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Filed under: Gaming, Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Digital Chocolate to use OpenFeint for scoreboards, achievements

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Oct 8th, 2009


Developer Digital Chocolate (who, according to that recent slideshow report, is one of the most frequent publishers of content to the App Store) has announced that they'll be going with OpenFeint for their social networking features. We've been covering OpenFeint for a while here on TUAW (and we've interviewed them before as well). The platform is designed to let devs add social features and multiplayer to their apps quickly and easily. And that's exactly what Digital Chocolate will be doing with it, apparently -- they'll be putting scoreboards and achievements into their games on the App Store.

This hardly means the end of the ongoing battle over social networking and app developers on the store. But platforms like OpenFeint, Plus+, and others continue to stack up developers under their respective umbrellas, and it remains to be seen just who will prevail.

Tags: app-store, apps, digital-chocolate, iphone, ipod-touch, leaderboards, openfeint, plus, scoreboads, social-networking

Filed under: Gaming, Freeware, iPhone, App Store, App Review

Booyah starts off slow, offers $1000 in contest

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Aug 6th, 2009

I've been playing with the hyped-up Booyah Society app for about a week or so now, and I don't think my reaction is too singular: it's not all that great. The idea is certainly a good one: take your real-life achievements and turn them into a game, complete with points and an avatar, but in practice, it's not quite there yet. Achievements are honor-based, which means you can make as many or as few points as you want just by punching anything in, and while the avatar is pretty nifty, it doesn't seem like there's that much to do with the little guy besides spin him around until he gets sick. That's not to say that the potential isn't still there -- the app's "Booyah" recommendations can give you some interesting things to do if you need them, and if they ever get the app using some actual iPhone mechanics (how about traveling a certain distance according to the GPS or playing a certain song or sound into the microphone?), it could be really addictive. But they're not quite there yet, and while we don't have any info on how many downloads they've gotten, the App Store rating is less than impressive at two-and-a-half stars.

And they're not giving up yet -- they just announced a giveaway of up to $1000 over on Facebook. You'll have to log in to see it, but if you become a fan of their service and fill out a quick sweepstakes form, you're entered in to win a $500 Apple gift card for yourself, as well as a chance to give $500 to five more friends.

Sure, the contest is blatant promotion (and it might even just be a shot in the dark to try and grab a Facebook audience). But what will be interesting here is to watch and see what happens with the app -- these guys have a legendary game development background (coming from Blizzard Entertainment), and at least $4.5 million in VC financing already. Whether they sink or swim, they're making for a very interesting case study of big-time development on the iPhone.

Tags: achievements, app review, AppReview, blizzard-entertainment, booyah, booyah-society, case-study, contest, design, facebook, financing, gaming, iphone, iphone-development, social-networking, venture-capitalist

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK

Freeverse goes with ngmoco's Plus+ for iPhone social gaming

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jul 31st, 2009

Freeverse has picked a partner in the ongoing dance of social gaming networks on the iPhone. They've joined up with ngmoco and their Plus+ system for all of their games, including Flick Bowling, Flick Fishing, and Moto Thunder. The first Freeverse game to use the system (which allows players to earn points across games, track friends' playing habits, and vie for the tops of leaderboards) will be an upcoming title called Warpgate, and then it'll be ported back to the already-released games as well.

This is actually a fairly big shot across the board of other networks vying for players, including Aurora Feint's OpenFeint, Chillingo's Crystal SDK, Scoreloop, and a few other competing services. ngmoco had originally announced that their Plus+ service would be proprietary to the titles that they published, but the inclusion of Freeverse as a partner means they're likely headhunting for quality titles to add to the mix, much like everyone else.

To a certain extent, this is a behind-the-scenes battle -- consumers will likely choose games based on what they want to play, not necessarily on what social network they're hooked into. It's as if Microsoft, instead of having the overarching Xbox Live system, left it up to developers to award and track achievement points. But you have to think that one big player will emerge here, and then it'll be interesting to see what kinds of rewards the devs who connected with that system will reap.

[via TouchArcade]

Tags: achievement, crystal-sdk, freeverse, ngmoco, ngmoco:, openfeint, plus, scoreloop, social-gaming, social-networking, socialgaming, xbox-live

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store

Booyah releases Booyah Society, an app/game that tracks "life achievements"

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jul 27th, 2009


Booyah is a company I've had my eye on for a while -- they're a couple of veterans from Blizzard Entertainment (makers of the popular Diablo and World of Warcraft games, two of my favorites) who have been teasing a big-time iPhone app. Just today, they've finally showed their cards, and have released Booyah Society, a 3D, interactive, social network-connected "achievement system for life." If that sounds like an idea that's pretty floaty, you probably heard it right.

Basically it's a game system that more or less overlays on what you're already posting to Facebook and Twitter. If you do anything from conquering a new videogame to doing a new exercise to visiting a new restaurant, you can earn achievements and points for an ingame avatar and scoreboard. In essence, they're aiming to take the things we already tell each other we're doing, and put this game/scoring system on top of that. There are plans to use the iPhone's hardware to do some self-reporting (GPS to track where you've been), but for now, everything's basically on the honor system.

Will it work? Who knows. The app is available for free right now, and they're planning to include microtransactions in the future to let you buy things to dress up your avatar with, as well as looking at partnerships with other businesses (i.e., you can get a certain achievement by going to Wendy's and ordering some fries). Very interesting -- as with most social app ideas, this one seems like it'll make or break it based on who chooses to play it faithfully. They've got quite a pedigree with the Blizzard background, and built-in audiences with Facebook and Twitter integration, but whether or not people will find themselves invested in tracking these achievements and scoring points for their avatars, only time will tell.

Continue reading “Booyah releases Booyah Society, an app/game that tracks "life achievements"”

Tags: app-store, avatar, blizzard-entertainment, booyah, booyah-society, developers, iphone, microtransactions, scoreboard, social-network, social-networking

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, Freeware, iPhone, App Store

Dunkin' Run lets you live in the future, Dunkin' Donuts style

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jul 2nd, 2009

Ever wanted to order a bunch of coffee and doughnuts along with your friends online, and then go and pick them up in the store? There is, in fact, an app for that. Dunkin' Donuts has released Dunkin' Run (iTunes link), an app that not only connects you and your friends together (through a strange love of pastries and java), but will allow you to set up an order and then go straight to the store and pick it up.

Sound unnecessary and lame? Maybe -- though it is free, even if it's adware as adware can possibly get. And apparently the app is really badly designed, not to mention that we do feel a little dirty telling you about it: you should probably eat something a little healthier, like a banana or even an (wait for it) apple.

But let's not forget where we started out here -- back in the day, we dreamed of ordering coffee on our iPhone, and now that day has basically come. Unfortunately, the best parts of the dream haven't yet materialized -- Dunkin' Runs only lets you tally up orders among your friends, not actually deliver them to the store. For that, you've still got to show the cashier your iPhone screen, and/or read them off the order. But it is a step closer to the dream. If companies are going to make apps that are actually useful for us, they have to start with apps like this, no? And if nothing else, it's an app that will tell you where Dunkin' Donuts is -- that's all I use my Bank of America app for anyway.

Tags: app, app-store, bank-of-america, coffee, design, dunkin-donuts, dunkin-run, freeware, iphone, order, pastries, social-media, social-networking

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Hardware, Software, Features, Internet, Apple, TUAW Interview, Developer, iPhone, SDK

TUAW interviews OpenFeint's Peter Relan, Net Jacobsson, and Jason Citron

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jun 25th, 2009

Danielle Cassley and Jason Citron are the folks with their names on Aurora Feint, but as Danielle told us in an interview a while ago, Peter Relan is the real mastermind behind the growing Feint empire. Not only did he put the two together in an idea lab, but he's one of the driving forces behind the OpenFeint enterprise. Under his oversight, the Feint folks have swelled to become one of the major forces behind iPhone gaming (and thus, behind the iPhone's app ecosystem itself).

Netanel "Net" Jacobsson is a newer addition -- he's previously worked with Sony Ericsson on their mobile devices and Facebook on their own growing app empire, and now he's arrived at OpenFeint to help them use the lessons he's learned at the biggest online social networks around on their social software. Get the sense of how big this is yet? Relan, Jacobsen, and Citron all have pretty big ideas about where iPhone gaming is going, and as 3.0 comes down the pike and introduces a whole set of new features from Apple, they're in the best seat they can be in to do exactly what they want to do.

TUAW sat down with the three last week, and chatted about iPhone 3.0 and why it's such a big deal for developers, how they're going to approach microtransactions (carefully), and what's coming next for OpenFeint now that they've rounded up a whole stable full of developers implementing their backbone. Click "read more" to continue.

Continue reading “TUAW interviews OpenFeint's Peter Relan, Net Jacobsson, and Jason Citron”

Tags: aurora-feint, engaged, engagement, facebook, future, gaming, in-app-purchase, interview, iphone, iphone-3.0, jason-citron, mafia-wars, mechanic, microtransactions, net-jacobsen, openfeint, peter-relan, pocket-god, push-notification, social, social-networking, software, tuaw

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

OpenFeint 2.0 brings social discovery to the iPhone

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jun 11th, 2009

The Aurora Feint folks are at WWDC with the rest of the Mac development world this week, and while out there, not only are they having a party, but they sent out an announcement: OpenFeint 2.0 is out now, and it has some "social discovery" features now included. Their open platform already supported doing things like leaderboards and profiles from directly within iPhone applications and games, but now the new release will also allow users to bring their friends lists in from Facebook and Twitter, update profile pictures of themselves, and both find their friends and figure out what they're playing. The system is free to integrate into iPhone apps and games, and there's a user-based model that costs more at higher levels.

OpenFeint isn't the only system attempting to do something like this (be a sort of Xbox Live for iPhone games), but they are certainly the biggest, with more developers jumping into their boat every day. And as is the way with social networks, sometimes being the biggest is just as good as being the best. Look for their features in an iPhone game near you.

Tags: announcements, facebook, integration, iphone, networking, openfeint, social-networking, social-platform, twitter, wwdc

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

Another fistful of apps: Ember, Headspace, myMovies, Nozbe, Juglir and LiveView

by Brett Terpstra (RSS feed) on Apr 14th, 2009


According to my completely unscientific research, about 90% of the TUAW mailbag is comprised of iPhone app announcements. In our continuing effort to not deluge you with iPhone app reviews, I present another "fistful of apps": 6 iPhone app reviews in one post. If you don't have an iPhone, you only have to skip one post. For the rest, this is some serious bang for your blog-reading buck.

I don't play games much, aside from the occasional word challenge, so the apps I've chosen to review are definitely of a more utilitarian ilk. I'd classify them as productivity apps, including a Campfire client, a 3D mind mapping app, a movie cataloger, a task-management solution, a multi-status updater and a nifty tool for developing iPhone interfaces. Read on for the nitty gritty.

Continue reading “Another fistful of apps: Ember, Headspace, myMovies, Nozbe, Juglir and LiveView”

Tags: App Store, App-Store, AppStore, campfire, developers, ember, featured, features, gtd, headspace, iphone, juglir, liveview, mind maps, mind-maps, MindMaps, mymovies, nozbe, productivity, social networking, social-networking, SocialNetworking

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone, App Store

Foursquare tries the Dodgeball concept again on the iPhone

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Mar 17th, 2009

We're right in the middle of convention season and as I noted last night on the Talkcast, I'm here in Chicago (at least the weather's nice) instead of down in Austin with the rest of the gang. But there is a little consolation: I've had a chance to try out SXSW's newest software darling, Foursquare. It's an app (and a social networking site, and a service, and a game) from the guys who made Dodgeball, that social network that just recently got shut down by Google, who bought it out a while ago.

The basic premise is very close to Dodgeball, in that the system basically revolves around "checking in" -- whenever you go out to a bar, you hit a button in the app that says something like "Hey, I'm at Tin Lizzie," and then everyone in your friends list (and your Twitter followers, if you have that option set) sees where you are.

In addition, however, they've added some new features into the mix: you get "scored" on how many times you go out and when you go out to different places. And there are even "achievements" you can earn (eventually user created) for trying a hot dog at everyone's favorite stand, or drinking x number of beers at a popular bar. In fact, there's even awards for going to bars where less-than-fashionable people appear, so watch where you decide to spend your Saturday night, lest you pick up the d-bag award.

Continue reading “Foursquare tries the Dodgeball concept again on the iPhone”

Tags: achieveements, app, dodgeball, foursquare, game, google, services, social-networking, software, sxsw, talkcast, twitter

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Odds and ends, Internet, Surveys and Polls, iPhone

Social networking getting bigger on mobile phones

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Dec 23rd, 2008

This is a big duh to anyone (like me) who's switched to a smartphone within the last year or so, but according to "new research" (I've never heard of them either), social networking applications and websites are blowing up on mobile phones, including none other than the iPhone.

Things are going both ways -- social networks are reaching out to mobile users with mobile versions of their sites and device-specific applications, and mobile phones are reaching back by allowing quick and easy ways to take pictures or upload text or video. That dude on his phone in the bar next to you is just as likely to be texting his entire network as he is texting that friend he's waiting for.

The end of The Guardian's article about this notes that search is up on mobile phones, too. Throw one more tick on the list of ways the iPhone has influenced how, when, and where we're using the Internet on our phones.

[via textually]

Tags: facebook, iphone, mobile-phones, myspace, photos, social-networking, socialnetworking, text-messages, twitter

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends, iPhone

Wakoopa for iPhone keeps tabs on web apps

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Oct 22nd, 2007

Reader Robert sent me a note to tell us that his startup site, Wakoopa (which, I was sorry to note, has nothing to do with Mario's enemies) has created a section specifically for (and compatible with) the iPhone.

Wakoopa is a social network of sorts that lets you discuss and recommend different software applications for various platforms. If you like using Firefox, for example, you can discuss that and track your use of it, and your software preferences get displayed for anyone to see. Just like Slife, I'm thrilled by the information available here, but not so sure I want to participate myself.

But the iPhone site is pretty useful as a directory. From the browser, it's a little slow to navigate through, but the real genius of it appears on the iPhone itself at i.wakoopa.com. As Robert told me, it's basically like Apple's web app directory, but easy to browse where you actually need to find and access web apps for the iPhone.

The implementation on the iPhone works well, and if nothing else, you can bookmark just one page and be able to access all the popular apps right from there. These web apps still aren't any substitute for a real SDK, but you need something to hold you over until February, right? I think the stuff at the top of Wakoopa's list is about as sweet as this solution is going to get.

Tags: app, apple, iphone, slife, social-networking, software, sweet-solution, wakoopa, web-app

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Productivity

Slife updates interface, adds social networking in 1.3

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Oct 2nd, 2007

We wrote about the 1.0 of Slife in February, and I thought it was a fascinating application-- there's nothing you look at more every single day than what you do with your own life, and yet here's a piece of software that lets you look at how you spend your time in a different, more objective way.

And now they've sent word that Slife has entered version 1.3, with numerous additions to the interface. The program can now work in the background, and apparently it no longer has to scan your hard drive for all the different applications to track-- if a new app shows up in your usage, it'll start tracking it automatically. They've also added a few social networking options (which sounds like a better idea than an actual feature to me-- do I really want people knowing how much time I spend playing World of Warcraft?) with their Slifeshare service. You can track your friends' activities, even down to what app they're using at the moment.

But while I'm personally not interested in completely sharing my pastimes (I'm sure there's an option to turn it off), I do really like the idea of the program, and I love the abilities it gives you to take a close look at exactly what you do on your computer when. Slife is available as a free trial (will track 3 apps), or as a full application for $34.

Tags: activity, awareness, awareness-browser, browser, slife, social-networking, times, tracking

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