iPhone App Store Opens Early : Omio’s Pick Of The Best
A pleasant surprise is that the Apple Store has opened up ahead of time, and is chock full of a variety of programs of varying prices and usefulness!
From a Mandarin Audio Phrasebook to a stargazing companion via digital Etch-A-Sketch, there is a bewildering array of different morsels to taste. They vary from the appetising sum of ‘free’, to £24 for an exquisitely detailed set of Netter’s Anatomical flashcards.
As rumoured, there is plenty of entertainment here, from Super Monkey Ball of iPhone 3G unveiling fame to Moo-Cow-Music Band, a selection of virtual instruments which use multi-touch to do cool stuff like play chords on a piano. Games like Moto Racer flex the iPhone’s muscles a bit, showing how capable it is at doing a full 3D arcade game, Ridge Racer-style.
Air Hockey, eBooks, even a Virtual Lightsaber goes to show the scatter gun approach Apple has taken, putting up a buffet of size, complexity (and possibly quality), letting people pick and choose what they like…
Some of the best items, just like in life, are free. The Remote, allowing control over iTunes or Apple TV from your handset is brilliant in it’s simplicity, working over wi-fi and allowing the album artwork to appear on the iPhone as the song is chosen. This is currently the number one free app on the site, closely followed by the usual suspects of social networking stuff.
AIM, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have all staked their claim on always connected phone lovers, as has PayPal with a streamlined money transfer program and fan-fave Shazam. The latter allows TrackID-style functionality for the iPhone, simply hold your phone up to the speaker and it tells you what’s playing, for free! The fact that it links into iTunes if you’d like to buy the track is the masterstroke…
Unfortunately, the apps cannot be used until the version 2.0 software comes out, so only the lucky 3G owners and those acquiring the update through nefarious means are free to sample the wares on display.
All in all the App Store looks to be a brilliant platform for small time developers to gain instant recognition with a free download, as much as a delivery tool for business users to acquire a robust set of instruments to make the iPhone work for them.
Whilst some look suspiciously familiar from their renegade hacked iPhone days, all the programs have been buffed to an Apple sheen before release onto a slick distribution channel as iTunes. It is exciting to see how the App Store will develop and grow from these strong beginnings, and a playing field that allows a backroom developer the chance to rub shoulders with behemoths like British Airways has to be a Good Thing.
However, enterprising companies like Carling have already found it a brilliant arena to advertise with the iPint. Impressive.
Roll on 2.0…
