I recently started an additional site about app discovery: LightenApp.

As you can probably tell by its name, LightenApp is focused entirely on apps, mainly iPhone apps.

The format is simple: short app reviews added daily.

If you want to discover new apps and get tips and recommendations, just subscribe to LightenApp on any one of these channels:

If you know any good app that you think should be reviewed, let me know.

I recently spent a lot of time traveling, both as a tourist and as part of my job (in my line of work, there isn't really a clear line between the two). The more I travel the more I discover that, thanks to the ubiquity of the Internet and the advanced capabilities of smartphones, traveling hasn't changed this much since Columbus set sail (ok, maybe since those Wright kids got bored with just biking around their backyard).


Preparing For Liftoff
It starts off even before I embark on my adventure, while organizing all my plans. I use a great (free) service called TripIt which easily aggregates all my travel information (flights, hotels, rentals, etc...) and lets me access them from one spot both on the web and my phone. Adding all of my information is a cinch, I just forward all those flight confirmation e-mails (and such) to TripIt and they take it from there (they even have a Gmail plugin that does that automatically if you want). Using the TripIt app on the iPhone lets me easily check my flight status and gate changes, right before my flight. Very useful.


Getting Online
In my day to day life I rely on the Internet quite a bit (anybody say addiction?) but once I land in a foreign country it becomes my lifeline to learning about my surroundings, making my way around, connecting to people who have experience in the new wilderness I've been flung into, and sharing and documenting my experiences.

Once I land in a new country my first order of business is getting online (how else am I supposed to checkin on Foursquare at the airport?). Cellular roaming costs are a biiiiatch, so I would stay far away from that, but I've had different experiences with getting online in different countries. The best being in London, just walking in to a T-mobile store and £5 later I had a working cellphone with unlimited bandwidth for the month. In other countries the experience was less seamless (especially depending on the people's competence in English) but after some running around I always manage to get a local SIM (in Europe you usually want to ask for a "pay as you go" SIM with a data plan, but they don't always understand the "data plan" part). The prices vary but they usually have deals where you can get more than enough bandwidth for pretty cheap.

What I usually do is try to find some offline map apps for my iPhone before I leave home so that I at least have a map at my fingertips when I land and have yet to setup a reliable Internet connection. There are many different apps for this depending on where you're going, a quick Google from home will do the trick to find reviews about the best ones for your destination.


Then the Fun Begins
Being constantly connected with a smartphone while abroad used to be a fantasy (those are the kinds of the things I fantasize about :) but now it's a necessity.
It affects many aspects of my travels:

• Getting around - whether it's how to get to a conference venue, finding out where the hell I am, or locating the nearest subway station or nearest McDonald's (a man's gotta eat). Google maps is the killer app for this on the iPhone and Android. If you're in a major city like New York it will even show you public transportation times as part of the walking directions it gives you.
• What sights to see - when in tourist mode you don't really know what to see and where to go when planning a trip in a new city. I discovered that there are TONS of great iPhone apps for doing just that - many of them free. The best experience I had was with mTrip (specifically their app for London but they have guides for other cities). Although it's not free ($6, which is less than any travel book you'd buy) it gives you both offline information about tons of different places to see in your city of choice plus an awesome automatic day planner. What you do is tell it where you want to start your trip (your hotel for example), what kind of things you want to see (sight seeing, shopping, churches...), and how many days you have, and it automatically sets up your schedule for the entire trip. You can then manually edit your schedule (add/remove spots, rearrange stuff...) and it gives you transportation instructions from each spot to the next. It's like your own personal travel guide, the easiest way I could think of to getting to know a new city.
• Connecting with people - whether it's asking for tips and recommendations from friends or getting help with something when stuck, always being connected to your Twitter and Facebook friends is something that we will increasingly be relying on. I got great recommendations for restaurants and cool exhibits while in Amsterdam and even got a few people searching for me in real time for what settings I need in my iPhone in order to connect to the Vodafone network in Amsterdam (it's kinda hard to search when you don't have Internet :).
• Sharing and documenting - the reason people take cameras on trips with them is to both document the experience for themselves and to share with others. I find that by using services like GoWalla and Foursquare I can do both in real time. Ok ok, so GoWalla wont replace my camera entirely, but it's a great way for me to be able to look back and see exactly where I was at what time (and I get information about the place while checking in). And all my friends/followers can see where I am and share their experiences from that place. Invaluable (plus my mom keeps tabs on me this way).

Now I can hear all you naysayers saying "can't you disconnect from e-mails", "I go on vacation to get away from being connected",...

I think that attitude will disappear in the future as we cease to perceive e-mail and IM as work (actually future generations will probably only use Facebook, but that's another post) and the Internet becomes an even bigger, integral part of our lives.

Nobody forces me to answer emails or IMs while on vacation, even if I am connected, and it's up to me when to reply and at what length. It's like turning off the phone while you're away. Feel free to do it, but when you need the phone you turn it on.




What's Next
The two improvements that need to come next stem from the two biggest problems I had when travelling like this:

• Battery life
• Getting online

During my day to day I'm usually 1 hour away from a power outlet at worst. Most of the time I can plug my iPhone in and not have to worry about its abysmally short battery life (all smartphones currently suffer from this problem). However, while traveling I'll be away from power for at least 8 hours at a time, sometimes it can get up to almost double that. And these are not normal days where I use the iPhone occasionally (is once every 10 minutes considered occasionally?), while traveling I'll be using the phone every few minutes at times: to look at the map, open a travel guide, checkin to a location, take a picture, god forbid even upload a picture... All these things suck the battery like Snoop Dog’s toilet when the cops come.

Battery life needs to improve significantly so that we get to a point where we can do all of these things without having to worry about them killing the battery. Just like the good old days when your Nokia phone used to hold up for a week between charges.

The second road bump in my experiences (aside from losing my luggage, but who cares about that), is getting online in a new country. This needs to become entirely seamless at some point in the future so that you land, turn on your phone, and are connected (without the ridiculous roaming charges). Once demand increases, phone companies will need to realize that their services are a commodity, and as such we expect them to be readily available at our beck and call.

Until that happens, this will remain a luxury only for hardcore geeks.

This is a repost of an article that I originally wrote for Technorati and was published there.

I was reading Jason Hiner's article, "We're entering the decade of the developer", and it sparked some thoughts about apps, developers and the future of both.

As Jason notes, developers are an upcoming force to reckon with, but so are consumers. As apps become more popular, user expectations – and demands – will rise. This means that there will be zero tolerance for UI issues, a demand for sleek design and speed, and high levels of core functionality.

What does this mean for developers? Quite a bit, actually. There will be a need for more than just "code monkey" developers. Visionaries and entrepreneurs who understand the market and its future opportunities, and collaborate with top notch developers to realize those visions will win in the end.

Bottom line: In order to succeed developers will need access to design/UI people and marketing and distribution mechanisms that are easily accessible and have a critical mass of users.

Luckily some of those already exist (and are improving all the time) and many are quite easy to use and can even be free. For the visionaries and entrepreneurs who see and seize these, along with some great infrastructures that are readily available (Paypal, cloud computing, collaboration tools, oDesk, code-sharing/Q&A sites, communication tools...), there are endless opportunities.

This only means good things for consumers and the apps they consume as this decade offers developers much in the way of visibility and possibility.

This is a repost of an article that I originally wrote for Technorati and was published there.

Recently, Forrester analyst Thomas Husson wrote a blog post on the future of application stores and I was struck by his suggestion that publishers make it too complicated for end users to find and download apps.
He said:

"The subtle differences between widgets, Web apps, native apps, Java apps, and optimized mobile Web sites don’t make much sense to your end users. As long as they have an icon that acts as a touchpoint to access content and services that are relevant to them, it won't matter. The challenge for you is to make sure that your core target audience has your icon on their home screen, so that they engage with your company and not your competition."

I couldn't agree more.

Husson points out that there is an increasing demand for apps from end users, however, app stores need to greatly improve the user experience so that even those with no technical knowledge can leverage their offerings and access all these coveted apps.

Today, the delivery of apps to end users can sometimes be cumbersome, especially as it relates to app payment. Paying for apps is probably the second most difficult challenge for end users after poor user experience. While payment is what drives developers (the idea of being able to easily make money off of their application), it is a big hurdle for end users.

App stores need to encourage developers to offer free apps so that overall adoption rates rise. Down the road, when the market matures, payment will become easier to manage and more accepted by end users so everyone will benefit. In the meantime, App stores must reduce the friction and let end users easily consume free apps without having to set up an account or payment method (currently, in the Apple Appstore a user needs to set up an account before they can download any app). This will lead to a better app economy in the long run.

This doesn't eradicate or reduce the benefit for developers. On the contrary, with the right monetization mechanisms in place, publishers can realize greater adoption and higher revenues without charging end-users. Developers need other monetization options to be available via the platforms for which they develop; for example, built-in virtual currency systems, easy access to advertising (a la Apple's iAd), and affiliate systems.

Once app stores make it easy for developers to use these different mechanisms in their apps, more and more apps will be self-sustainable without having to charge users. This will lead to an increase in adoption, while still being able to monetize the popularity of an app (for both the developer and the app store).

The driving forces for a good app economy in an app store are:

• A critical mass of users that reach the appstore
• A user experience that enables all these users to be able to consume apps easily
• High quality apps
• Happy app developers

In order to create high quality apps, app stores need to make sure developers are happy with the results they get from developing an app and offering it through a specific app store. Aside from the prospect of making a lot of money by developing an app, app stores can lure in developers by offering reach. After all, the two things that pretty much every publisher on the Internet is interested in are traffic and monetization. The app store needs a critical mass of users anyway in order to thrive, so it should offer the developer mechanisms for reaching all those users, especially based on the quality of their apps (good apps get exposure to more users, creating even more of an incentive for developers to create good apps).


The apps space is definitely heating up and there is a lot of potential there, but app stores still have a long way to go before everybody, including my grandmother, will be consuming apps.

The big guys all know this and are setting their sights on creating app stores for different platforms to hook in users. Aside from Apple's Appstore, some great examples to keep an eye on are the Google Chrome web store, Microsoft Windows 8 (both currently pending), the Conduit App Marketplace (yes, technically I work for Conduit, but biases aside, you should really check it out), and OpenAppMkt (both live).

Lots of people have been asking me why I need an iPad (I plan on getting one really soon).

Here are the answers that I've been giving them (and myself) on why I need an iPad, before owning one:

• It turns on really fast (much faster than a laptop). This is great for taking notes, looking something up, checking my calendar...
• Relatively lightweight to carry around. I know a netbook may be lighter but carrying around an iPad is lighter than my laptop
• It can do most of the essential things I need to do on my laptop, especially when on the go: email, web, docs (mainly Google docs), twitter, watching videos, Skype
• It has a great interface for playing games
• The non-committal data plan. Whenever I'm in the States I can just purchase a $15 dataplan for that specific month, directly from the device. Very convenient. 
• It's cool, innovative, and really sleek (I gotta be a part of the revolution), which brings me to my final reason:
• Cuz I'm a geek, duh :)

So it won't replace my laptop altogether but while travelling it pretty much has me covered.


Here are the things I think I will be missing by carrying around only an iPad:

• No way to sync my iPhone (for backing up and transferring media)
• No Bittorrent client
• No way to convert videos for viewing on the iPad

Here's my list for 2010 of products that I absolutely can't live without (inspired by Mike Arrington's list).

These are all products that I use daily and either make my life easier or more fun (and are not trivial like my fridge and car).

This list is a current snapshot of my favorite products, I think the interesting part about it will be to look at it in the future and see how it changes.

Here we go:

• Gmail - you know what this is
• Google Reader - this and twitter are my main source of news (no tv, radio, paper, or news site)
• Twitter - no explanation needed (I hope at least)
• Facebook - ditto
• Zenbe lists - great iPhone App and web application for managing and syncing tasks from the iPhone and web 
• SplashID - password manager for the iPhone and desktop
• Flickr - where I store all my photos, including those that I post to Twitter
• iPhone 3GS - marvelous device
• Google Docs - where I create and store all my documents. I still use MS Office for Outlook and PowerPoint
• Dropbox - great free solution for automatically backing up any files I want, syncing them between computers, and accessing them from anywhere in the world
• Eztv - pretty much my only source for watching TV shows
• del.icio.us - where I store all the sites I may want to find again in the future
• Google Maps - use it all the time, especially when abroad
• Skype - use it mainly for saving on the phone bill, occasionally for IM
• Foursquare - ok, I could live without this one but I use it all the time
• Plancast - for letting people know what events I'm attending and to discover what events I should attend
• Digg - main way of seeing what's hot and finding cool stuff
• TechMeme - main way of keeping up to date with tech news
• AppShopper - how I track iPhone apps that lowered their price
• Blogger - the service I use to host and manage this blog
• Jango - great way to list to music I like online (used to be Last.fm till they started charging money)
• bit.ly - URL shortening service with very useful tracking information
 

Since the iPhone is such a big part of my day to day, here are the iPhone apps that I can't live without:

• Waze - free turn by turn GPS application
• Boxcar - how I get Twitter reply and DM push notifications
• IM+ - how I get gmail push notifications 
• NoteMaster - app to edit and view Google Docs on the iPhone
• qStatus - app to easily update Twitter

Feel free to post yours in the comments...

Apple has let us down.
Apple, the monolithic underdog of the computer world, has slammed the door on technological advancement with the release of the iPad.
Ok, that’s a bit melodramatic, but let’s face it – when a superpower like Apple creates a locked-down platform, controlling everything from who creates an app all the way to its distribution, pricing, and everything in between, they pretty much staunch the thriving open ecosystem that has led us to where we stand today, technology-wise.

The magic of open platforms allows developers to hack the software and create all kinds of ways to improve it. That’s the natural evolutionary process at work. When the original iPhone came out, it came with nada, zip, zilch – then it got hacked - thank the tech-gods - and SHAZAM, behold the App Store.

So, ok, they’ve kindly provided the dev kids with their SDK - BUT!, and this is a big but, if you want to make an iPad app, you have to go through Apple, play by their rules, and either get to hang with the cool kids, or get turned down and hang with the science club geeks.
And let me help you out here – considering all the criticism flying about Apple’s strict application (rejection) process and their banning third party applications which enable functionality they deem ‘unwanted’ on their sleek & sexy gadgets - the sci-club is where the hackers, the developers, the “Keep Moving Forward” guys would rather be.

When Apple did the same for the iPhone we accepted it because, let's face it, Apple invented the whole concept of applications for mobile phones. We just blindly accepted their rules.
But the iPad is not another run-of-mill cellphone. Oh no, no matter how you look at it, it's the next evolution of the personal computer that has become such a huge part of our lives.

Alright, let’s give credit where it’s due; there’s definitely something to be said for the Apple mystique - the bandwagon excitement of ‘if it’s being released by Apple it’s gonna be cool and I have to have it’. And no doubt the iPad is not only super sexy but also [another] great mechanism for delivering apps.

But is that where we’re heading?
A world where one company controls the content that the masses can consume?
Developers who must abide by the semi-random rules set by the guys at Cupertino, or their software will just disappear?
Kids that grow up being used to the fact that to replace a battery you need to leave it up to the pros... the damn thing doesn't even have screws you can tinker around with.
Do we want kids to just learn to accept the limitations that are imposed on them, without questioning?

Is that good?

Sure, for Apple’s bottom line.
But what about for those on the other side of the fence? What’s the message Apple is sending to the techie community? Not a loving one, that’s for sure.

I’m asking a lot of hypothetical questions, I’m aware. But I’m pissed off by the industry’s so-called good guys pulling a worldwide ‘Amazon Kindle’ move (times a million in size and relevance, but you get my meaning).

So yes, Apple, I’m officially disappointed, as are, judging by heated reactions all over the web, legions of ‘in the know’ people who see what you’re doing and are taking a stand against it by refusing to shell out $ for it.

I’m not gonna buy an iPad either.….I keep telling myself that, anyway.

At least it blends: :)