Oracle Business Indicator’s, Oracle’s business intelligence software for the Apple iPhone has been reported by oracle to have been downloaded 23000 times in the one month period that the software has been available at Apple’s App Store. The majority of downloads were from the US (18,698), while the app was downloaded 1,082 times in Great Britain. Oracle was among the first companies to bring out real enterprise apps for the iPhone. Oracle Business Indicators was developed for iPhone users whose businesses use Oracle’s business intelligence (BI) software - Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE). Oracle Business Indicators provides mobile business users with secure, real-time access to information on business performance and allows users of various Oracle BI applications to get information sent to their iPhones, such as alerts and updates based on predefined business metrics. The mobile app is available for free to Oracle BI customers.
Starsmasher is a new game for the iPhone developed by Florida based EspressoSoft. It is a space-based 3D shooting game, where you control a ship that handles various threats including enemy fighters, mines and asteroids. You control the game by tilting your iPhone in the direction you want to steer and tap the screen to fire.
The game is now available at the App store for a price of £1.79 or $2.99. The developer is also working on a 1.01 update to resolve some issues with the original release.
Enigmo, which is a puzzle game for the iPhone, recently won another award when it was among the eight winners at the Austin International Games Festival. Enigmo, which was also recently voted “The best iPhone game” at Apple’s 2008 worldwide developer conference (WWDC), has been referred to as “The ultimate 3D puzzle”. It is a 3d puzzle game where the player manipulates various objects such as slides to control streams of flowing liquid and divert the flow of falling droplets so they can reach their target. The game has 50 levels and has been recently updated to allow user created levels from the pc versions of the game. Enigmo costs £5.99/9.99$ at the app store.
Remelody is a music based memory game with good, colourful graphics and fun gameplay. It has over 30 levels of gameplay and has been released by MyNuMo. Remelody highlights squares on the screen and plays musical tones in a sequence. The player must repeat the same pattern of tones by remembering and then touching those squares in the proper order before a timer runs out to complete that sequence and score points. There are also random special bonuses or hindrances, like gold which you can touch to earn extra points or skulls that will cost you a turn if you touch them. The game is priced at $5.99. A game update has recently been released that fixes some of the crashing issues of the original release and makes other improvements.
According to a recent report by internet and mobile usage analyst comscore.com, the usage of mobile maps has grown by 82 % in the U.S. and 49 % in Europe. The growth in usage was 72 percent in the U.K. and was higher compared to other European countries. 8% of American and 3% of European mobile subscribers accessed maps using their mobile phone in a 3-month period ending May 2008. The number of people who use Mobile maps is growing at a much higher rate compared to those who access online maps using a PC. Most mobile map users were seeking driving directions (Mostly for cars). Apple’s iPhone was top among the devices used to access maps in U.S. and was third behind the Nokia N95 and N70 in Europe, where it has been available for a comparatively shorter time.
Apple’s 8GB/16GB iPhone 3G is on sale at virgin stores around Australia. Virgin mobile, which is a subsidiary of Optus, offers an impressive iPhone data allowance of 5GB which is generous compared to the ones offered by competitors. Virgin mobile is offering the iPhone 3G with two basic plans. The first is a 70$ per month plan that includes 1GB data. There is also another $100 per month plan that includes 5GB data. Both of these plans are 24 month plans and include $520 worth of calls. However buyers are not limited to these plans, as a person can buy an iphone on any Virgin capped voice plan and have a data plan added to it. Coverage is good in major cities as virgin uses the Optus network.
More than 137,000 new pay-monthly customers were added by UK iPhone carrier O2 and the company attributes these gains to Apple’s iPhone 3G. These new customers came in advance of the iPhone 3G’s introduction to the market. The company’s recently revealed financial results for the second quarter of the year that confirms the gains. Mobile data revenues grew 46 per cent year-on-year and data average revenue per user grew around 12% year-on-year. This addition of 137,000+ new customers is around 80% more than the number of customers who signed up new to O2 in the same period of the previous year. Apple’s iPhone has become the quickest selling mobile phone in the history of O2.
According to USA TODAY, the exclusive iPhone deal between apple and AT&T set to expire in 2009 will be extended by an additional year till 2010. This decision was motivated by the $300 subsidy offered for each iPhone unit by AT&T instead of the previous revenue sharing model. The iPhone has had a very successful launch and AT&T chief Randall Stephenson has stated that they are very happy so far of their collaboration with apple.
Currently an iPhone subscriber has to pay double the amount which other AT&T subscribers pay every month for data and voice services. This extension will also not be taken kindly by those people who have been demanding iPhone availability on other services like Verizon and Sprint, who aren’t willing to switch to AT&T.
Chopper, developed by Majic Jungle Software, has been released in the App Store and is available for the new iPhone 3G. The side scrolling game, similar to the classic Choplifter, has users hovering left and right through different levels, avoiding enemy fire from tanks and bazookas, to complete their missions. It features 60 levels which are spread out over three difficulty settings. Using the iPhone, users will tilt the phone left and right to fly and tap the screen to fire or to drop bombs. Chopper is available now for £4.99.
Robosoft Technologies has announced that they will showcase their Casual Game development services for Mac and iPhone in Seattle from July 23rd to 25th. The showcase will be at Casual Connect, which is a premier event for the Casual Games industry and has more than 3,000 professionals in attendance each year. The recent release of the iPhone 3G gives developers and publishers the opportunity to expand beyond their typical core target platforms. The new iPhone model will also give developers the opportunity to experiment with the unique iPhone features such as Accelerometers and GPS navigation. Robosoft has, in the past, ported AAA titles to the Mac platform which includes hit titles such as Tomb Raider Anniversary, Lego Star Wars II and Fable: The Lost Chapters.