Annoying Orange: Kitchen Carnage has been selected to participate in the App Madness 2011 Tournament, a 64-team, single-elimination app tournament.

While many excellent mobile games are available today on the Appstore, how do you find them if they aren’t currently in the top 100 or even the top 50?   The purpose of App Madness is to pull the best games from all over the Appstore and allow users to vote on them until there is only one remaining.

Round 1 begins today, August 1, and only one game will be victorious by the end of the month.  Stop by App Madness and check out the match-ups and VOTE each day for Annoying Orange: Kitchen Carnage to influence the contest and crown the Orange as a winner!

Three Bottle Rocket produced apps have made the iTunes App Store iPad Hall of Fame list and we couldn’t be more proud:

• The Civil War Today
• SPIN Play
• NPR

To see the full list, open iTunes and navigate to the iPad section of the store.  Under “App Store Quick Links” on the right side of the page, click “iPad Hall of Fame.”  Thank you to our clients, A&E TV, SPIN Media, and NPR for allowing us to be a part of your success in the mobile space, and thank you to their fans for downloading and enjoying our apps.

Today, we launched the newest version of Discovery Channel HD for iPad “Shark Week,” free of charge, in the app store, and we are thrilled to be the ones to make Shark Week truly interactive.

Just in time for this season’s Shark Week premier on Sunday, July 31st, this app version has “Shark Week Live,” which allows viewers watching the primetime television show to obtain behind-the-scenes information, exclusive production photos, maps, graphs, illustrations and incredible shark facts not seen on the show.  All content is synchronized with the live TV viewing experience.

This new version boasts several new features like:

• Video “Cinepuzzles,” think a traditional puzzle vs. a static image
• The ability to “favorite” content for later viewing
• Live, interactive, co-viewing experiences

The user can also compete against other live viewers in polls and quizzes.  Fans of the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, who definitely want additional information and exclusive content, can now see the show schedules, video clips, and photos, plus chat with other viewers via Facebook and Twitter about show content in this latest app.

On Saturday, June 18, Apple released its new iPad 2 commercial entitled simply, “Now.”  Another Bottle Rocket success story, we are proud and humbled at the same time to be a part of the mobile revolution in entertainment and information access.

Using these amazing iPad apps, like The Wall Street Journal, you can watch a newspaper.  WSJ’s app came up with embedded videos so you can also enjoy videos associated to the article you’re reading.  Through SPIN Play, you can listen to the magazine’s featured songs in the app.

Apple also highlights FaceTime and how you can now make a video call. Moreover, the new iPad 2 commercial shows that you can now take a class anyplace by streaming lecture videos right on your iPad.  Hold a complete bookstore with eBooks and touch the stars by means of the Star Walk app.

Thank you, Apple, for the mention in the commercial, and thank you, SPIN Magazine, for the opportunity to build an app we love as much as your fans.

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JUNE 20, 2011:  UPDATE!

As of this morning, June 20, 2011, our Science360 app is now ranked #3 overall in Top Free iPad Apps section of iTunes App Store!  Congratulations to the National Science Foundation for an amazing and beautiful app.

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As we publish this post, our Science360 app is ranked #12 in the iTunes App Store under “New and Noteworthy” and we’re hoping you’ll help us push it into the Top 10 this weekend.

This Father’s Day, as you’re frantically looking for gift ideas, how about adding in a FREE gift of exploration, discovery, and conversation starters for you and Dad?  We almost would go so far as to say this app increases the value of your time… both the “in between time” in the hustle of daily living and the time spent together with Dad and the whole family.

Happy Father’s Day to everyone!

Just to give you some insight into our behind the scenes missions and missives, we’re sharing a few notables that happened this week…

The following apps are “Featured” in the iTunes App Store:  BET, SPIN Play, NPR Music, NPR for iPad, The Civil War Today, and Annoying Orange (we reached over 5.5 million game plays this week!).

Also in Annoying Orange news, the final votes were tallied on the “Tap below to VOTE for your favorite way to kill fruit in the next update!” and the microwave is the clear winner!  Check out where the microwave will sit in the next version coming soon!!!

In addition to several new hires on both iOS and Android developer teams, we have six members of the team who will be attending WWDC in San Francisco during the first week of June.

And finally, be on the lookout for new app updates in HD Radio for iPhone 1.5, Fuel Finder 3.4.1, and the soon-to-be-famous machine of death microwave in Annoying Orange, of course…

This past Summer, Bottle Rocket released the iPhone and iPad Sparkabilities 1 and Sparkabilities 2 apps based on the Play Wisely Development System, a complete motor and cognitive play program for children under 3 years of age.  Our Founder and Chief Strategist, Calvin Carter, and his wife have been using this system with their children since they were 4 months old (they are now 2 1/2 years).

Here are five other reasons to download both of the Sparkabilities apps now:

1. For children with special needs
2. For entertainment when the whole family is out to dinner
3. For making long car rides fly by in a flash
   
4. While waiting in the doctor’s office
5. For those long lines at the grocery store

Sparkabilities 1 and Sparkabilities 2 are the only apps for babies 3 to 24 months old designed to entertain and exercise cognitive skills like focus, tracking, visual discrimination and part-to-whole relationships.  The app constantly keeps baby’s coordination level in mind as the app was designed with larger hit areas and to handle jabs or slaps at the screen.

While we are proud to have created some truly cutting-edge apps for major media brands, we are most humbled to be a small part of helping raise a more adaptive, focused, and bright future of children.

Yes, we’re blushing… What an honor to have one of our most favorite apps we’ve created for the iPad given some PRIME attention and highlighting by Apple in the iTunes app store again!

Download SPIN Play and be prepared to experience music and artists unlike anything ever seen on the iPad.  Our team of music-loving developers hand-crafted a visually stunning and user-friendly music discovery, news and reviews app for hours of entertainment.

But, don’t take our word for it.  Here’s what others are saying:

• ***** stars: This app is AMAZING! I love how they offer the daily news and reviews content for free, and the issues for only $1.99. There is so much valuable content for such a low price tag, I’m not even sure how that’s possible. I can’t wait to see what else they add into the app, but it’s off to a fantastic start!
• ***** stars: The fact that you can listen to the music while reading the magazine is pretty awesome and makes it a very enjoyable experience.
• ***** stars: I used to work for a national magazine and it isn’t easy to create a digital version of something that most people still prefer to read in print… believe me, we tried.  This app sets the bar for how to do it right, especially since the ability to listen to music and view videos actually makes the app “better” than the physical magazine…

Released yesterday afternoon by our Thruster division, we are LIVE with a face-to-peel interview of the Annoying Orange: Kitchen Carnage HD for iPad in the Apple App Store…

Bottle Rocket (BR): So tell us, Orange, how does it feel to be updated in HD and on the iPad device?

Annoying Orange (AO): Hey, you’re an iPad!!!

BR: Actually, no… I’m a reporter for the “BadApps Daily.”  Do you realize how famous you are?

AO: Yeah, well… I’m cute.  I’m annoying.  I’m an orange!  With 8.3 million Fans on Facebook, I am THE orange.  To some, I’m the King of Comedy, the Prince of Puns, the Earl of Irritation, and to others, I’m just a royal pain in the butt.  Butt, I’m a rising star in the Apple App store!  Wait, did I say “apple?”  They need to rename that place!

BR: Alrighty, then.  There you have it, folks, and that about wraps it up here in the kitchen site of all the cabinets, carnage and characters like Pineapple, Banana, Melon, Passion fruit, Grapefruit, Knife, and of course, Apple.

AO: Call me whatever you want… Just don’t call me an Apple!  Hate that!  Ooooooh, Sparkly!

And, finally, @leeroyholmes has put together a great YouTube video reviewing our first update to 1.1 on the iPhone, so get it NOW!