Melbourne International Arts Festival 2010
September 6th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
Lookout Mobile are proud to announce the official 2010 Melbourne International Arts Festival iPhone application – Australia’s premier celebration of international performing and visual arts and Melbourne’s flagship cultural event held from the 8th – 23rd October 2010. The 2010 iPhone Application is an update from the 2009 version and includes a cleaner and polished design with retina display images -it looks great on the iPhone 4. A one-touch share feature includingTwitter, Facebook, email and SMS has been integrated into all events. As per 2009, full program information including performance details, pictures and directions via built in Google Maps are included, with push notification and favourites section. Click here to download the 2010 Melbourne International Arts Festival’s free iPhone app. 
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Jetlag Travel Guide Has Landed
August 31st, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
Jetlag Travel – bringing the world to your iPhone with unexpected surprises around every corner and page. The application gives you access to 20 countries you’ve never heard of before, including Gastronesia, Despotswana, Boguslavia, and Missuniversuala. All without leaving the safety of your iPhone. Look out for the special extras like learn to speak Aljezerian, audio tour of Phaic Tan’s Royal Palace and Molvania’s entry in the Eurovision song competition. To download the lite version click here and download the full version, click here.
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Young Gun of Wine Awards 2010
August 2nd, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
For this application we included high resolution pictures specifically for use on the new iPhone 4. It certainly does look amazing on the new screen resolution. This application is a free download from the app store, so take a look and head down to some of the great events.
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Federation Square – “What’s On” iPhone Application
July 20th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
Federation Square is Melbourne’s meeting place – a landmark cultural and entertainment destination where Melbournian’s and visitors gather. Locals have embraced “Fed Square” as a true reflection of their city, with rich cultural experiences, a diversity of places to eat and drink, unique shopping and a wealth of information to welcome visitors. And with over 2,000 events a year, there’s always something happening at Fed Square. From free outdoor concerts to major multicultural festivals, art exhibitions to wine tasting, you can stay up to date with this handy “What’s On” application which will tell you exactly what’s happening and where to find it.
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July 2010 Melbourne CocoaHeads Presentation
July 9th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
We recently presented our flagship iPad app Aussie Rules Live HD at July’s Melbourne CocoaHeads meet up. The turnout of CocoaHeads this month was amazing. A lot of great developers are highly enthusiastic about developing apps on the iOS platform, and are happy to share their journeys and tips. In the same spirit, we are making available our presentation slides in this blog post. Comments and questions are welcome, and will be highly appreciated. Aussie Rules Live HD – July 2010 Melbourne CocoaHeads
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Deloitte Leadership Academy iPhone App
July 2nd, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
As a member of the DLA program, you have access to some of the world’s best training around the clock. At the heart of the program is a world class online portal with extensive e-Learning from leading business schools, academics, researchers and CEOs globally. The role of the iPhone application is to give the Deloitte Leadership Academy clients further access to its program / content via a mobile platform. The Leadership Academy consists twelve core competencies that form the foundation of the program. To get a taste of the program, you can download a ‘Free Lite’ version by clicking here:
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First iPad App is here: Aussie Rules Live!
June 3rd, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
Lookout Mobile are VERY excited to announce our new Aussie Rules Live iPad App! We have been working around the clock for the last 4 weeks to get this app ready and we are ecstatic to see it live in the App Store. A massive thanks to Carsales.com.au for making this free to all our great users!
Plus, we are being featured by Apple this week (19th July 2010):
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Our first few weeks with the iPad
May 26th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
Next was working out what do with the device and this has been an ongoing adventure. For example, I spent the last week up north and found that I would use my iPad for reading the newspaper, checking emails, downloading and watching Mad Men season 3 (best series of all time) and playing Real Racing. The device just works, especially when you are lying back, sipping on your coffee and looking out at the view. Coupled with my home and office use of the device, I have come to one clear conclusion. The device is truly a content device and I cannot see myself using it for any other purpose than to read, watch and play. I tried sending emails but found it a little frustrating and i tried writing documents via Pages and lost interest after 5 minutes. However, as soon as I opened the web, explored ‘The Age” or just surfed, I found the experience seamless and instant. In addition, I found myself downloading a heap of podcasts and TED talks (www.ted.com/)and found the viewing experience to be a delight. The iPad App Store: I have not been too excited on this front. There is a long way to go and for the success of the device, the App Store needs to improve. I have found a lot of the newspaper apps to be underwhelming with the New York Times disappointing me most. The app as Steve Smith describes ‘just curates a few sections of the newspaper/Web site and pastes select stories into a nondescript pair of screens for four main sections’. To me, the app is confusing. On the flip side, AP News and BBC news, caters to the iPad touch interface with a set of clear, animated and floating rectangular tiles for easy access to articles – they have done a great job utilising the native interface the iPad offers. It will be interesting to see which design formula works but I have no doubt that a user friendly newspaper app will be achieved with a lot of trial and error with a heap of effort and time. From here it will be very interesting to see how succssful the iPad will be. Frank McPherson cited a few relevant metrics to go by (http://bit.ly/a2ldU7). Firstly, will the iPad impacts personal computer sales…? ‘If there are significant decreases in PC sales and high iPad (and other tablet computer) sales, then clearly the iPad will have had an impact on redefining personal computing’. The second measure will be, ‘how many people buy an iPad or other tablets who never had, nor will, buy a personal computer’. This measure will illustrate whether the device draws ‘people to personal computing in a way that actual PCs were not able to achieve’. In anycase, I have had not received one negative comment from family, friends and clients when I hand over the device to them for a play. In fact, everyone has been blown away.
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The iPad and Arcade Table have arrived at Lookout Mobile
April 27th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
The last week was an exciting week for Lookout Mobile. Firstly, we employed Rafif, our new iPhone developer who will be starting next week. We look forward to introducing him to you all. Secondly, we purchased an amazing arcade table that includes 1200 of the very latest 1980 games including, Golden Axe, Gallaga, Wonder Boy, Double Dragon, Street Fighter and the list goes on. We have an open door policy for all clients and friends, so feel free to pop in when you are in Prahran. However, the most exciting part of the week was getting our hands on our first iPad (second iPad coming later this week). What a device! More thoughts to come in a future blog post but here are a few photos of the team having a little fun with our new toys. Preloaded Apps onto 25,000 Nokia N97 Mini
April 27th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
A major event milestone occured at Lookout Mobile last month and that was the release of the new Nokia N97 Mini phones. We cannot lay claim to building this device but what we can claim is that 25,000 units have been shipped around Australia with our popular Aussie Rules Live application and Rugby League Live applications. It is great for Nokia to recognise local content and we can only hope this is the beginning of a strong relationship with local mobile application developers and Nokia Australia. We also were featured in a current out-of-home advertising campaign that run throughout both Melbourne and Sydney during March 2010.
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2010 Melbourne International Jazz Festival
April 14th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
The application includes the complete guide to the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and is presented in a slick, contemporary and easy to use manner. The Jazz Festival: During the first week of May, Melbourne will be transformed as its city streets, squares, concert halls, jazz clubs, galleries and bars play host to the world’s modern masters of jazz. One of Australia’s hallmark music events, the festival showcases the creativity and diversity of jazz across the artforms. In an exciting new age of technology and innovation, this year’s rich program of more than 100 events features leading international and Australian artists who are progressing the universal language of jazz, with an unprecedented number of Australian premiere and festival-exclusive concerts. For musicians, avid jazz fans, families and absolutely all lovers of music, this is a time to be entertained, to discover and to be inspired with films, talks, master classes, public art, children’s workshops and free outdoor concerts. further information, please visit www.melbournejazz.com
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Human Rights Arts and Film Festival
April 9th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
About the festival: The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival was founded in 2007 by Evelyn Tadros, Naziath Mantoo and a dedicated team of passionate her-aff-ers who had a vision to make human rights accessible, relevant and significant to the broader Australian community. In less than two years, HRAFF has grown into a nation wide Festival showing in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Through the commitment and hard work of the entire HRAFF team and the generosity of its supporters, the Festival’s first edition was an incredible success. We hope you all can head down to a show and not only support the festival. 
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AFL & NRL Sponsorship Rationale
March 12th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
We have received a few comments regarding the use of the carsales.com.au sponsorship model and wanted to explain our point of view. Firstly, the 2009 AFL and NRL apps were purchased for that season only – any new update would of been charged for in 2010 - we apologise if this has caused some confusion and frustrations. Our 2010 objective was to deliver more value and footy content to the user by offering an improved product with the objective of delivering a free app. We felt that the user had the right to free footy content via their iPhone. That’s why we have got the sponsor on board – to fund these imporvements, plus our time and energy. When incorporating the sponsors brand we have been very minfdul of the delicate balance required in serving the needs of users and the sponsor. We believe we have struck a good balance but are open to suggestions. Please email all suggestions to info@lookoutmobile.com
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Aussie Rules LIVE – 2010
March 11th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
Where to start? Firstly, the 2010 Aussie Rules Live has been made free with the full support of www.carsales.com.au. With their support we have been able to make significant improvements to the app, buy more stats from Champion Data and best of all, make it FREE for users in 2010. So whats new? *** Footy tips integration (www.footytips.com.au) *** AFL Today: get all the relevant information for your team in one place. Includes recent footy news during the week and instant access to scores, margins and time of games during the weekend. *** Stats Central: 10 year history of Brownlow winners, drafts, All Australian teams and so much more *** In app game previews from Contested Footy *** Dreamteam AND Supercoach builder and scores *** 2009 features like live text commentary, scoring worm, goal scorers, ladder and full fixtures remain.
2010 improvements:
New server – there has also been a significant improvement behind the scenes with the investment of new servers and some clever new data packaging – you’ll notice the scores, fixtures and ladder loading much faster in 2010. And best of all its version 1 with more updates to come in the coming weeks. For constant updates head to our Twitter page – http://twitter.com/aussieruleslive. 
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Rugby League LIVE – 2010
March 11th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
Firstly, the 2010 Rugby League Live has been made free with the full support of www.carsales.com.au. With their support we have been able to make significant improvements to the app, purchase more content and best of all, make it FREE for users in 2010 Whats new? Firstly, all the great features from 2009 are still included :
The most notable change in 2010 is how the app looks. We wanted to move away from boring tables of data and make the experience more engaging and exciting. We hope you like it as much as we do.
NRL Today – a big focus for us in the 2010 season was bringing scores and fixtures to rugby fans sooner. With the ‘NRL Today’ section, we have included a blackboard that will display the most recent rugby news during the week. On weekends, it comes to life giving you instant access to live matches, actual margins and time of game. The same blackboard in the ‘My Team’ page will give you quick access to previous and next game information. Thanks to footytips.com.au we’ve been able to bring you a quick and easy way to enter your rugby tips each week. So there will be no excuses for forgetting to tip in 2010. There has also been a significant improvement behind the scenes with the investment of new servers and some clever new data packaging – you’ll notice the scores, fixtures and ladder loading much faster in 2010. Best of all, this is just version one for 2010. Stay tuned for even more great features when the season kicks off…
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2010 Melbourne International Comedy Festival
February 18th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
Click here to download today. Lookout Mobile is proud to bring you the official 2010 Melbourne International Comedy Festival iPhone application – Australia’s largest ticketed cultural event and the 3rd largest comedy festival in the world. Running amok from 24th March to 18th April is this city’s most-loved celebration of tomfoolery, The Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Comedy’s finest are flying in from all corners of the globe, and they promise to stage shows that will get the whole city laughing, no matter what age, gender, ethnicity or persuasion. From red-eye late night gigs to jokes for the juniors, the Comedy Festival is a demographic-free zone – absolutely everyone is invited to converge on the CBD grid where the vibe is high and the guffaws even louder.
The 2010 Melbourne International Comedy Festival iPhone Application Features Include: Full program information including performance details, images for each production (over 360 shows have registered for the 2010 Festival) and venue directions via built in Google Maps with recommended near by restaurants to keep you entertained between shows. Browse by performance: > Date > Genre > Free events There is also quick ‘one touch’ access to: > Daily Diary > Latest news and offerings (with ‘push notification’) > Category listings > Ticket’s where to buy Push Notification – be the first to know about exclusive events, parties and discounted or free tickets. Daily text messages will be sent to your iPhone informing you of exclusive events that will be taking place during the festival. My Planner section – bookmark your favourite performers or performances and gain easy future access. Shake – not sure what to see? You can use the Festival’s shake function to select a completely random show on the day.
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Alice in iPhoneland
February 15th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
 Alice in your iPhone I came across an interested article about how Disney has released a free, stand-alone “Alice in Wonderland” iPhone app, plugging both the movie and an upcoming game based on the film for the Nintendo Wii. What’s interesting is the iPhone-centric mobile push and how much faith movie studio’s are putting in this device when promoting their movies. What about Nokia? Or Google Android based phones? Well, who can blame them with 50 million units to target (not including iPod Touch devices), its becoming a smart choice for a distributional channel when planning for media. For example, the studio has a fair idea of the user demographic and location of the iPhone user. Its common knowledge that the majority of iPhones have been purchased in developed countries, with around 65% of users aged between 25 – 54 years who have a higher than average income. Alice in Wonderland isn’t the first movie that has utilized the iPhone as a distribution channel with Saw 5, Star Wars, Terminator and Star Trek producing top quality iPhone apps to support its movie release. Saw 5 deserves a special mention with their ‘jigsaw your voice’ app. The ’jigsaw your voice’ app cleverly morph’s the users voice, with the aim of sounding like the game master in Saw. Once the user has morphed their voice, they are then given the option to their ‘morphed voice’ to their contacts – viral marketing at its best. The idea sounds spooky but its been downloaded a heap of times with a valuable fan base who keep using the app and sending their morphed voice to their contacts. Furthermore, the power of the iPhone allows movie studios to push out exclusive content, behind the scenes info, characters profile, release dates and even giveaways. Even if the movie was ordinary and failed at the box-office, at least the studio has the opportunity to blow the public away with a relevant iPhone app that the user will hopefully absorb and connect with well after the movie has gone to DVD release.
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iPad and Apple’s World Domination
February 9th, 2010 by Daniel Kagan
 Great article from The Age’s Garry Barker looking into Apples new iPad and its current and future position in the mobile and e-reader marketplace. It was also great to contribute to this article with Daniel giving his opinion on the iPad and why there is no camera. Click here for the full article.  Lookout Mobile -Daniel Kagan mentioned
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Lookout Mobile’s iPad Thoughts
February 3rd, 2010 by Lookout Mobile
Our first impressions was ‘what type of name is the iPad?’  Homescreen From a device perspective it looks great and will offer the user a clean and quick user experience when it comes to surfing the net, reading e-books, checking and responding to emails, watching movies and viewing pictures. The slickness is typical of Apple and once people start playing with it, and seeing it in the ‘real world’ the buzz will only intensify and people will probably start banging down on Apple’s door to get one. The epicenter of this device is the iBookStore and to a lesser extent iTunes (movies). The ability to purchase eBooks, magazines, newspapers and uni/school material will serve as another massive revenues stream for Apple. While, having a 9.7 inch LED-backlit screen, will give the user a great movie watching experience. It kind of feels like the auxiliary features like the web, iPod, email etc are just icing on the cake; the iPad is focused on the iBookStore. Hence, what they have created is purely an e-Reader on steroids. There is no doubt that the extra features will be the ‘hooks for the general immediate users’, but for the power users, business users, medical industries and educational areas, there are enormous potential markets that could open up with just the right applications.  Newspaper app From a more technical perspective, Apple’s purchase of the company PA Semiconductors a little while ago has shown to be a great move. It would seem that PA Semiconductors work on developing specialized chips that ran on very little power has enabled Apple to engineer a custom chip to run this amazing new device. This helps Apple to also keep things in house and under their very black hat. There is no doubt that its a massive opportunity for app developers and we are excited about seeing our apps on the iPad but the real commerce and advancements will be seen in the iBookStore and rightly so. The monetization of good, relevant and unique content is the future for the sustainability of digital content and there is a good chance that the public will be in for a massive surprise when they commence viewing newspapers and books via the iPad. Regarding the price of content: give it time and one would hope that the iPad’s seamless user interface, and simple and convenient delivery of content would justify the cost of content. Take the iTunes Store as an example: people thought charging for music would fail but to-date, Apple have sold more than 6 billion songs via the iTunes Store since it opened in 2003, making it the world’s largest music retailer. Regarding the ‘missing in action’ features – who really cares if there’s no camera or flash support? The only real missing feature (that will be corrected) is multi-tasking. The iPad is an e-reader with sublime features, (as agreed by Michael – head programmer) the reason there is no camera is because of relevance and price. What purpose will a camera serve? Can you imagine people lugging their 9.7-inch screen in front of a friend, whilst positioning them for the perfect shot? Use a real camera with a decent lens or use a toy camera in a phone for un-important photos. Don’t try to take a decent shot with a two handed hold on 2/3’s of an A4 page. Finally, the price point is a real winner for the consumer and ultimately Apple. Its essentially suggestive selling on Apple’s behalf – give the shaver away for free and make money on the blade. It will be really interesting in the uptake of the iPad. I doubt it will sell like the iPhone or iPod; nearly 50 million iPhones have been sold since its launch in June 2007 and the world’s iPod population is now more than 250 million and still growing. Where the iPad will have instant success will be within education. The education sector has been looking for a good portable device with good battery life, well priced, hooked in to the network and easy to interact with. However, the real test will be how it competes with the Kindle and other competitors and how they will price its content. Only time will tell… Update: click here to read Garry Barkers (The Age) thoughts on the iPad…  iPad Flat display
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Its been a few weeks now since Pat and I received our brands spanken over inflated (thanks to eBay) iPads. My first thought was, ‘where are the instructions’? It quickly dawned to me that Apple elected not to include instructions in the box. All you receive is an iPad and a charger – this one act sums up the functionality of the iPad. Simple and intuitive. As cheesy as it sounds, the device really does direct you to how it should be used.
