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Doodle Jump Surpasses 3 Million Paid Download Mark

March 9th, 2010 Appstore Apps none Comments

Lima Sky’s accelerometer-based jumping game, Doodle Jump, has leaped to new heights. The $.99 casual game has now surpassed the 3 million paid download mark, which has been achieved in under one year’s time.

Doodle Jump has been at the top of nearly every country’s paid apps list, including the US, UK, Germany, and Australia. The game has sold over 1.6 million units in 2010 alone, making it the best selling app of the year. And here’s a little fun fact: Doodle Jump is played over 5 million time per day, which certainly justifies the game’s subtitle “Be Warned: Insanely Addictive.”

“Selling over three million copies of Doodle Jump is beyond our wildest expectations,” noted Igor Pusenjak, President and Founder of Lima Sky. “We have to thank our incredible fanbase for their undying support, none of this would be possible without their help.”

The 3 million paid download mark should indicate that the team of two has raked in a little over 2 million dollars since the app’s launch in March 2009 after Apple takes its 30 percent cut. That’s about 1 million per person per year, not bad for an iPhone indie developer, wouldn’t you say?

So what’s Lima Sky’s secret? Well, they have obviously constructed an addictive casual game, but the Doodle Jump’s prolonged success could be attributed to the over 25 free updates over the past year, which has added loads of themes and new gameplay elements.

Congrats on your success guys, you deserve it!

Europe: Never Be Caught Out By A Speed Trap Again

March 9th, 2010 Appstore Apps none Comments

Whether you’re King of The Road or Driving Miss Daisy I can bet my life that a database of Speed Cameras would make driving a whole lot easier and a million times more enjoyable.

SpeedTraps is a free app from AROBS Transilvania Software that can transform your iPhone into a feature packed speed camera warning system. Using the iPhone’s built in GPS, SpeedTraps will notify you as you approach any fixed speed cameras (camera positions provided by www.POIplaza.com).

Features include audio and visual alerts for when you approach a speed camera. The volume, can be either subtle or loud, and the range of the alerts can be set from 100 to 3000 meters to suit your driving style. With the maps feature, using either Google Maps or Open Street Map, the speed cameras can be displayed visually to allow an overview of your journey. A really helpful feature when route planning before you leave home or if you do not have a safe way to access your phone whilst driving.

The database includes fixed camera locations for United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, Hungary and Romania. The ability to add and edit new camera locations, for temporary cameras or mobile speed traps, is a really great feature that improves the overall reliability of the database.

In addition, the developer has promised “Custom Database File Uploads” which will be available in next version.

SpeedTraps is available for free, in the App Store.

UK: Next Retail Gets An iPhone App

March 8th, 2010 Appstore Apps none Comments

Next Retail, one of the United Kingdom’s largest clothing retailers has just released its very own free iPhone App. Called Next, it allows you to shop with Next (UK Only) directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch while on the move.

Next Retail supply clothing and homewares which are, as they claim, “exciting, beautifully designed and excellent quality” so I expected to see these same standards in the application and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s fresh looking, slick and had far more detail than I expected. It’s nearly as comprehensive as the Next Directory.

On the downside, however, it’s missing a couple of features that I would have expected as standard, like “Pinch to Zoom” – a must for me, or “Save for Later” – if you receive a call or have to quit the app unexpectedly, it will not save your basket and you have to start shopping all over again!

All in all this is a pioneering app in its category in the UK and will undoubtedly open the floodgates for other high street retailers to release an app of their own. Despite its shortcomings, I am still giving it a firm thumbs up (in the hope that these and more features will be added in future updates).

Next is available for free, now in the App Store

O2 Posts Prices for… UK Video Calls for iPhone?!

March 7th, 2010 Uncategorized none Comments

Before we once again get our Kevin Rose-colored glasses on and hope beyond hope this is a sign the 4th generation iPhone will support video calling and/or video iChat, we’re going to hunker down and go with O2 making a bit of a mess-up on their new iPhone plan web page (above).

It does say “UK video calls same as voice calls” but we’re just tired for being teased about front-facing cameras and SDK strings, you know?

Also, it’s important to remember that the carriers have no idea what Apple will release for the 4th generation iPhone anyway. Even if they had to test it for video conferencing, Apple would make them wait until they showed it off at a WWDC keynote or something similar because they wouldn’t want the carrier to leak the feature. Anyway, with our luck O2 will just be bringing an app see the video but not send any back… Sigh.

[O2 via FSM via Redmond Pie via 9to5Mac. Phew!]

O2 Posts Prices for… UK Video Calls for iPhone?! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Wi-Fi iPad Models To Launch April 3rd In US, Pre-Order March 12th

March 5th, 2010 Appstore Apps none Comments

Apple has officially announced that the Wi-Fi models of the iPad will be available in the U.S. on Saturday, April 3rd. The Wi-Fi + 3G models won’t be available until late April in the U.S., which is about the same time all models of the iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. U.S. Pre-orders for all iPad models are set to begin on March 12th. Did you get all of that? Hurry, mark it on your calendars.

“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

Apple has also revealed that its iBooks app, which offers access to the iBookstore, will be available in the U.S. App Store on April 3rd for free. Other countries will get the app “later this year.”

So now that everything is official, I think it’s time to gauge everyone’s excitement once again. Our last “which iPad are you buying poll” indicated that nearly 67% of our readers who chose to participate in the poll intended to purchase some kind of iPad model. Let’s see if that percentage has changed at all over the last month. Record your vote below.

Now Which iPad Are You Getting?

(polls)

UK: Calling All Nosey Parkers

March 3rd, 2010 Appstore Apps none Comments

I have lost count of the number of times I have parked my car in a City Centre only to walk past a cleaner, cheaper, more secure Car Park on my way to my destination. Even when I have gone to the trouble of planning my parking in advance, I am often left with unanswered questions and a journey clouded by uncertainty.

Will the Car Park accept Credit Cards?, Will it be the cheapest? Will it be secure? Will it have parent and toddler spaces? The list goes on!

If only there was app that could do this for me? Well thanks to Stardotstar Ltd, There is! Nosey Parker is the first and only car park location app covering the UK.

With access to a database of over 13,400 car-parks across the country and using your iPhones in-built GPS, you can find the closest and most secure Car Park available. Further access to 5000 free car parks in the UK will definitely ensure that Nosey Parker will find you the Cheapest Car Park too!

This app is a must for anyone who travels into City Centres for business or pleasure. It provides honest and reliable reviews and the addition of information on the number of parent & child spaces, disabled spaces and Safer Parking Awards makes this app a real winner. It will take some of the hassle out of your journey and make parking your car simpler than ever.

Nosey Parker can save you time, petrol and money.

It is available in the app store for $2.99 and to quote the developer “at that price this app could pay for itself the first time you use it!”

Appisode 84: Free Downloads, New Streaming Options For The UK, And A New Spin On Old Music

March 3rd, 2010 Appstore Apps none Comments

Comcast 2.0 now gives Comcast cable users DVR functionality right from their iPhone.

If you want to rock out with the iTunes Top 100, then TopJam is the way to do it. TopJam has just been released, and lets you find YouTube videos for the top 100 songs downloaded in iTunes. The app is going for $1.99 in the App Store now, but if you are a U.S. iTunes user then you have the chance to win one of 10 free downloads. All you have to do is find the post on AppAdvice.com, and retweet it. Good luck!

For all my UK viewers out there We7 hits the App Store to bring streaming music to your iPhone. Here’s how it works. you must buy the Premium+ option, which is for UK users only. According to Mashable.com, this will let you stream millions of songs, Ad-free, to your PC and iPhone.

Utility ToolBox: Tiger Text
All of us can’t be Tiger Woods, but now with a TigerText we can at least try – and no, i’m not referring to being a good golfer. TigerText lets you send text messages that don’t last forever. Basically, send a text, and set the amount of time you want it to stay for. After the time expires the message will self destruct, or in this case, just disapear.

App of the Day: Attic – Music Controller For Forgotten Albums in Your iTunes

Apple iBooks App to be US-only at Launch? What About iPhone-also?

January 28th, 2010 Uncategorized none Comments

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before — Apple rolls out a new form of media, like say iBooks e-books, for their iTunes/iPod/iPhone/now iPad ecosystem, and it’s initially only available in the US.

No doubt the global-village defying mess that is international media licensing rights is at play here, as different publishers can own different parts of the same books in different territories, so TiPb is not at all surprised. Like iTunes Movies and TV, which took a long time to reach Canada, the UK, Australia, etc., we’re not going to hold our breath for iBooks any time soon.

But that’s hardly unique. Amazon took a while to get the Kindle international, and they’ve failed miserably at rolling Amazon MP3 out. If there is a company that can push through the quagmire, however, it’s Apple and its iTunes juggernaut.

Meanwhile, we’re still waiting to hear if US-based iPhone and iPod touch users will get a version of Apple’s newest app as well. Or is everyone outside the US and not on an iPad just going to have to make do with the Kindle app…?

[via Engadget]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple iBooks App to be US-only at Launch? What About iPhone-also?

Brits Show Their Love of Booze With iPint Being Most-Downloaded iPhone App in UK

January 19th, 2010 Appstore Apps none Comments

Over in Europe, the most downloaded iPhone app is the music-detecting Shazam. In the US, it’s the Facebook app. And those soggy Brits…?

In the UK, the Carling branded iPint has snagged the crown of most downloaded app, according to ComScore’s Alistair Hill’s presentation at the Mobile Games Forum in London. Hic! [Mobile-Ent]

Image Credit: Robinbyles

Vodafone UK Launches iPhone, 50,000 Estimated on First Day

January 16th, 2010 Uncategorized none Comments

And the UK adds Vodafone to their official iPhone carriers list, rounding out O2, Orange, and resellers like Tesco, and users are excited enough that sales were expected to hit 50,000 on the first day.

Anyone switch over, or finally getting an iPhone just to run on Voda?

[Vodafone via BGR]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Vodafone UK Launches iPhone, 50,000 Estimated on First Day