For example, location-based services (LBS) - there still isn't one single app which everyone uses to find their friends out in the real world via their mobile phones. Instead, we have a number of similar but competing applications all vying to be the Facebook of location-based apps.

Another example is money payments - this type of service is having more of an impact in the developing world right now where access to banks is more difficult than here in the Western world where people just want the convenience of paying through their mobiles. When was the last time you paid someone or paid at checkout through your mobile phone? Never? That sounds about right.

The List

The full list is as follows:

1. Money Transfer: This refers to people sending money via SMS messages. Like mobile payments, this service has more appeal in developing markets for now. However, there may come a time when even using your debit card seems passé, while paying for something with actual cash seems downright ancient.
2. Location-Based Services: As mentioned above, there are still far too many services to choose from when it comes to location-based social networking, fragmenting the market. Your friends on Loopt are often different than those on Brightkite and that list is different than those on Foursquare. But LBS extends to more than social networks - it includes any application that taps into your phone's GPS capabilities to offer up location-based services of any kind, whether that's local business reviews or directions to the nearest Starbucks. Gartner says this will be one of the most disruptive technologies in the future, with a user base growing from 96 million in 2009 to 526 million in 2012.
3. Mobile Search: No, mobile search isn't new, but on the mobile platform, it may get shaken up a bit. Gartner predicts that consumers won't necessarily be sticking with the search services they know and use on the Web (think Google, Bing, Yahoo) and instead experiment with using a few different search providers that have "unique technologies" for mobile search. While that statement is a little vague, it sounds like good news for services like Taptu who have entered this field with search offerings designed from the ground-up for mobile devices.
4. Mobile Browsing: Saying that mobile browsing technologies will be heavily used in the future sounds a little bit like stating the obvious. But as Gartner notes, mobile browsing capabilities currently exist only on 60%+ of handsets today. By 2013, that number will climb to 80%, meaning that those who are still using the app-less,more basic feature phones will still be joining the mobile web in mass numbers over the coming years. That's also good news for web developers who can build mobile web applications to cater to this bunch as opposed to focusing all their efforts into building apps for the numerous mobile platforms like the iPhone, Android, RIM, and others.
5. Mobile Health Monitoring: Another technology whose impact will be felt more heavily in developing markets, mobile health monitoring is still at an early stage of maturity and implementation says Gartner. Project rollouts have been limited to pilot projects for now, but in the coming years the industry will begin to monetize these efforts by offering mobile healthcare monitoring products, services, and solutions to various care delivery organizations.
6. Mobile Payments: Like mobile transfers, mobile payments are more common in developing markets at the moment, but that is quickly changing. Yet even as this type of service grows, Gartner admits there will be challenges. Mobile payments will be a "highly fragmented market" where there will not be "standard practices of deployment," notes the report. That makes it sound like this is one technology that will still need some work, even when 2012 rolls around.
7. Near Field Communications (NFC): More popular in some European and Asian markets than in the U.S., NFC still isn't a standard feature on many of today's phones. That may be about to change, too. In late 2010, Gartner says that NFC-enabled phones will begin to ship in volume, with Asia leading deployments, followed by Europe and North America.
8. Mobile Advertising: Also not new but growing fast, mobile advertising is one of the most important ways to monetize mobile content. Total spending on mobile advertising in 2008 was $530.2 million and it will grow to $7.5 billion in 2012. And mobile advertising will also be used by companies alongside their other campaigns including TV, radio, print, and outdoors.
9. Mobile Instant Messaging: Gartner says that latent user demand and market conditions are conductive to mobile IM's future adoption. It will appeal to developing markets where mobile phones are often the only connectivity device a user owns. But will it be a major app by 2012? It seems that SMS is still the service to beat, especially in the developing world. We'll have to wait and see on this one.
10. Mobile Music: Sure, you have the iPhone, but what about your other options? What about mobile music services - especially those for non-iPhone devices? We're still waiting on Spotify in the U.S., for example, and their competition too. Gartner says that we're beginning to see new innovative models in this area that will include both device (think "Comes with Music") and service bundles.

What's Missing?

A glaring omission from this report is that of Augmented Reality. Gartner had even placed this technology on their "Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2009" report earlier this year. Do they not think that AR will have a major impact by 2012? Considering that's only a little over a year away, it could just be too soon for AR to see the widespread adoption that we hoped it would have by then. Or it's possible that - as some have suspected - AR is simply a "cool" way to see and interact with the world around you, but hasn't produced any "must-have," highly useful applications just yet. For example, seeing AR views of local businesses and user recommendations is fun, but is it a markedly better experience than using a service like Yelp? For many, that answer today is "no." AR needs to grow out of being a technology you use "because you can" to one you use "because you have to." Until it's the best option to perform a particular task, it may not make Gartner's next list, either.  

Below we've listed 13 different tools that let you create your own iPhone applications, none of which require knowledge of Objective C, the programming language used to build apps for the iPhone OS .

What it Does: Sweb Apps offers an online service which lets anyone build their own iPhone apps even if they don't know how to code. Designed with small business owners in mind, the company offers pre-created templates which you can customize with different background images and your own custom icons if desired. Otherwise, you're welcome to use the graphics provided by the company's own image library. After picking the category for your app (Restaurant, Retail, Business, etc.), you choose the buttons you want to include (Menu, Directions, Map, etc.). You can even create a mobile storefront where Sweb Apps manages your inventory. 

How Much it Costs: The company offers four-, six- and eight-button packages, which all include a one-time set-up fee of $50 per button. Then there is a $25 monthly hosting fee applied to every application going forward

Our coverage: Build Your Own iPhone App with New Service from Sweb Apps and Sweb Apps 2.0: Build Your Own Mobile Storefront for the iPhone

2. AppIncubator

What it Does: Think you have a great idea for an iPhone app but not the skills to build it yourself. Like Apple says: "there's an app for that!" The AppIncubator iPhone App from MEDL Mobile lets you submit your ideas which the company's development team will then build into apps for you. App submissions can be sent in via the iPhone app or by way of the company website. Once received, you go online to use the company's "storyboard" tool to sketch out in more detail how you imagine the app working.

How Much it Costs: Using the service or downloading the iPhone app itself is free, but MEDL Mobile takes a cut of the profits after the app goes live in the iTunes App Store. 25% of the total revenue is shared with you and the company keeps the rest.

Our coverage: This iPhone App Helps You Make iPhone Apps

3. Kanchoo

Kanchoo is another platform that allows content producers to create native iPhone applications, this one is designed for news organizations. To use the service, you provide the company with an iPhone application icon, a splash screen (in .png format) and a description of your application which will be used in the iTunes App Store. Then, using their online tools, you build your app by uploading the content which can consist of either photos or news articles.

How Much it Costs: Basic account holders pay $88 for creation of their iPhone application and submission to the iTunes App Store along with a $28 per month fee for bandwidth and hosting.

4. AppBreeder

What it Does: AppBreeder is another DIY app builder service, similar to SwebApps. Where SwebApps offers categories to choose from, AppBreeder offers "App-Kits." These are pre-defined collections of app settings which include gadgets, icons, and behavioral elements. There are kits for a wide range of industries including everything from real estate to legal and bands to restaurants. You use the kits as a jumping off point to start building your app and then add or remove gadgets as your needs require. After building your app, you can then publish it to the iTunes App Store. However, AppBreeder isn't just limited to the iPhone - it also lets you publish apps for Blackberry and Android devices as well. (Note: the company's website says that "due to sudden demand spike" AppBreeder's build and publishing tools will be unavailable until Nov. 30th.) 

How Much it Costs: AppBreeder offers different packages depending on whether your app will be ad supported or ad-free and which platforms you plan to distribute it on. Ad supported apps are free, iPhone web apps are $9.95 - 14.95, native iPhone apps are $29.95, and the iPhone/Blackberry/Android app package is $39.95 - 49.95.

5. MyAppBuilder

What it Does: MyAppBuilder is a service that creates iPhone applications designed to help you sell your content. Whether that's books, music, videos, etc., the service turns any content into an app. You can also use MyAppBuilder to create custom quizzes, apps that are fed by Twitter pages, or you can turn your blog into an app by way of its RSS feed. To use the online app builder, you login to the service's "Control Panel" where you submit details about your app including content, features, flow, and image files. The company then uses this information to create an app for you which is sent back to you for review. After you approve the app, MyAppBuilder submits it to the iTunes App Store on your behalf.

How Much it Costs: The service is available for a fee of $29 per month. There is also a $20 processing fee to compile your data, put it in the appropriate format, and submit it to the App Store for review.

6. BuildAnApp

What it Does: BuildAnApp is another DIY cross-platform app builder designed for small businesses, community groups and professional service organizations. Using the web-based service, you can pick and choose from the company's customizable templates to create apps for the iPhone, Blackberry, or Windows Mobile platforms. As with Sweb Apps, creators can use their own graphics or choose images from the company's own online gallery. A special feature of this service is its ability to house an email distribution list that will notify end users to download the application once it becomes available. (Note: this service is currently in private beta testing right now. You can sign up here to be notified when it's available).

How Much it Costs: The company says pricing has not yet been determined but will be "competitive" with similar services.

7. eBookApp

What it Does: The eBook App Maker is a service specifically designed to create iPhone apps from eBooks. The app builder supports nearly all digital formats including PDF, Doc, Zip, CHM, HTML, TXT, FB2, PDB, PRC, Mobi, PDB, MHT, RTF. eBook creators can also specify various fonts and sizes, can add images and notes, can lock the orientation to landscape or portrait, and more.

How Much it Costs: The company's site doesn't publicly list its pricing but offers a "request a quote" form instead.

8. GameSalad

What it Does: GameSalad is a downloadable tool for creating games without needing to know programming or scripting. Using the company's visual editing software, you can create games which can then be published to both the web and to the iPhone. GameSalad offers a suite of "interactions" and attributes which you can add into your game to create the action. You can also drag-and-drop art files and sound files from your computer into the game builder, too. As you create the game, you can tweak the various elements during the building process and can preview what the game looks like before compiling it. 

How Much it Costs: The company offers a basic, free version of GameSalad which lets you publish to the web, but not the iPhone. For iPhone games, there are two versions available: the Express version for $99/year and the Pro version for $1999/year.

Our coverage: Gendai Games Launches GameSalad Beta

9. MobileRoadie

What it Does: Mobile Roadie is an application builder that lets bands create their own custom iPhone applications which can include content like photo galleries, streaming music files, YouTube videos, upcoming concert listings, lyrics, news, Twitter and RSS feeds, and even interactive features like a "wall" where fans can post comments and photos.  The app can also link to Ticketmaster and LiveNation ticket sales information and to the band's album(s) on iTunes.

How Much it Costs: There is a $499 set up fee for Mobile Roadie followed by a $29/month fee for the first 100 installs. To get rid of the 1 cent per install fee, bands can choose to host their own content instead.

10. MobBase

What it Does: Similar to Mobile Roadie, MobBase is also an app creation tool designed for bands. Without needing programming skills, musicians can create apps that include videos, images, bios, band news, streaming playlists, concert schedules and links for music purchases. The tool, offered by MixMatchMusic,

How Much it Costs: Applications are $20 dollars to activate. Free apps are priced at $15 dollars a month for the first 500 installs with $5 dollars per additional 1000 downloads. Paid apps cost $20 dollars per month for the first 500 installs and $6 dollars per month for each additional 1000. MobBase does not take any application sales fees in regards to revenue share. The company also receives 5% of purchased music downloads.

11. Rhomobile

What it Does: Rhomobile does require that you know how to code, but only HTML and Ruby, not the Objective C required for building iPhone apps. Developers can build any application and then use Rhomobile to deploy their app anywhere - including the iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, or Android marketplaces.

How Much it Costs: The Rhodes framework is free for developers who open source their applications under GPLv3. Commercial Rhodes licenses are also available at $500 per application and commercial RhoSync server licenses are available based upon the planned number of users connected to the server.

12. PhoneGap

What it Does: Like Rhomobile above, PhoneGap is also an open source development tool for building mobile apps. Also like PhoneGap, you do need to know how to code, but this time, you just need to know HTML and Java as opposed to the iPhone's Objective C. With this tool, you can build apps for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android while also taking advantage of the phones' native features like geolocation, the accelerometer, sound and more.

How Much it Costs: PhoneGap is completely open source and free to use.

Our coverage: PhoneGap: People's Choice Winner at Web 2.0 Expo Launch Pad

13. RedLaser

What it Does: Red Laser is an iPhone application that lets you scan barcodes with your iPhone in order to compare the in-store price with other online deals. However, with the latest version of the application, RedLaser 2.2, you can create your own custom barcode scanning apps. To do so, first download the updated application from the iTunes App Store, then visit www.redlaser.com/apps from the iPhone's web browser. Follow the instructions on the page to set up your own application - you'll need to fill in data like the URL of the site you want to compare prices with, the URL for the app icon, etc. When complete, tap the "build app" button. The completed app can then be added to your homescreen. Although this app is designed more for personal use and not resale, it's still worth checking out if you want to create your own barcode scanning application without needing to know how to code.

How Much it Costs: RedLaser is available on the iTunes App Store for $1.99.

Update!

While this post was by no means meant to be a definitive list, it's amazing the response it's received in both the comments and via email. So many people have asked "how could you forget.. this company or that?" OK, Appcelerator was an oversight, but as far as the others, they just weren't on my radar. Here's a few of the ones that received multiple mentions:

• TapLynx: A DIY solution for building apps without coding.
• MobileAppLoader: Another DIY solution for building iPhone apps without code.
• MobileStoreMaker: A DIY solution for making a mobile storefront for iPhone.
• Appcelerator: Like Rhomobile and PhoneGap, you do need to code, but you don't need to know Objective C. Instead, you can build iPhone apps with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Python, PHP and Ruby instead.

• MobiOne: An iPhone emulator that lets you build iPhone apps by coding them using your web development skills.
• Appanda: A system that lets you build apps through RSS, links and manual uploads. Still in beta.

However, there are tons of others, too. Really - tons! Hop into the comments section to see even more suggestions from their users and fans.

While this incident alone wouldn't generate much excitement given the low-profile nature of the applications affected, it's not the only example of unsafe applications on Facebook. Another researcher just spent an entire month scouring Facebook apps for security vulnerabilities and what he found is disturbing: six of the hacked apps were in the top ten, 9700 applications were affected, and the potential victims totaled 218 million users.

In the case of the hacked Facebook apps found by AVG, the apps had been compromised by the use of "iframes," which are bits of code embedded in the applications themselves. The iframes were able to load content from malicious websites into the applications' pages on Facebook.com, directing app users to install software on their computers by purporting to be an update for an out-of-date Adobe Reader product.

At first, Thompson thought the apps had been hacked by the developers, but as it turned out, it was the developers who were the victims. After looking at the source code for the apps in question, Thompson found that the iframes had been injected into the apps' code due to infected software on the developers' PCs.

Facebook quickly reacted to the situation and took down the compromised apps while also contacted the developers to warn them of the issue.

Thousands of Apps Vulnerable to Attacks

While hacked Facebook apps may still be a bit of a rarity today on the popular social network, security vulnerabilities that could lead to malicious attacks are not. After spending a month on Facebook looking for application bugs, another security researcher made some disturbing findings.

Specifically, the researcher, who goes only by the handle "theharmonyguy" online, was looking for a specific vulnerability he referred to as a "FAXX Hack." FAXX stands for "Facebook Application + XSS + XSRF" or, in other words, a cross-site scripting vulnerability - a certain type of security hole that could allow a hacker to access profile information, including personal details, status updates, and photos of a victimized user and their friends.

The findings showed that many Facebook applications, even those that were widely used and considered trustworthy, lacked basic security precautions. There were some 9700 Facebook applications which were affected by vulnerabilities and nineteen of the applications in question had passed through Facebook's "Verified Application" program, a sort of "stamp of approval" designed to assure Facebook users of an app's general trustworthiness. Among the apps, six were ranked in the top ten by monthly active users including FarmVille, Causes, LivingSocial, Movies, Farm Town, and YoVille. The collective monthly active users counts for all the hacked apps totaled 218 million. However, that previous figure does include overlaps. Also, seven of the top ten application developers on Facebook were found to host at least one vulnerable app. (Note: the 9700 number may seem large but that's due to one vulnerability found in the "Make a Gift!" application. Make a Gift! lets users create their own custom applications for sending gifts, and the myriad of resulting applications are all hosted from the same server.)

While discovering the bugs, the researcher contacted each application developer to make him or her aware of the hole. For the most part, developers responded quickly and took the situation seriously. However, several developers took a while longer to respond. Nine took over a week to patch their application and one even took two weeks. And those delays were not due to the complexity of the required patches - these were, in terms of coding, simple fixes.

What's most concerning about these findings is how widespread the problem was. Unlike the apps AVG discovered, this wasn't a minor, isolated incident affecting a small handful of users. Although the apps in question here were just vulnerable to attacks as opposed to being comprised themselves, it shows how risky it is to use any application, Facebook Verified or not.

Is Any App Safe?

On top of all these security issues, in August many Facebook users were surprised to discover the vast amounts of personal information they were revealing by their use of Facebook quizzes. Even if you limit access to your profile through privacy settings, Facebook quiz applications can see everything on your profile page when you take a quiz...or even when your friend takes one. To make matters worse, Facebook does not screen developers for trustworthiness nor do they require developers to comply with a privacy policy.

With hacked apps, security vulnerabilities, lack of privacy policies, and apps that can read your private profile information, one has to wonder if using any Facebook application is appropriate and safe these days.

Update: Facebook's response: "Developers on Facebook Platform must comply with Platform Policy Guidelines, which require that applications provide a trustworthy user experience. Similarly, applications must post their own privacy policy if they collect any user information. We enforce these guidelines through spot checks and have disabled thousands of apps that we found in violation. We also encourage users to report suspicious apps and practice caution with all of their online activity."

"Addiction" is a word that's often tossed around in fun somewhat haphazardly, with people claiming they're "addicted" to everything from chocolate to TV to shoes. But real addiction is no joking matter. An addict is someone with a psychological or physical dependence to something and are unable to put an end to their behavior despite its negative consequences - behavior which, especially in the case of drug or alcohol addiction, can even lead to death. In more recent years, compulsive behaviors like gambling and online gaming have also fallen under the banner of "addiction" in cases where the behaviors become uncontrollable by the affected person.

Given the psychological component of addiction, it's not entirely off-base to question whether becoming addicted to mobile apps is the next big thing in technology-related addictions, as USA Today is obviously doing. But with no reported cases, no research, and no scholarly articles, it seems a little bit like jumping the gun to claim that app addiction is becoming a health issue.

Still, that didn't stop some experts from weighing in on the matter. Marina Picciotto, professor of psychiatry, neurobiology and pharmacology at Yale University told the paper, "there are a few parallels we can make from other addictions, like compulsive shopping. The consequences can be bad -- credit debt, time lost." And Hilarie Cash, a psychotherapist and co-founder of reStart, a Fall City, Washington-based Internet-addiction recovery center, warned that users should keep tabs on whether apps are taking over their real lives.

So how do you know if it's taking over your life? Cash says that if you spend more than 2 hours per day engaged with your digital equipment for non-work related or homework-related reasons, "then you've got cause for alarm."

Wow, if those are the guidelines for addiction then just about every American has television addiction given the 2 hours they sit in front of their TV sets from 8 PM to 10 PM watching primetime programming.

Could this Become a Real Problem?

That's not to say that people won't get addicted to mobile applications at some point, but let's not start a panic before all the data is in. Most of the self-proclaimed "app addicts" these days are still maintaining a healthy balance between work, life and play and are able to put their phones away when the time is right. Even those who use their mobile phones and related apps regularly aren't necessarily addicts in the true sense of the word.

What do you think? Is "app addiction" a real thing? Or will it become a serious problem in the future?

Indeed it will.

Within the SELFMAN project, there are four key areas determined to be vital in order for a distributed application to have the ability to manage itself: self-configuring, self-tuning, self-healing, and self-protecting.

To configure itself, an application needs to track all of its components, update them when needed, and make sure that all the different pieces are able to communicate with each other. Within the SELFMAN system, an individual component can be queried for this information, such as its version number and which other components it interacts with. If the version number is out-of-date, it would be automatically updated.

The self-tuning piece of the system involves having the application automatically adjust to changing loads as well as changes taking place among the various nodes on the network. To do so, it uses a load-balancing algorithm that detects overloads, node crashes, and other disruptions.

What was more challenging for the researchers was the self defense aspect of the SELFMAN system. They discovered that the safest systems were not those in which nodes are directly linked, but those in which nodes can communicate with other nodes in just a few steps. Within these sorts of networks, dubbed "small world" networks, the SELFMAN security service can automatically detect abnormal behavior and eject bad nodes as needed.

Results So Far

Already the team has had promising results. For example, Scalaris, an open-source scalable transactional storage for Web 2.0 services won first prize in the IEEE International Scalable Computing Challenge 2008. Peer-to-peer video streaming application PeerTV uses SELFMAN to quickly test an evaluate new P2P components. There's also a demo of a distributed Wikipedia that can handle more queries than the current version and a graphics program that lets multiple users collaborate on a design.

Van Roy believes that SELFMAN represents the first step towards an internet filled with "unbreakable" applications. "Right now we're just scratching the surface," he says.

For more information about these applications, stay tuned to ICT Results, a European research tracking firm, which will soon highlight the various applications in more detail.

According to Daly, an Apple representative spoke to him by phone to inform him that the rejection of the app was due to its "politically charged" nature. Well that, and the fact that Apple doesn't allow political apps from single developers.

Apple may understandably want to distance their company from any hot-button political issue such as health care for fear that accepting political applications would damage their image (at least among those with opposing viewpoints). However, in this case it's a matter of them arbitrarily deciding that one political app can't make the cut when many others already did. For example, during Obama's campaign, there was an "official" Obama application which included news, event listings, media, and details on where the candidate stood on various issues. Was that not politically charged? McCain supporters probably thought so.

Daly also notes that Apple currently carries "Drudge Reader," an app that allows for mobile reading of the "The Drudge Report" website. While this is a news-based application, the site is generally regarded as being conservative in tone. So again, this could be considered a politically charged application, especially among those who disagree with Matt Drudge's opinions and views.

So where is Apple drawing the line? Daly says that the app's rejection is, in part, due to the fact that it's a product of a single developer. At least, that's what he claims Apple told him. Apparently, political candidates are allowed to release apps expressing their views, but single developers are not.

Why Not Allow Political Apps?

The real question here is why not? Let's say that Apple approved the application, what would the fallout be? Would those against the views expressed in the app actually refuse to purchase an iPhone or iPod Touch? Would they dump their Apple devices for a politically-neutral Pre, Blackberry, or Google Android smartphone? All but the most excitable zealots would not. In fact, the result would probably be the release of another application from a different developer expressing an opposing viewpoint. Would that be such a bad thing?

Considering how the rejected application's design tapped into the phone's GPS to deliver personalized, localized political information, it could have really set the stage for a slew of grassroots apps that used the mobile platform to rally the public to various causes or issues. Tap to call your congressperson, tap to customize and send an email to your senator, for example. In time, it's likely that both sides of every issue would be properly represented, keeping Apple out of the spotlight as supporting any particular political opinion themselves.

To date, it's been Apple's MO to distance themselves and reject anything remotely controversial, whether that's mature apps, apps from their competition, and obviously now, politics too. Ironically, by doing so, they actually invite the scrutiny and ill will they were trying to avoid. At the end of the day, though, Apple's iTunes Store is not the Internet where anyone and everyone can have their say - it's a closed, tightly regulated platform where developers have to play by Apple's rules or not play at all.

While it's true MySpace's commitment to member customization allowed the community's lowest common denominators to bring down the look of the site, Facebook's aesthetic has also suffered with 3rd party app integration. This is hardly a reason for such a mass migration. And because MySpace and Facebook both offer Blackberry and iPhone applications, it's also unlikely that mobile access played a huge part in MySpace's demise as market leader.

Dougherty's assessment about Facebook Connect is likely the key reason for such dramatic traffic growth given her enclosed time line. As high traffic services like Disqus, Digg and WordPress began using Facebook Connect, members found cross-platform distribution with ease-of-use. Facebook moved from being a College forum site to a full scale lifestyle platform. Whereas MySpace is still a website, Facebook has become an entire eco-system.

In early June Inside Facebook reported that Americans spent 13.9 billion minutes per year on Facebook and 5 billion minutes on MySpace. When you remember that Facebook doesn't allow for time-consuming html-based profile customizations, you realize the feat they've accomplished. Rather than depending solely on its employees, Facebook's success relies on the fact that it increases its value through its 15,000 Facebook Connect members and more than 50,000 app developers.

About Appolicious

According to Kara Swisher of All Things Digital, Appolicious is "a combination of Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo, with some Yelp sprinkled in..." but we think the new recommendation service is, as the name implies, closer to that of social bookmarking tool Delicious. As with Delicious, you have an account where you save your items - except here, instead of links, you're saving apps. Also like Delicious, you have the opportunity to "follow" other people whose items you enjoy. Similar to Delicious's "my network" feature, this will highlight people like you who save and share items that fit your interests. Again, we're talking apps not links.

The basic concept behind this idea is to mirror the real world of friend recommendations. You know, when your iPhone-carrying buddy says "hey, have you seen this cool new app?"

How it Works

Of course, in order for you to share your apps with others, you first have to import them into Appolicious. If you want to be more selective, you can manually type in the names of the apps you own, but the easiest way to get started is to do an app import.

The App Library Builder is a Java-based tool which scans your iTunes library for your owned applications. Getting to the tool is a bit harder than it should be we think, since it's not prominently featured on the main Appolicious homepage. However, from your "edit profile" page, clicking through on the link "view my full app library" from the blue box at the bottom of the page will get you going.

Once started, the app detects the location of your iTunes App folder then presents a list of all your apps. Checkboxes are provided so you can check and uncheck the apps you want to import. Unlike our experience with Appsfire, Appolicious accurately detected our applications...all of them (save for jailbreak apps). The apps are then added to your library.

Once imported, you have the opportunity to rate them or write a review, although these steps aren't really all that necessary. By simply owning an application and sharing it on the service, that in and of itself is a recommendation of sorts.

Finding Friends Needs Work

To get the best recommendations, you'll need to import some friends to Appolicious. Unfortunately, the service only allows you to import friends from Gmail or Yahoo! mail by logging into your account using your username and password. Despite featuring a Facebook Connect option for login to the site, there doesn't appear to be a Facebook friend import. Neither is there a way to import friends from other social services like Twitter, for example.

At the very least, you would think that when you land on a user's profile page there would be an option to add them as a friend, but even that isn't an option. Sadly, without better friend finding/following options, the entire service's concept could easily fail. We hope they'll address this issue in a future update.

Recommendations

For now, we can overlook the poor implementation of friending features because Appolicious itself serves up its own recommendations. Plus, by categorizing your "app personality" in your profile (I'm a "social networker" and "tech junkie"), you're offered recommendations from people like you - that is, those who have categorized themselves in the same way.

Conclusion: We'll Give it a Shot

Overall, though, we like the concept of a social network such as this. With a much better import process than Appsfire, it's already off to a good start. And the Delicious model is a great one to mimic for a recommendation service. As long as Appolicious can address the friending issues mentioned above, it could really be a contender for the best place to discover new apps from your friends. That is, unless Apple surprises us with an App Store update that perfects app sharing and recommendations in iTunes itself.

Update: Appsfire's latest version corrects the problems seen in the initial testing mentioned above.

According to AppleInsider, which recently detailed the proposed features, the iPhone's home screen would be populated by location-aware applications that automatically update based on the current location of the mobile device. The phone's location could be determined by GPS, cell tower triangulation, or even Wi-Fi.

In the drawing accompanying the patent application, the phone's home screen displays apps for local weather, local time, local maps, local contacts, and settings. The icons themselves could even be updated to reflect the new location. For example, the patent filing describes an icon that displays the Golden Gate Bridge when the phone is in San Francisco, but that icon could change to display the skyline of New York City when the phone is located there.

Not only would the location-aware home screen automatically update the apps' icons, the technology could actually permit the phone's owner to save what are being called "transitional data sets." Like it sounds, these represent data that is displayed based on the device's physical location. For example, the proposed location-based contacts application would display just the contacts local to the city you're visiting at the time, as opposed to your entire contacts database. A local mapping application could let you bookmark your favorite restaurants for that particular city. The local time application would know that it's now on the west coast and not the east.

These transitional data sets would initially have to be configured by the end user before they became automatic. This means that the first time you visit a city, you may have to set the weather application yourself. To do so, the patent proposes a "here" button that you would tap to pull up the local forecast. However, after doing so, the location-aware device could automatically populate the weather application to display the weather for that location whenever you traveled to that city.

Apple's Own Apps Need to be Made More Location-Aware

It's interesting that with so many location-aware applications already available in the iPhone App Store, Apple's own default apps (contacts, weather, time, etc.) seem to be the ones in need of a location-aware update. We almost take it for granted that on our iPhone, our favorite movie showtime app knows what theater is nearby. Or when we launch Yelp, we have an entire section that helps us locate nearby businesses. Why shouldn't Apple's own home screen apps operate the same way? Why should we have to manually configure the weather app to know where we are? Why should we have to add new clocks as we travel the country?

Even if the technology described in this patent is never integrated into the phone itself, we think it's only a matter of time before Apple introduces some way for its own apps to become more location-aware. Now that we think about it, isn't it odd that they haven't already?

The Danger of Quizzes

With each question in the ACLU's Privacy Quiz, you're not only told what information a quiz author can see - you're shown it. For example, after answering the first question, you learn that almost everything on your profile, even if you use privacy settings to limit access, is available to the quiz. Then, a graphic is shown which reveals selected information retrieved from your profile including hometown, groups you belong to, events attended, favorite books, and more.

The second question is even more disturbing. It informs you that everything on your profile is made available to the developers when your friends take a quiz. To drive this point home, the ACLU's Quiz loads up information pulled from your friends' profiles and displays that data below the answer for your perusal. Here, information on your friends is shown including hometowns, favorite books, political views, networks, birthdays, number of wall posts, and even personal photos. Thanks to the quiz, all that info which you can see on your friends' profiles is now available to the quiz author, too.

Lest you think your info is safe because somewhere, somehow Facebook is looking out for you, the third question shatters any illusions you may have about that, too. According to the answer to this quiz question, not only do Facebook's default privacy settings do nothing to prevent application developers from scouring your information, Facebook also doesn't screen developers for trustworthiness, nor do they require the developer to comply with a privacy policy (something we've mentioned before). It's also noted that Facebook does not use any technical measures to limit how developers can collect and use personal information. Says Chris Conley, a technology fellow with the ACLU, it's difficult to know how developers use this data, which could, in theory, be collected and sold for marketing and advertising campaigns.

Finally, the last question prompts you to take action. When the quiz asks you what you should do, the correct answer is: "demand the right to control my information without sacrificing the right to use new technology." To get the word out there, the ACLU suggests you update your privacy settings, share their quiz on Facebook, and sign their online petition.

Is This True?

The nature of the quiz makes it sound a bit like fear-mongering, especially with statements like this: "Once details about your personal life are collected by a quiz developer, who knows where they could end up or how they could be used. Shared? Sold? Turned over to the government?" However, outside of these overly dramatic tactics, the claims made by the ACLU are true. According to CNET, Facebook doesn't even deny that quiz developers have access to this sort of information. The company does point out that users can limit how much information applications (including friends' applications) can see by tweaking their privacy settings.

Note: To do this yourself, go to Settings -> Privacy Settings -> Applications. From there, you can uncheck the boxes next to the items which you don't want apps to have access to.

Still, the ACLU suggests that access to personal information such as this be opt-in rather than opt-out, as it is now. Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt says the company "generally agrees" with the ACLU's recommendations and notes that the social network recently disabled hundreds of applications that were inconsistent with Facebook Platform policies. He also mentions the company has been working with the Canadian Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, to improve user data controls on Platform. 

This is just one of the concerns that will be addressed later today when Stoddart announces the agreement that has been reached between her country and the social network in terms of privacy protocols. Stoddart ruled last month that Facebook had 30 days to come up with a plan to comply with Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act or face court action.

Apple iPhone owners can choose to download approximately 65,000 services from the App Store, meanwhile Nokia's Ovi only offers 4,500 applications. According to the Financial Times, "While Apple has just one phone, Nokia is trying to put mobile applications on 75 of its handsets. It is a far more challenging task." Nevertheless, Nokia aims to level the playing field with web technologies.

One way the company is hoping to catch up to Apple across all its devices is by hosting competitions to encourage Flash Lite-based development. Most recently, Nokia announced the finalists in its "Calling All Innovators" global developer competition. Categories include web applications and runtime widgets, Adobe Flash Lite-based applications, emerging market services and location-aware services utilizing Ovi Maps. While each of the category winners will receive cash awards, the Flash Lite category winner will receive an additional prize of $10,000 from Nokia's Open Screen Project Fund. Nokia needs to fund efficient distribution across 75 devices and multiple platforms, and Adobe needs a mobile poster child to sing its deployment praises across mobile, desktop, and consumer electronics devices.

If Kallasvuo wants to increase Nokia's revenue, he needs mobile developers to choose to work on web based applications before building their services with the iPhone software development kit. From here, the application marketplace that offers the best revenue split and most downloads is certain to come out on top. While no individual Nokia handset will compete against Apple's iPhone or Research in Motion's Blackberry Curve, the number of devices sold might tempt developers to make the switch.

Never ones to be outdone, we at ReadWriteWeb have labored intensely and discussed among ourselves to produce this app wishlist. We can't offer funding, but it would make us picky little Internet geeks terribly happy if someone developed any of the six apps listed below. You know, while we're waiting for the flying cars and food replicators.

2. Full-Length Movies on Mobiles
It's a matter of time, we're sure, before you look next to you on a subway and see a guy watching V for Vendetta on his iPhone. Movies are getting quicker to stream and more mobile, and mobile video display is a quickly-aligning Rubik's cube. A combination of the right coding technology, the right player, and the right partnership with a giant such as Hulu or Netflix could allow some lucky startup to charge the pants off of mobile users per movie. Plus, it'd be a great trick to keep the kids quiet in restaurants or church or wherever, and who, parents and non-parents alike, can't get behind an idea like that?

3. Multiplayer Augmented Reality Social Gaming
A few months ago, we found out what Crash Corp was up to, and that bee has been in our bonnet ever since. Augmented reality mobile gaming is definitely the frontier of its space. It's a gamble getting gamers away from their hotly-defended consoles, their PCs laden with expensive video cards, and all the games and ways of game playing they know. That would be, shall we say, a game changer. Ha ha. But we feel the coolest, most hardcore application of AR gaming can be achieved through multiplayer, socially enhanced, RPG-type games as opposed to the kind of casual games that isolate rather than connect users and don't tend to induce hours of Mountain-Dew fueled play. Something like foursquare is the embryonic, interface-free, back-end concept for what mobile gaming will become. We predict that in five years, all gamer geeks will have farmer's tans. Also, the addition of semi-virtual currency in marketing promotions that are location- and proximity-based make AR mobile a brand's most fantastic dream.

4. Real-Time Social Streams as Gesture-Responsive, Dimensional Displays
It's 2009. We don't have any flying cars. We don't have a moon colony. We've waited this long, and we want SOMETHING, damn it. Give us our Minority Report-esque gesture-controlled holographic displays, or at least a BumpTop-like 3D app that can handle concepts such as relative size and weight of discussions, apps, and other users. With existing apps such as Seesmic Desktop and its ilk becoming real-time and constantly present, we see our entire social graph's firehose glutting the data stream with absolutely too much information until it truly becomes the time-waster the mainstream claimed it was all along. We now need an app that can imaginatively and radically simplify statuses and microblogging and how we receive and parse them, and we're talking TED-level imagination. Why anyone that brilliant would want to work on social media projects is anyone's guess, but hey, it's our wishlist.

5. Shopping App for Thrift Stores
We can't believe some hipster hasn't picked up on this already, but someone ought to develop a web and mobile app specifically for thrift stores, kind of like TheThriftShopper, but much more than a directory. We want to see locations, reviews, sales and specials, pics of good finds, and a social community for organizing ugly sweater parties! With the revolving door that is any second-hand shop's inventory, it's probably not reasonable to ask for an Internet of Things-type cataloging program -- yet. But it would be simple and fun enough to use certain APIs to create this kind of mashup.

6. Personal Inventory and Shopping App
We've seen several trade-and-barter apps lately, such as NeighborGoods and OurShelf, that allow users to catalog items they already own and request those they need. And there are a few good shopping applications, such as Alice, out there, both in terms of inventory control as well as social shopping. But coming back to the Internet of Things, what we want is more inclusive and integrated than anything we've seen yet. We would like someone to develop a way to manage multiple home shopping lists, including groceries, book/DVD wishlists, etc., that sync with retailer inventories and send mobile alerts. It would also require a mobile app that allows shopping to be completed and automatically updates web-based lists accordingly. Eventually, this is the kind of tech that could be used to create truly smart shopping carts, as well.

As incredible as it may seem, there are corners of the Internet upon which the RWW team has not stumbled. If you know of any good apps that fit these categories, be sure to let us know in the comments!

Also, if you've got a wishlist of your own, feel free to share below.

Each of the top 25 applications on Facebook have at least 5.5 million monthly active users and 12 of these apps are labeled as "Facebook Verified," a designation which essentially means they have been given the Facebook seal of approval when it comes to their trustworthiness. But how trustworthy are these apps, really?

To determine the state of application privacy policies, "theharmonyguy" (the anonymous blogger who maintains the site Social Hacking) looked for links on the app's Info page referring to a privacy policy, looked for links within the app's TOS (Terms of Service) page, and looked within the help/support pages, too. Plaintext URLs were also counted as links, if present.

In nearly a third of the applications, there was no link to a privacy policy listed.

Among the apps with no privacy policy are the #3 app "How Well Do You Know Me," the #5 app "MyCalendar," and the #12 app "Farm Town," among others.

Two of the applications only provided a link to the privacy policy after installation, one on the first page after installation and the other buried within a linked support page. One of these apps was the Facebook Verified app "We're Related." Seven applications included links in their Info pages, but in five of the seven, you would have to first click the "About" link to go to the developer's web site to discover the privacy policy link.

Eight applications included privacy policy links from links found on both the Info page and the TOS page. But only one application actually served up the privacy policy link directly from the application's Info page itself: CourseFeed.

Surprisingly, the "Facebook Verified" application known as RockYou Live (formerly Super Wall) offered no privacy policy whatsoever within the application or via its links to other pages. The About link pointed to a section of the application which requires user installation and the install page offered no TOS link, either. (And this is supposedly one of the trustworthy apps?)

Application Privacy: Old News Perhaps, But Still an Issue

Today, Facebook is busy defending itself against accusations that they're using user data for advertising purposes, but it seems that the real danger on Facebook may be the access to this same user data from unknown companies outside of the social network. This is not really a new issue - nearly a year and a half ago, Facebook application privacy issues were heavily discussed in the blogosphere for some time. It's interesting to look again at the status of this problem and see how little has changed since then.

In fact, today Facebook's Application Terms of Service warns you (shouts at you in UPPERCASE, no less) that:

"ALL PLATFORM APPLICATIONS ARE PROVIDED AS IS" and that "YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOU DOWNLOAD, INSTALL AND/OR USE ANY PLATFORM APPLICATIONS AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK."

Within your Privacy settings, you're also informed that:

"When you authorize an application, it will be able to access any information associated with your account that it requires to work. The application can access information like your personal info and photos as well as your friends' personal info (depending on their settings)."

In other words, you've been warned.

Why Doesn't Facebook Make Apps Offer a Privacy Policy?

It appears there's absolutely no requirement for Facebook applications to provide links to their own privacy policies to application users. And there's certainly no requirement that these links are prominently displayed for easy access.

This would be a simple policy for Facebook to enact, although perhaps a hard one to enforce in terms of man hours needed to keep tabs on all the apps across the social network. Someone would need to make sure that the apps not only offered privacy policies but also didn't remove the links after time passed and devious developers thought they could get away with the removal. Plus, there would still be the issue of the external privacy policies being updated after you agreed to them. What may have been innocuous at first could easily be updated to be quite terrible later on. Unless you routinely checked the privacy policy (which no one does) you would never know the change occurred.

Managing the network of applications could be made easier, however, with a little crowd-sourcing. There's already a "report this app" link provided at the bottom of all application pages. The link currently allows users to report privacy violations, so why not let users report the lack of a privacy policy, too? That seems like a good first step Facebook could take in this situation.

Although the majority of users would still probably never look at privacy policies even if changes were made, having them consistently and prominently displayed would at least put pressure on application developers to think more carefully about how they would access Facebook user data as this would now be disclosed. And that may be the best we could hope for when it comes to these applications.

One of eBay's first partners to release a Selling Manager application - and a good example of the possibilities this platform provides - is UPS. Their WorldShip shipping software will be integrated directly within the eBay Selling Manager so sellers can manage shipments without having to leave eBay to do so. Other applications available at launch time include those from ecommerce developers Terapeak, HostedSupport, ahTEXT.com and Cloud Conversion.

Ebay's developer community, which includes some 87,000 members who have created over 13,500 applications, have been itching for a way to get better access to the 270,000 subscribers of eBay's Selling Manager service, an extra and formerly paid-access only area of eBay which many small-to-medium business sellers use. Now they can.

Why formerly paid? It seems that eBay wants to encourage sellers to check out these new offerings available within Selling Manager, so they're making the service free of charge. This is a win-win for all. Developers get greater access to sellers and sellers get access to better tools from the developers. 

The new Applications platform was built using theOpenSocial gadgets specification. Developers join the beta and begin developing their own apps by visiting http://developer.ebay.com/products/selling-manager-applications.

Recession? What recession? According to a survey from ABI Research, many U.S. consumers are spending hundreds of dollars per year on mobile applications. Over 15 percent of those surveyed had spent nearly $100 over the past twelve months and a surprising 16.5 percent had spent between $100 and $500 during that same time frame.

With the high level of spending being reported, those unfamiliar with the mobile industry could easily be led to believe that mobile applications must cost a pretty penny. However, just the opposite is true - mobile applications are relatively inexpensive - often only a dollar or two on iTunes for example. That makes the amount of money being spent all the more telling - people aren't just buying apps, they're buying a lot of apps.

Yet it's those App Store prices that ABI analyst Jeff Orr claims are hurting the overall mobile industry. "If you exclude Apple from the mix, applications for other platforms cost about $7-25 each," he says. "Many developers, lacking the resources to author applications for all available smartphone platforms, have to focus on one. That means they have a 'margin vs. volume' quandary: sell many copies for the iPhone at a very low price of which the developer receives 70%, or sell fewer via one of the other application storefronts, but charge a higher price and earn more per transaction."

On the other hand, however, Orr notes that Apple did a lot for the industry with their marketing campaigns for mobile applications. Their efforts led to sort of a 'halo' effect that has positively impacted the sales of apps on non-Apple platforms.

Some Big Caveats About These Numbers

Before everyone takes these survey numbers to the bank, though, it's important to look at them a bit more closely.

First of all, the sample size of this survey was far too small - only 235 smartphones owners were involved. That may be enough to hint towards a trend that requires further research, but it's not large enough to drawn any concrete conclusions from.

Secondly, smartphone users who didn't install an application weren't included in the survey so, obviously, the data is skewed here as well. The survey results seem to imply that application purchases are something all smartphone owners do, but that is not the case. We imagine there are probably tons of executives out there whose Blackberry devices are used for two things only: phone calls and emails. That said, it seems once you cross over to being an application buyer, the sky's the limit when it comes to spending.

One final note about the survey is that the findings are self-reported and most people don't do very well at estimating how much they've spent over a period of time. We could probably ask our readers a similar question and report our findings as "research" too.

Hmm, let's do that: