Nonetheless, there is of course plenty of cracking apps out there on the Blackberry platform and, with it still being summer in the UK (technically at least, if not actually weather-wise), what better theme than a focus on handy holiday travel apps? Without further ado, here’s my top 7 Blackberry travel apps to improve anyone’s holiday fun:

1. Navita – A great all-round translation app, currently working in over 50 languages. Operates with spoken input and output for quick operation on the move – and best of all, it’s free.

2. XE Currency – Simple app for currency conversion from XE.com (the number 1 Google result for currency conversion for the past 5 years or so). Makes it much easier to understand what you’re spending if working in an unfamiliar currency.

3. TiVO DVR scheduler – Easy way to manage your television recordings from anywhere in the world; never miss another episode of your favourite show/important sporting event or whatever else whilst on holiday.

4. Trapster – A must for anyone planning a driving holiday! Alerts you to speed cameras and temporary traps, which can be pretty tricky when driving on unfamiliar roads.

5. VLC Remote control – OK, so this is useful wherever you are – but it’s especially useful if you’re taking a laptop on holiday and intend to use it as your media station for music, films etc (currently half-price so be quick). Works by using a Wi-fi connection though so won’t be usable halfway up a mountain…

6. HazelMail Postcards – A nice app which turns your Blackberry photos into real postcards, which then get sent to you all printed out and ready for sending to your friends and family etc.

7. Photo Editor Resize – Does exactly what you’d expect. Very useful for transferring hi-res holiday photos (which first often need downsizing to fit into attachment allowances etc) via email.

Voila! That’s all for now, of course there are plenty more than the few I’ve chosen to highlight – these are simply some of my personal favourites and most-used choices. For the full range, check the Blackberry store. Otherwise, fret not if your platform hasn’t yet been covered – iPhone apps are next.

Dejan Levi

So, this is basically the first of a series of such compilation lists, each of which will have a different OS platform and theme. This inaugural post will focus on Android and work-related apps for those working in the IT industry. N.B. It goes without saying that, though I’m choosing to focus on this one particular usage of such apps, most can be helpful no matter what your profession: with that said, let’s get straight to it…

1. Wifi Analyser – A great free app for checking the Wifi channels around you so that you can find a less crowded one for your router. Pretty handy if you have a smaller office with many neighbours and want to optimise your connection.

2. Password Keeper – Another free one: does exactly what you’d expect, uses 128 bit AES encryption and is perfect if you have many accounts with various sites and services. Makes it much easier to create different passwords for everything (which is the sensible and safe thing to do), as you only need to remember one master password to operate PW.

3. Colour Detector – A clever app for developers which can provide you with the HTML, RGB, or HSV reference for any colour that you point your phone camera at. A nice example of augmented reality principles working in reverse, imagine the colours of a bar room wall inspiring and facilitating a new web design with the aid of this app.

4. Spending Monitor – Very useful for keeping track of expenses, especially if you move around a lot and find keeping receipts for everything to be annoying or difficult to implement. Has a nice interface and will be even better if a ‘photo’ option is added to you can just snap your receipt and then not have to worry about keeping it filed for two months until the next accounts are filed…

5. Skyfire – Nice web browser to have as a back-up since it neatly fixes the problems many others have with Flash. The search isn’t so bad either so could potentially be a decent first pick as well.

6. Quick SSHd – Handy SSH server which allows a computer to connect to the Android device for remote access or file-sharing. Useful for about a 1001 things and can also write to SD cards.

7. Blackmoon Attachsave – Excellent attachment downloader for Gmail accounts which saves file contents to the phone’s SD card for offline viewing. Has both a Full and Lite version so you can vary the amount of access to your email content.

Ok, that about does it for this app list – be sure to check Google’s Android Market Showcase for more general highlights from the best up-and-coming apps. Look out for the next top app list on this blog in a few days time.

Dejan Levi

First up, it’s worth mentioning that the massive gaming expo that is/was Gamescom 2010 went off this weekend with excellent attendance figures, leaving the blogosphere buzzing with anticipation about some of this autumn’s forthcoming titles. By the looks of it, the last quarter of the year, as well as the first one of next year should be pretty solid for the industry – with some sure-fire releases drafted for the Christmas run-up. For some top-notch summaries of all that you missed (if you weren’t able to make it down to Cologne over the weekend) be sure to check the Guardian Tech feature on the event, and also Gamespot’s in-depth coverage.

Next, I just wanted to draw your attention to a post on Techcrunch today by MC Siegler, on the way Facebook Places might change the way people approach their social graphs on the network. Some readers may remember that this was something I was discussing last week, in relation to the question of users becoming more selective about their Facebook ‘friends’ now that Places has been launched. Well, MC Siegler raises an excellent point on the same topic – and one which I hadn’t considered last week: the possibility of introducing a two-tier ‘friend’/'follower’ system to Facebook’s social graphs, so that you don’t have to cut off all ties completely with people you only know a bit (but wouldn’t like to engage with via Places). This sounds like an excellent idea to me, and I’ll be following with interest whether or not Facebook agrees (and implements such a system).

Now, after all that serious stuff, here’s a mildly entertaining SEO story (I know that phrase sounds odd – but it’s true). Basically, UK newspaper, The Daily Mail, has recently advertised for a new SEO technician for their online content. The interesting part is the fact that they didn’t put the ad in any of the places you or I would look for it – but instead in their website’s robots.txt file (which, in theory, only uber-geeks would be frequenting – exactly the skilled types that the Mail is after for the position). It’s not often that SEO generates curious little headlines as this episode has done, so if you have any interest in the subject – be sure to check it out.

Anyway that’s your little round-up for now. Before I finish, one serious warning: anyone that uses Paypal should check out the info about a recent large-scale phishing scam, which has seen users robbed of thousands of dollars. Despite initial fears that Apple’s iTunes was to blame for the breach, it seems that this is now not actually the case – either way, check your security and beware the phishers!

Dejan Levi

For more detail, see the aforementioned TC blog, with results of their trial experiment of Places. The general gist however is that, unless you explicitly opt-out of Places, you are actually ‘in’ a little bit – just not anywhere near as much as if you have actually opted-in. It’s probably a little less straightforward than most users would have liked, but it’s only normal I suppose for a new feature to cause a few misunderstandings until people become clear on how it works (though it’d be easier if Facebook was a little clearer on these things, instead of Techcrunch having to work things out and actually tell it like it is).

The second point that I feel is worth discussing, even at this early stage of Places (day 2 since launch) is the actual positive potential of Places, which is not perhaps getting as much attention as the privacy and safety side of things. Nonetheless, some key commentators have been quick to recognise that Places is finally the feature that promises to make Facebook truly social – in the pre-web 2.0 sense of the word. In other words, it might actually be the feature that finally brings people together in a physical, face-to-face – social – sense. Surely that is, generally speaking, a good thing?

After all, if you’re worried about unwittingly bumping into people, via Places, that you would otherwise not like to see, then maybe it’s time to ask yourself: why am I friends with this person on Facebook? Maybe the potential intimacy and proximity of Places will prompt users to actually consider treating the word ‘friend’ on Facebook as having the same meaning as it does on ‘real life’ – i.e. being a bit more selective about how they build their friend networks. If we’re honest, probably at least 50% of our Facebook friends are people we don’t really communicate with that much – so what’s wrong with Places, encouraging people to be a bit more selective in building genuine friend networks, rather than simply amassing hundreds of one-time acquaintances?

I personally quite like the idea of Facebook becoming a facilitator of physical social experience, rather than being just a virtual channel of communication. I like that the feature might alert me to when some of my friends are going to the same gig as me, or happen to be visiting my part of town – it means that, if we want to (but note: we don’t HAVE to), we can meet up and hang out. Surely all the critics who bemoan social networks for eroding youngsters ability to communicate in person would recognise this potential of Places as having a positive aspect?

Anyway that’s all for now – don’t let the scaremongering security stories get the better of you, Facebook Places does need to be carefully implemented and users need to be fully informed of how it works and can be used, but essentially as long as common sense is present on both sides (FB and users) then Places has the capacity to be the first properly social (in the old-fashioned meaning of the word) feature of any social network out there.

Dejan Levi

(N.B. I know Foursquare has been doing something similar for a little while – but FB’s size renders Places a slightly more significant – if partially derivative development).

With 505 exhibitors from all around the world, over 200 premieres, and the promise of enjoying ‘the city of Cologne as an interactive playground’ it’s no wonder that gamers from all round Europe are hopping onto coaches, trains, and budget planes to go and binge on the delights of this weekend’s event. If you’re undecided about whether it’s worth the trip, perhaps this images from the opening day (yesterday) will go someway to swaying you.

All in all, there’s the usual array of high-profile press conferences from all the big players (Sony on the PS3 and more, Microsoft on Kinect), blockbuster franchise sequel previews (Final Fantasy XIV, COD: Black Ops…) and of course plenty of non-virtual entertainment in the form of BMX stunt shows and live music. For a more detailed programme of everything that’s happening, be sure to check the official Gamescom website to plan your visit.

If you’re unable to make the event this year, there is also a wealth of very detailed and interesting analysis and comment available from most of the key gaming blogs, with FFXIVblog having a decent bit of info on that particular game, and Gamespot having in-depth coverage of pretty much everything else.

Before signing off, I’d just like to applaud the Gamescom organisers for their impressive success in bringing together yet another excellent event, following on from the inaugural Gamescom last summer. High-profile festival-style events like this are absolutely essential for bringing gaming ever more into the mainstream of entertainment media, and ultimately provide a great vehicle for the industry to market itself and attract new fans.

What I think it particularly good about Gamescom, is the fact that it represents a great day out – and not just for the more dedicated gamers. There’s something on offer for all the family too, and the programme is designed so that even the curious non-gamers will be welcomed and accommodated – and perhaps discover a new hobby. In essence, Gamescom is somewhat of a Glastonbury for European gamers – and that can only be a very good thing indeed.

Dejan Levi

The service will initially be ‘opt-in’ and will use ‘friends-only’ as the default privacy setting so as to avoid users unwittingly broadcasting their location to the whole network due to unfamiliarity with the new feature. Obviously there are still serious security issues (when people know where you are they also know where you’re not) and unfortunately it’s a little too easy right now to imagine the Places feature to be, even if only in a very small number of cases, a potential aid to stalking, burglary and other such ugly crimes.

Regardless of this, it is not actually the security side of things that I wanted to discuss in relation to Facebook Places right now (that has already been covered in detail elsewhere), but instead I wanted to consider some of the implications for the increasing localisation of the mobile web.

The true significance of Facebook Places, I believe, is rather in providing us yet another important stepping stone in the increasingly prominent process that is the localisation of the mobile web. With the ever growing potency of mobile devices (whether smart-phones, tablet computers, sat-navs, netbooks etc), localised services are more and more becoming the norm – including everything from local area information, maps and nearby services, right through to the accompanying localised targeted advertising.

This latter aspect will I expect provide a significant surge in online ad spends once the mobile targeted ad delivery systems become widespread and developed enough to be accessible enough for smaller businesses also. Finally, even these local independent shops, bars and services will now also have an effective incentive to utilise web advertising (which was not really the case before – not many of my local barbers for example have a web presence, or an advertising budget). Now even a tiny newsagent or a tea room will be able to register its presence and pay for advertising on localised mobile devices – alerting nearby potential customers who are logging into Facebook (or anything else for that matter, given a bit more time) of the existence of whatever they seek: a sort of mobile fancy digital Yellow pages, with maps and sat-nav integrated if you will.

In this sense, I expect many will be grateful to Facebook for leading this localisation of the mobile web and once again proving that they can have a significant impact on web traffic and thereby ad spend (we’re all already aware of the power of the ‘like’ button to boost traffic for websites and blogs). That certainly is something worthy of recognising and applauding, without of course forgetting about the aforementioned attendant security issues. Hats off to Facebook on the concept – they just need to carefully and sensibly manage the implementation now.

Dejan Levi

The reason for Wave’s failure is simple – user adoption was far too slow due to the tool being perhaps too versatile, and therefore tricky to market effectively. All in all, it’s probably a very healthy sign that a company as big as Google, which can afford to carry a few failing products for quite a while before finances dictate that it must be dropped, is making decisions as incisively as this. Others would surely have been a little more reluctant to write of all the work and investment that had gone into such an ambitious project, especially at a big company which can afford to persist with a slightly underachieving product for months if not years.

Therefore, kudos to Google for pushing ahead with Wave in the first place – it was truly an exciting product (the hype around its launch was genuine – it really promised a lot), but one which clearly needs reconfiguring drastically before user adoption will meet the high standards that Google requires to continue with projects. It remains to be seen whether any potential Wave rivals or replacements might spring up to fill the void and have a crack at (inventing?) the aggregated real-time communications market.

The problem for any such alternative projects will be that Google was in an ideal position to develop such a product – and still failed. Any rival would need to also command massive user trust with data (to sync all our various web based communications through one portal is somewhat of a security risk hypothetically speaking), and also to already be a facilitator of much of that web-based communication (which Google is by virtue of gmail, docs, talk, blogger  etc). Few can match Google in terms of being suited to developing a Wave-like product.

Nonetheless, with the massive proliferation of communication technologies online one can’t help but feel that some degree of greater synchronisation is just around the corner – it’s just a case of how it will come about. Perhaps it will be a matter of one larger company (Google, Microsoft etc) acquiring enough smaller ones (Twitter, Slideshare, Flickr for example) that aggregation will then become inevitable. Or perhaps social networks such as Facebook will eventually triumph in becoming the portals through which all our communications as conducted. Facebook’s increasing penetration across the web surely suggests that such a thing might be possible (basically, imagine logging into FB when you’re online and then being already automatically logged into all FB-compatible sites and programs such as spotify, Twitter etc etc).

Anyway back to the here and now – Google Wave is done and dusted for now after (what I would consider) a fairly bold and ambitious experiment over the past year (since Wave was announced in May 2009). However, I’d be very surprised if the conceptual aspect of Wave didn’t come back sooner rather than later – either from Google or indeed many of the web other major communications players.

Dejan Levi

However, there is also one other significant detail about the Web Store, which is already worthy of some serious discussion – and that is Google’s pricing and revenue models for the product. Initially a 70/30 developer-Google revenue split was expected (similar to Apple’s app store model), though Google have since confirmed that their slice of the pie will now actually only be 5%. This is quite a considerable strategy decision which has clearly been made at some point during the development process.

I find this especially interesting in the context of some recent discussion and posts we had on this blog last month, about Google’s emphasis on value-for-money in the mobile market, both for consumers and developers, which has arguably been one of the reasons why Android is continuing to grow very impressively in terms of its market share.  In essence what we discussed back then was that Android boasted the highest proportion of free apps, as well as having a relatively competitive average price for its priced apps, unlike the app market leader, Apple, whose apps typically cost much more and were less likely to be free. This wasn’t intended as a criticism of Apple (they have a splendid business strategy in the app market – tailored to work for them), but more as an observation of one key area in which Google has identified that it can distinguish itself and win users in such a dynamic and crowded market place – to which it arrived later than many rivals.

Well, it seems that the lessons of Android’s success (fast growth and market penetration IS achievable by the deployment of serious financial incentives for users and developers) are now being applied to the Chrome Web Store. The folks at Google are clearly aware that in terms of corporate economies of scale, they are sitting at the helm of the super giant of the industry sector, and you don’t need a business MBA to know that such companies often maintain their position by offering good value-for-money to customers, as they can afford to implement price cuts that squeeze out smaller competitors.

To return then to the Chrome Web Store, I expect that the considerable incentive offered to developers by the low 5% cut will yield impressively rapid growth in the number of apps available, and likewise in the number of users purchasing them (who will probably also feel the benefit of Google’s low cut in the form of cheaper finished apps). In other words, I expect we will see some overlap with the way Apple’s iPad app store works for example in terms of interface and app types etc, but also a considerably contrasting revenue model driving things behind-the-scenes. Anyway, that’s about all we can say on this for now – more details and comment to follow as the launch approaches.

Dejan Levi

So, with that in mind, here’s a clip from a recent episode of the popular US talkshow Jimmy Kimmel Live with Justin Long (actor and comedian – you’ll recognise him) in the guest’s chair. US readers will of course also recognise Justin Long as the star of a series of Mac TV adverts (of the ‘Mac vs PS’ type) which also provide the pretext for his discussion of technology and the iPhone in this episode of Kimmel Live.

Long clearly is a both an avid user and a fan of his iPhone, so it’s a comedy delight to watch him talk Kimmel (and the studio audience) through a bizarre recent encounter he had with a stranger via his iPhone. I’ll say no more so as to avoid ruining the sketch – but click over to Engadget or Youtube for the full clip (and then pop back here for some more serious news and comment later on ;)

Dejan Levi

The results are derived from an experiment in which roughly 1,500 TypePad bloggers installed the button (launched by FB last April) on their blogs and then recorded the ensuing boost in traffic. Full graphical data of the results can be found at either TypePad or Mashable.

Whatsmore, once TypePad added the like button as a post footer, bloggers saw a 200% boost in referrals from Facebook, which is the kind of result that is pretty foolish to ignore. Of course, Facebook also wins immensely in all this as people now begin to think of themselves as Facebook users even when not directly on the actual site itself. In other words, Facebook is increasingly cross-linked with the web as whole and this can only be a good thing from their point of view.

To summarise then: there is nothing overly complex here (not to say Facebook’s button isn’t clever though). The like button can boost traffic massively, as TypePad’s experiment has shown – especially if added as a blog post footer. Meanwhile, for Facebook, the button is part of an overall strategy to connect the network’s previously sealed-off world to the rest of the web, meaning that eventually the social network could become a portal through which all other web surfing happens: i.e. in the course of doing all the other things we do on the web (aside from being on facebook.com) we will also be inputting and interacting simultaneously with our FB networks. Now that’s pretty clever…

Dejan Levi