WhereCloud Inc - Blog

WhereCloud Supports Yellow Pages Group in Mobile Services Restructuring

2010-04-08T00:00:00-04:00

WhereCloud’s geolocation-based application YellowPages.ca now ranks in Apple App Store’s Top 25 most downloaded free apps.

MONTREAL, April 8 /CNW Telbec/ – Yellow Pages Group recently launched a national rebranding campaign, highlighting its new business search application for the iPhone.

The application was developed by Montreal studio WhereCloud, which supports Yellow Pages Group in the restructuring of its mobile services.

Highly intuitive and easy to use, the new geolocation-based YellowPages.ca application automatically lists shops, restaurants and other businesses in the user’s immediate surroundings, along with picture and video profiles. The application is available for free in the Apple App Store.

The WhereCloud-created YellowPages.ca application has served as a reference for the entire line of Yellow Pages Group mobile services on Blackberry, Palm Pre, Android, WAP and WEP platforms.

“Yellow Pages Group really understands that producing an advanced mobile application means always working with the final user in mind”, said WhereCloud Chief Executive Officer Martin Dufort.

“Apple products are renowned for their emphasis on intuitive design and ease of use. At WhereCloud, we stay true to that philosophy, thanks to our extensive knowledge of the iPhone technological environment”, added Dufort, whose studio is now developing similar services for the new Apple iPad.

About WhereCloud Inc.

Mobile application studio WhereCloud was founded in 2006 with a focus on technological innovation and the highest standards of quality. Located at the heart of the web and videogame community in Montreal’s Mile End neighborhood, WhereCloud specializes in user-oriented, easy-to-use, state-of-the-art mobile applications for the Apple iPhone/iPad and Google Android platforms. Among the many WhereCloud industry-acclaimed products are Reportage (featured in the Apple App Store Staff Pick), Archiguides, Tungle and YellowPages.ca. See www.wherecloud.com for more info.

For further information: Martin Dufort, CEO & Founder, (514) 975-4950, martin@wherecloud.com

Reportage V1.5 Avatar Contest Winners

2009-12-21T00:00:00-05:00

We ran a little contest on Twitter last week to allow people to get their avatar on the upcoming V1.5 Reportage screenshot for the AppStore.
The response was very good.

With the help of Random.org we have 15 lucky winners.

Twitter Winner List

The top winner is @martindemers and we will use his profile in the profile screenshot.

Here’s a preview of the world dashboard screenshot.

Thanks for you participation.

—Martin

twitter: @mdufort

Get your Twitter Avatar picture on the AppStore

2009-12-14T00:00:00-05:00

We are hard at work finishing and polishing the latest features of Reportage V1.5.

In preparation for the AppStore submittal process, we need to capture screenshots of the application. Those screenshots will be visible on the Reportage AppStore page in iTunes.

And now that Apple has changed the layout and given more emphasis to those screenshots, this is your chance to get your avatar showcased with our app.

What you have to do:

Just retweet the Contest Status Message from Twitter.

We will capture all retweets and randomly select fifteen (15) twitter users and include their avatars in the product screenshot.
One lucky winner will also have it’s user profile used in the profile screenshot.

Contest deadline is Friday December 18th, 2009 5:00PM EST.

Winners will be contacted via DM, so make sure you are following @reportage.

Thanks for your support and hoping to see your avatar in our product screenshot on the AppStore

—Martin

twitter: @mdufort

WhereCloud unveils today its partnership with Tungle Corporation

2009-09-23T00:00:00-04:00

Montreal, Canada (Sept 23rd, 2009) – WhereCloud, developer of mobile location-based products and solutions unveils today its iPhone development partnership with Tungle Corporation for the design and the development of Tungle’s newest offering: the Tungle Accelerate iPhone application. Tungle launched the product yesterday at DEMOfall 09 in San Diego, California.

“We worked very hard with the Tungle team to produce an iPhone application that was visually attractive but also enabled the user to quickly and efficiently access the Tungle Accelerate platform” said WhereCloud President and Founder Martin Dufort.

“Our challenge was to keep the overall application layout simple while giving the user the power to access and create meeting invitations in an efficient manner. I think we did an excellent job of delivering on these requirements.”

With the iPhone release, Tungle users can now take the core functions of Tungle with them wherever they go – from creating, sending and receiving meeting invitations, to cross-calendar sharing.

“We worked with the WhereCloud team under a very tight deadline to produce the Tungle iPhone application. It was very important for us that the initial release be AppStore ready for our DemoFall presentation. They delivered on that promise with a superb iPhone app.” said Marc Gingras, chief executive officer and founder of Tungle Corporation. “They are a highly professional organization and I fully recommend them”.

Exclusive Features:
Tungle is also introducing two features exclusive to the iPhone: auto-suggest and at-a-glance network availability.

Auto-suggest – “Shake to meet”
When scheduling a meeting, users can overlay schedules of sharing contacts, and then tap “suggest” or simply shake the device to have the app automatically identify the next five best meeting times for all selected contacts, thus taking advantage of the limited screen space available on the iPhone.

At-a-glance availability
See when your network is free. Users can decide to send emails, SMS or place phone calls based on contacts’ current availability. The app displays icons next to sharing contacts, telling users in one glance who is currently free or busy, according to their calendar availability.

About Tungle
Tungle, the maker of the first web-based calendar accelerator, gives your calendar the flexibility and accessibility it’s lacking today. Working hand-in-hand with traditional e-calendars, it allows professionals to be connected, productive, mobile and in control through cross-platform and cross-company sharing and scheduling capabilities. Tungle currently integrates with Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple iCal and Entourage for Mac. Founded in 2006, the Montreal based company is venture-backed by investors Commonwealth Capital Ventures, JLA Ventures, and Desjardins Venture Capital.

Requirements:

iPhone and iPod Touch OS 3.0 or later

Pricing and Availability
Tungle for iPhone is available now free from the AppStore.

WhereCloud
Tungle
Tungle for iPhone
Download Tungle

WhereCloud Inc is a Canadian corporation founded in 2006 and headquartered in Montreal, Canada. We are focused on delivering innovative and engaging solutions for mobile and location-based platforms. For us, cutting edge graphical design and engaging usability, are the highest priority.

Tungle, Tungle Accelerate, Tungle.me and the Tungle logo are the property of Tungle Corporation. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

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Martin Dufort
President | Founder
WhereCloud Inc
514-975-4950
Canada
martin@wherecloud.com

WhereCloud announces Twitpocalypse Redux special pricing for Reportage

2009-09-21T00:00:00-04:00

Montreal, Canada (Sept 21st, 2009) – The second coming of the Twitpocalyse event “Twitpocalypse Redux” will happen this week. Twitter will most probably force the event either today or tomorrow.

“This week will mark the second coming of the Twitpocalypse event where the total number of tweets will past the 4.2 billion mark. The last event brought problems for some Twitter applications but I think this one will be less impacting. Developers are more prepared.” said WhereCloud President and Founder Martin Dufort. “As such we are making a Twitpocalyse Redux special by lowering the price of Reportage to 99 cents”

Reportage is a radically different Twitter iPhone application where the user navigates between twitter user’s and tweets using an old radio dial metaphor. The application is especially tailored to complement your current Twitter client and enables you to quickly catch up with friend’s tweets when you have been away from Twitter for a while. Rise above the flood of information by tuning into your feeds using a simple swipe gesture of the radio tuner.

Key And Innovative features :

Scan you friend’s avatars on a dashboard
Summon any single feed with a single tap
Group your favorite friends in the “Stars” dashboard
View replies to your tweet in a consolidated “Me” view
Fluid on-the-fly tweeting
Posting photos to Yfrog.com directly from you phone
Browse web links within the application
Display who’s tweeting around you based on your location

Requirements:

iPhone and iPod Touch OS 2.2 or later

Pricing and Availability
Reportage is available at a special price of $0.99 (USD) during Twitpocalypse Redux week. This is a special limited time offer. Regular pricing of $3.99 (USD) will return on September 28th, 2009. Reportage has been selected as a “Staff Favorite” application by the Apple Review team.

WhereCloud
Reportage 1.0.1
Reportage Screenshots
Purchase and Download

About WhereCloud
WhereCloud Inc is a Canadian corporation founded in 2006 and headquartered in Montreal, Canada. We are focused on delivering innovative and engaging solutions for mobile and location-based platforms. For us, cutting edge graphical design and engaging usability, are the highest priority. In summary, we strive to provide solutions that are visually impacting … and simply work.
Copyright © 2006-2009 WhereCloud Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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Martin Dufort
President | Founder
WhereCloud Inc
514-975-4950
Canada

The iPhone 3GS hits 1 million in 3 days

2009-06-25T00:00:00-04:00

The latest model in the iPhone family: the iPhone 3GS (S for Speed) was introduced in a world launch on Friday June 18th, 2009. This new model, which we have acquired at WhereCloud, is much speedier than its predecessor thanks a to a new CPU and GPU chip.

The 3GS also sports a new camera with an auto-focusing lens that allows you to take better picture. But the real gem, is the ability to shoot, edit and send videos. This will completely change the messaging landscape and cell-phone providers will surely capitalize on it.

We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of what will be accomplished with this new phone and its enhanced capabilities.
Consumers are also clapping for those new functions because Apple announced, only 3 days after it’s introduction, that they have already sold over 1 million iPhone 3GS.

This is really a stunning achievement since this is the 3rd revision of the iPhone product. I think the combination of the hardware and the new capabilities of OS 3.0 made this launch another success for the Cupertino-based company. Looks like the love for the iPhone is not faltering even with strong competitors chasing: Google Android, Palm Pre.

In our on internal tests, everything was much faster, from startup of applications to scrolling complex views to drawing 3D shapes.

This also signals another downpour of new iPhone applications on the AppStore. The AppStore number is currently at 52,000 applications and without some changes by Apple in the way the AppStore is structured, the iPhone user will be left on its own into discovery new and innovative applications.

Internet Tethering with iPhone OS 3.0.

2009-06-18T00:00:00-04:00

Being certified iPhone developers we had access to the Gold Master (GM) version of iPhone OS 3.0. And one of the feature we wanted to try right away was Internet Tethering.

Despite some problems activating the features after having restored the iPhone to 3.0 — we called Rogers to see if it was on their end but to our surprise, they told us the option was already available for people having a data plan of more than 1GB. We ended up finding out that restoring the backup would actually deactivate the feature — the setup (USB) was a piece of cake: activate the option, plug the iPhone, done.

A glowing blue header on the iPhone screen would indicate you’re in tethering mode and OS X would immediately enable it — and create a new network interface. Simple.

Performance wise it’s very good. We didn’t see any problem for browsing the web or even streaming a YouTube video while in a car on the highway.

It’s a winner!

UPDATE: After more speed tests, Martin got the following statistics for both types of connection,

USB: 2.44 Mb/s download, 0.34 Mb/s upload, 148ms ping
Bluetooth: 0.53Mb/s download, 0.29 Mb/s upload, 185ms ping

A favorite, no a "Staff favorite".

2009-06-04T00:00:00-04:00

When we set out to create Reportage, our initial goal was to do something different that would meet our needs as avid Twitter users. We also wanted to showcase our sense of design, and also, our ability to push things beyond the beaten path.

The Twitter Client space for the iPhone and the iPod Touch was already getting very busy when we started on our design road. Never in our mind, did we imagine we would be among the best with a radical “Tuner Station” idea.

We were making Reportage to showcase what we could do, to answer the most common question a custom mobile software company is being asked: What do you have on the App Store ?, Can I see it ? Can I buy it ? What’s your average rating ?

Without the ability to answer any of those questions, we decided to move forward with our development timeline. We started showing people early prototypes and they thought it was radical and they felt it was weird at first. But after using for a while and being given the ability to selectively read user’s tweets, they recognize the power of the application.

We launched on the App Store two hours after my presentation at DemoCamp 20 Anticipation was high. Awaiting to see if people would pick up on that new paradigm, if the shift was too great..

And then, for no specific reason, I decided one morning to iTunes and browse the AppStore section.
Our icon was on the first page, we were a favorite, a “Staff Favorite”. @fbrunel and I @mdufort could not believe it. Out of 45K applications on the AppStore and a huge number of Twitter clients for the iPhone, our icon was sitting there, in that section.

This is really a validation that going beyond the beaten path for a device that did exactly the same thing when it was launched, was the key for us to rise above the noise. We are glad we did and we are applauding our early adopters for joining us in that paradigm shift.

We are in for a very fun ride !!!!

Martin

Reportage is Ready for Sale !

2009-05-26T00:00:00-04:00

Reportage, our radical Twitter Radio Tuning environment, for the iPhone has gone live on the AppStore yesterday. We are very pleased about the speed and the efficiency of the Apple Approval process.

We would like to thank all our beta testers for supporting our efforts during these past months.
Thanks a lot.

Martin & Fred

Introducing Reportage for iPhone

2009-05-24T00:00:00-04:00

At WhereCloud, Martin and I are both avid Twitter users and we found that none of the available clients for iPhone were really suited for an efficient on-the-go experience.

So we made our own and we called it Reportage.

Reportage works with the way you already tend to use Twitter; by firstly, scanning for the avatar of people you care most about and then browsing for second tier interest people.

We’ve leveraged the ability of your brain to quickly recognize faces, especially on precious mobile screen real estate that’s unsuited to scanning a long timeline.

Reportage focuses on people. Instead of having a single timeline, Reportage shows you the most recent activity in a wall of avatars. Then, you can cherry pick who you want to listen to first — pretty much like with the tuner of a radio receiver.

As you use it on-the-go, this snapshot of your network will dramatically improve your user experience, reduce the noise and make the most of Twitter.

In addition, Reportage lets you group your “stars” so you can quickly read and send messages to your favorite friends; follow aggregated conversations between people you follow; and discover new people with a location-based search.

Reportage is also a fully-featured client and so, you can find everything you need to interact with your network (e.g., direct messages, mentions, post photos).