With more than 300,000 applications on the App Store , it can be hard to dissever the wheat from the stubble . Bitsmedia want to fill this crack with Frenzapp , a Facebook - power app passport service that automatically discovers the apps you expend and lets you view which program your booster are using .
Frenzapp lowers the Browning automatic rifle for participation in a couple of cunning ways . First , and most interestingly , you do n’t have to manually look for your favorite apps . Unlike other attempt at trumping Apple ’s iTunes - power Genius app recommendation with a human - powered web , Frenzapp mechanically distinguish the apps you have running or used of late , then lets you score your favorites from the list it build for you .
Frenzapp ’s 2d clever move is that it does not require you to sign up for Yet Another Social connection — it ’s exclusively powered by Facebook . The first time you mark a lot of apps as your favorites , Frenzapp prompt you to share your undying love for them with your friends , via your Facebook wall . Subsequent sessions will not prompt you to send more message , however . You are simply promote to add or receive more Facebook friends to use the servicing . In that manner , you arguably build a good app testimonial service , powered by the friend you chose on Facebook , instead of some algorithm in Apple ’s data centers .
When I run Frenzapp on my iPhone 4 , it found 35 of my most late used apps ( 30 apps , five games ) , but not all 204 apps I have installed . ( No , I do n’t have an App Store problem . I can give up whenever I want . You ’re not the boss of me ! ) . On the downside , Frenzapp also automatically station to Facebook when I installed it — without prompting me — then asked me to stake a 2nd metre when I marked my first few preferred apps . It may be a societal - focused app , but that initial car - post without any monition has become a simulated pas among today ’s social app gold rush .
That Frenzapp can automatically discover a gimmick ’s most recently used apps give way me intellect to hesitate . See , a division of Apple ’s App Store guidelines makes it clear that — outside of a few specific exceptions , such as iOS ’s Document Sharing features — applications must remain in their own “ sandpit ” and not really interact with one another . Some developer I talk to were surprised that Frenzapp made it into the App Store despite its app auto - find features , so I make in sense of touch with Bitsmedia beginner Erwan Macé to learn more about how Frenzapp works .
Macé assured me that Frenzapp ’s app auto - discovery feature “ do not even get close ” to violating App Store policy , and he shared a couple of the tricks Bitsmedia utilise to automatically discover apps . First , Frenzapp leverage an Apple - provided organization in iOS to find other applications that have a specific data point - apportion system deform on ( custom URL dodge , for the geeks in the hearing ) . This is how , for example , apps like Air Sharing and Good Reader figure out that you have Pages installed and offer the alternative to send documents to that app for redaction .
The second caper up Frenzapp ’s arm is a summons for detecting which apps are currently running — specifically , the most recent apps that you ’ll see in the multitasking shelf when you ’re running iOS 4 or afterward and you double - rap the Home button . Macé explained that this is chiefly why Frenzapp likely does not automatically detect every single app you have installed unless you have only , say , five to ten apps .
Of course , it would certainly help Frenzapp if it could sniff out all installed apps , but that ’s a limitation Apple imposes in the name of secrecy and protection . Still , Frenzapp is a nice phylogeny of the “ social net for the App Store ” idea , though it would be smashing to see Bitsmedia summate Twitter integration to cover the other side of the societal fencing .
Frenzapp is available now in the App Store for loose . It requires an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or later .
