ReadWriteWeb

Do you jokingly refer to yourself as an "app addict?" That is, are you someone so obsessed with your mobile phone applications that you've filled numerous screens full of apps, play with them anytime you have 5 minutes to spare and sleep next to your phone just so it can be the first thing you grab in the morning? While there haven't been any studies yet on the impact of mobile phone application use and health, USA Today recently ran an article practically dubbing "app addiction" a real thing. "What is app addiction doing to people's health?, the article asked. What indeed?, we wonder. How about nothing at all?

Earlier this week, electronics retailer Best Buy announced a new mobile backup service called mIQ. Designed to compete with similar services like Apple's MobileMe or Microsoft's My Phone, mIQ offers up to 1 GB of storage space in the cloud for photos, video, contact and calendar information, SMS messages, and more. However, unlike its competitors, mIQ has a couple of distinct advantages: it's 100% free and anyone can sign up to use it.

Today, Yahoo!Mobile SVP David Ko introduced the company's new mobile homepage calling it "the world's most advanced mobile homepage."

At once rich and simple, the new homepage is accessible by more than 1,900 different mobile devices, which Yahoo! says represents a 500 percent increase since the mobile site launched in April. We checked out the site on a BlackBerry Storm tonight and were impressed by the features Yahoo! is offering for discovery and filtering of content. From tech-related videos to dynamically refreshed news feeds, Yahoo! gives mobile users plenty of room to play.

Back in May, when Google launched a spiffy new suite of search options at their Searchology event, users got a gambit of new tools for exploring different kinds of content posted within different time ranges.

Today, Google has announced that the same options are coming to mobile search. Now, mobile users will have the same options on-the-go as they do when using Google search from their personal computer.

Could a more eye-catching approach to syndication make RSS more accesible to mainstream users outside the geekosphere? Two new websites have just launched that rely on such a strategy gaining traction.

Spectives and Readfresh are the sites in question, and both offer thumbnail images and a limited amount of text. Readfresh monitors sites and brings the most recently updated sites to the top of a user's page, allowing users to see what's new at a glance. Spectives, on the other hand, gives users "one page, a lot of pictures, updating constantly" from RSS feeds and websites. Read on for a side-by-side comparison and our assessment.

Google just announced a major update to Google Maps in the United States. The new version not only includes better maps based on data from government organizations like the Forest Service and the US Geological Survey, but it also allows users to easily report problems with a map. In addition, Google Maps now features better maps for parks and water bodies, as well as college campuses. Trails and paths now also appear on the maps and thanks to this, Google plans to add biking directions to its routing feature in the near future.

The ReadWrite Real-Time Web Summit is fast approaching! We hope you'll register to join us at this exciting day-long event filled with participatory conversations among the leading innovators in real-time technology, media and financial services.

If you can't make it to Mountain View, California in eight days, get ready to watch selected sessions streamed live online (thanks to Justin.tv). This isn't going to be talking-heads pushing their products on stage, this is going to be a high-value brainstorming, networking and collaborative learning. Check out the companies below; they are bringing financial support to this important gathering to talk together about the future of the internet.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, politicians and reporters quickly discovered the power of Twitter. These days, Twitter has become yet another tool for politicians to get the word out about political initiatives and for reporters to reach out to their readers. Today, social media analytics firm Sysomos took a closer look at the political Twittersphere and how politicians like President Obama and California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger use this tool and who they connect with on Twitter.

There can be little doubt that eBook and eReaders are having a breakout year. Today, Forrester Research moved its original projection of 2 million US eReader sales in 2009 up 50%. Forrester now expects that 3 million eReaders will be sold in 2009 and that 30% of these will sell during the holiday season. Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps argues that sales are growing much faster than expected because of falling prices, better retail distribution, and the media buzz that currently surrounds eBooks and eReaders. For 2010, Forrester projects eReader sales of up to 10 million.

Despite Apple's recent addition of the "Apps for Everything" section to their website, a new feature that makes it easier for iPhone owners to find great apps by category, the sad truth is that app discovery is still a challenge that needs to be solved. Thanks to some 75,000 applications now live in the iTunes App Store, there are just too many to sort through these days. Numerous startups have sprung up, offering their own solutions to this problem, including AppBeacon, Freshapps, 16apps, Appsfire, Appolicious, AppShopper and others. However, no one site has figured out the perfect formula just yet. Now another online catalog hopes to succeed where others have floundered. The brand-new App Classics aims to be the "App Store's missing Hall of Fame," featuring only the apps that have stood the test of time and are worth the download.