People of Walmart iPhone Application Approved!!!!

Feature Creature – People of Walmart iPhone Application

It has certainly been a long time coming, but we are super pleased to present our newest iPhone application: Feature Creature – People of Walmart’s official application. We have been working closely with People of Walmart for almost a year now, had some ups and downs with the approval process, but now all of our efforts have come to fruition.

If you are unfamiliar with People of Walmart, the site is home to pictures of the trashiest, ugliest, and weirdest people/things that the terrific store, Walmart, has to offer. Pictures are often taken guerilla style of unsuspecting Walmartians and submitted by visitors of the site. The site, a satire of U.S. consumer culture and bizarre behavior, has grown exponentially since its inception in August of last year. We have known since the site launched that we had to be involved; and now we are proud to present Feature Creature – People of Walmart.

Feature Creature App:

The app is simple in nature, but full of content. Upon opening up the app, you are able to browse through People of Walmart’s extensive picture catalog of freaks and weirdos with the simple press of a button or flick of the finger. Shaking the app will populate a random picture from the PoWM archive.

Also included in the application is a camera feature which will allow users to snap a picture and  submit it right to People of Walmart with the easy to navigate submission form. Will your picture have what it takes to be the next Feature Creature to appear on the People of Walmart’s website?

Feature Creature is iOS4 ready and has been thoroughly tested by our killer development team. This is certainly not the end of Feature Creature though. We are excited to hear what people have to say about the application; leave a review on the iTunes store, shoot us an email, hit us up on Twitter or a comment on this post and tell us what you want to see in version 2 of the app.

Feature Creature is free and available in the iTunes store worldwide right now. Happy Creature hunting!

Secret Agent Cam Ver. 1 Released

It has been a long time coming, but we are pleased to announce our newest iPhone application, Secret Agent Cam. This is, without a doubt, our most creative, unique application to date. We are so proud of it and we would like to welcome you all to download Secret Agent Cam and snap so discreet pictures.

Instructions on using Secret Agent Cam are below and features are as follows:

Instruction for Secret Agent Cam*

The gist of Secret Agent Cam is simple. Have you ever been out somewhere and wanted to snap a picture of someone without them knowing? Well that is EXACTLY where Secret Agent Cam comes in handy. Upon booting up Secret Agent Cam you are immediately greeted with what we lovingly refer to as “stealth mode.” Within stealth mode, your iPhone camera’s preview pane is completely blacked out, and to unknowing passerbys (and targets) resembling an iPhone that is off or in sleep mode. Once you have your mark selected, you simple tap anywhere on the screen and Secret Agent Cam will do the rest. Your picture will be immediately saved to your iPhone camera roll. From stealth mode, simple swipe up to access your normal iPhone camera preview window, in addition to your camera roll and Secret Agent Cam’s settings.

One of the coolest features of Secret Agent Cam is the transparency (or opacity) feature which can be accessed in the settings pop-up. Using the transparency slider, the user can adjust how transparent or opaque the stealth mode blind appears. This allows you to partially see the subject you are taking pictures of, while still maintaining a level of inconspicuousness. Additional features include allowing your iPhone to shake upon your picture being saved to your camera roll, landscape mode, and the tell a friend feature.

*Alkali Media recommends silencing your iPhone before operating Secret Agent Cam for full stealth mode.

My First 24 Hours with the iPad

I was excited Saturday morning when Mike and I headed for the Apple Store in Cherry Hill, NJ – excited but skeptical. Mike and I were picking up our company iPad with which we will be sharing joint custody – Mike has to pay child support. I had fairly low expectations for the first iteration of the iPad. I figured it was, like most people assumed before trying it, a big iPod Touch. I have heard that comparison over and over, and though it isn’t real far from the truth, the iPad does have some redeeming qualities that I think make it worth having.

Upon unboxing the iPad, immediately you are greeted the following screen:

Of course you need to hook it up to your Mac before you can use it, Apple really wants to build the anticipation.

After finally syncing up some of my music, a video, and some iPhone apps (I wanted to see how our iPhone apps looked on the iPad) I was ready to roll. I set up my wireless internet which was as easy as ever and then immediately set up our company mail account. Mail looks real sleek in horizontal orientation and in portrait it looks just as crisp, though I prefer seeing the preview of my selected email. Also, in portrait mode, it utilizes the pop-over which is a little strange for a regular iPhone / iPod Touch user.

But to hell with that, let’s get into some of the specifics that I have noticed about this newbie in the Mac family.

App Omission:

I am kind of puzzled by the absence of the world clock / stopwatch / alarm. No alarm? REALLY Apple?! Not only that, there are other glaring omissions from the familiar springboard. No calculator, no stocks, and no weather app. Why would Apple choose to remove these from the iPad? It seems like a very odd choice.

Speed:

The iPad response is super fast. Much faster that my iPhone 3G and from what I have seen of the iPhone 3GS, I would argue that it is much faster than that as well. Apps load quickly, games run smoothly, and change of orientation and pop-overs appear extremely quick. The speed really improves the overall experience on the iPad.

Battery Life:

I am extremely surprised by this one. After getting the iPad home on Saturday afternoon, I plugged it in and took it to capacity. I unplugged it around 2PM used it most of the day. This morning (Sunday) I woke up, and it still had 84% battery. This is a huge change from my iPhone, which I have to charge every single night just so it makes it through the workday. I am not using 3G though, which might change my perception of battery life. Wifi has been constantly chugging along though.

Typing:

Easily the worst part of the iPad experience. It is just plain awkward – that is the best way to describe it. Holding it with one hand is awkward enough to begin with, but throw in trying to type with one finger, while not entirely hard, is just not cool. If you have a table to put the iPad down on, it makes things slightly more bearable. Even then, I find myself typing with my index fingers for fear of pressing other keys with my palms and because there is no where to put my palms. When I originally saw the iPad, I thought the increased bezel size was to alleviate the problem of typing. Well, it doesn’t. Typing isn’t hard, just weird. I need a peripheral. On a side note, I dislike Twitterific on the iPad for it’s lack of a photo upload feature. For shame. [EDIT: apparently you need to pay for the pro software to get that feature. Eff that. Tweetdeck FTW - Lutz]

The Screen:

The screen looks great. No doubt about it. Images pop and things look bright and crisp. What hasn’t changed is the same downfall that has plagued both installments of the iPhone, the super smearable, oil and dirt prone, glass screen. Sure, it makes things look great, but being neat freak, I find myself wanting to polish the touch screen every 5 minutes. For 2 years I have had a matte screen protector on my iPhone, and I already want one on the iPad. Another problem a lot of people are reporting is not being able to use the iPad outside because of the glare. This is another thing fixed by the matte screen protector. I find it odd that Apple hasn’t come up with a more creative solution to these problems. The video did look stunning on it though – Claudio looks great!

The Bizarre:

Well, after taking quite a few screenshots in horizontal orientation, I was trying to view them in the photo roll, and wondered, “Can I use multitouch to rotate this photo?” To my surprise, I COULD! But then my dreams were quickly dashed because the photo would not stay that way; it would automatically click back to the previous orientation. I don’t quite understand why this is implemented and why it functions the way it does. Very strange indeed. The addition of the slideshow of pictures on the lock screen was something I was expecting, but a welcome change. The iPad is surely better than any digital photo frame. Something else I feel like adding in this section is the weight. Mike thinks it’s way too heavy. I think Mike is crazy and that it is just right for being utilized as a combination of a macbook and a mobile device.

The Name:

The name itself is incredibly dumb, but using the name is either genius or lucky. Apple had to know that it would be compared to feminine products and that it would be made fun of. But boy did the name get coverage in the media.

The Apps:

The crowning jewel of the iPad, this is why you should be buying one. Based on the small number of apps that I have tried, many have changed the way I view mobile/mac apps. These are stuck in a limbo between the two. They are not mobile applications and they aren’t quite the full applications you would get for your macbook. They all have unique features that you haven’t experienced on your iPhone (typically due to lack of physical space on the screen) or on your mac (due to the lack of a touch screen). The Marvel Comics app amazed me. You can buy comics in-app and then flip through the pages. I really enjoyed being able to flip frame by frame, rather than just page by page. The iBooks app makes reading classics enjoyable, and I would argue that it gives any regular eBook reader a run for its money. And that is just one reader of the many that I am sure will be released for the iPad. Groovemaker was fun to play with. I made some phat beats. And TweetDeck for iPad looks, and functions, like an angel. Check out this pic of the App Store on the iPad, it looks pretty swell too.

THE VERDICT:

The price is what ultimately makes or breaks the purchase of the iPad for me. Personally, after trying out the iPad, I am convinced I would buy one for personal use – but not for $500. I think the price point is way too high for the iPad. If it were around $300 (or $350 at the most) I would suggest everyone go out and buy one. Unless you have $500 to blow, for the low end model, I would suggest waiting for a price drop or until they upgrade to the next generation. It is definitely an awesome piece of technology and I can’t wait to see the flood of new apps. Where is the next-gen iPhone? I am ready to write a review.

I hope this will help people decide if the iPad is right for them. Perhaps it just makes the decision that much harder. Oh well, I tried my best!

Late!

Patrick

Back That App Up! LoveBot: Robot Pickup Lines Finds a Mate, the App Store.

Let’s face it, your father’s pick up lines were so 2008. At Alkali Media, we’re trying to help people step into the future with LoveBot: Robot Pickup Lines. Everyone knows robots are 37.58% more charming than humans (if you’re questioning this statement, have you not seen Wall-E?!). And with the help of LoveBot, you can attract the mate of your dreams with the push of a button. With 20 high fidelity one-liners, like “Baby got backspace” or “Do you sync on the first date” you can move out of the way Casanova and let LoveBot do the talking for you!

Go ahead and grab LoveBot: Robot Pickup Lines in the app store now and also check out the other apps Alkali Media has to offer!

Have you fallen in love with LoveBot? Why not make a movie of yourself using LoveBot and send it to us at contact@alkalimedia.com We would love to see it! If it is good, we will even put it on our site!

GADZOOKS! Our Preston & Steve Soundboard is Now Available!

We are EXTREMELY happy to announce that as of today you can download our brand new Preston & Steve Soundboard on the iPhone App Store. For those that may be unfamiliar, Preston & Steve are DJs on the best radio station Philadelphia, or the world of that matter, has to offer, 93.3 WMMR. We created an iPhone app that pays homage to them and their radio show. It features clips from the whole cast: Preston, Steve, Casey, Kathy, and last, but certainly not least, Nick. Our new app also coincides with their new webpage redesign which is awesome. Check out their new webpage here.

The guys (and girl) were extremely cool and allowed us to make this app and they were very excited about it. They even allowed us to come on their radio show this morning, which we did. You can listen to us on the show below! Awesome!

Listen to Alkali Media’s own Chris Wilcox on Preston and Steve Show

Here is a picture of Preston and Nick, doing what they do…

Everyone on the show was extremely cool and we are so thankful to have this opportunity and we will be posting pictures of us with the gang very soon. As of the time I am writing this, the Preston & Steve Soundboard is already on the top 100 free entertainment apps on the App Store. We can already see many more sounds being added in the future and Preston & Steve even hinted at ::gasp:: iPhone exclusive clips! Download the Preston & Steve Soundboard with the link below!