Innovative camera and photo discovery app EyeEm has today announced a comprehensive update across its Android and iOS apps as well as to the supporting web platform. The range of changes brings the smartphone apps up to version 2.0; introducing a new album feed to the heart of the app that automatically shows photos of current nearby events, places and trending topics immediately upon opening.

The updates come off the back of a combination of EyeEm’s own analysis of user behaviour and direct feedback from the wider community. “Since launching in August, our growing community – with members from 134 countries – has created over 35,000 unique locations and the platform has hosted 15,000 user events,” commented EyeEm co-founder, Florian Meissner. “It’s amazing to see how creatively our community uses the app to collaboratively take photos around topics, events and places in ways we haven’t even thought of. These results have inspired us to develop an alternative view on what is going on around us – through the viewfinders of thousands of smartphone photographers worldwide.”

In addition to the smartphone applications that the company is known for, EyeEm has further invested in its web platform to reflect the changes made on the smaller screens. New user profiles now incorporate personal avatars and status bubbles that can be updated to reflect thoughts and moods in a fashion that will already be familiar to social network users. In the coming weeks, the team plans to release an API that will enable developers to build upon the unique datacube of photos created through EyeEm, based on worldwide locations, topics and events.

Since launching for iOS and Android in August this year, free to download EyeEm has established itself as an innovative method for discovering smartphone photography as well as for personal photo sharing on social networks and blogging platforms. The eleven built-in filters offer instant picture editing in real time to photos that are automatically tagged based on user location and activity. The platform has thus far earned positive reviews from tech press and from innovator photography blogs alike.

Kdan Mobile has released PDF Reader – iPhone Edition 3.8.2 and iPad Edition 1.6.2, major updates to its powerful mobile reading application for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. To further enhance users’ mobile reading experience, new versions of PDF Reader are now equipped with a more user friendly interface and optimized annotation tools, such as highlight. Top-ranked in the Utilities category of App Stores throughout the world, the app has already proven itself to be the ultimate mobile reading solution for iOS devices.

PDF Reader’s improved console bar supplies users with a variety of editing tools at a touch. Highlight, underline and strikeout effects can be applied with ease throughout users’ PDF files. In addition, users are now able to save scanned photos directly to the Photo library, copy text straight from a PDF file, and increase on-screen workspace by hiding the navigation menu at the tap of a finger. The new version also comes with features such as WebDAV support and full compatibility with iOS 5.

The greatest strengths of PDF Reader, as pointed out by various reviewers and users, are its fast file rendering speed and easy navigation interface. Both strengths enable users to scroll through pages effortlessly when viewing all major types of files. Furthermore, PDF Reader offers a way to transfer files easily and a handy built-in scanning tool, improving work efficiency of users from all walks of life. For students, PDF Reader makes it less of a hassle to take notes and work on team assignments. For sales or contractors, PDF Reader supports PDF signature and PDF form filling that give users greater convenience.

Kdan Mobile also revealed its future plan to release an enterprise version for its much-praised PDF Reader series in late November. “More and more businesses are adopting the iPhone and the iPad to fulfill professional needs, and it’s our responsibility to provide an ideal mobile working environment for users in that community,” said Wen-Wei Lin, CTO of Kdan Mobile. According to Mr. Lin, the Enterprise edition of PDF Reader will be branded as PDF Connoisseur, building on the original app with support to various professional functions catering to suit specific business needs.

Device Requirements:
PDF Reader – iPhone Edition 3.8.2
Compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch
Requires iOS 3.0 or later
30.9 MB

PDF Reader – iPad Edition 1.6.2
Compatible with iPad
Requires iOS 4.0 or later
33.0 MB

Pricing and Availability:
PDF Reader – iPhone Edition 3.8.2 is $2.99 USD and PDF Reader- iPad Edition 1.6.2 is $4.99 USD. Both applications are available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Utilities category.

Positive Grid. (positivegrid.com), announces JamUp, the new multi-effect guitar app and guitar interface for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. With new tonal innovation, JamUp gives guitarists access to a load of authentic tones, iTunes Jam Player and the very first sound-on-sound phrase sampler. Launch special, JamUp Lite is FREE for 30 days.

JamUp guitar app provides access to 24 hybrid amps/effects, 16 user presets, sound-on-sound phrase sampler, iTunes player with time stretching feature, chromatic tuner, and will expect continual upgrade features. It’s simply the most convenient way for jamming and recording, without having to setup or switch in and out a variety of equipments.

“JamUp is the must-have guitar app on iPad or iPhone for guitar players,” remarked Calvin Abel, Product Manager at Positive Grid. “It channels the traditional multi-effect pedal into one single guitar app with a good number of jamming and practice features, plus the stunning user interface and convenient form-factor, giving you the ability to completely transform your rig with this one app.”

The collection of amps and effects packed inside JamUp includes 6 historic amp models and convolution cab simulator, spring and digital reverb, tangy modulations, tape and digital delays, classic and fuzzy distortions, filters, compressors, noise gate and other essentials. Each effect parameter can be accessed with a simple touch. There’s no digging through menus, no learning process and no hassles. A fully configurable signal path allows players to try out different pre and post arrangements, it provides a great and flexible way to create the tone.

JamUp guitar app is born with great “play along” capabilities. The phrase sampler can capture loops and riffs and create sound-on-sound overdubs. It’s the easiest way to create a one-person-band sound in minutes. And with the time stretching iTunes player, users can not only play along with any track from their iTunes library, but also can create a loop and slow it down for further study.

JamUp guitar app works with the JamUp Plug and most other iOS guitar adaptors. The JamUp Plug is an ultra-portable guitar interface for iOS device, with the JamUp Plug, guitar players can connect the guitar with iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, and enjoy all the jamming and recording features with the headphone, audio interface or PA system.

JamUp Lite (Launch Special 30 days free) and JamUp Pro ($19.99) are available in iTunes App-Store now. JamUp Plug US MSRP is $39.95.

Dennis Publishing, in association with PixelMags, a world leader in content distribution, announced their entire iPad magazine portfolio is now available on Newsstand, a key feature of iOS 5.

Newsstand is an exciting new feature that allows consumers to find digital newspaper and magazine products in one dedicated place on the App Store, and organize them in one easy-to-organize bookshelf. Users who are subscribed to any of Dennis’ titles will receive new issues automatically on their iPad. Latest issues and most recent cover art will simply appear in Newsstand.

Martin Belson, Commercial & Retail Director of Dennis Publishing said, “The decision for Dennis Publishing to work with PixelMags was a natural choice given their previous professional approach on helping develop MacUser as one of the most successful magazine apps in the UK market. When it came time to put our brands on Newsstand, we knew that PixelMags would be able to deliver to the high expectations that we demand.”

Mark Stubbs, Founder and CEO of PixelMags said, “Dennis publishing is a very digital savvy and forward thinking publisher. With them making the move to publish their entire portfolio of magazines to Newsstand, it signals a huge change in the way publishers see their future distribution.”

PixelMags has been developing iOS apps for three years, successfully delivering the content that publishers have created. Through the services that PixelMags offers, publishers can have the capability to reach the over 250 million iOS users through Newsstand.

Download Dennis iPad titles from Newsstand in iOS 5, from the App Store on iPad, or at http://www.itunes.com/appstore.

Lyndir are pleased to announce Gorillas, retro gaming for the iPhone. Gamers young and old can now experience the incredibly entertaining and ultra- addictive gameplay of the classic physics-based game Gorillas for iPhone, with gorgeous graphics, enhanced animation, game field zooming, new game modes and individual or multiplayer gameplay bringing retro gaming into the 21st Century.

Created by Lyndir, the Gorillas remake contains the same addictive gameplay and competitive multiplayer action that ensured the original DOS game spawned a new genre of projectile physics games. High resolution graphics, weather effects, explosions, dynamic zooming, new game modes and world themes provide a slick, easy-to-use and modern presentation whether competing with the in-game AI or multiplayer and team modes.

“Gorillas for iPhone has been created to capture the acclaimed addictiveness and suspense of the original, coated with all the goodness and enhancements that iOS can offer.” commented creator Maarten Bilemont. “New game modes such as Last Man Standing, Dynamic, Team and Classic ensure gameplay longevity, whilst Game Center support offers the challenge to play against other users anywhere in the world.”

Easy to pick up and play, Gorillas offers gamers an immediately rewarding experience plus a long term challenge and considerable repeat play appeal. Additional features include configurable or dynamically adjusted difficulty, retro audio remixes, slow motion kill shot replays, optional vibration and high resolution artwork for iPhone 4 and iPad in 2x mode.

Gorillas, the retro physics-based iPhone game, has already gained several 5 star ratings in the App Store and is available to download at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gorillas/id302275459?mt=8.
The source code for Gorillas is also available as an Open Source project for research or personal use. More details can be found at http://gorillas.lyndir.com.

Bare Reef has updated its iPad stock portfolio management application with a new user interface design that aims to simplify use. The redesign reduces on-screen clutter by organizing functionality into several major areas focused on market activity, tracked positions and research features. Users can expect greater consistency throughout and more intuitive functionality.

The latest update also boasts support for quotes from Bloomberg, Morningstar and Reuters, as well as basic charts from Reuters. Portfolio mobile aggregates market data from more sources than any other app with quotes from seven different sources, offering the most comprehensive coverage available to investors.

“Over the past year we have introduced many new features and it has adversely impacted user experience, especially for those that track large numbers of portfolios,” says Bare Reef President Greg Hoover. He goes on to say, “We believe that the new interface design will allow the continued addition of great new features that are more easily accessed and understood.”

Portfolio mobile (previously StockTrac) offers the most comprehensive set of features found in any iPad, iPhone or Mac stock portfolio monitoring application. Among them are:

• Support for multiple portfolios
• Support for trading in multiple currencies
• Technical charting
• Reporting (Mac / iPad versions)
• PUSH-based price alerts (iPad / iPhone versions)
• Broker integration using Open Financial Exchange (OFX)
• Portfolio performance comparison and charting
• Web-based management and backup

Device Requirements:

• iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac
• Requires iOS 3.2 or later / Mac OS X 10.6

Pricing and Availability:
Portfolio mobile for iPhone is $2.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies). Portfolio mobile for iPhone Pro is $19.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies). Portfolio mobile for iPad is $19.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies). Portfolio mobile for Mac is $24.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies). iPad and iPhone versions are available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Finance Category. The Mac version is available worldwide in the App Store and at http://www.portfoliomobile.com.

Top rated and feature rich high-end iPhone camera app ProCamera just released a new version 3.1.2, with enhanced video functions.

1. Setting focus and exposure separately
ProCamera offers separate focus and exposure control for videos (and, for photos) to give users full control. Adjustments can be locked so that users can move their iPhones without having to re-adjust. This allows users to take smooth, professional looking videos.

2. White balance lock
The white balance feature locks in users’ desired color temperature with a single tap. Videos enhanced with these features come out clearer, unified and realistic.

3. VirtualHorizon & Grids
For those who crave highly accurate alignment while taking videos, ProCamera features a Virtual Horizon tool, which shows users the current rotation of the device as well as three alignment grids. This makes professional composition easy.

4. Choosing different video resolutions
Users can choose different video resolutions for their recordings. Reduced resolution enables faster upload speeds when sharing videos to social networks or by email.

5. App launch and usage performance boost
The core functionality has been optimized, thus the app now launches even faster – as well as the recently introduced QuickFlick Album for direct access to the iPhone’s photo and video library. Additionally, multiple videos can be recorded in quick succession, as a complete new saving system has been integrated.

6. Videos with geotag
Besides the extended geotagging for photos (including the cardinal direction) now videos are getting geotagged as well.

To showcase these enhanced video capabilities, ProCamera is sponsoring the “Original iPhone Film Festival”, along with other sponsors including Macworld and Red Giant. This festival was created to showcase the talent, imagination and creativity of iPhone filmmakers. The festival will be judged by a group of industry professionals in the following categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Brand Film and Music Video.

As the first and best camera app, ProCamera has received many significant accolades. New York Times’ David Pogue said, “the high-end crowd swears by it”. Gizmodo named ProCamera the Best iOS Photo App of 2010. And VentureBeat just selected the creator of ProCamera – Jens Daemgen as the “King of Code Finalist”.

ProCamera now is a well-balanced 3-in-1 app with a still camera, a video camera, and a suite of photo editing tools. The team behind ProCamera is constantly working on improvements so there will be more to come.

To celebrate ProCamera’s release of version 3.1.2 and to support the “Original iPhone Film Festival”, ProCamera is offering a price drop to $1.99 for a limited time only.

For more information and media requests, please contact:

Bo Lin
US marketing coordinator
bl(at)daemgen(dot)net

Ali Räder
PR & Communications
Cannabichstr. 22, 68167 Mannheim
+49 621 1567694
ar(at)daemgen(dot)net

Co-founders and Harvard alumni, Jinhee Kim and Sarah Paiji, today announced the beta launch of Snapette, an application that enables fashion-savvy women to discover and share photos of in-store products by location and social recommendations.

Snapette is the first mobile fashion application that lets users browse products near their current location, allowing them to easily see what shoes and bags are in nearby stores. Women can also see what’s trending globally by viewing what users around the world are sharing from their favorite stores in real time.

Users launch Snapette from their mobile device, and the app connects them with products through social features and crowd-sourced photos and descriptions that other “Snapettes” have shared. Users can search by brand, store or description, or by what’s rated “New”, “Near” and “Hot”, and share photos and comments with other users.

“While you’re out shopping, you can snap and share photos of your great shoe and bag finds, check Snapette to discover what styles are in stores near you, and also see what’s trending right now in New York, Paris, Tokyo or anywhere around the world – it’s like window shopping right from your phone,” says co-founder Kim. “Plus, if you find another Snapette with great style you can ‘follow’ her and get updated on all her latest fashion finds.”

Each user has a “virtual closet” profile page that collects and showcases photos of items they’ve Snapped, Like and Want, and integration with Facebook and Tumblr allows for easy sharing on these social platforms as well.

In a separate section of the app entitled Featured, Snapette showcases boutiques in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London. Snapette has partnered with select retailers to provide users an exclusive mobile view of the stores’ current product offerings.

“We know options can be overwhelming – with so many stores, each with so many products, plus constantly changing trends and inventory,” adds Paiji. “Snapette helps make sense of the endless options by helping you find what’s near you and what’s trending.”

Snapette’s all-female team is led by co-founders Kim and Paiji, who are Harvard grads separated by more than two decades. Kim also attended Parsons in New York City, and has designed for Ralph Lauren and founded an e-learning company. Paiji is a current student at Harvard Business School who previously worked at firms Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Co and Berkshire Partners advising retail and tech companies. Snapette’s Technical Director Dr. SunHee Yoon is a post doctorate researcher at Stanford University focusing on mobile platforms.

Recently accepted into 500Startups accelerator program in Silicon Valley, Kim and Paiji relocated to Mountain View, CA, to work closely with angel investor Dave McClure, who is an early investor in the company.

For more information about Snapette visit: www.snapette.com

See a demo here: http://youtu.be/JQT2FcloA7w

Levity Novelty LLC has today released an iPad app that provides simulated invisibility of the iPad 2 screen on a table or other environment, even as the device is moved. The Invisibility™ app is available in Apple’s online App Store for US$0.99.

The Invisibility user simply takes a photo of the table, then lays the iPad flat on the table or lifts one corner. As the user rotates the iPad around its center, or a corner, a perfectly stationary image of the table underneath remains clearly visible.

By all appearances, the screen has disappeared and the user is looking through the iPad as it moves. Users can even see the inside edge of the iPad through the screen, as well as shadows seemingly cast on the table by the empty iPad frame.

Dream of Invisibility Achieved
From the Arabian Nights to the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter’s cloak, storytellers have dreamed of invisibility. Magicians use mirrors and sleight of hand to astonish audiences and make objects disappear. While the Invisibility iPad app can’t yet be adapted to the size and flexibility of a garment or cloak, its core method – combining cameras, motion tracking software, and a large display – can some day be combined to make a greater range of objects disappear.

Uniquely Matched for iPad 2
Invisibility for iPad relies on key technologies introduced on the new iPad 2:

• 3D gyroscopes that tell the app exactly how the iPad is being turned
• a camera that lets users take a life-size image of its environment, such as a table top

Together with the motion-detecting accelerometers built into all of Apple’s iOS mobile devices, and the iPad 2’s high performance graphics, Invisibility draws over a hundred “stationary” images each second as the iPad moves, giving the table top image – or any other image the user chooses – a fixed reality whose location and orientation are seemingly independent of the iPad. The iPad becomes a moving window into a virtual world.

Pantomime™ Technology Introduced
The launch of Invisibility today also marks the introduction of app maker Levity Novelty LLC’s patent pending Pantomime™ software technology. Pantomime achieves its illusions by combining real-time 3D motion sensor information with software models of the iPad’s size, shape, and other dimensions, including the locations of its corners and its screen.

Pantomime™ is named for the technique mimes use to create the illusion of a stationary object or environment through body motion. By holding one arm perfectly still in mid air as he moves the rest of his body, a mime convinces viewers he’s leaning against a wall or table.

Likewise for Pantomime technology. Says inventor Dr. David Levitt, “The core concept is the same as for Virtual Reality where, when you turn your head left, the synthesized scene moves to the right by the same amount, so you see a stable virtual world with its own reality. The key difference now is, instead of a display being strapped to your face, an iPad in your hands is a moving window into the virtual world. Unlike a head-mounted VR device, the iPad is affordable, handy to move, and easy to share. And now with the iPad 2, the necessary motion sensors are built-in.”

Pantomime™ Enables iPad Magic
Invisibility, the first app to incorporate Pantomime™, is aimed at consumers who love technology and delight in the kinds of magical experiences enabled by devices like the iPad.

Tricks like Invisibility’s transparent iPad can be used to fool or astonish friends. For example, rubbing a seemingly ordinary iPad home screen can gradually reveal the table underneath.

Since the Invisibility app can turn any picture into a seamless, endless environment with other images scattered over it, many other gags, illusions and magic tricks are possible. Instant magicians have used the basic Invisibility app for Teleportation, Time Travel, Thought Reading and similar gags, typically with just a minute of preparation.

Table Top Virtual World of Photos Included
The Invisibility app includes a bonus experience: a Table Top Gallery made from the user’s Album photos – an animated virtual world with physics like momentum and friction. By moving the iPad, the user can navigate photos scattered across a virtual table much larger than the screen. Users can move, zoom, toss and spin the photos with iPad multi-touch gestures.

Users can also move, turn, and vastly shrink and stretch the background, confirming that it is both infinite and seamless. The results can be gorgeous, disturbing – or hilarious. Reflections turn landscapes into desert lakes, sunsets into multi-sun Tatooine skies. In a single pinch, a pretty girl can become stunning, symmetrical fantasy twins – then nightmarish conjoined octuplets. And throughout, the iPad remains a moveable window into worlds made from any photo you’ve taken with the iPad’s camera, or from Albums ordinarily viewed with its built-in Photos app.

The Table Top Photo Landscapes offer Invisibility users a glimpse of the kinds of interactive virtual worlds, games, and other experiences Pantomime makes possible.

In the App Store Today
Levity Novelty offered an April Fool’s peek at Invisibility, which received thousands of downloads on April 1st with an average rating of 5 stars in the App Store. The release version of Invisibility is available today for US $0.99 at the App Store.

Today Taptu, a social media and mobile technology company, is announcing the release of Taptu 1.5, the latest version of its free universal social news reader app for iPhone and iPad. Version 1.5 supercharges search, making it easy to discover even more content to read, while also adding the ability to customize the look and feel of the app on any iOS device.

Taptu lets customers find all the news they really want to read. The search function now scans both for the topic of a stream and for keywords within streams to provide even more news to consume. Because a search engine powers Taptu, it does not depend solely on RSS and social media feeds like competitors. This gives customers the chance to search for streams by topic, not just a specific Website or blog name.

For example, customers searching for ‘LeBron James’, most probably will get not get streams that are an exact match for the basketball player. Now Taptu will display suggested streams that include Taptu’s curated Basketball and Miami Heat streams as well as The Miami Herald’s Miami Heat blog and the Bleacher Report, since they all provide wide coverage of news related to James.

“Our promise has always been to ensure that no matter what you’re searching for, we’ve got a stream for it. We wanted to give Taptu fans even more ways to discover new content in our app. We wanted to bring even more serendipity to what the app can offer, aside of course, from giving them the ability to customize Taptu to get exactly the content our customers crave.” said Mitch Lazar, CEO of Taptu.

Taptu is already known for letting anyone ‘DJ the News’ by mixing stories from different interests into their own streams and for its unique iPad UI. By popular demand, Taptu 1.5 brings some of the iPad’s most popular features to the iPhone. Resize streams to make them larger or smaller and get organized with color-coded streams for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and your own bookmarked stories. Taptu has also given article pages a facelift, delivering full-sized photos and bigger headlines.

Taptu 1.5 adds related article discovery to the iPhone app, which has quickly become one of the most popular features on Taptu for iPad. While reading a popular story on an iPhone, customers are given a list of related stories from a similar source or similar topic.
Don’t have time to read it now? After listening to our customers, we’ve added Instapaper support for both iPad and iPhone, giving customers the ability to archive articles to read later via their Instapaper accounts.

Download Taptu now: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taptu/id392240746?mt=8