The glasses had the disembodied bones of a human hand painted under the finish of the lenses. The app shows fish in any water body you can point to with your phone.

Uploaded on 29 Jan 2012, the ‘How To Use the FishFinder app in iphone’  video on YouTube comes up quite frequently in searches done for ‘iphone fish finder’.   It’s been viewed 100,000 times since it debuted last year.  The video is presented as the testimonial of a British consumer, a recreational fisherman who claims to have used the app to catch fish the night before.  It cannot be true.  The video was made entirely to deceive viewers into purchasing a fake three dollar app.

The narrator  never shows his face nor offers any explanation about how the phone could possible acquire the information it shows on screen, which looks like a very accurate and easy-to-read fishfinder display comparable with the most expensive units on the market. Viewers listen as he describes how, in the previous evening he used the Fishfinder iPhone app  ‘to catch a 28lb common’ as he says, and again at the end of the video he says ‘to catch a cranking 28lb specimen.’

The narrator makes no mention whatsoever of the technology at work inside the iphone – it would be indeed be a marvelous piece of machinery that could send sonar signals through the air to penetrate the water or as the narrator calls it, ‘the swim’ and identify the presence of anything therein of any size.

HOW DOES IT WORK? It doesn’t work as a fishfinder, but making the whole sonar deception is reasonably sophisticated. The app requires the user take a picture of ‘the swim’ just so it can recognize the dimensions of the water body and create the appropriate response. The app then plays the same sonar sound effect from the 1954 Hollywood movie, Jules Verne 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Eventually it will model the digital readout according to the dimension of the water body in the photo and show different size fish at various depths as you can see in the video.

Even gag products like X-Ray Glasses sold in comic books thirty years ago gave some clue as to their actual composition, and their true value proposition… Note the word ILLUSORY in the sales copy.

The description left by the developers in the Apple store does not clearly specify that this is a gag item; they write, “Fishfinder app simulates a sonar detection system which shows information on the swim you are fishing in such as depth of river/lake, contour of river/lake, size of fish in cms, distance fish are away from you in meters.   Fool your fishing mates into thinking that your iphone is able to show the fish in their swim!”  And the You Tube video is even worse – that narrator shamelessly extols the merits of the app and ends with a call to action advising viewers purchase the app.  The comments have been disabled on the YouTube video so its not possible for people to leave any warnings.

Carp Lakes has other mobile software products on the market which do seem to be altogether reputable and are getting good reviews. You would think someone would have complained about the fake Fishfinder App on their discussion forum yet there is no thread I could find on the subject.  yet their discussion forum makes no mention of the social malaise of misleading fishermen into believing this app could possible work. Playing the part of an investigative blogger, on behalf of the FishHunter blog and in the name of all reputable iPhone fishfinders, I have left this thread in the app developer’s discussion forum asking if they are troubled by the video’s deception ?

If ever anyone needed a reminder that these are still the early ‘wagons west’ days of the mobile phone apps , it would be the presence of gag apps and fraudulent testimony supporting their efficacy.  This is #ifraud.

The post Fake Phone FishFinder App Deceives Fishermen appeared first on FishHunter | Fish Finder & Fishing App.

Must be 18 yrs old to enter, see FishHunter Contest Privacy Policy for further territory exceptions and terms and conditions. Absolutely no photo editing or any tampering will be tolerated.  NOTE:  It’s easy to accomplish this challenge anytime you spot the moon in the night sky, but it’s hard to do this photography well, and get the respect of the community to earn a Top Ten ranking, and then win over the Judges to Win the prize(s) and fame on our homepage, and in the FishHunter blog forevermore.

Some very successful fishermen follow John Alden Knight’s Solunar Tables which is a specialized moon phase calendar that was designed many years ago to determine the best times to go fishing, and the Fishing App Moon Phase photo contest hopes to draw attention to the FishHunter mobile fishing app which has accurate Moon Cycles calendar to help fishermen predict peak fishing times, at night during a Full Moon, and during a New Moon.

Solunar Theory postulates that everything alive is a little more alive during a full moon (or a new moon).

Tweet with hashtag #FishingAppMoonPhase on Twitter. Use the descriptive text to tell a #FishingAppMoonPhase fishing story. Try to capture the fishing app and the moon with as much scenery in the background as possible. These photos should NOT be edited, but rather snapped and uploaded as they were in reality. You can enter as many times as you like, but only the Top Ten photos as ranked by user votes will advance to our panel of Judges.

Ozzy’s Fishing App Barks At The Moon

WHAT DO THE JUDGES WANT?  On the morning of Sept 25th the Top Ten group advances to Judges that seek to find the one perfect shot that communicates the 1) best moon shot in the sky overhead, 2) alongside the smartphone moon phase picture. The 3) amount of  interesting background  and 4) good overall exposures, 5) best text description of moon phase story.  All six factors will be considered and explored in Judge’s statements published beside the winner’s name and above the prizewinning picture. Winner to be celebrated on FishHunter website on Oct 1st and on the FishHunter blog.  Enter now.

CONTEST RULES

Users may upload photos now and right up until Sept 25th 2013. All photos must be original work and not retouched or doctored in anyway, and no watermarks allowed.

Voting will commence at 12:00 am  TKTK and run until TKTK

Voting will END at exactly 11:59 pm on Sept 24th,  2013 and the Judges Deliberations on the Top Ten image grouping will begin on Sept 25th whereupon the Judges have four days to declare their two favourites and WHY they chose those two specific images will be recorded on the FishHunter blog.

The WINNER is announced on Sept 31st 2013 along with new photo contest challenges.

The Prize is a fishfinder alongside an Apple iPad mini – put together they become the perfect portable fishfinder solution 

The Winner will be celebrated and publicly acclaimed on the FishHunter Website homepage, and in a fresh blog enties on the FishHunter blog which will be updated when we receive a picture of the winner holding their Apple iPad mini.

TIPS TO WINNING   These winning photos should NOT be filtered ala Instagram or enhanced in anyway but rather snapped and uploaded right at the scene. You can enter as many times as you like, but only the Top Ten photos as ranked by user voting will advance to Judges.  Users can vote once per day.

Fishing App Moon Phase Photo Contest will let everyone see how close you can bark at the moon with your mobile device. Be sure and share your #FishingAppMoonPhase photo on Facebook, Twitter to collect user votes and be vaulted into the Top Ten image grouping.

The post Fishing App Moon Phase Photo Contest appeared first on FishHunter | Fish Finder & Fishing App.