Archive for the ·
· Category...
With the latest iOS 4.1 update Apple brought high dynamic range (HDR) photography to the iPhone. In some situations the HDR makes little to no difference (if the objects are evenly lighted). But if you have a high light source in the background it can really make a big difference. Below is an inside shot with high light outside in the background. As you can see the HDR prevented overexposure of the background.
Test of HDR on iPhone 4 with iOS 4.1
To make full use of the new features of the new iOS4, I have updated the LogYourRun iPhone application to support running the app in the background. Background GPS is supported on the new iPhone 4 as well as the 3GS. Running the app in the background means that you will no longer have to worry about leaving the app on the screen and what will happen when you get a text or a phone call while running. Also, locking the screen will greatly improve the battery life and let you run longer without worrying about the battery draining. In recent tests on a 3GS iPhone I was able to run the program in the background for 1 hour after which the battery was down 12%. This is a 2x improvement over the battery consumption if the app is run with the screen on.
While running in the background the app turns off the pedometer – so you will only be getting GPS information. But the option for automatically tweeting every mile or so will still work as long as there is a data connection available.
As you run the application badge (number in red circle in top left corner of the app) will show your distance so you will not forget that the application is collecting data. Also the location services icon will be displayed in your status bar. Once the iOS4 NDA is lifted I will post some pictures of the app in action.
Additional features in 2.8 include:
* In case of emergency (ICE) contact information – enter name and phone number and you will be able to easily call your ICE person straight from the app.
* Power save button. Get most of the benefits of running the app in the background even if your phone does not support background apps. This button stops the screen from updating and turns off the pedometer for some extra power savings.
For more information please see:
http://www.logyourrun.com/iphone/
LogYourRun is a site for active people – runners, hikers, and cyclists. To generate interest and app sales for the paid version of the LogYourRun iPhone app I have decided to launch a series of free running tools. The hope is that the target audience of LogYourRun will be looking for apps that can solve simple problems for them – such as measure heart rate and calculate heart rate zones and calculate pace based on distance and time – and they download these apps they will see advertisement for the paid LogYourRun app which will potentially dive sales of this app.
Here are the free apps:
All of these are tools that runners might look for on the app store and all of these apps have links to the full LogYourRun app and the YouTube video showing what a great app that is.
The LYR Free (GPS/pedometer) has been in the app store for several months but interestingly has not been hugely successful maybe because of the lack of brand name recognition or because the paid version is so cheap
The Heart Rate tool (HR) has proved to be hugely successful – probably because it is one of the few free apps that will let you measure your heart rate and calculate your heart rate zones. I still need to integrate pinch analytics to see if this is actually driving traffic to the full app – but since the HR app has launched the sales for the full app has gone up 3 fold.
The Pace Calculator will go live this week and I look forward to seeing the response to this app.
There are several components to marketing your iPhone application online. Below I try to give a comprehensive list of resources and strategies. Keep checking back on this since I will add information as I think of other ways to promote apps online.
Here is a list of sites where you can submit information about your application. Most will provide links to your application and your website – great way to generate meaningful incoming links. Before embarking on your submissions make sure you have the following ready:
The following is a list of good sites to submit your app to listed in order of importance and relevance:
I have seen a couple of sites offering to review your app for $100 or some other “nominal” fee. I dont think that such sites will survive long – how can you write an unbiased review when someone just paid you $100? This will erode consumer confidence in these sites and when they go out of business the review will disappear as their site is taken down.
Figure out what your target audience is likely to be and find a forum that your audience frequents and register. Take some time to figure out the tone on the board and if there are any users that seem to be influencers. Send them a PM explaining that you would highly appreciate their input on your application and include a promo code if your application is a paid app. If you cannot find a user to target you can always try to just post yourself – this will likely not generate as much buzz as if you get an influencer to post.
Integration with Twitter is easy through the REST API and integration with facebook can be quite easy also – facebook has a drag and drop library which can be used to add facebook connect to your iPhone app.
Although promoting iPhone apps and web sites can be done efficiently through online advertising campaigns, the market for LogYourRun (runners, cyclists and other active people) is such that real world marketing can also be a highly efficient way to reach an audience that is unaware of LogYourRun and unaware that such a service even exist.
Historically, print advertising consist of designing a brochure with information about your product and distributing to potential customers. Since a single sale of a $1.99 iPhone app brings in $1.40 and the free app has no revenue attached I have been exploring cheap print alternatives to promoting using a brochure. I have found several places online that will print high quality business cards for very little money. I was able to get 2,500 business cards printed with high gloss front and matte color back for under $150 using Vistaprint – that is about 6 cent per card so only one in 23 cards have to be effective at getting someone to download the app in oder for me to break even.
As it turns out the dimensions of the iPhone are such that it fits perfectly on a business card. So on the glossy side I have a picture of the iPhone running the LogYourRun application so people can see what it is all about and on the back I have instructions on how to get the application. And that is the hard part – since the main screen of the LogYourRun application does not contain the application name – I have to rely on people to turn the card over and read the name of the application. It would be great if apple implemented something similar to the android barcode scanner where all you have to do is take a picture to download an app. Maybe someone is already working on making such an application for the iPhone.
I have collected about 1 months worth of baseline data on downloads of both the free and the paid LogYourRun applications and one of my friends are going to Miami Marathon this weekend and will hand out about 1,500 of the cards there. I will report back the results here after the weekend.
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5