Urban Apps is proud to announce the release of our first Mac App store app! 

SimpleScrobbler is a Last.fm scrobbler without all the bells and whistles. A Mac App that lives in your status bar and leaves a smaller footprint on your computer.

The small app is less than a cup-o-joe, currently priced at only $1.99. Find out more at the website, or the Mac App Store.

We are sad to report that Ambiance for BlackBerry is no longer being maintained. Over the past few years, BlackBerry and RIM have certainly taken their hits, causing customers to switch to better platforms such as iOS and Android. Because of this, we have decided to focus our energy on other platforms.

If you are an Ambiance for BlackBerry customer, your existing copy of Ambiance should continue to work, but we will not be publishing any updates and any future BlackBerry OS update could potentially break the app.

In celebration of being featured by Apple in iTunes this week, Ambiance for iPhone/iPod and iPad is going on sale for $0.99 (normally $2.99) for a limited time only! AND, Ambiance Lite will be FREE (normally $0.99) for 1 day only! Get your copy now!

• Ambiance [iTunes] 
• Ambiance Lite [iTunes]

There comes a time in every apps lifecycle when it must look in the mirror and evaluate how it is doing, what went well and what could have been better. Over the past few months we have been looking closely at Ambiance for Android and have come to a blunt realization.

It sucks.

When we started the process of getting Ambiance on the Android Marketplace, we made a horrible business decision and decided to outsource the app to a team in India for the work. While initially pleased with the products that the outsourced companies produced, as Ambiance for iOS evolved, Android did not. As other apps in the store started to raise the bar in quality, the Ambiance app fell behind the curve in terms of UI and functionality. Depending on the outsourced company to produce a product that worked great, looked great and had a full set of features was becoming increasingly difficult, and lengthy delays and excuses were becoming commonplace.

In addition the poor business decision we made, there were some poor design decisions made with the Android app as well. Ambiance for iOS has always been celebrated for it’s UI and ease of use, and 2 years ago when we started the project, we naively thought that we should port the UI over to Android exactly like iOS. We decided to make the list and buttons look like iPhone buttons instead of Android buttons, and the look and feel of the app to be an iPhone App experience, not an Android app experience. This has left the app feeling unnatural to Android customers who expect and deserve better.

We messed up. Big time. Here is what we are doing to make it right:

1. Redesign the app from the ground up - We are throwing out all the old code and are rewriting the app from scratch. It will have functional and visual similarities as the iOS version, but will feel natural to even the most scrutinous Android customers.
2. Bring the development back home - We fired the outsourced firm a few months ago and have been searching for rock star Android developer to bring on to the team ever since. We have found a code ninja and have already began work on this new version.
3. Refund existing customers - Due to complications we have had in the past with the Google Marketplace, we will be offering Ambiance as a new app, but will fully refund any previous customers, including the 30% that Google keeps. We want to keep our long term customers pleased and are happy to give the full refund.
4. Release updates frequently - The benefit of bringing the development in-house is that we have more control over how the app is released. The initial version will not include every feature found in the iOS version, but will have the essential pieces. It will take a few months to complete the first version, but after that, we will be frequently updating the app with all the bits and goodies found in it’s iOS counterpart, until everything is there that makes sense for the Android device. We will also be able to address bugs quicker, incorporate customer feedback, and optimize for different devices much more quickly then we have in the past.

We would like to apologize for our lack of focus on the Android platform in the past, but rest assured that Ambiance for Android now has a dedicated engineer (also an avid Android user and fanboy) providing full attention to it. Consider this the birth announcement of an application that is well in need of a new beginning, a grand-re-opening, a fresh start, you get the idea.  Ambiance for Android will be back and will be great.

UPDATE: 11/11/11

The Ambiance Android app reboot is nearly complete. If you would like to help us beta test this new version (v3.0), please contact us at android@urbanapps.com

We just released a new app called Hanging With Cheats that lets you cheat the the popular Zynga game, Hanging With Friends, and we are looking for some feedback on the initial version.

Here are some Promo Codes to use to get a free copy in the iTunes App Store. Please contact us or comment below if you use one so we can remove it from the list.

• 3W93TY64K3N3
• RREPYWW4EMAN
• KME6LJRYXFL6
• JJF9R3JA94W3
• JTJAXNMAARTK
• RHTAXRNMWXJW
• JMRJME4PMLL6
• YKPHPANMW3NR
• MFHN9HM9P4AE

The app will only help you if you also have the Hanging With Friends app installed, so please only use a promo code if you can use our app to help cheat. Enjoy!

Both Ambiance and Ambiance Lite have been updated to version 3.2.3 in the iTunes App Store. While this is mostly a bug-fix version, there are a couple of cool new features:

1. Importing of Audio Files to the Recorder. You can now import any audio file into the recorder for auto-looping and addition to Ambiance. The most popular formats are supported, and the same duration rules apply as when making your own recordings (10 sec - 3 min). Please remember that you must own the copyright to any sound you upload to Ambiance.
2. Drill Down Library. For those of you with very large libraries, we have added a Drill Down mode to the Library page. This change makes finding your sound much easier than scrolling through a long list. Drill-down is the new default, but can be turned off in settings if you like.
3. Twitter / Facebook Buttons. Twitter Follow and Facebook Like button on the home screen to make it easy for you to receive the latest Ambiance news, including sound releases, app updates and more.

Head on over to the app store to get your free update.

• Ambiance on iTunes App Store
• Ambiance Lite on iTunes App Store