At Screenmedia we always knew the introduction of mobile technology would be a game changer for digital media; and we always knew that mobile web and apps would revolutionise the way we all interact and engage online. But honestly, we couldn't have predicted the rate at which technology and user adoption of emerging mobile platforms would grow and grow and grow!

This report by Morgan Stanley analysts suggests that by 2015 more people will access the internet from mobile devices (smartphones, tablets etc) than from desktop computers. What an interesting thought! Yet, when you really think about it and consider the last three years developments - keypad to touch screen, 2G to ubiquitous broadband and 0 apps to 200,000 apps on the Appstore - it doesn't seem quite so ambitious.

So, what does all this really mean for your business? It means, there is no space for burying your head in the sand when it comes to future proofing your digital communications across web, social and mobile platforms. And, for mobile web in particular, it means re-considering how your content will appear to users accessing your site on typical smartphone dimensions or on new formats like the Apple iPad.

Careful planning and user experience design across platforms is leading the way in successful digital communication.

This week, we're busy animating and programming our newest animation project for Imaginate and Learning Teaching Scotland's co-create arts project. This interactive learning resource is designed to support children in assessing and evaluating live performances, and takes users through class discussion and evaluation exercises; as well as an interactive review process. Designed for use on classroom smart boards, the resource will guide teachers and pupils through the stages of evaluation and includes embedded class exercises for further exploration of subject themes in drama, art, literacy and numeracy.

It is lovely project to work on and we're thoroughly enjoying developing the scene and character animation.  Look out for the launch at this year's Scottish learning Festival and check back soon for a project demo....

Following our excellent work on the Red Squirrels of the Highlands website Screenmedia is pleased to have won a further commission from Forestry Commission Scotland; this time, to produce an interactive Map for Glen Affric, one of Scotland's many areas of outstanding beauty.

Find out more at the Forestry Scotland site at www.forestry.gov.uk/GlenAffric

Our recent project for ISO design, developing and building the iPad application for the Eiffel Tower in Paris is now complete. This multilingual app enables visitors to the Eiffel Tower, to explore a 360 degree panoramic of Paris using the unique capabilities and characteristics of the iPad. As users slide, zoom, drag and scale the panoramic image, points of cultural and historic interest appear. Clicking on the hotspots, reveals audio/visual guides to the many famous city landmarks, and also provides useful tourist information.

After 2 years developing for iPhone and iPod Touch, this is our first experience of using the Apple SDK to create an iPad app and we are very pleased with the results. The enhanced view, functionality and power of the iPad is truly revolutionary for entertainment and education and we're already in planning for our next project  - watch this space.

It has only been three months since we launched SprintGPS, our fitness tracking app, but already we've broken into the top 20 iTunes app rankings in the UK, Germany, France and Switzerland!

With tens of thousands of 'Sprinties' (our pet name for SprintGPS users) clocking up thousands of miles each week, the forum is really starting to buzz with comments, reviews, improvement ideas and feature suggestion. And while we're used to receiving positive client feedback, never before have we been part of such an evolutionary and real time product development process - and to say it is fun is an understatement.

It warms the cockles to see how enthusiastic  some of Sprint's users get about our app and last week we were stunned and delighted when one particularly avid fan went so far as to take the published product roadmap and turn it into an amazing infographic.

With SprintGPS we are really eating our own dog food and by going through the customer experience ourselves and listening to the feedback we receive our users are helping us to improve the quality and usability of the product, which will be of benefit to all our future clients. So, thank you Sprinties! Keep up the good work.

Watch this space for SprintGPS updates coming soon.

www.screenmedia.mobi

When Scotland's last survivor of the 1944 Stag Luft III "Great Escape" passed away peacefully last month aged 97, we were reminded of the veteran's part in World War II's derring-do breakout story that was later immortalised in film by Richard Attenborough, Steve McQueen and James Garner.

But what of the other national stories from our brave men and women in the forces that have never before been written down or projected onto the silver screen? Well, last year we were commissioned to build a ground breaking online museum for Museums Galleries Scotland to help capture a fresh treasure trove of undiscovered memories and artifacts of war from the nation's own civilians, veterans (young and old), as well as those currently serving in our armed forces.

This pioneering project began with Screenmedia developing the online multimedia exhibition using an innovative content management system, which allowed 16 project teams across Scotland to create and populate over 300 online exhibitions; including visual assets such as diary extracts, newspaper articles, old photographs, archived film, documents, paintings and photographed objects.

Now we're delighted to announce the official launch of Remembering Scotland at War - the culmination of nearly 2 years development with the team at MGS - complete with interactive online museum and community social networking platform. A later additon to the project, the online community site not only allows users to discuss Scotland's conflicts, they can also add their own archive of images, documents and letters to help uncover hidden pieces of Scotland's history; including stories and personal accounts which may not have been previously known to historians.

This fantastic intergenerational project is available online and as a classroom teaching aid via Learning Teaching Scotland's schools' intranet, Glow.

To explore the exhibition and to add your own archive documents, visit the museum at www.RememberingScotlandAtWar.org.uk

Our very own Sprint GPS health & fitness apps, that's what!

Our SprintGPS apps, for running, cycling and walking, have been available in the app store for little over a month now, and they are doing incredibly well.

Apple has picked us up several times, promoting us in the Appstore Health and Fitness category, listing us as 'new and noteworthy' and more recently featuring SprintGPS Walk Tracker Pro in the 'What's Hot' list in Health and Fitness; a real boost to sales.

If you haven't already looked us up in the iTune Store, Sprint GPS uses the iPhone 3G/3GS GPS technology to track your fitness activities in real-time. As you run, walk, cycle the app provides statistics including distance, pace, time, calories, altitude etc. It also maps your progress on google and opencycle maps. During an activity you can take photos, listen to music and on completion of your activity, you can review your training history and share your activities with others (via facebook, twitter and email) on the Sprint GPS website.

If you haven't already downloaded it and tried it out, please do - and let us know what you think.

www.screenmedia.mobi

We're looking for a talented .net developer to join our development team full time to assist on a variety of up and coming web and mobile web projects.  If you're passionate about emerging technology and would welcome the opportunity to work within a creative agency please drop us an email with some information about yourself and a CV to info@screenmedia.co.uk; we'd love to hear from you.

The successful candidate will have excellent knowledge of C#, Umbraco, XSLT, SQL Server, ASP.Net, MVC, SOAP, REST and jQuery. Additional knowledge of (X)HTML, CSS, xUnit/nUnit technologies will also be beneficial.

The preferred candidate will also have

- Excellent knowledge of modern software development best practice

- Experience of AJAX and associated technologies

- At least two years commercial experience using C#.Net

- Excellent interpersonal & communication skills

- An eye for detail, and an enthusiasm for ensuring that work is delivered to the highest possible standard.

- Previous experience working in a creative agency and to client deadlines

- Experience working with social media tools, technologies, applications and platforms would be highly beneficial

Well here it is, our Spring 2010 look.

We normally wait a while before radically changing our site, but the last couple of years has seen profound changes in digital media: it would be remiss of us not to practise what we preach.

The impact of Web 2.0 tools and technologies has changed online-design, from site architecture & navigation to layouts & style.

The pace of adoption of rich-media continues, much to the delight of our audio-visual production team.

Social-media has moved beyond 'buzz', into everyday use at work, at home and on mobile - offering exciting new forms of user-interaction to our clients. You'll see some great examples in our portfolio.

But perhaps the biggest change in 2009/10 has been in sales of iPhone/iPod Touch & iPad, which seem to have taken everyone, except our new mobile division, by surprise. Our team has been busy since last September developing our new SprintGPS app, and working on some beautiful new apps for clients.

After 6 months of intense development, the team of 'Brainiacs' at Screenmedia have officially launched the www.screenmedia.mobi website with the unveiling of the awesome new app - SprintGPS Fitness Tracking.

We have just released the app' to iTunes, and we are thrilled to be launching exclusively to the New Zealand market today and we'll be launching worldwide in 2 weeks.

The iPhone is so well suited to outdoor fitness tracking we just had to build this app'. The SprintGPS app tracks your route, time, speed, calories burned and much more.

The launch of SprintGPS marks our first app' development alongwith the evolution and expansion of our business. With our first iPod Touch app being delivered to the National Library of Scotland today and our first iPad commission realised, we're going to be very busy people.