Wow! It’s Friday already? This week flew by for us, what with the big launch of the iSites Ad Engine, and other super secretive product stuff but… yet again we are overwhelmed with great new apps! Here are the staff favorites for the week of April 15:

Go Nola!

The New Orleans ‘insider’s guide’ covering all the best places to eat, drink, shop and play in New Orleans – updated each day with food reviews, videos, live music schedules, exclusive musician interviews and more!

Download for iPhone
Download for Android

 

That’s My Shirt

Thatsmyshirt.com is a popular online retailer of pop culture t-shirts including movie t-shirts, rock t-shirts, vintage tees, tv tee shirts, funny tees and more.  Many of their tees have appeared on TV shows including The Big Bang Theory and Entourage and in movies like Step Brothers. 

Download for iPhone
Download for Android

Get Connected

GetConnected is Canada’s leading technology TV & Radio show covering the latest news and reviews for smartphones, gadgets, apps, gaming consoles and home theatre systems.

Download for iPhone
Download for Android

 

Vist our app gallery to browse 1,000′s of apps – wander aimlessly from app to app, or search by title, category or keyword. Have a favorite? Let us know in the comments so we can share the love.

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Starting today, iSites will be offering a lot of new ways to monetize your app! This morning we announced the launch of iSites Ad Engine, which gives Pro users complete control of their app monetization. The new Ad Engine integrates with AdMob, Adwhirl, Mobclix, Vdopia, and Doubleclick.

According to David Kaplan at paidcontent.org, research indicates “U.S. mobile ad revenues will grow from $491 million last year to $2.9 billion in 2014… thanks to rising mobile search ads, display on both apps and wap sites and text messaging.”

What do you think of these figures – how important is mobile advertising to you and your mobile strategy? Many iSites clients are already taking advantage of ad integration, but what additional suggestions do you have for monetizing apps? We’d like to hear your money-making strategies for mobile in the comments. Oh, and while your at it,  let us know what you think about the new iSites Ad Engine!

It’s been a great week here at iSites and we’re looking forward to a nice sunny weekend! Before we break, we want to share a few of the great apps built with iSites over the last few weeks. With so many new apps it’s hard to choose, but here are a few staff favorites this week:

Cinema Blend

Get your entertainment fix with the perfect blend of movie and TV news, reviews and opinions from Cinema Blend. Movie news, trailers, clips, reviews, discussion whenever you want it wherever you are.

Download for iPhone
Download for Android

 

IndyPosted

Indyposted.com is a new media internet newspaper that offers National and International news on Business, Entertainment, Health, International, Lifestyle, Multimedia, Odd + Funny, Politics, Science, Social Media, Sports, and Technology.

Download for iPhone
Download for Android

The Weekender

The Weekender is Northeastern Pennsylvania’s number one alternative weekly publication!

Download for iPhone
Download for Android

 

Vist our app gallery to browse 1,000′s of apps – wander aimlessly from app to app, or search by title, category or keyword. Have a favorite? Let us know in the comments so we can share the love.

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• Add your link to all your promotional materials like newsletters, flyers, ads or posters. Get fancy by generating a QR code with one of these services: GORR.ME, i-nigma or Kaywa.
• Add your link to the Apple Web App Directory or OpenAppMkt for browsability.
• If you have an opt-in email or phone list, send out an announcement email or SMS message with a link to download your app.
• Add a link or button to your website or HTML emails. You could use your app icon or a text link. Simply insert the image or text you want to use into your code and link it to your app URL.
• Use your customized URL in your email signatures, Twitter bio, Facebook, LinkedIn or Blog profiles – really anywhere you can.
• Advertise with mobile app with services such as AdMob, where you can link banner ads to your app URL.

We hope this list helps you share your app and gain a new audience. We are working on improving our online app builder and will be including more options like these for distribution. We will keep you posted on that. In the meantime, if you have more suggestions we would love to hear them in the comments section.

Can’t remember your app URL? Simply login to your account and click “Instant App” to get your customized link (choose edit if you are not happy with your current URL).

I recently had the chance to talk to GENWI (pronounced Gen-Y), one of the emerging batch of companies building tools to create and manage mobile apps accross platforms.  It’s an opportune time for this, given both heavy adoption of mobile marketing, and growing platform fragmentation.

GENWI specifically hangs its hat on self-service capability for media companies to create and manage their own app (or network of apps) without a technically striped app developer. Its flagship iSites platform lets users set up, monetize and analyze branded apps all in one place.

Though this has applicability to white label app building across many areas of content, GENWI has particularly planted a flag in local publishing. This came about from the company’s first few deals within academic environments, such as the Standford Daily.

From that, it developed a set of best practices to apply to other apps that had the unique needs of daily or weekly local news content. It’s since begun work with UC Berkeley’s the Daily Californian as well as local and regional broadcasters like Midwestern outfit Schurz Communications.

The benefit here, according to CEO PJ Gurumohan, is the ability to unify style and messaging across the mobile apps of local affiliates. All Schurz’ station apps get a consistent look and feel. Better yet, the common dashboard allows for analytics accross the board.

“If someone has a network of apps, we can cross promote them and provide cross analytics,” says Gurumohan.  “Schurz can log in and see all its apps in one place.”

Other areas where Gurumohan believes GENWI’s strengths shine include real estate, local sports and events. Meanwhile it’s client base continues to diversify including not only local publishers but national brands like Vans — bringing a certain degree of hip to the roster.

In all of these areas, one could speculate that the functional capabilities of its platform will grow with current market trends. These include things it already does such as local coupons, and social layers to plug into users’ existing social graphs. We’ll watch carefully to see how all this unfolds.

Earlier today, Jim Kerr, the vice president of strategy at Triton Media, wrote an interesting article for Mashable (http://mashable.com/2011/02/02/mobile-platforms-media-strategy/) on how the existence of so many mobile platforms is keeping content strategies of media companies in flux.

Yes, with more than 10 billion app downloads in the Apple App Store alone, mobile apps have become the must-haves of most marketing mixes. But the questions marketers are asking are:

• Which platform should we build for? Where’s our audience?
• How will we manage apps for each individual platform?

And the development teams that marketers work with are asking these questions:

• Native or HTML5 apps?
• How do we deploy to multiple platforms at the same time?

Understanding these key issues is what led to the development of the GENWI platform – the multi-device, flexible technology that powers iSites.us.

We picked the fastest growing app-based mobile platforms, iOS and Android, and built a platform that could deploy native apps to both at the click of a single button. Once created, we mange the apps & associated API’s for you so you don’t have to worry about functionality or updates.

To expand beyond native apps, we pioneered the Instant App. Built using HTML5 to ensure easy accessibility from different mobile devices, Instant Apps enable publishers to have their own distribution channel, independent of the app stores.

Soon, we will be introducing support for the iPad as well. And no, it won’t be the mere expansion of your iPhone app. The experience of reading your content on your iPad app will be distinctly different from reading it on your iPhone or the web browser.

The GENWI platform was built to make it easy to create and manage your mobile presence. Through iSites.us, you can easily build your apps and reach the widest app-consuming audience without worrying about the technical issues associated with app management.

Once upon a time, a business needed this new-fangled entity called a website in order to present itself to the world. Fast-forward to the future, and mobile applications for smart phones are steadily becoming the way companies are directly communicating with their audience.

One tech company is placing the development of mobile applications directly in the hands of businesses without the need for an outside programmer or developer.

iSites (www.isites.us) enables companies to create and self-manage their own mobile applications across platforms such as the Apple iPhone and Google Android smart phones.

iSites, launched in January 2010, is the flagship product of Los Altos, Calif.–based GENWI, a mobile application creation and management company.

iSites integrates a company’s website updates, social-network feeds, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed and data into one application. 

“Smart phones are the new PCs,” said GENWI co-founder and Chief Executive Officer P.J. Gurumohan. “[With tablet devices, such as the iPad], we’ve reached the point where the gadget must reflect the same user behavior.”

Gurumohan views mobile applications as an extension of a brand and its catalog. “It’s a way to bring together all [content] in a way that makes a compelling rich-media presentation,” Gurumohan said.

iSites’ app service is tailored toward small- to medium-sized businesses. Companies pay a subscription fee of $50 to $100 a month to style the color scheme and customize the content on their mobile applications. Companies can also enable AdMob advertising to earn revenue off their apps.

Companies that have created apps through iSites include London fashion blog The Style Scoutand Nashville-based contemporary resale and vintage boutique Goodbuy Girls. 

iSites has also worked with Cypress, Calif.–based Vans, a VF Corp. brand, on its Vans Hubmobile application. Vans has developed several applications for the iPhone, but the Vans Hub is the first for Android.

The Vans Hub app features news, blog-post feeds, photo galleries, and videos featuring musical performances by bands and action-sports clips. Users can voice their opinions on products and share information through the app.

“The benefits are simple,” said Nikki Scoggins, Vans’ direct-to-consumer communications manager. “Rather than loading Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter plus news sites for our dozens of sports and lifestyle categories in separate windows on my iPhone, I can easily open them in one app with a couple of clicks to see what’s new. It’s a great tool for the fans.”

Scoggins says the reception to the app has been positive. “We’ve been pleased with the response from our communities for Vans Hub,” Scoggins said. “The daily downloads have remained constant since its launch and [have] not tapered.”

This week, we’re putting the spotlight on UPenn’s own The Daily Pennsylvanian.

As one faithful reader says,

“Awesome app and awesome newspaper”,

The Daily Pennsylvanian app keeps students, alumni, parents and professors updated with the news from University of Pennsylvania’s independent student newspaper.

Stay tuned into the latest sports and university news. Get your dose of arts and culture with information from the 34th Street Magazine. Keep close tabs on Penn gossip, news and entertainment with Under The Button. 

Download The Daily Pennsylvanian app from the Apple App Store and Android Market and take your favorite University newspaper with you, wherever you go!

We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Thanks for your patience.

Let’s go create some apps, now!

We’re cleaning up our system which is interfering with new app creation. We’re really sorry if you are facing any one of the following issues:

1) Getting repetitive messages that the Instant app URL is unavailable

2) Once the app is created, are unable to add feeds

We will sort this issue out within the next couple of hours and appreciate your patience.

Los Altos, California, December 15, 2010 – iSites (http://iSites.us), a Smartphone application network and mobile content management system, a division of GENWI, Inc., in an effort to help publishers tap into the mobile applications market, today announced a partnership with Schurz Communications, Inc.  With this partnership, iSites will work closely with several of Schurz’s properties creating the applications for its television stations, radio stations and web properties.  Schurz will capitalize on iSites’ rich set of app building features that allows for complete customization, real-time data analysis, a robust social layer that includes integration with Facebook, Twitter and blogs under each of the media properties’ specific brands, active flexibility in revising apps, and the inherent benefit of monetization.

Schurz Communications is a nationwide communications company that serves medium to small markets throughout out the United States.  It owns and operates 2 cable companies, 11 daily newspapers, 10 television stations, 13 radio stations, and more than 25 news and information websites. The first of dozens of rich media apps released is the “Catch It Kansas” app (http://bit.ly/h3djo3) available for both iPhone and the Android markets.  CatchItKansas.com provides schedules, scores, game statistics, videos and photos of high school sports teams in Wichita, Kansas. This new app takes advantage of iSites sophisticated delivery of rich video content and distributes news and sports coverage directly into the hands of audiences, nationwide, through Smartphones. 

 “We are excited about our partnership with GENWI and the creation of apps through iSites,” said Kerry Oslund, corporate vice-president of Digital Media at Schurz Communications. “With iSites, our TV, newspaper, radio, cable and pure-play digital brands can quickly build custom apps, track usage, continually update and improve content in a few easy steps. Among Schurz’ core strengths is local high school sports and with iSites, we just launched the “CatchItKansas” app. The early feedback is terrific and we’ve seen hundreds of downloads in the first few days. Also, the social media features baked-into the app will provide new opportunities for our customers to connect with each other, as well as with our brands.”

 On iSites, publishers can easily design and create content just once, and with one-click publish an app to the Android Market, the Apple App Store, create an Instant App, that requires no App store submission, or publish to all three platforms. At a single consumption point, publishers can update information associated with their brand, display videos, photos, keep up with the conversation on Twitter and actively engage with their community through comments and feedback.

 “It is predicted that 1-in-2 Americans will have a Smartphone by Christmas 2011.  The Mobile apps market is set to explode and iSites is positioned as the leader to help content publishers design their own custom apps and quickly bring them to market,” said PJ Gurumohan, chief executive officer at GENWI.   “We are very proud of the fact that we have seen tremendous growth in creation of apps and huge adoption from millions of downloads, millions of views, and repeat usage through our iSites application network.  This partnership with Schurz Communications takes full advantage of our complete app making and content management solutions.  We are extremely upbeat about our momentum and the adoption of the iSites platform and expect to see our numbers and partnerships continue to grow.”

iSites has enabled over 1000 publishers to create mobile applications for the iPhone and Android.  iSites allows anyone to create and self-manage custom branded Smartphone apps enabling users to design an application once, and publish it to multiple mobile platforms in one place.  In September 2010, iSites created “Instant Apps” enabled for iPhones, allowing any publisher to instantly distribute an app as soon as it is published, directly to Smartphones, free from the constraints governing acceptance to native app stores. Instant Apps are distributed through vanity URLs and do not require approvals. GENWI is pioneering off-the-shelf technology using HTML5 & Web Toolkit.

About Schurz Communications

Schurz Communications, Inc. is a diversified, privately owned, nationwide communications company. The company owns and operates two cable companies, eleven daily newspapers, ten television stations, 13 radio stations and more than 25 highly visited news and information websites. Its portfolio also includes weekly papers, shoppers, directories and commercial printing facilities. Schurz is dedicated to serving communities in medium and small markets across the USA. Schurz Communications, based in Mishawaka, Indiana, has media outlets in Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Virginia. Visit http://www.schurz.com/ for more information.