Lottery Post Site News: Lottery Post for iPhone earns Apple 'Staff Pick'
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Lottery Post, the world's largest community of lottery players, today announced that the new iPhone Edition of its popular Web site was awarded a Staff Pick by Apple.
The iPhone, built by Apple, is a combination cell phone and handheld computer. It went on sale June, 2007, and has sold over 5 millions units. Apple claimed Thursday that the iPhone currently makes up 28% of the smartphone market.
"The iPhone is an ideal platform for lottery results and other lottery-related content," said Todd Northrop, CEO of Lottery Post. "The need to check winning numbers and create new ticket numbers while at the store or in the car is something any daily lottery player can relate to."
Lottery Post iPhone Edition allows lottery players to instantly look up the latest drawing results for any lottery game played in the United States, Canada, or United Kingdom, as well as check the past ten draws.
In addition to the winning numbers, the web application also displays the game schedule, the current jackpot amount, and the amount the jackpot has changed since the last drawing.
Players can also generate up to 50 "Quick Picks" — randomly-generated ticket numbers — at a time for nearly every game, providing a little help for those looking for last-minute inspiration at the ticket counter.
Works on the iPod Touch too
In September 2007, Apple's iPod Touch went on sale, offering features similar to the iPhone, but lacking the cell phone and a few other features.
The iPod Touch can use the same web applications as the iPhone, and connects to the Internet through built-in wi-fi (wireless network) support.
"The iPhone allows people greater flexibility to connect from anywhere," Northrop explained. "But with wi-fi networks prevalent in homes and stores, iPod Touch users have almost the same ability to check lottery results from anywhere that iPhone users do."
With the January firmware update 1.1.3, iPod Touch users can even add web application icons to the main menu screen, just like the iPhone.
For lottery players, that means a Lottery Post icon on a user's main menu screen can put them one touch away from lottery results and all the other Lottery Post features.
More features to come
Northrop promised that more features are on the way in the future.
"From a design standpoint, because the iPhone interface is list-based, it lets application developers add new features without disturbing the layout," Northrop said.
"The next features added to the Lottery Post iPhone Edition will be a mix of existing Lottery Post features ported to the iPhone and features that are unique to the iPhone."
Some features built for iPhone may even get ported in the opposite direction — back to the main Web site.
"Creating an iPhone application requires a different kind of thinking, and sometimes that can come out in ways that are better than what we have already on the traditional Web site," Northrop said.
"For example, I'll probably be moving the Quick Picks interface created for the iPhone over to the main Web site, because it turned out to be much more intuitive than the existing Quick Picks page."
No installation necessary
The Lottery Post iPhone Edition requires no installation, and no special link for iPhone or iPod Touch users.
To use the web application, users start the Safari Web browser and then type the web address "www.lotterypost.com" using the touch screen keyboard.
The Lottery Post Web site recognizes the web visitor as an iPhone or iPod Touch user, and automatically starts the web application.
Lottery Post recommends that users create a home screen button the first time they visit, so that future visits to Lottery Post iPhone Edition can be accomplished by touching a single button.
To create the home screen button, users click the small plus sign ("+") at the bottom of the touch screen, and click the Add to Home Screen button. Upon doing that, a special Lottery Post button will be added to the user's home screen, much like a Favorite in Internet Explorer.
Users of Lottery Post iPhone Edition also continue to have full access to the traditional Lottery Post Web site. To enter the main web site, users can touch the "Go to main site" button from the iPhone Edition, and they will be instantly brought to the Lottery Post Web site.
Because the iPhone Edition is a web application, when new features are launched, they are immediately available to each user, without installation of new software.
The Lottery Post iPhone Edition listing at the Apple software directory can be found at the following link: http://www.apple.com/webapps/entertainment/lotterypostiphoneedition.html