Our latest app, “Creativity” for the iPad, went live in the app store today. The app is an interactive/multimedia e-book based on the book “The Business Playground” by Dave Stewart and Mark Simmons. For those of you who are fans of the rock band Eurythmics, you may recognize Dave Stewart as being one of the members of the Eurythmics.

It’s been a great experience getting to work with these guys on the app. Check it out in the app store here:

Download Creativity app

Also, here’s a link to the press release about the app:

Press Release

And here are some screenshots:

Notification Center. Have you ever been on your phone or listening to music when you receive a notification?  The phone goes silent for a few seconds.  Apple has fixed this.  In iOS 5, you can choose how notifications for each app are handled.  You can have them appear in the traditional manner where your current activity is interrupted, you can have them appear as an unobtrusive banner at the top of the screen without any interruption, or you can have them go straight to the Notification Center without bothering you.  If, for whatever reason, you don’t notice a notification, it will be present in Notification Center, so you won’t risk missing it entirely.

The notice looks like this:

Also, I get all kinds of notifications: email, friend requests, tweets, texts, and more.  With iOS 5, the notification center can be seen from the lock screen.  With one swipe, you can pull the notification up and react to it.

iMessage. Users will be able to test with the iPad and iPod.  You will be able to send unlimited text messages via Wi-Fi or 3G from you iPad, iPod or iPhone.  Any members of your household not quite old enough for their own phone but glued to their iPod?  This will be great for them.

Reminders. I already use the calendar on my phone to organize my schedule.  But I have to go through the event screen.  iOS 5 is adding a To Do feature that lets you add reminders.

The reminder can be location based.  Suppose you need to drop a form off at your child’s school?  With the reminder feature,  you will get an alert when you pull into the school parking lot.

Twitter.

With iOS 5, sign in once on settings and you can tweet directly from your device.  You can also tweet while in a different app.  For example, you can tweet an article while in Safari or a video while in You Tube.

Camera.

You will LOVE the improvements to the camera feature.  You will be able to open your camera from the lock screen.  Picture?

Also, press the volume-up button to take a picture.  Picture.  This feels like a much more natural way to hold the camera when taking a picture.

Also, the iOS 5 gives you more tools to enhance the quality of the photos you take.  You can use grid lines to compose the picture.  iOS 5 also provides autofocus and autoexposure features.  It will allow you to remove red eye.  You can also crop and rotate the picture.

iOS 5 is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 3^rd generation, iPod touch 4^th generation, iPad and iPod2.

Both have their place in your business’ marketing mix and some sort of mobile presence is essential.  According to comScore, as of July 2011, 234 million Americans, age 13 and older, use a mobile device on a daily basis.  And that number is only growing.  ComScore reports that almost half of these users are using their mobile devices to browse the web.  And an equal amount of users report downloading apps on their mobile devices.  You cannot afford to ignore the mobile market.  And nothing is more frustrating to a mobile user than a web page that will not render on his or her device!

A mobile web site can be accessed from a web browser so it may reach a larger audience.  It is less expensive to develop.  And a well crafted web site will render on all devices.

A mobile app is, well, just more fun for the user.  An app will allow the user to move through the content more seamlessly and with less effort.  Apps provide features that a mobile web site cannot, such as GPS and meaningful user interface.    An app will allow you to establish a more intimate relationship with your consumer.  A mobile app increases the likelihood of a conversion.  Even the best mobile web site may seem sluggish to a consumer attempting a transaction.  If the site is slow to load, even by just a few seconds, the consumer may forgo the transaction.  If many of your customers are iPhone users, it is worth the extra effort to include an app in your marketing strategy.  Mashable reports that retailers enjoy a 30% higher conversion rate for native iPhone apps versus the typical mobile website.  Do you have a lot of repeat customers?  Do your customers visit your store weekly or more frequently?  If so, an app might make sense for your business.

Tourism. DoubleApps created Knoxville, Tennessee’s first walking tour app, the Beck Tour. The award winning Beck Tour app is a GPS guided, walking tour highlighting Knoxville, Tennessee’s African American heritage. It has historic background, photos, and numerous videos, all at your fingertips. The Beck Tour uses GPS technology and all of the beautiful, richly textured content the Beck Center has created to render a fun, educational experience for the traveler. When you are traveling to a new place, do you check the app store to see if there are any travel guides? The iPad and iPhone are creating numerous opportunities in tourism. With GPS features, and with the ability to show written content, pictures and video, walking and drving tours are the new front in tourism.

Retail and Sales. Your products will look beautiful on iPad’s LED-backlit, high resolution screen. You can zoom in on images to highlight features. You can also show video that highlights features. Show your products on the iPad and the images will be crisp and bright. Moving between images and ideas is easy and fun on the iPad. It is the sales brochure of the 21st century but it allows for substantially greater impact. With the iPad, you can give the sales pitch, answer your customer’s questions, collect contact and billing information, and complete the transaction anywhere on a moment’s notice. If you have a larger planned audience, you can connect your iPad to an external display. The iPad makes it easy to capture and maintain your customer’s attention.

Business processes. An in-house app can help manage your operations and business systems in an efficient intuitive way. An in-house app often can integrate seamlessly with your company’s existing infrastructure. With iOS SDK, your in-house app can provide access to your web content so you can use your web development investments. An in-house app can also tap into back-office systems and data warehouses. The iPad and iPhone can also help your business to manage communications between end user and management and between your company and its customers.