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Posts Tagged ‘iphone app’

Nike Unveils New iPhone App Just for Runners

06 Sep


Nike has just rolled out a new iPhone app for runners, available for download now [iTunes link].

The Nike+ GPS App for iPhone will pull in data from the device’s accelerometer and GPS to give runners an effective, accurate and useful tool for getting in shape and staying motivated. So far, it’s available in English only and sells for $1.99.

Although fitness apps abound in the App Store, few carry the street cred or instant name recognition of Nike.

The app will allow runners to visually map and track every run, indoor and outdoor, “free range” or treadmill. Nike says the app even works when a GPS signal is unavailable. Mapped routes show a breakdown of the runner’s pace at various points during the run, as well. You can track your distance, time and number of calories burned.

One interesting aspect of the app is the “Challenge Me” feature. It helps runners challenge themselves to run greater distances, longer times or quicker paces than their previous runs. Aside from giving challenges, the app also provides in-run, on-demand motivational messages from pro athletes and celebrities.

And of course the app carries the now-obligatory social sharing features. Through integration with NikePlus.com, runners can save each run to their online profiles and share the run through the site, Twitter and Facebook.

We have no word so far on when to expect Android, BlackBerry or other apps, but Nike says the app will work for iPod touch (second, third and fourth generations), iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. The company makes no promises about how the app will function on an iPad; then again, if you’re running with your iPad, you might need less motivation to run faster and more motivation to give the tech gadgets a rest.

Here’s a video sent to us by Nike showing some of the ins and outs of the app:

What do you think of Nike’s app so far? Is this something you’d use for your running routine, or will you stick to the free apps already available?

Reviews: Android, App Store, Facebook, Twitter

More About: App, fitness, iphone app, Nike, Nike+GPS, runner, runners, running, sport

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How to Build a Quick, Clickable Website or iPhone App Prototype

01 Jul


Mashable’s Spark of Genius series highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, see details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Mocksup

Quick Pitch: Make mockups — websites, iPhone apps, logos and more — through simple sharing and feedback, automatic versioning and even prototyping.

Genius Idea: You know how they say necessity is the mother of invention? Well, once upon a time (the time being last summer, specifically), a man was trying to build a website and needed to show his higher-ups a prototype — something clickable, not just a JPEG or Photoshop file. He needed to give them “a feel for the new design and site structure.”

What was last year’s web designer’s nightmare is now a freelancer or small design shop’s dream. Mocksup will let you share your designs, add collaborators to your project, get comments and notes from your bosses or clients, track different versions of your work and yes, create clickable prototypes of your site and app design ideas.

It’s a cool combination of digital wireframing and WYSIWYG website creation. It might also be the only online app that supports clickable iPhone app prototyping.

To get an idea for what these prototypes look and feel like, check out this web design example.

(Interesting side note: Mocksup was created in 2009 for the Rails Rumble, an event we recently named as one of our all-time favorite hackathons.)

Sounds great, but how do these guys — Adam Howell and Jim Van Fleet, the app’s creators — make money?

Mocksup has an affordable subscription fee. You can test the site with one project, ten mockups and three collaborators for free, then they ask you to pay between $9 and $19 each month, depending on how much you use the app. We find these prices extremely reasonable.

What do you think of Mocksup? How does it compare with other prototyping tools you’ve used in the past?

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: Agency, freelance, iphone app, web design, website

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Obama iPhone App Provides Platform for Supporters

02 Oct

I don’t know how accurate it is to say Senator Barack Obama is a Mac to Senator John McCain’s PC, but those convinced of this premise will either delight in or scorn the fact that the Obama for America campaign has presented a free iPhone and iPod touch-compatible application called Obama ’08 [iTunes URL] for supporters to use.

Having browsed the application myself, I can tell you that the experience is commendable. The 1MB download is thoroughly polished, and covers nearly everything its larger relative, BarackObama.com has to offer. Technically speaking, the development is appreciable.

Though it does not harbor a connection to the social network My.BarackObama.com, the application is, design-wise, very much in line with the campaign website. No question about that. But how it functions is far more noteworthy. If you wish to read news highlighted by campaign operatives, you can do so, with the option to specify a national or local view. If you want to browse photos and videos, you may. Events are posted, too, and the campaign’s stated issues and its positions on those issues are noted in full. (Nearly all of these items can be emailed at will.)

You can also sign up to receive email and/or SMS notifications, and call anyone within your phone’s contact list, with each noted as “have not called” until you connect with them. This is obviously meant to increase outreach. (Placing calls is of course not possible with an iPod touch.)

Digging into the menu is easy enough. There’s really no trouble to be had with navigation. You can never go deep enough to get lost, to be honest. Which is just as well, because it’s an application for a political campaign, after all. There’s only so much a user can do given the matter at hand.

Nonetheless, there are some issues to be had. Browsing media isn’t handled the best way possible. For one, it would of course be a great convenience to see video playback within the application itself, but interacting with titles simply brings you out of the Obama ’08 application and over to the device’s YouTube application. This wouldn’t be something to nitpick over, but when you do venture out of the latter piece of software and back to the Obama ’08 application, you’re shown the start page once more, not the menu of videos from where you originally departed.

On the photography side of things, the supply of images is all but useless. Not because the content or presentation of individual photos doesn’t satisfy, but rather because the sheer number that is uploaded on any given day hardly makes it worth your while. The menu only allows for twenty images to be viewed, and my own time spent with the application today has shown nothing but photos titled “YouthVoteSurrogatePic….” This is not something to enjoy with any measure of frequency, that’s for sure.

Be that as it may, visual media is not the main draw here. It’s more about what the campaign is doing now and in the next few weeks leading up to Election Day, not a compendium of the last year and a half of canvassing that’s been done. For that, it will likely suffice for most users. You might not enjoy having a ‘Donate’ button that simply shows a translucent pop-up asking you to connect by phone to a campaign representative. Nor will some users like that you can only call contacts, and not send them email or SMS messages. Still, it is for the most part a solid collection of information pertaining to the Democratic ticket, making it enough of a download for iPhone-wielding Obama supporters to draw interest in.

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