Bitstrips - Be A Star In Your Own Comic Strips

Like comic strips? Ever thought of becoming a star in your own comic strip but lack the skills in drawing?

Recently, I chanced upon a cool and fun app called Bitstrips whereby you can create your own comic strips with you and your Facebook friends as the star(s) in it. Even though I've just played with the app for like 2 days but I've already hooked!!   

 



Bitstrips - Instant Comics and Cards starring YOU and your friends!

Basic Information (as at to-date):

Price : FREE
Developer : Bitstrips

Category : Entertainment

Last Updated : 12nd Oct 2013 (Launched on 27th Sep 2013)

Latest Version : 1.1.0

Size : 72.2 MB

Rating : 12+ 

Available in iOS and Google Play
Compatability : Requires iOS 4.3 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Optimized for iPhone 5.
 

Brief Description Of The App:

Bistrips is a simple to use app that allow user to create your own comic strips (with massive list of ready to use comic strips scenes to customise). And yes, you will be the star in the comic strips. Before you start, you need to connect with your Facebook profile so that you can add your Facebook friends in the comic strips too. Isn't it nice to personalise the comic strips this way? ;-)

Of course, with the integration with Facebook, you can share your comic strips directly to the Facebook or watch comic strips created by your Facebook friends.

PROS:
1. Simple to use with lots of ready-made comic scenes to choose from
2. Cool and fun

CONS: 

1. Addictive

Click here to download it in iOS or here in Google Play.   

My Rating: 

4 (Out Of 5)

My Personal Experience:
I've just used the app for 2 days and completed creating my profile avatar and tried the first comic strips (see below). What do you think?

Cheers!

THUMB - A Thumb Up For This Social Networking App

When comes to Social Networking, I guess nothing beat Facebook, Twitter or even Google+. Having said that, there are many useful niche Social Networking apps spawning into action in the recent years.

Today, I am going to share one of the niche social networking app which is focusing on getting instant response by asking simple questions. It is called Thumb.  

Thumb - Instant Opinions. Real People

 
  

Basic Information (as at to-date):

Price : FREE
Developer : Thumb Inc.

Category : Social Networking

Last Updated : 14th Sep 2013 (Launched on 24th Mar 2011)

Latest Version : 3.8.9

Size : 18.9 MB

Rating : 12+ 

Available in iOS and Google Play

Brief Description Of The App:

Thumb is a simple to use social networking app whereby you can get opinions of any kind in an instance. You simply post your question (you can support your question by attaching an image) and the thumbers can give you a "Thumb Up" (agreed with you), "Thumb Down" (don't agree with you) or "Neutral" (yes and no kind of answer). Of course, as a member, you can place your opinion (with or without additional comment) on other members' question as well. This app is gamified by introducing a stars system whereby you will earn stars from the originator of the question if they think your answer is useful and valid.

It is a social network because you can add other members as your friends. Thus, you can post your questions to the community at large or only to your friend list or both.

PROS:
1. Simple to use
2. Good ways to get instant opinions from peer

CONS: 

1. Addictive

Click here to download it in iOS or here in Google Play.   

My Rating: 

4 (Out Of 5)

My Personal Experience:
I've use the app for more than a year now and still using it to post some questions to the Thumbers to seek immediate opinions (e.g. which photo is best for my blog etc...). Also, through Thumb app, I get to know a couple of nice guys that turn Facebook friends.

Cheers!

How Much Is The Most Expensive Apple App? [Infographic]

I know, nowadays most of the apps (iOS or Android) are free to download and how the developers earned their living is through advertising placement or In-App Purchase. Having said that, Paid Apps are still here to stay and they are meant to cater for niche market with unique or valuable content that doesn't made available through the free apps. 

How much do you think the most expensive Apple App will cost? $10? $100? or $500? Keep reading and you will be surprised!!!

Today, I am going to share 16 of the most expensive Apple Apps around in a form of Infographic (courtesy of graphs.net). Of course, depending on your residing country, you might not find all these paid apps in your localised iTunes store.  

16 most expensive Apple Apps (infographic)

Have you heard of any of these apps or used any of it? Do you think they worth their price-tag? Feel free to share your view in the comment section below. 

Cheers!

[News] New iPad and iPad Mini Is Coming Soon

Are you waiting for the next generation of iPad or iPad Mini? You are almost there!

 

According to a report from AllThingsD, Apple will unveil the newer range of iPad and iPad Mini in their 22nd Oct 2013 (Tue) Event. It is expected that the fifth generation of iPad will be thinner and lighter. As for the second generation of iPad Mini, it will be with Retina Display.

 

Last year, Apple held its iPad event on Oct. 23, so it is kind of anniversary thingy. By the way, 22nd Oct is the same day that the Microsoft Surface goes on sale. Coincidence? Go figure yourself ;-)

 

Cheers! 

[News] Apple Is Working Hard To Fix The Known iMessage Bug

If you've already upgraded your iPhone to iOS 7 and belongs to unlucky few, you might be facing with some issue with your iMessage, some known issues are:

 

1. Long message delays

2. Messages not being received at all or
3. Messages coming in all at once (flooding users’ devices)

 

Apple has acknowledged the bug and working hard to fix the problem in their next release. So, be patience and stay tune for the next update.

 

Cheers!

Do You Know There Are 3 Types Of In-App Purchase?

If you are frequent apps downloader, I am sure you have came across the term In-App Purchase when downloading the Free Apps. So what is In-App Purchase and how does it work? This blog post aimed to answer all these questions. 

 

What Is In-App Purchase?

In-App Purchase is optional transactions that designed to improve an app's functionality. Both free and paid apps can offer In-App Purchase feature. To find out if an app offers in-app purchase, refer to the app's product page, near the "Buy" or "Free" button.    

 

Type Of In-App Purchase

There are 3 types of In-App Purchases i.e.:

1. Permanent Enhancement e.g. Unlocking game levels or removing advertising or expanding an app's feature set

2. Expandable Purchase e.g. extra lives for a game character

3. Auto-renewing subscriptions e.g. a monthly magazine subscription.

How Does In-App Purchase Work?

When user decided to act on the In-App Purchase, you will be prompted to enter your iTunes password. Additional In-App Purchase can be made without re-entering the password for 15 minutes (unless you've changed the setting to request for password for every purchase via "Settings" --> "General" --> "Restrictions" and Change "Require Password" [from '15 minutes' to 'Immediately']).

In-App Purchase Setting
To restrict the In-App Purchase i.e. to avoid your child from accidentally carried out the In-App Purchase transaction, following the steps below:
Tab on:
"Settings" -->
"General" -->
"Restrictions" -->
"Enable Restrictions" --> and
turn-off the In-App Purchase feature

That's it for today!

Cheers!

Apps Infographic #1 - State Of Mobile 2013

Picture speaks a thousand words, that's why Infographic is a popular media to share information and knowledge. That's exactly the reason why I am creating a new post series in sharing the Infographic related to Apps or Mobile Devices.

 

In this first sharing, it is a very lengthy infographic about the state of mobile in 2013. It is a creation by AF-Studio.pl and Super Monitoring. Some key information you can gather from this beautifully done infographic are:

 

• Smartphones ownership
• Breakdown of mobile devices by platforms (iOS, Android, Windows, RIM and Others).
• Mobile Usage and Activities
• Mobile Advertising breakdown and many more....

Now, keep reading for more....



State Of Mobile 2013

Cheers! 

FREE App Day - Colors! (02/10/2013)

If you like to download payable apps freely then "FREE App Day" blog series is for you. I will be curating those useful or entertaining payable apps that turned FREE (e.g. through the "App Of The Day" promotion etc...). 

Of course, usually the free download is for limited time only (e.g. within 24 hours), thus, do come back often to check out the latest FREE deal.

Today, I am going to share the drawing/painting app called Colors! It will be available for FREE download TODAY only! 

Colors! Collecting Smiles

Basic Information (as at to-date):

Developer : Jens Andersson

Category : Entertainment

Last Updated : 26th Sep 2013 (Launched on 24th Oct 2008)

Latest Version : 2.1

Size : 37.4 MB

Rating : 4+
Original Price : $4.99 (FREE @ 02/10/2013 Only!)

Available in iOS (click HERE to download)

Brief Description Of The App:

Colors! is a drawing/painting app with massive features. If you like to draw/paint, this is a MUST HAVE app. One of the cool feature of this app is that your drawing/painting can be saved as a motion-animation showing the progress from the first touch till the finishing product. COOL!

Cheers!

AdLatte - Earn With Your App #1 (Review)

Nowadays, your mobile devices can do more than providing you entertainment, simplifying your life or get the latest news feed from the downloaded news app or social media apps. It can also earn you money (no, it probably won't make you rich as a user but it could earn you some coffee money just by a few clicks here and there).   

Thus, I am creating a blog series entitled "Earn With Your App". In this series, I will share those free iOS apps that can earn you some money and provide my personal two cents worth of review, as simple as that.

The first app that I am sharing is AdLatte.

AdLatte - Everyday Is Pay Day

  

Basic Information (as at to-date):

Developer : AppDisco (South Korea)

Category : Lifestyle

Last Updated : 28th Sep 2013 (Launched on 16th Mar 2013)

Latest Version : 1.1.46

Size : 7.0 MB

Rating : 12+ 

Available in iOS and Google Play

Brief Description Of The App:

AdLatte is a Mobile Rewarding Advertisement platform whereby user can earn small token of Latte Points (which can be transferred to your Paypal Account as cold hard cash) just by viewing the campaign allocated to you. The campaign can range from advertisement, video promotion or simply answering a simple quiz). Besides transferring the rewards to your Paypal account, you can also convert it into other merchandises' vouchers (for example, in Singapore, you can convert your Latte Points to Telco cash voucher or Zalora voucher).

PROS:
1. User Interface is simple and cool
2. Ability to cash-out via Paypal.

CONS: 

1. Too few campaigns

Click here to download it in iOS or Google Play.   

My Rating: 

2.5 (Out Of 5)

My Personal Experience:
I've downloaded the app since 22nd Aug 2013 and so far only allocated with 9 campaigns. So far, the earning has not reach the minimum threshold of $20 for Paypal! I will provide more update in the near future if there is any subsequent progress.

If any of you folks are an existing user of AdLatte, feel free to provide your feedback regarding this app in the comment section below.

Cheers!

[News] iOS 7.0.2 Update Is Here!

One week after the launch of iOS 7 and iPhone 5S/5C, millions of Apple fans have gotten hold of their latest toy (or at least the latest iOS). 

There are hits and misses in the latest iOS but the major misses would be the potential risk to bypass the lock screen passcode and the bug in unable to input other language (noticeably Chinese character in Pinyin) in the new virtual keyboard. 

Fret not, the fixes are here! Apple has just release the update in iOS 7.0.2 to fix the identified bugs. Have you updated yours? 

Cheers!   

FREE App Review - The Ultimate Friends Test

Right! This will be the very first iOS App Review in this blog. As and when I chanced upon any new, unique or useful Apps (especially is it's FREE), I will try to review it here.

Games App is the most popular category and most (if not all) of them are FREE to download. So, how do the developer earn their living? Yes, through in-App purchase and/or in-App Advertising. 

Today, the FREE Game App that I am going to review is called:

The Ultimate Friend Test

  

Basic Information (as at to-date):

Developer : Churp Churp Media Sdn Bhd (Malaysia)

Category : Games

Last Updated : 10th Sep 2013 (Launched on 15th Aug 2013)

Latest Version : 1.0.3

Size : 11 MB

Rating : 12+ 

Available in iOS and Google Play

Brief Description Of The App:

It is something like the once hottest app in the planet, Draw Something, whereby you challenge one of your friend (Facebook Friends) to evaluate how best you know your Facebook friends. 

The game started by you selecting one of your Facebook friend (say Friend A) to challenge and subsequently select 4 more Facebook friends whereby the tests are based upon. Once you've completed your round, you will be given your test result and your Facebook friend (Friend A) will do his round of test (of course, prior to that, he need to select 4 of his Facebook friends too). Naturally, the higher scorer (between you and Friend A) will be the winner. 

If you like Draw Something, this might be the app suitable for you to explore. Click here to download it in iOS or Google Play.   

The Ultimate Friends Test

Rating: 

3 (Out Of 5)

Cheers!

Predicted $46 Billions Revenue App Revenue In 2016

If you are already in App Business, you are in the right path and there are more good news coming your way, the only question is whether you are able to seize the opportunity or not. As per the recent BI (Business Insider) blog, mobile app revenue is estimated to be a $46 billions business (up from $8.5 billions in 2011).

 

The explosive growth of the app ecosystem is a natural consequence of the high mobile devices (smart phones, tablets etc...) adoption rate around the world. The question is how is your app (if you have one) doing in this hot market? I am sure there are plenty to be done as not every app can be as successful as Angry Birds or Candy Crush!

Also, from the above stats, it seems that FREE app is dominating the app market at the moment and in-app purchase or advertising is the most profitable models. What do you think? 
 

Stay tune for more app updates!

How Is iPhone 5S and 5C Doing In Sales So Far?

iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C were just released in selected countries 4 days ago and basing on the reliable source, the 3-days sales figure is about 9 millions sets! It was like almost double the volume of iPhone 5 figure in 2012, which is about 5 millions sets. 

So, all the early Apple Phone doubters should take a closer look now as I am sure Apple has done something right in this release. 

In any case, I am not here to talk about the iPhone sales, I am here to share the iOS apps' related news and opportunities. By opportunities I meant the ways and channels that app developers or users can tap on to earn some money on the move.

This being the first post of the blog, I will keep it sharp and sweet and will be back for more iOS news!

Stay tune for my next coverage of iOS 7!

Cheers!