Introducing Smeets - a social experiment that lets you SMS your tweets in SA
I've been working on a side project at immedia recently that I've code-named Smeets. (Got a better name? Drop me a comment!) It's a social experiment and we want to gauge what penetration tweeting by SMS might have in South Africa. Also, this project was more of a just-for-fun and a cos-we-can project :-)
Smeets allows you to tweet from anywhere using any cellphone since it all it requires is an SMS capable phone. We're using a standard cellphone number which means standard peak and off-peak rates apply; it also means that you can use your free and bundled SMSes to tweet!
Judging by today's response, it seems tweeting by SMS might have an interesting impact in South Africa. The next few weeks will be interesting to see what the Smeets stats are like.
If you're curious and would like to try out tweeting by sms, simply visit http://smeets.immedia.co.za and sign up for an invite. It's a closed beta right now cos we're still experimenting with the code base ourselves. Enjoy!
I have the greatest friends!
When Portfoolio was approved for the App Store, everyone was congratulating the team that worked on the app by sending covers of albums (I sent The Pointer Sister's I'm So Excited; Basil sent MC Hammer's Can't Touch This, Anice sent The Beatle's Abbey Road). This is what my buddy Paul Watson sent the team:
I truly work with some of the most amazing people. Thanks everyone!
#FistOfGemmell
In-App Purchase now available for free apps!
When Apple announced In-App Purchases at WWDC this year, they required that developers use it with their paid apps only. The deal was, if you downloaded something for free, everything about the app should be free too. That also meant that you couldn't add In-App Purchase to apps that were once free, and are now paid. In-App Purchase makes it easy for app publishers to allow the user to buy digital content for the app, whilst still in the app; like a subscription, more swords for your character in a game, a book etc. Today, Apple announced that they're allowing In-App Purchase for free apps too. But what does this mean?
In addition to the uses I mentioned above, the biggest difference for users will be that they probably won't see Lite and Paid versions of apps anymore. Developers can now create one app with limited functionality and allow the user to pay to unlock the fully featured version. Like a try- before-you-buy scenario. This is a huge advancement for the App Store and will most definitely see a major, major increase in revenue on both the app publishers, and on Apple's side.
In addition to the uses I mentioned above, the biggest difference for users will be that they probably won't see Lite and Paid versions of apps anymore. Developers can now create one app with limited functionality and allow the user to pay to unlock the fully featured version. Like a try- before-you-buy scenario. This is a huge advancement for the App Store and will most definitely see a major, major increase in revenue on both the app publishers, and on Apple's side.
My interview on Izimvo.com
Marc Forrest and Shaun Trennery have put up a fascinating new site called Izimvo ("our voices" in isiZulu) showcasing South Africans and their every-day lives. It's a really great site and an equally awesome idea.
This past Sunday, I was really humbled when Shaun emailed me Izimvo interview questions to showcase myself on their new site. The interview went up today on http://www.izimvo.com/kishyr-ramdial/.
Shaun and Marc, I can't thank you enough for this grand opportunity.
The Walama is spreading...
Photoshop.com for iPhone
The new, and free, Photoshop.com for iPhone app is just awesome. It's definitely the best photo editor app I've used on the iPhone. Here's a few images I just created using this app.
It gets better and better!
I'm really excited at how well our apps are doing in the South African iPhone app store. RadioPod and RugbyZone are still #1 in their respective categories (Entertainment, Sport) and RadioPod has reached a new high in the overall paid store - Number 2 baby!
A huge Thank You! to everyone who's downloaded or purchased our apps - and this is only the beginning, we've got a ton more in development and Portfoolio is already in review!
