Shop Ethical! 2012, this year’s version of the popular Shop Ethical! app, has been released today in the iTunes App Store, and Android Market, and it is currently featured on the iTunes app store front page as ‘New and Noteworthy’.

Shop Ethical! is the app that gives the low-down on the environmental and social record of companies behind common brands you buy in Australian supermarkets, and this year’s update contains the most up to date data from the Ethical Consumer Guide, including two new categories Meat and Toys, and many other additional features:

• Additional Important Issues added
• Animal Ingredients information by product type
• Improved Company assessment display
• Improved Industry Alert display

The completely redesigned app features a refined new look, and a new feature that allows for updated data to be downloaded over the air without requiring an app update.

Last year’s app was featured in both the What’s Hot and New & Noteworthy sections of iTunes, as well as being written up by The Age, Macworld and Lifehacker.  It was also awarded an iTunes Rewind 2011 award as one of their favourite apps of 2011.

Shop Ethical! 2012 for iPhone is available now in the iTunes store here, and for Android devices in the Android Market here.

Outware developed Shop Ethical! 2011, OMG I can Eat That? and Margaret Fulton Favourites apps have been featured in the Epicure section of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

As part of the list of their favourite food apps, Epicure polled food lovers and food writers:  the result is a collection of information-based food apps that are well developed and easy to navigate; two key development goals for all the apps that we develop.

All three apps are currently available in the App Store, and Shop Ethical! 2012 is coming soon for iPhone and Android.

You can read the article here.

The Memory-Prediction Framework (MPF) has been widely applied to unsupervised learning problems, for both classification and prediction. However, so far there has been no attempt to incorporate MPF/HTM in reinforcement learning or other adaptive systems.

This research proposes some simple and biologically-plausible enhancements to the Memory-Prediction Framework. These cause it to explore and interact with an external world, while trying to maximize a continuous, time-varying reward function. Among other demonstrations, they show that a 2-node hierarchy can learn to successfully play “rocks, paper, scissors” against a predictable opponent.

As well as AI research and leading the Outware team building amazing apps, Gideon is also passionately pursuing his investigations into making the best tasting ‘affogato’ iced coffee known to man.

Outware is pleased to announce that MSO Learn, the app for iPhone and iPad developed for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has been nominated as a finalist for an AIMIA Award for Best Application on a Tablet or Mobile.

If you haven’t already seen MSO Learn download it free from the App Store. MSO Learn for iPhone and iPad is designed to teach children and adults alike about the inner workings of the MSO and its musicians.

The AIMIA Awards are given for the best Digital Content created in Australia, and winners will be announced in Sydney on March 16, 2012. The Awards are comprised of 26 categories across all genres and digital platforms, and are the longest running and most prestigious in Australia’s Digital Industry.

Wish us luck!

The growing use of the app by citizens as an easy way to help solve councils issues, as well as featuring in the New & Noteworthy and What’s Hot sections of iTunes, has led to a lot of press, as well as positive feedback from councils.

Snap Send Solve is now featured on many council websites as an official channel for reporting issues. Councils around Australia using Snap Send Solve include:

You can download free Snap Send Solve for free from the iPhone App store or Android Market.

The app allows anyone to report people they see littering from or near motor vehicles in 6 simple steps.

Outware Mobile assisted the EPA in designing and developing the app and integrating it so that reports from the app go directly into EPA’s records management system which is used to generate fines.

Vic Heritage, which was released this week, is a rich, informative app that explores the histories of the most important and unusual places in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Ian Thorpe – Cook for Your Life is Ian’s first cookery app, where he shares his recipes, as well as his philosophy on diet gleaned from his many years working with experts in nutrition and performance. Whether swimming, working or taking a break, Ian has refused to give up the flavours of his favourite meals, and his lifelong love of cooking has led him to develop simple, beautiful, easy-to-prepare, protein-rich meals to keep him in great shape, all available in a handy iPhone app.

Check them both out on the iTunes app store front page.

The Melbourne and Sydney Eating and Drinking Guides for 2012 are now available in the app store.

Each app contains over 700 of the best restaurants, nifty bars and cheap treats, written up by dedicated team of reviewers that has gobbled and guzzled its way through the 700+ bars and pubs, cafes and low-down to high-end eateries, to bring a mobile guide to Melbourne and Sydney’s finest.

Eating & Drinking Melbourne and Sydney guides are your guide to a great night out, and both available in the App Store now.

Outware Director, Danny Gorog is quoted in a Daily Telegraph report on how Australia’s universities are updating their Science courses to focus on apps, games design and animation. Danny says:

Australia’s largest mobile development firm, Outware Mobile, said it struggled to find university graduates proficient in mobile applications. Director Danny Gorog said his firm had to train its recruits because students were not being taught the skills at uni.”There’s a real skills shortage out there,” he said. “We hire smart, young graduates and we put them through a training course.

“If universities want to attract the brightest developers, they need to offer courses in mobile applications and interactive technology.”

Read the full article online here on The Telegraph’s website.

Developed by Outware Mobile for Hardie Grant Publishing, The Foodies’ Guides help users discover their city’s best kept food secrets, and show foodies where to find the finest ingredients and freshest produce.

All The Foodies’ Guide 2012 Apps feature

• More than 360 butchers, bakers, food stores and chocolate makers
• Find a producer (search/A-Z/by suburb/by category)
• Producers near me – discover the gems on your doorstep
• Producers out of town
• Favourites lists
• Awarded producers
• Social media sharing