March 5, 2010

Popular Dutch DJ has dedicated iPhone app

Filed under: Music,Online by Orangemaster @ 8:59 am
player

Dutch house DJ and producer Fedde Le Grand has his own iPhone application, iFedde, available in the app store.

“Anything you can do at Fedde’s website, you can do with the app. You can upload and share pictures, chat with friends, find out what Fedde’s up to and send him direct messages.”

Find out more here feddelegrand.com.

I can see why the community aspect of this application is very important. Now I want to see other artists come up with apps and what will happen when 100 of your favourite artists want you to use their specific app!

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February 28, 2010

iPhone app can help you quit smoking

Filed under: Gadgets,Health,Online by Orangemaster @ 1:27 pm

Who said trying to quit smoking couldn’t be fun? On 1 March, Lianne Sleebos of the Delft University of Technology will be launching My Stop Buddy, an app to help people stop smoking. For a mere 2,99 euro, you can choose an English or Dutch app that will support you for 21 days. Fill in a personal profile and you will get activity suggestions to help you not reach for a ‘cancer stick’, lots of jokes about health and information on how much money you saved by not smoking. You can also push buttons according to you mood and you’ll be told why you’re going for a smoke according to it. It sounds like a nagging grandmother so far, but hey, I haven’t seen it yet and I do hope it works. I am curious about the English version, translations and all.

And although 2,99 euro is much cheaper than a pack of cigarettes, the iPhone isn’t, but OK you can get one for free with a certain telecom provider here in the Netherlands.

(Links: idealize.nl, zorginnovatieplatform.nl, Photo by William Hook, some rights reserved)

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January 11, 2010

Dutch railways still has no iPhone app

Filed under: Online by Orangemaster @ 6:03 pm
iPhone beaver

Way back in October 2008, we wrote about the NS (Dutch railways) not being happy about IT student Dennis Stevense kicking their butts and producing a quality iPhone application called Trein’ (‘Train’) for train schedules. Apparently, if there was any glimpse of copyright or database issues, the NS has done nothing about since then except whine that they don’t have an application after all. The NS has legally asked Stevense to stop with his application and he ignored them. What the NS has been incapable of doing since 2008 (or lied about) Stevense whipped up in three weeks.

With all the snow, delays and problems with trains as of late, ‘Trein’ has become very popular, as more and more people own an iPhone and are downloading his application. He even said he received numerous compliments from train staff that his application works better than the mini-computers they use for their work. He also claims he can live off the money he is making from downloads and will start his own business.

(Link: zibb.nl, Photo: Stevenojobs)

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December 20, 2009

Apple shuns marijuana finder

Filed under: Online by Branko Collin @ 1:56 pm

Good news, potentially, for tourists visiting our fair capital. Martijn Wuite and friends have developed an iPhone app called Coffeeshopr that will let you find the nearest place in Amsterdam they will sell you the happy weed.

The bad news is that though Apple did allow the program to be sold, for now it can only be had from itunes.nl where tourists typically won’t shop, Wuite told Parool (“Censorship Apple hurts weed tourist“).

Coffeeshoppr is like a restaurant guide, except that with us, users can give their opinion about coffeeshops using the iPhone. We put Amsterdam’s 50 most important coffeeshops in the program. Visitors can judge the quality of both the venue itself and of the marijuana sold there.

We have tried to make the whole affair fool-proof, considering our reviewers will probably all be stoned.

Besides the coffeeshop locator and the review function, Coffeeshopr also contains instruction videos on how to use marijuana, and information on the Dutch legal situation.

Coffeeshop is the Dutch word–borrowed from English–for a place where marijuana is both sold and used. The Dutch word for a place that primarily sells coffee is koffiehuis.

(Image: Coffeeshopr.com)

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July 27, 2009

Dutch apps for iPhone: useful and useless

Filed under: Gadgets,Online by Orangemaster @ 11:45 am

Although this September you could take a course on how to design iPhone applications in the Netherlands, I would suggest you start thinking about what kind of apps you want to unleash onto the world today. Here are three totally different Dutch apps to get you going. Tell us about more Dutch ones and we’ll check them out.

First, a silly app called Walk The Line, a ‘playful sobriety test’ from a well-known beer brand (no, the other one with big green bottles), which is fun if you’ve had a few and totally useless if you’re seriously thinking of driving. If you can count, you’re better off. You cannot legally drive after two beers. If you’ve recently obtained your licence, it’s one beer. If it’s me, drink something non-alcoholic.

The world’s first augmented reality browser Layar by Sprx mobile in Amsterdam is something useful and original. Looking forward to its bright future.

Then, there’s Trein (‘Train’), the still buggy but useful app that pissed off the Dutch Railways. Anyone know more about this one? We’re curious, as if it is still being developed, the big bad railway must have lost or given up.

(Link: trendhunter.com, Photo: Photo by William Hook, some rights reserved.)

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October 9, 2008

Dutch railways upset about popular iPhone application

Filed under: General,Online by Orangemaster @ 9:47 am
iPhone beaver

The NS (Dutch railways) is not pleased with the Dutch iPhone application ‘Trein’ (‘Train’) developed by IT student Dennis Stevense. The programme fully optimises data from the NS’ mobile site for the iPhone and is currently at the top of the list of applications you can buy in the Netherlands, costing a mere 2,39 euro. A spokesperson for the NS told Bright.nl that the student did not get permission from them to use their schedules and that they plan to release their own application shortly.

The question is whether train schedule information is covered by copyright law. I’ve asked a copyright lawyer this morning and will keep you posted.

UPDATE: Dutch copyright lawyer and photographer Olivier says:

“Not likely to qualify for copyright, but perhaps database protection. The schedules may not qualify for database protection if NS is not able to show that it invested (spent money) in the database, separately from the investment made in the operation of the trains. (The schedule database may be a so-called spin-off from the main activity of making the trains run on time, and informing the NS customers about the schedule.) The spin-off exemption to protection is not always applied correctly though.

Even if it qualifies for database protection, I am not sure that the *app* (and, consequently app maker) would infringe on the database rights, as it apparently only allows the *user* to more easily access the NS database. As far as I know, cases in the Netherlands have always dealt with instances where the content/database from one site was extracted in some manner or fashion to a database on another site.

And then there is always tort.”

(Link: bright.nl, Photo: Stevenojobs)

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February 18, 2008

Not speakerphone, Spyker phone

Filed under: Automobiles,Gadgets by Orangemaster @ 1:00 pm
spyker-phone.jpg

According to the iphoneclub.nl, Dutch luxury car manufacturer Spyker presented a new mobile phone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The device looks pretty much like an iPhone, has a touch screen and a small number pad. CNET, who discovered the phone at the congress, was impressed with it and described it as the best iPhone clone to date. And it’s not the first Spyker comes up with a phone either. They once had a Nokia look-a-like.

Since this phone says Spyker, it can be freely coordinated with your Porsche perfume, your Ferrari hat and your Jaguar key chain.

(Link: Spyker phone, Photo: zibb.nl)

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November 5, 2007

Wake up to your iPod

Filed under: Design,Gadgets by Orangemaster @ 5:26 pm
boynq1.jpg

The Dutch company Boynq has designed a new speaker called Wake Up for iPods (and apparently iPhones), which can be used as alarm clocks. The Wake Up can also recharge your iPod and iPhone. They claim to be “compatible with all new iPods and iPhones,” while the manual says “iPhones after January 1st” (no year mentioned). No price is mentioned and boy what a bunch of spelling mistakes in the manual. Sure looks pretty though.

(Link: gizmodo)

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