Blackberry Desktop Manager Coming Oct 2.

Research in Motion, makers of the Blackberry will be releasing a desktop manager for Mac users coming Oct 2.  The PC version of the desktop manager has been available for quite some time.  Now Mac users will be able to do pretty much the same functions as iPhone users can with iTunes.  Blackberry users will be able to backup their phones data and be able to download updates to their phone.

The desktop manager will also allow users to sync calendars, contacts and appointments with iCal, contacts, and entourage on the Mac.  The desktop manager should also allow you to manage your apps much like the app manger with iTunes.  You may also be able to sync music from iTunes as well.

The desktop manager will require OSX 10.5.5 or higher and Blackberry users must be using OS 4.2 or higher on their phones.

CNN’s New iPhone App

CNN is doing something that a lot of other online news agencies are keeping a close eye on.  They introduced a $1.99 iPhone app in a field that has multiple news apps that are free.  CNN’s hopes are that user would buy the app for the better all around news that the app is supposed to offer.

The app is to offer the news and other features that differentiate the free vs. the paid CNN app.  The app will still provide the old fashioned news however it goes one step further by providing a live video feed of breaking news.  It will also allow you to report your own news worthy pictures or video to iReport.  iReport is CNN’s answer to amateur reporting of breaking news.   CNN does offer uploading of pictures and video on its website and this is the first time it has allowed this service on a mobile phone.

CNN is counting on its ability to provide a great user experience in a paid iPhone app.  Associated Press tried to have a paid version of its news application however sales of the app were dismal and therefore offered it free.  Once AP offered the app for free, then they saw downloads soar.  All news apps are hoping to generate revenue by selling ads online.  Time will tell if selling advertising online will be lucrative as advertisers aren’t running to place ads on these applications.

CNN is by far the most viewed news website online and with its vast resources of video and print news, they may have something to offer users in a paid application.  Time will tell if users want to have news on demand in a paid application.

Apple Store Hits 2 Billion Downloads

Apple hits the 2 billion download mark for application downloads.  Just earlier this month,  Steve Jobs indicated that they had reached 1.8 billion downloads and this number didn’t include any updates.  The rate of downloads is definitely increasing as more and more people are buying iPhones.  Apple estimates that there are about 50 million iPhone users out there.

Apple first reached the billion download mark in April.  It took Apple about a year and a half to hit the 2 billion mark.  This rate of download will increase as more iPhone are being sold and that it is available in 77 countries.  South Korea and China are about to come online so you can expect more downloads.   Monthly downloads are hitting about 6.3 million applications a month, which is up from 4.1 million a month earlier in the year.

The 85,000 applications and the amount of iPhones being sold is what is keeping the iPhones ahead in its marketshare for smart phones compared to the Palm Pre and Google’s Android.   The numbers are simply remarkable for a company who only a few years ago has had only a 3% marketshare.  Now their market share stands at about 9%.

MMS Finally comes to iPhone

It only took just over 2 years.  MMS a technology that’s available on most cell phones that are given away when you sign up for a two year contract.  Well the day has finally come.  iPhone users can finally do what most other phone users could do, they can finally send more than just text.  MMS allows iPhone users to send pictures and voice notes through text messaging.

There are many reasons as to why it took so long.  The technology isn’t very complicated.  The biggest blame probably lies with AT&T as Apple could have easily incorporated this technology in their phone.  AT&T is under heavy criticism for not being able to allow the technology to be available when the iPhone 3GS came out.  It was booed when Apple announced the companies that would make the technology available that day.

Now with the addition of MMS, much of the gripes about the technology in the phone is now up to date with most other phones.  The biggest complaint with the iPhone now is undoubtedly AT&T.  AT&T is way behind in upgrading their systems to handle the amount of bandwidth that iPhone users have been using.  iPhone users are far more likely to browse the internet than any other phone user.  Therefore with the addition of some hundreds of million iPhone users it does take a toll.  If AT&T doesn’t get the ball rolling on their solution to the bandwidth problem, once iPhone comes to Verizon, AT&T may lose a lot of customers.

Purchase Coffee from your iPhone

Starbucks is testing a new two new iPhone apps in which you can send your formula to a friend to get the exact recipe for you.  The other app will allow you to purchase your favorite cup of joe from your iPhone.  The testing is going on  in Seattle,  Cupertino, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and San Jose.

The myStarbucksapp will allow you to store your recipe and your friends recipe.  It will also allow you to search particular Starbucks that have certain features to them such as a changing table etc.  The app will also have a flavor selector so that you can try other recipes that you might like to try.

The Starbucks mobile app is potentially the testing grounds for future iPhone apps that will allow in phone purchasing of products.  Asian cell phone markets already have this feature built into phones.  The app will pop up a bar code that Starbucks can scan and take payment through a prepaid credit.  The scan would deduct the amount of credit from your account.

It is only a matter of time that more in phone purchasing will become available as more and more people are being centered around their phone.  Although the current use of barcodes is a start, the near field communication that is used in Japan is what will eventually be found in phones used in the States.

Twitter about to get $100 million

Social networking site Twitter is about get a $100 million tweet from venture capitalist to expand.  The amount of funding would in essence triple the amount of previous funding that the company has received.  The last round of venture captial was $35 million.  With the $100 million influx, the company is estimated at about $1 billion.

The source of the venture capital is coming from T. Rowe Price and Insight Venture Partners.  With the added capital, the company is said to still focus on getting things right with Twitter before it concentrates on trying to generate revenue.  Twitter is expected to have a business section with systems to allow business to monitor traffic on their Twitter accounts.

Google News goes down.

Google has acknowledged that its news service Google News has suffered an outage.  The company released the following statement:

Today, starting at about 12:45 p.m. PDT, many users began experiencing difficulties accessing Google News. We are aware of the issue and working to fix it. We know how important Google News is to our users, and we take issues like this very seriously.

This service outage comes after Google’s mail application Gmail went down for about an hour and a half earlier this month.  The company image may have been tarnished a little after a few embarassing outages for a company who does most of all its business online.  The news service collects major news stories from many different outlets so an outage will cripple web traffic to those sites.

It appears that the outage only lasted about 30 minutes.

AT&T providing femtocells

AT&T is introducing another revenue stream for its wireless services.  The nations second largest carrier behind Verizon is offering the femtocells on an employee trial basis now as it tests the new system.  The femtocell is a device that uses a AT&T’s customers web connection to provide access to AT&T’s network for voice and data usage.  The device is really geared for users who lack an adequate 3G signal in their home so that they can receive phone calls on their cell phone.

The device is going to be offered at $150 but it does include a $100 mail in rebate if people sign up for the $20 a month plan.  The $20 plan includes unlimited calls when calls are made through the femtocell.  However critics are asking why a consumer has to spend additional money per month in order to have a signal in areas where AT&T doesn’t have any signal.  Other carriers have higher up front costs but don’t have any monthly fees.   AT&T is under alot of criticism about their lack of bandwidth to handle all the iPhone traffic.

Facebook hits 300 million users

Facebook announced that it has reached the 300 million users mark.  It took Facebook about 5 years to reach the 150 million mark but it has reached the last 150 million in an astounding 9 months.  Facebook with its 300 million users is nearing the total amount of people in the United States at 307 million users according to the US Census.  There are about 90 million people who use Facebook in the U.S.

What had started off as a college social networking site, it has ballooned to the juggernaut it is today.  Most of the people who are now joining Facebook are people far out of college.  The 35 and older crowd is the fastest growing demographic on Facebook.  It’s not only a teen phenomenon anymore.  Now moms and dads are friends with their sons and daughters.

The social networking site has also reached cashflow positive meaning they are finally making a profit.  CEO Mark Zuckerberg had estimated that the company would be cash flow positive sometime in 2010.  Facebook makes most of its revenue from advertising by auctioning off ad space to a certain demographic of people on Facebook.    The company is worth about $10 billion dollars and has about $600 million in financing.

The company has come a long way.  It has had some bumps along the way with their privacy policies however the website is the 4th most trafficked website in the United States.

Intuit buys Mint.com

Financial software giant Intuit buys Mint.com for for $170 million.  It was earlier this year that Intuit’s lawyers sent Mint a threatening letter regarding their claim that they were signing on a high number of new users.  Apparently, with the purchase of Mint.com, there must have been some hand holding that went on afterwards.

Mint.com was providing easy to use software to its user to organize their personal finances.   Intuits, Quicken software provides this service but on a more higher scale.  Some may find it too complicated to use and therefore Mint.com’s software may have been more appealing.

It appears that Intuit may have been concerned about the rapid growth of Mint.com and their easy to use software.  Intuit’s purchase will allow them access to new customers as well as access to the intellectual property of Mint.com