Hello everyone, and I’m really glad that you’re all still reading this (well, those of you that are still reading this).

Movile Inc. is definitely still around, very much alive, and very much working hard to get some great new applications out to you. I will be announcing FOUR titles in the coming weeks, all for launch early-2010, and one even perhaps in 2009 if it slides through Apple’s approval process.

Here is what we know so far:

1) One application is tentatively titled “Everything”. Perhaps we will have a companion called “Anything” at some point? Odds are, well, you can wait and see.

2) Another is a kitchen accessory, but not in the way you’re thinking of a recipe sorter or grocery list application. Again, you’ll have to wait and see.

3) The final two are somewhat related to each other, but only in technical terms rather than being part of the same series or anything in that respect.

Yes, I realize we are being outrageously vague, and that is purposeful. The idea here is to have some information from you trickle down little by little as we unveil our latest applications to you.

Also, in case you were wondering where I had been all this time, the answer is Eggplante.com. I’ve begun a media review site that does celebrity interviews, concert and album reviews, photo sessions, tech and video game reviews, and more, so check it out if you’re at all interested in any of those things.

I admit, this is somewhat late, but I just managed to get through the (over hour long!) Google Wave premiere demonstration. Wow.

This platform is one of the first in a very long while to get me genuinely excited. The live collaboration, photo and file sharing, API integration, not to mention iPhone integration all has me in a trance. The features demonstrated are so natural that it makes me feel as if they should have been around all this time. I can not wait to jump on this bandwagon. If anyone has an invite, please please please send one my way!

I just wish Apple had thought of it first so I wouldn’t feel like I was betraying Cupertino by using a tool made by Android-makers to collaborate on our iPhone apps.

Our friends over at Eggplante.com have posted a review of Sony’s new PSPgo system, and they bring up an interesting point regarding the downloading of gaming titles. The PSP is a traditional unit. People expect to go to a store and buy a disc or cartridge (lookin’ at you, DS) and have the tangible game until they decide it is time to get rid of it. The trouble with the new PSPgo is that there is no way to buy physical games, but rather just download intangible copies.

The environmentalists will find a way to mean “well, that’s good; there will be fewer plastic carts floating around there!” First off, I doubt that this media makes up a significant chunk of environmental waste (Blu-Rays and DVDs exclusive), but more importantly, the main issue at play here is that the PSP is not an iPhone.

Downloading games will make it more difficult for people to adopt a system that has no way of using physical media (especially considering the system has a lot of legacy users with piles of UMDs lying around). The system works for Apple for two reasons:

1) The entire mantra of the iPhone is the constant connectivity, making it possible to download apps and games virtually anywhere. For those arguing that the iPod touch does not have this connectivity, they can be connected to the computer or utilize a wireless connection. “But the PSP has WiFi and an online store, and you can connect the PSPgo to a computer just as well,” I hear you cry. Sure, the PSPgo has a WiFi connection. So does the iPod touch. Therefore, moot point. However, users are simply not used to going to their computer and connecting a handheld to download new games. We have so many things hanging out of our USB hubs, and being able to avoid plugging in just one more thing sure can make or break the sales of a product, or at least, its perceived convenience and usability.

2) There aren’t massive groups of users with a previous generation of games for their handheld. Sony has previously stated that they would create a UMD-to-virtual transfer program whereby current users can buy a PSPgo and get a free copy of the same game in virtual form. They have since abandoned that program, likely abandoning huge sales of their PSP unit.

Also, pricing on the PSPgo is a bit ridiculous. With companies like EA making Madden and FIFA games on the iPhone, a product which has the same 16GB of built-in memory, in addition to a far superior app store as well as a lifestyle device of sorts, in a more convenient package, yet is $50 less. Come on, Sony, get your act together.

I find it humorous that Sony has even stated that they expect that the PSPgo will spur sales of the PSP-3000 system. Releasing a product that is too overpriced or without enough of an upgrade over the previous model that will actually spawn sales of the legacy system? Yeah, not sure that’s the best business move. Then again, this is Sony.

Disclaimer: owners of Movile Inc. also own stake in Eggplante.

While we’re in the midst of a lot of work on three titles (yes, three…. excited yet?), we thought it would be nice to do a little bit of clean-up on Theme Park Madness. With that said, we are currently in the process of trimming out about 20MB of excess that doesn’t really need to be in there. We found some extraneous files, audio files with bitrates that are unnecessarily high, and other bloated files. As such, we’ll be submitting the updated version to Apple this weekend with the hopes that it is approved and released sometime next week.

We’ll calculate the metrics for how much this actually saves and what the increase in performance it is and report back shortly. Cheers!

It has been exactly one month since our last post here and, suffice it to say, that is not how we intended things to go. Our plan has, and always will be, to deliver the best content to you as quickly as we can.

In all honesty, there just hasn’t been much content to deliver. We’ve been working hard to create new games, and the reception of Theme Park Madness 1.1 has been great, and we’re working on something even more fabulous coming in the next few months. We’ve got another app set to drop within about a month, and following that, we’re going to begin working on something entirely different.

But we’ve still got the same fantastic people at the helm: Mike Darmitz, Eric March, the team at Enhanced Labs, and myself, Christopher Kalanderopoulos.

If anything, the silence is because we’re working so hard.

Theme Park Madness 1.1 has been a great success! We’ve seen our sales increase as a result of the update and ask that you keep the support and love coming! We love bringing so much excitement and innovation to the iPhone platform, and we’ve got some HUGE things in store for you in the future! As we mentioned in this post, there is definitely something to look forward to as we announce (or tease the announcement of) something that is revolutionary and game changing. Believe me, you’ll want to know!

So if you haven’t already, go get Theme Park Madness! For $2.99, you can’t go wrong!

We’re very happy to announce that Theme Park Madness 1.1 has officially hit the App Store in all it’s whole grain goodness!

I won’t repost the screenshots, as you can simply scroll down to see them, but we’re very excited about this update as it fixes a lot of bugs and really gets some great stuff out there that we’ve been working on!

Hope you love it!

With a new version of Theme Park Madness (which will hopefully be approved sooner rather than later), we have revamped some of the visuals for our user interface.  We wanted to make things cleaner and more refined, and this is what we came up with.  Give us your feedback!

And since you see it there in the about screen, let’s do a few shoutouts:

Eric March - a FANTASTIC audio engineer who really knows his audio and, like me, continues to take on waaaay too many projects because he just loves what he does. He created Frapstr, the free App Store review, and is on his way to global domination.

Mike Darmitz - an INCREDIBLE developer with a sense for design where no one would expect it. Read: he knows how to design some crazy coasters! He is very much responsible for the major reworking of Theme Park Madness that it took to get it up to the par that we wanted it at. And there’s only room to keep climbing from here!

Enhanced Labs - an instrumental group to our success. They’re a fantastic team of web design and development guys in Florida and do an incredible job every single day. Check them out: www.enhancedlabs.com

I’d like to officially take the wraps off of every single new Theme Park Madness 1.1 feature for you, and I have great news: Theme Park Madness is practically a new experience!

In addition to the 6 new tracks that we are offering, we have reworked Washington and Africa, in addition to tweaked six other tracks to play better with our new physics engine!

The full list of goodies includes:

- 6 new tracks: Mars, the Moon, “Utopia”, “Far Far Away”, Russia, Greece
- 4 new audio themes
- rewritten physics engine (with features like the landing angle affecting speed and score)
- rewritten achievements system
- over 120 bug fixes
- smoother game play
- near-instant reload times
- 50% faster load times
- INSANE loops and track features
- higher frame rate (tested against the original iPhone, meaning iPod touch 2nd gen. and iPhone 3GS users will see even greater gains)
- more frames of animation for specific actions
- rewritten score engine

Check out some screenshots of our craziest track designs!

One of our more tame designs, this one would only be possible in the confines of outer space or, say, under water with the whales?

Ever seen a square loop?  I don’t know about you, but I’d be more concerned with the intergalactic war going on in the background!

Just a taste of the kind of craziness there is going on with the Mars track.  You have no idea.

Alright, one more little peek.  Keep your acceleration up or you might not make it through the loops!
Yeah, I said loops.  Plural.  Enjoy

The App Store has been a fickle creature since its launch a year ago.  Rating problems, download counts revealing developer sales numbers, and ranking manipulation were all pretty massive news items when it came to developer App Store news. With these problems out of the way and the majority of issues ironed out, we now have a fully functional store with very few, if any hiccups.  Except that those 50,000+ apps might be a problem.

When the store launched, there were a thousand apps or so, and competition among them was fierce. But the platform was new, developers were innovative, and everyone had a unique approach.  People struck it mega rich with very little investment and in their spare time.  But with so many apps flooding the store nowadays, we need to become more and more creative.

We’ve never actually revealed sales numbers in the past, but I’ll let you know what the trends have been for Movile Inc. in the past few months.  Theme Park Madness launched to great success on February 6th of this year.  There were about 20,000 apps in the store at that point, and we averaged between one and two hundred dollars worth of sales per day for the month.  The next two months were just as kind, if not a little more restrictive, while the last two months have been, well, hell for us.  Sales have dropped off drastically, partially due to competition, but also because of sheer mass of apps available in the App Store today.

Companies have to become increasingly innovative with their games, or at least start a new trend, and start it well. Remember when tip calculators would earn you the right to mint your own money? Or when tower defense games were being approved left, right, and centre? Either find a trend like this and find it early, or start your own, or you may be well out of luck unless you have a fantastic idea for an iPhone app.

We’re planning on making some not only innovative but necessary adjustments to our designs and practices to deliver some of the most seamless and creative gaming experiences possible for your iPhone and iPod touch. We won’t be sitting back to let the trendsetters pass us by. We will become the trendsetters. Our goal is to change your mind.

Out of necessity comes innovation and creativity.  The people who benefit the most out of so many applications are the consumers.  Sure, there is more crap to wade through, but that means that the cream that filters to the top will be the richest, most decadent cream of the entire crop.  And that is worth innovating for.