Check out the February issue of Forbes Africa – Cobi has been placed in 4th spot of the top 20 tech start-ups in Africa! For the full list online click here.

As always, the Cobi developers have been busy over the past few months.

The latest releases span from an interactive game to a news app.
PimPamPet is a well-known question-and answer game from Jumbo Games, a Dutch founded jigsaw puzzle and games company. The project was commissioned and managed by Amsterdam based mobile agency, FONKMobile, who met with us in Cape Town earlier this year.

The game needs to be played in 2 teams, and the iPad and iPhone apps make use of the touch gesture to spin the wheel, complete with realistic sound effects. Regular outbursts of “Pim!Pam!Pet!” accompanied the development of these apps and now that they’re completed the office is feeling rather quiet!

The iPad app developed for BusinessDay has been long in the pipeline and seems to have been well received. Marc Forrest of MarcForrest.com reviewed the app and said “If you own an iPad I highly suggest you get this app. By far one of THE best daily’s I have seen on the iPad.”

BusinessDay is South Africa’s most influential and respected business news and analysis source, offering incisive coverage of business, politics, labour and other current affairs, written by the country’s award winning journalists.

To get the PimPamPet app, click here.

To get the BusinessDay app, click here.

In case you haven’t heard the ads on the radio yet, the 5FM BlackBerry app is out and available on App World here. The app was developed by Cobi Interactive.

Cobi went to the Microsoft Dev Day in Cape Town on 24 May at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The keynote speech that started it off was quite interesting – MS giving us a nice overview of new features to help developers, nice IDE plugin management, showing off their new Azure web servers, and how they are going to help us move onto the cloud in the future. My main interest was to see their new WP7 development, so Steve Asherson and I decided to attend their morning lectures introducing the WP7 development cycle.

Rudi Grobler from BB&D took us through creating a beer-brewing recipe app – something very simple showing us how to piece together a menu system with a details page, linking up to a local database. WP7 development looks good, the platform looks good, and from this initial introduction, the tools look easy to use.

Of particular interest to me was the device emulator used during development. Those who know me would know that I really dislike most of the emulators that the manufacturers have given us. The iPhone one is so far the best out there – stable and loads really quickly. This new WP7 emulator also seemed to load up fast (of course depending on the laptop running it), but it also has some nice location-spoofing tools. Finally a way to test GPS code on an emulator easily – Android & BlackBerry, take note.

On the platform side, WP7 has some stringent requirements, the chip must be running at 800Mhz. Coupling that with the fact that only one app runs at any one time, means that the UI experience looks great, smooth and slick. Unfortunately, coming from an Android fan, I am a bit disappointed that there is such limited multi-threading, but that can of worms can be opened on another day.

Otherwise, the conference was very well run, the food was great, drinks readily available, conversation on tap at every corner – I could do this everyday. Oh, and there was a raffle for an X-Box 360… I can’t help thinking that if I’d put my entry in after Steve did that I would have won it. Well done, Steve, for winning – get those dancing shoes on!

This weekend Steve and Laura tied the knot in Plettenberg bay. The wedding was amazing and we all had a awesome time. Thanks Steve and Laura for sharing your special day with us.

Here at Cobi, we have 2 Steves, and it’s probably the only name our clients remember since they’re told twice, and we all know, repetition is the best way to remember something. Due to the confusion, we’ve nicknamed them Ballmer and Jobs. Anyway, it was Job’s birthday, which meant time for some good cake. Happy birthday Jobs!

Its been a busy few months here at Cobi Interactive with plenty of apps being developed and released, our team doubling in size and a move into an established office. Lets take a look at some of the highlights:

- For a look at our new office check out Leo’s post on the move.

- On the development side of things, we completed development for our friends at SmallDonkey Inc. on Xtrafolio, a professional portfolio iPad app. Check out a review of it here.

- We also completed development on two iPad applications for Studio4332 and Grolsch. The apps are being showed off at Design Indaba this week in Cape Town so look out for them if you’re attending. Check out the article here on the apps.

- The News24 Android app received a major update which was released a few weeks back.

- We completed development on MWEB’s iPad app, which was released onto the App Store

- Zoopy recently relaunched their brand and site with a fantastic new look and feel. To compliment their shift to a heavy mobile focus; we carried out major updates to their iPhone and BlackBerry apps.

Its grueling work getting a self-funded startup going, but we find that reflecting on our progress and milestones helps to keep the energy levels up and motivation high!

Cobi’s about 18 months old now, and after gaining a few new employees, things were getting a bit cramped in our snug little flat. We thought it was about time we got a real place to grow with us. Here are a couple of pics.

We’re surrounded by some more professional sounding companies.

Frosting on our door to avoid strange stares when our neighbours walk by..

We couldn’t leave home without our Wii…

Our office space..

My work area..

MWEB’s Nokia app is now available on the Ovi Store! The app was developed as a WRT widget and is compatible with S60v5 and the majority of S60v3 Nokia devices.

Cobi Interactive, in partnership with Beyond438, have developed a business utility application for the iPhone. The app enables you to quickly and easily calculate your hourly, daily, weekly and monthly rates and profit. The app offers an intuitive and simple interface with the ability to view, edit, save and email your rate sheets. Switch currencies with ease or updating any charge out rate or cost rate cell in the sheet to assist in determining the optimal rate structure for your next project.

Paid version available here and free version here.

Key Features:
>> Hourly, daily, weekly and monthly values all editable and visible in a single sheet.
>> Multiple currencies with selectable base and comparable currencies (Limited currencies available in lite version).
>> Exchange rates updated in realtime.
>> Save rate sheets for later viewing/editing (Full version only).
>> E-mail rate sheets in CSV format (Full version only).
>> Configurable hours per day, week and month.

Usage Examples:
1. A consulting manager can save his/her team’s rates for quick lookup. Quickly lookup a consultant’s rate structure when getting a call at the airport for a specific position.

2. The manager of a multinational consulting firm can enter the charge out rate in GBP and the cost rate in USD to review the profit of a US-based consultant working in the UK.