Tiny Shiny Apps and its first release, Number 10 were the recipients of some unexpected attention following the announcement of the release of the official Downing Street iPhone app.
The announcement was made by Gordon Brown at the “Building Britain’s Digital Future” event, at a time when then official app had not filtered through all parts of the App Store. Some eager reporters and bloggers found the Tiny Shiny Apps app instead of the official app which caused confusion and mild outrage as this was a paid app rather than a free app and seemed against the objectives of a more open Government. Shane Richards of the Telegraph asked: “How many iPhone apps does Downing Street need?”
The purpose behind us creating this app was to showcase how such an app may look without expecting an official version to arrive in such quick succession. Our app was released on 10th March 2010 and the official app followed on 12 days later. Ideally there would have been a nice 6 month gap at least!
The Tiny Shiny Apps Number 10 app was created using TapLynx to easily include news, videos and Twitter feeds from the Number 10 site.
Use our app (paid) or the official app (free), it’s your choice. If you need talk to someone about iPhone app development, talk to Tiny Shiny Apps. If you need a major policy change, please speak to Downing Street.
