by Thomas Giacobbi, DDS, FAGD, Editorial Director, Dentaltown Magazine
For all the trouble that smartphones can cause, I am
fully dependent on mine. The notion of carrying a
computer in my pocket would have given me a
headache when Dentaltown.com started 15 years ago,
but today it is commonplace. Everyone can name
dozens of situations where the smartphone can be a
godsend—you need turn-by-turn directions to a new
address, you want to scan an item in the store to see if
it’s available on Amazon, you need to settle an argument
or check the score for any sporting event. In most cases,
the information is derived from a Google search, as in:
“Just a minute while I Google that.”
Dentaltown.com has long been the dental
Google. We currently index more than three-and-ahalf
million posts that form the elements of conversations,
debates and nuggets of great clinical
information on every dental topic you can imagine.
In fact, our site search function is powered in the
background by a beautiful (and very expensive) piece
of technology called a search appliance (go ahead and
Google it). This means we are the digital warehouse
of all things dental.
Approximately two years ago we launched the first
Dentaltown app in an effort to improve your
Dentaltown.com experience on a mobile device. Prior
to the app, users would see a mobile-optimized version
of our site. The app added some additional organization
and custom menus. However, the original app
was designed to be platform neutral so we could have
a single app that would be compatible with many different
mobile platforms. While that is very efficient for
a small company, we missed out on some features that
are commonly found in other applications.
We are pleased to bring you
an even better experience on your
pocket computer that you call a
smartphone. Please put your
hands together for the first native
iOS App for Dentaltown.com.
To say it another way, we have just released the first version
of the Dentaltown.com app for Apple mobile
devices. This new app better integrates with some of the
features built into your phone. For example, the camera,
photo library and sharing functions can be easily accessed
using icons that are familiar to you in other apps.
Are you on Android? Don’t despair, we have a
native Android app in the works and we will release
it as soon as it is ready.
This would be a good time for me to introduce
our mobile developer, Richard Ortiz. He is the man
who is working with the rest of our IT team to be sure
the apps are communicating with the “mother ship.”
With that in mind, Richard would love to hear your
feedback as you start using the new app. His email is
richard@farranmedia.com. We will certainly continue
to add features over time and your input can influence
our priority list. Please be candid and patient as
we work on future updates to the app.
What are you waiting for? Go to the iTunes store
and download the new Dentaltown app.
I appreciate your feedback on this column as well
as any suggestions you may have for future topics.
You can find me on Twitter @ddsTom or via email at tom@dentaltown.com.
Have you tried the new app? Comment online at: www.dentaltown.com/MessageBoard/thread.aspx?a=11&s=2&f=212&t=228197
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