We’ve already reported about Pizza Hut’s success with its iPhone app. Well, in addition to the numbers achieved ($1 million in sales), the company is all proud to announce that it also won two MMA’s (Mobile Marketing Association) global awards: Mobile Display Campaign in North America, and Emerging Technology Campaign in North America.
Commenting on tha announcement, Pizza Hut’s Bernard Acoca said: “It’s an honor to be recognized as a mobile marketing leader by the MMA with wins in two categories. The Pizza Hut iPhone App continues to be an applauded breakthrough digital innovation that connects with consumers and industry organizations.”
Now I’m hoping other restaurants will follow Pizza Hut’s example and make the food ordering as simple and convenient as it should be, and ultimately make more money along the way.
A company called ecobee has released a new application in the AppStore called Smart Thermostat, allowing users with compatible (i.e. expensive) systems to remotely adjust the thermostat’s temperature, schedule or update vacation events, change the system and fan operating settings. In addition, the application alerts users about the status of the system.
See where that’s going? Soon enough every iPhone user will be able to have all the benefits of Bill Gates’ famous digital home. The problem, however, is not in the available apps, it’s the high-end equipment that costs fortune that keeps many folks, myself included, from pushing our homes into the digital age.
There are plenty of apps out there that allow you to control your computer from your smartphones, but what if you want to browse your Windows Phone from your desktop computer? Well, then you’ll want to check out WiFi Remote Access for Windows Mobile. The new Windows Mobile app installs itself on your Windows Phone and acts as a bridge between the phone and your computer, allowing you to connect to your handset via WiFi and browse its contents through a web browser (like the one you’re using to read this very sentence).
Remote Access is still in beta, but doesn’t skimp on features. You can view photos, complete with thumbnails. You can listen to the music you have stored on the phone. You can even edit your Windows Phone’s registry through the app.
There’s no desktop installation required. Simply install the Windows Mobile app on your smartphone and point your desktop computer’s browser to the handset’s IP address. It’s that simple.
Find more information on Remote Access here. Grab Remote Access here.
Quick, raise your hand if you sent an MMS from your iPhone this past week. Okay, how about this past month? If you’re not raising your hand, your either A) not following the rules of this game or B) just like the millions of Americans that just don’t send out MMS (picture messages) regularly from their iPhones. I fall into the latter category. Today’s release of FunMail might change all that.
FunMail for iPhone automatically analyzes your text message and serves up relevant images that you can embed into your message. The idea behind FunMail is to bring MMS out of the dark ages and allow people to use images for rich communication. Rather than send your friend a text message asking them if they want to eat, FunMail would have you send them the same text with overlaid on an image of a burger. You can even send that messages to Twitter and Facebook.
The trick to making picture-chats convenient is FunMail’s “Media Brain,” which pulls out the semantic meaning behind your text and gives the user a set of pictures that might fit the situation. If you’re talking about going to lunch, FunMail returns images of food. Talk about a birthday, and you get birthday-related images.
The app is free in the iPhone AppStore, so it won’t hurt to give it a shot. I personally can’t see myself using FunMail for everyday communication, but it’s definitely worth trying out at least once.
Regular users of the Facebook app for BlackBerry will want to take note that the app has been updated to 1.7.0.22. Of course, no changelog is available, but if you’re addicted to the thing it’s probably a good idea to update to the latest version (if you haven’t already). To get started, simply head on over to blackberry.com/facebook from your Berry’s browser, and you’re off to the races.
Be sure to let us know if you spot any updates worth noting… Me thinks this update is just chalked-full of minor tweaks and bug fixes.
I’ve no idea why it took so long for Fring to embrace Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s mobile platform, but whatever the reasoning is, it’s good to see them jumping on board. Yap, Fring is now an Android thing, too — joining the likes of the iPhone/iPod Touch, Symbian S60, Windows Mobile, Linux (Maemo) and Java ME-enabled devices.
Just like that’s the case with other smartphone platforms, Fring for Android allows users to chat with their buddies across multiple IM networks, make free calls, post status updates, as well as make calls to mobile and land-lines using SkypeOut or some of the available SIP VoIP services — either via WiFi or 3G.
And that’s it. Simply search for “fring” in the Android Market and take it from there. And check out the introductory video after the jump.
There are now more mobile apps available in the AppStore than any one person could ever hope to try out in a single lifetime. Add in the myriad Java apps out there, and the sheer volume of mobile apps becomes overwhelming. How is anyone supposed to wade through the much and find truly unique and innovative apps? Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s iPhone app “Top lists” clearly aren’t cutting it. Another possible solution is mplayit’s mobile app discovery engine.
At the Under The Radar conference today in Mountain View, CA., mplayit was showing off their Facebook-based mobile app discovery platform. The idea behind mplayit is to harness the power of crowd sourcing and Facebook’s massive social network to give users a quick way to find new mobile apps. A live “Apptivity Feed” integrates with Facebook to show you, in real-time, what apps other Facebook users have been checking out. The “Featured Apps” section monitors apps that are trending hot with Facebook users, while the “Shared” and “Popular” sections display apps that have been shared the most or downloaded the most, respectively.
Once you’ve stumbled upon an interesting app, mplayit serves up app descriptions, reviews, screenshots, and even videos of the app in action – if it’s a Java app, you can even demo it through mplayit’s emulator. You can even download the app, add it to your “collection,” and share the app through email and Facebook right from mplayit’s platform.
At this point, only iPhone and Java apps are supported, but Android and BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) will be supported by year’s end. Windows Mobile and webOS will be coming in 2010. Check out the demo video below, and then hit up mplayit.com to see for yourself!
Instant message aficionados have been eagerly waiting on Cerulean Studios to bring their profile-synchronizing Trillian client to the iPhone. It’s been years, in fact, since we first heard of the Trillian iPhone app. Today, that wait ends. Trillian for iPhone has officially hit the AppStore with a $4.99 price tag!
The thing about instant messaging apps is that there are a veritable truckload of options available on the AppStore. Some really good apps are offered for free. If you’re not a hardcore IM user, you’re probably going to be just fine sticking with one of those apps. But, if you use instant messaging services like your life depends on them, Trillian for iPhone will probably be a worthy investment.
Trillian supports multiple IM services and allows you to switch between conversations with a tabbed interface. But, it doesn’t stop there. Trillian for iPhone synchronizes your IM accounts with their the Trillian Astra servers, so when you change your status or update your buddy list on the iPhone app, those changes will automatically be pushed to your Windows Trillian client and the web-based Trillian client. There’s also an option to have any instant messages pushed to your iPhone. And, since all chats are stored on Cerulean Studios’ servers, you’ll never have to worry about losing a chat transcript again.
Trillian for iPhone isn’t going to be for everyone, especially with its premium price-point. But, for power-users, Trillian is going to be hard to beat.
The very handy (or should I say hands free?) Drivesafe.ly app for BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) has apparently reached the 1 million user threshold. Wowza! Congrats to the folks at Drivesafe.ly. If you’ve never heard of the app before, Drivesafe.ly enables you to put your phone DOWN while driving your car. It reads emails and SMS messages to you, allowing you to focus on the road (which is what you should be doing in the first place). Other key features of the app:
Hands Free – No need to touch the phone while driving
One-touch activation – no complicated setup
Bluetooth and radio transmitter compatible
Reads text message shorthand (lol, brb)
Optional customizable auto-responder
Ideally you’d turn your device OFF, or throw it in the glove box out-of-reach, but Drivesafe.ly is the best compromise I’ve seen yet.
Versions for both BlackBerry and Android are available, and new editions for the iPhone and Windows Mobile are coming soon. For more information hit up Drivesafe.ly.
Received an email this morning from the good folks at Dropbox. The news? They’ve released a Dropbox iPhone app… Cool! The app is of course free, and offers access to your Dropbox while you’re on-the-go. Access, view and download your files right from your iPhone for offline viewing. Take new photos or videos and sync them to your Dropbox… Or even share links to files in your Dropbox, all from the convenience of your iPhone.
In case you’ve never heard of Dropbox before, here’s the official skinny:
Dropbox is software that syncs your files online and across your computers.
Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they’ll be instantly available on any of your other computers that you’ve installed Dropbox on (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!) Because a copy of your files are stored on Dropbox’s secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device using the Dropbox website.
For my own personal use I’ve used Dropbox to share files, pictures, movies and more. On the business side I’ve used it while collaborating on projects… uploading new documents, design files and more to a central location, ensuring the latest versions were always up and ready to go. Dropbox is truly a handy tool.
For more information on the new Dropbox app, hit up the App Store (iTunes link). For more information on the service in general (and to setup a free 2GB account) hit up Dropbox.com.
Regular users of the 
There are now more mobile apps available in the AppStore than any one person could ever hope to try out in a single lifetime. Add in the myriad Java apps out there, and the sheer volume of mobile apps becomes overwhelming. How is anyone supposed to wade through the much and find truly unique and innovative apps? Apple (
Instant message aficionados have been 
