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At this morning's BlackBerry World conference, the audience attending RIM's CEO Mike Lazaridis' keynote address was given a sneak peek at some of the most noticeable "missing" applications on the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer: email, contacts and calendaring. These core apps are currently available only when the PlayBook is tethered to a BlackBerry smartphone using a feature called BlackBerry Bridge. While a convenient and secure solution for enterprise customers who don't want corporate data saved on the tablet itself, the arrangement leaves consumers who want to check personal email or calendars with no recourse for doing so. That will soon change, says RIM.

In fact, PlayBook's lack of apps in general is about to be addressed, the company promises, through the addition of an Android App Player, a new feature will allow users to run popular Android applications on their PlayBook tablet computers. This too, was seen this morning, running smoothly in a live demo.

DEMO, the conference where companies get six minutes on stage to present their product, kicked off this morning with VentureBeat's Matt Marshall talking social. "It's all about social," said Marshall, explaining that social media companies like Facebook have grown at an unprecedented pace. It took half a century for IBM to hit $1 billion, whereas it only took Facebook a handful of years, he said.

With that in mind, let's take a look at three companies that presented this morning at DEMO and hope to latch on to the ever-expanding social web.

When NeuAer finished its stage presentation at the LAUNCH conference today, Joyent CEO David Young had just one thing to say: "It puts the smart in smartphone." We, and many in the crowd it seemed, were equally impressed.

Imagine if your phone could tell you when your friend walked by so you could call them, or when your ex arrived so you could duck beneath the table. Imagine if you could automatically drop a pin on Google Maps every time you turned off your  car. Just think about a phone that could perform all sorts of functions just based on who or what is near you and where you are - that's NeuAer.

Boss: Great demo. Now put it on this laptop for Bob in sales.
(hands you something from BestBuy that was an open box special)
Developer: Uhhh. That might be a problem. We're using 4 VMs behind the corporate firewall. One is Rails on Linux and the others are Windows and one is running Oracle.
Boss: So... are you saying I need to get 3 more laptops?
Developer: *facepalm*

Let's take a look at another way keep your manager from having to buy more laptops.

During his presentation at DEMO Fall last week in Santa Clara, California, Walter Bachtiger told the audience to "relax, take a deep breath" and "take your fingers off the keyboard."

No, he wasn't conducting mid-conference yoga session to relieve stress, nor was he trying to help the audience avoid carpal tunnel. Bachtiger was simply explaining that taking notes was no longer necessary because his company, VoiceBase, makes it easy to record, transcribe, search and share voice-based communications online.

In the Internet startup space, some companies choose to develop enterprise solutions they hope will attract large corporate contracts. While some entrepreneurs have experience giving investors their 30 second pitch, corporate CIOs are a bit of a different beast when it comes to selling a product. During the first day of product pitches and launches at DEMO this week, a panel moderated by Computerworld's executive editor Julia King focused on this very issue. Here are some tips for enterprise startups looking to snag those big enterprise contracts.

The two largest startup ecosystems within the United States are arguably Silicon Valley and New York City, but there's a whole lot of land between the east and west coast. Smack dab in the middle of the country is Chicago, and not long ago we told you about a demo contest hosted by venture consulting firm midVentures that brought a bit of TechCrunch50 flair to the Windy City. This September, the firm is hosting another event in Chicago that looks to be the largest startup conference in the Midwest.

Since we published our Never Mind the Valley article on the growing startup scene in Chicago, I have received several emails about various events and startups that call the city home. The technology culture in Chicago is quickly expanding, just as it is in most major metropolitan areas, because startups as a culture are breaking further and further into the mainstream. As we've shown with our series of profiles, no longer is Silicon Valley the one true home to startups; Boulder, Austin, New York, Portland and many others have stepped up as worthy contenders for national (and international) startup attention.

Now that the DEMOfall 09 conference has wrapped, we can look back to see which companies have the most potential out of the 70+ exhibitors. Despite what the DEMOgod awards crowned as king, we can't say we agree with the judges' every pick. For example, award winner DateCheck from Intelius, a mobile app that lets you search for dirt on that new guy or gal you're seeing, had one of the best onstage demos of the week. However, they don't deserve to be in a "best of" list because the app is really just a front for Intelius's paid (and sketchy) background checking service. That being said, there were still plenty of companies worthy of notice at this fall's conference.

Which companies did we think made the grade? Read on to find out.

With DEMOfall 09 now behind us, pitch season has given us a lot of "Wow": solid businesses with promising applications. The majority of new ventures we're seeing today are variations on familiar themes, new combinations of old technology, and niche plays. Not all of them have convincing business models, but the bigger challenge seems to be acquiring a customer base at all.

At the earlier TechCrunch 50, Paul Graham of Y-Combinator asked a number of the startups that presented, "Who do you think your best target is?" Acquiring and retaining a large enough customer base to make a venture worthwhile has always been a challenge for young companies, but it seems particularly an issue these days. Here are a few reasons why.