You want your business to get in on the hot iPhone app trend. Problem: You can't shell out thousands of dollars for a developer, and you don't want to learn Cocoa, the iPhone's programming system. Solution: Have an online service build one for you! There are now some great tools available to help you build and publish a competitive app, with no programming knowledge required -- and at a fraction of the cost of hiring a developer. From coding to submitting to updating, these services do the technical work for you -- all you need is a creative vision. Many of these services do the same thing: they take your online content and integrate it into an app. The packaging and style all vary, so visit their sites to find which one suits your tastes and budget. AppMakr is a good option for a Web site or blog looking to create a basic app, according to Guy Kawasaki.
This website takes your online feeds and turns them into an app for you. All you need to provide is your chosen feed (blog, RSS, Twitter stream, etc.), a few graphics, and some design choices, and they take control of the developing and submission process from there. You can even make the decision to "monetize" your app by selecting advertisers or choosing to charge for the download. Create an app in seven steps with Swebapps. What could be easier than "drag and drop", Step 2. Drag and Drop buttons on to phone. Step 3. Customize button images if needed. Step 4. Click on button and enter content. Step 5. Submit for development. Step 6. Create account. Swebapps also provides tools to track your analytics and update your app after its been published to the App Store. My App Builder is a tool that takes your content and turns it into an app for you for a low monthly hosting fee.
Bonus: that monthly membership cost gives you the freedom to create as many apps as you want, with only a small publishing fee each time. Whether you want to use your blog posts, RSS feed, videos, or Twitter stream, My App Builder will turn your information into an app. All you have to provide are your images, content, and a vision of how you want it to flow. Sites, which just launched, is another app builder that integrates your social feeds seamlessly into an app. And, according to their website, you can do it in 10 minutes. Provide your chosen feeds, customize your app with some design choices, and iSites does the rest for you. In addition, iSites offers the ability to easily make changes to your app and see the results in real-time, and the apps work on both the iPhone and Android platforms. TapLynx is another aggregator for your online feeds. The platform used by such online news sources as All Things D and Variety, TapLynx is elegantly designed and offers more versatility than other simple aggregators, and it comes with the ability to embed video. AppBreeder offers you a little more complexity than other app builders, as well as an app that can be used on the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android platforms. Creating a custom app or adding a customized gadget ups the price significantly, but it is still likely to be cheaper than hiring a developer, and you get a better app. If you think an iPhone game would be a good option for your business, GameSalad is a great platform to easily develop your very own game, with no coding required. AppIncubator is slightly different from standard app builders: It's a mobile app that allows you to submit ideas for apps. You download the app, then submit your idea. If you want to get more detailed, you can use the storyboard tool on the website to describe exactly how you want the app to look and function.
As a result, at any given point on the planet, there is a difference angle between True North and Magnetic North. This angle is called the Magnetic Declination. The magnetic North Pole is just north of Canada and moves slightly in time. Given that we know our position, in latitude and longitude, it's possible to calculate this Magnetic Declination. It can vary from 0 to 30 degrees here in North America. So, knowing the direction that a magnetic compass points to, there is a calculation that tells you the offset, East or West, and the angle to correct, to obtain True Geographic North. The National Geographic Data Center, a division of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has a Web page that allows you do that calculation. For example, for ZIP code 80120 in Denver, here's where a magnetic compass would point. That angle computed above is what the iPhone calculates to convert from Magnetic North to True North. Some traditional, physical magnetic compasses can also dial in that adjustment because, most of the time, what we really want is True North in order to navigate on maps. Previous compass apps on the iPhone and iPhone 3G utilized the fact that the user is in motion. If you move far enough, fast enough, the GPS coordinates can create a vector, a direction in which you are moving. That can be displayed on a pseudo-compass app.
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