Happy Easter, readers! Are you feeling the need to join in the exciting egg hunting action, but finding it harder to justify the sheer amount of chocolate you can consume now that you're no longer ten years old? No fear! Once again, smartphones are here to save the day.
This time, they're doing it with the help Australian app developer jTribe. jTribe have developed a new Easter-themed mobile app called Egg Raider, available both in Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play.
Egg Raider allows you to hunt for "virtual" Easter Eggs, creating an augmented reality that will thrill sci-fi fans and/or kids. The Egg Raider taps into your GPS along with your Facebook friends – if you let it – and gives you a map to help find eggs in Melbourne and Sydney's CBDs.
Simply follow the map until you get close enough to get out the camera option within the app, and a 3D egg will appear. We'll let you decide whether to tell your kids and friends that you're playing Harry Potter or Spy Kids.
The app features a radar-style viewer that allows you to draw closer, and leads players on a merry tour of landmarks around Melbourne and/or Sydney to find the eggs. It allows a multiplayer option, in which you can "race against friends and family to collect the most". The game is sure to appeal to children, but could very well be a fun way for adults to join in the hunt and spend a day on the town – without having to spend the morning hiding all those pesky eggs.
Egg Raider taps in on current app trends, particularly in the way it's designed for a multiplayer smartphone approach. Rather than just producing games that are two- or multiplayer in the same way that board games or even video games are, app developers are starting to take advantage of smartphone portability and easy access to WiFi as well as mobile broadband. The result is a screed of games that will recalibrate what we think of as mobile phone games, turning them from something that we play on public transport to pass the time to enjoyable and exciting pastimes.
At jTribe, they believe using this technology for scavenger hunts is only the beginning. jTribe director Daniel Bradby believes that gamification – the incorporation of games into mobile apps – will no longer be simply for recreational purposes.
He said: "We're starting to see more and more clients use gamification to solve their business problems."
It doesn't take a great leap of the imagination to see how scavenger hunts could very well be turned into marketing techniques, with more innovative ways to attract particularly younger consumers to a store.
And all the scrambling around to find virtual eggs is more than enough exercise to work off the somewhat less virtual eggs you might find yourself snacking on to keep your energy levels up!
If you want to get in on the smartphone app action, have a look at some of the plans available for some of Australia's favourite smartphones: the Apple iPhone 4S 64GB, the Apple iPhone 3GS 8GB, or, to try something different, the brand new Samsung Galaxy Note.
To talk about new plans for your current phone, or if you're wondering how to sign up for a plan that will include a new phone, give us a call on 1300 850 518.