hot & steamy tricks for your iPhone

iSteam has a new home

Kostas — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:28:46 +0000

We have now created a new place to house all our apps and ideas: the new GreatApps site

You are welcome to check out all the new info, plus a bonus preview of our next app!

And don’t forget to grab iSteam while it’s on SALE for FREE!

iSteam featured in the New York Times

Kostas — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:26:33 +0000

The popularity of iSteam is constantly growing, and the article about it in the New York Times proves just that.

If you want to contact us drop us a line at info@greatapps.co.uk

1st iPhone Development Garage follow-up post

Kostas — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:39:09 +0000

The 1st iPhone Development Garage in Greece has now been completed with great success. Thanks to everyone who attended, and we hope it proved to be a valuable experience for all.

This is a draft post, and will be updated with more info. For now, some things to consider:

As noted by an attendee, an awesome resource for making your first (and not only) iPhone app is the Stanford CS193P Module notes. To follow the notes you do need a Mac, an iPhone however is not required since you can do most of the work in the simulator provided.

Going beyond testing your app on your phone, and actually publishing it on the App Store worldwide, is a slow and tedious process for the initial account setup. Address, Bank and Tax info/contracts need to be completed, with the original hand signed forms mailed to Apple in the US, and you are quite stuck if your only address is in Greece (at least Greek addresses were not valid back in October 2008 when we started, anyone who has a different experience now please do post in the comments).

We want to help people focus on their ideas and not the bureaucracy that is required.

Therefore we offer you the ability to publish your app under the established GreatApps brand at NO cost (and you get all the profits). Apart from being a big time-saver, this will also help you get the visibility you need to succeed (iSteam now has an established user base with more than 2 million downloads so far). So if you are interested, drop us a line in the contact form on this site or mail us at greatapps@gmail.com for more info, and we will be happy to help you out.

As a last note, we are also looking to collaborate with great developers. If you want to help us build a team of highly skilled and talented individuals, you can drop us a CV at greatapps@gmail.com. With the App Store being such a rapidly changing and competitive environment on a global scale, we are looking for people who already have some experience developing for Apple platforms (Objective-C, Mac or iPhone) and want to join us in order to help build disruptive apps – stuff that everyone will be talking about. What we offer in return is pay that beats the average web-development offerings, bonus packages based on the success of the projects you will be involved with, and an inspiring working environment where the current average age is 23 years.

Soon to follow: a mailing list for everyone who wants to be kept up to date with the latest news about future meetings and happenings – the next iPhone Development Garage is alreay in the works!

Kostas

1st Steamie Contest Comes to an End. And the Winner is…

Kostas — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:10:25 +0000

…The graciously misspelled “Bananna&Apple“! !
The Sense Graphics creation won by a Landslide of as of now January 28 22:00 GMT, 4498 votes in the first ever Steamie Contest!!

Author: Sense Graphics

And what a Contest it was; With over 7000 votes and 2000 submitted Steamies, we are nothing but amazed by the sheer number of people that contributed to the success of this event. And fear not, we are sensible of all the observations you, our community pointed out during the contest and so we decided to Smurf Steam things up:

SENSE Graphics, being a graphics team, taking part in a digital “art” contest like this one, is like bringing Picasso in a game of pictionary. We did have second thoughts when we were picking the Top 20 Steamies, but “Bananna&Apple” was smart and creative and beautifully done; we decided to let it run. This contradiction as well as the response it got from all the voters(something we didn’t expect, my money was on Jessica) placed us in the difficult position to decide whats fair. So we did, and our opinion is that the exposure SENSE Graphics got from this whole thing means much more to them than an iPod Touch.

So, while we work on a Prize that is as valuable to our first Winner, the first iPod will go to the 2nd place, Stick baby by Juan Treminio(2469 votes)

Author: Juan Treminio

and the other one, we will give to the 3rd place, Help! by Tom Deluca(77 votes)

Author: Tom Deluca

Congratulations to all of our winners and to everybody that took place in this Awesome Contest. Winners, you will hear from us really soon, Steamers, keep sending Steamies, your Art is an inspiration to us!
Look forward to our next, even better contest!

iSteamers Start Voting

Kostas — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:35:17 +0000

When we first decided to set up the competition we never imagined what would have followed. Our iPhones went mad beeping with new emails. The participation was huge and we THANK YOU for that (we got more than 2000 Stemies, by 1800 iSteamers from 60 countries around the world…)
Well, we must also thank all our supporters who submitted SEXY steamies that drove our team members nuts. If we could publish all the steamy steamies … well … we would definitely shock the world. We faced a real dilemma in deciding the top 20 creations on our website -published below by popular demand- since most of them were really….. artistic ….. but we couldn’t include them fearing that we would be rated as an 18+ App.

So, sexy steamies aside, now it’s up to you guys to decide the best steamie and thus the winner of the iPod touch. The vote will be simple. The steamie that will receive the most votes by this Wednesday, January 28, 12:00 GMT will win the iPod Touch. We will personally contact the winner and their prize will be dispatched immediately.

Hit the jump to Vote for The best Steamie out of the Top 20 selected by our staff.

[gallery columns="4"]

Also, since this competition met such success we are open to suggestions concerning the prize of our next one.
So please send us emails at greatapps@gmail.com with your thoughts.

Thank you,
The GreatApps Team.

Unleash the Steamies. Win iPod Touch — iSteam 1.2 is released!

Kostas — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:35:16 +0000

Further expanding the Sensation that is iSteam, version 1.2 is live on the App Store! And for this one we are really proud. Built around feedback from iSteam users, bloggers, twitters, youtubers and our own creative touch, 1.2 puts version 1 to shame, for not being this complete:

The Steam is now High def and any older versions of it pale in comparison. It is a thing of beauty.

By popular demand, iSteam offers the inbuilt function to save your creation, your Steamie; Just select “Save Steamie” from the options menu and your selection is saved in your camera roll.

1 finger was inadequate.. You could not reenact famous cinema scenes with 1 finger.. Wiping away steam with 1 finger is not satisfying enough.. No more 1.. Use as many as you like! Multitouch support is now enabled!

All of these, though, are just the means. The parameters that make iSteam just potentially awesome. Your creations, your Steamies are what fullfill that potential. The Steamies are awesome. You can now send them, as before, to your friends, but also to us with one simple push(ok touch, no buttons for the iPhone) of a button:

Use the “Submit your Steamie” option to send us your creations and be featured on our website today! And that’s not all. From today, January 19 2009, every Steamie you submit to us, automatically enters you in our Contest. Use all of your Creativity, Imagination and Weirdness. Harness all of your mental power, foresee what the people will like, or just Doodle… The best of the best 20 Steamies will be up for vote by our Community this Sunday, January 25 2009 on this site.

The voted best Steamie wins an iPod Touch!

iSteam dominates, hits 1 million downloads in its first week

Kostas — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:35:22 +0000

A big thank you to everyone who has downloaded iSteam for iPhone/iPod Touch so far.

We have listened to your feedback and immediately released an update with better iPod support, available now on all App Stores worldwide.

Some notable facts we would like to share with you:

- New 1.1 version is our best steam simulator yet. Available for 99 cents only, free for all existing iSteam users.
- Total downloads including the 1.1 update are now on the 1 million mark, stronger than ever.
- Paid version of iSteam already in the #10 Entertainment apps in more than 40 countries, all done in less than 3 days. Proves that steaming your device has no cultural boundaries.
- Currently experiencing more than 14% daily growth, with estimated monthly revenues of $100,000 – all this just 8 days after iSteam was first released.

One more thing…

Something really interesting has happened since iSteam hit the top chart spots on Jan 4: Similar apps like iFart and iBeer have seen their numbers go down for the first time.

The charts say it best:

iSteam dominates #1 spot

iFart numbers start going down

We think this is Hot News. Can a bunch of 22-year-olds really dethrone well established Apps backed by millionaires? We certainly hope we can make the air in the App Store cleaner. Less stinky at least.

At GreatApps we take entertainment very seriously. That’s why we are commited to making iSteam the best 99 cent entertainment you can get on a mobile device. We are hard at work around the clock, and hope to push iSteam 1.2 to the App Store very soon with improvements and features that will blow you away, again!

So stay tuned, and join the iSteam community today on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter!

*iSteam is a quality app, beware of cheap imitators trying to steam up your phone

[UPDATE:]

A note to everyone writing to us on how we could roll out an update so quickly and that we are getting preferential treatment from Apple: This is not true. It has simply been a matter of careful planning ahead.

Some also say we invented December. That’s not true either.

Daily iSteam downloads surpass TOTAL iFart downloads

Kostas — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:07:07 +0000

After a phenomenal performance, iSteam has exploded in one big blast of steam to become the #1 Free App in 22 countries of the world, including the US, Canada, UK and Australia.

I have to say that we have all been blown away watching the success of iSteam worldwide. As previously noted, the difference in price between those apps does play a major role in their popularity, that is without doubt.

Based on public information from the creator, iFart seems to have been downloaded around 250,000 times.

Now for the iSteam numbers:

- In just one day, iSteam was downloaded 292,165 times. As a comparison, the huge Beaver Stadium in Pennsylvania can fit 110,000 people.

- Total iSteam downloads are now well over 620,000. That is more than the entire population of Luxembourg.

- On January 4, an average of more than 3.3 people downloaded iSteam from all around the world each second.

- Currently #1 in 22 countries and #2 in another 14, with no signs of stopping there.

One more thing…

This is not an app that has been around for months. In fact, it hasn’t been around for weeks yet, either. All this has happened in just 6 days since its release on December 29. Steamingly unbelievable. And if anyone knows about the performance of a similar chart-topper, please do let us know (Google Mobile perhaps?).

Some might say it’s just another fad, and it can’t really sell much more. It can’t even get a better ranking than the current #1.

We think this is different: The current daily growth rate of iSteam downloads is more than 55%, and that, our readers, is some serious steam right there.

And with a currently in-review 1.1 update that is sure to keep all iPod Touch users steaming up their iPods, you should get your copy of iSteam now while it’s still free, and take advantage of free lifetime updates!

iSteam is the hottest app right now. But don’t just take our word for it. See what users right now are saying and doing with it for yourself.

“iSteam. Steam is in the air”

DIGG this!

iSteam Rises in The Gas and Liquid App Store Battle

Kostas — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:45:48 +0000

As of today, iSteam has surpassed iBeer and iFart in popularity in the US App Store and in many other countries, quickly heading for the top spots in charts worldwide. Of course the popularity in the App Store seems to be greatly related to the number of downloads, so the difference in price between those Apps does play a major role here.

We think this is Hot News.

Some notable facts about iSteam that we would like to share with fellow App developers:

- Just yesterday, iSteam was downloaded 98,111 times.

- Phenomenal worldwide growth since its release, less than 5 days ago.

- Frontpage story on the biggest news/technology sites like Digg.com, Mashable.com and Gizmodo.com, with blog mentions in all corners of the world.

- Already shot to the overall #1 Free App in Sweden, Finland, Italy, Greece and The Netherlands.

- #1 Free App in France, Japan, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Belgium, New Zealand, Hungary and Croatia in the Entertainment category. [UPDATE: #1 also in Canada, Australia and India right now]

- #2 Free App in many different App Stores worldwide.

- #8 #6 #2 in US – Entertainment category.

People are using and enjoying iSteam in so many different ways: Playing Tic-Tac-Toe, Guess The Picture, iSteaming their pictures, writing Secret messages to be revealed when steamed up… We are amazed to watch our fans come up with novel ways of using iSteam, and can’t wait to see what’s next.

With iSteam we believe we have set a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts on the iPhone. We are very proud of all of the innovations in it and hope fans enjoy using it as much as we did making it!

A big thank you to everyone who has supported iSteam for the iPhone.

Stay tuned for the 1.1 update, currently in review in the App Store. Hopefully it won’t take long before all you iPod Touch users can enjoy a better steamy experience.

iSteam now available on the iTunes App Store

Kostas — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:26:01 +0000

DIGG this!

“Some say it’s cool, we think it’s hot and steamy”

Welcome the first “steamy” photo editor for the iPhone and iPod touch. We are proud to deliver you the unique chance to turn your device into a foggy surface just like your mirror after a hot shower or your window on a winter day. iSteam exploits all the features of your iPhone (accelerometer, multitouch, microphone, speakers) like never before, for a totally realistic experience!

FEATURES:

Blow on your mic to haze the screen. (iPod users need external mic)
Use your fingers to write messages and draw, just like you would on a steamy window.
Shake your iPhone to clear the screen and start over.
Watch the droplets form and leave their mark thanks to our unique SteamX physics.
Finger squeaking sounds included.
Choose which of your favorite images you want to iSteam.
Impress your friends by sending them your masterpiece creations!

You *will* be blown away, guaranteed!

With iSteam we believe we have set a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts on the iPhone. We are very proud of all of the innovations in it and hope fans enjoy using it.

DIGG this!