iphone apps

Find Doctors--in Your Plan!--With UnitedHealthcare's DocGPS iPhone App

Dan Macsai — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:18:38 -0500

Anyone can use an iPhone to find the nearest doctor's office or hospital, but without contacting each medical facility, you'll never know if it accepts your particular health-care plan. And if you're sick--or just lazy--that extra step is both irritating and inefficient.

Parenting-App Developers Hot in Pursuit of Exploding "iPhone Moms" Market

Clay Dillow — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:20:02 -0400

People tend to think of iPhone users as young, tech-savvy professionals. But there's an emerging consumer segment could be an attractive target for app developers and advertisers: the "iPhone mom." A Greystripe research report (PDF file) on mothers of children ranging from infants to 17 years of age shows not only that iPhone moms make up nearly a third of total iPhone users, but that more than 59% of them let their children use their iPhones.

Volkswagen Launches New GTI Media Campaign With Nothing But An iPhone App

Clay Dillow — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:24:50 -0400

Rock Band for iPhone Launches to Thunderous Applause

Clay Dillow — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:05:24 -0400

Living room rock gods, take note: the battle of the bands is on, and this time the arena is portable. Electronic Arts, MTV Games, and Harmonix have finally launched Rock Band for the iPhone, challenging Tapulous's monopoly in the "rhythm music" space currently cornered by the popular Tap Tap Revenge series.

The iPhone 25

Chris Dannen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:36:38 -0400

Ranking a company's influence in the iPhone universe is no easy science. That's why FastCompany.com has partnered with YouNoodle in an effort to mine the 25 companies that are fast becoming the power players of Apple's mobile world.

Broadcast Your Heart Rate on Twitter? You Could, With This iPhone App From Corventis

Kate Rockwood — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:34:24 -0400

When you think of body computing--monitoring physical health using technology--it generally conjures images of middle-aged or elderly folks in sterile settings. But the future of body computing is in the teen market, especially if the iPhone heart rate monitor prototype introduced today at the third Body Computing Conference ever goes to market.

Mercedes Launches iPhone App: Helps You Buy the Car

Kit Eaton — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:25:16 -0400

As well as spitting out fuel-cell powered cars, and innovative dashboard displays, Mercedes-Benz has embraced another branch of high-tech: The iPhone. It's just launched an iPhone app...but it's not quite what you might think.

Zipcar Lets You Unlock Car with iPhone

Chris Dannen — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:59:40 -0400

Zipcar announced a free iPhone app today that lets Zipcar users find and reserve cars, sort cars by model, and--perhaps most amazingly--unlock the car from their device. Zipcar's car sharing service has about 325,000 members in the U.S., and is available in 28 states. The iPhone app will also provide directions to a Zipcar if you're unfamiliar with an area, and can prompt a Zipcar to honk its horn for easier discovery. Check out the virtual key fob, below.

Apple's App Store Blasts Past Two Billion Downloads

Kit Eaton — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:18:57 -0400

In April Apple announced that a billion apps had been downloaded from its iTunes App Store. Now, 14 months since the Store's launch, the folks at Cupertino have revealed that another billion apps have zipped over the wires.

How to Start Your Own Company Using Your iPhone

Alissa Walker — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:18:38 -0400

Atlanta creative director Elizabeth Baskin has started several companies herself--one of them being her ad agency Tribe, Inc., with clients like Porsche, Home Depot, UPS, Coca-Cola, and Chick-fil-A. As she watched plenty of people in her industry emerge from the economic slump with their careers upended, she vowed to make the entepreneurial process visible, accessible and fun to help her friends who had always toyed with the idea of going out on their own. And now, thanks to Baskin and her team, there's an app for that.

Autodesk's SketchBook Goes Mobile, Has Pressure-Sensitive Brushes

Chris Dannen — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:52:21 -0400

Art nerds know that Autodesk's SketchBook Pro is the go-to animation for illustrators, but what they'll learn tomorrow morning is that it's also a powerful tool on the go. SketchBook Mobile is the handheld edition of its popular full-size counterpart, and will be available for iPhone. (Below, a drawing by D. Guertin, which can also be found on the SketchBook Mobile flickr group.)

For the Horny Teen in You: The Puma Index

Cliff Kuang — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:58:12 -0400

Loopt Sneaks Background Multitasking Into Its iPhone App

Kit Eaton — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:18:59 -0400

Loopt, the location-based friend-finder, has just snuck an amazing little bonus feature into its iPhone app: It works in the background. As Apple detractors are fond of pointing out: The iPhone can't do this. What's happening?

Big Brands, Lil' Apps

Julie Rutherford — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:20:57 -0400

Today's mission: to see how a few of my favorite big brands are using iPhone apps. As you might expect, I found a ton of great branded apps, both free and paid. My three top picks are below and share a common theme--they make life a little easier for their devoted followers.

Want to Sell Lots of E-Books? Give One Away for Free, Then

Kit Eaton — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:06:50 -0400

It's beginning to look like e-publishing may be changing attitudes to pricing within the industry, as an analysis of Amazon practices shows up an interesting trend: If you want to sell e-books, then giving some away for free is the way to boost sales.

MEDL Mobile's Crowdsourced iPhone Apps: What's the Catch?

Anne C. Lee — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:59:49 -0400

Fingerbeat: Turn your iPhone/iTouch Into a Beat Machine

Lynne d Johnson — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:43:40 -0400

Fingerbeat, a new iPhone/iTouch app, puts the power of a recording studio in the palm of your hand.

Main Features & Technical Specifications:

Step Sequencer: Making beats is easy as drawing and tapping boxes to generate unique sequences. Each color is associated to each channel type of pad.

Astonishing Tribe's Augmented ID App Recognizes People Around You

Cliff Kuang — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:22:40 -0400

Conferences and networking events are baffling affairs: You look around and you wonder, who the hell are all these people? You can never been too sure who to target; What if the guy you've been schmoozing ends up being some fool who there "just for the booze and the single ladies, man"?

Greenpeace Tissue Guide iPhone App Makes Paper Product Purchases Easy

Ariel Schwartz — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:00:00 -0400

Environmentally-friendly paper products are a surprisingly contentious subject, but Greenpeace's new tissue guide iPhone app makes the debate over which paper towel brand to buy much easier. The free app provides, ratings, recommendations, and warnings about which companies to avoid for over 100 brands of toilet paper, paper towels, paper napkins, and tissues.

How to Build an iPhone App That Doesn't Suck

Chris Dannen — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:45:03 -0400

If it's not intuitive and good-looking, iPhone owners simply won't use it. Applications that are text-heavy tend to create too much cognitive load, while apps that use a combination of images and sparse text are much more manageable. Take a look at Flixter's movie listings, that cram all the relevant information you need about a movie right next to its cover image, creating a rich list that requires very few taps to access information about a given movie.

Abusing Social Media

Caroline Waxler — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:45:54 -0400

Thanks for nothing, Web 2.0. With each sexy bit of social media that catches fire with users, lame companies get another fresh opportunity to pretend they know how to connect with customers without understanding what they're doing. No business is abandoning traditional advertising in favor of these gimmicky, halfhearted efforts. They're just abandoning any self-respect they once possessed. Whee!