Turn your iPad into a MacBook Pro (via Designtaxi)
We’re not the first to highlight the newest social meets weather iPhone app, Weathermob - it’s already triggered an interesting debate on Wired and been featured by Guardian, Cult of Mac and Appadvice.
With the weather being THE most universal of conversation topics, the winter quickly drawing in and the collective mood changing with the season, the release of this app couldn’t have been timed better.
The app takes a whole new approach to weather - it has your hour-by-hour weather forecast data as you’d expect, but it’s the first time the human/social element has been layered on in a clever and interesting way, allowing you to make your own reports adding text, photo, video or simply using the nicely designed reporting icons for weather, mood and mood badge (take your pick from snowmen, penguins, ice creams and more).
You can choose to see reports from all over the world or those just local to you and it has Facebook and Twitter integration built in, so finding and following your friends is a breeze!
Very cool, looks slick and it’s free - so a must try for anyone who has ever had anything to say about the weather… which is everyone, right?
Weathermob for iPhone in free on App Store
ASOS, leading online global fashion retailer, has joined the likes of Ocado in rolling out a well thought through and excellently designed bespoke app that makes shopping on your mobile a genuine option.
ASOS launched their mobile web store back in October ‘10 which was OK, it did a job and was usable, but was very much a poor cousin to the online shopping experience found on the main ASOS.com site.
This new iPhone/iPad app from ASOS really steps it up a gear, after a noticeable but reasonable initial load time you’re able to view browse the thousands of products easily drilling down by category, trend or search. The product thumbnail images are big and clear enough to be useful, but what’s great is the pinch zoom function allowing you to get right in on the detail of images.
The navigation and differently functionality is all very intuitive, load times for new product to load seems VERY snappy and the app syncs all of your personal ASOS account info meaning that you’re able to see your saved items, add to basket, pay for and track your orders right from the app (though I did notice an initial glitch where it emptied my entire basket on first login - putting this down to teething problems).
ASOS keeping true to their innovative reputation, already fashion industry front runners in social media and now stealing a march on their rivals when it comes to mobile with an extremely good app.
ASOS app for iPhone and iPad is free from the app store.
[video]
The iPhone with it’s GPS has the capability to make an awesome (and very handy, always in your pocket) satnav and if you’re considering CoPilot Live from ALK, then consider no more… it’s very, very good.
When talking about satnav/GPS systems the obvious name that springs to mind is TomTom, however at £49.99 for TomTom on your iPhone it’s one of the more pricer apps, whereas CoPilot Live is a snip at £19.99 and does everything you’d need from a satnav and more.
CoPilot Live’s interface is clean and simple, I previously used a standalone TomTom device to get me around (admittedly not TomTom’s latest version) and CoPilot Live compares favourably - both navigate to where I want them to get to, but CoPilot seems a little more slick overall.
One of CoPilot’s standout features is it’s ‘Live’ services - as standard you get access to live weather, live local search and live link, and if you sign-up to the premium service you can use the live traffic updates and live fuel prices.
What I found particularly clever is the ‘social’ integration; via Facebook connect you can actually post status updates to Facebook and using the live link function you can coordinate and track meeting up with friends, enabling to see where each are on a map, message, etc which is a neat idea.
An iPhone holder and in-car charger are always a good idea when using your phone as a satnav - accessories are available direct from ALK here.
CoPilot Live for iPhone is £19.99, CoPilot Live for iPad is £24.99 from App Store.
To kick off, let me just say that I think this is brilliant - it’s not perfect and there are some niggling elements to it, but as an original, engaging idea for an iPhone app this is great.
Heineken have released Star Player, a game that you play during every UEFA Champions League match whilst watching the game live on TV.
It’s basically in-game gambling, but for points not cash. The idea is you prove your football instincts by anticipating/predicting live match moments - corner kicks, free kicks, penalties, when goals might be scored - e.g. will a corner kick be saved, scored, cleared or missed, or predict a goal will be scored in the next 30 sec (with more points being earned the earlier you predict).
It’s good fun to play and adds some excitement to a game, particularly for those ‘not so exciting’ second leg games, but there are some slightly frustrating points to it - like the actual football game often seeming to ‘move on too fast’ for Star Player to keep up with which voids your prediction for that moment, and occasionally the match moments just don’t register on the app. As stated earlier though, it’s new and original so I guess teething problems are to be expected and hopefully improved on quickly.
I’d like to see better Facebook integration. You can set up leagues via Facebook connect, but it’s a little clunky and seems like it was a bit of an afterthought. How about simply being able to see which of your other friends are using the app too? I think they’ve also missed a trick in not having any way you can use the app outside of when the Champions League games are being played.
All in all though it’s really clever, taps into the trend of multi-screen watching, looks good and is well done.
Heineken Star Player is free for iPhone on App Store.
“Channel 4’s 4oD iPad app released, free for limited time” — Get Channel 4’s excellent on demand service on your iPad via their new app - free for a ‘limited time’ so grab yours now from App Store.
“PikPok release first club branded version of Flick Kick … Flick Kick Chelsea” —
Flick Kick Football (the best iPhone game EVER) gets the Chelsea smile treatment - the Chelsea FC version includes the expected blues re-skin, but also is set at Stamford Bridge and features club trivia.
No doubt the first of many club branded versions - smart move PikPok, hats off to ya.
Flick Kick Chelsea is 59p on App Store.
Neat use of mobile from Orange RockCorps. Their ‘Do Some Good’ iPhone app allows you to complete bite-size actions - taking photos, completing surveys, etc - to help projects and charities via the app.
The Do Some Good app is free on App Store.
“Wife said no. But Apple said yes.” — Apple sends customer iPad 2 after wife made him return it (via cultofmac)