Inman

Kris Berg’s iPad debut

With the pending Saturday arrival of the first wave of iPad tablet computers, Apple has retooled its iTunes store with an array of apps that cater to the new device.

Inman News’ own Kris Berg, a weekly columnist and real estate broker who mixes humor and sobering commentary about the state of the real estate brokerage industry, is the star of an iPad-ready app that awaits the device’s first-adopters.

"Keeping it Real (estate): A Guide to Life, Happiness and the Pursuit of Property," which features a collection of Berg’s writing and videos, was previously launched as a paid iPhone and Web app and has been reformatted as an iPad app.

Created by Vook.com, a company founded by Inman News Publisher and longtime innovator Bradley J. Inman that marries text with multimedia elements, Berg’s Vook iPad app is available for $5.99 (the iPhone version is available for $4.99).

Matthew Cavnar, senior director of content and acquisitions for Vook, said that the "Keeping it Real (estate)" iPad app, along with 18 others that the company has rolled out in this initial launch, has a new layout and features such as a single finger swipe to access the table of contents and to turn pages.

Users can also click on hyperlinks in the app’s text to call up Web pages as overlay screens, and can highlight text and send it to others via e-mail.

While some companies have built customized apps for the iPad, the devices can also run any of the more than 150,000 apps already available for the iPhone.

Zillow and ZipRealty are among the companies that have created iPad-ready real estate applications. Inman News columnists Gahlord Dewald (see column) and Teresa Boardman (see column) have written about the launch of the iPad, and its relevance to real estate professionals, in recent weeks.

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