App Popular Recommendations is coming soon to an App Store near you!

It combines new features with much of the original App Popular included. My business partner and lead developer quit unexpectedly about three months ago so it’s been quite some time in the making. There’s a larger vision I wish to actualize with this product; and hopefully it’s simple brilliance (IMHO) will resonate with enough people to further its development.

So let’s dive in to what you’ll be getting by downloading this app. You’ll still be able to easily visit 77 App Stores around the globe. You can share any app you come across via Facebook, Twitter or email. You’ll be able to use the App Popular hybrid search engine that includes normal App Store results to find apps. We’re at work improving search.

To alert users to deals and trends throughout the day, the application offers a “Hot Apps Stream” to view price changes of currently ranked apps, new #1 rankings, apps entering and leaving the top 10 and the latest changes to the “Top Picks by Members”. The stream currently tracks the United States & United Kingdom’s (Free & Paid) “Top Overall,” “Top Grossing, and “All Games” categories.

Now the main focus is “My Apps & Recommendations”. There are three lists to add apps to: Apps I Like, Apps I Don’t Like & Apps I Want. When you add 5 or more apps to your Apps I Like list, you will start receiving a “stream” of app suggestions under “My Recommendations”. With these apps, you can view screenshots and descriptions, and immediately grab them in the App Store and then include them in your like and dislike lists. If you want to wait to get the app, simply “want” it (add it to your Apps I Want” list). You’ll automatically receive a push notification whenever its price changes. From there, you can like or dislike it, thereby fueling additional recommendations.

App Popular Recommendations uses these member default lists to create the top 100 “Apps Most Liked” and “Apps Most Wanted” Top Picks by Members section.

Feel free to use the “Contact Us” option in our app’s main menu to send us your feedback!

-John

We’ll be giving away several hundred (we’ve already given away thousands!!) promo codes from March 3-4 (2010) for the following iPhone apps listed below (and possibly others). We will post individual tweets for each app when the codes go live inside App Popular (http://Twitter.com/AppPopular). Only one code per device is allowed per day and codes are given out on a first come, first serve basis. Not everyone receives or is guaranteed a code. An iTunes account based in the US is required to participate and redeem promo codes.

App Popular 2 is coming soon and will offer new features and a complete redesign of existing features. For example, email will no longer be required to access winning codes.

Developers interested in promoting their paid iPhone apps for free by submitting promo codes may use this form: http://www.apppopular.com/promos.php

So without further ado, here are the apps being given away. Check them out!

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PushMail
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pushmail/id324271854?mt=8

iRecipes Cooking Assistant Tool
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/irecipes-cooking-assistant/id358297008?mt=8

FullCount
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fullcount/id315164117?mt=8

iRevolver
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/irevolver/id303049285?mt=8

Animation Creator
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/animation-creator/id323283939?mt=8

Real Guns & Games – Master Collection
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/real-guns-games-master-collection/id342138783?mt=8

pocket story – The Boy Giant
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-story-the-boy-giant/id356078392?mt=8

MyReef 3D Aquarium
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myreef-3d-aquarium/id314333174?mt=8

Tropical Aquarium
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tropical-aquarium/id348813376?mt=8

Auschwitz Liberation – The Defeat of the Nazi Empire
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/auschwitz-liberation-defeat/id358574805?mt=8

Downloader – Download, View, and Share Files from the Web
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/downloader-download-view-share/id318884764?mt=8

Math Legend – Rock your addition subtraction multiplication game
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/math-legend-rock-your-addition/id358128978?mt=8

Touchcard 2 – Flashcard learning system Import free flash cards
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/touchcards-2-flashcard-learning/id346856975?mt=8

Playscape Matching – Learning Colors Shapes Numbers Letters Game
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/playscape-matching-learning/id353405893?mt=8

Camera Plus Pro
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/camera-plus-pro/id345752934?mt=8

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App Popular iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/app-popular-find-top-apps/id333206686?mt=8

PS – For version 1.2, please check your spam folder when validating your email address. You will then receive another email with the promo code. Thanks so much!

For convenient, real-time notification, we post updates to Twitter every time we add new promo codes to the stream. Follow us @AppPopular.

We also improved our iPhone and iPod Touch hybrid app search engine which compliments normal store search results with new algorithm tweaks completed a few days ago. We’d love your feedback! Just send us a message from the “Contact Us” section inside App Popular. Search queries may be further refined at any time with a handy flip screen price filter.

In case you haven’t heard of our app yet, App Popular lets you view all 77 App Stores by country and category. You can also track an unlimited number of apps for world ranking updates and price changes: saving money on the apps you want and keeping abreast of their popularity. Additionally, create and share app lists, tag apps, see which searches are popular, view top picks by members, and browse the “What’s Hot App Stream”.

And the best part – it’s all FREE!

We are hard at work on “App Popular 2″ which will be released next month.

Enjoy your weekend!

PS – Developers interested in submitting promo codes to the App Popular Stream in exchange for a free week’s promotion of their paid iPhone apps may do so here: iPhone Developer Promo Codes Submission Form.

With the new version’s release imminent (we submitted to Apple last Wednesday), I thought I’d provide an update and outlook for App Popular. I’m going to hold off on sharing details of the two new app discovery features we’ve added to 1.1 until it’s actually live in the App Store, but I do believe we’re laying the groundwork for something useful to people who love and use iPhone and iPod Touch apps.

For those unfamiliar with it, App Popular (for the iPhone and iPod Touch) lets you easily browse all 77 App Stores by country and category. It includes the Top Overall Free, Paid and Top Grossing categories. From the world rankings area, one tap lets you track the world rank of any app. With two taps you may add an app to one of your app lists (default lists: My Top Picks, My Worst Picks, My Wishlist); track the price change of any app and receive a push notification “text message” when the app goes on sale or otherwise changes in price; and share any app via Facebook, Twitter or email. Lists (including custom lists) may also be shared, edited and saved.

When you tap the center ranked app icon in the Cover Flow-like “World Rankings” section, you can view its App Store description, see the latest written reviews (US only in 1.1) and view a screenshot (we’re adding all five screenshots to version 1.2). It also links directly to the App Store. So if you’d like to buy it, one tap and it will ask you to confirm exiting the app, and then take you to the app’s sales page to purchase.

What’s nice about viewing the world rankings top 100 in App Popular is that you can peruse apps either via the side scrolling interface or tap the search icon for the quick list view.

When you use the default app lists, we tally the lists together and you get to vote on your favorite and least favorite apps. This aggregated list data comes together in the “Top Picks by Members” area. The new version provides the top 100 apps that receive the most “votes” from the default lists. These categories include: “Top Member Picks”, “Worst Member Picks” and “Most Wished For Apps”.

We have an app data “Stream” that alerts you to deals and trends throughout the day. You can view price changes of currently ranked apps, new #1 rankings, and apps entering and exiting the top 10 and top 25. The Stream currently tracks the United States & United Kingdom’s (Free & Paid) “Top Overall,” “Top Grossing, “All Games”, and App Popular’s “Top Picks by Members” categories. In version 1.1, we’ve added the ability to “Load More” and view the last 100+ entries. In version 1.2 and 1.3, we’ll further expand and segment the Stream to make it more valuable to you. The next iteration (1.2) will have a VERY intriguing app discovery feature added to this section. Can’t wait to share it with you!

As an aside, the new version lets you conveniently do a general App Store search from the main menu.

Version 1.2 will be submitted by year’s end. Features slated for this iteration:

● All five screenshots in app details (if available from developers)
● New Stream item
● App alert indicator in “My Tracked Apps” to refer back to an app with a recent price change at your convenience
● Expansion of app discovery feature added to 1.1
● And – yes – one more app discovery tool!

We’ve been asked a few times how to delete an app you are monitoring in My Tracked Apps. Simply swipe the app row from left to right and the delete button will appear, tap this and the app is deleted. Works the same as the iPhone’s email client.

Currently the app works in landscape mode only. We will offer the option to use it either in Portrait, Landscape, or both. It will be a setting you access from your device’s General Settings (same area you change your Sounds, Brightness, Wallpaper, etc.). This feature will not be implemented before version 1.3.

Please send us your feedback via App Popular’s “Share My Thoughts” section. We’d be delighted to hear from you!

Have a wonderful holiday season and a bountiful New Year.

Warm wishes,

-John
App Popular, LLC

We’ll soon be updating the website and are at work (early stages) on a desktop companion to the application.

Here’s the iTunes Link for Mark On Call: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mark-on-call/id299360512?mt=8

“We wanted to solve a problem every iPhone user faces,” says John R. Haigh, App Popular Co-Founder. “One of the biggest complaints from users is not being able to quickly find, sort and track applications that meet their needs or interests. Unless they have time to search the entire App Store or a specific category, users typically limit themselves to the Top One-hundred and Featured lists. Our app makes it easy to search, track and share every app out there.”

Created by Haigh and developer Nikita Logachev, App Popular delivers a variety of user tracking tools to monitor any app’s popularity. In addition to sorting apps by country and category ratings, users can create and share custom app lists, wish lists and lists featuring their favorite and least favorite apps. To promote favorites and help guide their network of colleagues, friends and family, users can add short comments to their app selections.

Haigh explains that to facilitate social networking shares, a unique web page is created for each App Popular user’s list and is hosted on the App Popular website accessible via a shortened URL auto-generated by the bit.ly service. At any time these lists can be edited, saved or shared. Default lists are “My Top Picks,” “My Worst Picks” and “My Wishlist.” App Popular also uses member default lists to create “Top Member Picks,” “Worst Member Pics” and “Most Wished For Apps.” These categories are updated every 15 minutes.

The application also uses Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 push notification service to help users track App Store price changes. Push notifications are currently available only for apps downloadable worldwide. To alert users to deals and trends throughout the day, the application also offers an app data “Stream” where users can view price changes of currently ranked apps, new #1 rankings, apps entering and leaving the top 10, and new apps added to the “Top Picks by Members” category. The Stream currently tracks the United States & United Kingdom’s (Free & Paid) “Top Overall,” “Top Grossing, and “All Games” categories.

For developers, programmers and iPhone App power users, App Popular offers a World Rankings list, updated six times daily, sortable by country and category. According to Haigh, this feature will help iPhone entrepreneurs follow market trends, generate new product and feature ideas and keep an eye on global iPhone app competition. However, Haigh doesn’t see the application as all business.

With convenient access to all 77 App Stores and the chance for users to share newfound apps, he hopes to see a wider exploration of the app universe. He says “Whether users are addicted to the App Store or just obsessed with international trends, our app can help users unearth, stumble upon and save money on the apps they want, or don’t even yet know they want. It’s a great way for them to align with the pulse of iPhone app lovers across the globe.”

Device Requirements:
* App Popular works on the iPhone and iPod Touch
* Minimum system requirement: iPhone OS 3.0
* App Popular requires a network connection to function

Pricing, Availability and Updates:
App Popular(TM) 1.0 is priced at $1.99 (USD) and is available exclusively from the App Store in the Utilities category. Updates will be frequent and driven by user feedback.

App Popular 1.0 Website
http://www.apppopular.com/
Purchase & Download
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id333206686?mt=8
Screenshot
http://www.apppopular.com/images/ss_main.jpg
App Icon
http://www.apppopular.com/images/ap_icon_512.jpg

Additionally, users of the application may discover fabrics or finishes on someone else’s furnishings in a published room, import that room, and automatically collect and apply these newfound custom color presets. A custom color preset is created when a user takes a picture of an actual finish, fabric, rug, paint color, wallpaper pattern, or flooring material and “skins” the image onto an item or surface in their room using the iPhone’s camera or an image from their photo library.

The “Rooms Gallery” features a Cover Flow interface and can filter results by “Just My Rooms” or by room type. Published rooms can be deleted only by the original creator. The Rooms Gallery will soon be publicly viewable from the Mark On Call website.

The new Room Editor, where rooms can be accurately drawn and measured to scale, offers nine room shape templates, customizable with a “touch and drag” system. Not only can walls be moved, but now corners can be added (or deleted) and repositioned to create precise angles. To assist with architectural accuracy, walls turn green at 0, 30, 45, 60 and 90 degrees and display the degree number next to the wall measurement.

A customizable background option that can be used to represent wall paint or a wallpaper pattern has also been added to version 2.0, and functions the same as rendering a room item or floor surface. Users may coordinate rugs, flooring and other room items to their walls in this virtual space before actualizing their design plans.

Based on Mark Lewison’s home decorating book, “What Would You Do With This Room? My 10 Foolproof Commandments to Great Interior Design”, Mark On Call is truly home design in the “palm of your hand”. Users can access and customize 156 furniture and architectural elements, choose from a palette of preset color, fabric and finish options, take advantage of the easy-to-use color wheel, add snapshots of floor models corresponding to items in their room designs, create and share detailed shopping lists, and send images of their room creations via in app email. It’s an excellent tool for interior designers to help them conceptualize, design, store and shop for clients, or anyone planning their fantasy or actual living space.

The application works in both the Metric and Imperial measurement systems.

Summary of New Features in Mark On Call(TM) 2.0:

- First-use (one-time-only) pop-up help screens to navigate through new and core features

- New Rooms Gallery to backup and publish room designs, move rooms to another floor plan, create room templates, and collaborate with other designers, clients, friends, family, or Mark On Call™ users

- In app “import” feature lets users download published room designs and custom color presets created by other Mark On Call™ users

- New angled and multi-dimensional wall design feature to create infinite angles, recesses, and irregular floorplan features

- Room background color option to represent wall paint or wallpaper

Pricing and Availability

Mark On Call(TM) 2.0 is priced at $4.99 (USD) and is available exclusively from Apple’s App Store

iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mark-on-call/id299360512?mt=8

Mark On Call(TM) 2.0 works on the iPhone and iPod Touch

Minimum system requirement: iPhone OS 3.0

Mark On Call(TM) 2.0 Rooms Gallery feature requires a network connection

Media Contact:

John R. Haigh

310-384-5950 (US)

john.r.haigh@gmail.com

America needs a goal.

Something positive that brings us together.

Something tangible and something measurable.

Not something like the War On Poverty but more akin to the Space Race. Getting other countries (or the “world”) involved or inspired, and in a more positive way.

“To make sure a goal unleashes the power of (our) subconscious mind, it must meet two criteria. It must be stated in a way that you and anybody else could measure it. I will lose 10 pounds is not as powerful as I will weigh 135 pounds by 5 PM on June 30. The second is clearer, because anybody can show up at 5 o’clock on June 30 and look at the reading on the scale. It will either be 135 pounds or less or not. Notice that the two criteria are how much (some measurable quantity such as pages, pounds, dollars, square feet, or points) and by when (a specific time and date).”
-Jack Canfield, The Success Principles

There seems to be an energy revolution in process. Yesterday I read about a battery that can recharge 100 times faster than the current rate (i.e. recharge your mobile phone in 10 seconds). One catch: it needs the energy delivery source to be as powerful.

And if one hour of solar energy from the sun can satisfy civilization’s needs for an entire year, solar also seems destined to play a big part in this “energy revolution”. We simply need new technology that can harness its power. This, combined with planetary reforestation (which has already been accomplished on a micro level) can help balance our planet and possibly stimulate world peace.

Now I don’t want to make this a post about Al Gore’s global warming call to action or accompanying scientific counter-arguments because two things are apparent to me: 1) the world needs more energy and at a faster rate, 2) fossil fuels are not renewable, 3) human activity is destabilizing nature (mainly through the deforestation of the rainforest, topsoil erosion, mining of coal, and the burning of fossil fuels).

So no matter what you believe, what do we do? I will argue that cheaper and abundant energy is great for America and great for the world. We could do more to help developing nations and forward human innovation simply through developing a base of inexpensive, healthy, infinite energy.

What could America’s goal be? What can we do as individuals to effect this change if we believe we need it? What can inspire America and in turn the world? How can we make it measurable? It can’t be a percentage or a “war”. That’s far too vague. Especially with government cooperation. We can picture a man landing on the moon and we knew immediately when the goal was accomplished. We can do the same now.

I don’t know the answer—or even some of the possible answers. But what could we do? What would you do?

Originally published March 12, 2009

I feel compelled to share the feedback I received from the iPhone Developer Program for my new iPhone app. If the information helps just one developer get approved more quickly, it will have indeed been worth it!

It will also make IDP reviewers’ jobs easier.

Currently it takes about 2.5 weeks for Apple’s iPhone application approval process, up from five days at the beginning of the year. And this is if there are no change requests. Expect equal amounts of time for each round of corrections.

So without further ado, here’s the potentially time-saving tip:

Don’t use keywords in your app name!

Unless it is your app name.

We’ve reviewed your application and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because your app name contains keywords. iTunes Connect now supports Keywords under Manage My Applications to allow developers to establish application search criteria. Please remove all keywords from your app name and enter them in the iTunes Connect Keywords field.

If you’ll recall back in July, Apple asked developers to include a list of keywords with their newly submitted binary to improve app discovery. The current character limit for the keywords category is 100.

Prior to this, many developers added keywords to their app name “title” appearing as the app name headline in the App Store. This helped people better locate the apps they were searching for. And let’s face it. Unless (1) the name of your app (or company name) is made up of relevant keywords, (2) you’re a major brand, or (3) you’re in the top 100 overall, very few people are looking for your iPhone app by name.

After finally getting my partners’ approval and at the renewed insistence of a friend, we saw an immediate 30+% increase in daily sales for our first iPhone app, Mark On Call, simply by changing the app name and making it a “title”. People were searching for interior design, home decorating, etc., not “mark on call” (or at least there were significantly fewer queries for our product by name). While effective, it proved less aesthetic and perhaps more confusing for some customers. Cluttering the store with wordy keywords illogically strewn together, does not make for a seamless experience. So Apple’s change makes sense. Keep it simple, keep it elegant.

Without our history in the App Store (currently having version 1.3 breaking the rule and “for sale” in the App Store), we would have completely avoided this error. We had just submitted Mark On Call 2.0 prior to this notice, so it required rejecting the binary and resubmitting in order to remove keywords from our app name.

But hey. You live and learn. I only hope we don’t have to wait another two and a half weeks for App Popular’s approval.

I remain hopeful we’ll be live soon.

And iPhone developers. Please. Get your app name right.

It’s not real time push as notifications take about a minute to be pushed to your iPhone but it still works great. The only downside I see in this app is that these push notifications can quickly become overwhelming if you have many people @replying or DMing you. For someone like me, Twitter push notifications make my ADD even worse…

I really like how the app works but it’s not for me. Do you really need to be notified of every new tweet you receive?

You can download Boxcar from iTunes for $1.99.