tizi go is here. Mobile TV for iPad 2
We’ve just released our brand new digital TV receiver for the iPad 2, tizi go. It’s really easy to use – you just plug tizi go into the dock connector on your iPad 2 and the tizi.tv app even opens automatically!
It picks up digital TV (DVB-T / DTT), so you can watch live TV directly on your iPad 2. You don’t need an internet connection and there are no additional fees.
Stunning Design
tizi go is small enough to take everywhere, so we made sure it’s not just small, but suitable for everyday use: the flexible loop antenna offers great reception, and it’s flexible (like a headphone cable), so won’t accidentally snap off or get lost.
Powered by tizi.tv 2
tizi go works with our brand new app, tizi.tv 2 (free on the App Store), which offers incredible new features like visual timeshift, déjà vu recording, split-view with TV and EPG at a glance, full landscape and portrait controls – all with a best-in-class UI design and attention to detail.
tizi go: available in Germany this Christmas
We’re launching tizi go today in Germany for just €99,99, we’ll be announcing additional availability early 2012.
Go and find out more about tizi go, or if you’re in Germany – go and buy yourself one for your iPad 2 this Christmas…
Get Magic Mails for free this Christmas…
The holidays are fast approaching and we’ve just released an update to Magic Mails, our app that lets you send email greeting cards from your iPad.
Did somebody say “free”?
That’s right, we’ve got a little early Christmas present for you all. Magic Mails is free – but only for a limited time. You can choose your first three greeting cards free of charge as well and additional cards can be purchased in the app.
Now with extra Christmas
Magic Mails now also includes Season’s Greetings 4 – our latest collection of holiday greeting cards. If you already own any of our Stationery Packs for your Mac (excluding Business Pack), you can sign in to unlock those templates in Magic Mails.
‘tis the season to be jolly…
…so head over to the App Store, download Magic Mails for free and send some Christmas cards to your family and friends!
iOS 5, meet the equinux apps
Now that iOS 5 has been released, we thought we’d give you a quick rundown of our iPhone and iPad apps and their iOS 5 compatibility:
tizi
The current version, tizi.tv 1.3.2 is fully compatible with iOS 5 on the iPhone and iPad.
Please note that iOS 5 no longer shows a check mark when you connect to tizi’s Wi-Fi network. Instead you’ll see the “spinning wheel” icon, even after you are connected. This is an iOS 5 quirk, but it doesn’t affect tizi performance. We’ve reached out to Apple to see if this can be addressed with a future iOS update, our FAQ has more details. We’re also already hard at work preparing the next update, so stay tuned.
TV Movie
We’ve just released version 3.0.4 of TV Movie and TV Movie HD. It features a redesigned database that changes the way some of your data is stored, so it won’t take up as much room in your iCloud backup. We’ve also fixed an issue that could cause the app to crash under iOS 5, so make sure you grab that update.
Magic Mails
We’ve run into a little bug with auto-correct that can affect typing under iOS 5, which seems to be related to the new version of Webkit in iOS 5. We’re looking into it and hope to be able to offer an update for that particular issue soon. Apart from that little annoyance, Magic Mails works great.
Grillmeister
All good, so there’s nothing to stop you from enjoying a tasty steak with iOS 5 and Grillmeister or Grillmeister HD!
iSale Mobile
iSale mobile still works great with iOS 5 – so you can take great snaps of your stuff and send it over to iSale 5 on your Mac to put on eBay. With the iPhone 4S, your product pics should look great!
Live TV & TubeToGo
Apple has changed a fair bit under the hood with regards to video playback, so we’ll have to look into what we can do for these two apps.
Flash4Free
Our free, no-frills flashlight works perfectly, so you won’t be left in the dark with your iOS 5 device.
And that’s it – we have a few updates planned for our iOS apps, so check back occasionally or follow us on Twitter or Facebook for the latest update news.
P.S. We’ll have a longer, detailed post soon describing some of the changes in iOS 5 that relate to TARMAC.
equinux at the iPad 2 launch
Last Friday, we were following the european iPad 2 launch on twitter and saw lots of tweets from people waiting in line outside the Munich Apple Store. Some of them had been waiting overnight, so we thought we would go and reward them with a few freebies and demonstrate tizi for everyone waiting in line.
In total we gave away four boxes of freebies, everyone in line got a chance to play with tizi on the iPad (and to answer the most popular question, yes – tizi works beautifully with iPad 2 as well) and had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone at the big launch.
Check out the video:
Say hello to tizi
Product release day is always an exciting time at equinux. Today is no different. Today’s release of tizi is not just a groundbreaking iPhone and iPad release, it’s the start of a new era of hardware products for the company.
tizi is the perfect complement to your iPad or iPhone. As Europe’s first TV mobile hotspot, tizi broadcasts high quality DVB-T television to your iOS device over its own WiFi network. No cables, no adapters.
At just 2.5 ounces and smaller than the iPhone, tizi was designed to be carried around in your pocket or bag. Turn on, tune in and start watching. With its glossy housing and silver bezel, it’ll fit snugly next to your iPad or iPhone, all the while casting envious looks from all around. Users can watch TV on the go for up to 3.5 hours thanks to the replaceable Li-Ion High Performance Battery and be recharged via USB.
tizi is just the start of a move into the iPhone and iPad hardware accessory arena. We have a long standing interest in consumer and enterprise software, as well as Mac hardware in TubeStick, and of course iPhone and iPad apps. tizi marks the start of a new era of iPhone and iPad hardware accessories, so you can get even more from your iOS devices.
So sit back, relax and watch the action unfold. With tizi, it’s easy.
Chopsticks at the ready
Have you ever wondered how they use chop sticks to eat ribs in Japan?
During his frequent trips to Asia, equinux CEO Till often wonders how equinux apps might fare in the Japanese market. As a company based in Germany and the US and with little experience of Japanese culture, we knew our best chance of success would be to find a Japanese native speaker. With a new team member on board, we started work on preparing Barbecue for the iPhone and iPad, Japanese style! 日本語の記事はこちら(^_-)-☆
Teething problems
It quickly became clear that the concept of a barbecue was very different in Japan compared to our own experiences. Whereas barbecuing is often a weekly or monthly affair in Europe or the US during the summer, Japanese families might only barbecue every couple of years when camping. Alternatively, they would head to a restaurant and enjoy Korean style barbecue food. After reading our product descriptions for the apps, our Japanese colleague started asking the sort of seemingly obvious questions that actually make you stop and think:
“Why do you flame grill food?”
“Doesn’t it go black and burnt?”
“Is ‘the grill’ the metal shelf, or the entire contraption?”
Questions unsatisfyingly answered, our Japanese colleague went away and localized the app for a Japanese audience. Like any localization, a simple translation was not enough. Indeed, why would a Japanese iPhone user want to use a knife and fork? We need chopsticks!
Suck it and see
Together with our art director, we found the right chopsticks for the sort of barbecue a family would enjoy on a Japanese riverside. Localizing an app in Japanese was a voyage into the unknown for the team. We had no idea how long sentences would be, or how fonts would appear in the app and on our website. Writing strings also takes a lot of consideration. Where in English there is one level of formality, there are two in German and at least three in Japanese.
Barbecue in Japanese went live a week after submitting to Apple. Having never marketed in the land of the rising sun before, we looked to create a list of journalists and bloggers active in the country. In addition, we tweeted a message in Japanese, as well as a targeted update for our Facebook fans based there. Updates like these can be a great way of testing the water for marketing an app.
Just a starter?
We’ve been fascinated by the localization process, and have found it to be a reasonably smooth process. It’s always however fascinating to look at your own culture from an outsider’s perspective. We believe we have a lot more we to offer in the Japanese market, so stay tuned…
Barbecue is available now for the iPhone and iPad
