BlackBerry has a portal for apps– who knew?

Either this was created recently, hasn’t been marketed, or I just plain missed it but BlackBerry has a site to browse and download all of their apps. They call it the BlackBerry Owner’s Lounge and you have to sign up to gain access, but once inside it has lists of all the bberry apps you can download organized by games, business tools, communication tools, etc.

While I’m sure Apple’s iPhone app interface (through iTunes store) will be incredibly slick when it debuts, BlackBerry seems to have orchestrated an impressive portal to keep up. Below is a screenshot from the site.

 

iFund for iPhone: everything mobile apps

Apple has just released their beta version of a Software Development Kit (SDK) and announced a partnership with Kleiner Perkins to fund early iPhone applications. Let the mobile app games begin! Many of my previous posts allude to a coming revolution or explosion in the mobile space and this announcement is an absolute catalyst for this coming change. And to accelerate development, Kleiner has partnered with Apple to fund early applications with a new $100 million iFund. The NYTimes reported a few days ago that two other venture capital firms, Venrock and Accel, are also making a hard play into the mobile space having partnered with AT&T and a content provider in Hollywood to develop innovative ways to disseminate content on mobile devices.

The huge advantage that Apple has here, as my friend pointed out today over lunch, is that they control everything: the hardware and operating system of the iPhone, the coding language apps need to be written in, and the dissemination channels (apps will be downloaded from the iTunes store). This advantage (in addition to the iFund and other sources of cash) will hopefully allow awesome apps to quickly materialize– for the iPhone, that is. Blackberrys, with their corporate appeal, are of course behind on the innovation curve and will have to open up their platform and push for app development in the near future in order to keep up.

 

Platforms Here There Everywhere

While platforms may very well predate the facebook era, I certainly credit the current hype and widespread movement towards single websites becoming platforms for third party apps to this social network. With MySpace and all of the OpenSocial member sites following suit, platforms will soon become the norm on social networks.

But what about other sites? eCommerce sites? Can you add apps to compare products from different sites? Or compare prices? Or reccomend products? Or how about social media? Apps on flickr? YouTube?

And how about blogs? Well, actually, this blog is meant to be a platform. So far we have three authors writing and a dozen more registered to write posts and contribute in the future. Two heads are better than one, so if you want to occassionaly want to contribute your thoughts email me at intellitech.blog@gmail.com. It’s very easy to set-up.

 

How to Pimp Your BlackBerry

Tired of iPhones getting all the love? All the apps? All the developers’ attention? In truth I still have my moments of regret thinking about my purchasing decision of a BlackBerry Curve instead of the iPhone, but ultimately I needed it for email on the go and the touch keypad just wasn’t going to cut it. If I end up with a BlackBerry for work I will certainly welcome an iPhone for personal use. But by the time that happens (in six months) the mobile space may already look drastically different (see my previous posts on why I think mobile is going to explode). So here is the first of several posts on how to pimp your blackberry with awesome apps.

Recommendation #1: Google Talk, it’s awesome. You can chat with your friends from your mobile device and is great when you’re making plans on the go or want a casual distraction. The app also has a great user interface and allows you to switch between conversations easily. I highly recommend it, download the app at www.blackberry.com/googletalk.

Recommendation #2: iSkoot, see previous post. iSkoot allows you to add skype to your phone and make international phone calls for the price of domestic ones. It still eats up minutes but beats international fees or calling cards. And the user interface is slick and easy to maneuver. You can download it at www.iskoot.com/register.php.

Recommendation #3: Opera Mini. Browsing the web on the BlackBerry is awful, I would go so far as to say it is one of the biggest drawbacks of the device. Text and graphics don’t format correctly or are misaligned and it just looks horrible. And that’s why Opera Mini is so sweet– it lets you browse by showing a screen shot of a page (perfectly formatted and aligned) and then provides a box to zoom in on preferred areas. Awesome app, download it at www.operamini.com/download.

Recommendation #4: bPhone by RogersMJ. RogersMJ has designed a background theme that gives all of the slick, artful details that the iPhone boasts to the BlackBerry. The buttons are rounded and beautifully colored, it just looks so much better than the clumsy icons BlackBerry allows you to choose from. Download the bPhone theme from his website at http://rogersmj.com/tech/blackberry/bphone (Note: must have OS 4.2.1 or later). Here’s a glimpse of the screen with the bPhone theme from RogersMJ’s site:

And keep your eyes peeled for more awesome apps. As I keep mentioning, mobile is going to become increasingly open so this is just the beginning.

 

Apple Releases the MacBook Air

Steve Job’s annual keynote speech at the MacWorld Conference is THE yearly event for technology obsessed geeks. I admittedly looked up tickets, but with a $600-800 sticker price I decided to follow the blogs and press releases instead of seeing it in person. Last year’s keynote introduced the iPhone, and one year later we now have the much anticipated ultrathin MacBook Air. The screen features an LED backlight and measures 13.3 inches across. Drawing from the touch features of the iPhone and iPod touch, the scroll pad of the MacBook Air allows you to pinch, swipe, and rotate using various finger motion combinations. It also has a built in iSight camera and a 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Interestingly though the MacBook Air does not include an optical drive. Instead it’s equipped with top notch Wi-Fi and allows users to back-up their hard drives and install software remotely by wirelessly accessing an external hard drive or an installation CD from another (possibly home) computer.

Leaving out the optical drive and creating an ultraportable laptop is essentially a wireless bet, and a good one at that. As wireless access becomes ubiquitous, acquiring information, software, and entertainment content through discs (installation CDs, DVDs) will become obsolete as downloading becomes the norm. Apple’s other announcement today– renting movies for $2.99 or $3.99 through iTunes– is entirely complimentary to the MacBook Air and consistent with this push towards transferring content through wireless downloads. Apple is certainly ahead of the curve in this regard and also making a sure bet on widespread wireless access, but will the MacBook Air users be annoyed trying to install software and transfer info through CDs as the rest of the world hasn’t yet caught up? Maybe, but I’m still going to purchase one.

[Image credit: Apple at www.apple.com/macbookair/wireless.html]

 

iSkoot: Skype for Mobile

As I mentioned in the Sitchr post below, the mobile space is going to explode in the next 6 to 18 months. Between Google’s Android and spectrum bid along with new generations of smart phones a la the iPhone, it’s only a matter of time until our cellular devices become true mobile computers. And that means mobile apps are positioned to ride this wave of innovation, much like web 2.0 apps are piggybacking social network platforms.

iSkoot, a company currently led Mark Jacobstein, provides a free app to put your Skype window and contacts on your mobile phone. Skyping your contacts still runs up minutes on your phone bill, but the real value of the app is in international calls which would be billed as local minutes. The user interface is slick and easy to navigate, but the utility is directly tied to your number of (international) contacts on Skype. iSkoot’s management team has impressive experience in the consumer web and mobile space, most notably Mark Jacobstein’s former leadership at Loopt and Digital Chocolate. The product can be downloaded from their website and is compatible with BlackBerry, Treo, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung Devices.

                      

 

Finance 2.0: Wikinvest

The social networking space will soon be saturated if it isn’t already. The utility of redundant networks is slim and it becomes too time consuming and obnoxious for individuals to check multiple sites regularly. For that reason, web savvy people will utilize only a few distinct networks each. For social distraction there is Facebook or Myspace, for professional networking there is LinkedIn, Doostang, or PartnerUp, for media sharing there is Flickr, and for blogs there is WordPress, Blogger, or TypePad. Few additional social networks are going to gain widespread adoption in these crowded segments, but what if you expand into a whole new category?

Wikinvest is a lite social network heavy on the user-generated financial information. As you write reviews of companies or industries you gain points and your status increases from analyst to associate all the way up to senior director. The user interface is slick and the accumulation of points adds some thrill to contributing. Most notably though, it’s a financial and investment site– a very green segment of the social networking space. It also implicitly has a nice social mission embedded in its mission of making financial information more democratized, widely accessibly, and easy to interpret. And according to their website Wikinvest, much like Wikipedia, doesn’t have a monetization strategy in mind but is instead dedicated to providing free, accessible, actionable financial information. I think the site will gain adoption quickly, but I wonder how their venture backers plan to exit.

 

Stitchr: Audio Newsfeeds for iPhones

The mobile space is going to blow up in the next 12-18 months. The smart phones– Blackberrys, Treos, etc– were the first milestone in transforming phones from mobile cellular devices to mobile computers with the addition of email access and browsing capabilities. Next came the iPhone which was historic for its combination of a touch screen, slick user interface, integration of music and a camera, and the inclusion of applications (maps, stocks, calendar, etc). Now with Google’s recent entrance into the space with Android to promote 3rd party apps and its bid for the spectrum, the mobile space is positioned to explode. And as it does, well designed mobile apps can ride the wave and gain wide spread adoption. San Francisco based start-up Stitchr has created one such app. Their product allows a host of web content– news, blogs, and other dynamic written content– to be turned into an audio feed, “stitched” together and accessed on iPhones and computers. It’s the audio complement to a newsfeed and ideal for morning commuters who want to listen to all of their news instead of read it. An app for other smartphones in addition to iPhones would be ideal as many business professionals still swear by their blackberrys and value their morning WSJ, NYTimes, etc feeds. As mobile phones become more open to supporting third party apps, Stitchr is an obvious one to add with clear utility. The business model, like most free apps or services, is advertising supported. Much like listening to the radio, advertisements will be “stitched” inbetween content. And for those that can’t stand ads, how about a premium service available on a fee basis without the ads?

 

Google to “put our money where our principles are”

After much talk and media press about Android– Google’s mobile platform aimed at allowing developers to create mobile compatible applications– Google is now making an even greater claim to enter wireless networks: announcing on Friday their plans for bidding on the 700-megahertz spectrum. As the NYTimes reported, this auction will be competitive between both cable companies and large wireless carriers such as AT&T and Verizon. If Google prevails– which some financial analysts doubt is their ultimate objective– they could offer a new generation of flexible wireless internet and accelerate a widespread conversion of cellphones to mobile computers.

 

Amazon Kindle

Just found out about the Amazon Kindle and wonder what you all think about it – seems to me like Amazon’s well positioned to master the publishing partnerships, but I’ll be curious to see how many people take to it given NYTimes and the Wall Street Journal are available on an iPhone, as are audiobooks (one of my favorites). Interesting move to see Amazon going into hardware, too, which makes me wonder if they view this as a strategic play to expand their business – and if so, how smart of a move that is given their core competency in software. I’d also be curious to know if they considered partnering with an existing hardware manufacturer, perhaps like Apple.

In spite of it all, the bookworm in me really really wants to beg Santa because I’m drawn to the idea of getting books instantaneously and having backlighting for reading in the dark. What’s your take?