Qwiki is a new startup that is trying to make information consumption more appealing, especially in the mobile world. Qwiki recently announced that they will be launching their iPad application very soon.
Qwiki has been receiving a great deal of press and they have some high profile investors on their books. However, I simply dont understand what all the hype is about.
Qwiki so far seems to be a tool that has a automated voice read off the exact information pulled in from Wikipedia, while showing a slideshow of images pulled from another service. Why is this so revolutionary? Can someone please explain this to me!
It seems as though PopCap Games has just created a new studio to push out fast to market games. 4th & Battery, the new “experimental” studio is made up of current PopCap developers who want to “create smaller, simpler, and sometimes edgier games,” the company said.
PopCap Games is a very big player in the gaming industry with a huge amount of popular games, but it does take them a while to develop some of their gaming titles.
“4th & Battery is a purely experimental, creative label with none of the typical concerns like schedules, profitability, or even target audience,” PopCap’s CEO Jason Kapalka said in a statement. “It’s kind of the video game equivalent of B-sides or short films. Expect weirdness.”
PopCap’s executive vice president.
“4th & Battery gives us a way to quickly try really strange or marginal ideas, and to give our designers a safe area to hone their chops,” PopCap Executive Vice President Ed Allard said in a statement.
PopCap said that future 4th & Battery titles will be made available on Facebook, PCs, and iOS-based devices.
Apple has just released a new iPhone applications called iAd Gallery. iAd Gallery showcases the latest iAds from Apple’s advertising network.
The iAd Gallery is a celebration of advertising, featuring iAd campaigns from some of the world’s best brands and their advertising agencies. The iAd Gallery gives you easy access to a selection of the fun and informative ads that have run in some of your favorite apps. Use the Browse feature to discover ads you haven’t seen, or to find those you want to see again. Even lets you tag your favorites to a Loved section thats all your own.
This application seems very unlike Apple! Apple is normally very closed, but this move seems to be quite transparent, which we have never really seen from Apple. iAd Gallery is a free download and its a great way to showcase to advertisers what is possible with iAd and great for publishers to see the quality of advertising that can be added to their applications.
It seems as though Zite isnt as popular with publishers as first thought. A growing list of US publishers have sent cease-and-desist letters to Zite, including the Associated Press, Dow Jones, Gannett and Getty Images, for copyright and trademark violations.
Zite has been pulling stories from all these publishers without their approval. The key issue here for the publishers is that their content is being stripped and they arent seeing any of the financial rewards they would see if users were reading their web versions.
“By systematically reformatting, republishing, and redistributing our original content on a mass commercial scale without our permission in your iPad application, Zite directly and adversely impacts our businesses,” the letter says.
Zite has promised that they will change and comply with publishers requests, but I cant see this startup gaining any traction from here on out. Overall, its a shame!
The online storage startup Mozy has just launched their iPhone application. Mozy users will now be able to access their files on the go.
Users will login with their Mozy account and they can access all the files they have backup using the client software. Opening the app shows you the names of any computers you’ve backed up. You tap on a computer to view your files.
The Mozy iPhone application runs off the same folder structure as the client, but it would have been nice to see the files I had backed up.
Users can view everything from Word documents to PDFs and music. You can also e-mail documents, photos, and other files and even post a photo directly to Facebook. To provide an extra layer of security, Mozy also lets you set up a pass code to open the app.
Facebook has finally unified their mobile applications. Up until now Facebook has had m.facebook.com and touch.facebook.com. The touch.mobile.com was specifically designed for touch screens, but now m.facebook.com will be the only Facebook mobile version.
Facebook’s Lee Byron says the new Facebook mobile site will adapt itself depending on the hardware you are visiting from:
“There will no longer be a difference between m.facebook.com and touch.facebook.com, we’ll automatically serve you the best version of the site for your device,”
The new website is made possible through a new UI framework that incorporates XHP (a PHP extension that incorporates XML), Javelin (Facebook’s lightweight Javascript framework) and WURFL (an open source mobile device database). The framework is dynamic enough to detect the UI and limitations of individual devices and adjust to them automatically.
Microsoft has just released some official Windows Phone 7 stats. The stats look very impressive and it seems they are gaining on a lot of other platforms.
Numbers:
11,500 applications
7,500 paid applications
36,000 developers
1,200 new developers being registered every week
Windows Phone 7 has shown some great growth, but the are still a long way behind iOS with 300,000 applications and Android with 100,000 applications.
“We recognize the importance of getting great apps on our platform and not artificially inflating the number of actual apps available to customer by listing “wallpapers” as a category, or perhaps allowing competitor’s apps to run on the platform to increase “tonnage.” We also don’t believe in the practice of counting “lite” apps as unique quality content. (…) Finally, we don’t double and triple count apps which are submitted in multiple languages.,” he explains in the blog post.
BabbleOn has just released their free smartphone application for iPhone, Android and Blackberry.
“An application like BabbleOn is the next step in the social media arena, and will certainly revolutionize the way we communicate online,” said Michael Mills, President and founder of BabbleOn. “This application will break down the walls of social media communication and allow users to create voice messages for all to actually hear. For instance, you can sing Happy Birthday to your sister who lives across the country, record your baby’s first words, tell all your friends all at once you just got engaged or just update your status… the possibilities are endless and more efficient and satisfying than typing a message.”
Using the App is just as easy. Simply log on to your Facebook account through the BabbleOn App, press and hold the talk bubble to record then choose to post your message either to your wall or your friend’s wall on Facebook. The BabbleOn App includes:
Simple and intuitive user interface.
Ability to listen to your babble (recorded message) to determine whether you delete and start over again before posting to Facebook.
Provides full access to your friends list on Facebook.
Add custom text to babbles.
BabbleOn Technologies Inc. plans to expand the BabbleOn App with the upcoming launch of the online BabbleOn Community (www.BabbleOn.com). The website will allow users to follow friends, celebrities or products and see what all the babble is about as well as mingle and voice opinions on various topics via their computer or smartphone.
Robert Scoble went for a walk to see what Ask.com launched at SXSW. Ask claim to be the leader in the Questions and Answers space, however I have always seen them as a wannabe search engine.
Now Ask.com are launching their own location mobile game. Check out the video below to see what they are planning.
Have you ever wanted to see your daily appointments as a route on a map? Well now you can with Keyoobi. Keyoobi is the worlds first iPad application to do so.
Keyoobi will be perfect for everyone from a delivery driver to a salesman or even working for a brewery (as I used to).
Know exactly how much time you’ll need to get to and from appointments, and which routes are fastest. Increase your productivity by locating and scheduling additional clients and prospects while you’re out on the road.
Keyoobi pulls data from both your Calendar and Contacts so you can plan your schedule more efficiently.
Currently, Keyoobi is available in the App Store for only $9.99.
It seems as though PopCap Games has just created a new studio to push out fast to market games. 
The online storage startup Mozy has just launched their iPhone application. Mozy users will now be able to access their files on the go.
BabbleOn has just released their free smartphone application for iPhone, Android and Blackberry.
Have you ever wanted to see your daily appointments as a route on a map? Well now you can with 
