Ever since Taptu first started out we’ve tried to innovate our interface – making it as easy as possible to find mobile goodness. We introduced image thumbnails,  mobile sized summaries of  destination sites, popular searches and hot topics on the home page for those moments when you’re bored etc…But to average Joe, we looked like any other search engine. Then along came the iPhone BOOM! and we were able to innovate again with a new way to browse the touch friendly web by flicking and swiping just like the way we browse photos and images on our iPhone. We also turned Taptu “black” as it seemed to fit better,  felt richer and possibly a tiny bit cooler

Thanks to the new screen capabilities of not just the iPhone but all the new Touch devices we all see down our local mobile store we’re now saying goodbye to white backgrounds for good- we’re now able go black without any reduction in usability – and so would like to introduce our new look. Taptu black, the new white.

Now with this new look you still get all the great features of Taptu: fast access to the Touch Friendly web (that’s great sites that work on your touch phone), keep up with the word on the street with Realtime buzz search (thnx to OneRiot) and of course awesome image search for that perfect wallpaper.

Our new look is available to those lucky owners of Nokia 5800, N97, Blackberry Storm 1, iPhone & iPod touch and we’ve added Palm Pre and the HTC Magic in this release. If you’ve got one of these then simply visit www.taptu.com, and let us know what you think.

Now if we were an international carrier or global device manufacturer we’d probably announce this by creating black ’snow’ storm on 5th Avenue or switching to a black ball in a major football game or some other stunt like that, but we’re not one of those. So we just thought we’d let our friends and fans know. We hope you like it as much we do. Please let us know what you think, leave us a message in the comments or @taptu on the twittersphere. Thanks.

Bigger, better and a more confident RIM (according to some other delegates), Jim Balsillie, commander of the troops took to the stage. Flush with new announcements, we sat through 3+ hours of BlackBerry product enhancements splintered occasionally by cheers from the crowd. The theme was “Deep rich application integration” and there were some mighty demos.

A new BlackBerry Services platform including integrated advertising from multiple mobile advertising networks (Admob, Jumptap, Quattro Wireless…) all through one API; a payment API, new Geo location APIs and even a “just nuke them now” API! (as if).

Push APIs “moved” the crowd, as did many of the tools. A new GUI builder design studio, a new BlackBerry Themes Studio and application creation with Adobe Tools such as Dreamweaver. In fact Adobe’s commander of the troops, Shantanu Narayen,  was there in support to ensure we understood the strike was from coalition forces.

Jim B took lots of opportunities to say “We hear you”. I took this to mean there was clearly some strong and presumably negative feedback from the developer community at last years DevCon and now RIM have responded with some much needed capabilities. I must say for Taptu, as a new developer to BlackBerry, it all seems very complete now. Indeed for any new developer looking at BlackBerry, there hasn’t been a better time to jump on board.

I came to BBDC 2009  (all the military run on acronyms) to get a sense of the BlackBerry developer community momentum. I also came to meet some key people from RIM and get a steer on what Taptu should include in a BlackBerry app for the touch screen Storm device. What I learned is that the BlackBerry momentum is rock solid and the developers are as passionate about BlackBerry as the Crackberry users themselves. I also met some great people from RIM. They were very approachable but then if you are going to nuke the outside world you may as well be friendly with your fellow colleagues in the shelter.

Of the new products, RIM’s new latest BlackBerry Bold is a gem. A new slimline Bold, with all the capability of South Korea with a waistline of an Air Korea flight hostess. And talking of waistlines, when it came to the DevCon entertainment, RIM gets this too. Scantily clad exotic dancers, plenty of smoke, live music and games for the geeks will secure this event as a not-to-be-missed event on the mobile development calendar.

So did RIM the push the red button and will we move to DevCon 3? The answer is a resounding yes, though I’m told DevCon 3 needs the authority of the President – lucky he’s a CrackBerry user too

This is where OneRiot comes into the picture. OneRiot’s search service gives you a feel for what the real-time web has to say about the most current information, links, and conversation about events as they happen across the web on Twitter, Digg, and other social sharing sites.

However, what happens when you’re on-the-go and you want to search the real-time web on your mobile device?  This is where Taptu, the touch friendly search engine for your mobile comes into play.

Today marks a point in time where two innovators in search Taptu on the mobile platform and OneRiot on the real-time web, have come together to bring you a completely new search experience on your mobile device.

By utilizing OneRiot’s realtime search API, Taptu has built a revolutionary real-time search engine that is tightly integrated into a mobile friendly touch interface.

Taptu and OneRiot set out to take real-time search to the next level by helping you discover content on your mobile device.

Think about the last time you were at a conference, concert, or otherwise in need of information as it happened on the web. You likely searched Twitter and other social websites for messages regarding the topic you were interested in, only to find yourself frustrated with the results.

Now, with the partnership between Taptu and OneRiot, you can track the content – photos, links, articles, blogs, videos -  and other information shared as they happen on the real-time web, right on your mobile device.

To check out the new offering, go to Taptu.com on your mobile device and select the Buzz category.  There, you can see hot topics and hot content being shared on the web, right now.  Additionally, OneRiot results are available in the cluster of regular Taptu search results.

The new service works on devices such as the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, BlackBerry Storm, Android G1 and the Nokia  5800.  More Touch devices will be added soon very soon so watch this space.  Also, OneRiot’s realtime results will appear in Taptu’s Touch Search App on the iPhone and iPod touch imminently.

Are you a smart cookie in addition to being a brilliant code monkey?  Our development team is looking to add a great guy or gal to their team.  You’ll be based in our Cambridge office and have a track record for delivering well-written code.  Additionally,  you should enjoy being a star in a fast-paced and well rewarding environment.

To be a Web App Developer at Taptu, you should be a well rounded programmer who has experience in web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Taptu is a start-up meaning we work hard and play harder.  We have fun in our work but we take our work seriously.

If you are interested in applying, please email us at givemeajob@taptu.com.

Here’s the full description:

As we continue to increase the web functionality and performance of our mobile web search applications, we are again looking to add further great engineers to the talent in Cambridge. With a track record of demonstrable initiative, self direction, ability to deliver well-written applications, and a real love of modern web development technologies, you will use your skills and experience to design and develop world-leading mobile front-end web server technologies

We have a culture of empowering our developers to make the critical design decisions. With this comes the great satisfaction and responsibility of seeing your ideas and technical decisions become reality worldwide.

This work will make the most of your current and past experience in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, working with modern frameworks and libraries. Underpinning your successes will be beautifully written Java and solid experience of the supporting tools and environments.

We will be expecting multi-threaded and distributed application server development to be in your comfort zone. Familiarity with several programming languages, including scripting, C/C++, and functional languages are all big positives.

A degree in Computer Science, Maths or Physics is ideal; however degree-calibre candidates with the track record to match are equally valued.

For more information, or to be considered for the role, please contact givemeajob (at) taptu.com.

Strictly no agencies.

Here’s what to expect in the newest version:

• 1.4.3 fixes a few memory leaks associated with prior versions.
• Minor design tweaks
• Bug fixes.

On the backend of our search service, we’ve made some more hearty changes that will improve your Taptu user experience.  First of all, we have added thousands and thousands of sites that are touch friendly, making your search results richer.

Also, we have tweaked our engine to allow genre searches.  To check this new feature out – check out our Halloween special that will show you apps and other touch-friendly content with a spooky feel.

As always, we absolutely crave feedback.  Please get back to us if you have any comments or questions.  You can email me at jason@taptu.com or catch us on Twitter as well.

Have fun with the new version of the Taptu Search App!  To give it a whirl, go to the iTunes App Store.

We are looking to take our Wapedia iPhone application international!  Taptu seeks contractors to help us translate our Taptu Wapedia application into the languages listed below.  Depending on how it goes with our Wapedia application, we might enlist your help in translating the main Taptu application as well.

Here are the details on what we’re seeking:

Seeking speakers in: Dutch, Russian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi, Swedish, Greek, Finnish, Czech, Norwegian and Spanish (from South America or preferably Mexico).

You should use the web frequently, especially Wikipedia, and should know Internet terms and have some experience in translation or Computer Science (students are preferable). We’re not offering full time employment but work as either contractor or on pay roll (for UK residents). The wage depends on the amount of work to be done.

If you are interested, please send your CV and cover letter to givemeajob@taptu.com.

Please NO Agencies – We WILL route you to /dev/null

Since then, thousand of people have downloaded Music Cube from the App Store and enjoyed the addictive game that tests their knowledge of music and artists in a fun visual puzzle game.

To help spread the love and put Music Cube into the hands of more people, we’ve made the App free.

So, if you were holding out,  fire up the App Store on your iPhone or iPod Touch and get to challenging your musical brain with a great puzzle game!

To grab Music Cube for yourself, use this link.

With that in mind, we’ve released a new version of the application into Apple iTunes App Store.  There are a few notable changes.

User Interface Improvements:

These include a few minor changes to make it easier to utilize all the functionality of the Taptu Search Application. The most notable change is that the “Orbital” function is now an actual button.  This feature was present in the last version of the application, but many users missed it because it wasn’t visibly noticeable as a click-able (tap-able) button.

Now, if you click on the button in the upper right – you can see the awesome functionality which lets you refine the scope of your search by just searching images, twitter, and so on.  Also, you can see related search terms based on what you enter.

Finally, we’ve implemented a new Settings tab in the App that lets you refine how the Taptu Search App behaves.  The new tab will allow you to set user preferences in the App, without having to go to the iPhone’s settings bar.

Other Changes

We have also made an effort to tidy up the Sharing options. As before, you can still share out your results via email and SMS, or on your favorite social network such as Facebook or Twitter.  We just cleaned up the interface a bit.

In another change, if you launch the App after having it closed – it will load up the last search you executed.  This change is a direct result from user feedback we’ve attained since the App debuted in July.

Please Give Us Feedback!

As you can see, this minor update addresses a few of the concerns our users have given us since the launch of our iPhone/iPod Touch application.  In fact, two of the changed items mentioned above came about because of feedback I’ve received from our user community.

So, the bottom line is – we’re here and we’re listening.  So please connect if you have issues, comments, or concerns about our application.  We’re always looking for ways to make our applications and service better!

To grab the latest version of the Taptu iPhone App, follow this link.

Get in touch with us by emailing me at jason <at> taptu <dot> com or via our Twitter account.

Jason

US Community Manager – Taptu

How does The Music Cube work?  It’s a fun game whereby you analyze an image puzzle and try to guess the artist/band/song  based on the visual image(s) you see.  It’s challenging, addictive and works  well on the touch interface. So if you have an iPhone or Touch and love music then give it a spin.

Music Cube on the iPhone was a little side project here at Taptu.  As linked above, the desktop web version was produced a while back and proved so popular we just couldn’t resist porting it to the iPhone.  When so many Taptuans rally behind an effort, its hard to hold them back.  Our lead engineer on the project was Telmo Menezes (since crowned King of Open GL) with Matt and Marc on the design side.

Astonishingly, the Music Cube iPhone app was pumped out in just four weeks.  Pretty cool, I think!

The intent of the Music Cube is to provide a fun game to pass the time while you’re waiting in a line, riding the bus, or otherwise have a few spare moments to challenge your music knowledge.  Also, if you get stuck, you an always rely upon Taptu Mobile Search to help guide your way

Be sure to check out upcoming versions of the Music Cube app for additional, more challenging questions.