Sponsored Feature: Appy Newz brings joy to your iPhone

Do you know how to spot iPhone and iPod touch owners? They’re the ones with a smile on their face. Sure, there’s plenty gamewise to keep them amused, but all those other apps aren’t just dour snippets of software designed to help you organise your dishwashing or plan your next business strategy meeting better. Some are designed entirely around the concept of fun.

Take Appy Newz. The creation from the cheeky minds at Appy Entertainment, it enables users to create spoof news covers reminiscent of those of The Weekly World News or The Sun. But, and here’s the crucial bit, it lets you feature your friends, partners, colleagues… or enemies. How? Easily. You simply swipe in their faces (taken directly from any photos already on your iPhone or iTouch) and attach them to any of the available bodies – ranging from bikini babes, to aliens, to dogs. Then just add the background (again, from a creatively wide range), type in the text of your choice and your effort is ready to be shared. (If you’re in a rush, you don’t even have to do that – you just ‘Shake It To Make It’ and get a random cover in seconds.)

“We wanted to make Andy Warhol’s prediction about everyone being famous for 15 minutes come true,” says Chris Ulm, Appy Entertainment’s CEO. “And we wanted to have something on our phones that we could use to make friends, start fights, and show off to girls.”

Which falls neatly in line with Ulm’s description of Appy Newz as “a toy”. But don’t for one moment let that fool you into thinking that no serious thought has gone into it. And as is often the case, with serious thought comes serious effort. The app’s interface, for instance, benefits from a simplicity and user-friendliness that belies both its complexity and impressive functionality – as brand director Paul O’Connor states, Appy Newz may be inexpensive entertainment, but it boasts features more normally associated with serious photography-related applications. “Our lead programmer, Marc-Antoine Argenton, is a genuine artist, and he really sweated the details of creating a consistent, naturally-flowing interface. I think the result is a superior interface that neatly distills some powerful functionality into a few simple gestures.”

Don’t believe him? Check out the tutorial for yourself:

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Not content with standing still, Appy Entertainment has already submitted a 1.1 update which adds emoticons, but also has a series of free content updates in the pipeline and welcomes user feedback as to the features they’d like to see in future iterations of Appy Newz. And, of course, there are further apps planned – three are currently in development, all tying into the company’s concept of building entertainment around the fundamental values of sharing, friendship and personalisation. “Our next release uses some of the core elements of Appy Newz in completely unexpected ways,” Ulm reveals. “We hope to keep fans on their toes, never knowing quite what we will come up with next ... but when our line of Apps is viewed together, everything will fit together and represent a definite point-of-view.”

For now, though, the limelight is on Appy Newz and the enjoyment it brings to those who experience it. That was always Appy Entertainment’s aim and it’s something the team is confident it’s achieved. “I’m proudest that we’ve created a quality entertainment that makes people laugh,” says O’Connor. “Appy Newz is designed to bring people together through the act of sharing their creations. In our testing, people never failed to show around their covers the instant they were finished – that put a huge smile on our faces.”