My6sense: An iPhone App for Feeds, With Digital Intuition Built-in

The concept of information overload has been much-debated. Practically everyone, with myself being a rare exception, says they are overwhelmed by the amount of data that is flowing their way. Decisions need to be made in terms of what to read, where to read, how to respond, and how to interact with the growing data tsunami. And while I have suggested that you control your own destiny, and that any info overload is actually your fault and responsibility, one company, My6sense, has come up with a new approach to finding the most "important" and "relevant" items in your information trough, based on your own interaction. And this company is focused not so much on the deskbound information connoisseur, but for the new world of those on the go. The company has, after significant investment of time, debuted an iPhone application, soon to hit the iTunes store, which follows your own input, and based on your activity, finds what content is most relevant.

While the company awaits Apple's permission to be included in the Store, I have had the opportunity to get to know My6sense, and it aims to know me.


To start with My6sense, you can choose to import streams from services such as Google Reader, or you can add from predefined bundles, called My6sense picks. In addition, you can opt to follow a number of your social streams, or add a single feed, by URL.


Once you have imported feeds, you are presented with these entries, similar to how they are displayed in your RSS reader. On the first time you visit My6sense, it may not know you well, but as you scroll through your items and choose individual ones to read, its Digital Intuition meter scales further to the right until it is an expert on what you like and what you don't.


The idea? See if the best content will float to the top and deliver you the highest quality information, on the go.


Unsurprisingly, if your data set of activity is small, the potential for error is high, so it makes sense to train the application and get to know it well. For example, if you, like I did, happen to click one or two Valleywag and Mashable stories upon first loading the application, it may guess you like those sources, and make them have the lion's share of "top spots", until you scroll further down, and find more interesting items to read.


Like with Google Reader, My6sense presents you with the opportunity to share the best of what you find with your social networks. One feature, called your "stream", includes all those items you have hand-selected for sharing. And if you choose, you can send items from this stream, automatically, to networks including Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed, upon entering your credentials. It's a lot like having your Google Reader link blog editable at your fingertips on your iPhone.

Now, before you remind me that, yes, Google Reader has a mobile version, and it works, even populating my link blog, keep in mind that My6sense is trying to do much more than just get you your feeds. It wants to correctly anticipate those you would like the most, and those which you're likely to skip. Following my initial few clicks, My6sense got to learning, and started to surface more pertinent stories, either based on topic, or the feed source itself. Once the product gets bounced into the iTunes Store, it could be a compelling option for those data-driven but data drunk folks who are asking for help.

Note also previous coverage from earlier today on CNet and ReadWriteWeb. The company's site, a great place to watch if you want to see when the app gets added, is at www.my6sense.com.

Google Says Yes to Launching An OS (Based on Chrome)

That sound you just heard was the very big "other shoe" of Google being dropped. Late Tuesday night, the company announced on its official blog that it is going to soon be releasing what it calls the Google Chrome OS, a lightweight operating system, initially targeted at netbooks, but aggressively said to be their "attempt to re-think what operating systems should be."

This highly anticipated move is an extension to the company's Web browser initiative, launched just a short nine months ago, and puts Google in direct competition, once again, with tech titans Microsoft and Apple.

Though the blog post does not feature all the eye candy one typically looks for in a new operating system announcement, the author does spell out a few things. First, it will run on both x86 and ARM chips, and is considered a different project than that of Android - which many others had speculated would be Google's first foray into the world of operating systems. The post differentiates between the two by saying, "Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web."

The focus on those people who spend most of their time on the Web sounds like it would be in very close proximity with the CrunchPad I covered over the weekend, but funded by a company with thousands of employees, not a few dozen.

The new push from Google also will no doubt further complicate the relationship the company's CEO, Eric Schmidt, has as a board member at Apple. Already forced to recuse himself during discussions of the iPhone, thanks to the Android platform, Schmidt may find himself recused from discussions of Apple's OS, and any future tablet or tablet OS. With this kind of momentum, just maybe he won't play an official role on the board at all?

I wouldn't anticipate seeing builds of the new operating system any time soon. Google says they have a lot of work to do, and will be relying heavily on the open source community to push the project forward. They hint to stay tuned for more updates this fall. No doubt, many will be on the edge of their seat.

Palm and Bing Triumph Over Low Bars They Set for Themselves

Amidst the buzz from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference that took over the tech news world today, in the shadows, something very weird has happened. Companies that were once market leaders, and then, later, laughed at as the ugly stepchildren in tech, are being championed once again. And this time, they are being lauded not because they are the best necessarily, but because they are doing a good enough job to avoid ridicule - a good enough job for us to praise them for not completely being full of fail. Of course, I'm talking about Palm's new Pre and Microsoft's latest search entry, Bing.

I have never seen, touched or tasted a Palm Pre. I've heard they are hard to come by, and they were only available initially to a select list of reviewers. So far, the reviews are good, and the Pre is being seen as a real challenger to the iPhone. While we all ignore the traditional market leaders, like Nokia, Sony Ericsson or Motorola, it is Palm, Apple and Google who have us talking about phones. And Palm, despite being brand new and having an application store with a few dozen applications, compared with the tens of thousands on the iTunes Store, is giving people pause because it is even coming up at all. We had left them for dead, and they are rising like Lazarus, becoming part of the conversation, when most of us expected them to just go away.

Similarly, Microsoft's Bing continues to get positive writeups as people realize you can search with it and not suffer a fatal disk error. Over the weekend, a site was built that showed Bing going head to head with Google and Yahoo!, in a blind test, and doing very well, more so than likely any of us would have anticipated. While it still was losing, the results, showing it competitive at all, were enough to change our perceptions a bit - after years of seeing Microsoft unable to impress us while under assault from Mountain View.

It's quite odd, really. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that much of the tech blogosphere likes so much to rally around failures that when something miraculous like Bing being ahead of Yahoo! search in market share for a 24-hour period happens, it becomes front page news - or that the Pre actually had people waiting in line for its debut. We were all prepared to write about the disaster, so when something resembling a middling success struck, it caught us all by surprise.

But a few days of positive headlines and friendly nods cannot a market share leader make.

Palm wades into a hostile cell phone environment where Apple leads in mindshare and has the ears of thousands of developers looking to make serious coin. Google has extended their reach to many different applications beyond vanilla search - from YouTube to Google Reader, GMail, Maps, Earth, Docs and so much more, making replacing a search engine or swapping out mobile phones, once a choice has been made, that much more difficult. As I wrote on FriendFeed, and said in Jesse Stay's first podcast tonight, even if the Pre and the iPhone were feature equal, it's the integration with iTunes and all its applications that makes the difference for me now. I'm invested in this platform, and I'd venture a guess that a ton of other people are too, AT&T or not.

As for Bing? Google is the default search engine in my Safari. I trust Google to get the right results, and even catch myself searching it for results from my own blog posts' history often. Bing is a cute alternative - something to use if Google ever ticks me off, or magically, goes down for any extended period. But it hasn't delivered the "wow" experience that tells me a good reason to switch. Microsoft may have built a better mousetrap than their previous models, but they don't have enough bait.

Microsoft and Palm. One, the current and longtime leader in operating systems and office software. The other, the onetime leader in handheld operating systems. Now, today, both have tarnished brands looking for a little spitshine. They may have gotten a little buffing, but not enough to have me seeing them in a new light.

What Makes More Sense: iPhone Tethering or a Wireless Card?

This week is Apple's annual Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC). Widely anticipated to be part of the week's festivities is the roll-out of an upgraded iPhone, and of course, its use of the long-awaited iPhone 3.0 software, which will contain a number of solid features, not the least of which is Apple-approved tethering, which would let you use your iPhone essentially as a wireless modem for your laptop, giving you Web access at 3G speeds.

Tonight, while driving back from the Sacramento area after a weekend at my parents, I got in the passenger seat, as my wife drove, and popped open the laptop to queue a list of e-mails, in an attempt to make sure I hadn't overlooked anything in the in box. But, like on an airplane with no WiFi, I couldn't check new messages, and my responses had to wait until the next time I was connected.

Meanwhile, I could always close the laptop, and look instead to my iPhone for the latest e-mails, and surf the Web, but on a smaller screen.

And that all seemed silly. My iPhone had the Web, and the laptop didn't. If the iPhone and computer were set up for tethering, I could leverage the iPhone's Web connection and use the computer's larger screen, its desktop applications and file archive.

And there's the second option - purchasing a dedicated wireless card.

I always had a tendency to mock the wireless cards I've seen added to other's laptops. My Macs have always had 802.11 embedded, and I try to stay close enough to WiFi, but if I had that wireless card in my MacBook Pro, I wouldn't ever really have to think about it. I could have surfed the Web in the car, and I could take the laptop to the park, making that my home office.

Both solutions have their positives and negatives, if I think too hard about it. I am already paying for the iPhone's unlimited data plan from AT&T, so cost would not be an issue, while, I would no doubt sap the iPhone's battery life. Also the clumsiness of making sure the two devices were connected, when I would like to remove wires, and not add more, would be annoying.

But I also don't want to set up yet another recurring monthly payment to fuel my technology addiction, so getting a wireless card that goes virtually anywhere seems like overkill.

We will find out on Monday if we are any closer to having an Apple-approved solution for iPhone tethering, and of course, if it works for the iPhone I have now, not just the next generation. If I have it, I'll try it out, for sure. But as I know a number of my contacts, such as Jesse Stay, have already sprung for the wireless card, what would you recommend? Should I just follow Apple like an unthinking sheep?

Weblogs Inc's iPhone Ads Show Focused Content Delivery

By Daniel J. Pritchett of Sharing at Work (FriendFeed /Twitter)

The AOL-owned blog network Weblogs, Inc. is running ads on their properties that are tailored to viewers with iPhones.  Poke around on WoW Insider's iPhone portal at i.wowinsider.com and you'll likely be greeted with an ad pointed straight into the App Store.  Look at Engadget's i.engadget.com and you might see an ad for Land Rovers or other luxury goods.

This is the first time I've seen an ad that specifically identifies me as an iPhone-browsing consumer and supplies ads relevant to that context.  There are plenty of demographic iPhones (or in my case, an iPod touch) on a site about gadgets using an iPhone.  WoW Insider's preponderance of streaming video links make the Babelgum video app a good bet for direct-to-iPhone advertising.  

The integrated nature of the App store means that any iPhone user who clicks through on the ad pictured at left is likely to be able to buy the ad with one click more thanks to Apple's foresight in saving credit card information to iTunes accounts.  This is a dead-simple impulse purchase lined up and ready for consumers to pull the trigger.  

What else can we do with targeted mobile advertising?
We've previously seen the release of iPhone-specific ads in the form of entertaining apps like this Dockers app depicting a man who dances when the iPhone is shaken.  A recently released ad trading network facilitates the creation of a "webring"-style collection of affiliated apps that advertise for one another.  One thing I've noticed about these neat Weblogs, Inc. ads is that they aren't automatically pushed to iPhone users.  When I surf to WoW Insider on my iPhone I'm not immediately redirected to the mobile site.  I didn't even realize the iPhone site existed for quite a long time.

Maybe Weblogs is simply testing this particular advertising channel without wanting to roll it out to all mobile users yet?  It seems prudent to connect these targeted mobile ads with every possible mobile user that comes through their virtual doors.  Simple blog plugins like MobilePress already demonstrate the ease with which mobile-optimized sites can be used without requiring users to find a separate URL.  Why not auto-detect all mobile viewers and give them links to the App Store or whatever other e-commerce engine is most applicable to their handset?  I'm going to keep an eye on these integrated iPhone / App Store ads - it should be very interesting to see if they can live up to the standards for targeted advertising Louis hoped for in his recent post "I Wish Ad Companies Would Truly Leverage Social Profiles".

Read more by Daniel J. Pritchett at Sharing at Work .

iPhones Can Protect Your Warcraft Account, and Someday Much More

By Daniel J. Pritchett of Sharing at Work (FriendFeed/Twitter)

Two recent iPhone stories highlight some interesting potential for Apple's iPhone and iPod family.  First up is WoW Insider's announcement of a free iPhone Authenticator available in the app store for securing World of Warcraft accounts.  A Battle.net user is typically a World of Warcraft player but the accounts can be tied to any Blizzard game you might own, including their future releases.

As shown in the screen shot on the left, the Authenticator program generates a new string of numbers once every minute or so.  Once a player links the authenticator to an account, these numbers must be supplied along with a user name and password at each login — a two-factor authentication challenge.  This iPhone app is an alternative to the existing solution where gamers can pay Blizzard $7 for a key fob that generates a similar passkey every time its button is pushed.

World of Warcraft characters and items are regularly hijacked via targeted trojans and keyloggers.  They can be stripped bare in a matter of minutes, their contents flipped quickly for tens or even hundreds of dollars on WoW's thriving grey market.  Given the time and effort involved in securing an account rollback from Blizzard customer service, many players will opt for the peace of mind granted them by this new application.

The next iPhone may read fingerprints and retinas

The second tidbit comes from Apple Insider (via Engadget): An Apple patent filling hints at fingerprint and retina scanning potential in future iPhones. Apple is researching the potential for embedding biometric scanning devices (cameras, etc.) behind the touch screen of an iPhone.  Such enhanced iPhones would allow for secure identification in order to unlock the phone itself.  These enhancements would also allow the iPhone to serve as an easily obtainable high-powered authenticator for other systems such as Blizzard's Battle.net.  While we might only imagine such tools as being necessary for sensitive operations like banking or remote logins to corporate intranets, the Blizzard app demonstrates that it can be cost effective to secure our less critical digital holdings.

The Blizzard authenticator is a great example of high-powered security applications that the iPhone family can provide right now, and the recent patent filing by Apple gives us insight into other uses for tomorrow's iPhone.  We'll certainly have the mobile available as an ever-more-secure authentication tool, but we'll also be able to use it as a remote sensor for home and office medical purposes such as the recently promised glucose monitor or a biometrically secured retail barcode scanner.  There are undoubtedly more possibilities than I can come up with on my own, and I look forward to seeing some of them becoming reality in the near future.  If you've got a great example of alternate uses for mobile phones, please share it in a comment!

Read more by Daniel J. Pritchett at Sharing at Work

Location, Location... Mobile

By Corvida Raven of SheGeeks.net (FriendFeed/Twitter)

Two years ago the mobile web was not a huge deal to me. I hated the way Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) displayed web pages. Add that to the fact that I was deeply committed to graphic design at the time, and you'll understand why I ignored this market. It was frustrating to look at, and even harder to interact with. At the time, no one could reach me there. It was...(gasp!) a dead zone! (Dun, dun, duuuuuun!)

Today in Mobile

Fast forward to today when I'm checking my e-mails and RSS feeds from my iPhone. I'm getting directions from the Google Maps app on both my iPhone and Nokia E-75. I prefer Live Search Mobile on Motorola Q9c running Windows Mobile. Now that the mobile landscape is changing I've been changing with it. You almost have to have a mobile app or optimized site in order to pitch me.

I have three cell phones utilizing two of the best mobile web browsers available: Skyfire (Nokia, Windows Mobile) and Mobile Safari (iPhone). I'm also a lot more mobile than I was two years ago. Mobile optimized sites are simply becoming a must in this day and age. I'm here to let you know that you'd better hop on the bandwagon. However, don't just hop on the iPhone's bandwagon, Instead, make your services available to every mobile platform.

Mainstream Web Compatibility

With three devices running three different Mobile OS' and browsers, it should come as no surprise as to why mobile web cross-platform support is important to me. However, this isn't just personal. Mainstream users are dying to catch on to the mobile web too. The problem: the junk doesn't work on their phones. You can blame it on the handset all you want, but your users shouldn't be forced into buying a specific phone just to play with your service. In the same breath, they shouldn't be tied to their computer either.

Of course this doesn't apply to everyone. Limited functionality is a given with the mobile web, but you can't expect it to improve if you don't at least attempt to improve it. My friends are really trying to get into accessing information on the go while we're out and about. They see me do it all the time on my iPhone and think the iPhone is some sort of gadget god. They should be thinking that your app or service is great, not just the iPhone. They can't do that because if you take the iPhone out of the picture, they still wouldn't be able to use quite a few of the services I use.

Mobile Me & You

My location is ever-changing. I'm deeply invested in accessing information on the go. It's making my work more flexible and allowing me to make my day more productive. Now I can still go outside and socialize, with everything I need only a tap away on my phones, and I hate when I encounter something that can't be done until I'm back home with my laptop.

These days I'm waiting for Skype's iPhone App to be released. Can we say unlimited calling for cheap? I'm loving all the location awareness and Geo-tagging features that are being rolled out into mobile apps. However, the sites need the same love people. Not everyone owns an iPhone, you know.

Read more by Corvida Raven at SheGeeks.net.

Why Google Latitude is Viral Marketing for Brightkite, Loopt

By Corvida Raven of SheGeeks.net (FriendFeed/Twitter)

"They're more about keeping tabs on your friends; we focus more on community and meeting new people based on the places you go." - Brightkite

There's no doubt that mobile social networks are vying to be the next big thing for consumers as the mobile handset arena heats up. Plenty of services have gotten their feet wet, but haven't really made it outside of the early adopter crowd. So it comes as no surprise that early adopters and techies are wondering if mobiles services such as Loopt and Brightkite should be worried about Google's latest product: Google Latitude.

In one sentence, Latitude is Google's location awareness application. It's geared to take over a niche that's been dominated by other aforementioned services for quite sometime now. The million dollar bubble buster is whether the competition should be threatened. Short answer: no.

We recommend reading ReadWriteWeb's take on Latitude.

Keeping The Community: Different Strokes For Different Folks

In The Community is What Makes Social Networks Different), I said, "The community is the key to separating social networks."

This is why I'd still choose Brightkite over Latitude. For me, it's not about showing where I am to all of my friends and contacts. Quite frankly, the ones that can meet up with me are probably already there or on the way. How do I know? I checked my text messages, posted where I was going as my Facebook status, and made a few phone calls to those who could meet up. Neither I nor my friends need Latitude or Google to do this for us. Latitude might be a backwards way of being lazy if you ask me.

Brightkite introduces me to new people to hang out with. This may not be for everyone, but it's a great way for people to network right in their community. The amount of information available for specific check-in spots is amazing! I can see who's been there, how many times they've been there, check out their profile and see if we have similar interests. Hey, they might even be friends with me on Twitter! For this sole reason alone, Brightkite and other similar services have nothing to fear for now. In fact, they might want to thank Google.

Google Latitude Is Viral Marketing For The Location-Awareness Arena

Google is a worldwide brand. It's highly respected among people who would actually use Latitude. The entire situation puts way more light on mobile social networks and location awareness than the smaller players could ever do at this point. Google pushes this concept to mainstream internet users, just as Facebook has done with RSS via the News Feed. The usage of each service will be entirely different, but the concept is still the same at the core: connect wherever you are!

This could be looked at as viral marketing for location-awareness services. Google may or may not get the bigger market share, but there's no doubt that quite a few people may fill unfilled with Google Latitude and leave in search of more features or a different way of interacting with the same concept. Google could add these features in the future, but remains to be seen at this point. There's a lot of things that Google keeps putting on the backburner. In the long run Latitude could be one of them, making room for others to dominate the space.

Read more by Corvida Raven at SheGeeks.net.

How Palm Pre Could Change the Game

By Phil Glockner of Scribkin (FriendFeed/Twitter)

The Palm Pre has surprisingly gotten the gadget industry abuzz after being announced at CES this year, after the company had largely been given up for dead after seeing its leadership decimated. And they are working to ensure the buzz doesn't end up being a one week blip. Apparently, Sprint has been 'softening the ground' so to speak by giving Palm Centro owners a sneak peek at this new gem to ensure a excited and willing reception when the Pre is released to retail. But today I wanted to speak more about some of the user interface choices Palm made in designing the software and hardware for this phone.

Hardware

The Pre is a silky little pebble of a device. When the screen is off, the shell is inviolate except for the single button and earphone grill. The back of the device is much the same, with speakerphone and camera ports. The back cover comes off to reveal the battery in case it needs to be replaced. So we have touchability covered. Yeah, I probably just invented that word. But it works.. the Pre looks touchable.

Surprise number two is a hidden keyboard. Slide the screen up and the keyboard (more of a thumb-board) is revealed. And if you look at this keyboard, you might notice a resemblance to the keyboard on the Palm Centro. I am sure this is no accident. The size and orientation tell me this is specifically to ease the transition of people off of other Palm products and on to the Pre.

There is a 3.5mm headphone jack.

On the front of the device, we have a single, centrally placed button. Visually, this may be a nod to the iPhone, but the button in fact does something quite different than the iPhone's 'home' button. Surprisingly, the button is actually the least interesting part of the area on the Pre. The smooth expanse of plastic surrounding the button is where the magic happens.

User Interface

While the iPhone has boldly wasted space around their home button in the name of asthetic pleasingness, Palm engineers have taken the concept of a 'touch area' going back all the way to the Palm Pilot and have extended the touch input sensor down around the button. This small change is at the core of the user-interface innovation on the Pre. It's extremely clever.

First, Palm probably secured a patent on gestures outside of the display area a long time ago.

Second, there is a competely mental resistance some people have to touching a surface with an image projecting through it. Think about when people at work touch your monitor screen. Doesn't that drive your crazy? I know it does me. And I have an iPhone, I'm constantly cleaning the screen. The touch area below the screen means no mental resistance to befouling the pretty display.

Third, and this is the big one, having these areas do the same magic no matter where you are in the interface means that they could get away with all sorts of interface cues, close and minimize buttons, menus, etc. When you sensitize yourself to what you are seeing when you watch one of the Pre OS demos, you will notice this. Applications only have content in them, no UI elements. When an app is relegated to a 'card' (what Pre calls an app running minimized or in the background), no controls appear. The Pre OS has the most invisible user interface of any smartphone currently out there.

Synergy

The last big game changer I am going to touch on is Palm's focus on what they call 'synergy.' They designed the Pre OS from the ground up to be aware of applications that live online (or 'in the cloud' or 'software as a service,' etc.) Apps like Google Mail, AOL Instant Messenger and MobileMe calendar sharing. But support for these things aren't bolted-on like they might be in an older, more established mobile OS. No, they are integrated so tightly that the apps combine all the information from these various sources and present to you a unified view.

In the world of online calendaring, this has been done for a while. Most calendaring applications have had the ability to display a full or filtered view of multiple overlaying calendars for years now. But how about your phonebook pulling in not only your email addressbook, but your buddy lists and other sources and then intelligently combining the results? How about an instant messaging application that not only shows you a combined view from AIM, Yahoo! IM, Google Talk, etc. but also shows you when you get an SMS in the same interface, or lets you choose how to send a message to your friend, via IM or SMS? And threads the resulting conversation together seamlessly? Now you are getting the picture.

Multitasking

Not a game changer, but worth noting. The OS lets you open and run any of its apps simultaneously. From a workflow perspective, this is essential and something the Blackberry gets right as well. The iPhone? Not so much.

Conclusion

What Palm has done here is fundamental stuff. It may not be as flashy as some other phones, but its real meat-and-potatoes work that will pay off big in the long run for them. Why? Wait until the phone is released. Get one and use it for a week. Then try to go back to your iPhone or Blackberry. You will find yourself wondering why your old phone is slow, or clumsy, or doesn't do something so simple you got used to it in 5 minutes on the Pre.

Final thought: When you remove the back cover to expose the battery, it appears that the battery is thicker than base of the phone (the part that doesn't slide up and down). How do they do that? The only thing I can think of is they have a hollow space behind the screen that allows the battery to intrude a bit. Fascinating.

Read more by Phil Glockner at Scribkin.com.

Four Reasons the Pre Might Save Palm

By Ken Stewart of ChangeForge (Twitter/FriendFeed)

In Palm’s recent keynote, Jon Rubinstein and Ed Colligan announced Palm’s bold new smartphone, the Pre. After what seemed like an eternity of languishing products and dying market share, Palm announced it’s intent to fight its way back to life.

While recent numbers indicated that PalmOS barely even appeared as a blip on the radar of worldwide smartphone sales (Gartner results Q3 2008), Palm may have itself a game changer. But does a piece of hardware, or even their new WebOS, constitute a lifeline for the battered Palm? Not a chance; their win must come from much deeper within.

When Apple introduced its revolutionary iPhone and OS, they knew competition would be on their heels. Soon after Research in Motion released its lukewarm attempt to compete, the BlackBerry Storm.

In watching Palm’s keynote, what sets them apart is not their product, but the platform on which they stand – a paradigm shift in how to impact your life and maybe their destiny. Colligan lists 4 key things that set Palm apart.

1. Know your competition:

Another innovator, SouthWest Airlines, understood that its greatest competition was not other airlines, but ground transportation. It understood that people flew to save time, and that people chose ground transportation because it was cheap and you could leave at your choosing.Colligan points out that Palm knew it was not competing with the personal computer when it launched, rather Palm’s competition was pen and paper, at that time. A thought process like that is what hallmarks the game-changers in any industry.

2. Simplify people’s lives:

People’s lives are complex and fast-paced. We have information stored in many different places and are often torn between merging the data to achieve congruency and silo-ing the information to attain some level of separation in the varied facets of our lives.

From offering conduits which connect your disparate web services together to mechanisms which avoid duplicate data, Palm seeks to help you view your content holistically – while allowing you the option to filter and compartmentalize as you see fit.

3. Make the technology invisible:

"Fingers, not buttons. Pockets not processors," Colligan quips, exemplifying their focus on making the device interact with you and not forcing you to interact with the device.By optimizing the user experience, both in hardware and software, Palm strives to achieve a state of just being. Whether seeking to interact with the platform as a phone or full-featured information kiosk, the Pre could very well offer options to students of efficiency the iPhone might have missed.

While hardly minimalist, Palm subscribes to the notion of, "Technology that works well should get out of the way."

4. Know thyself, and to thine own-self be true:

"Mobile is in our DNA," Ed boldly states. Palm knows who it is and what it does; the Pre is an attempt to not simply state what Palm does, but what Palm does better than anyone else!Until this announcement, Palm had been quietly fading away, until most had written it off. Rubenstein and Colligan deftly dodge the long absence with talk of what Palm does well, which partners are in place, and how focused they are on the Palm developers and ecosystem as a whole.

So not only is Palm being true to itself, they are hoping to once again revolutionize the way in which the smartphone market is thought of. They acknowledge that while product is important, Palm’s platform is the stage upon which success is built. Only time will tell, but the future looks bright for Palm and the Pre. Their most certainly is a steep mountain to climb in a combative market that won't pull any punches.

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Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To learn more about Ken, visit his about page. You may also find Ken on FriendFeed, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile… Oh My!

By Ken Stewart of ChangeForge (Twitter/FriendFeed)

No one cares about the platform, they care about the experience – right?

In days gone by, there was (and probably still is) a lot of talk about the platform itself. However, gone are the days where you should care about the platform. We have moved from a society stuck in our love-hate relationship with the platform to that of desire for seamless delivery of a solution – we are looking for results.

InformationWeek predicts 2009 as “The Year of the Mobile Apps” in their December 22 issue. With Apple stepping onto the scene with the App Store, Apple has moved more than 300 million mobile apps from the store right to your hand. The experience is easy and painless: we get what we want, when we want it, right in our hand – now!

The numbers don’t lie. Apple has successfully captured 23 percent of the market according to a ChangeWave report in December, with Palm and Motorola suffering losses of almost half of their respective market share: Palm suffered a drop from 18 to 9 percent, while Motorola shed 3 percent to crash land at 4 percent.

Windows Mobile slid precipitously, allowing Apple to overtake it in worldwide sales, and oddly enough, there were no numbers released for Smartphones running the new Google Android OS. However estimates released by HTC put initial sales at approximately 1 million units sold as of December 31, 2008.

RIM Still On Top

Still on top however is Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the recently released BlackBerry Storm. The recent launch of its new platform helped RIM edge up 3 percent to perch at a rocky 43 percent market share. This positive number was only shadowed by the fact that Apple continues to gain on it’s rival by leaps and bounds.

RIM took notice, and architected a $19 million deal to by Chalk Media. Chalk Media, perhaps best known for its Mobile Chalkboard application, is seen as a vehicle for helping RIM deliver rich media to perspective business and government clients. What’s the attraction, you ask?

RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) allows organizations, large and small, to effectively manage mobile devices across the organization. Windows Mobile and Apple’s iPhone only have rudimentary controls for the most simplistic of data needs… and no centralized controls from which application deployment can be administered. This is a big drawback for companies wishing to actually manage how their information is accessed.

Oracle and Information Builders have built “enterprise app interfaces” for the iPhone, in the hope this will allow subscribing enterprises to effectively deploy applications via this console, but many companies cite difficulties in working with Apple to deploy software via the App Store.

The Take Away

So the takeaway is that Apple and RIM appear to have the greatest lead in this game for US based sales. Apple demonstrated that a solid, dependable platform with an intuitive interface to purchase apps is a solid combination, but is still truly lacking in enterprise-rich features it needs to gain true acceptance. While RIM maintains a strong lead because of its stance on security and centralized management, figures indicate that only 33 percent of Storm users were “very satisfied” with their experience of the device, as opposed to 77 percent of purchasers of the original iPhone.

These numbers clearly indicate RIM’s BlackBerry has a long way to go before it can consider itself a sure-thing, but it is making plays to remain viable in both the business and consumer markets by latching onto the concept of mobile application development and delivery in hopes of staving off Apple’s momentum.

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Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To learn more about Ken, visit his about page. You may also find Ken on FriendFeed, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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10 Predictions for 2009 In the World of Tech

Following on to last year's 10 Predictions for 2008 In the World of Tech and the recent results: My 2008 Tech Predictions Look Bad As Year Nears a Close.

1) The Real-Time Web Will Become Critical for News and Information Discovery

Delayed news will no longer be acceptable for early adopters, who will gravitate to the quickest sources of news, wherever they may be. As tools like Twitter Search and FriendFeed real-time offer people to rapidly broadcast their updates, reactions and news with true immediacy, a segment of the population will adopt these real-time sources and favor them ahead of delayed or filtered engines, including RSS, and of course, edited mass media. At the same time, while many of us early adopters may be fairly noisy about this development, we will remain in the significant minority, even as the mainstream becomes more aware of these options.

2) Businesses Will Be Expected to Be On Social Media If They Have Web Sites

In the mid and late 1990s, there was a land rush for domain names, as every company jumped in and procured Web addresses and built out Web sites to establish their electronic home. Although many of these sites were rudimentary at best, they knew they needed to be there to participate. In 2009, it will be expected that brands and businesses will be similarly established on social media, using tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed and YouTube.

3) Apple Will Introduce A Succession Plan for Steve Jobs as CEO

While Steve Jobs is not likely in imminent danger, the continued unsettled rumors, as well as a good level of common sense will push Apple to present a succession plan for Jobs, which will not take place immediately, but over the space of a few years. One to three names of potential in-house replacements will be named, as well as a timeline, as Steve fades to the background, but continues to wield tremendous power over Apple's vision and deliverables.

4) TechCrunch Will Acquire VentureBeat or Silicon Alley Insider

Mike Arrington's tech blog continues to be the influence leader in its space. Both VentureBeat and Silicon Alley Insider have forged strong brands with a financial bent which would be good additions for the TechCrunch brand as Arrington and team look to extend their umbrella and wrap up what he considers to be the best blogs. SAI in particular would offer an East Coast/financial bent that the Silicon Valley-based TechCrunch is currently not known for.

5) Android Will Have Less than 20% the Sales of iPhone in 2009

While commoditized PCs managed to put pressure on Macintosh and relegate Apple to a small market share percentage the Cupertino company is still trying to recover from back in the 1980s, history will not repeat itself, as Google's Android partners will be unable to knock the iPhone off its perch as the must-have smart phone for power Web consumers. BlackBerry will continue having a significant share in the enterprise, but it will continue to be iPhone eroding its share, not the Android, especially given the unmatched array of applications available for the iPhone which Android will not be able to match.

6) A Major Alternative to FeedBurner Will Emerge As the Service Stagnates

Google's mismanagement of FeedBurner has many people frustrated with how the feed service has been run since its acquisition last year, as the service continues to see slowness, outages, and recently went dark, shutting down their blog and being gobbled up by the AdSense team. Competitors will emerge, enabling bloggers to move their FeedBurner subscriber base and historical statistics to their new platform.

7) FriendFeed and Twitter Will Both Be Independent Through 2009

Despite Twitter's recent dance with Facebook, it will rely on its existing venture capital funding and find revenue that enables the company to stay afloat at least through the end of the year. FriendFeed, similarly, will not be acquired or merge with any other service prior to the end of 2009. The company, if necessary, will instead do a second round of funding, with its own internal sources providing much of the capital.

8) Companies Will Continue Budget and Staff Cuts Through the Third Quarter of 2009

The layoff parade in 2009 will not be limited to unprofitable companies, small companies or practically any category of companies. The doom and gloom that have hit the financial markets, advertising, real estate and almost every sector will continue through the first half of the year, before starting to see a rebound in the third quarter. You will see strong companies like Microsoft lay off thousands, and practically everyone will not be renewing contract positions that have concluded - even Google and Apple.

9) An Extremist Group Will Manage to Take Down or Deface the White House Web Site

America's political climate is extremely polarized, following the conclusion of two extremely divisive terms. As Barack Obama moves into the White House, the very features that make him a "first" will also make him and his administration the chief target for some incredibly angry and hate-filled groups. One will somehow manage to access the WhiteHouse.gov site and manipulate it this year.

10) eTrade, Digg, StumbleUpon, Skype and Yahoo! Will All Be Sold.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. eBay will want to ditch its non-core assets like StumbleUpon and Skype (I made the sale of StumbleUpon a prediction last year too). Digg, losing momentum, will sell cheap. Yahoo! will eventually be purchased by News Corporation, AOL, or even Google, assuming it passes regulatory approval, by the end of the year. Microsoft, still insulted, won't be back to the table.

You Can't Afford to Lose Mobile Readers

By Daniel J. Pritchett of Sharing at Work (FriendFeed/Twitter)

The continued market growth of iPhones, Netbooks, Blackberries and other tools make mobile browser support more and more important.  Here’s a quick thought experiment for you: If you’re running site analytics, look and see how many of your viewers run a resolution lower than 800x600.  Nearly 6% of all visitors to this site are using these low-resolution devices.  Most of them are using the 320x396 screen of the iPhone and iPod touch family.

Respected publisher and all-around media thinker Tim O’Reilly insists that the tipping point has come:  “… if we're trying to get ahead of the curve, we need to think first about the phone, and then think about the PC browser experience as the add-on.”  Google blogger Matt Cutts succinctly demonstrates the worst-case scenario in mobile browsing:  If you’ve got a flash-only site, those iPhone users are just going to surf around you without a second thought.  Can you afford to lose them?  Not for long.How your site could be frustrating mobile usersGreat, so you’re now committed to making your site as mobile friendly as possible!  You’ll need to understand some common frustrations mobile users encounter when viewing sites and how to deal with them.  I’ll list the ones I’ve picked up in my years of browsing on handheld devices:

Load time:  Many contemporary blogs include third-party (such as this site and my own) include sidebar widgets, third party commenting systems, animated subscriber counts, and plenty of other things that load off-site.  You’re also likely to see an image or three in every post because images are known to increase user interest in reading posts.

Readability: Pile all of the widgets into a layout that’s designed to be read at 1024x768 or higher and you’ll find that you’re seriously taxing the bandwidth and processing power of the average mobile phone.

Navigation: Each mobile device has its own sacrifices in terms of navigation.  The iPhone’s multitouch screen makes zooming and resizing easy but iPhone users sorely miss a real live tactile keyboard.  You won’t find many iPhone/iPod users willing to type out more than a few lines at a time.  Other phones like the T-Mobile G1 have real keyboards but no multitouch.  The lowest common denominator of phones (that are going to be browsing at all) is probably something like my Motorola RAZR.  The RAZR lets me flip through lo-fi pages using the equivalent of a five-key keyboard: up, down, left, right, enter.Start making your blog mobile friendly today!If you’re here to learn how to make your blog more mobile friendly, you’re in luck.  The relatively simple format of most blogs – one post at a time in chronological order – lends itself well to the task of adding a mobile layout.  Here are a few of the more common blogging platforms and tips on how to “mobile-ize” them:

• WordPress has a series of plugins that will ease the process for you.  I use MobilePress and WPTouch.  Beware that you’ll have trouble integrating WPTouch alongside the popular WP Super Cache plugin. 

• Blogger doesn’t have the plugin architecture WordPress does, so you’ll have to either work a lot harder or settle for less in terms of mobile supoport.  Intersquash will “iPhoneize” any site that has an RSS feed at no charge.  Here’s the Intersquashed iPhone-friendly version of LouisGray.com:  You’ll notice that Intersquash shows only the latest items on a feed.  This won’t help a mobile reader who comes to your site looking for an older article. 

• TypePad doesn’t seem to have built-in mobile browsing support but there are some tips on providing your own mobile-friendly stylesheets at TypePad support.  This knowledge base article is from early 2007 so there may be some updated information on this front. 

• Tumblr has a dead-simple “mobile” feature – access it by adding “/mobile” to the end of your tumblog’s URL.  Check out the mobile view on Fred Wilson’s tumblog for a nice example.  The only complaint I have about Tumblr’s mobile support is that it strips out any customization you’ve done, such as adding the ability to comment on your posts via DISQUS or IntenseDebate.

Where should we go next? Now that we’ve started on the road towards making our sites more mobile friendly, let’s plan out our next steps.  At my blog I’ve noticed that the MobilePress and WPTouch themes put a great face on my posts, but they ignore a lot of my favorite user convenience features.  My “Share this” widget and the “related posts you might enjoy” plug-in don’t appear for mobile browsers.  It would be great to get more of these features supported by the mobile “face” of our sites.  Maybe I can track down the authors of some of these plug-ins and see what we can do!

Perhaps more important is the question of providing accessibility to the disabled.  How easily will blind or deaf visitors be able to read your content and navigate your site?  They’ll likely come armed with a few tools of their own to aid them in reading your posts but they surely deserve at least as much of your time and consideration as do iPhone users.  I personally have not yet looked into this on my blog, but I feel I ought to make it my next task.  The World Wide Web consortium has a Web Accessibility Initiative to point us in the right direction.  Good luck, and thanks for reading!

Read more by Daniel J. Pritchett at Sharing at Work

A Reformed Early Adopter Addresses the 3G iPhone Undecideds

By Mona Nomura of Pixel Bits (FriendFeed/Twitter)

I used to be an early adopter, especially with all things mobile. I had to have everything first. From the Treo family (300, 600, 650), Hitachi's monster PocketPC, Samsung's compact Palm, MotoQ, I was addicted to all multi-tasking (mainly CDMA) phones and wasted invested a lot. I blame my Japanese genes, since in Japan, we go through electronics like new parents go through diapers. (That analogy was for you, LG)

Then, I grew-up. I was the cautious consumer for a few years, waiting for feedback before actually purchasing. I controlled urges. The only "new" technology I jumped on was MMS (multi media messaging) and stuck with the same handset for three years. A complete geek faux-paux. Finally, I was no longer an early adopter.

Until 2007.

If you remember, last year was a mobile junkie's dream and worst nightmare. The industry stepped up their phone games launching products and services targeted beyond business users. And it worked. 2007 changed the American mobile industry.

It was almost as though handset makers, carriers, software corporations and various sites and services sat around a round table to strategize a universal goal: convincing the American public, invest in a smart phone. NOW.

And that I did.

On Black Friday, in 2007, I reverted from a reformed early adopter, to the irresponsible consumer sheep enthusiast. I purchased and activated my Triage (at the time): Verizon's Voyager, AT&T's 1st gen iPhone, and T-mobile's BlackBerry Curve 8320. Yes, you read that correctly. I activated three phones, on three networks, and ended up with three bills. Verdict: all three were smarter, but not yet smart. T-Mobile's BlackBerry Curve and the iPhone were my winners and I had two handsets for a while. (Details here). After a few pointless months of wasting money, I came to my senses, de-activated my iPhone and stuck with the Curve. It was the better choice for me but I beat myself up for wasting money and re-reformed.

Please do not judge me. At least I recognize my addiction and can admit: I have a problem. That said, I wasn't interested in the new(er) BlackBerries, the G1 lacked something (something = hardware related, not platform), and sure as heck wasn't going to go back to the iPhone, since the first time around, I didn't have the best experience. With so much product announcements, I was planning to wait a little more before jumping on to the next wave of mobile goodness.

Then, I lost my phone.

I was forced to make a decision - and quick. Holding out was no longer an option. Since I am interested in mobile, I am familiar with the technologies, carrier pricing and differences, to handset features, functions, pro/cons. I have participated in many discussions (offline and online) about user experiences with tech and non tech people.

But one voice in particular was my main deciding factor. This individual and I have debated on the "iPhone vs rest" topic a few times -- with me on team "rest" and him on team "iPhone". He has looked me straight in my eyes and adamantly stated: "The iPhone is the only way to go." but as a "rest" advocate, I would find something, anything, to counter his statements. Though I would never tell him this (he already has millions of fans - literally, as in 2-3 million unique readers, and doesn't need more ego stroking) I especially hold his opinion in high regard. So his statement stuck. Combined with his and Louis' "There Are Two Phones In this World: iPhone and Not iPhone", I did it. I caved. I now own an iPhone.

And I am utterly blown away.

The improvement from the 1st and 2nd generations floored me. All the raves are true. And though it is not perfect, I can admit to myself and to him: "I was wrong. The iPhone is the only way to go." I am so completely enamored by the ease of use, applications, performance... the entire user experience, even when he rubbed it in my face on my Facebook with:


I've got nothing to say in return.
So if you are still undecided, it is ok. I completely understand. You are not alone. But do it. Make the switch. It will completely change your life.

Now say it with me: "iPhone or no phone."

Read more by Mona Nomura at Pixel Bits

TiVo's Mobile Interface Gets Things Recording on the Go

Despite having pioneered the world of set top boxes and time shifting recordings, TiVo hasn't become the dominant business success its many hard-core fans (including me) had hoped it would. While its issues ranged from competing with monopolistic cable companies to rigid payment structures, to being a near zero when it comes to blogs and the social Web, they have eked out the occasional update that has us hoping more is to come. Among them is their new mobile Web site, which launched just last week. (See WebWare and Gizmodo) On the road myself this week, thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday, I can connect with our home TiVo boxes using my iPhone and make sure I don't miss any TV I may have forgotten to tell the units to record before leaving the house.

TiVo's mobile application may not be as ground-breaking as their DVR interface is (or once was), but the offering is simple and just works. If you head to m.tivo.com, you gain the equivalent of their Web site, from daily picks and most popular TV shows, to a search option that lets you search for TV show titles, actors, directors and other show-related items.



TiVo Mobile's Simple Interface
Most importantly, by choosing the "Settings" option, you can choose which DVR is linked to your mobile account, after you have logged in, and you can add shows to the scheduled list of recordings. Either select a show from the daily picks and most popular items, or from your own search results.


Searching for NFL Turns Up a 49er Game
Using the mobile TiVo site via my iPhone, I was able to search on the term "NFL" and find all shows that had the NFL in the title. A few clicks later, and I was able to find the San Francisco 49ers' game at the Buffalo Bills is to be played on Fox this upcoming Sunday at 10 a.m. I could then click to "Record This Episode", determine the recording's priority, quality and whether it would start or stop outside of its scheduled time. Upon completion, I even got an e-mail confirmation to my account to let me know the request had been successful.


Setting the Recording and Getting Confirmation
Some of the characteristics of the mobile site are rather basic, from the links on gray backgrounds to the pull-down menus, but assuming the site is intended for use on a wide variety of mobile phones, and not elite smartphones like the iPhone, that makes sense. Now, if I find myself learning of a new show or one I'd like to record on the go, I can do so just by grabbing the iPhone and heading to m.tivo.com to TiVo's mobile site. Maybe there's hope yet still to keep this tech pioneer alive.

Are We Really That Addicted To Social Networks?

By Corvida Raven of SheGeeks.net (FriendFeed/Twitter)

I think we may be taking social networks a little too far or too seriously. As MySpace underwent rapid growth, we saw one cell company relentlessly market to its audience: Helio. Do you remember the Helio? They were a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that launched back in 2006. They marketed their phones to those who were serious MySpace addicts. Essentially they offered MySpace on the go, before all the mobile apps were made available to the public. Since then, there have been talks of Virgin Mobile acquiring Helio this past September, but you could esentially call Helio defunct at this point.

Today I caught wind of an announcement for a new Facebook phone. Is this where we are headed, people? Are the Facebook and Myspace apps not enough that we need entire cell phones dedicated to these social networks? Or are people just looking to get rich quickly off of the hype surrounding social networks? And it's not as if these have a record of working - remember Mobile ESPN?

These devices serve the same purpose as the Web site itself! Who in their right mind is going to spend money to access the site on the go via a completely different phone, when they can just as easily get an internet data plan added to their current cell phone to access the site or simply wait until they are near a computer. I'm beginning to wonder what mainstream is really thinking about when they see the hype that surrounds social networks. As much as I'm addicted to Twitter and FriendFeed, I would never purchase an entirely separate device just to access them. What's the point? I sense the beginning of a serious addiction problem for those that take things this far.

What do you think of technology like this? Is it a waste of money for both consumers and the company? Or will they become the next big thing in the future of tech?

Read more by Corvida Raven at SheGeeks.net.

Strands Goes Mobile With New iPhone Interface

Last month, I said I believed there were three major trends in the future of social media: Unified accounts, transparency with connections to the real world, and adaptation to the mobile Web. As more consumers, including me, are seeing an increasing amount of their Web activity taking place on mobile devices, the need to create customized interfaces for all those iPhones, Android-capable handsets and Blackberries is getting ever more important, and those that don't do a good job of it will find their growth stunted.

Today, Strands, the social content discovery service which at times has drawn comparisons to FriendFeed and Plaxo, took a major step forward with the introduction of their new iPhone-optimized mobile site, found at http://m.strands.com.


Strands Mobile, In Action, On My iPhone
Back in August, when I first discussed the lifestreaming site's beta offering, I found myself fairly critical of its user interface, saying it minimized some of the best features, including the actual feeds from your friends' activity. In the last few months, thanks to feedback from its growing user base, the team has doubled down efforts to simplify the UI, and they managed to do well enough that the site works well, even in my 3.5" wide iPhone.


Features Like "Hot Posts" and "Discovery" Are Available On Mobile Strands
As one would expect, the mobile Strands offering operates the same way as its online companion does. You can see most recent updates from those you follow, see "Hot Posts", "Discover" new people who you might not be following, view your list of friends, and even read your in box, which can fill up with people taking action on your items, be it to make a comment, or simply flagging a "like" using their thumbs up. And you can participate by clicking the thumbs up or making comments yourself, right on the phone.


You Can Also Check Your Inbox Or Followers Via Mobile
Diehard Strands aficionados will no doubt appreciate the new introduction, taking the burgeoning social network on the go. If you are an iPhone addict, like me, make sure you bookmark their new site, and send feedback if you find issues. You can also check out an introductory video on their blog, here.

Apploop: FINALLY - A Useful iPhone RSS Reader!

By Mona Nomura of Pixel Bits (FriendFeed/Twitter)

FriendFeeders ask time and time again, "Where do you find the things you post?" and "Why don't you ever run out of things to post?" My short answer is "Google", since my methods are quite simple... yet complicated. Discovering this app is the perfect opportunity to elaborate on one of my major resources: RSS.

I am a huge RSS junkie.

I'm all about picture + headline + the first few topic sentences. If all three interest me, I have the option to read the entire article. Most of the stuff I post is pulled from my various feeds. Since my job is computer related, I am always connected to the Internet, my reader is always up, and I'm constantly scanning the headlines. My RSS reader choice is Google Reader, since it gives me everything I am looking for:

1. Headlines
2. Thumbnails
3. Few topic sentences
4. Option to click

The problem = 98% of the readers do not include the things I'm looking for.

I've been on the hunt for a good RSS reader long before I signed up for FriendFeed. Most RSS readers (especially for mobile phones) are plain text with no visuals. Because I am a huge visual person, I don't even bother looking at my subscriptions via mobile, since a highly visual application didn't exist.

Enter AppLoop.

I randomly stumbled upon this company whilst Googling. I was floored. Not only would this simple application solve my problems while on the go, they are also a content provider. Meaning, if you have a blog / website, with an RSS feed, they will turn your blog into a native application for a phone, for any platform, and submit it to the store for you. For free. Holy wow.

Now the latter doesn't really excite me, since it would be kinda sorta mortifying to see a "Mona application" in the app store. I am ultra excited for this app because I'm hoping my favorite websites will hear about it and choose to offer a mobile RSS option using AppLoop, -- such as LOL cats, Gizmodo, Engadget, or Boing-Boing since again, I'm all about: headlines, thumbnails, few topic sentences, AND the option to click. If all my subscriptions published their content with AppLoop, I'll even go as far as to say: I foresee giving up Google Reader -- even when I'm in front of my computer.

Anyway, the demo video is finally up and they JUST launched. So take a look, the video speaks for itself. :)


iPhone Application Generator Demo from AppLoop on Vimeo
And no, I am in no way affiliated with them, just an excited end-user. ;)
So what's your favorite reader? (mobile or desktop)?

Read more by Mona Nomura at Pixel Bits

Update: For more 'techie views' visit TechCrunch: "AppLoop Transforms Blogs Into Native iPhone Applications" and by ReadWriteWeb: "Make Your Own iPhone/Android Apps With New App Generator" and Duncan Riley's Inquisitor's, "AppLoop iPhone App Generator: High Wow Factor"

The Future of Social Media Is Mobile, Unified and Transparent

This morning, I had the pleasure of taking part in a podcast with Wayne Sutton and Kipp Bodnarf for their Talk Social News program. During the conversation, we discussed how to find time to participate in multiple social networks, how today's technology luddites might some day consume information, using RSS, and what the recent economic turbulence means for today's startups and tomorrow's entrepreneurs. One of the questions I've been mulling in my head is the future, and what glimpses we have today, in regards to what tomorrow's social media tools will have, barring the true development of anything dramatic, like teleportation, or bending of the time/space continuum.

Mobile

In my opinion, the advent and adoption of mini-computers masquerading as cell phones is the first big step, and one we are seeing in a big way with the market share growth of the iPhone, the newest Blackberry models, and the potential of Google's Android platform.

Just yesterday, my wife and I brought our twins to her mother's house, and I was able to show my 80-year-old mother in law how, with my phone, I could take a photo, and e-mail it to her, wirelessly. I showed her how I could access all my e-mail accounts, how I could watch baseball playoff highlights in high quality, or access all my bookmarks, so when they were added to my laptop, they would reach the phone as well. And when I told her the iPhone started at $300, she was surprised it was so low.

As iPhones and other "true Web" capable mobile devices become a bigger part of how we consume and interact with the Web, so too will they become a greater part of how we consume and interact with social media specifically. Your social network then becomes less some thing that you interact with just when in front of a desktop or your laptop, but from anywhere, helping to bridge the gap between "following friends" and "real life friends". Consequentially, the mobile interface to sites like Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Social Median, Strands and others will be just as important as the standard Web GUI.

Unified

I also believe you will really start to see a tying together of friends and profiles across the different networks. Many different sites now have ways for you to import your contacts from your many different address books and e-mail accounts, and others integrate with Facebook, so when your friends on that service sign up, you're automatically connected. But it's not as seamless as it could be, and adding the same friends over and over again can get tiresome when new services arrive - not to mention copying and pasting your personal profile and attributes repeatedly.

What should happen, and will in due time, I believe, is that groups like OpenSocial or others, will find a solution by which you gain a friends repository, identifiable by your single user name, which checks against the database and auto-populates your friend base, assuming they have given permission. Similarly, when joining a new network, I should be able to point that network to a central profile I have built, which has all my activity, from Twitter, Flickr, Google Reader and the rest, and would pull my data down from those services, rather than making me add them each one by one.

Transparent

I also believe that with growth of professional services like LinkedIn and Plaxo, and increased awareness of tools to derive a person's background, there will be greater transparency and easier discovery of a person's background. I should quickly and easily know a person's professional profile, and their external online activity, which would take the guesswork out of some initial relationships. While some might say this would be too much a breach of privacy, and that anonymity is a much-treasured aspect of the Web, the Generation Y Millennials have no such expectations, and are all too willing to put their data out there. Tomorrow's tools will capitalize on this and further blur your online persona with that you use at the office or at home.

I don't want to pontificate on smaller technology aspects, such as increased video usage, location awareness, or even real-time language translations, although each will be playing a part in these future services. Those are for the experts in their respective field. But we can see these aspects evolving. The world of social media is going to be unified, transparent and mobile (or location independent). Those that can best capitalize on the unification of data, and avoid the traditional walled garden approach will be the winners.

Microsoft and RIM? I Don't Think So.

By Mona Nomura of Pixel Bits (FriendFeed/Twitter)

There's speculation of a possible Microsoft-RIM marriage. It sounds appealing, but highly unlikely. Steven Hodson points out Microsoft has never been in hardware. I agree hardware is a factor but the bigger question is: can a MSFT-RIM team compete in the Mobile Market?


(Pie chart via jkOnTheRun. Thank You!)
In 2007, the mobile world was heavily Symbian dominated at 57.1% of the share. WinMo was 2nd with 11.5%, followed by RIM at 8.9%. Currently, the leader board is Symbian = 57.1%, RIM = 17.4%, and WinMo = 12%. In just one year, RIM shot past Microsoft with a 126.4% growth rate.

Phenomenal.

If MSFT and RIM merged, they would take 29.6% of the market, and still be only half of Symbian - with two separate platforms. RIM's number one selling point is its push mail and server. As Electronista points out, server integration would be a potential nightmare. With iPhone's increasing momentum, would Microsoft and RIM risk potential loss while the integration takes place? Not to mention, RIM's co-CEOs are heavily involved. I highly doubt they would agree to Microsoft taking over the solid system they built. And even if the merger isn't hostile, would it make sense for Microsoft to obtain two different platforms?

Then, there's the issue of software. Android is Open Source. Linux is Open Source. Max OS X is Open Platform. Symbian-Nokia announced in June they will go Open Source. I'm guessing Microsoft will eventually go Open Source. (Perhaps sooner than we all think, since Gates departed in June.)

BUT

If Microsoft joins the Open Source game too late, RIM and WinMo would most likely be left behind. Why would anyone choose devices that aren't as flexible as Open Source / Platform ones? Would it make sense for RIM to join forces with anti-Open Source Microsoft? Especially since we're seeing tremendous growth rates?

I don't think so.

What I do know is this. The mobile market is changing, and this is only the beginning. Exciting times for us geeks! So what's your current phone? Are you waiting for a particular handset?

Read more by Mona Nomura at Pixel Bits.