09Jan

Apps Are Media: Chasing Salander Expands The Dragon Tattoo Story

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Chasing Salander

When books get turned into movies, there’s usually little added to the original story. But with interactive apps, the narrative doesn’t have to be dumbed down or retold. Instead it can be explored from a different angle to expand the audience’s understanding of a fictional world. The Chasing Salander iPhone app lets you dive deeper into Stieg Larson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and the rest of the Millenium crime novel series. The app’s 14 scenes tell the untold story of a hitman hunting for protagonist Lisbeth Salander. It features 30 minutes of narration of a specially commissioned script, as well as photographs, maps, and hidden facts.

Norstedts, the first publisher of the Swedish books, received approval to develop the app from the family that owns the rights to the novels. The iOS app’s $4.99 price point may be a little steep. Still, it’s cheaper than what you’ll pay to see the American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo film that’s currently in theaters.

The app’s project manager Klas Fjärstedt tells me the Chasing Salander story’s hitman was hired by the secret police force The Section from the series’ third-book. “He’s following a step behind Lisbeth Salander. You get a new story, and it works whether or not you’ve read all the books or seen the movies.”

An eerie ambient soundscape for each scene gives the app an immersive feel. As you listen to the gritty, expressive narration you can tilt your device to pan within the photographs of Swedish locales where the story takes place. I’m not even a fan of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo but I quickly found myself engrossed in the mystery.

Apps are media now. Publishers, film studios, and all artistic intellectual property owners should be thinking how to take advantage of the mobile device as a distribution medium. Through companion apps like Chasing Salander, they can create lucrative additional revenue streams, strengthen loyalty of existing fans, and hold the world’s attention between releases. Best of all, apps can promote a primary product by augmenting it, not just repackaging it.



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09Jan

Apps Are Media: Chasing Salander Expands The Dragon Tattoo Story

FILED IN gadgets No Comments

Chasing Salander

When books get turned into movies, there’s usually little added to the original story. But with interactive apps, the narrative doesn’t have to be dumbed down or retold. Instead it can be explored from a different angle to expand the audience’s understanding of a fictional world. The Chasing Salander iPhone app lets you dive deeper into Stieg Larson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and the rest of the Millenium crime novel series. The app’s 14 scenes tell the untold story of a hitman hunting for protagonist Lisbeth Salander. It features 30 minutes of narration of a specially commissioned script, as well as photographs, maps, and hidden facts.

Norstedts, the first publisher of the Swedish books, received approval to develop the app from the family that owns the rights to the novels. The iOS app’s $4.99 price point may be a little steep. Still, it’s cheaper than what you’ll pay to see the American version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo film that’s currently in theaters.

The app’s project manager Klas Fjärstedt tells me the Chasing Salander story’s hitman was hired by the secret police force The Section from the series’ third-book. “He’s following a step behind Lisbeth Salander. You get a new story, and it works whether or not you’ve read all the books or seen the movies.”

An eerie ambient soundscape for each scene gives the app an immersive feel. As you listen to the gritty, expressive narration you can tilt your device to pan within the photographs of Swedish locales where the story takes place. I’m not even a fan of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo but I quickly found myself engrossed in the mystery.

Apps are media now. Publishers, film studios, and all artistic intellectual property owners should be thinking how to take advantage of the mobile device as a distribution medium. Through companion apps like Chasing Salander, they can create lucrative additional revenue streams, strengthen loyalty of existing fans, and hold the world’s attention between releases. Best of all, apps can promote a primary product by augmenting it, not just repackaging it.



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13Oct

Chasing Skype: Rebtel Looks To Put An End To Dropped Calls With New iPhone App

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logoRebtelCMYK

You may not be well-familiar with Rebtel, but the company is currently the largest independent mobile VoIP provider now that Skype is under the Microsoft umbrella. Rebtel, which routes international calls made from mobile phones and landlines to local numbers (specifically to minimize the cost of calling abroad), counts more than 13 million connected users and offers its services in more than 200 countries around the globe. (Not to mention an expected run-rate of $75 million by December of this year — and profitability since 2010.)

When Robin interviewed Rebtel CEO Andreas Bernstrom back in June, he expressed respect for companies like Viber “and the speed at which their mobile applications have gone viral”, but he held that dependence on WiFi and 3G would continue to “make for a poor user experience”.

“VoIP is essentially an improved fixed line service”, Bernstrom continued. “Mobile VoIP, however, has not been cracked due to the limitations of the data network”.

Well you can guess Rebtel has had a little something to say about that. The company launched its first versions of its iPhone and Android apps in 2010, followed by Blackberry in 2011, and today is announcing the launch of version 2.0 of its free iPhone app, which allows users to make and receive free international calls using WiFi, 3G, or local minutes. The app also allows texts and calls to be made to any non-Rebtel users (on any phone) for what Bernstrom says are 90 percent cheaper rates than standard international calling on an average carrier.

And perhaps the coolest feature of Rebtel’s app is a new proprietary technology called “KeepTalking”, which allows users to transition (mid-call, mind you) from WiFi/3G to local minutes. The iPhone and desktop apps will add to the Rebtel free call network already including Android and Blackberry apps, as well as facilitating free calls between existing platforms.

With the mobile VoIP market expected to reach $36 billion in revenues by 2016, and with 70 million mobile VoIP users expected to be in operation by the end of the year, Rebtel’s ability to call any phone or PC anywhere over WiFI/3G or local minutes and seamlessly switch between them if coverage deteriorates, seems to lend it a significant value proposition.

What’s more, the app also enables platform-independent free calls between Rebtel users, labeling these contacts as “free” in the app’s contact list to make it easy to see who’s already using the service. Whenever someone downloads Rebtel, the app automatically sends you a push notification and enables SMS to any mobile phone number, with an average cost savings of over 60 percent, according to the Rebtel team.

For more, check out the Rebtel app here.


Crunchbase


Company:
Rebtel
Website:
rebtel.com
Launch Date:
January 7, 2006
Funding:
$20M

Rebtel is a mobile VOIP company offering cheap long distance calling FROM mobile or landline phones TO mobile or landline phones by changing international phone numbers to local numbers (rebtel numbers). There is no need to download anything which is a huge plus especially for mobile phones. And the biggest plus is you don’t need a WIFI or internet connection to make the calls.

Competitors include Skype, barablu, ConnectMeAnyWhere, jajah, [GizmoProject]
(http://crunchbass.com/company/vopium), [Vopium]
(http://crunchbass.com/company/gizmoproject), truphone.

Learn more



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19Jul

‘Bridesmaids’ star broke her nose chasing a joke

FILED IN Fashion No Comments

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04Jun

Police Car Chasing a BMW

FILED IN Entertainment No Comments

A senior citizen drove his brand new BMW Z4 convertible out of the car saleroom. Taking off down the motorway, he floored it to 90 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left.

‘Amazing!’ he thought as he flew down the M40, enjoying pushing the pedal to the metal even more. Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a police car behind him, blue lights flashing and siren blaring.’ I can get away from him – no problem!’ thought the elderly gent as he floored it to 110 mph, then 120, then 130 mph.
Suddenly, he thought, ‘What on earth am I doing? I’m too old for this nonsense!’ So he pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the police car to catch up with him.
Pulling in behind him, the police officer walked up to the driver’s side of the BMW, looked at his watch and said, ‘Sir, my shift ends in 10 minutes. Today is Friday and I’m taking off for the weekend. If you can give me a reason why you were speeding that I’ve never heard before, I’ll let you go.’
The man looked very seriously at the policeman and replied, ‘Years ago, my wife ran off with a policeman. I thought you were bringing her back.’
‘Have a good day, Sir,’ said the policeman.
via. @ funlimited.co.uk.

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