You could say that Thorsten Claus, Director of Playout Intelligence at Detecon, Inc., acts as one of the more innovative spearheads of Deutsche Telekom. Focusing on content capitalization Thorsten uses his San Francisco base to know the Bay Area’s start-up scene, meet the founders of the hottest start-ups in Silicon Valley and thus staying up-to-date with all developments in the digital entertainment industry. Being an angel investor himself, he not only knows the distant corporate approach to shirtsleeved founders but he’s fully equipped with what it needs to start, run and grow a company. Thorsten is a very open and helpful guy – so if you are in need for some valuable advice – don’t hesitate to contact him.

© Michael for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: business angel, detecon, deutsche telekom, playout intelligence, san francisco, silicon valley, start-up, thorsten claus

Alone in San Francisco? Never! Just visit the Organic Cafe and check in via Foursquare, et voilà! That’s the way we met Wendy right before the start of the Web 2.0 Expo’s second day – trying to awake herself as we did ourselves. Based in Utrecht, Netherlands, Wendy works as an online campaigner at the non-profit organization Oxfam and as a freelancer in web editing and text translation (Dutch to English and English to Dutch). Besides she is a blogger at Dutch Cowgirls. We had a very nice chat about making Foursquare still more social – although it definitely is very social to have an appinion like this as result of a mere check-in!

© Michael for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Interactive Campaigner, Oxfam Novib, Wendy Hoenkamp

When Italy-born Carolina Milanesi publishes some figures on the Mobile Industry the crowd is listening: The London-based VP of Research at Gartner’s Mobile Devices team is the the second-most quoted mobile analyst. Responsible for the forecasting and market share efforts of the mobile players she also is Apple’s vendor lead. The launch of the iPhone 4.0 “will keep Apple ahead of the game, although Android has made huge process” – is Carolina’s statement on the latest smartphone from Cupertino. We met her at WWDC10 where we had the opportunity to chat about the App Economy – and to ask her about her usage of apps!

© Michael for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: analyst, appinion, apple, Carolina Milanesi, forecast, gartner, iPhone, mobile market, san francisco, wwdc

The Parrot AR.Drone is a four-propellered flying machine. It features two cameras, which enable the Drone to “see” via a Wifi connection. They also are able to help control the gadget’s speed and altitude. All of this is powered by the AR.Drone’s on-board computer, based on the Linux OS. More details on the Parrot’s Facebook page.

The Drone will be controllable via an iPhone app – and read this carefully: c o n t r o l l a b l e – not controlled – as you will see in this demo! Imagine you buy two of them – the retail price is rumored to be less than $400 – and you start air-attacking your son! That’s the perfect Father-and- Son game! Can’t wait to see it flying…..

© Michael for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: App, drone, Flying, helicopter, iPhone, parrot

8 employees, $2 million revenues, a low cost basis and high quality content broadcasted continuously – this is TWiT: a tech show on the Internet. Former radio anchor Leo Laporte serves tech pundits with audio and video content, as podcast or live. 6 cameras in the TWiT cottage are filming anything what Leo does: a chat channel with several hundred participants is showing him what people think of his show.

Here we could have a new definition of Old and New Media: Old Media would be those huge broadcast networks with complex infrastructures, massive cost bases and an aversion against change. Leo Laporte would represent New Media: lean, flexible and very fast working operations, combined with an evolutionary approach of continuous change. Or – to have it sound less like a textbook phrase: With TWiT, Leo Laporte leads a new breed of Low Cost Broadcasters.

© Michael for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: broadcast, change, evolution, leo laporte, low cost, new media, petaluma, tech pundits, twit

Berlin born Marcus Greinke, who has been living between Palo Alto and San Francisco for the last 20 years, started in the advertising industry. In 2005 he founded charlesandmarie.com, together with his business partner Claus Krogmann, who’s overseeing the European operations. Sourcing and producing the latest design products – mostly in Asia – is the business model of this ecommerce platform.

The latest project of Marcus and Claus is XXL Commerce, Inc – a Flash Shopping App which still is in Closed Beta. Marcus, who is an iPhone addict, sorts his apps by colours – a unique approach for appinion participants so far!

© Michael for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: charlesandmarie.com, claus krogmann, ecommerce, marcus greinke, marketing, san francisco, social shopping

Gabe Rivera’s Techmeme is the news reader of choice for people interested in tech. He has five editors curating what has been aggregated on Techmeme and its sister site for the media industry, MediaGazer. So the question of what is relevant news in either the tech or the media industry will be answered by a clever combination of algorithms and human curators. Feeling “continuously frustrated”, Gabe describes the ongoing effort to optimize the results for his readers. Being in the aggregation business for many years now he must admit that every additional gain in search results demands more and more effort to invest. Not to mention that there is no Techmeme iPhone app, yet…

© Michael for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: App, appstory, gabe rivera, interview, mediagazer, techmeme

We met Andrew when waiting in line at the Apple Store in Stockton St, San Francisco. He is an app developer from Vancouver and on a business trip with his colleagues. They took the chance to stock up on iPads while in SF.

© Kira for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: andrew, app developer, appinion, apple store, iPad, san francisco

Journalist and netcaster Leo Laporte seems to be the first person having founded a profitable podcasting business. Based in Petaluma, 60 miles north of San Francisco, Leo is operating a tech focused audio and video broadcasting network from his three-storey TWiT cottage. Mainly being his own host, Leo has created a viable business model with revenues of more than $2 million – after commissions.

Operating at a low cost basis and continuously providing high quality content are the success factors for the new breed of media companies like TWiT: Realtime broadcasting is the future, says Leo. Whereas downloading podcasts probably won’t ever attract a mass audience, live casts could offer a simple and spontaneous way of consuming news even to non tech-savvy people, using their smartphones with the TWiT App, for instance.

Related Posts: Plants vs. Zombies – Protect Your Home …and Brain!

© Michael for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: appinion, broadcasting, leo laporte, netcast, petaluma, podcast, realtime streaming, san francisc, twit

Ok – printing is very Eighties – but in some situations it does make some sense to print something. Being on the road you can cut out your computer as the middleman: you can print your emails, contacts, fotos and other files as well as whole web pages – and you only need 3G and Wifi.

Price: $6.99
Would I buy again: Yes
Learning Curve: Easy
Who is it forSalesmen, Office workers, people who need print outs.
Version tested: 4.02 on iPod OS 3.1.3
Comparable Apps: ePrint, Printer Share
Available Languages: English, German, Chinese, French, Japanese
This App was tested by Michael
appstory.tv rating:

Download in iTunes | App Website

This is how it works:

• First you have to install a separate helper application, called “WePrint” to be running on your laptop or desktop computer
• Here we have this beautiful user interface for files, emails, web pages, contacts and images (camera is missing on the iPod Touch)
• To print out emails you can enter multiple email accounts – IMAP or POP3 without problems: it’s recommended to use a new Gmail account just for the Weprint app!
• If your email accounts have been synched you can print entire emails and attachments
• Now I show you how to print a photo: the app connects me with my iPhoto library, I choose a photo or two… and say: print!
• When being outside of your own Wifi Network you still can print via Proxy – using either a Gmail, IMAP, POP3 or iDisk account.
• Via “settings” I choose the size of the print and its orientation.
• You can print out Files, Images Web Pages and Contacts – and you can even change settings: which pages to print, duplex printing etc.
• Via the Help button you will be redirected to a very informative FAQ of the app maker, EuroSmartz.

Whether you mount your iPhone or iPod Touch as a disk or you share files from your computer – the smooth interface and the seamless integration of existing email accounts, contact and photo databases make it a lot of fun to use Print and Share! It’s definitley worth its price!

What I like about “Print n Share”:

• I can print wherever I am.
• High usability.

What I don’t like so much:

• Set up for printing via Proxy is somewhat difficult.

© Michael for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: App, device, print, wireless

Couldn’t you impress your audience at family reunions with elegant melodies on the piano? Now you can – even being the biggest music ignorant ever. Try out Finger Piano and your grandma will see her grandson as the next Glenn Gould.

Price: $1.59
Would I buy again: Yes
Learning Curve: Beginner
Who is it for: Future Piano Players, Kids
Version tested: 2.2 on iPod Touch, OS 3.1.2
Comparable Apps: Virtuoso Piano
Available Languages: English, Japanese
This App was tested by Michael
appstory.tv rating:

Download in iTunes | App Website

Since Finger Piano comes with 88 pre-installed tunes and an easy-to-understand keyboard, every kid and adult is able to play some standard melodies within minutes. The app shows which keys to strike and when. So following Beethoven’s steps is easy and makes a lot of fun!

This is how it works:

• - After starting the app you see a piano keyboard
• I can move the keyboard by flicking with my finger
• I start with selecting a song – let’s take “The Entertainer”
• To get in tune I first listen to the melody and get a first impression of the interface
• I then stop the song and start again
• Now I try my best: the keys to strike are highlighted in blue
• Above the keys scrolling guides appear, which tell me which keys to play next
• Here we go!
• In the menu I can add more assist and animated symbols as well as the note’s names – and I can select the key’s widths

What I like about Finger Piano:

• High usability
• No entry barrier for music ignorants
• Highly entertaining
• Quick success

What I don’t like so much:

• Would like to have more tunes, like a free choice to download.

© Michael for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: App, finger piano, iPhone, ipod touch, piano player, tunes

Yet another business card reader for the iPhone. This one promises to deliver much better results. It also woks with elder models of the iPhone.

Price: $4.99 1,59 €
Would I buy again: Likely
Learning Curve: Easy
Who is it for: Business Travelers
Version tested: 1.1 on iPhone 3GS, OS 3.1.2
Comparable Apps: Business Card Reader, Worldcard Mobile
Available Languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
This App was tested by Richard
appstory.tv rating:

Download in iTunes | App Website

Technically the Cardreader is outstanding, on the operating side we experienced some glitches – plus – the handling could be much better.

This is how it works:

• The Cardreader starts by loading data from your address book
• To scan a new business card, you take a picture of a business card
• The app is scanning the information and puts it into the corresponding field of your address book
• nice feature about this reader: it maks recognition problems red – so you know where you might need to do some corrections
• the typing is a little complicated too, especially to access the part that you need to fix
• Once the corrections have been made you press ‘done’ and the data is stored in your address book
• In the settings menu you can adjust the camera with features like shake protection
• load dictionaries to recognize your language better

What I like about Cardreader:

• best text recognition on the iPhone
• works with 2G and 3G models
• highlights recognition problems

What I don’t like so much:

• bugs in the address book
• accessibility (buttons too tiny)
• correction mode needs makeover

© Richard for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: App, Business, Camera, iPhone, Office, Productivity, Tools

Are you traveling a lot and wanna transfer all the data from the business cards you collected into your iPhone address book? The Business Card Reader promises to make that much easier.

Price: $5.99 €4,79

Would I buy again: very likely
Learning Curve: easy
Who is it for: business travelers
Version tested: 1.1 on iPhone 3GS, OS 3.1.2
Comparable Apps: WorldCard mobile, Cardreader
Available Languages: English
This App was tested by Richard
appstory.tv rating:

Download in iTunes | App Website

This is how it works:

• In the menu there are basically only 2 options:
• one is to photograph a new business card
• the other one is to choose an already existing business card from your picture library
• to get the best results, a good lighting situation is absolutely necessary
• Watch out – this App only woks with the camera that comes with the iPhone 3GS!
• Once the picture is taken, the program starts to scan the picture
• Now you have a new contact form with the text transferred from the card
• The transitioning process woks quite well. But, minor corrections need to be made

Considering the fact that professional card readers cost you up to 100 dollars – this app does its job quite well. You definitely get what you pay for.

What I like about Business Card Reader:

• faster than typing
• very intuitive
• mostly correct transfer to corresponding data field

What I don’t like so much:

• not completely free of spelling mistakes
• requires 3GS (S!) camera

© Richard for appstory.tv, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: App, Business, Camera, iPhone, Office, Photo, Scan, Scanner, Stationary, Travel

Dear visitor, We are currently very busy in the background of this little site, building up site structures, pretty images and fun video material. Please check our site again in early 2010 for some serious (and not so serious) appstories!

Thanks, Richard, Michael, Kira and Video-Voodoo Master Marcus

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