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Posts tagged with "iOS"

Gameloft’s MMO for iOS Makes $1 Million in 20 Days

Gameloft, the game developer well known among iPhone and iPad users for releasing apps clearly inspired by famous, older PC and console games, has managed to make $1 million in just 20 days with their latest MMO (massively multiplayer online) adventure for iOS called Order and Chaos and available on the App Store at $6.99. The app runs on the iPhone, iPod and iPad, and on top of the price tag to download it from the App Store it also comes with in-app purchases to unlock runes, golds, and other game-related goods. The premium model chosen by Gameloft (ask for a price and keep selling additional items in-app) has turned out to be a successful one with $1M made in the first 3 weeks of availability.

Furthermore, Gameloft is promising more updates coming out in the next months to add more functionalities and server-side features to expand the virtual world of Order & Chaos. If the whole concept sounds a lot like Blizzard’s insanely popular World of Warcraft, it’s because it is similar – Gameloft obviously decided to target iOS users hungry for a WoW clone, a game that years after its original release and in spite of outdated graphics (when compared to more recent PC games) still has a strong and large userbase. TouchArcade reports future updates will bring “new quests, the ability to migrate characters between servers, and separate chat channels for each language”, alongside new dungeons to explore and Player Vs. Player arenas.

Order & Chaos is available at $6.99 in the App Store, so make sure to check it out if you’re a WoW fan looking for an alternative on iOS devices. [via TUAW]

MindManager 9 for Mac Coming June 23, iOS Versions Due Mid-June

What is “Mind Mapping?” Well, if you want to take your analog thoughts and put them into the digital world, Wikipedia tells us that “a mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and writing.”

MindJet, who makes MindManager, one of the premiere apps in the market selling 1.8 million copies worldwide,  is scheduled to ship MindManager 9 next month. It will cost $249 for new customers and $149 for current users wanting to upgrade. New features will include a presentation mode, “quick entry,” WYSIWYG priting, dynamic content like schedules and web links, offline import/export for iWork and Office, plus project management mode. For more info, read the Mac press release here. Read more

HockeyApp Brings Enhanced Beta Distribution For iOS Apps

Launching today is HockeyApp, a new service for developers of iOS and soon Android and OS X apps. Its main function is to simplify the beta distribution process and collection of crash reports. Like other beta distribution tools and services, such as TestFlight, HockeyKit (for iOS apps) uses Apple’s over-the-air distribution process that was introduced in iOS 4.0.

HockeyApp, however, goes beyond just offering developers an easy way to distribute new beta builds. It also has a feature that lets developers automatically inform testers about a new beta version from within the app itself – even including release notes and potential to instantly update the app right then and there. Critically for developers, HockeyApp gives developers access to key data from crash reports and can optionally also give statistics on exactly what devices, iOS versions and languages were used and for how long.

HockeyApp will offer developers three plans, varying in cost but starting at $20 per month for 5 apps, 1GB storage and 100 users. Team members and testers won’t have to pay anything and there is a one-month trial for developers available. Jump the break for some screenshots of the service.

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Unreal-powered Dream:scape for iOS Coming Next Week

First announced back in April with a promising trailer that showed extensive usage of the Unreal Engine for iOS to depict highly realistic, interactive environments to freely explore, Dream:scape is finally launching next week on June 9th in the App Store. The game, described as an interactive narrative experience, was actually submitted a few weeks ago soon after the first trailer was posted online, but the submission process didn’t go exactly as planned as the app was certified as being capable of running only on the iPhone 4 and iPad 2. The Speed Bump Studios developers then went back to coding, re-engineered the app, and re-submitted. Dream:scape should be coming next Saturday and, according to the developers, it will run on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 4th gen, iPad and iPad 2. As the iPod touch 3rd gen shares hardware similar to 3GS, we assume it will be supported as well.

As for the game itself, the official website offers this description:

Take on the role of Wilson, a coma patient relearning his past by exploring the dreamscape of his memories. Only there, in the lucid light of the subconscious, buried secrets are revealed, unraveling a decades-old mystery of tragedy, betrayal, and ultimately, revenge.

The screenshots and the trailers revealed so far are very intriguing, though little is known about actual gameplay and mechanics that will involve use of iOS multitouch and other features. We’re looking forward to the launch of this next Unreal-based game for iOS, in the meantime you can watch the new trailer below. [via TouchArcade] Read more

Maps+ Enhances Google Maps On iOS

Maps+ by IZE, released earlier today in the App Store for iPhone and iPad, is a new free application that aims at enhancing the standard iOS map experience by plugging directly into Google Maps and adding several new features and interface improvements that turn the mapping software into a powerful location and social sharing tool. Maps+ supports Google Maps’ standard views (standard, satellite, hybrid, terrain) and allows you to quickly switch between them with a vertical three-finger swipe that may result unintuitive on the iPhone, but works really well on the iPad. What impressed me about Maps+ upon first launch is the way the app lets you customize the buttons that will overlay the standard map. From a translucent editing interface, you can drag buttons (settings, alarms, fetch position, Twitter, route and track) onto the map in pre-selected spots running along the top and the corners of the map screen.

Maps+ can get your current position, as well as search for specific addresses. Once you’ve found an address on Google Map, Maps+ can get you there with directions for driving, walking and bicycling (the selection happens from an iPad-like popover menu), give you different routes and check out the destination point in greater detail from a dedicated screen. Here, you can choose to “route here” or “drop pin”, add the place to your bookmarks, copy or mail the link and even export to GPX for viewing this information on your computer or other compatible apps. There’s more: you can use location-based alarms to be notified when you hit a place of particular interest and, if your device supports multitasking, alarm monitoring and (another feature of Maps) GPS track recording will work in the background. Among all the little additions to Google Maps and the functionalities you can check in the full app description on iTunes, one that really surprised me is Twitter integration within maps: thanks to Twitter’s geolocation support, once logged in with Maps+ you’ll be able to see your friends and people you follow on a Map, see who replied to you and where and even report spammers from Maps+. The developers describe it as a complete Twitter client, only displayed on a map.

Maps+ is free, but some features need to be unlocked at $2.99 via in-app purchase. Here’s what you get with the free edition:

  • Labels are limited to 1.
  • Pin bookmarks are limited to 3.
  • Route bookmarks are limited to 1.
  • Route transit points are limited to 2.
  • Track bookmarks are limited to 1.
  • Track recording is limited to 2 km.
  • Alarm bookmarks are limited to 1.
  • Importing bookmarks from GPX is disabled.
  • Logging in to Twitter is disabled.

If you’re serious about maps on your iOS device, forget the Google Maps webapp and Apple’s own application and go get Maps+ now. It’s powerful, well-designed, easy to use and Twitter integration adds a lot of value, and a welcome social aspect.

Ranky Shows Beautiful iOS & Mac App Store Rankings for Developers

If you’re an iOS or Mac developer, or you handle the marketing for a development studio that has apps on Apple’s App Store, you know the importance of checking rankings for your application on all the international App Stores. It doesn’t matter if your app is the next Angry Birds (probably not, though The Heist managed to take the #1 spot in the iPhone App Store after months of Rovio dominance) or something that will be fine sitting between the #20 and #100 positions, checking rankings by country and category is a common practice that helps you better understand how well an app is doing, where, and quite possibly also why.

Ranky, a new app by Studio Dalton, wants to make the process of studying rankings extremely simple, focused and beautiful. The app provides real-time results for iOS and Mac App Store apps, a feature that’s surely welcome as it allows to check for any app distributed through Apple’s App Stores. Once you’ve entered any iPhone, iPad or Mac app to track, you’ll only have to select the countries you’re interested in to start analyzing the markets. After that, for each app you’ll get an overview by category or “overall” – the same applies if you filter down apps by country, you’ll get the same screen with “overall” and “category” screens to see how your app is performing. Ranky also comes with the possibility of displaying changes since the last time you checked the app, and email and Twitter sharing built-in.

With a beautiful interface and a simple, yet powerful feature set, Ranky is a neat little tool iOS and Mac devs should test right away. Go download the app here at $0.99.