AppAppeal Blog

Where I've Been wins an App Award

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:32:37 +0000

Travelling has become our second nature. We go on holidays and business trips for what seems to us like all the time. Before we had to call and try and find a plane ticket, book a hotel etc. If you were going on a holiday things would have gotten even more complicated: where should I go, is my budget big enough, what can I visit over there, is it even worth going there etc.

But things changed as they always do, and the web apps came again to the rescue. Today we have applications that can help us decide where to go depending on our budget and what we aim to do there: sightseeing, relaxation, doing sports etc. Finding a cheap place to stay and booking a cheaper plane ticket also has become something so simple we don't even stop to think how things used to be before.

So, we, the AppAppeal team have decided to not take these apps for granted and to award some of them with the already well renowned App Awards.

Best feature: Where I've been

The best feature AppAward goes to Where I've been. The winning feature is the personal map of the world where users can keep track of all the places they've lived, visited or want to visit. And since these maps can be shared and compared with friends they can see where their acquaintances have been. They can then ask for feedback, places to visit, things to do, organizational tips etc. The app itself is especially useful for people who have worked/studied in an international environment where they made lots of new friends making it easy to keep contact and track what your friends have been up to, travelling-wise.

Finding Web Apps Made Easy

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:19:06 +0000

AppAppeal now ranks web apps by their worldwide popularity!

There is one thing that can be said about popularity: “if many people like it, there must be something to it.” In other words: the opinion of the public decides whether a web app is worth checking out or not. With this in mind, AppAppeal has changed the ranking of apps and web apps are now ranked by their worldwide popularity.

Where you would use to see a random list of apps in a category, AppAppeal offers a worldwide popularity ranking. If you are looking for the perfect Recipe web app, you see the following ranking: 1: Allrecipes, 2: Food.com, and 3: Epicurious. This means that Allrecipes is the most visited recipe app in the world:

Here you can see a map of the usage of recipe apps per country:

So, are you sure you are using the best project management or video web app? Look at the Top 10 at AppAppeal to make sure!

AppAppeal uses the data of Alexa for the ranking.

For more info, take a look at AppAppeal's screen cast:

Wthr.in wins an App Award

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:28:42 +0000

I still remember the time when I was spending the evenings with my parents waiting for the news to be over to enjoy the movie at 20:00-20:30. And since the news were so boring, except for the sport section, I became more anxious as the time for the movie drew nearer. And then, 10 minutes before the movie, when I couldn't sit still anymore, my mom would always scold me and tell me to be quiet because she wanted to listen to the WEATHER. If only we had weather forecasts available at any time and within a few keystrokes back then...

Weather web apps today are so advanced that we no longer listen to one source but to the mix of tens, if not even hundreds of other forecasts. You can even see satellite footage of what is currently happening over your house, which cloud is going where, what air currents are heading your way etc.

Because of all their nice features and use, AppAppeal is awarding the App Awards to some of those special apps in the Weather category.

Most user friendly: Wthr.in

What makes wthr.in so easy to use is its simple design. The viewer is not bombarded with info. In exchange you are asked to type in a text field the name of the city for which you want the weather forecast. After you introduce that name, press the “get weather“ button and presto: you have the weather forecast. Users can also press the small microphone symbol in the text field and say the name of the city. The site will automatically fill-in the name of the city in the text box.

My Apps: Meet Lukas Nevosad from Tripomatic!

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:44:00 +0000

Meet Lukas!
This is Lukáš Nevosád, CEO of Tripomatic.com, and he is from the Czech Republic. He founded Tripomatic.com with his wife. It is a travel planning web app and the review will be published soon on AppAppeal. He got the idea for Tripomatic when he was on a trip to Switzerland with his wife. They struggled with finding interesting places to visit there and wished there was a web app that could help them with this problem. They had a lot of experience with traveling and using travel websites, so they figured they were the perfect fit to start Tripomatic. They started in 2010 and launched in June 2011. Tripomatic is different from other travel apps. Instead of coming up with things to visit yourself, the app only asks you for your destination and then offers things you can visit. You can select the things you like, create an itinerary, and then print that and use it on your trip. It is also very easy to share the plan you've created with a fellow traveler.

- What kind of apps do you use?
“We have eight people working on Tripomatic and we need to stay in touch as much as possible, so we use a lot of web apps. First of all, we use pretty much all of the Google Apps. We use Google Docs and spreadsheets, Gmail, Calendar, and so on. We use Pivotal Tracker for development. We have used that for marketing as well, but that didn’t work out really well so we switched to Trello. We’re pretty amazed with Trello, it’s a really cool application and I would recommend it to anyone. Everybody at Tripomatic loved it from the first time they saw it. For CRM, we use Highrise. We also use many web apps for development purposes. For example, we use UserTesting.com, which is an app where they have people who review your website and they offer you a video of a visitor speaking their thoughts as they use your site. It's a really useful web app, also because you get the results really fast. Another app we use is Sauce Labs, which we use for automated testing, so that we can test if we didn't break any functionality of the site after we deploy a new feature. Sauce Labs also has a nice feature called 'Scout", which allows you to test your website on many different browsers over the web."

- Do you use web apps personally?
“Yes, of course. Personally, I also use Google Apps a lot. I’m still looking for a great web app that can help me create to do lists and organize my work when I’m at home. I already tried about 15 apps, but I ended up with a reminder application on iOS. Now, I use Trello personally as well, I have a personal board there.”

- Which devices do you use to run the apps (desktop, laptop, tablet, phone)?
“I have an iPhone and iPad, and I have several computers.”

- What is your favorite app and why?
“Probably Gmail! I spent a lot of time everyday with it and I have a lot of emails. I have tried many desktop clients for iOS, but they couldn't handle the large amount of emails I have. So eventually I just ended up using Gmail. Gmail also works great together with the other Google Apps, like Calendar and Docs.”

- What is the most unusual app you have? Why is it unusual?
“Right now, I’m experimenting with new web apps that put all the streams of several cloud-based applications together. The latest app I’m experimenting with is 300 Milligrams. I don’t really use it right now, but I really like the idea and it’s really useful to have an app that takes the streams of all the web application that you use and creates like a digest of all the actions everybody made in all the different apps. But I do think they still need some development. So I like the idea, but they’re not really ready for action yet.”

- What app is an undiscovered gem?
“I would say Trello, but they are not really undiscovered anymore. It'll probably turn out to be the app to use in project organization or project management. I first came across Trello 3 or 4 weeks ago and now basically the entire company uses it and it’s really incredible how good the application is and it’s still free. So, Trello is definitely a gem.”

If you liked reading about Lukas and his favorite web apps, check out his web app Tripomatic!

Know someone who is perfect for a 'My Apps' interview? Send an email to loescomcoaster.com.

Plnnr wins an App Award

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:11:02 +0000

The first thing that caught our eye when we first glanced at Plnnr were the nice color combination of light blue, an interesting shade of lila and brown. Upon closer inspection we were impressed by the simple, yet brilliantly executed design that made the creation of a visiting plan both an easy and visually enjoyable experience. Bottom line, we know it sounds a bit silly, but Plnnr felt “warm” and friendly through its great design.

Zillow wins an App Award

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:22:45 +0000

In Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner were presenting the case where real estate agents selling their own house were keeping their real estate on the market for an average of ten more days than they normally would for their clients. Even more, they would sell it for an extra 3%. Levitt and Dubner explain that this occurs because for every $10.000 that the agent can get for you he only receives $150 as his commission. This means, the agent has no real incentive to put in the hard work and not go with the first offer you get. So the agent will always try to make you accept the first "ok" offer that comes along, so he can move on to another sale. In most cases you will listen to your real estate agent and take the deal, losing thousands of dollars in the process. This is a direct result of information abuse: people who have the knowledge, in this case real estate agents, use it to their own advantage.

The solution to this problem is... the Internet and its real estate web apps. These apps can help you sell and buy your own house, make an informed decision, get info and gain inside knowledge of the real estate market etc.

AppAppeal has decided to give App Awards to some of these real estate apps that provide us with the knowledge and info necessary to gaining huge financial benefits.

Best value for money: Zillow

When it comes to buying propriety the more informed you are the more money you can save on your purchase and the happier you will be. At least that is what we think. Since most of the real estate applications are free, the best value for money could go only to the app that offered the highest amount of information/service for that insane amount of nothing. To answer your questions: Zillow offers information on the available apartments in a city, area, state etc. but at the same time it shows and compares mortgages, and more details like: down payment, create a payment plan, calculate your rate etc.

Line Rider wins an App Award

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:48:00 +0000

Some of us still remember Prince of Persia, Volfied or Supaplex from back in the day. When we would copy the games on floppy disks to take them home or give them to friends. In time the floppy was replaced by the CD. The gaming industry grew and with it so did the system requirements. Fortunately today you don't need all of that. If you can only play a few minutes per day you can always try a browser game. No installation time, no system requirements, no need to free up space on your hard drive. The game is out there, in the cloud, and you can play it anywhere where you have Internet access.

In the fashion we hope you already got accustomed to, AppAppeal has given the App Awards to some of the best game web apps we have ever seen.

Best feature: Line Rider

Line Rider is an app where people can draw a track and ride it with their sledge. This can lead to some very impressive tracks which can be recorded and uploaded on Youtube. It is for this feature that we are giving this award to the Line Rider team. Here is a video of what some very talented people have created in Line Rider.

My Apps: Meet Behrad Ghadiri from quote.by!

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:40:33 +0000

Meet Behrad!
This is Behrad Ghadiri, CEO and founder of quote.by. The idea to quote.by arose when he saw a lot of issues with traditional websites for quotes. More specifically, how they organize and want you to browse quotes. To improve upon these issues, he launched quote.by about three months ago. Quote.by helps you discover and share your favorite quotes. Their suggestion system helps you find quotes based on similar quotes, themes and tags. You can follow authors and other users and receive real-time updates about them. Their native iPhone app is also coming out very shortly.
Behrad currently pursues a Computer Science degree at the University of Toronto. He just recently finished his 16 months internship at IBM Toronto Lab working as part of WebSphere Application Server team and he works part-time for various advertising agencies. In his spare time, he has also released some free goodies such as Imperial Tumblr theme and couple of icon sets for Mac OS X.

- What kind of apps do you use?

"I use Flipboard everyday to keep track of the blogs I follow. It is a really beautiful alternative to plain old RSS. I manage my personal tasks using Things. It syncs wonderfully between all my devices which keeps my tasks always up-to-date. Occasionally, I use iTeleport to connect remotely to my computer over the internet. It has eliminated the need for me to carry my laptop everywhere. I also use Tumblr to manage both my personal and our company's blog. It has all the features that we will ever need and implementing our own blogging system just seemed like reinventing the wheel."

- Which devices do you use to run the apps (desktop, laptop, tablet, phone)?

"I have a MacBook, an iPad, and an iPhone. Most of the apps I have on my MacBook are productivity apps such as text editors and the funner apps are usually on my iPad. I only have some essential apps on my iPhone since it's not very fast nowadays. I am looking forward to iPhone 5 whenever that comes out and until then I shall follow the rumors."

- What is your favorite app and why?

"Svpply is my favorite app at the moment. I shop online very frequently and a friend of mine introduced me to Svpply. Now, I use it before buying anything. Their most popular items usually turn out to be the best you can find online and their infinite scrolling feature is really addicting."

- Do you use web apps for your job?

"We manage our source code using GitHub. As we added more features, keeping our code in-sync across developers became harder. It also allowed us to take more risks and be more experimental without worrying about corrupting the existing code. We use Dropbox and Gmail to share other development resources such as graphics, meeting minutes or even mockups for our new features. We also use Kuler, a webapp from Adobe, when our minds go blank looking for a new color for our user interface. It has a really simple interface which allows you to focus only on colors."

- What is the most unusual app you have? Why is it unusual?

"Rhy.ms has to be the most brilliant unusual app I have ever used. Basically, you have a sequence of images and other users can add a new image which somehow relates to the last image and it goes on like that. It's much more artistic than functional."

- Is there an app that is missing? Something you would love to use but does not exist yet?

"I would like to see a more unified solution for online shopping. More and more startups are emerging to take a stab at online shopping but it is still far from perfect. We have identified some features that would ease the online shopping experience but nothing revolutionary yet so we haven't invested any time on a possible project. But it is definitely something I would like to explore more."

- What app is an undiscovered gem?

"OhLife is a diary application that sends you an email everyday and asks about your day. I always wanted to keep a diary and have regretted not doing so at various points. This ingenious solution helps you be consistent without much annoyance."

Want to read more about Behrad? Check out his website!

Know someone who is perfect for a My Apps interview? Send an email to loescomcoaster.com or leave a comment!

Farmville wins an App Award

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:23:24 +0000

In the fashion we hope you already got accustomed to, AppAppeal has given the App Awards to some of the best game web apps we have ever seen.

Most user friendly: Farmville

Probably the most played game on the web, Farmville can be "mastered" in less than 10 minutes. This is a click-only type of game where users have to tend their farms: harvest the crop, plant seeds, help their neighbours etc. It is meant to be easy to play and give people something to do in their small breaks from work.

Moshi Monsters wins an App Award

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:23:22 +0000

In the fashion we hope you already got accustomed to, AppAppeal has given the App Awards to some of the best game web apps we have ever seen.

Best design: Moshi Monsters

Although the website is designed for children, Moshi Monsters appeals to grown-ups as well, we are living proof. What won us over were the cute cuddly monsters that we have adopted. The colors are bright, the monsters have big eyes that make them lovable from the first sight, and the whole world looks like a sweet dream. Anybody can see the amount of work the Moshi Monsters team has put into building this world and we believe it paid off big time. Apart form the game itself which has a great design, the website too is a nice overture for what comes next.