App Business Inspiration from Down Under

When Katie and I started developing iPhone apps we knew it was a male-dominated industry but that didn't put us off of course! Instead, we decided to focus our attention on designing apps for females which is where the idea for our first app Countdown Keeper came from.

We'd been inspired to produce iPhone apps after reading the fantastic App Empire by Chad Mureta which charts his journey from hospital bed to successful app developer. I follow his blog too and was over-the-moon to find two female app developers very similar to Katie and I in Byron Bay Australia; Sophie and Stephi, the owners of the business Applause.

These two inspirational women created Applause for the same reason Katie and I did; to be able to live a life that is more free than the usual 9-5 and what's great is, with a lot of hard work, they've done it! We're in a minority here in the UK in terms of lifestyle businesses but over in Australia and America people are valuing free time more than constant work so finding inspirational entrepreneurs like Applause is just fantastic for Katie and I and certainly makes us feel more supported.

Aside from their millions of app downloads, their way of working is also a major inspiration. They make relaxation and nature part of their working day (nicer in Byron Bay than the current gloomy Birmingham I imagine!), they take 'mini-retirements' to regroup and focus and also I love the principles that they created when they started Applause. The principles focus on what they want out of business and what direction they want Applause to go in along with actions on how they are going to get there. I know they were as inspired by Tim Ferriss' The Four Hour Work Week as I was before creating Katie & Jane.

We asked Stephi and Sophie where they found business inspiration from...

"Instagram and the App Store. It helps a lot if you know what target market you want to reach with your apps so you know what app category to look into or what Instagram users to follow."

Get inspired by the duo on their blog here or download one of their popular apps.

Jane x

ASAP 54 App Review; The Shazam of Shopping!

There’s been talk of apps that can capture an item of clothing and send you that exact piece to buy for a while now, but this week I had fun playing with ASAP 54 – a London based start-up with an app pitched at being the Shazam of shopping.

The app works by asking the user to either upload an image of an item of clothing, or capture one in the moment on their phone. After cropping the image closely to give the app a better chance of identifying the item, the app asks the user to confirm what type of item it is (coat, bag, shoe, etc) The user clicks ‘search’ and the app generates items that are similar, if not the exact match. Free to download, ASAP 54 is an app aimed at combining a social fashion community with the latest visual recognition technology to connect the user instantly with the must-have item they are searching for.

I tested the app by using a new grey winter coat I had recently purchased from Topshop. The first results threw up lots of parka coats, with some being similar, but not quite a match (although I did see a parka I quite liked!). So I then used the filter button and typed in the brand ‘Topshop’ which resulted in a much better selection of coats. I found the exact winter coat, just in a different colour and the same type of coat in slightly different styles too. On any of the coats I could click for more details and the item price before clicking ‘shop’ which took me to the brand website to purchase seamlessly, which was very exciting!

The app has a lovely ‘Ask A Stylist’ feature for those who after searching are still struggling to find what they are looking for. Users can easily click the ‘send to stylist’ button and a personal stylist will send recommendations by email all in under 24 hours.

Users are asked to create an ASAP 54 profile upon using the app for the first time which will publish your 'ASAPED' items to followers (users can choose not to publish items if preferred). Users can also therefore follow others (there are lots of exciting fashion muses to follow on there!) and see what the fashion set are ASAPING which is full of inspiration for future fashion buys.

I love the concept of the app, and the story of founder Daniela Cecilio; who created the app following her frustration when words weren’t enough to describe what she was searching for online. Daniela has certainly created an app that is as delightful to look at as it is useful. I’m excited to get out and about snapping fashion pieces to test the app more, and tracking ASAP 54’s progress over the next 12 months as it gets more accurate and without a doubt very popular!

To find out more visit www.asap54.com and find the app on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Score: 8/10

I love...

• The app's concept, user-friendly interface and beautiful, simple design
• The personal stylist feature

I'd like...

• For it to be more accurate on first time search results which I can only imagine is being   worked on constantly – exciting!

Countdown Keeper reaches 30,000 users! #collectmoments

Four months ago we launched Countdown Keeper into the App Store, the very first app by Katie & Jane, and we are so excited and thankful that we have now reached more than 30,000 users!

Our aims for the app were simple; we wanted to create a fully customisable app that helped people to get excited about events, or look back on events with fond memories, celebrating the little things in life and encouraging people to collect moments, not things.

Since the launch we've absolutely loved seeing all of our users posting their events across social media and using the hashtag #collectmoments - that's honestly the best thing about launching an app!

We've got an update for the app that should be out in the next month or so, and then we'll be working on some bigger changes to improve the overall experience - hopefully by the end of the year and ready for all those count downs to Christmas!

In the meantime here's a look at the app in action from our lovely community of Countdown Keeper users. If you would like to download the app for free click here and you can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram too.

 

Thank you so much for all the support from our friends, family and growing community of Countdown Keeper users, stay tuned for the next app by Katie & Jane!

Katie x

Updated: Madesquare App Review: Everything is Better Square!

There's a new photo printing app on the market, which has most likely been inspired by the increasing popularity of the square formatted photo editing app Instagram, called Madesquare and as we both like the concept we wanted to review it.

Madesquare was created by a team of four craft-making women from America who sell 'finely-crafted square photo products' through their beautifully designed app.

There are many, many innovative products available... you can print photos on mini wood blocks, create a recipe card from your favourite food photo, go vintage and print photos 'photo strip' style or display photos on metallic, to name just a few ways Madesquare allow you to print photos. These products would make the perfect gift as they are so unique and modern, yet personal.

Looking at the app itself the branding is striking, clear and simple with bright colours and detailed information on the various products. The imagery they use for the product examples are really aspirational which makes you want to buy everything! I like the way users can share the funky examples via social media (a great marketing tool for downloads too!).

If you think the app's aim is to sell tonnes of products, think again, as they've got the great additions of 'Discover' and 'Blog'. On the Discover tab users can gain inspiration for their own DIY crafty projects and tips on all-things photography too. The Blog is, as expected, Madesquare's blog again packed with nice imagery alongside topical posts.

So far, so good, but, I discovered a major issue with the app... I wanted to order a photo strip book complete with hard cover as I'd never seen one of these before so I spent quite a while going through my albums and picking photos that go together well to add to my order. After the book was complete and added to my basket I went to place my order to be delivered to the UK and I was unable to proceed. No alert appeared to tell me why I was stuck on the order screen and, after trying numerous times I emailed the team.

*** Update - June 2014 ***

The team responded really quickly to my above issue telling me that they were working very hard to fix their International shipping issues, and, I'm pleased to say they followed through and about two weeks later my lovely photo strip book is on it's way. The customer care was fantastic which is why I wanted to update this blog post and up Madesquare's score from 6 to 9 out of 10!

Score: 9/10

I love...

• The app's concept and design
• The range of unique products available

I'd like...

• To be able to print my photos on even more square items (I'm being greedy!)

Jane x

Countdown Keeper: Our Favourite Moments So Far!

There’s nothing more exciting than seeing Countdown Keeper users posting their events across social media and joining us in collecting moments, so we thought we’d highlight a few of our favourites so far! You can download the app for free today here.

Countdown Keeper is all about getting excited about future events and remembering moments so we wanted it to be simple to record these special times. Users can count down to events and once the day arrives, Countdown Keeper will start to count since the day – keeping the memories to look back on afterwards.

Holidays are probably the number one thing many of us are looking forward to at the moment and we like to use Countdown Keeper to count down to the very last second until the rest, relaxation and fun begins! We loved this count down to Jamaica from one of our users looking forward to their holiday!

With a summer of sport about to commence (not sure how excited Jane is!) what better way to get excited than to load the app with up-to-date and by-the-second count downs to all major sports events!? Footy fans can start counting down to all those World Cup fixtures! Or, as with the London Marathon image, use count since events to keep you motivated!

With a busy business to look after we have to plan well in advance when we see our friends for a big catch up – especially when everyone lives in different parts of the world. It's great to use Countdown Keeper to count down and get even more excited and then share it with friends on social media too!

Yes our Countdown Keeper community are already counting down to Christmas... only 30 weeks, 6 days, 7 hours, 56 minutes and 30 seconds to go! If you’re inclined to count how many sleeps there are until Santa arrives – try the app. We’ve included a handy notes feature in there too so you can keep track of all your present ideas too!

We hope this has inspired you to keep on counting down to future events and since amazing moments! If you’d like to download Countdown Keeper you can do here or search 'Countdown Keeper' in the App Store.  A big thank you to our creative Countdown Keeper community so far – keep on collecting moments!

Find Countdown Keeper & join the community on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.

Katie x

App Review: CamMe - But First, Let Me Take a Selfie

The word of the year for 2013 was 'selfie' and the global obsession with selfies doesn't seem to be slowing but I'm not particularly mad on selfies and I certainly don't feel the need for every other Instagram photo of mine to be one but I do enjoy an innovative app when I see one... enter CamMe!

Take a look at their fun video...

CamMe is essentially a photo app which allows you to take photos without touching your phone but instead holding your palm towards the positioned camera then making a fist once you're ready to take the picture. It's a really simple concept but one that really solves many 'selfie problems'; awkward positions, arms in the photo or fitting everyone in it.

Since discovering this award-winning app on Mashable in February I've been telling people about it, although I'm not sure my friends here quite understood the concept of taking your hand away first!

The app was rightfully awarded the 'Most Innovative Mobile App' at the Global Mobile Awards this year and aims to change the way we take pictures forever. It's well on its way to achieving that with over 1 million downloads to date and regular updates with new features such as Photobooth and Funshots.

I tend to just use the app to take pictures with friends (or occasionally checking an outfit on myself!) rather than using the additional features, but I'm sure many users love them. Photobooth adds a frame to pictures so you can create a collage of more than one photo and with Funshot you can turn yourself into a lion (!?) with scene cutouts.

I agree with CamMe when they say they've created 'the best app for taking great selfies'!

Score: 8/10

I love...

• The simplicity and innovation of the app
• That I can get everyone into a selfie now easily

I'd like...

• A nicer interface - the menu and user experience is a little boring for me

Jane x

Can Apps Help Us All to be Happier? Reblogged from She Owns It

“It’s the little moments that make life big”

This week Stylist magazine claimed there were 10 scientifically proved things that actually make us unhappy, the first one? Facebook. A study by University of Michigan psychologist Ethan Kross last year found a direct correlation between time spent on the social media site and feelings of dissatisfaction, loneliness and isolation. The average time spent on Facebook per user every day is around 30 minutes, with some spending up to eight hours a day at the call of the addictive Facebook newsfeed… that’s a lot of unhappiness right there.

The idea of consciously striving to make social media a positive, meaningful and mobile experience is something we find very exciting. We have excitedly watched the Happier Inc. app grow in 2013 to hundreds of thousands of users sharing happy moments every day with each other. The app encourages users to record happy moments or things they are grateful for each day with an emphasis on being happier in the moment.

  

Even the most tiny things can bring happiness, from the sun shining through your bedroom window, to having five minutes to yourself after a busy week and these can be recorded in the Happier app and added to collections for you to look back on. The science behind the app is solid and straightforward; expressing gratitude has been shown to do more than improve your mood. People who write down a few positive things about their day are healthier, more energetic, less stressed, less anxious and sleep better. We have actively used Happier for more than a year now and we can honestly say it really does makes us happier! We are absolutely rooting for the future of the platform and the team behind it, especially co-founder Nataly Cogan who we interviewed on our blog recently.

We aim to add to the happiness movement with the launch of our new lifestyle app; Countdown Keeper – Collect Moments, Not Things. Studies have shown that anticipating future events is an important source of happiness and so we wanted to create an app that highlights those happy moments every day in a meaningful and useful way. 

Having something to look forward to, enjoying the moment, sharing the pleasure with others to heighten the experience and then reflecting on moments make even the smallest of experiences even better. Countdown Keeper allows you to get excited about upcoming events in one place, record memories through images and notes and then share the experience again with friends.

Our app is a customisable and shareable iPhone app which has been thoughtfully designed to include a number of features. Users can add images to further personalise count downs from the built-in image library, Camera, Camera Roll or Facebook. Once events have been created users can share count downs through a number of services such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and add them to the iPhone calendar too. After the count down event arrives, the app automatically switches to counting the time since that event allowing users to collect, and look back on, memories.

Download the free app for iOS today from the App Store here http://bit.ly/1iCxa4c or search ‘Countdown Keeper’

Since its release there have been thousands of downloads and a raft of five star reviews, from users who particularly love the simple interface and design. UK singer Lily Allen enjoyed Countdown Keeper’s count down to her new album release ‘Sheezus’ retweeting it to her 4.6 million Twitter followers!

You can visit the App Store to download Countdown Keeper for free today, and if you like the app, we’d be so grateful if you could leave a review to help others find it too, and join us onTwitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest by using the hashtag #collectmoments

Instead of heading towards the Facebook app when you have some downtime today, why not try one of these popular apps and see if your mood improves… have a happy day!

See this original blog post on She Owns It where we are featured contributors - A popular blog in the US to celebrate, support and connect women entrepreneurs!

Katie x

It's Been 8 Hours, 29 Minutes and 15 Seconds since the Launch of our New Lifestyle App Countdown Keeper!

*Available to download for free for iPhone today here or search ‘Countdown Keeper’ in the App Store*

We are very excited to let you know that Countdown Keeper, our new lifestyle app is officially available to download from the App Store! At the time of writing this post, we've had more than 1,700 downloads, which we are absolutely overwhelmed with and some lovely reviews too!

Countdown Keeper allows you to collect all your past, present and future events all in one happy place. It is a colourful, stylish, customisable and sharable app that we've spent a year developing!

The app can be used to count down to or count since events and activities such as holidays, birthdays and weddings in a combination of years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds, enabling you to look forward to, or relive happy moments, with useful and unique features. 

You can add images to your events from your camera roll, Facebook album, by taking a photo or by using our specially designed image library. Once you've created your event, you can share it with friends across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to name but a few!

You'll love our app, if, like us, you love being organised! We wanted to create a simple way to keep track of every event, appointment and task in one accessible yet inviting place on-the-go.  We’ll be using the app to keep track of the everyday things too such as exercise classes, work projects and car maintenance. When the event day arrives, the app cleverly changes to count the time since the moment, keeping it forever to relive the happy memories – a colourful, personalised and portable scrapbook of valuable moments.

It was really important to us that we could easily manage these events, so we created the ability to add your own categories to organise your events by month, type of event or whatever makes sense for you. Countdown Keeper is also pre-loaded with categories we love to use to start you off. To help you keep on top of everything you can also add notes to individual events, set alarms for deadlines and easily edit or delete each event on- the-go.

App Features…

• Style your events with full-screen photos and colours
• Count down to your event or since your event in a customised combination of years, months, days, hours, minutes or seconds
• Create custom categories to organise your events
• Add notes or reminders to each event
• Easily edit or delete events
• Style your events with images from your Camera Roll, Facebook or our exclusive Countdown Keeper library
• Create an unlimited number of events
• Set alarms and reminders so you'll never miss a deadline
• Send to your friends through SMS, email
• Share on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest & more

We hope you love it as much as we do and we’d love to hear any thoughts or feedback, or any dream features you would like to be added in our next update – we have a very long list of our own! You can visit the App Store to download Countdown Keeper for free today, and if you like the app, we’d be so grateful if you could leave a review to help others find it too…

To celebrate the release of Countdown Keeper we have collaborated with our favourite British designer, Lorna Syson, to create a unique and exclusive digital background for all users, just head to www.countdownkeeper.com, pop in your email address at the top of the home page and we’ll send it your way!

Get social with us by sharing your countdown keeper events using the hashtag #collectmoments and join us for everyday inspiration on how Countdown Keeper can be used in fun, creative, exciting and helpful ways…

Join us on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and search #collectmoments

For more information about Countdown Keeper including helpful tips and inspiration head to: www.countdownkeeper.com

Katie & Jane x

App Review: Get Your Run On With Nike+

Writing lists, recording memories and setting goals is in my nature so when I decided that (one day!) I was going to run the New York City Marathon I knew I needed something accessible, accurate and fun to record my training runs... enter the Nike+ Running app! Having used the Adidas running app before with mixed feelings I chose the Nike+ app after seeing many people on social media say how good it is and I'm not disappointed.

In a nutshell the app tracks your activity including route, distance, time, calories, average pace and NikeFuel ('points' given for activity), keeping a record for you in one easy list. After a run the app shows you a map of where you've been and gives you the option to add additional information like how you were feeling, terrain and what shoes you were wearing.

The additional information part of the app is probably my favourite as it allows you to record the feelings you had during the run, an essential part of looking back at good and bad days to evaluate why you ran like you did. Another favourite function is the challenges where you can set a challenge to run longer, farther or faster by taking on your personal bests which is useful when you need a little motivation to keep going!

The great thing with the Nike+ Running app is that you don't need to wear any particular running shoes to keep track, it simply uses GPS signal to calculate distance and speed which I've never had a problem with despite running on trails in remote places.

There's a social function (of course!) too which allows you to link the app with various social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Path at the moment) and hear real-time cheers from your friends. I don't feel the need to link with my Facebook so have never experienced it before! It also connects you to friends on social and those who are using the app, with a leaderboard so you can see where you sit within your peers.

If you're new to running or want to progress to the next level the Coach function gives the option to follow training plans for 5K, 10K, half a marathon and the epic marathon with beginner, intermediate and advanced settings. This is great if you need those mini milestones to achieve - it's like having a personal trainer in your pocket!

The main benefit I gain from the app is that it keeps me progressing and moving forward toward my goal. The app is so simple and clear you're able to see averages, longest runs, personal bests and more in one simple list - yes a simple running diary could do the same but with the Nike+ Running app it's so much more fun!

Score: 9.5/10 (tempted for a 10/10 but see below!)

I love...

• Having the ability to track your runs in real-time, taking the app with me wherever I go
• The user-friendly interface and fun additional features
• The automatic calculation of personal bests and averages to keep motivated

I'd like...

• My profile picture to be fixed... nothing will upload and I've been trying for weeks
• Reassurance that I won't drop GPS signal no matter where I am (sometimes I panic!)
• The ability record runs ran with a friend using Nike+ so we only need to carry one phone

Happy running!

Jane x

App Love: The Wunder of Wunderlist

One thing Jane and I couldn't live without is a to-do list, we love planning and being organised (geeks)! We were very good at doing this individually, but when it came to starting our own business we realised we needed a place to easily share a joint to-do list that we could add to on-the-go.

We experimented with a few apps, namely Astrid which was closed last year once it was acquired by Yahoo, so we quickly had to find an alternative which has to be our favourite to-do manager of the moment; Wunderlist.

Wunderlist is a shareable to-do app which lets you add multiple lists and to-dos that can be ticked off once completed. You can set items to be recurring each day, week, month or year and seamlessly move your items from list to list, easily adding subtasks to each item and you can pop any notes in too.

One really great feature in the app is the activity log, which notifies me when Jane has added or completed items, which is really handy to use so we can ensure we are not doubling up efforts, or spending too much time emailing each other about who’s doing what in our business. I also like the fact I can upload a file to an item such as a document or image as a reminder.

We both use the Lite version, which works well for us at the moment, but the Pro version has some really great additional features including being able to start a conversation about a to-do, assign certain tasks to another person, share files with a team and enter an unlimited amount of subtasks. It also gives you access to pre-loaded backgrounds so you can customise each list. These features would be particularly good for a larger remote team.

Having used Wunderlist for more than a year now, one of the most frequent ways we use it each day is to record ideas into different shared lists or categories. For example, we can note down in our shared lists ideas for apps, potential blog posts and social media toolkits we want to write. We even have one to-do list which is a very long list of chapters for the book we want to write together one day! We back up Wunderlist every so often so we know that we won’t lose anything forever too.

Wunderlist is a great to-do list app which teams (and individuals) can use to keep organised, manage projects and collect ideas in a simple and reliable way.

Score: 9.5/10

I love...

• The simple layout – it’s so simple to use, exactly what you want from a to-do manager
• Being able to share individual lists - so I can keep my personal lists as well as my business lists in the same app
• Profile picture – it really helps to distinguish between Jane & I in the app!

I'd like...

• For my activity log to pop up quicker – it’s quite slow on the Lite version

Find out more about the app and download it here – happy organising!

Katie x

Ancestry App Review - Bring Out the Historian in You!

I am a little bit of a history geek (probably thanks to my history teacher mother); I love to find out stories behind places I visit and the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are is set to record on my TV!

I discovered the family tree creating app, Ancestry, after it was featured by Apple as a 'Best New' app last year, and, having tried to research my family tree online before, thought I'd give it a go.

The app is linked with ancestry.com's online database but you don't need to create an account on there, instead you can just use the app which I've found a lot easier for basic searches. I have been pleasantly surprised with the amount of information that can be found. I love that you can actually see handwritten documents such as marriage certificates of family members one hundred years ago; it really brings the app to life. These records can be bought as an in-app-purchase if you'd like to save them.

The app is exactly what you'd expect and want from a family tree research app. Once you've added in as many details about yourself and family members as you can, Ancestry searches databases to generate 'hints' to help you find out more. These hints are my favourite feature of the app; they bring up a number of records that could be linked to your tree. You then need to go through these to check against what you've already found to see whether they are a match - it really helps you go back even further without too many headaches!

The colours are pretty dull but then Ancestry's branding is brown and green so they've brought that onto the app. To personalise it a little more there is an option for adding images but, as you go further back in history, it's very hard to find images to go with names so I've not used that function. A nice feature is that you can start more than one family tree within the app so if you'd like to do some research for someone else it's easy to do so.

I have a small family and unfortunately didn't have a lot of information about past family members on my father's side but the Ancestry app helped me go back over 220 years, across England, Scotland and Wales to find my great-great-great-great-grandmother (wait for it)... Jane! We didn't know we had quite so many Jane's in our family but it's nice to have that connection all the way back to 1791.

I would certainly recommend Ancestry as an easy way to research into your past on-the-go.

Score: 9/10

I love...

• The simple layout and seamless menu
• Being able to delve deep into the records to discover more than names and dates - occupation was my favourite to learn!

I'd like to...

• Share my tree with others, for example, my dad would like to join my tree and add relatives to discover more
• Get advice from Ancestry once there are no hints left (I'm at that point now)... it's disappointing to hit a wall!

Find out more about the app and download it here. Enjoy history hunting and I hope you find some interesting family members!

Jane x