apps

Starter Kit: Essential apps for your BlackBerry

So you've got a new BlackBerry? The good news is it comes with great features right out of the box. The better news is that there are hundreds of fun and functional third-party applications to power up your fresh hardware. In our BlackBerry Starter Kit, we've rounded up a few of the most essential ones to get you started.

Feel free to add your favorites in the comments.

Best in iPhone entertainment 2008

If you've read my iPhone Apps of the Week posts, you know that I mostly download games and entertainment applications. I also like to check out music apps, because I play a few instruments and am continually interested in what developers are able to come up with musically for the iPhone. Since my coworker, Jessica Dolcourt, wrote the iPhone Starter Kit based around must-have apps of the practical variety, I can really get down to business--the business of fun iPhone apps!

So, what makes a great game or music app? Certainly graphics and sound are important for games, but with a platform as unique as the iPhone or iPod Touch, it's important to consider how it utilizes the accelerometer, touch screen, and other aspects of the device. For musical instruments and drum machines, it's important to note whether the sounds are realistic and how intuitive it is to play the instrument. Finally, it's important to note whether a game or instrument is a good fit for the medium. You probably wouldn't want to spend hours playing an MMO on a tiny device that needs recharging, and, similarly, you're probably not going to be writing concertos on your iPhone. The point is that it should be a good app by itself in addition to being a good app for the iPhone.

Some of the apps I'm including for this end-of-the-year roundup have been in previous posts, but several are new apps to my iPhone. I'm including both free apps and apps for purchase, and sometimes I have a good free version of a genre you can try if you don't want to spend the money. Without further ado, read on to see my favorite fun apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.… Read more

Scrapplet takes portable site creation to a new level

RadWebTech, a company that specializes in Web technologies, announced Monday that it has opened its hallmark service, Scrapplet, to the public. Scrapplet was formally in private beta.

Friday, I had the opportunity to sit down with Scrapplet's founder and view a demo of the service. In essence, Scrapplet is a blank, browser-based canvas that allows you to drag-and-drop practically anything from any Website and place it on your Scrapplet page.

Want to grab your Twitter stream and put that on the same page as your Friendfeed? With Scrapplet, that's possible. In just a few simple maneuvers, Scrapplet allows … Read more

For Google, start here

A vast improvement on its BlackBerry predecessor, Google Mobile App is primarily a search app that also serves as a portal to other Google Web apps. It's anchored by a search bar, with a string of icons along marching along the top. Click one to download or launch Google apps like Gmail and maps, or to jump to mobile Web sites for the panoply of Google apps.

Warmly welcomed are autocomplete search suggestions, the ability to scroll through search history, and the ability to edit a misspelled search term and begin a new search. It's disappointing, however, that … Read more

The great paradigm shift of cloud computing is not self-service...

There has been significant discussion over the short life of the term "cloud computing" about how little it differs from concepts like managed hosting and ASPs. And there is some truth to these observations; if you really look closely, what are the key differences between EC2 and a more traditional managed hosting provider? Some would say multi-tenancy, self-service and pay-per-use (including billing and elastic capacity). With specific regard to EC2, I would tend to agree.

(I would also hasten to point out that Amazon provides some very PaaS-like services in conjunction with EC2, such as Simple Queuing Service (SQS) and SimpleDB.)

However, if this is the great "paradigm shift" of cloud computing, as offered by smart people like Krishnan Subramanian of CloudAve, then let me offer that these basic extensions to existing hosting models will be peanuts next to a shift that will create one of the most significant market opportunities since the explosive growth of the Internet itself. I'm not dealing in hyperbole here; I honestly believe that there is a clear evolutionary step to the cloud occurring well after stand-alone self-service clouds are mainstream (which they arguably are today) that will inspire massive innovation.

That game changing technology disruption will be the federation of disparate clouds, and the distribution of software, data and billing across commercial and private cloud boundaries. In other words, the introduction of secure, reliable workload mobility in an extension of the Internet itself--an "Intercloud", so to speak.… Read more

Service Notifies You When New iPhone Apps Are Released

OneJuicer is a new service, reminiscent of Google Alerts, that delivers an email update whenever new applications matching specified keywords are added to the iTunes App Store. The service can be used by app developers who wish to be notified of competitors in their space, or users who'd like to see the latest apps in designated area(s) of interest.

After signing up for the service, you'll receive a list of extant applications matching your specific keywords, then subsequent updates when new, matching applications are released. You can also login to the service and manage your keywords.

Banned in Cupertino

Add one more headache for whoever is running Apple's App Store approval process: edgy books.

Books aren't a huge part of the App Store, but there are more than 600 titles for sale, ranging from classics to Japanese comic books. CNET's own David Carnoy has a new detective thriller out called Knife Music, but you won't find it on the App Store.

That's because when Carnoy enlisted a software developer to submit the book to the App Store, Apple rejected the book for containing "objectionable content," citing a clause in the iPhone SDK … Read more

Converting App Store Sales Ranks to Sales Numbers

Ever since Apple stopped listing exact sales numbers for iPhone App Store applications, developers have been seeking some sort of guide to how sales rank translates to actual unit totals. One developer, Joel Comm, has released rank-to-sales stats for his dubious "iFart Mobile" application, as follows:

12/12 - 75 units - #70 entertainment 12/13 - 296 units - #16 entertainment 12/14 - 841 units - #76 overall, #8 entertainment 12/15 - 1510 units - #39 overall, #5 entertainment 12/16 - 1797 units - #22 overall, #3 entertainment 12/17 - 2836 units - #… Read more

Users Report iTunes/iPhone App Update Problems

Some users are reporting recently apparent problems updating iPhone and iPod Touch applications through iTunes, with the iTunes erroneously reporting that no updates are available.

According Apple Discussions poster mhoutman:

"since the last couple of days i have the following problem:the updating of some apps (shazam) was first visible on both my iphones, but the next day it disappeared. the same with itunes: it was not visible. today the same with touchgrind: visible on my iphones but not visible in itunes.

We are not sure where the problem lies, but we have witnessed the same problem on our … Read more