A slew of new iPhone apps, iPad apps and Android apps have been released in the last ten days here in Boston. Below you will find eight that stood out to us in particular. Check out, share and support these locally built apps — from startups like jog.fm to giants like State Street Corporation.
jog.fm
Just hitting the app store this morning, jog.fm is looking to transform your jogs, strolls, and runs with music. A “fitness music recommendation service,” this iPhone app takes the beat of your running pace/intensity to automatically select music from your iTunes library with the same tempo. The app also tracks your runs, and allows you to connect with other runners.
“Countless studies have shown the power of music in inspiring athletes and improving exercise performance,” says jog.fm CEO Matt Venables. “Fitness apps should help motivate you, but they should also be simple. With this app, users just need to run. The app will do the rest.”
Skyhook Powered Book Crawler
The most popular bookshelf app in the App Store, Book Crawler, just integrated with Boston-based Skyhook Wireless’ location engine, Local Faves. The $1.99 app is now the first of its kind to connect people around the books they are reading at a local level, enabling a location-based social network for book lovers.
“We are very excited to introduce the very first location-based book app integrated with Skyhook’s Local Faves,” said Jaime Stokes, the creator of Book Crawler. “Book lovers have a natural tendency toward sharing and discussion as evidenced by the many book clubs around the world and online. What Book Crawler and Skyhook are doing is using location to make discovery and sharing much more engaging to the reader.”
Avid Scorch
Scortch is Avid’s latest iPad app, allowing users to download and learn to play music from over 150,000 titles. The app offers an interactive experience, helping you learn and play new tunes with features like “Music Stand” mode, which allows you to see the score being played and control how quickly or slowly it moves so you can learn at your own pace. The scores titles are available from Hal Leonard and Music Sales. The app currently has a limited-time introductory price of $4.99, and on July 31st that price will jump to $7.99.
“We’re certain our customers will be excited to use Scorch, an innovative iPad application, to purchase, practice and perform sheet music wherever they go,” said Tanguy Leborgne, Vice President, Creative Enthusiasts Products and Solutions at Avid. “We’re focused on using our industry-leading technology in exciting new ways so musicians, teachers, students — all creative people — can achieve their artistic vision.”
Event Check-In for Constant Contact
Small business marketing software company Constant Contact has released a free event check-in app for its Android and iPhone customers. The app makes it simple for organizers to keep track of attendance at their events. It provides real-time access to events created using Constant Contact’s Event Marketing tool, the ability to mark participants as “checked in”, attendee search functionality, as well as the ability to email any registrant personally with the touch of a button.
“One of the biggest pain points for small businesses and nonprofits hosting events is how to streamline the event check-in process,” said Chris Litster, vice president and general manager of event marketing for Constant Contact. “Hosts need to take care of the ‘business’ side of an event, but they want to make it as painless as possible so they can focus on the real reasons they are there in the first place—to foster relationships with attendees, and to conduct a successful event. Event Check-In for Constant Contact makes that possible with the click of a button.”
BrewGene
BrewGene released version 2 of its app earlier this week. The Boston based company, which includes two Babson College grads I had the pleasure of graduating with, have been working on building Pandora for beer since 2008. This latest release includes an updated skin on the app and a big PR push — added of course to its core feature of offering beer recommendations based on ones you rate and review within the app. Each beer (40,000+ from 4,000+ breweries) includes tasting notes, and this app can be a go-to if you’re looking to immerse yourself in the world of craft beer.
“BrewGene is based on the observation that while there is technology to recommend good music based on user preferences, there is not really anything that helps you find good beer,” said co-founder John Muggeridge. “With the vast selection of beer available today, (some of which are quite expensive), we strongly feel that BrewGene will be a useful tool to help our users identify new beers that they will enjoy.”
InnoCentive Anywhere
Cambridge-based InnoCentive has released an Android app (iPhone slated to hit the App Store the end of June) which allows users to check out and share the latest Challenges posted to InnoCentive. Since knowing about the challenges first is key to being the first to solve them, this app allows scientists, engineers, and other potential solvers to monitor and stay on top of what’s new no matter where they are. The app also includes featured innovation news selected by InnoCentive. The app was released along with a list of top solvers of 2010.
“We wouldn’t be successful today if it were not for the extraordinary efforts of our Global Solver Community, which now reaches into the millions,” said Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of InnoCentive. “I’m also thrilled to announce the new enhancements to our Solver program, which will both extend the reach of our Challenges to millions of additional Solvers and improve their user experience by offering new awards for referrals and better access to Challenge information.”
Digitas Cache II
Digitas has released the second edition of their Digitas Cache iPad app, a digital publication put out with thought leadership from this leading integrated brand agency with its headquarters right here in Boston. The features essays, experiences, and examples authored by Digitas execs about new technologies around the ever-changing media landscape. In this issue you will learn about everything from social media strategy, mobile commerce, and geo-targeting to more off-beat items like graffiti culture.
“Built in Adobe Air, the app takes advantage of the latest technologies available for an interactive and informative experience,” the company explained in a press release. ”Offering a glimpse into the creativity, innovation and thought leadership that drives the industry, the publication features experts and thought leaders from a variety of capabilities at Digitas.”
State Street Springboard
While the app won’t be live and available in the App Store until the Fall, giant State Street announced last week it is working on an iPad app. The app will provide portfolio information as well as news and other content customized and based on what’s in that portfolio. State Street says they are targeting executive-level portfolio and fund managers, and that it will also include features like risk-exposure analysis, Net Asset Value (NAV) summaries, fund flows, and thought leadership articles.
“Clients are increasingly focused on risk management and are relying on mobile devices more than ever for immediate access to critical information in a rapidly changing global market,” said Pat Centanni, executive vice president and head of global product management. “State Street Springboard is extensible and customizable, enabling mobile users to fine tune their experience so that critical information and market insights are easy to access.”
