iPhone app social network goes international

Rating: Some users of Chorus actually spend their money

With the estimated number of iPhone apps being anywhere between 130,000-150,000, envIO Networks reckons it has found the answer with its Chorus service.

An iPhone apps social network with a difference. This one claims its users have spent over $1 million on paid apps to date, with the average user recommending 75 friends to join the community.

Truphone is busy this year: mobile VoIP operator expands its Nokia mobile footprint

Truphone has been one busy company this year. It’s a pure-play mobile VoIP service - meaning that it focuses its entire business on allowing people to make incredibly cheap voice calls over the internet, using their mobile phone. So far this year it has launched an Android version of the service, and announced its intentions to create its own VoIP based MVN over Vodafone in the UK. And today it has announced an expansion in its range of Nokia phones.

Partnering with operators beats app stores says Telmap

Rating: Going completely against perceived wisdom, then

Here’s an unusual one. A mobile app developer simultaneously singing the praises of mobile operators and boasting about the volume of its iPhone app downloads. Somehow, Telmap has managed to do this.

Apple culls risqué content from Store

Rating: No boobies and bikinis for Cupertino

Apple, which resides in the same US state that hosts Baywatch and the porn industry, has decided that boobs and bikinis are far too risqué for its iTunes app store. It has been quietly culling them.

NNG offers navigation app for 3 platforms

Rating: The Windows Mobile version might not be quite ready yet
By a weird set of circumstances, Hungary’s NNG Global Services grabbed our attention. The company’s obvious aim was to publicise the fact that it has mobile navigation software on three major platforms – Android, Windows Mobile and iPhone – in the shape of [...]

woZZon goes Android for event search

strong>Rating: from Nokia hero to Android champion in 2 months

Having won a top prize from Nokia for its clever use of Ovi Maps (see here ), woZZon has shown its gratitude to the Finnish handset vendor by taking its location based events app onto Android.

Updated data zapping for Windows Mobile

Rating: Delete that sensitive data via SMS

Given the bad publicity stemming from the accidental loss of sensitive data, British software developer, Aiko Solutions, has released a new version of its SecuWipe app. The app is aimed at Windows phones and Windows CE terminals.

The open application store industry is where iPhone will see competition. PocketGear has bought out Handango

Mobile applications are often the subject of some seriously ostentatious advertising and promotion. Apple regularly quotes its most recent “billion” landmark, and the Wholesale Application Community announcement at MWC last week was the very definition of grandstanding. But in the older market of platform agnostic app stores, things are quickly getting very interesting. Todays announcement that PocketGear has bought out competitor Handango is only the most recent of several interesting developments.

Psiloc partners with Hotelzon to offer GPS-radius

Rating: Find a room when stuck @ airport

Two companies - Psiloc and Hotelzon - have banded together to offer Symbian users a unique ‘GPS-radius’ feature. This enables traveller to scan the immediate area for available hotels—even if he or she doesn’t know his or her exact location.

Qt for Symbian hastens development by 200%

Rating: But it ain’t that good yet, says Tamoggemon
Tam Hanna from Tamoggemon claims to be “among the first vendors to finish development of an application using Qt for Symbian.” He claims there are still various hole in this development environment, though.
Hana commented, “Of course, Qt still has significant weaknesses which make the mass distribution of [...]

#MWC Waze chat with Di-Ann Eisnor

Di-Ann Eisnor from Waze was kind enough to spend a few minutes of the only beautiful sunny afternoon in Barcelona with me. She explains how Waze works and by the way it’s the most popular geolocation game I know of. Enjoy Di-Anns chat and make sure to download Waze and give it a play.

Consumers don’t really use Blackberry apps - so here come Super Apps for businessmen

I’ve always been a bit wary of applications on the Blackberry. It’s not that I don’t think RIM is up to scratch, it’s that apps aren’t really what the Blackberry is for. It’s the premier business mobile in the world, and the flash-bang of the iPhone app store doesn’t really belong there. And it would seem that RIM is thinking along the same lines, as I spoke to Mike Kirkup, RIM Director of Developer Relations, about its philosophy of app development surrounding the Super App.

Finally getting to play with Swype, and loving it: mobile text input evolves

I finally got to play with Swype this week at the Mobile Focus event in Barcelona. This is an application that GoMo News has been following for months. If you’ve got a touchscreen phone then you’ll probably be using it soon enough. I’m serious - this app is so good, you won’t be able to avoid it.

The Beeb criticises device fragmentation

Rating: Ovum’s Cripps warns of the dangers
While GoMo News poked fun at the BBC for the wisdom of launching a mobile app aimed at soccer fans first on Apple iPhones (not exactly the handset of choice for footie afficionados), it seems that the broadcaster isn’t as thick-skinned as some might assume.
The Beeb [BBC] launched an [...]

Mobile payment made in Germany: mobuy

Wie geht es: Bei www.mobuy.de registrieren mit einer oder mehreren Telefonnummern, Abbuchung vom Bankkonto erlauben, persönliche PIN erhalten. Zum Bezahlen: Mobuy Nummer, die für eine bestimmte Transaktion steht, kostenlos anrufen, Anruf –ID identifiziert den Kunden, PIN eingeben, Buchungsvorgänge laufen. Mobuy ist ein Startup und erprobt seinen Service momentan in Pilotprojekten in Kooperation mit Vertriebspartnern, z.B. wird bei Geräten von Ricoh auch das Bezahlen von Kopierleistungen mittels des Mobiltelefons möglich. Die Software hierzu stammt von Genius Bytes, ebenfalls aus Deutschland.

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