CoPilot Live Guided GPS App $19.99 Sale

Just in time for the holidays, CoPilot Live has a $19.99 sale for their GPS application for iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. Considering most of the "other" solutions cost around 5x as much, this is a pretty good deal. Although given the competitive pressure from the native mobile OS (ie. Droid phones, etc...), voice guided navigation might become standard features soon. Until then, feel free to give this a try. A $19.99, its still a fraction of a stand alone GPS unit.

Free NYC Subway Map iPhone / iPod Touch Apps

When the iPhone app store first arrived on the scene, I remember spending $2.99 for an Official NYC Subway Transit map application on my wife's iPhone. This is a necessity because as soon as you go below ground level, you'd lose all cell phone signal so you need a map that is already loaded on your handset. I was too stingy to pay it twice for my iPhone so I had been searching for some work around solution. For smartphones that support saving PDF files or image files w/o supressing its quality this is a no brainer. To make a long story short, I failed to find an iPhone work around w/o exhaustive effort; for the most part, iPhone's default ability to supress image quality pretty much ruins every detailed map I created. The only work around requires this clever "album" where each image becomes tiles of the five borough.

Recently, my buddy Dan introduced two applications which worked great, and both are FREE of charge!

The applications are: NYC Subway Map (by Gotham Wave Games) and NYC Subway Map KICKMAP (by KICK Design). In my opinion, both applications features a more intuitive map than the NY Transit maps which can help tourists understand the difference between local and express stops better. While other paid maps may offer fancy things such as service advisory or a time table, these two maps serves the basic purpose of showing you the stops. I am quite pleased with these two applications. While I find the map load time during scrolling (going from blurry state to clear) a bit slow, it sure beats not having a map on my iPhone. I wish they would draw up a NYC bus map that overlays the subway map so I have the option to review the closest bus stop for connecting a commute.

Overall, these apps are fabulous and they simply worked as well as provided a solution of not having access to data network underground. It sure beats having to make my way over inside a subway cart and ask people to move out of the way to read the small map hanging on the wall.

Metal Gear Solid Touch $2.99 Limited Time

MGS fans rejoice... for a limited time (8/13 to 8/15), they've lowered their price down to $2.99 instead of the old $7.99 price. This game is pretty entertaining in a arcade shoot 'em up kinda way. I'll be buying as soon as I am in a location with WiFi.

Another Mobile Experience Story on Fitness - Boxing Timer

A co-worker of mine, Gustavo, has an active lifestyle (exercise, rock climbing, kickboxing). He goes to the gym regularly and loves training on kick boxing to get his cardio in top shape. Not much of a gadget guy himself, he recently said he jumped on the hype and purchased an iPhone as his old mobile phone was on its way out. I still remember the first day he showed me his new phone, he was very excited but didn't know too much about it.

A week later, we got to talking again and this time around, he knows more about different applications than I do. When asked, he proudly showed me one of his favorite applications BOXING TIMER made by Chris Gummer. Its basiclly a round clock that can be used as a background application and uses sound to alert you a desired time interval for exercise duration. The application costs merely $0.99 which according to Gustavo, rivals lots of cheaply made portable timers he's owned which can cost from $10 to $15. To get a more reliable timer otherwise, it can become more expensive as well as bulky in size.

This story signifies the further evolution of the mobile experience. My friend, who is not an avid gadgeteer, has within a very short time mastered an easy to use smartphone. Not only is the phone keeping him well connected (email, SMS, voice) it also helps him improve his workout routine.

Some thoughts on Mobile Applications

There is no doubt in my mind mobile application is the key to future of smartphones. I always knew the limitation of a phone’s screensize posed inherent challenges to prevent same user experience compared to desktop web applications. We must capitalize on a phone’s native feature set (input, output, keyboard, touchscreen, UI, OS) to provide a robust mobile experience which is only possible via mobile apps.

A quick history: Mobile apps have come a long way. Gone are those days when we have to pay or download an app to our desktop and use a sync software to install the application to your handheld. Today, most applications can be downloaded and installed over air directly from handset if you provide a download link within its browser. This is true across all platforms (Symbian S60, iPhone OS X, Windows Mobile and yes, even Palm OS). With Apple’s iTunes leading the way and Google’s G1 Marketplace to follow, the market for mobile applications is aggregating and serious money is being thrown at this new marketplace.

A few random thoughts come to mind when thinking about monetizing mobile applications:

1. To monetize anything in the mobile space has proven to be difficult, there hasn’t been any substantial growth in the mobile ads space which has been pushing for quite some time, seeing iTunes rock out with their high volume is very exciting. However the iTunes eco-system has now been tainted with loads of free or cheap applications fighting for first page ranking, making it very difficult for those interested in selling for a at a premium for a higher margin

2. Iconfactory’s Principal Craig Hockenberry’s “letter to Steve” (an amazing piece and analysis of iTunes store) brought out lots of interesting points, however, I can’t help but wonder if mobile applications should cost money at all? I, generally, prefer to download free open source applications for my desktop, so why should this mentality change in the mobile space? In my opinion regarding to Mr. Hockenberry’s concern about iTunes store becoming more cluttered and higher priced apps don’t get the light of day, perhaps mobile apps companies should build in a marketing fund outside of iTunes to help market their higher priced mobile applications. Same practice as desktop software or video games for that matter. Seems like Apple listened, a little bit.

3. As far how to monetize and be rewarded if mobile applications were free, the Cydia installer within jailbroken iPhones seems to be working out quite well where it is being subsidized by ad supported revenue (see screenshot). Granted, I don’t know if the actual developers see any of that ad dollar in this scenario, I certainly have paid attention to a few ads myself while downloading awesome, function-enhancing applications free of cost to me. Perhaps there is something here.

HTC Dream Running Android a Reality by Oct 08?

According to Engadget Mobile which got its source from NY Times, T-Mobile USA could be launching the first HTC powered Google Android OS smartphone by October 2008. This device, known as "Dream" for the time being will have capabilities that could match or even go beyond what iPhones can do. Banking on powerful graphical UI, open interface for custom application installations and perform computer-like functions.

With iPhone App Store and Android coming around the corner, smartphones will become more like computers; what a great mobile experience!

Apple Apps Store is now Available

Looks like the Apple Apps store for iPhone 3G and firmware 2.0 has a soft launch as of this morning. Can't purchase yet, but good to browse around roughly 500 programs for iPhone and iPod Touch. My guess is Friday July 11th is the real launch along with firmware 2.0 for the first gen iPhone/iPod Touch holders. (Soucre: CNBC and Engadget)