We are incredibly psyched that SURFit iPhone has launched, bringing you the worlds first LIVE interactive surfcams.

You can download it here from the app store.

The initial release is packed full of features already. The available surfcams stream live to your iPhone - either over Wifi or 3G - and can all be remote controlled. Following an overview of the apps features in detail.

With the initial purchase of the app, users get a monthly subscription and 40 credits to control the cameras. Each time a camera is controlled, one credit is used up. The subscription is renewed every month. Both come at $2.99 or at least that's the current pricing.

For the surfcam controlling you use the iPhone swipe gestures. You can also zoom in-out by pinching.

When in control, users can also jump to pre-defined breaks on the beach which can be very helpful when you need to move the camera to the opposite end of a beach or if you want to simply explore the local surfspots!

The image quality can be very good, the speed of the stream depends on your reception.

The 8D4Cast conditions report provides current data on tide times, wind (and its effect on the waves), weather, water temperature and a graph indicating swell size & conditions for the coming eight days.

What is particularly informing to read every day besides viewing the graph is the editorial 8D outlook. SURFit will soon have custom forecasts for each beach that is available as well.

Somewhat hidden within the conditions/ forecast section of the app is the 6am report which is what i would personally call a hidden gem in terms of its usefulness to local surfers. I use it myself every morning to check on what the conditions were an hour before my clock woke me up.! You have to scroll all the way down to find the 6am report within the 8D4C, maybe in a future release we will find a neat way of making it easier to get to.

We really think that we have created something quite unique here. SURFit iPhone is an app that focuses 100% on the needs of surfers, kiters, swimmers, beachgoers in general. And with an expanding list of cameras it only gets better!

We used a mix of on- and offshore resources for the development and graphical design portions of the app. It all linked together at the Australian Pantha Corp office in Narrabeen from which the resources were co-ordinated, user-stories written and wireframes mocked up for the interaction design. As on other projects it's quite fascinating to see how much can get done by a small team focused on the best outcomes.

I can only say: enjoy SURFit iPhone and let us have your comments & wishes via the SURFit Facebook group! The future should bring more beaches, more beaches and H264 encoding at least for the live streaming part which should reduce the download demands of the app considerably.

Good teamwork with our partner IDEAS Systems who launched surfit.com as a service quite a while back and are providing all the infrastructure & content for the app, we are looking forward to creating the coming app releases for them!