mobile apps – Mitch's Muse

TripSketch Corporation, (http://tripsketch.com), a recognized leader in Green Travel mobile applications and web-based trip planning tools, proudly announces the launch of TripSketch Regional Green Travel Guides, a suite of nine new apps for use on the iPhone and Android (http://tripsketch.com/mobile). Building on the success of its award-winning Global Green Book mobile application, TripSketch’s new suite of Regional Green Travel Guides are unparalleled in their comprehensive, in-depth, professionally written coverage of eco-friendly and sustainable attractions, tours, restaurants, hotels, travel services and community social enterprises. TripSketch’s Regional Green Travel Guides include Northern Europe, France and Southern Europe, Central Europe, Canada, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, U.S. Northeast, U.S. West, U.S. Midwest, U.S. South and U.S. Southwest.

Understanding that travelers need cost-effective, instant and on-the-go access-anywhere applications to get the most out of their trips, TripSketch designed its Regional Green Travel Guides to be stored automatically on travelers’ mobile devices after download ‒ eliminating the need for Internet and WiFi access ‒ saving travelers the cost of Internet connections and roaming fees. As an added bonus, TripSketch includes “don’t miss” trip options that enable travelers to check off the most popular attractions from their travelitineraries in addition to making environmentally and socially conscious traveldecisions that fit their interests and lifestyles.

“TripSketch is committed to providing travelers with a high-value, convenient, eco-friendly travel experience,” says Lalitha Swart, TripSketch founder and CEO. “With our new suite of in-depth Regional Green Travel Guides, we have added robust features that make trip planning, mapping and calendaring even more convenient and useful for travelers who want to plan and enjoy enriching travelexperiences.”

Each of the nine TripSketch Regional Green Travel Guides features detailed coverage of six to twelve major cities yet cost less than most single-destination print guidebooks or city mobile applications. With the aim of providing travelers with more value-added features than standard print and mobile travel guides, TripSketch Regional Green Travel Guides include cost-saving anywhere access, helpful planning, mapping, scheduling tools and free updates as new activities and cities are added to the guides.

TripSketch’s Regional Green Travel Guides are available for purchase for $1.99 or less for each mobile application at http://tripsketch.com/mobile.

Gamification by Design (O’Reilly Media, $24.99) provides the design strategy and tactics the reader needs to integrate game mechanics into any kind of consumer-facing website or mobile app. For example, learn how to use core game concepts, design patterns, and meaningful code samples to create a fun and captivating social environment.
“Gamification is fundamentally changing the way we design products, consumer interactions, and marketing strategies,” says expert author Gabe Zichermann in a news release. “Harness the power of Foursquare, Farmville, Nike+, and hundreds of other apps and games with the proven methodologies in Gamification by Design.”
The author presents examples that are well-written and easy to understand. It does a good job of presenting the key ideas of Gamification. The use of real world examples showing what people have done is great. There’s even some real code showing how a forum being enhanced with Gamification. The code examples and examples of interactions with gamification services complete a good book.
As great as this book seems, it would be more intriguing to game designers versus an ordinary reader just wanting to understand what gamification means in the marketplace today.

NOTE: Review copy was provided to Mitch’s Muse by O’Reilly Media Inc.