The Online Magazine Focused on App Design, Branding & Marketing

The App: HauteLook

The Device: iPhone 5

The Price: Free

The Basics: HauteLook is an e-commerce site that’s been around for about five years now, but they’ve launched an app that also offers their serves. For those curious, it’s actually owned by Nordstrom’s, who bought them out few years back. The app specializes in flash sales of higher end items for really good prices (think Michael Kors suits). The sales usually last from about two days to a week and once they’ve sold out, it’s gone. Because of that, the app is heavily built around demand.

The Review: The app itself is really user-friendly. It breaks merchandise down into the usual categories (men’s clothing, women’s clothing, etc) and you can go in and customize your profile so you only get alerts based on what you’re interested in.

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The App: Flow

The Device: iPad

The Price: Free (For Now!)

The Basics: Flow is a Puzzle game that (Tapsauce’s own!) Michael Robin turned me onto. It’s interesting because, more than most iPad games, it intellectually challenges me! It’s starts off pretty simply. It’s level-based, with each section of levels adding additional squares to the grid that makes up the game (it starts at 5 x 5).  Each level is a series of colored dots and your job is to pair them drawing a line from one blue to another blue and so forth. The trick is that you have to trace a path from each pair that ultimately fills every box on the grid and you can’t overlap any trails. It stars simple enough, but you soon get into much larger grids and then it gets really tricky! Finding a way to not overlap while filling every space is a great challenge. On the larger grids, you really have to experiment with how you’re going to trace your paths from dot to dot and there’s a lot of trail and error involved.

The Review:  It’s addictive, to say the least. I downloaded the app two nights ago and I’ve already played through maybe 100 levels!

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The App: Tentacles

The Device: iPad

The Price: $1.99 on iPad, 99 cents on the iPhone

The Basics: The basic concept of the game is this — you play as a little creature who gets trapped inside the body of an evil doctor. The game finds you journeying across his body (the heart, the brain, etc) trying to escape, using your tentacles to propel you through the course. Of course, there are obstacles along the way: chainsaw-like environments, deadly organisms and so forth. There are usually three categories of rewards per level, so while you can complete a level and move on, you can always return and try to do it perfectly (Angry Birds style!). Like so many mobile games, going back and trying to better your score is incredibly addicting.

The Review:  I’ve completed the game, but I keep coming back.

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The App: ESPN Scorecenter App

The Device: iPhone/Android

The Price: Free

The Basics: The app acts as a pretty solid representation of what you’d see if you were watching ESPN. It includes up-to-the-minute news about players and teams. What’s really neat is that you can plug in your preferred teams or sports and specifically follow what you want to follow. In addition to basic score tracking, the app can send you push notifications for the start of the game, mid-game or end of game. For the real enthusiasts, the app can send you play-by-play notifications! There are plenty of options for customization.

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Whether you’re trying to find a hot fashion accessory, hunting for your next vehicle or searching for a company to bring your app idea to life, we have all had our fair share of run-ins with sales professionals. Naturally, some have been better than others. We all know what makes a bad salesman, but what differentiates those who are simply good at selling and those who are great at selling?

The key is simple enough: good salespeople sell a product, but great sales people, well, they sell a brand. True, selling the product is important, but it is just a piece of the overall puzzle. In my 10-plus years of selling experience, I have seen firsthand what it takes to sell a brand.

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