Yelp (Free)

Don’t know where to go eat, dancing, or drinking? No worries! Plan your trip based on location, occasion, or time of day. The Yelp application lets users find businesses according to their preferences based on location. It also provides plenty of reviews and other features such as augmented reality.

HearPlanet ($4.99)

HearPlanet is an iPhone application that maps the nearest landmarks and attractions based on the user’s location. It provides valuable information about the different sites including an audio guide. With more than 250,000 audio guides for various landmarks in different cities it is highly recommended for folks who travel frequently, but still useful for those who vacation only once a year.

Airsharing ($4.99 , Pro $9.99)

Airsharing lets users take their documents on the go. The application allows users to download their documents to their iPhone wirelessly or through USB and access them later. This application is perfect not only for business on the road but also for viewing important travelling documents such as itineraries, to-do lists, and maps.

Weathereye (Free)

During your stay, good weather might be crucial to your plans. Stay up to date with weather news on your mobile phone and plan your trip accordingly.

FligthTrackPro ($9.99)

This application is great to keep track of your flights and get real time updates. Once you set up your account, you email your itinerary to plans@tripit.com and it will appear in the application within minutes. The app gives you valuable information about the flight such as departure gate and time. Finally, it pushes notifications on the day of flight to keep you updated of any changes.

Skype (Free)

Make phone calls without paying for roaming or international prices. The Skype application allows users to use a Wi-Fi connection to make phone calls to landlines and mobile devices.

Since we all love going to the movie theater, I will compare and contrast the following applications: Flixter’s Movies, Now Playing, Movies Now, and Showtimes. All of these applications have the same core functionality. Where they differ is the extra features and usability. All these apps are free and provide users with show times and theater locations. Hopefully after reading this guide you will be able to decide which app to use to keep up-to-date on all movie info.

Showtimes

Showtimes is definitely the most bare boned application of them all. It allows users to see theaters nearby along with the movies they are playing and times. Each movie has a synopsis and there are links to their corresponding web pages in rotten tomatoes and IMDB. The interface is simple and does not look as nice as the others. It does map out directions, but it is not integrated into the application.

PROS: Simple interface, Google Directions

CONS: Aesthetically unpleasing, no integration with movie databases (links to web browser), no buying feature

Movieshow

Movieshows provides a few more features than Showtimes in a much nicer interface. In fact, the design of the app is the most appealing of all. It contains the same features as Showtimes with a more intuitive user interface and the additional of some extra features such as buying tickets.

PROS: Aesthetically pleasing – best interface and buying tickets feature

CONS: Not fully integrated with rotten tomatoes or other movie databases, mapping not as intuitive, core features only

Now Playing

Now Playing has the second most features including viewing and writing reviews. It contains all the features from the one above, with a better design and more features. The application also gives information on upcoming DVDs. The only problem with Now Playing is that it contains a lot of information and it could have been organized better.

PROS: Lots of feature, good integration with movie databases, reviews

CONS: User interface is not as simple as others

Flixter’s Movies

Flixter’s Movies is the first application I tried and it is definitely the best one. Not only it contains every piece of information you might need about a movie (popularity, reviews, showtimes, location, description, actors information, facebook connect, ticket buying, trailers), but it also has a clever design that is very intuitive and easy to use. The full integration with the rotten tomatoes database really helps make this application stand out from the competition.

PROS: Plethora of good features, intuitive design

CONS: None that I can find.

Well there you have it, that’s my review of the main movie apps.  Leave your comments below with your opinion about these apps or any other ones you like to use.

The IT industry is moving towards cloud computing and thin client applications. Many big players in this field such as SAP are working towards creating web-based equivalents for their server based systems. There is also a big growth in the mobile software development as companies are investing in Smartphone accessible Information Systems for their employees.

For the consumer market, it’s all about Smartphones and the various apps available for the leading platforms. Consumers, in particular the younger Net Generation, love to stay connected with friends through social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs…). Even in their daily jobs, they use social media tools to connect to the world to find the information they need to perform their daily tasks.

Going back to the iPad, knowing that IT industry as a whole is moving towards mobile/cloud-computing, and consumers are becoming more and more addicted to social media, the iPad is well positioned since it allows for developers to create applications that consumers, businesses, and educational institutions will greatly benefit from. For users, the iPad is extremely powerful since it allows them to do what they like while holding the internet in their hands.

In conclusion, it is very important to notice these trends and keep your company up to date to take advantage of the new market opportunities.

Happy Easter Long Weekend!
Amin Palizban

President, Paltech Solutions Inc.
Twitter: @AminPali @paltechsolns

PS. Read below for information related to iPad Application Development:

A good iPad application can be an excellent way to improve your company’s brand awareness because of the device’s novelty and innovation. Furthermore, the iPad’s new features provide the opportunity to release new or improved consumer and business apps.

Most iPad applications can be developed in about a month and approved into the App Store in two weeks.  The App Store allows developers to easily market and distribute their applications. It has already exceeded 3 billion downloads worldwide.

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