Games like Bejeweled, Columns and Tetris are mainstays for any small-time video game addict. Over the last year, with the advent of the iTunes application store, the iPhone has developed into a force to be reckoned with in the world of handheld gaming, taking on both Sony and Nintendo. And with that growth comes the introduction of new, innovative games that build on the well-known titles and take advantage of the unique features of the iPhone, including multi-touch and the accelerometer. Among the more fun games I've enjoyed is the new Booty Blocks - which landed on the store just yesterday.


Booty Blocks: Lining Up Same-Colored Boxes
Booty Blocks, developed by Planet Moon, starts out as the latest of the traditional falling block games, dropping individual colored boxes, or "pirate booty" from the top of the screen. When five like colors are connected, you double-tap on the phone to have the boxes explode, and free up even more space. But you'd be remiss thinking that this was just "yet another" game like this. Unlike just about every other game I've seen, which locks the blocks in place once they've fallen, you can move the boxes left and right, up and down, with the push of your finger. And you can even tilt the iPhone left or right to shift the full set of blocks at once.


Booty Blocks: Setting Combos and Blowing Stuff Up
When I first started playing Booty Blocks, I thought the game might almost be too easy. Connect the boxes, blow them up. Repeat. But of course, the game got harder. Not only did the boxes start to fall more and more quickly, but there were new wrinkles tossed in to make my job harder. New metal boxes would show up and impede the boxes during their descent. Two-square blocks would fall and leave gaps. New colors. And other boxes would require being blown up more than once to clear them from the screen. Then, kegs of dynamite would fall, which, when blown up, could hit the boxes sky-high.


Booty Blocks: Seeing the Crates Pile Higher
Before I knew it, I was having fun, and learning I could propel my score ever higher, as I cleared multiple combinations on the same screen, sweeping rows of blocks one way, and others another, all while more boxes fell. And while I did rack up more than half a million points, I have a feeling I'll do much better my second time around.

Booty Blocks, available for $1.99 from the iTunes store, is a great example of a new breed of iPhone applications that bring new interactivity, and show you don't need a keypad or many buttons to have a real video game experience.

To see a video of the game in action for yourself, check out Drew Olanoff's blog here: Booty Blocks for the iPhone and iPod Touch is out!

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

As has been widely reported, Socialmedian was acquired by Xing today for a purchase price of $7.5 million, an excellent return for the bootstrapped startup which had raised less than $1 million in funding. The success of Socialmedian has significant impact for me personally, as it is the first company to have debuted here on this blog, and see a successful exit. I see it as a real proofpoint for being invested in a story, rather than doing the typical "hit and run" announcement-fed, PR-driven stories typical on many other blogs who are driven by the day's news.

On April 8, 2008 (my birthday), we first told the story of Socialmedian: (Former Jobster CEO's Social|Median Incubating in Alpha).

While other sites around the Web slowly picked up on the story, few were as invested as I was in not just reporting on the site, but using it in a big way. In a month's time, it was clear to me that the site was getting significant momentum, which I reported on May 13: (SocialMedian Is Growing Rapidly In First Month's Availability).

Later in the month, on May 29, in response to a comment from Robert Seidman, who said, "You could call deadpool on stuff like Social Median and Toluu right now," I said "Developers Are People Too, Don't Forget", and that we don't always know the full story behind a site, and their goals.

By the end of May Socialmedian underwent a redesign and got even more useful.

And as the site grew, for whatever reason, I maintained a higher than anticipated presence, trailing only the founder, Jason Goldberg, in terms of people following my updates. Surprisingly, Goldberg and team ran a contest that delivered a new iPhone to the two most popular non-employees on the site. Turns out I won, which I found out, as my bleary eyes checked out Twitter sometime around 5 a.m. during a kid's feeding when they were a month old. (See: It Appears I Won an iPhone 3G from Social Median!)

That was cool, but I was just as positive on the site as before - no more, no less, and I could see them continue to pound forward.

By the end of July, Socialmedian got out of invite mode, and opened in full beta. (See: SocialMedian Opens Up and Launches Beta). The expanded activity on the site had me noticing how many comments were taking place on the site, which I wrote up in early August: Hey Bloggers, We're Discussing Your Posts At Social Median!

And the company kept adding updates. On August 30th, I noted they Integrated With Google Reader for News Discovery, and by September 4, they expanded again, tagging on a feature they called "News Streaming".

The growth had guest poster Rob Diana say shortly afterward, that the Increased Activity Streams Boost Social Median's Chances.

On September 22, Socialmedian added the ability to alert users to times they were mentioned and extend to Twitter, with the launch of Replize. (Social Median Takes Guesswork Out of Online Mentions With Replize)

Not living in a bubble, Socialmedian surveyed its users to see their preferences, and on October 3rd, they delivered results that not only showed users' activity but where else they got their news. At the same time, the service was showing significant traffic growth across the board. (See: Social Median Surveys Early Adopters' News, Tech Preferences)

On October 7, Socialmedian introduced the ability to both like and dislike items.

On October 17, Jason pulled the covers back a bit and showed how they were able to continue to innovate while staying small: (Social Median Stares Downturn In the Face By Staying Small)

As a news site, Socialmedian, like all the rest, got sucked into the election in a big way. On October 29, a week before the vote, they launched a dedicated election news hub.

But while Socialmedian grew users and gained visibility, they didn't avoid controversy. Like other services, the breaking away of comments and original posts raised the ire of CenterNetworks' Allen Stern and others. We asked, in November, "Does Anybody Care About Non-Blog Commenting Anymore?"

And just last week, in wrapping up what I believed were the top 10 new Web services that came to light in 2008, Socialmedian was way up on the list, at #2, behind only Twitter Search, formerly Summize. I knew Socialmedian was hot, and said I expected an acquisition by the first quarter of 2009. And it came very, very quickly, with this morning's news, further validating Socialmedian's model and differentiation from the many different services out there.

It has been exciting to have a front row seat to see Socialmedian develop all year long. Socialmedian is one of those sites this year that hit a sweet spot for me, both as a blogger and as a user, who found critical value in what Jason and his team were doing. That they have found success is fantastic, and something I hope will push the many other services we've worked with this year to keep going.

But as the above recap shows, they didn't get here by launching and waiting for millions of users. They worked hard and released early and often, and today's announcement is the result of their consistent efforts.

So who wants to launch on louisgray.com in 2009 and be part of a similar story? Let me know.

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