Software Testing Blog

As the new iPhone 4 hits stores in Israel later this month, more and more attention will be given to the iPhone’s most remarkable feature: APPS! Of course, apps are one of the primary reasons for the latest mobile phone frenzy that has taken the industry by storm. They have revolutionized the cell phone into a portable computing powerhouse. As mobile phones move away from simple communication devices, apps are transforming the mobile phone into a multipurpose tool that can affect every facet of our lives.

So with that in mind, here are the top 5 apps that you must have on your new iPhone 4:

1. Ha’aretz: Stay connected with what’s happening in the world around you! Receive the latest breaking news and headline stories in real time with this app as it happens in Israel and throughout the world.
2. iTranslate: Konichiwa….. Salaam……. Ariverdechi. Translating words from Hebrew is a breeze with this unique app that lets you translate words and sentences from over 50 languages. Impress your friends and loved ones the next time you order something from French restaurant or when your order in Chinese.
3. Aroundme: Find anything from dairy restaurants to gas stations. This app uses GPS technology to find your location and then lists the nearest locations of your search. Your travel experiences will never be the same as everything you could want or need to find using a map or the Internet is now at your fingertips wherever you go.
4. Yad2: From homes to cars to LCD TV’s, you can buy anything your heart desires with this app on Israel’s most famous online 2^nd hand store. This app lets you scroll through the thousands of 2^nd hand items for sale with a simple to use GUI.
5. Israel Money: This app will allow you to make calls from your iPhone in Israel to over 20 countries overseas with absolutely zero charges. There are no charges! No commitments! And no registration!

What’s your favorite iPhone app? How has it helped your daily life? Share with the community which apps are changing the way we use our phones.

(This post was written by Hillel Hurwitz, Community & Content Manager, at Blonde 2.0.)

It’s been a busy few weeks around the hallowed halls of uTest (ok, they’re really more of a beige).  Somewhere between delivering the keynote at the QUEST conference, interviewing testing guru Scott Barber, and launching v3.0 of our platform, we found time to sign a partnership with SOASTA.

For those who don’t know them, SOASTA leverages the cloud to offer on-demand load & performance testing, which enables companies to test the real-world performance of their web apps.  In fact, the Wall Street Journal recently named them one of the top 50 VC-backed companies in all the land.  So what’s a crowd company doing partnering with a cloud company?  A lot, actually.

For starters, this partnership expands upon uTest’s recently announced load testing services.  As our customers and their apps become more sophisticated, they’re turning to uTest to provide them with real-world load testing.  And this partnership with SOASTA enables us to offer a unique package of on-demand load testing and advanced analytics to help our customers identify bottlenecks and points of failure between their apps and their users.

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I’m thrilled to let you know that last week uTest was internationally recognized, wining the 2009 WebAward for “Outstanding Website” by the Web Marketing Association.

A big thank you to our partner Boston Interactive for helping us incorporate a more human face to uTest’s website and revamping it to reflect uTest’s community-centric business model.

As you know, we relaunched our website back in May 2009, and four months later, we’re already receiving high honors for it! Now in its 13th year, the WebAwards is the premier annual website award competition that names the best websites while setting the standard of excellence for all website development.

During this year’s competition, more than 2,000 sites from 45 countries were nominated in 96 industry categories. Entries were judged on design, copy writing, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, and use of technology.

The new uTest website has enabled us to bring the real-world stories of our customers and testers to the forefront of the web experience to increase visibility into uTest’s global testing community of 19,000+ and enhance collaboration among software professionals worldwide. We’re honored to be among this year’s winners!

To see all 2009 award wins, check out uTest’s Awards Page!

As the Community Ambassador here at uTest, I spend the bulk of my time conversing with testers from our office here in Southborough, Massachusetts. So you can imagine how excited I was when I got the chance to host an off-site tester meetup – in Tokyo of all places!

I was already planning to vacation in the area, and so I decided to “advertise” the event in the uTest Forums. Since I posted the meetup on relatively short notice (10 days), and seeing how we have only launched a handful of releases in Japan (so far), I was somewhat unsure of the response I would receive. Well, after five days, I had been contacted by five our testers, and so we decided to meet at the world’s busiest intersection: Shibuya’s famous Hachiko area.

So how, you ask, were our fellow uTesters able to find each other in such a hectic setting? Easy – the uTest t-shirt. A few minutes before the meeting on a Saturday afternoon, our first Japanese uTester – an Austrian gentleman who has lived in Japan for the past 15 years – flagged me down when he caught glimpse of said t-shirt. Ten minutes later, the other testers showed up and we took our meeting across the street to the Excelsior Café – a nearby coffee shop that is a favorite among the locals.

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