I often note an iPhone app's average use rating when discussing an app here. I do this because I use these averages to help me decide whether or not to buy an app or even try a free one. The other thing I often mention here is what people are writing in the customer review comments section. These comments often point out especially good things about an app as well as potential issues. Here's a good recent example where the comments helped me decide to not buy an app.

A public relations type emailed me a press release the other day for...

Mobile Receipt for iPhone

I receive a lot of press releases. But, I only have the time to follow-up on a few. The ones that receive a follow-up from me usually interest me personally (in fact, let's say "always interests me personally"). Having spent many years trying different methods to collect expense information of taxes and expense reports, this $4.99 iPhone app looked reasonably priced (compared, for example, to a mobile scanner) and could perform a useful function. However, I learned from customer review comments that the app produces a single PDF file for all receipts for a particular date. That is somewhat useful but not exactly what I want. It also appears to be crash-prone if the customer comments are to be believed.

My inclination at the moment is to save my $4.99 and pass on this app with a 2.5 star average customer rating.

Those of us hoping for a surprise appearance of a camera in the soon-to-be-released Apple iPad would probably do well to postpone that dream for a while according to 9to5mac.com:

iPad SDK 3.2 beta 4 removes Video Call/Chat references

Of course, Apple has been very clear since the day of the announcement that the first generation iPad does not have any built-in camera. But, I think many of us hoped that there was some add-on option that would be made available as a surprise release to enable video conferencing on the device. This latest find puts a big damper on that idea.

Of course, it could be that the next iPhone/iPad SDK beta release will restore this function. Apple is a tricky bunch. I wouldn't put it past them to create misdirection and confusion even a few days from the start of iPad pre-ordering.

I realize that "privacy is dead" and that everyone and everything done is scrutinized these days. But, is it just me or does this announcement have an "Big Brother" overtone that overshadows the interesting technology behind it?

Sprint and Walsh Wireless Launch M2M Device to Drive Usage-Based Insurance for Vehicles

The "Big Brother" aspect appears up front at the end of the first paragraph:

Drivers could see a reduction in their premiums by being rewarded for low mileage and/or safe driving habits. The Walsh Data Logger provides the ability to wirelessly monitor in real-time the performance of a vehicle, its location and the driver's driving pattern through an easy-to-use, self-installed device.

Yes it does appear to be aimed more at fleet vehicle situations where drivers in general will probably benefit from having a bit of oversight placed on vehicle fleets. But, how long will it be until auto insurance companies require these monitoring devices in private vehicles in order to obtain drivers insurance?

I didn't have high expectations of the...

New YouTube App for Windows Mobile and Nokia S60 phones

But, I was more than pleasently surprised after pointing my Windows Mobile web browser at m.youtube.com/app and installing it. The interface is finger friendly even on a relatively tiny touchscreen. Its side scrolling browsing mode is intuitive. And, the little expanding twirling animation from a portrait mode text interface to video playback mode is both attractive and effective. Video playback over a WiFi connection was smooth and clear even on an older Windows Mobile phone model (Touch Pro).

The only criticism I have is that I couldn't find an option to have video fill a landscape mode screen during playback.

Longtime MobileContentToday readers are familiar with my skepticism of many mobile metrics reports. Sampling problems, unstated assumptions, and plain old incorrect interpretations are common in many of these reports. comScore's mobile market share report for January 2010 falls into the "where did those numbers come from" category. But, putting those concerns aside for the moment, what can we learn from their numbers?

comScore Reports January 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

- Mobile OEMs: This category is too broad to provide any interesting information. And, having Motorola rank as #1 in the list makes me suspicious about this category

- Smartphone Platforms: No surprise here regarding rank order: RIM, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Palm. The shifts in marketshare with Microsoft and Palm losing relatively large percentages for a one quarter period (-4 and
-2.1%, respectively) makes sense. Google was the big winner in terms of change (+4.3%). But, it had practically nothing (2.8%) in October 2009 prior to Verizon's big push for the Motorola

- Mobile Content Usage: No surprises with small gains across the board with text messaging and web browser at positions #1 and #2. It is interesting that listening to music on a moble phone was the lowest ranked category

Frank discussed the rumor that Kindle for Android might appear on the Android-based Dell Mini 5 tablet. The other Dell Mini 5 news in Engadget's article is the variety of colors and designs that will be available for the Mini 5.

Leaked Dell Streak flyer shows multitude of color options, confirmed specifications

Kindle for Android will be welcome. And, I'm sure having a choice of color and design finishes will be well received too (the blue and red versions look good to me!). But, the Mini 5's price may be its ugliest attribute. I completely agree with Frank that the Mini 5 will be very attractive if it is priced at around $200 (or even $250 IMHO). But, my recollection is that the rumors have unlocked versions (no mobile phone carrier contract) priced at around $800. If that is the case, the Mini 5 will be the answer to a trivia question in the future.

Google Maps already provides driving, transit, and walking directions. So, bicycling optimization seems like a logical next step.

Biking directions added to Google Maps (The Official Google Blog)

The next logical thing, in my opinion, would to make this available on Google Maps for mobile so it could be used by someone actually on a bicycle. But alas, after checking Google Maps on both an iPhone (app & website) and Nexus One (Android 2.1), I couldn't find it on either platform. And, yes, I pointed my browser at http://maps.google.com/biking and tried to add it to my maps.

Assuming Google is hard at work getting bicycle routing on mobile devices soon, here are a couple of suggestions from a person who used to spend a lot of time on bike (I didn't own a car while at grad school).

- Get it working with mobile phones
- Add a "social" aspect to it by letting bicyclists add information about safety, difficulty level, etc.

Advertisements keep free radio, tv, and web sites alive (including this one!). So, you won't find me complaining about Google/YouTube introducting ads to their YouTube mobile site (m.youtube.com).

YouTube calling: Now serving ads on the YouTube mobile site (The Official Google Blog)

Google notes that ads should show up on the U.S. and Japan YouTube mobile site. The ads should show up between the Home/Videos/My Account tabs bar and the Spotlight Videos bar of the mobile site. However, as you can see in the photo I took of my iPhone and Nexus One sitting side-by-side displaying the YouTube mobile site, it hasn't shown up everywhere yet.

Over a number of different posts that we have written during the past month, we have focused on several different aspects of Windows Phone 7 series, but we have not spent much time on what may be the X-factor, gaming. During the Windows Phone 7 Series announcement we learned that it will have some level of integration with X-Box, but we did not get much detail about what the integration would actually entail.

At TechEd Middle East Microsoft showed how the integration will work. As you will see in the following video, you will be able to play a game on a PC, pause the game, and pick up where you left off on your Windows Phone, and then from there pick up on the X-Box.



As you can see, the same game is playable on each device, but also takes advantage of the different features of each device. For example, when the game is played on a PC you use a keyboard, but the Windows Phone version uses the accelerometer in the device. Perhaps even more important is level of integration in the programming. Developers create one project in Visual Studio to develop for all three devices, rather than having to write separate programs for each platform.

I think the simplicity for developing games, or any program for that matter, is important for growing the Windows Phone 7 platform. By what I see in the video, it appears as though Microsoft has thought this out very well. If done right, gaming and integration with X-Box could be key differentiator between Windows Phone 7 and its competitors.

As we write about mobile technology, we often take for granted that our readers understand the terms that we are using. Even though most of our readers are mobile enthusiasts, that doesn't necessarily mean everyone understands all of the technology and terms, so from time to time we'll write some posts explaining the technology terms we use.

Perhaps one of the most important parts of mobile phones, tablet computers, netbooks, and notebooks is the screen. The screen shows us the information that we use these devices to obtain, and in the case of devices with touchscreens, the screens are also how we interact with the device to retrieve information.

In actuality, the term touchscreen is shorthand for what one does (touch the screen), but really isn't the right term for the screen technology in use. What is called a touchscreen is really a digitizer that translates, or digitizes, where and how the screen is touched, into information that computer programs understand. Rather than provide all the details about the different digitizers in mobile devices, I will direct you to this excellent article written by James Kendrick, the jk part of jkOnTheRun...

Everything You Need To Know About Touchscreen Tablets

Dell has really been teasing the Mini 5 handheld, which appears destined to be the first official Android device from Dell that is sold in the United States. The Mini 5 is a small tablet that has a 5 inch screen that will display at 800 x 400. In light of the Apple iPad, HP Slate, and all of the smartphones, it is hard for me to imagine why I would want to buy the Mini 5. For me the key piece of information that will either make me more interested, or cause me to just move along is the price. If Dell sells the Mini 5 for $200, it might be good enough for someone who likes the idea of a tablet, but doesn't want to pay the $500 or higher price of an iPad. On the other hand, if the Mini 5 costs $500, why bother when you can get an iPad with a larger screen for the same price, even though the smaller Mini 5 will be more portable?

Today Engadget posted some marketing materials leaked from Dell, and Kevin Tofel's eagle eyes caught an interesting piece of information in the material, which is that the Mini 5 will include several Amazon services, including the Kindle eBook software. Obviously, one can conclude that if the Kindle eReader software will run on the Mini 5, it should run on any Android device. However, a big caveat is that there is precedent in the Android world of making apps exclusive to certain devices for a period of time. None-the-less, if you are a fan of eBooks, there is now a reason to keep an eye out for when the Mini 5 launches, even if you aren't interested in the Mini 5.

DataViz is a long time mobile application developer that sells a suite of productivity applications known as Documents To Go. You can use Documents To Go to view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files and view PDF files on the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry mobile phones. DataViz is working on a version for Palm webOS, and doesn't sell a version for Windows Mobile, which of course has the Microsoft Windows Mobile Office applications built-in.

While Microsoft Office has long been the dominant suite of productivity applications, there are alternatives that are gaining popularity, including the cloud-based Google Documents. DataViz is wisely recognizing the trend towards greater use of Google Docs and therefore is now selling a Premium version of Documents To Go for the iPhone that supports editing Google Docs directly in the program. Any changes that you make to documents on the iPhone will synchronize with Google Docs, making it easy to share the documents with other people.

Documents To Go Premium costs $14.95, while Documents To Go costs $9.99, and it is currently available in the iTunes App Store.