within Taryn Southern’s app. You can download the app here. Be sure and let us know what you think. Better yet, let Taryn know what you think. She’ll be delighted to hear from you.
The Alice in Chains Black Gives Way to Blue App
posted by Sean PercivalWe’re very excited to announce the release of the Black Gives Way to Blue iPhone app featuring the music of Alice in Chains. From their latest hit album of the same name, the Black Gives Way to Blue app has some unique features in addition to the already robust Mobile Roadie platform.
As seen in the below video, the app includes 3 full tracks you can stream directly from the app but what, there’s more. Each track is accompanied by an art piece you can interact with. Simply touch and slide various elements on the screen to reveal a treasure trove of goodies. Of course you’ll also find photos from the band’s Flickr stream and some full length music videos you can easily share with your friends via Twitter and Facebook.
Head on over to the app store to get your copy today.
(Bonus points if you can locate all the easter eggs we’ve hidden in this one.)
Apple calls us about a nude cartoon, we’re impressed
posted by Michael Schneider (Mobile Roadie CEO)
Since March 2009 we’ve tried to be good partners with Apple, making sure our Apps conformed to their standards, looked great, and added value for the end user and our customers. We also paid attention to blogs like TechCrunch and others that shined the spotlight on specific stories of rejections, and tried to proactively adapt.
Yet, despite our best efforts, in the six months since Mobile Roadie has launched, the toughest part of the business has been explaining to our customers the seemingly inexplicable delays and reasons for rejection. Adding insult to injury, Apple was very slow to respond, or just wouldn’t respond at all, when we tried to right wrongs.
In the last 30 days, however, I’ve noticed a change. I was cautiously optimistic after reading about how Phil Schiller was becoming more active in high profile rejections. Then I got a call from a guy named Neil. Neil explained that he was reviewing one of our Apps, one that happened to have quite a few YouTube videos. He told me that 3 minutes and 42 seconds into the sixth video (which was a cartoon), that there was a scene with nudity. He politely explained that this violates Apple’s TOS and the App couldn’t be approved unless we removed the video. I logged in to the CMS and removed the video in real time, he thanked me, and less than 30 minutes later we got an approval notice.
For Apple, a company of tens of thousands of employees that is reviewing a rumored 2,500 apps a week, to call one customer about that level of detail inside one App is truly amazing.
Even more amazing, Apple has approved nearly all of our v2 upgrades less than two weeks after we began submitting them, including approving 22 Apps in one day last week (a record for us). This is good for our customers and good for Apple to get our upgraded product in the store.
I’m glad Apple is waking up and being more responsive to developers, especially developers like Mobile Roadie that have many Apps in the store. Now, if we could just automate code base upgrades without having to resubmit each App individually…
Age-restriction alert fail on iPhone 3.0 apps
posted by brocksteady
Most iPhone users are now fully aware that iPhone 3.0’s parental controls allow you to specify the age of the user, from 4+ to 17+, and offer warnings about apps Apple thinks its users might find objectionable.
Theoretically, this is not a bad thing. We’re all used to seeing warnings on television shows and video games that forewarn of violence, bad language, sex scenes, etc. But Apple’s “objectionable material” warnings are inherently flawed — they don’t go into any detail as to the reason for the warning. For example, we’re forced to rate Mobile Roadie powered apps with the highest level of restriction (17+) simply because they allow users to comment on media in the app. So the cryptic warning on a completely inoffensive app like Jazz Piano is the same as for an app that actually does contain questionable material: “This product contains material that may be objectionable to children under 17.”
Basically these warnings are complete overkill for 99.9% of our apps. A warning more descriptive like: “This product contains user-generated content…” would be much more clear, as well as a much more honest representation of what the alert is about. Hopefully Apple will soon implement categories for these alerts, rather than the current all-encompassing cryptic warning from the Moral Authorities that completely overstates the objection.
