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 Another day, another location-based app, right? Well, Grafetee (pronounced gră-fə-tee,) is really not the same as something like Saga in that it’s meant to be both a location service as well as a framework to integrate in other location services.
Its exclusive functionality is location-based bookmarks. This allows people to share notes based on their current location, including photos. These bookmarks can be shared privately with other users through an 8-digit alphanumeric code, that allows them to join in and create their own notes. For example, a private directory of restaurants and bars visited could be created and shared between friends. This works without logging in to anything, and photos are shareable between platforms, as the app is on both iOS and Android.
But where Grafetee will be at its most immediately interesting for users is the way that it integrates in third-party services: right now, it uses various APIs to add in Foursquare tips, Yelp listings, Flickr and Instagram photos, Geocaches, and even Wikipedia listings nearby. All of these can be toggled as different visual layers, or displayed in a text list.
 This is where the developer of the app hopes its long-term value comes from: being able to add in other services to make it more useful. One creative use is in the developer’s native Finland, they made it possible to let users report information to the police with Grafetee. As explained by Juha Huttennen of Grafetee: “The Finnish police for example, is using Grafetee to crowdsource crime-related data that is not urgent. So they don’t want you to use the app instead of calling 911 but they want you to give out data if you find something that threatens security or if there is a distrubance that you want the police to note and perhaps later act on. Like…if there is a street crossing that is dangerous, or if there is a stop sign that people usually disregard or whatever. They want to collect stuff like this from the public, instead of getting these calls to 911 or direct emails complaining about the same things. It definitely helps them to ease their workload and gives the public a channel.” It was launched nationwide in the past weeks. How did Grafetee get involved with the Finnish police? “I called them.”
One of the other benefits of Grafetee’s approach is that it isn’t necessarily crippled if it grows too big for its britches: controversies over shut-off API access have arisen around Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Instagram with Twitter, for example. With Grafetee providing their own bookmarking service, if Foursquare pulls access, they still have other services, including others that may come into the app’s ecosystem, including ones that may pay to be part of the app if it catches on. Given the potential of its open framework and the fact that a governmental organization is already using it, it’s just a question of further adoption by not just users – but those who may get use out of a location-based app like Grafetee.
 Leap2 is the latest app that aims to make it easy to search through social media, as well as other web results.
Referred to as a ‘living search platform’, the app makes it simple to browse through all kinds of search results at once, covering both web results and real-time hits from people. It’s the kind of resource that should prove particularly useful in times of breaking news or sports results, as well as providing a great way of gauging public reaction to something.
This all sounds much like Twitter’s trending topics, but the bonus to Leap2 is that it incorporates more than just Twitter. Users create a ‘leap’ they’re interested in to receive continuing updates which stems from the likes of Bing, Yahoo! Local, Foursquare, Yelp and Twitter. It’s all very simple to browse yet potentially quite powerful.
Adaptable for everything from the latest news, hype about a new movie or the local weather report, Leap2 is an interesting and free way of checking out plenty of different viewpoints at once.
FREE!  iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-11-28 :: Category: Reference
 LoSo, a location-based restaurant and bars app which bills itself as a combination of FourSquare and Yelp, has announced a complete redesign as part of the version 2.0 update. New features include user profiles, as well as a real-time news feed linked to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The most significant new addition is the What’s Up! feature, which allows users to take photos or videos of local bars and restaurants and instantly upload them to your Facebook page, the restaurant’s Facebook page, and LoSo‘s listings. The app also allows users to check out menus, drink specials and happy hour deals of all participating businesses within 10 miles of their current location. Checking in at participating businesses grants QRewards Points, which can be redeemed for free food and drinks, as well as other prizes.
LoSo is currently testing in the Philadelphia and Boston markets, and will be expanding to Washington D.C, Chicago and Dallas soon.
FREE! iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-03-24 :: Category: Travel
Arriving on the App Store today is a clever combination of trusty local business search engine Yelp and people’s experiences of such businesses.
 Jollyspot promises to make it easy to remember and share favourite places. Users can find the best hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes, shops, spas and more anywhere in the world all through trusted recommendations from friends who have already used such services. Further advice can then be offered via a notes system that allows users to add information such as the best meal, best time to visit a bar or other useful insider knowledge.
It’s a simple concept but potentially highly effective. There’s no gamification of social features like with Foursquare and other social apps, it’s all about the best places as chosen by regular people/friends. The friends element means the information is guaranteed to be pretty reliable making Jollyspot surely the first port of call for the scoop on the best places to visit.
Jollyspot is available now as a free app.
FREE! iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-09-19 :: Category: Lifestyle
The App Hall of Fame (the original App Hall of Fame, not the Apple knock off) is an independent initiative launched by 148Apps that includes selection committee members from over 40 web and print publications.
Our goal is to archive the very best mobile apps by honoring only 12 applications per month. To be eligible, applications must be available for download from the App Store for at least 6 months. Applications are nominated and voted on monthly by the selection committee with the applications that get the most votes being inducted into the hall of fame.
We want you to join in on the celebration. We’ll be giving away copies of the newly inducted applications to subscribers of our mailing list later this week. Subscribe now for a chance to win.
We are very proud to announce the November inductees into the App Hall of Fame:
Harbor Master from Imangi Studios, LLC
OmniFocus from The Omni Group
Reeder from Silvo Rizzi
Yelp from Yelp
Pocket God from Bolt Creative
Real Racing from Firemint
Tilt To Live from One Man Left
Facebook from Facebook
Bebot – Robot Synth from Normalware
Fruit Ninja from Halfbrick Studios
Dropbox from Dropbox
Blue Defense! from John Kooistra
 The Hotlist is a geo-social aggregator that finds what’s going on around you without you having to do anything at all.
From the press release: “The app aggregates public info from its users Facebook accounts to populate a Google map with events. It then shows them anyone they know who has RSVP’d to a specific event, the guy-to-girl ratio, Yelp reviews of specific locations and any live Tweets to give insight into the pulse of the crowd at a venue or event.”
With already 160,000 people on board, and Blackboard and Android users coming soon, The Hotlist is coming together to be the end-all source for what to do on a weekend night. That is, if you like crowds.
All you have to do is get yourself a Facebook account and pick up the app for free. So go on, have some fun!
FREE! iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-07-30 :: Category: Social Networking
I’ve been hungry lately. Real hungry. Some hunger is conquered by Chipotle, but this hunger is only has one weakness, and it is good, local food. Fortunately for all of us in the same situation, there are plenty of apps for that. Here are the four best, brought to you by the never ending hunger of Chris Hall.
4. Yelp – I really like Yelp when I’m looking for a place to eat. Because of its vast user base, the Yelp app provides more restaurants per search than any other app I’ve found. There are also more customer review on Yelp than any other service, so if you believe that more is better, Yelp is for you. The problem with Yelp is the fact the reviews are all user based, and very rarely do people give mediocre reviews. When I search for restaurants, everything is right around 4 stars, leaving me to wonder what I should really eat that night. There is an occasional in-depth review, but for the most part people just write something like, “This is THE place to go” with an occasional, “my waiter didn’t bring my water fast enough, but I still go four days a week… 1 star!!!”.
FREE! + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2008-07-11 :: Category: Travel
Continue reading Best Apps For Finding A Place To Eat »
Christmas Time Is Here!
Christmas is in just four days, and the best gift of all is definitely a new iDevice for your loved one. Sure, you could give a plain ol’ iPod Touch or iPhone, but wouldn’t he/she be so much happier with an iDevice loaded up with a few apps? Here’s 4 that I think everyone should have.
1. Tweetie 2
Whether or not the person you are buying your iDevice for uses Twitter or not… they will very soon. They may scoff at the idea now, but the ability to Tweet about your surroundings with text message ease makes the idea far more attractive. Being the best of its kind, Tweetie 2 is the way to go for all of your narcissistic Twitter needs.
FREE! + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2009-10-09 :: Category: Social Networking 2. Midomi Sound Hound
It used to just be called Midomi, and it used to be absolutely free, but given the fact that Shazam charges too, I figured I’d go with Midomi for my recommendation. Like Shazam, Midomi can tag a song out of midair, but it goes one step further and pulls songs that you sing or hum into the mic. Is “Hey Mr. Tambourine Man” stuck in your head, but you can’t think of The Byrds? Pull out Midomi and start humming. Warning. If you are entirely tone deaf, this really won’t do you much good.
$6.99 + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2008-07-11 :: Category: Music 3. Yelp
Sure, it’s an old, no-fun app, but it is an app that I use on almost every vacation I take. Just select ‘near me’, choose ‘restaurant’, and then pick. It’s that easy. If you need a bit more excitement in your life, I’d go with the even older UrbanSpoon, which does the same thing but leaves the selection process to the phone itself. Watching the slot machine selection process is great though.
FREE! + Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2008-07-11 :: Category: Travel 4. Need For Speed: Undercover
I know I’m going to get flack for this, but here is my rationale. If you are pre-loading a game for this iDevice, I’m assuming that the person is somewhere between the ages of 13-18, and that they like games… otherwise they would probably just go buy their own games. You could certainly take a gamble and buy an RPG like SEED, Zenonia, or Inotia 2, but RPG’s really don’t show off the system like other games do. Remember, this is the game that people are going to show of to their buds and say, “Pshh, eat that PSP”. Personally, I would go with a tower defense game, but there is nothing sexy about tower defense. To show off the full graphics capabilities of the iDevice, I would go with a full speed racer. Most would probably say that Real Racing is the way to go here, but as a show-off piece, it falls in one crucial area… cut scenes. Sure, the cut scene does nothing to enhance the gameplay, but if you really want to stick it to your UMD toting, PSP playing friend, just show them that your iDevice can roll with a game complete with full motion video. NFS: Underground really is the most complete video game on the device, even if it may not be the best.
$2.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-05-05 :: Category: Games Vector TD
Speaking of Tower Defense, Candystand just put Vector TD onto the iPhone. Sure, it’s not the prettiest thing you’ll ever see, but if it’s anything like the web version, it will be fun. I’m just now downloading it to my iPhone, but I’ll hopefully have a review up soon.
FREE! iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-12-18 :: Category: Games Big Dollars
For all the stories I hear of iPhone devs struggling to make ends meet, it’s good to hear a success story or two every once in a while. According to a recent Reuters article, Tapulous says that it is pulling in a million dollars a month from its ‘Tap Tap Revenge game series. According to the article, “Earlier this year, research group comScore said the game had been installed by one-third of Apple app users.”
Having only 20 employees total, the guys over at Tapulous are certainly doing well for themselves. They aren’t the only ones though… Lima Sky, the dev behind the Top 10 Paid App stalwart, Doodle Jump, recently announced that they have passed a million downloads. While they aren’t pulling in a $1mil a month, they are splitting all the profit between its 2 employees, Igor and Marko Pusenjak. Merry Christmas indeed.
$0.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-03-26 :: Category: Games Big Finish
Well that’s all I have for this week. I hope all of you have a great holiday weekend… just don’t eat so much that you won’t be able to read 148apps on Monday. That just wouldn’t be good for anyone.
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:: NEEDS MORE CITIES
:: SO HANDY
