Posts Tagged ‘ipad developments’
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Apple Scores with Digital Textbooks and App
The sizzling rate at which e-books are growing suggests that digital textbooks almost certainly will be the norm when your kids’ kids are in school. What we don’t know is how quickly a transition to a mostly all-digital textbook education system might happen, how it could affect the way students learn, and which companies will be leading the charge.
Apple
Apple’s new iBooks software is meant to replace old textbooks with interactive ebooks stored on your iPad.
Two weeks ago, Apple declared its intention to be at the head of the class, with the unveiling of the iBooks 2 for iPad app and the iBooks textbooks that are the first to exploit the app.
I’ve spent time diving into some of these textbooks on the original iPad and the iPad 2. Initial works in algebra, biology and chemistry come from major educational publishers McGraw-Hill and Pearson. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and DK are also early publishing partners (the latter produces books on dinosaurs, insects and mammals).
Though I encountered some unfortunate crashes and bugs — Apple has a software fix coming soon — multitouch digital textbooks, when working smoothly, are engaging in ways that were simply not possible with the textbooks I grew up with. Digital versions promise instant search and easy navigation. They’re rich in interactive animations, pictures and videos. It’s better to see an animated tour of the genome in E.O. Wilson’s Life on Earth than just to read about it. The various books let you consult study cards, create bookmarks, drag your finger to highlight passages and add notes. And textbook authors can update material to keep it current.
The other obvious A-plus benefit, true of any e-book but especially comforting to a student schlepping from class to class, is that you can lug the digital equivalents of heavy print textbooks without breaking your back.
Still, Apple and other companies hoping to make a big play in the digital textbook space face arduous tests. There aren’t many available textbooks for iBooks 2 yet, in part because Apple, as usual, kept things close to the vest prior to launch.
And no matter how compelling a digital textbook might be, it is only useful to a student if the teacher or school decides that this is indeed the textbook to use with their class.
To encourage development, Apple launched iBooks Author, a free authoring tool for the Mac that encourages anyone to produce their own iBook textbooks, cookbooks, how-tos and other works. Apple says more than 600,000 copies of the tool have been downloaded since launch. Authors can distribute the books for free. But if they put the iBook textbook up for sale, they must do so through Apple’s iBookstore. (Authors can use the content in other digital and print formats, Apple says.) So the supply of digital textbooks should look a lot better by next school year.
Another question mark is the iPad. Not every parent or school district is likely to buy iPads, which start at $499 each, for every student, even if educational discounts lower the cost a bit.
The first textbook titles concentrate on high school curricula and are priced at $14.99 or less, well below most of their print counterparts. The first two chapters of Wilson’s book are free.
Apple has designs on the rest of the K-12 market, too, but hasn’t said much about the prospects for iBooks on college campuses, though you can bet it will become an area of emphasis. But given how much college textbooks cost — well into three digits in many cases — it’s hard to imagine Apple matching $14.99 pricing for them.
Apple has competition, too. Already, a couple of start-ups, Kno and Inkling, produce slick digital textbooks for the iPad. And I’d expect Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble to respond in some way.
Moreover, except for the odd torn page, you never have to worry about technical issues with old-fashioned textbooks. The Wilson book, among others I tested on the original iPad, froze. Performance on the iPad 2 was a bit poky at times, too. That Apple is producing a fix is good: A student who fails to do his assignments would be hard-pressed to say, “The iPad ate my homework.”
Apple has certainly provided authors and publishers with tools that can provide compelling high-tech textbooks. But it’s up to those authors and publishers to deliver the goods. As Wilson writes in Life on Earth, “Although we believe in the power of visual storytelling, we are careful to keep special-effects glamour in its place. Our animations are crafted to achieve high-quality instruction, not box office.”
The bottom line
Apple’s iBooks 2 and iBooks 2 textbooks
Pro. Multitouch books engaging, easy to search and keep current and feature videos, animations, diagrams. First high school books inexpensive.
Con. Very few titles. Buggy software. Requires iPad, but not every student can afford.
E-mail: ebaig@usatoday.com. Follow @EdBaig on Twitter.
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Should Apple take more action against march of the iOS clones?
Plants vs. Zombie and Angry Ninja Birds removed, but other misleading apps remain
Played Plants vs. Zombie yet? It’s available for iPhone and iPad for £1.99 – a snip, given its promise of “proffessional characters and levels design. Fun and colorful animation. Full retina display support. Very intuitive and addictive game with simple touch control. Many bonuses and extra points!”
It’s strange to see a company as experienced as PopCap Games mis-spelling the word professional in an App Store listing, though. And hang on, isn’t it Plants vs. Zombies? What happened to the rest of the undead?
As you may have guessed, this game has nothing to do with PopCap. Plants vs. Zombie is the work of a developer called Anton Sinelnikov.
He’s also the man behind an array of other familiar-sounding iOS games, including Angry Ninja Birds, Temple Jump, Numbers With Friends, Tiny Birds and Zombie Air Highway. Not to mention non-game apps with alluring titles like Lovely Girls, Sexual Offenders HD, The Horse Woman (“Warning: Adults 21_ ONLY!”) and Victorian Sexy.
It’s the games that are causing a stir among mobile developers though, especially those whose games Sinelnikov’s titles and icons have been clearly inspired by.
He’s not the only iOS developer playing this game. Another firm, Top Best Adult Entertainment, boasts a portfolio including MoonCRAFT, Little Pet Pony, Bens 10 BattleTime and Talking Bunny Bugs.
Links to both these developers’ portfolios have been doing the rounds among iOS developers in recent days, often accompanied by suggestions that Apple should be doing more to stop them.
There is evidence that the company is. Imangi Studios founder Keith Shepherd – it makes Temple Run, which is the game that seemingly inspired Temple Jump – has tweeted that “Apple has pulled ‘Plants vs Zombie’, ‘Angry Ninja Birds’, and ‘Zombie Air Highway’ from the same seller but not ‘Temple Jump’ yet.”
In earlier tweets, Shepherd had pointed to reviews of the latter indicating that some people have bought it expecting Temple Run – currently one of the most popular and lucrative games on iOS – and posted one-star reviews on the App Store to express their disgust.
The existence of these kinds of apps is provoking an important debate about how Apple moderates its App Store, and by extension its rivals with their stores too.
Apple may have the reputation of being pretty hands-on with its approval process, but it has tended to leave IP infringement to be policed by developers. They make a complaint, and Apple removes the infringing apps from its store if that complaint is upheld.
The process has seen Atari criticised in recent months for forcing the removal of games like Vector Tanks, which it sees as too similar to its classic title Battlezone. Yet this is the same process that Imangi and other developers will need to use to petition for the removal of so-called “scam-apps”.
There are safeguards built into the App Store – chief among them its rating system. Temple Jump’s average rating here in the UK is 1.5 stars from 18 ratings, while Temple Run’s is five stars from more than 86,000 ratings. It doesn’t seem that hard to spot which is the kosher title.
Should Apple be playing copyright cop before apps are released onto its store? It’s a can of worms, especially when such moderation would pre-empt any legal process.
Far better to ensure that its takedown process is fair and speedy: although judging by our interview with P2 Games in December 2011 about its struggles with apps ripping off brands like Peppa Pig, there is still work to do on this front.
Plagiarism is a hot topic in the iOS development community at the moment, with a separate debate around Zynga’s new game Dream Heights, and its perceived similarities to independent developer NimbleBit’s Tiny Tower.
Rather than sue or demand a takedown in that case, NimbleBit chose to call Zynga out on Twitter with some side-by-side screenshots, sparking a return volley from Zynga chief executive Mark Pincus, who compared Tiny Tower to older (non-mobile) game SimTower.
That debate is ongoing, as is a lawsuit between Spry Fox and 6waves Lolapps over similarities between the former’s Triple Town and the latter’s Yeti Town.
Here’s why apps like Temple Jump, Angry Ninja Birds and the rest are different, though. For developers, the Zynga/NimbleBit row is about harm that may be caused to the smaller developer, if it loses players (or potential players) to Zynga’s new game. The players will likely have a good experience whichever one they play.
In the case of Temple Jump, it’s not just Temple Run developer Imangi that is losing business. Apple’s customers are being harmed if they pay for an app that isn’t what they think it is from developers like Top Best Adult Entertainment or Anton Sinelnikov.
If, as Shepherd tweeted, these apps are disappearing from the App Store, that is likely to be the main reason: harm to consumers, rather than to developers.
With so much money swashing around the iOS ecosystem though – $700m paid out to developers in the final quarter of 2011 alone – Apple will need to keep its big red takedown button to hand for the forseeable future.
Betfair revamps its iPad app after strong mobile gambling growth
Betting exchange may weave mobile-specific social and location features into its apps in the future
Betfair has relaunched its iPad app in response to what it says is strong demand from its customers for more tablet-focused features and interface.
The app, which is now live in Apple’s App Store, makes it faster for customers to place bets on currently-popular sporting events, while also drilling down into other sports, and quickly depositing and withdrawing funds from their accounts.
The update comes after a strong year of mobile growth for the betting exchange. In its last set of interim financial results, covering the six months to 31 October 2011, Betfair said that more than £800m was traded through its mobile service, up 96% year-on-year.
That resulted in £9.1m of revenues for Betfair itself – 7.3% of its overall exchange revenue. The company now has more than 160,000 active mobile users, who placed 16.2m bets in that six-month period from within its apps and mobile site.
Betfair now has a 60-person team working specifically on mobile, up from 5-10 two years ago according to head of product Anil Bhagchandani. The investment appears to be paying off.
“Not only are people moving over from website to mobile, but there is incremental value from that,” he says. “Customers who were purely website and who then start using mobile almost always stay longer, bet more and have a higher ARPU.”
Betfair’s mobile ambitions started with an app for J2ME handsets, but it has since launched apps for iOS, Android and BlackBerry, as well as the HTML5 site.
“For most of the last year, we were trying to get apps across each of the platforms roughly as functional as each other and the website,” says director of technology Phil Dixon.
“”We may now take one or two of the platforms and begin to experiment and explore. iPad might explore different usage paradigms, for example, and on Android we may have a bit more flexibility to try different navigation.”
The new iPad app is a good example, developed in response to detailed feedback from Betfair’s tablet-owning customers – Apps Blog sat behind the one-way glass at the company’s focus-testing room in its London headquarters to watch one “VIP” user say in no uncertain terms what was lacking in its previous tablet apps, and how he’d like to use the updated version.
Dixon says Betfair is firm about not taking sides in the native apps versus HTML5 debate – it’s investing in both – and adds that the company’s API is likely to play an important role in future growth.
Developers can build their own apps using the API that tie into the Betfair exchange, with a handful available by the end of 2011, with more on the way. Android app ZoomBet is one prominent example, with its focus on speedy betting.
“Because we don’t have an adversarial relationship with our punters, it’s in our interests to broaden the ecosystem as much as we can with the API,” says director of technology Phil Dixon.
“We figured people are going to have niche ideas that we would never have or never pursue. The more apps out there that are very specifically relevant to consumers, the better.”
Betfair is also considering how it can make more use of mobile-specific features in its apps in 2012 and beyond, with location and social aspects to the fore in its thinking.
“My view is that the mobile is similar to what the exchange did to the web in 2000: there is going to be this game-changing way of betting which no one has figured out yet,” says Bhagchandani.
Outside the gambling industry, the key game-changer right now appears to be social: witness how Facebook is encouraging several industries to adopt its idea of frictionless sharing.
However, making more of social is a thornier task for companies like Betfair. It’s an inherently social service, in that it matches strangers with opposing views on the same sporting event, but its customers may not all be champing at the bit to share their activity with friends and family.
“There is a powerful angle there, but I don’t know what it is yet,” says Dixon. “It’s probably not streaming all my bets out to my Facebook feed! There are too many reasons why that’s wrong. And Facebook has not really engaged with gambling, although that’s changing.”
However, he adds that splicing social and location features could have great potential for a sports-betting service in particular, possibly inspired by the check-in mechanic popularised by Foursquare and Facebook in recent times.
“Think if you were in a stadium, and you knew that 2,000 people there were having a punt on Chelsea right now. Or if you walk past a pub and you’re an Arsenal fan, and 14 people are there having a punt on the match, would you like to join them?” he says, by way of illustration how this might work for Betfair.
Apps Rush: Super Bowl XLVI, RBS 6 Nations Live Challenge, Marie Claire Runway, Camden Crawl and more
What’s new on the app stores on Friday 3 February 2012
Super Bowl XLVI Guide
The NFL has launched an official Super Bowl app just in time for its season finale, as the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots. It includes a guide to host venue Indianapolis and an NFL Huddle feature to keep tabs on social media buzz around the event. The link above is for Android, but here’s the iOS version.
Android / iPhone / iPad
RBS 6 Nations Live Challenge
In a big day for fans of chasing odd-shaped balls round a field, rugby’s 6 Nations tournament also has an official app. Here, the focus is more on testing your knowledge: answering trivia questions before matches, then predicting the results of conversions and penalty kicks during games. Facebook is integrated to see how you compare to your friends’ scores.
Android / iPhone / iPad
Avid Studio
Avid’s tools have been used by professional film and TV editors for a long time, but now the company wants to take on Apple’s iMovie on iPad. Avid Studio is aimed at regular users looking to edit their home movies and share them on YouTube and Facebook. However, it can also export to the PC version of Avid Studio.
iPad
Marie Claire Runway Spring/Summer 2012
IPC has launched a new offshoot from its Marie Claire magazine – Marie Claire Runway – focused on fashion. It’s a standalone print mag, but also an iPad app that costs £2.99 versus the print issue’s £6. Expect footage from fashion shows and editors’ verdicts on the key trends.
iPad
Camden Crawl
Going to London’s Camden Crawl festival in May? There’s an app for that, with schedules, artist info, maps, social features and “money saving offers”. The latter will have to be good to convince people to pay £2.99 for the app, we sense.
iPhone
Remarks – Write notes and Annotate PDFs
Readdle’s latest iPad app does what it says on the tin, enabling you to take a PDF file and add annotations, highlighting, underlining and scribbles. Social features mean you can also collaborate with other Remarks users.
iPad
Gameloft Live!
Mobile games publisher Gameloft has launched a standalone Android app for its Gameloft Live! community, with mesaging, discounts and other social features built in. It’s fair to say Microsoft is an inspiration: there are 3D avatars and a “gamer score”.
Android
Doodlecast Pro
Doodlecast was a fun app for children that let them draw while recording their voice, turning the results into a video to be shared with family. Now the idea has evolved into a professional tool for presentations: “Perfect for teachers, students, business people and anyone needing an elegant way to share ideas…”
iPad
TallyTots
iOS kid-app TallyTots has made the leap onto Android, offering 20 mini-games to teach children the numbers one to 20. Chipmunks, apples and racing cars are all promised, along with a song.
Android
Guess Who? for iPad
Sadly nothing to do with the famous boardgame, but still a very interesting app. Based on Kyoung Kook Lee’s print book of the same name, this gets children to guess which characters are coming up on the next page, while listening to music and recording their own voices.
iPad
Despicable Me: Storybook
More iPad fun for kids comes with this book-app based on the animated movie Despicable Me. The core storyline is augmented with a soundboard, interactive blueprints and other playful features.
iPad
Sir Benfro’s Brilliant Balloon
Lovely-looking iOS game Sir Benfro’s Brilliant Balloon sees you flying the “naturalist, scientist and explorer” through forests, oceans and down into the depths of the Earth in search of bizarre beasts.
iPhone / iPad
BlipSnips Social Video
Android’s equivalent to SocialCam on iOS makes its debut. BlipSnips claims to be an easy way to shoot, tag and share video footage, including pushing it out to Facebook and Twitter while tagging friends on those social networks within the video itself.
Android
Babylon Translator
Text-translation firm Babylon has taken its app to Windows Phone, translating words between more than 75 languages, with a currency converter thrown in for good measure.
Windows Phone
Sector 33
The latest game to follow in the wingtips of Firemint’s Flight Control is Sector 33, which gets you merging arriving planes into a single traffic stream over California. The developer knows a thing or two about airspace, as well. Who are they? Oh, NASA…
iPhone / iPad
Offering Online Services Via Mobile Apps
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Apps Rush: Longform, Everpix, Chopsticks Novel, Fly With Me, Saboriman, Limahl and more
What’s new on the app stores on Thursday 2 February 2012
A selection of 21 new apps for you today:
Longform
iPad app Longform is a bit like a Flipboard for longer articles. It aggregates longform journalism from magazines and websites around the world, then slaps them into a tablet-friendly interface, complete with offline mode.
iPad
Everpix
The latest hotly-tipped cloud service is Everpix, which focuses on photos. It automatically uploads shots from your iPhone Camera Roll, while also fetching others from Facebook, Instagram and Flickr. “View, rediscover, and share your best photos all in one place, effortlessly,” promises the App Store listing.
iPhone
Norton Safety Minder
The rush of security firms onto Android continues, with Norton launching Safety Minder, which encourages parents to “know your kids’ smartphone habits and help protect them from threats”. It sounds frankly a little creepy in places though. “See whom your kids text with and what they say, choose whom they can exchange messages with, view all the apps installed on their smartphone, and more…”
Android
Chopsticks Novel
Penguin’s latest book-app describes itself as “a breathtaking cohesion of images, songs, videos, letters, love and loss”, offering the tale of a romance between piano prodigy Glory and her neighbour Frank.
iPhone / iPad
Dream PetHouse
Zynga’s latest iOS social game focuses on animals, as you build a treehouse to keep an array of digital pets happy. Warning, includes in-app chipmunks.
iPhone / iPad
Vimeo
Video site Vimeo has launched an official app for Windows Phone, redesigned for Microsoft’s Metro interface. Users can watch videos, add them to their queue, and upload their own footage from their smartphone.
Windows Phone
Pocketstock
This is interesting: a stock photo agency allowing people to shoot and upload photographs directly from their iPhone, via it’s app. Users need an account with the Pocketstock website first, though.
iPhone
Cornered! App Edition
Horror film Cornered! has been launched as an iOS app, offering five minutes of footage for free, and an in-app purchase option to unlock the full movie as a stream or a download. Extras include posters, film-set blueprints and production photos.
iPhone / iPad
Tunnel for iPad
An iPad book-app all about tunnels? Why not? It’s the work of Japanese engineering photographer Hoichi Nishiyama, based on a print book published in 2005. 56 hi-res shots of tunnels and related machinery, soundtracked by dub-techno artist Mystica Tribe.
iPad
Fly With Me
EA makes its bid for the Tiny Wings crowd with new title Fly With Me, which was apparently dreamt up by a team of four people in its EALA studio.
iPhone
Saboriman: The Lazy Salaryman
More fun from Japan with this English language-learning app, with its cartoon hero an idle office-worker. The idea: Saboriman’s daily life teaches key English vocabulary and phrases, with plenty of humour along the way.
iPhone
Dr. Seuss Beginner Book Collection #1
Oceanhouse Media’s latest Dr. Seuss book-app bundles five stories together, including The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and Mr. Brown can MOO! Can You?
iPhone / iPad
Magic: The Gathering Toolbox
Card game Magic: The Gathering has oodles of unofficial apps on iPhone, but this one comes from the game’s publisher Wizards of the Coast. It’s a companion app for the main game, not a standalone title or conversion. “Track game state, search cards, build decks, read articles, learn about events, and more…”
iPhone
Walking Heads
Audio tour startup Walking Heads has launched an iPhone and Android app providing a guide to Glasgow’s musical history. Radio DJ Jim Gellatly provides the voice narration for a tour of the city’s venues and musical hotspots.
Android / iPhone
Limahl 1983
80s popster Limahl has a new iPhone app, although it’s harking back to his glory days. Limahl 1983 is based on his new single of the same name.
iPhone / iPad
Cyworld (Global)
Social network Cyworld is hugely popular in its native South Korea. Now it has a global Android app so the rest of the world can get a peek, with a news feed, club and photo-sharing features.
Android
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Popular Nintendo DS game Ghost Trick makes the leap to iOS, with Capcom’s conversion continuing the original’s ghoulish action. It’s a free download initially, but the game is split into chapters, with some available as in-app purchases.
iPhone / iPad
Jigsaw Mansion 2
Social games publisher Mindjolt SGN has launched its latest iOS game, a sequel to Jigsaw Mansion. It offers traditional-puzzle solving action, including the ability to turn your own photos into digital jigsaws to be shared with friends.
iPhone / iPad
Reckless Racing 2
Well-received iOS driving game Reckless Racing gets a sequel, with a top-down perspective and detailed career mode complementing online multiplayer races.
iPhone / iPad
InstaCam
This unofficial Instagram client for Windows Phones lets you sign in and view photos from your Instagram buddies, although as far as we can tell, you can’t upload your own. However, there are Instagram-style filters to apply to your pics and then share them on Twitter and Facebook separately.
Windows Phone
Kimi Raikkonen ICEONE Racing
F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen? There’s an app for him: a 3D racing game by 24MAS that sees you driving in a bunch of different vehicles on tracks around the world.
iPhone / iPad
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