For immediate release

Sun Media’s new and free news streaming iPhone application ranks Top 5 in Canada’s App Store

Montreal, March 4, 2010 – The free news streaming application developed by Sun Media and Five Mobile for Apple’s iPhone has seen rich success thus far. Launched in December 2009, the application is now one of the Top 5 most downloaded applications in Canada. Simple to configure, it brings users exclusive news from Sun Media’s network, including Toronto Sun, Ottawa Sun, Winnipeg Sun, Calgary Sun, Edmonton Sun and London Free Press.

With this application, readers receive personalized news on their iPhones in real time. From monitoring stock prices to viewing various photo galleries, readers can choose the news that interests them. The application is always available for download via the App Store. or from any Sun Media newspaper website.

“This new application allows us to provide relevant content to our readers anywhere, anytime. It’s been designed with the end-user in mind, making it the most user friendly and customizable app out there. With our customer-based approach, the application quickly became a favorite, standing out from the competition, says Francis Beaulieu, Director of Mobile and User Identity Products. The application was developed in collaboration with Five Mobile Inc., its expertise has largely contributed to the success of the application.”

Ameet Shah, VP, Sales & Business Development, Co-Founder of Five Mobile Inc., says “working closely with Sun Media, a leader of Canadian information and content, has enabled us to develop a simple, effective and exclusive application that attracts people eager for up- to-the-minute news.”

Sun Media’s mobile strategy will soon cross another milestone when it launches an application that streams news and information to the BlackBerry network. This launch is expected in March 2010.

Sun Media Corporation

Sun Media Corporation, a division of Quebecor Media, is Canada’s largest newspaper publisher, with close to 15.0 million copies published each week. With 42 paid-circulation and free dailies throughout Canada, all with their own dedicated websites, and more than 220 community newspapers, shopping guides and other specialty publications, Sun Media Corporation’s English and French language papers are leaders in providing local news and information. Sun Media Corporation aggregates the activities of Canoe.ca, an integrated company offering e-commerce, information and communication services. It owns the Canoe Network, which attracts 9.2 million unique visitors per month in Canada, including more than 4.1 million in Quebec. Sun Media Corporation is also involved in the operation of SUN TV, a general interest television station in Toronto, and provides a range of commercial printing and related services as well as distribution for newspapers, flyers and magazines. For additional details, visit our parent company’s website at www.quebecor.com.

Five Mobile

Five Mobile creates interactive mobile applications and websites, working with many of thetop brands and enterprises in the space. Five Mobile takes mobile ideas from concept to completion and simplifies the creation and optimization of solutions across all mobile platforms. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. For more information, please email info@fivemobile.com or visit www.fivemobile.com.

Contacts:
Sun Media
Francis Beaulieu
Director Mobile and User Identity Products
Office: 514.504.2796
francis.beaulieu@canoe.ca

Five Mobile
Ameet Shah VP, Sales & Business Development, Co-Founder
ameet@fivemobile.com

Dog book
Following the popularity of the Dogbook Facebook application, Poolhouse has launched the Doghouse iPhone application, which is now available as a free download on the iTunes store. Check out the video as well!

“The Dogbook iPhone app is an evolution of the Facebook application,” says Alexandre Roche, Dogbook co-creator. “Having Dogbook on your iPhone allows you to always have your dog with you, connect with other dog owners and gives you constant access to a number of resources like finding a dog park nearest to you.”

Features of the application include photo uploads, list other Dogbook users who are near you and locates nearby dog parks no matter where you are in the world. Lost a dog? You can use the application’s “Arf Alert” to send a message to all Dogbook users within a 15-kilometre radius with a photo and your contact information. Found a dog? Call the happy owner right from your phone.

“Posting your lost dog’s photo on a telephone pole is now a thing of the past as a way to find your favourite friend,” says Geoffrey Roche, Dogbook co-creator. “Posting a photo on ‘Arf Alerts’ takes all the great features of the iPhone, like GPS, and combines them with our two million strong user base to save the day for your dog.”

Dogbook is the creation of Canadian father and son team Geoffrey Roche and Alexandre Roche. Poolhouse developed the Dogbook iPhone application in conjunction with Five Mobile. The Dogbook Facebook application has over two million users and has been featured on ABC World News, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Times and BBC.

About Poolhouse
Poolhouse produces other popular Facebook applications such as Catbook, My Babybook, Horsebook, Ferretbook, Rodentbook, Fishbook and Birdbook.

About Five Mobile

Five Mobile creates compelling, robust and scalable mobile applications for brands and enterprises across a multiple of different platforms and handsets.

We’re happy to say that we finally have an application that is featured in an Apple commercial! The ecobee application can be seen in various Apple commercials throughout the olympics. Check it out!

We expect October to be a great month as well, with the start of the NHL and NBA season!

Of course if this developer had contacted us, we could have answered most of these questions up front

Read the article here.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we’ve launched Score Mobile for BlackBerry today. Check out the press release when you have a moment, and *definitely* go download the application. Download it here! A lot of hard work went into this, and we’re proud of the end result!

As we outlined, Mobile Web apps have their advantages in terms of cost and broad device reach, however they lose out on the ability to access device hardware and don’t get the presence on App Stores.  There is a compromise that lets you take a bit of both worlds.

1. Develop your mobile web application.  This can be done for as many or as few devices as you’d like.  This application should take advantage of the rich browsers in iPhone/Android, BlackBerry 4.6+, etc. as well as offer a solid WAP experience on feature phones.
2. For each platform you really want to make your application shine, you would develop a native “Shell” application which is nothing more than a window into your Mobile Web site, utilizing the platform’s native web UI component/widget.

This gives you the following benefits:

1. Ability to hook into the native features of the device, such as GPS and Camera, passing information to the mobile web app as suitable.
2. Ability to list your application on the various App Stores, increasing your application’s presence in the market.
3. The flexibility of having a mobile web app – it can be updated on the server in a moments notice without requiring the user to update the installed application on their device.
4. Simple, quick development of a mobile web site, reaching a broad set of devices in advance of having a native application completed for various platforms.
5. Easy transition from mobile web to hybrid app when desired – you can push out the URL for downloading the native shell application when the users open your mobile web site
6. If you’re seeing huge uptake on a particular platform, you can always decide to move the application more towards a conventional full native application – taking advantage of caching, snappier UI changes, animations, etc.

So this is a “Hybrid Application” – a perfect combo of mobile web and mobile app, giving you flexibility and power to develop your application in stages, growing as your number of users does.