![]() And they say technology is all about progress. There is even a way of seeming to pour virtual beer from one iPhone to another. Tilt it to your mouth and you seem to be drinking beer. Among the most popular is a now venerable one called iBeer, which transforms your iPhone into the simulation of a beer glass. What are apps? Some are games (such as Who Has The Biggest Brain?, which was played by 25 million people on the internet before being launched as an iPhone app, and its rival The Moron Test), some are silly (one allows you to download the image of a fan on to the screen of your iPhone, the aim being to make you feel cooler), some are edifying (one app consists of an audiobook of Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of History, whose text scrolls on the phone's screen as you hear it read aloud). Apple has even won, if unwittingly, the battle of nomenclature: apps could have just as easily been called programmes or software but instead they are called apps, echoing the corporation's first syllable and thus stressing their seemingly umbilical link to one particular supplier of smartphone hardware. The App Store's staggering success has led nearly every maker of a smartphone operating system to mimic Apple's business model: make it very easy for smartphone users to buy or freely download software created by from third-party developers.Īt the moment Apple has something of a stranglehold on apps: Tube Exits is typical in that it can only be used on Apple mobile hardware (ie iPhones and iPod Touches). The App Store's success is reportedly a surprise to Apple, but presumably an even bigger and nastier one to competitors such as Research in Motion (who make BlackBerrys) and Nokia (the world's biggest mobile phone maker). But in that year, the apps industry has grown exponentially – the total number of Apple's App Store downloads recently passed the 1.5bn mark. Some 65,000 apps are currently available for Apple's iPhones from the corporation's App Store, which marked its first anniversary earlier this summer. Ilja Laurs, chief executive of GetJar, a leading independent application store, told the MobileBeats conference in San Francisco earlier this month that apps could be bigger than the internet by 2020. Apps are mobile applications designed to be used on smartphones such as iPhones or BlackBerrys or devices such as the iPod Touch. Tube Exits is just one of an estimated 100,000 apps that will exist by the end of this year. I can revise and revise until it's perfect." "I made a mistake about how to get out of Temple station and have now corrected it. "The great thing about my app is that it can be changed really quickly when users report errors," counters Stewart. I point out to Stewart that his isn't a new idea: there used to be a little booklet giving London Underground users the same information. It's covered my costs, which were about £3,000, but it certainly isn't a retirement plan." That said, Stewart is now developing a similar app for the Paris Metro and sees no reason why his original idea can't be applied to other metro networks around the world. "The idea was that it was the price of a zone 1 ticket, but you could use it again and again." Has the app made the 33-year-old Australian rich? "Nah. It comes in two versions: one is free but only gives you the information for the Underground's busiest 12 stations, the other costs £1.79 and covers the whole network. Tube Exits has been a popular iPhone app since its launch on 16 June. "I know nothing about creating an app – I didn't even have an iPhone at the time. "At first I hired somebody to go round the stations compiling the data, but they didn't do a very good job, so I did it myself." He then approached an apps developer with his idea. Only one problem: there are more than 700 platforms at London Underground's 268 stations. He would sell it to them and quit his job working for Virgin. He would put all this information into the form of an iPhone application for other commuters. If he somehow knew, for every station platform on the London Underground network, which carriage would arrive at a station next to the platform exit, he would never be stuck behind foot-dragging tourists again.Īnd then he had an even better idea. What he needed was to get the jump on the crowds by knowing which carriage he should board to arrive at the platform exit. I was just an average Joe in the rat race getting frustrated by being stuck behind the crowds." "I got off the train and suddenly found myself behind a huge crowd of people blocking my way to the exit. One day, Lance Stewart was trying to get out of Oxford Circus tube station in a hurry.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |