Apps With Sass
Want some sass with that app? You should, if you want to get noticed in the increasingly crowded app marketplace, where your app needs to be clever, engaging and useful to pique a potential user's interest. Book Business toiled away in the app mines and unearthed these gems in which publishers do creative, fun or powerful things with book apps to really hook audiences. Just as each book is different, each app here highlights or builds on specific qualities of the subject to create a memorable and unique experience for readers. Whether leading you through a mystery or daring you to be more thoughtful, these book apps stand out as polished stones amid the fool's gold.
Ripley iSword
Associated Title: "Ripley's Believe it or Not! Strikingly True"
Developer: Conjure Ltd.
Price: Free
Availability: iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
The Ripley iSword app, which plays off the side-show staple (and a big Ripley's draw) of sword swallowing, is a great example of a publisher capturing the style and hook (or should we say blade?) of a signature product line and distilling it into a fun, game-style app. Ripley's Believe It or Not decided to create its first-ever app in conjunction with the release of this year's eighth consecutive edition of the "Ripley's Believe it or Not! Strikingly True" annual.
"We very much wanted to provide something that was new and entertaining for the user, which would also introduce them to elements of the Ripley's Believe it or Not! brand, particularly 'Ripley's Believe it or Not! Strikingly True' and our chain of amusement attractions," says Norm Deska, executive vice president of intellectual property at Ripley Entertainment Inc. "Ripley has a great deal of content which can be delivered through apps, but we wanted to limit the scope to one area and create a game/activity that was unique and that related to the subject chosen. We chose sword swallowing."