Archive for October, 2011

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New creative design tablet apps: Adobe Touch Apps

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Six new apps for Apple iPads and Android tablets have been announced by Adobe at its MAX 2011 technology conference.

At US$9.99 each, the six apps address different areas of the creative process: image editing; ideation; sketching; mood boards; website and mobile app prototyping; and presenting finished work.

Adobe Touch Apps are essential components of Adobe Creative Cloud, a major new company initiative also announced today. Adobe Creative Cloud will allow subscribers to access desktop and tablet applications, find creative services, and share their work.

Files created via Adobe Touch Apps can be shared, viewed across devices or transferred into Adobe Creative Suite software for further refinement. Adobe Touch Apps are designed to work with both finger and stylus input.

Adobe Touch Apps will be available for Android devices in November 2011. iOS availability will likely be announced only in early 2012, although Adobe Ideas is already available for the iPad.

Access to the file viewing, sharing and transfer functionality of Adobe Creative Cloud is included in the price of each Adobe Touch App. Details regarding pricing of the Adobe Creative Cloud and its expanded capabilities around applications, services and community will be announced in November 2011.

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Posted in Adobe, Android, App, Creative Suite, iOS, iPad, Launch, Software, Tablets | 1 Comment »

Single Edition of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite for tablets

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

The Single Edition allows freelance designers and small design firms to publish interactive content created with Adobe InDesign CS5.5 software on the Apple iPad for US$395 per application.

Adobe Publishing Suite, Single Edition at US$395 per iPad application.

Adobe Publishing Suite, Single Edition at US$395 per iPad application.

Single Edition allows designers to publish a single-issue application for sale or distribution through the Apple App Store, without writing any code, focusing on creative design.

The Professional Edition of the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite was released in May for publishing houses, business publishers, and education institutions that require an off-the-shelf tablet publishing solution.

Single Edition allows users to publish single-issue content such as a brochure, highly-visual book, annual report or personal design portfolio as an application for the iPad.

The Digital Publishing Suite family which now includes Single Edition is used to publish content beyond traditional magazines and newspapers. These include sales tools, brand and customer engagement materials, merchandising deliverables, employee communications and corporate collateral published to tablets.

Pricing and Availability

Single Edition for iPad is expected to be available for purchase online at the end of November 2011. From InDesign CS5.5, users can publish through Single Edition to the iPad for US$395 per application. Single Edition will support additional tablet platforms later in 2012.

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Posted in Adobe, App, InDesign, iOS, iPad, Launch, Software, Tablets | 1 Comment »

New app-cum-loyalty programme: Pointpal

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

Pointpal is a nifty electronic wallet for managing loyalty programmes for consumers who want to enjoy benefits and freebies offered by participating vendors, without the hassle of carrying a multitude of loyalty cards and keeping track of the stamps and tokens associated with the individual cards.

Pointpal electronic loyalty programme on a smartphone app.Do you carry a two-inch thick credit card wallet specially to hold all the different loyalty cards and discount cards that you’ve signed up over time with different F&B outlets or boutiques? Some of these offer one free drink for every three drinks purchased or give a free massage for every eight sessions.

Most of the time, the number of purchases are indicated by stamps on the loyalty card. Accumulate the requisite number of stamps and you surrender the card to the bartender for that free cocktail.

Buy X to get Y free.

Buy X to get Y free.

A new FREE app has been launched for the iPhone that promises to take the hassle out of participating in these loyalty programmes. Apps for Android and BlackBerry smartphones are in the works. Pointpal has already been launched in Australia.

Scan the QR code to join a new loyalty programme

Scan the QR code to join a new loyalty programme

The entire programme is based on the use of QR codes. Participating vendors will display these 2D barcodes on their advertisements and in their compound so that interested customers who have installed the Pointpal app on their iPhones can scan the QR code to sign up for the loyalty programme for that vendor.

This removes the hassle of filling in paper application forms for each loyalty programme you sign up. You only need to enter some basic details once when you first download and install the Pointpal app. After that, simply scan the vendor’s QR code to join.

Easy to use iPhone appAfter every relevant purchase at a participating outlet, you can key in the purchase and let the cashier or bartender verify the purchases by scanning his special QR code. Once you have accumulated enough purchases, show the app to the cashier redeem rewards and freebies. Again, the cashier or bartender will scan his special QR code to acknowledge redemption and then hand over that free drink or merchandise.

Even if the phone is lost, the records of the purchases with the various vendors are available in Pointpal’s cloud storage.

Manage and keep track of your purchases
No more lugging around a fat loyalty card wallet, or looking for that elusive card just to get it stamped or to check number of stamps.

Initial participating vendors include Barcode Cocktail Bar, Nail Vibe, and Wine Universe. More can be found here.

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Posted in App, iPhone, Launch | 2 Comments »

Singapore Internet users embrace social networking

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

Studies by Experian’s global analysis shows Singapore loving both Facebook and Google+.

Websites Visits share in August 2011 Visits share in August 2010 % Annual Growth
Facebook 38.22% 37.83% 1.03%
YouTube 23.37% 20.13% 16.10%
Twitter 5.74% 4.38% 31.05%
Hardware Zone 3.27% 3.88% -15.72%
Tumblr 1.42% 0.63% 125.40%
Google+ 1.20% NA NA
Meebo 1.07% NA NA
Yahoo! Answers 0.92% 0.92% 0%
Tagged 0.50% 0.56% -10.71%
VR-Zone 0.50% 0.77% -35.06%

At the beginning of September 2011, Experian Hitwise had found that, In the Asia Pacific region, Google+ was the most popular in Singapore, followed by India, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Singapore was also the only country in which Google+ had enjoyed a continued rate of adoption – other countries had seen its popularity decline after a peak in mid-July, following its initial beta-launch in end June.

A further study released last week by Experian revealed that Singapore users spent the longest average amount of time per session on Facebook in the world, in the month of August 2011. The average of 38 min 46 sec per session was longer than what users spent on Facebook per session in other parts of the world.

In the meantime, other social networking and sharing sites such as YouTube and Twitter have also grown their market shares amongst users in Singapore.

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Posted in Figures, Tech news | No Comments »

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