January 18, 2013
By aaronwatkins

We’re very happy to announce that several of our friends have been nominated in different categories for the Best App Ever Awards. For four years, Best App Ever has been in search of the most innovative, most useful, and most entertaining apps out there, regardless of the operating system or device. The awards are supported by a list of excellent resources for app enthusiasts, including 148 Apps, Pocket Gamer, Android Rundown, Portable Gamer, Giggle Apps, App Hall of Fame, and more.

Voting is open through January 31, 2013. Winners for all categories, including the Best App Ever, will be announced on February 26, 2013.

iCookbook™ is nominated for Best Cooking App. iCookbook has over 2,000 recipes from bloggers and big brand names. Shopping lists, personalized recipes, voice control and more make this the essential app for any chef, regardless of their skill level.

iCookbook™ Diabetic is nominated for Best Health App. This app from the iCookbook™ team was created with diabetics and health-minded chefs alike. With all the great features of iCookbook™, this app also provides nutritional information and access to curated articles on healthy living and diabetes care.

Catalogue by TheFind is nominated for Best Shopping App. This beautiful app for iPad combines dozens of catalogs from brands like Williams-Sonoma, Nordstrom, Saks, Brookstone, Sears, Best Buy and more into one easy-to-use, easy-to-organize shopping center.

I Spy With Lola Panda has been nominated for Best Kid Distraction App. From the makers of the beloved Lola Panda suite of apps, this hide-and-go-seek addition engages kids with fun from around the world, sneaking in a bit of learning alongside the entertainment.

Arc Squadron is nominated for Best Action Game. Splendidly rendered on the Unreal Engine, this rail-shooter pays loving homage to “Star Fox,” while giving it an exciting face lift.

Quizboard is nominated for Best Trivia Game. Strategy and random knowledge collide in this fun game, challenging players to not only probe their memory, but test their cleverness against their opponent.


January 17, 2013
By aaronwatkins

A new spin on a popular word game favorite, PinYinPal for iPad seeks to revolutionize how the Chinese language is taught. And it’s free too!

PinYinPal is now available for iPad January 17, 2013, Huntington Beach, CA – Mandarin Chinese is spoken and understood by well over one billion people worldwide and is notorious for being the hardest language to learn. As business opportunities continue to arise in Asia, mastering Mandarin is becoming more and more important.

Enter PinYinPal, a new app for the iPad that makes it easy to define, read, and recognize Chinese characters. This is the first and only viable word game available in pinyin and comes in a format that many will recognize. Think of it as Words with Friends with a twist.

PinYinPal is the brainchild of Adeline Yen Mah, author of the New York Times best-seller “Falling Leaves” and founder of Chinesecharacteraday.com Foundation. She said, “I set out to create a game that makes learning Mandarin fun. I’m convinced that the future of language learning lies in playing games, consumed in bite-sized chunks on tablets or mobile phones.” Dr. Mah and her husband, Robert, first conceptualized the game in their living room, playing with pieces of cardboard and paper. Little did they know the project would blossom into something more impactful. “The first version of PinYinPal is being offered in English. However, at this very moment, our game is being translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, Japanese and Korean. It is my dream that all the people of the world will unite while playing PinYinPal and learning Chinese. Regardless of one’s mother tongue, the basic programming is the same. By tapping a button, a Russian can play with an American; or a Chinese with a Japanese, without knowing one another’s language,” says Dr. Mah.

But wait, isn’t Chinese made up of characters? That’s the beauty of pinpin; it is the Mandarin vocabulary spelled out with the alphabet. PinYinPal includes a built-in Dictionary and Word Finder, which act as guides during the game. Because of this, novices who don’t know any Chinese can play competitively against native Chinese speakers from the first turn. Players are pitted against their friends on social networks or random opponents, and challenged to take turns spelling pinyin words.

Some of the other key features include:

  • The ability to chat with an opponent in both English and Chinese characters.
  • The game is completely ad-free and there are no in-app purchases required to play.
  • Word Finder will analyze the letters in your rack and teach you what pinyin words to play.
  • Dictionary and Word Finder feature include audio pronunciations for each word.
  • View the characters associated with the pinyin words played on the board at the tap of a button.
  • Earn extra points by recalling the correct character and meaning of the word you just played.
  • Brag on Facebook about your high scores and successful games.

The PinYinPal app is available for free from the App Store on the iPad. It will be available soon on iPhone and other iOS devices.

App Store Link: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id573973393
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pinyinpal
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PinYinPalApp
Video Trailer: http://youtu.be/YDm8dyxPGYw
Press Kit: http://tinyurl.com/pinyinpr

About Chinesecharacteraday.com Foundation:
Chinese Character a Day Foundation is dedicated to teaching Mandarin Chinese to anyone who wishes to learn. It was founded by Dr. Adeline Mah, a physician and writer. Born in China, Dr. Mah lives in California with her husband, Professor Robert Mah, a microbiologist. In 1997, she wrote her memoir “Falling Leaves,” which became an international best-seller.  To bridge the gap between East and West, she and Bob established their Foundation with the book proceeds. Conceived in the Mahs’ living room, PinYinPal was first played on a sheet of paper with cardboard cut-outs as letter-tiles. The Mahs are grateful for the help given to them in this endeavor by their nephew Larry Mar and Larry’s secretary, Ashley Gish.

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January 14, 2013
By aaronwatkins

San Francisco, California, January 14, 2013 — This past holiday season saw a number of brick and mortar retailers, including Target and Best Buy, offering to match online prices of some of their largest competitors, such as Amazon. Restrictions of course applied, but based on their experience in December, some of those retailers have chosen to extend their price-matching policies year round.

To make it easy for consumers, TheFind has added a price-match feature to its popular iPhone and Android app, TheFind: Shopping. A shopper can simply scan a barcode for a product and instantly see if it is eligible for price matching at Target, Best Buy and others. Additionally, people can also choose to “Price Watch” specific items, in which case they will receive an alert automatically should that product go on sale at another retailer

“Depending on what you’re shopping for, there are savings on items that range from a few bucks to several hundred dollars that are eligible for price matching at leading retailers,” said Ramneek Bhasin, VP and GM of Mobile at TheFind. “The catch is, it’s often hard to discern which products and online stores qualify for price-matching, and that’s exactly the problem we’ve solved. Consumers don’t need to do anything other than scan what they’re looking for, and we make it obvious if it’s eligible for price matching. All the detail a shopper needs to take advantage of the price-match offer is one click away, all while they’re in the store and ready to buy.”

TheFind: Shopping has been downloaded more than 1 million times and the updated app is currently available in the iTunes app store and Google Play.

Concurrently, TheFind also released iPhone and Android versions of its popular discovery-shopping app Glimpse. Whereas TheFind Mobile app and TheFind.com website excel at producing a comprehensive set of search results that are ideal for when you know exactly what you’re shopping for, Glimpse is meant to occupy people in those moments when they “just want to shop” or browse.

Fully integrated with your Facebook profile, Glimpse is instantly personalized to show you items from stores and brands you and your friends have previously liked, in addition to items you would appreciate because “people like you” have Liked them on Facebook. Launched in July 2012, Glimpse already has over 1 million users. The smartphone version of Glimpse makes it easy to browse store and user-created catalogs, upload your own images of products into catalogs you create, and to simply browse the most Liked items according to your tastes and preferences.

Glimpse by TheFind and TheFind: Shopping are available for immediate download in the iTunes app store as well as Google Play. Glimpse by TheFind is also accessible as a Facebook app.

Glimpse
Shopping by The Find
Download TheFind on Google Play
Download Glimpse on iTunes
Download Glimpse on Google Play
Media Assets

TheFind’s patented search, browse and discovery technology is expanding the eCommerce landscape through social, mobile and tablet commerce innovations. These include the Facebook timeline app Glimpse by TheFind, TheFind Mobile barcode scanning app for smartphones, the popular tablet app Catalogue by TheFind, along with the comprehensive shopping search engine, TheFind.com. Ranked number 12 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies, TheFind was founded in 2005, venture funded by Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures and is a San Francisco and Silicon Valley-based company. Copyright (C) 2013 TheFind. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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By aaronwatkins

Create completely original songs in just seconds by simply singing into your iPhone, share with friends and earn virtual badges and royalties to unlock exclusive bonus features

Jam for iPhone is in the iTunes App Store today Melbourne, Australia, January 14, 2013 — Australian developer DreamWalk Interactive announced today that Jam, a new song-creation app for the iPhone, is now available for download. Perfect for anyone who dreams of becoming a star but might not have the vocal ability, Jam allows users to create original songs that can then be shared with friends. Featuring unlockable musical style packs, award badges and streamlined social sharing tools, Jam can now be downloaded for free at the iTunes App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/app/jam-for-iphone/id580366563

“Jam enables absolutely anyone to create original music, regardless of their musical abilities or experience, and best of all it only takes a few seconds!” says Joe Russell, General Manager of DreamWalk Interactive.

Using Jam is simple. First, choose a musical style from a variety of style packs ranging from pop-rock and hip-hop to punk rock, 80’s dance music and more. Then sing, talk, or rap into the device. Jam will automatically detect and adjust the pitch, key and song structure to create a completely unique song – no two tracks are ever the same!

Users can publish their songs to in-app Jam charts and invite their friends to listen via Facebook and Twitter. Earn badges and royalties for each published track to unlock additional style packs, grow a following of fans and even get signed to one of four Jam record labels.

Jam features include:

  • Original song creation in seconds!
  • Social sharing tools and built-in social network for following artists and “liking” songs
  • Unlockable musical style packs
  • Virtual royalties and award badges
  • Four unique record labels to sign the best “Jammers”

Jam for iPhone is available now at iTunes. For more information visit http://www.jamapp.com.au and follow Jam on Facebook and Twitter.

About DreamWalk Interactive:
DreamWalk is a division of Wellcom Group Limited. It was founded by brothers, Joe and Sam Russell in 2008 with the development the world’s first commercial GPS treasure hunting platform, also named DreamWalk. The DreamWalk treasure hunt platform and variations thereof have since been used by dozens of brands and thousands of users in Australia and the US. http://www.dreamwalk.com.au/