apps

Another day, another automaker releases an iPhone/iPod Touch app. This time, it's Mini Financial Services launching the Mini Liquid Assets game.

The game is a digital version of those water-filled handheld toys where you press a button to push a plastic trinket into a goal with a jet of water. In this case, you're firing nickels into Minis--the idea being that with Mini, you get to "keep more liquid assets." Get it? Liquid? Assets?

The game features three stages of difficulty and eight levels (one featuring the Mini-E against a backdrop of wind power generators) … Read more

Despite the fact that I finally caved and purchased a second-gen iPod Touch, history will tell you that I'm no iPod fangirl. Still, one thing the iPod has going for it that no other MP3 player can match is a seemingly endless array of third-party add-ons.

There are hordes of cases; gaggles of speakers; and a shocking supply of docks, recorders, FM transmitters, and other feature-adding devices...not to mention all those apps for the Touch and the iPhone.

Over the past several years, there have been a number of iPod accessories that tempted me to bow to the … Read more

Research In Motion will not be as tough a gatekeeper as Apple in admitting applications to its storefront, but it will reject BlackBerry apps it thinks use too much network bandwidth, the company's developer relations chief has told ZDNet UK.

Mike Kirkup said on Thursday that the Canadian handset manufacturer will welcome third-party software that replicates the functionality of native BlackBerry applications onto the BlackBerry Application Storefront--a strategy that is not followed by Apple with its iPhone App Store. However, certain types of applications, such as those offering streaming video, might be turned down.

"If somebody builds … Read more

A faux iTunes App Store has appeared Internet--and it's a fairly good facsimile of the original. The fake store was created by an ingenious developer, who has made the content of the real iTunes App Store available via any platform's web browser.

The site, app-store.appspot.com, is up and running at press time, but w're wondering how long that might last.

According to a post on ReadWriteWeb: "you can quickly browse for applications, read reviews, and see screenshots from any computer that has access to the Internet without ever having to open iTunes." The … Read more

Storage maker NetApp ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine's list of the top 100 companies to work for, bumping Google from its perch, according to a report in the publication on Thursday.

NetApp, which employs nearly 8,000 people worldwide, was selected for its "employees enthusiasm," along with its benefits from nearly $11,400 in adoption aid to five paid days to do volunteer work.

And even better still, the company is one of the few in the hiring mode during these recessionary times, seeking to fill 55 positions as of January 13.

This year's ranking … Read more

HotorNot.com, the infamous social rating site that made it through the dot-com bust has a new, and free iPhone app out. As you'd expect it lets you pass judgment on others by scoring them anywhere from 1 to 10. It also lets you tap into its "Meet Me" network where you can get in touch with other registered users to set up dates.

The software makes use of a few of the iPhone's hardware features, including GPS. This lets you hit a button to narrow down where the results are coming from. This works both … Read more

The original title of this post was going to be "Why isn't Google App Engine successful?" You see, I've been frustrated of late at the lack of followup press about the PaaS offering since Google's announcement about it last April. I was beginning to think that no one but a few Facebook application providers were using it, which makes it kind of irrelevant for the enterprise.

Compare Google's coverage to that of Amazon Web Services. Since its announcement in July 2002, the various services contained under the AWS umbrella have received a steady stream of press and accolades. Much of that is due to marketing (and the phenomenal technology evangelism program Amazon put into place), but part of it is also that successful start-ups are passing on their own success stories independent of Amazon.

Two quick examples of this are SmugMug and Animoto. Both are stories that were originally broadcast by the customers themselves, and then evangalized by Amazon. Almost everyone in the "cloud-o-sphere" knows about these guys as a result. In fact, Animoto's story is the most prevalent case study of the value of elasticity in Web applications today.

So, where is the Google equivalent? I've heard about a few Facebook widgets being developed on App Engine (and that is sort of cool), but I certainly haven't heard any other type of start-up trumpet the importance of App Engine to their success. Furthermore, there are zero examples of non-Web businesses using App Engine to change the nature of their IT processes. (See Eli Lilly's story for an AWS counterpoint.)

So, all of this might lead you to believe I'm anti-App Engine, or at least not confident that it is important except as a PaaS example. And until yesterday, you would be right. However, I spent the day yesterday at the Cloud Connect conference, hosted at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. Google was much more visible here (in part because they were a "platinum sponsor"), and perhaps more importantly, the "how to" sessions they hosted Wednesday afternoon were packed by interested developers and technologists.… Read more

At the end of December, my colleague Seth Rosenblatt put together a thoughtful and in-depth Windows Starter Kit that collects the best-of-breed freeware applications for all categories. But what if your new Windows computer can be balanced on the palm of your hand and contains only a whiff of RAM?

Take, for instance, the tiny Acer AspireOne laptop that my mother purchased on little more than a whim and a phenomenal deal. Not for kitchen lookups of recipes or way to win dinnertime debates, as I had imagined when we first slipped the preemie out of its box, but as … Read more

Research In Motion has begun soliciting applications for the BlackBerry Application Storefront, which is due to go live in March.

Submissions for applications opened on Monday. RIM announced in October that it would be launching an app store in March of this year, a move that will bring it in line with rivals such as Apple, Google, and Palm, each of whom has or is about to launch their own on-device app stores.

The vendor guidelines listed on RIM's Web site make it explicit that the Canadian handset manufacturer "reserves the right to accept, deny, or remove any … Read more