The new app from Proctele AB will arrive in the App Store any moment now.
It's called "GPS MegaTape - Tape Measure".
It is a tape measure and an odometer. It measures distances with GPS. Hence it's meant to be used outdoors. It has two screens.
The tape measure measures the distance as the bird flies. The odometer measures the distance along the path you're walking, cycling, driving etc. Here's its icon:
You'll find it among the utilities category and the lifestyle category.
It costs $0.99
Hi you lucky iPhone owners!
Looking back in time I found this article about smartphones: tiny.cc/w41xm (the link is working now). It was written in September 2006, just a few months before the iPhone was introduced and changed the mobile phone industry. It did so in a big way.
I think it's a good article! However it feels really, really old. It mentions PDA's, a device that is about to be forgotten, and it does so in the first sentence: "Smart phones offer the functions of a mobile phone and a PDA in one device, but they are not for everyone. Here's what you need to know before buying one." Not for everyone? Yes, this was a true statement at the time, but not now.
The article definitely sees smartphones as a tool for professionals that are often away from their office. But it also says: "With increasingly more onboard multimedia features and cheaper flash memory cards, smart phones have become great companions for mobile entertainment, from picture and music playback to games and video.". Pictures are mentioned but not cameras.
Again, it's a good article, but a lot has happened in the five years since it was written. A lot of what has happened is thanks to Apple, the mobile phone industry outsider. I suspect there may be many more industries that need an outsider's help to start developing properly. Let there be more apples!!!
The NumberWiz app was released to the App Store on Friday December 10.
If you want to exercise your mental arithmetic skills then NumberWiz is certainly for you.
It works as follows: You pick six numbers out of two stacks of cards. One of the stacks contains all the numbers from 1 to 10, two of each. The other stack contains the numbers 25, 50, 75 and 100. The stacks are shuffled, so you can't select what numbers you get. When you've selected the numbers, you press a button and then the app immediately selects a three-digit number. Now it's up to you to use the four arithmetic operators to arrive at the three-digit result.
It's quite a challenge and you decide for how long you're going to try and find an answer. However after 45 seconds you have the option to ask the app for an answer. I usually press that button to check if the app suggests my solution.
I've played it a lot myself. It helps to practice and there are tricks you can use, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_calculation
There's a help button in the app, which displays a short explanation of the rules.
