Unsurprisingly, the most most popular apps are Messaging, Voice and Social Networking. And remember: LBS has high potential to shift right.

* App Store refers to app store of all major smartphone platform, not just Apple’s

Stephen Elop, Nokia’s new CEO, has sent out an awesome internal memo.

Yes, I said Awesome.

This is because it is not common for a CEO to send out a memo highlighting how terrible they have done. In the memo, Stephen confessed they are have lagged behind Apple and Android by many years, and he honestly admitted that there are problems within the company – attitude, accountability and leadership.

He is a brave soul to send out such a memo. How many CEOs have the courage to click the send button?

And more amazingly, adding to the awesome score, his letter exhibited a spirit to bounce back. He portrayed that they are now on a “burning platform”, and they will take a bold step to jump into the “icy water”. They will survive, and live to tell a story.

Somehow, I believe they will survive. Perhaps this memo will be a turning point for Nokia.

The full memo can be read from Engadget. It is worth reading so do head over there. It is really so awesome that I think it deserves a place in 1000awesomethings.com!

Following the release of iDon8, TBA is reaching out to High School by giving away an iPad, and introducing them the convenience of the blood donation app!

Quoted from TBA press release:

The iDon8 App offers eligible donors the opportunity to keep a record of their previous donations, alert them of their next available date to donate, and conveniently provides locations of blood drives via Google Maps. iDon8 also provides donors with area notifications when the community blood supply becomes low or critical. Convenience is the best resource in reaching donors, and the blood bank’s App offers donors the ability to become a hero – by saving lives from the palm of a donor’s hand.

“We are always looking for creative ways to encourage our younger community members especially high school students, to become donors, and we thought this might be a great way to provide them with an incentive to start donating,” said Valerie Collins, Chief Operating Officer of The Blood Alliance. “With our iPad promotion and our smart phone App, we feel we are speaking their language.”

Update: The app encountered glitches with many stations not being able to play. App is taken down until this is fixed.

SG Radio is (finally) released! It took a long 2 months before it is finally approved by Apple.

There were some hiccups due to our first design that looked too much like Apple’s iPod, and so we had to redesign, and redesign.. More details on how SG Radio was rejected by Apple in a later post.

Now, let’s look at what the app does!

Simply put, SG Radio plays radio from SG!

It is like MeRadio, Radio 91.3 and  Radio 100.3 combined, but with slicker interface, yet packed with better features! We highlight 3 features below:

15 Radio Stations

This is the only iPhone app that plays ALL 15 Singapore radio stations, from BOTH Media Corp’s and SPH’s!

Specifically, SG Radio supports:

✔ FM 913 – Today’s Best Music
✔ FM 938 – Live
✔ FM 987 – Only the hits
✔ FM 950 – Class 95
✔ FM 905 – Gold 90.5
✔ FM 995 – Lush
✔ FM 924 – Symphony
✔ FM 958 – 城市频道
✔ FM 972 – 最爱频道
✔ FM 933 – 醉心频道
✔ FM 897 – Ria
✔ FM 942 – Warna
✔ FM 968 – ஒலி
✔ FM 963 – Expat Radio
✔ FM 1003 – 資訊娛樂台

Rewind and Forward

This is a feature that only we support!

Missed something that your deejay said? Don’t worry! With SG Radio, you can rewind, and listen again and again! (Note: Rewind is a locked feature, while pause and forward is free)

You can also pause a radio station while you pick up a call, or attending to some other business, and SG Radio will buffer whatever you are missing! When you un-pause, you will be able to listen from the point you paused, missing not a single thing!

We love this and hope you like it!

Currently Playing Songs

Showing the currently playing song from a radio station is nothing fantastic.

But we have done it better. We show you ALL songs that all 15 radio stations are currently playing in 1 place! Now you can switch over to a station easily when you see your favorite song playing.

We love this too and hope you like it!

Download now, its FREE

We believe this is a must have app for radio fans, so please download it now from App Store!

Listen, enjoy, have fun (:

iDon8 is an iPhone app that I have developed together with the folks at The Blood Alliance.

The Blood Alliance is a community blood bank in the US, and services hospitals in Northeast Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

This project comes about after I have developed SG Blood – the blood donation app for Singapore.

And I am very proud to say that iDon8 has surpassed what I have done with SG Blood. iDon8 is slick, shiny and packed with more features for donors!

Here are some screenshots.

We are proud to announce the release of a new iPhone app – The LOST Whispers

This is the first entertainment app we have created, and a good prank app we believe it is. What you can do with the app is simple.

Yup. That’s what the app does – Play creepy whispering sounds and terrify your friends!

For more info about the app, visit whispers.just2us.com, or simply download now.

SG 4D version 2 was released with tons of changes. It is a very exciting release, a big overhaul, and with lots of new features.

In this post, I will highlight the significant changes for end-users. In the next post, I will talk about the changes from a technical perspective, which would include the new technologies that were used – CoreData, In-app-purchase, Facebook integration, etc..

How did we come thus far?

Before we start with the changes in the app, let’s look at a short history of the app.

• Oct 2008: SG 4D was first released, and it became the Top 100 apps instantly.
• Jul 2009: A minor bug fix, and it was also the last update for version 1.
• Nov 2009: SG 4D for Android was released.
• Jan 2010: SG 4D was squeezed out of Top 100. This is mainly due to a new and better 4D app arriving in App Store.
• Mar 2010: SG 4D v2 released

It is interesting to note a few things about the history. There was very little update for SG 4D, and when there are updates, it is usually minor changes and bug fixes..

SG 4D dominated and remained as the only 4D app until 2 months ago, when SG Live 4D was released. SG Live 4D provided a very fun feature – live broadcast at 6.33pm! This is a huge competitive edge, and consumers choose SG Live 4D over SG 4D since then.

But note that SG 4D version 2 was not released because it lost the competitive edge, though that is a huge motivating factor. SG 4D version 2 for iPhone was planned to release after SG 4D for Android, which includes a major overhaul. You would see why later.

Retrieving Latest Results Faster

The first improvement is to make the retrieval of the 4D results faster.

In version 1, 4D results were retrieved from Singapore Pools server. That way was sometime slow due to the server having a high load, and also because the retrieval process was not optimized. In version 2, all the 4D results were retrieved via Google’s cloud infrastructure.

This makes retrieval not only faster, but also more stable.

And similarly, SG 4D for Android retrieves results with the same architecture.

Email and SMS a Result

Users can now email or SMS a result of a particular day, informing friends of a result, or telling them they have strike lottery!

In fact, users can copy the result, and paste it in any apps eg. Facebook or twitter.

More Handicap Friendly

The app is now more friendly with VoiceOver turned on. The numbers are read out digit after digit with a slightly longer pause eg. 1-2-3-4.

24 years of Past Results

In version 2, we have made available 24 years of past results since May 1986 (when betting was computerized).

Disclaimer: You need to unlock the Premium Features ($3.99) to get 24 years of results. Without unlocking, only 3 years of results are available.

Checking Past Results Offline

Even better, we have made checking of the past results possible in offline mode! No longer do you need Internet to dig up a past result.

Analyzing Number Better

Number Analysis is improved in many ways:

• You can enter ‘R’ to represent any digit
• You can filter different prize category: Interested in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, starter or consolation?
• The analysis is done offline and no Internet is needed
• Its much faster, even with 24 years of data
• The results are shown neatly
• You can view the result for that draw, with your number in red

Removing Ad Banner

In version 1, there is always an ad banner at the bottom of the screen. Though no one has complained or requested for a ad-free version, we have made it possible to remove it.

In version 2, users may purchase and unlock Premium Features ($3.99) to remove the ad, and including other goodies.

Customizing your Lucky Wallpaper

We know you believe in auspicious number, auspicious outlet, and therefore probably an auspicious wallpaper. We do too ^^

More

There are a lot more things that we plan to put in the app to make 4D more fun. In future releases, you should find new features under More.

For now, we would hope you can share with your friends and families SG 4D for iPhone, and also for any other phones.

Good luck, have fun and download the app (:

I had an interview with mypaper 《我报》 in an article on 18 Mar, 2010. They have interviewed me over the SG Blood app that I had developed one year ago.

I have always reminded myself what a friend once said:

You do not have to be a teacher to contribute to society. Everyone has his own ways.

Creating SG Blood is my way, using my skills as an iPhone developer.

More socially conscious apps on the front page.

txeet has been approved by Apple and can now be downloaded from App Store!

SG 4D (mobile website) has added many more years of past 4D results!

Previously, the system has only results since Nov 2006, but now it has since May 1986! The mobile website has also added a date field (ddmmyy) for you to search for a draw easily.

If you have SG 4D app on iPhone or Android, please wait for the next release that exploit the 20 years more of 4D numbers :)

Did you know?

Singapore Pools 4D betting was computerised on 31 May 1986, and it got off an auspicious start with the first prize number coming out as 8838 (“8” is auspicious for chinese).