The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has launched a new iPhone app that provides lux travelers with personal tips from their president Herve Humler. Expanding upon basic hotel search and reservation functionality, the new app integrates with other social platform, such as Foursquare and World Concierge, and provides location based recommendations. Guests can also keep up with a hotel’s activity calendar, as well as have push notifications deliver reminders for any upcoming events.
Additional features of the free app:
- Make hotel reservations at all Ritz-Carlton hotels and resorts worldwide
- Access Ritz-Carlton Rewards account or enroll in the program
- View and edit upcoming reservations
- Browse full hotel information, photo galleries and amenities
- View interactive maps and turn-by-turn directions to their hotels
- Receive and view special offers while staying at their hotels
- Learn about events at the hotel during your stay
- Unlock experiences and stories at their hotels with our built-in QR code scanner
- View recommendations and tips from their world-renowned concierges
JoeyBra has created the first, sexy pocketed bra that conceals a smart phone, ID, and key. It’s the perfect bra to carry your iPhone while out clubbing. Who needs a purse? Official site.
As described by the founders, it’s “a unique pocketed bra design that allows women of all ages to go to dances, parties, or events without having to worry about bringing a purse.” Below, Mariah Gentry, Co-founder of JoeyBra, demonstrates her pocketed bra:
Official Release: The new Mercedes-Benz A-Class is “always on”: Mercedes-Benz puts the iPhone® on wheels
Stuttgart. Mercedes-Benz is making smartphones mobile and ensuring that such electronic assistants will in future be fully linked into the car’s infotainment system.
First off the blocks is the Apple® iPhone®, which Mercedes-Benz has now integrated comprehensively into the user experience concept of the new A-Class, as the first automotive manufacturer in the world to take this step. Thanks to a new “Digital DriveStyle App”, developed in-house, together with the “Drive Kit Plus for the Apple® iPhone®”, drivers can now access all the key content of their Apple® iPhone® through the in-vehicle display and enjoy safe and convenient operation of the device via the Controller on the center armrest. The attractive ‘look’ is ensured by the revolutionary user interface design. In a further world premiere, Mercedes-Benz will enable access to the voice-based intelligent companion Siri™ in the vehicle. This allows natural speech input, without the need for specific commands, to send messages, select music tracks and check the weather forecast or stock prices, as well as to make appointments. All the iPhone® integration functions can be used even with the entry-level Audio 20 system.
This seamless integration of the Apple® iPhone® into the vehicle, in conjunction with the new revolutionary user interface design, means that Mercedes-Benz is now able to offer the Facebook generation its natural home on four wheels, in the form of the new A-Class. Along with Facebook, Twitter and so on, the “Digital DriveStyle App” developed by Daimler offers further services and content to suit the digital lifestyle and will be available to download free of charge from the Apple® iTunes® store. Its highlights include:
Personalised internet radio by AUPEO! Personal Radio, which offers radio stations that compile an individual program for listeners and recommend similar music by genre or artists based on personal taste.
The advanced navigation software from Garmin, with internet-based real-time traffic information, online POI searches and 3D map display, all of which work even in combination with the entry-level multimedia system Audio 20
A socially interactive experience involving “sharing”, “posting” and the integration of music and other content from social networks including text-to-speech.
An intuitive ‘Car Finder’ which automatically stores the vehicle’s location. Pedestrian navigation makes it completely easy to find your way back to the car.
Access to the voice-based intelligent companion Siri™.
New here is also the contextual and location-based display of menu content under the headings “Social”, “Media” and “Places”. The basic logic behind this was presented by Daimler for the first time in January of this year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Appearing under the heading “Social”, for example, are the various friends and latest news from the social networks.
The user interface design is unique and revolutionary. Transparent symbols are illuminated in red to create three-dimensionally arranged navigation levels. Within the three-dimensional illustration provided by this menu structure, the user can move intuitively between the various functions in fluid, animated transitions. The user interface concept was designed and implemented by designers and engineers in the Mercedes-Benz research and development center in Palo Alto, California/USA. Enlarging the display of content on the screen to an appropriate format for use in a vehicle and allowing it to be controlled through the ergonomically positioned Controller on the center armrest makes operating the system both safe and easy.
The iPhone® is connected through an interface developed by Mercedes-Benz Accessories GmbH. This allows content to be fed directly from the graphics output of the device to the display of the vehicle. At the same time, the iPhone® is both powered and charged automatically while it is being used.
Full iPhone® integration is not only possible in conjunction with the COMAND Online multimedia system. All functions, including navigation, can also be used even with the entry-level Audio 20 system. Mercedes-Benz is thus making it possible for the A-Class’s younger target group in particular to continue their digital lifestyle seamlessly inside the vehicle. Both the “Digital DriveStyle App” and the “Drive Kit Plus for the Apple® iPhone®” will be making their debut in the new A-Class, which will be celebrating its world premiere at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, and are also planned to be available from autumn 2012 for the B-, C- and E-Class.
Always at your service: the voice-based intelligent companion Siri™
As the first automotive manufacturer to do so, Mercedes-Benz will be introducing Siri™ in a vehicle with easy access to it from the “Digital DriveStyle App”. While conventional voice recognition software demands the use of specific spoken commands, Siri™ understands natural speech patterns and will even ask questions in return should more information be needed in order to complete a given task.
Siri™ is a function of the latest iPhone® generation, 4S, and acts as a personal assistant. Given verbal instructions, for example, it will access the personal calendar to make or decline requests for appointments or meetings. SMS text messages can be dictated or read out, and emails sent. Siri™ can also be used as a convenient way of accessing the complete range of music stored on an iPhone® or to request the latest weather forecast.
Always up-to-date: COMAND Online with Cloud technology and
Mercedes-Benz App Shop
Safe and convenient access to the internet on the move is already available in a whole series of Mercedes-Benz models: the fully integrated multimedia system COMAND Online was introduced in 2011. As well as innovative applications such as Google Local Search including Google Street View and Panoramio, Mercedes-Benz is the only manufacturer to offer the option of sending individually preconfigured routes from Google Maps on a PC to the vehicle. The internet connection that is required for the functions in COMAND Online is established via a mobile telephone Bluetooth link and a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). Mercedes-Benz is firmly convinced that the future lies with cloud computing. The software used in the COMAND Online applications is not stored in the vehicle, but runs off the Daimler Vehicle Backend. The advantage of this is that applications can be continually updated in the cloud, and new applications released to Mercedes-Benz customers, without the need to visit a workshop.
In this sense on March 31st, 2012 a new Mercedes-Benz App to access News will be available to COMAND Online customers. Additionally, Mercedes-Benz Apps for COMAND Online will be offered soon in the new Mercedes-Benz App Shop. The first two Mercedes-Benz Apps to become available in the App Shop will be the Parking Finder and Morningstar Finance, that offers access to stock prices.
It is planned to introduce a dozen or so new applications each year. To this end, Daimler has set up App Development Groups in both Palo Alto, California/USA, and Bangalore, India.
Google and other online advertisers bypassed the privacy settings of an Apple web browser on iPhones and computers in order to survey millions of users, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The Journal said the companies used a special code that tricks Apple’s Safari software into letting them monitor the browsing habits of many users.
Safari — the most widely used browser on mobile devices and the default browser on iPhones and Mac laptops — is designed to block such tracking by default, the Journal said.
The Journal said Google disabled the code after the newspaper contacted it and that Google removed a message on its website saying users could rely on Safari to prevent the search giant from tracking them.
It quoted Google as saying the Journal “mischaracterises what happened and why.”
“We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It’s important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.”
The Journal quoted an Apple official as saying the company was “working to put a stop” to the circumvention of the privacy settings.
The code was first spotted by Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer and independently confirmed by Ashkan Soltani, a technical adviser to the Journal.
Google and Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.
Released in May 2011, it was based on an existing short film by Louisiana firm Moonbot Studios, claiming to take inspiration from Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton and The Wizard of Oz among other influences. It marked Moonbot out as a developer to watch, as did the company’s interactive music video app for US band Polyphonic Spree later that year.
Now the company has released its third app, Numberlys. It returns the focus to storytelling – the origins of the alphabet – with an equally diverse palette of influences: King Kong, Metropolis, Flash Gordon, the Marx Brothers and the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Moonbot was founded by two people with a background in animation and filmmaking – Brandon Oldenburg and Lampton Enochs – together with author and illustrator William Joyce.
“We were halfway through production on a short film when the iPad was announced, and we were fascinated,” says Oldenburg. “It was a way to deliver these mediums in one place in such an approachable way, we knew we had to be part of it out of the gate. This feels like the invention of radio, television or the movie cinema. A new thing with the grand potential that those had.”
Thus was born the Morris Lessmore app, which became a critical and commercial hit on the App Store. Oldenburg and Enochs remain awestruck by the way it spread globally, which is unsurprising given their previous experience in industries where worldwide distribution involved considerably more friction and middlemen.
“For a long time, it has only been the privileged few who had access to the distribution means or the right gear, but now it’s all around us and in the palms of our hands,” says Oldenburg.
“It really comes down to the creative now. We all grew up among really talented people in small towns, who all had something they should definitely share with the rest of the world, but there was a wall due to technology or publishing and distribution. That’s changed now.”
The success of the Morris Lessmore app put a certain degree of pressure on Moonbot’s team – creative rather than commercial – to come up with something even better next time round. Several months later, Numberlys is out.
Those influences are interesting, at a time when it can be easy for app developers to get sucked into the mindset of just being influenced by other apps. Enochs says that a visit to see the latest restored version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis film was a key touchpoint.
“The entire company went to see it, and after watching it we knew there was something about it that was so beautiful, we wanted to tap into that vine,” he says.
“We had a rough sketch of an idea that Bill [Joyce] had done about a group of little creatures that create the alphabet. So we threw a bunch of other themes that we loved into the pot and hoped it would make for a palatable broth.”
Numberlys is aimed at children, although not exclusively so. What’s heartening is that Moonbot didn’t try to dumb down its creative influences because of its young audience.
“It’s Fritz Lang for kids!” laughs Oldenburg, before Enochs talks about the company’s determination not to patronise its audience. “Bill never condescends to children,” he says.
“It’s an adult approach that treats kids with respect. You can look at Numberlys as an alphabet book, but it’s so much more than that. We’re not going with simple words like ‘D is for dog’. We’re using larger sophisticated words throughout the experience of this story, which match our sense of whimsy.”
Numberlys is also one of a number of book-apps – others include ustwo’s Papercut, Faber’s The Waste Land, 955 Dreams’ Woodstock and jazz timeline apps and the entire catalogue of Touch Press – that are going beyond the idea of virtual pages that have to be turned.
“It feels a little more like a film with interactivity,” says Enochs, describing Numberlys’ navigation system. “We’ve thrown page-turning completely out of the window. You navigate between chapters with a series of gears.”
Oldenburg talks about the way every new medium initially copies what went before it, most notably early TV broadcasts with a person reading out a radio-style news bulletin, or films with one fixed camera shooting actors on a stage.
“Then they realised that they could edit, cut, do close ups and move the camera,” he says. “We’re at that moment right now with app creation. We don’t have to approach this like a book at all.”
With Numberlys out, what next? Moonbot is fielding plenty of offers of work-for-hire app projects, but the company is keen to continue creating new stories with its own characters too. Oldenburg also stresses that Moonbot is not just about one medium: apps.
“Story comes first. We’re storytellers, and while the app thing is going great at the moment, in a few years it may be something else,” he says. “Our focus on storytelling will never go away.”
Strictly speaking, this is an e-book rather than an app, but Yellow Submarine is one of the titles that is blurring the boundaries between the two categories. Nabbed by Apple as an iBooks exclusive, the free book tells the story of The Beatles’ cartoon film, with video clips, music and interactive animations alongside the text. iPhone / iPad
ATLAS (Assisted Tactical Assault System) isn’t a standalone app: it’s a new premium feature for Microsoft’s Halo Waypoint apps on Windows Phone, iOS and Android. It includes content from Brady Games to help players of Halo: Reach improve their performance, but also functions as a live map while playing the console game, showing locations of vehicles, team members and weapons. Windows Phone / Android / iPhone / iPad
BSkyB has taken its live football scores app to Android, offering scores, commentary, league tables, match stats, radio and a feature to find pubs showing games in 3D. Android
Barnstorming virtual world for kids Moshi Monsters has a new iOS game, courtesy of Penguin Books. Based on the book of the same name, Buster’s Lost Moshlings involves exploring Monstro City, with a tracker mode to help younger kids play. iPhone / iPad
Developer Brothers and Sisters Creative has launched an interactive graphic novel for iOS based on Charles Dickens’ habit of roaming the streets of London at night, looking for inspiration for his writing. Illustrations from David Foldvari and voice narration from actor Mark Strong complement a map of the capital that will form the base for the planned series of monthly releases in this series. iPhone / iPad
Budget flights firm Easyjet has launched an iPhone and Android app to help people search, book and manage flights on their smartphone. The link above is for the Android version, so click here for the iPhone one. iPhone / Android
Sesame Street’s latest iPhone app lets kids receive video calls, audio calls and voicemail from its Elmo character, with parents able to schedule incoming calls for situations including going to the doctor, birthdays and potty training. In-app purchases are included for specific “call packs” including ABCs, holidays and singing. iPhone
Cartoonist Eddie Campbell made waves with his In The Days of the Ace Rock’n'Roll Club comic in the 1980s, and now the editions have been collected and digitised for an iPad app. The storyline concerns a group of Southend teddy boys in the 1970s, with extra content including interviews and an unpublished strip. iPad
Microsoft’s enterprise service Lync is going mobile, although the Windows Phone app requires an existing Lync server or Office365 / Lync Online account to work. It includes presence features, instant messaging, audio conferencing and phone calls. Windows Phone
O2 UK and its developer partner MIG have launched the My O2 app for Android smartphones, enabling customers to check their account information and manage their bolt-ons. It follows the iPhone version which came out in late 2009, and has so far been downloaded nearly 2m times. Android
News aggregation app Zite – now owned by CNN – has been available on the iPad for some time. Now it’s been squeezed down for an iPhone version, released the same week that Flipboard made the same transition. iPhone
Berlin is the latest city to get an iPad app based on Dorling Kindersley’s Eyewitness series. Expect cutaways of notable buildings, as well as offline maps and all manner of tourist hotspots highlighted. iPad
Magazine publisher Hearst has launched a new iPad spin-off from its Popular Mechanics magazine. It’s a game that sees players getting inside an engine to keep its pistons pumping. iPad
Even a big brand often isn’t enough to prevent an app from sinking without trace amid the hundreds of thousands of other apps nowadays. Logostream is the work of discovery service Appsfire, and helps people to browse Apple’s App Store by brands. iPhone / iPad
Mattel has taken its Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots toy brand to Android, with a boxing game that pits a Red Rocker against a Blue Bomber. Android (spotted by Android Police)
Freemium games publisher TeamLava has launched the latest social iOS game in its “Story” series: Pet Shop Story. The aim is to build a thriving pet shop business while cross-breeding animals to create labradoodles, toygers and, er, chugs. A pug plus a chihuahua, if you’re wondering. iPhone / iPad
The UK’s Salvation Army has an official iPhone app, offering news and tweets, and inviting people to donate online, by telephone or text message. There is also a map of the organisation’s churches and centres. iPhone
Puzzle publisher Puzzler has launched a new mobile game offering crosswords, wordsearches, sudoku and other puzzles. Developed by Ideas Pad, it uses in-app purchases to sell different game packs. The link above is for Android, so click here for the iPhone version. iPhone / Android
There are many, many social/photo/fashion apps available for iPhone, with most of them having come out in 2011. StyleTag is the latest, promising “on-the-go fashion trend spotting” and “hottest fashions from fashionistas like you”. iPhone
Commodore 64 classic Bruce Lee hits the App Store, as Elite Systems releases a (licensed) emulation of the platform game. As in 1984, it involves running and jumping through a succession of chambers kicking seven bells out of a green sumo wrestler and a black ninja. iPhone / iPad
Another C64 re-release from Elite Systems is the game that at one point ran Microprose Soccer close as the best (in this journalist’s eyes) 8-bit football title. Originally released in 1988, it uses Elite’s “iDaptive” virtual joystick controls. iPhone / iPad
Social media and entertainment news site Mashable has launched an official BlackBerry app, including the ability to comment on stories from the device. BlackBerry
The latest games company to turn its hand to book-apps is RocketPop Games, with iPad title Noah and the Ark. It takes the Biblical story of Noah and presents it with interactive 3D visuals. iPad
Apple has released it’s list of the best apps for 2011 – and two photography related apps are coming out on top.
The iPhone App of the Year was awarded to Instagram. Instagram allows iPhone users to apply stylized filters to their photos. 20 million users have made it a mainstream hit.
The iPad App of the Year goes to Snapseed by Nik Software – another image editing app. Snapseed has 2 million users.
iPad App of the Year runner-ups include Tiny Wings – a $.99 jumping game, and Touchgrind BMX – a a $4.99 action game.
iPhone App of the Year runner-ups are VidRhythm, which allows you to create mashup music videos for $1.99, as well as Band of the Day – a free app that provides a guide to new music.
iPad Game of the Year goes to Dead Space, a $4.99 app that lets the user fight for survival in space, with runner up honors going to Contre Jour HD, a $2.99 physics puzzler, and Superbrothers.
The iPhone Game of the Year is the free tower-building app, Tiny Tower. Runner ups include Tiny Wings, a 99-cent jumping game, and Touchgrind BMX, a $4.99 action game.
There is no shortage of startups providing apps for children in 2011: Toca Boca, Mindshapes, Nosy Crow, Callaway Digital… and now Fingerprint Digital.
The San Francisco-based company has launched its first five iOS apps, and is counting on a feature called Mom-Comm to help it stand out from the herd. In short, it’s like a Game Center for kids and parents, providing rewards and app recommendations for the former, and an update on their progress for the latter.
Fingerprint was founded by Nancy MacIntyre, who previously worked at electronic learning company LeapFrog Enterprises as executive vice president of product innovation and marketing. Her new company raised $1.4m (£0.9m) in September 2011 to fuel her ambitions of finding an audience among 3-8 year-olds and their parents.
“There are tens of thousands of kids’ apps out there, and for parents just discovering what apps are good and knowing how to find them in the App Store is problematic,” she says.
“Once playing, they have no idea what their kids are doing with them. We set out to create a network of high-quality kids content where it’s easy for the parent to know what games are appropriate for their children, and get an insight into what the child is playing.”
This communication goes a bit further than just telling parents what their children have been doing. Parents can send voice or text messages of encouragement to their children within the apps, while the kids can send pre-scripted messages to their parents to tell them about achievements.
Fingerprint’s first batch of iOS titles includes three in its Big Kid Life franchise, focusing on firefighters, vets and fairy princesses, with a mixture of educational puzzles and more standard gameplay.
Fingerprint Play Maker is an avatar-based app designed to teach maths and spelling skills, while DoReMi 1-2-3 is a musical app introducing pitch and melody through the medium of cute animals. This last app is the work of an external developer, Creativity Mobile.
“Our apps were created to showcase how the platform works, and train people in how to use it and engage with it,” says MacIntyre. “We’ve created an SDK that third party developers can use to plug into our system, and we’ll have several more third-party apps coming out soon.”
Children will create their own character when they first use a Fingerprint game, and will then take that avatar from app to app, and device to device. They will also be able to collect and play with virtual pets, with one unlockable in every app – through play, it should be noted, not through an in-app purchase.
MacIntyre says that in Fingerprint’s tests, the messaging features have received the strongest response from parents and children. “We see it as transforming the solo app play of one child playing an app to making it a social experience between the child and their parent or caregiver,” she says.
“A child can send a message to mom, mom can send one back, and suddenly the parent is engaged in the learning. Kids have gotten really excited about that. We want to bring parents into the apps in a way that we think is interesting and clever.”
MacIntyre is under no illusions about the competitive nature of the kid-apps market, but she also warns that no developer in this space can afford to focus solely on their direct competition.
“Kids have so many choices,” she says. “The battle ground isn’t only about your apps versus Sesame Street. It’s about your apps versus Angry Birds. You need really compelling, fun content. We hope that our shared reward system gives children a reason to go from app to app, while bringing parents into the equation.”
The competitive kid-apps market could work in Fingerprint’s favour as it tries to get more third-party developers to use its SDK in their games and apps. MacIntyre says that the company’s pitch is its ability to deliver an audience for developers’ apps, while also providing them with analytics on how they’re being used.
“It gets them out of the mode of being one of tens of thousands of apps in the App Store, and into being one of a group of highly-curated very high-quality kids apps,” she says. “It’s not about being an app developer building one app at a time. It’s about the network.”
Fingerprint’s launch games are based on its own characters, but during the interview MacIntyre alludes to conversations she’s been having with children’s brands. Licensing looks set to play a part in the company’s future, although no deals have been announced yet.
“As a small company starting out, we need to attract as many customers as possible, and some anchor licensed brands is helpful in that regard,” she says. “However, the apps market has proven its ability to create new IP, and most of the biggest app brands are new IP. We’re really optimistic about Big Kid Life.”
Much of the competition for Fingerprint – but also many of its potential licensors – come from the toys industry that is very familiar to MacIntyre, given her background.
She thinks that most big toy companies still treat apps “as a marketing element” – something to bolster the brands of their physical toys, rather than a way to create new brands and become an important new revenue stream.
“I’m quite sure all of the major toy players are really thinking about the app business,” she says, though, expressing optimism about the idea of linking real-world toys with apps – something done already by Disney with its AppMates line.
What about companies like LeapFrog and Fisher Price making their own tablets for children, and so become a rival platform for kid-app developers to consider?
“Is it possible to have a good experience with a kid-oriented tablet? The answer is yes, but it’s still a toy,” says MacIntyre. “With the price of full tablets coming down, it will be very difficult for anybody to make a meaningful business out of making proprietary devices [for kids]. Every parent with an iPhone or iPad is actually a competitor for LeapFrog or Fisher Price.”
She cites a recent survey showing iOS devices at the top of children’s Christmas wishlists in the US as a sign that Apple’s devices in particular have “done an amazing job of becoming aspirational to children”.
Can Big Kid Life and Mom-Comm become similarly attractive to children, parents and other developers? 2012 should provide the answer.
Megaphone is an unpowered amplifier for the iPhone in the shape a giant ceramic horn. Created by the Italian design firm of en&is, Megaphone is available in three colors (white, black and gold), and costs $540 to $800.
Megaphone is an unpowered amplifier for the iPhone in the shape a giant ceramic horn. Created by the Italian design firm of en&is, Megaphone is available in three colors (white, black and gold), and costs $540 to $800.
