"One of the biggest challenges for mobile developers and businesses is getting access to devices for testing. Not even the largest of companies can afford to purchase all of the possible devices on which their software or services may run on." Mobile Portland hopes to find a solution in the place where those two challenges come together and is building what it believes will be the first community mobile device testing lab in the United States. It's a very ambitious project.

"When we set out to create a device testing lab, I thought it would go faster than it has," Grigsby wrote about the project last night, upon discussing the organization's relationship with nonprofit tax status. Mobile Portland has been working with city leaders on the project and, living in Portland myself, I've been excited to hear rumors of the lab for months. The lab will live inside the building of Urban Airship, a fast-growing mobile data services provider best known for offering push-notifications as a service.

The project will no doubt be far more complex than just putting hundreds of phones in a room; mobile software testing software is already a thriving field and successfully testing across different devices is a tough moving target.

It's not just about different screen size and buttons. It's also about benchmarking, performance optimization and other considerations. Leading players throughout the mobile app ecosystem agree that developer education concerning app optimization, helping developers learn how to not be lazy in building their apps, will be an essential factor in helping the whole mobile world move forward and make more effective use of new platforms, from HTML5 and its local storage to application-enabled mobile carrier networks.

From device performance to interface with networks to end-user usability, the things that could be tested are many. There are many emulators on the market (and there's DeviceAnywhere, a "non-simulated" remote testing technology), but nothing can beat a real device in the hand. "Long-term mobile usability practitioners know that people interact differently with a device in their hand than with the same web site with the same pixel count on a computer screen," veteran mobile designer Barbara Ballard once wrote.

The prospect of gathering, paying for, maintaining, updating and co-ordinating testing experiences for hundreds of mobile devices is daunting. To be honest, I think the office space being allocated to the project will quickly become far too small. It sounds like something mobile developers are likely to travel from far and wide to experience, if it can successfully be built. If developers can build better apps across more devices, then consumers will have all the more choice in choosing which phones to buy and phone makers will have to compete all the more to differentiate themselves. An effective testing environment could be meaningfully disruptive. It could also be awesome.

In a blog post, the company's CEO, Jeff Bonforte, announced a Xobni for Outlook Developer Preview "that will allow any developer to test their Gmail contextual gadget in Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010 (32-bit and 64-bit)."

"Developers can now begin building applications that run inside of Outlook without having to build an entire Outlook plugin. (It) initially enables developers to build Contextual Gadgets that appear when the current email matches certain criteria. For example, a flight check-in application could run when a user is viewing an email containing a travel itinerary."

Extending a developer's reach from one email platform to the other certainly is a powerful pitch. The claim should attract plenty of developer attention.

"The creative potential of junaio is vast: AR Mashups, multiplayer games or scavenger hunts, interactive, indoor and outdoor exhibitions, tours with animated 3D characters, eduainment right on the spot and location independent gaming," the company expressed in press release. "It is up to the developer to challenge his imagination and become as much creative as he wants to."

On June 16, the top five channels with the most subscribers will become finalists in the contest, and the winner will ultimately be chosen by a panel of AR and IT aficionados, including Robert Scoble, Thomas Carpenter of Games Alfresco, and Dr. Christian Geiger, professor and mixed reality researcher at Düsseldorf University. I will also be participating on the judges panel, and am very excited to see the innovative AR channels that could come from this contest.

I am also thrilled that metaio and junaio are pushing the creative side of the contest. It is much easier for gimmicky AR applications to become popular, but these kinds of applications don't benefit AR as much as actual useful implementations. The subscriber threshold will merely be used to shorten the list of applications that will be considered for the prize, but that doesn't mean the most popular one will win.

For more information on the contest and on the junaio platform, check out their website, or if you happen to be in Germany, stop by at AR DevCamp in Berlin this Friday. There will be free sessions available for developers to learn the capabilities of the API and will provide a jumping-off point for those new to the platform.

Thom Holwerda, of OSNews, had an idea why.

"(T)he URL scheme bears little meaning to most people using a browser - they know it's there and how to type it, but it doesn't indicate anything to them. Since computing has been about abstracting away complexity for a while now, it was only a matter of time before browser makers started removing this piece of web history."

• The change itself was unclear. When developers started noticing it, they interpreted and reported it as a bug. It seems that Google perhaps did not converse with their developers prior to implementing this
• Although the http is hidden, it is not gone. So the change is a visual one, perhaps not a functional one.
• Some developers are worried about what will happen when working with the https or ftp protocols.
• This is not an agreed-upon move, industry-wide.

A moderator on Google's Chrome code forum said, "we include "http:// when copying the URL to the clipboard, so it will still appear when pasted elsewhere." This is a function that is apparently not in working order for a number of developers.

Plans to Release it as a Minor Update to 3.6 Instead

Earlier today, Computerworld broke the news that Mozilla plans to "dump" Firefox 3.7 from its schedule and change the way it develops and releases its browser. We talked to Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's director of Firefox, about these changes. Beltzner noted that Mozilla isn't really "dumping" version 3.7. Instead, Mozilla took a closer look at its development roadmap and realized that there was simply no need to release Firefox 3.7 because the Firefox team now plans to release the most important update to 3.7 as a regular security update to Firefox 3.6.

The reasons for this change are actually rather straightforward. As Beltzner told us, given the often times chaotic nature of the open-source development process and the rapidly changing nature of the Internet, roadmaps are always moving targets. The most important update for Firefox 3.7 was supposed to be the integration of the Electrolysis project into the core browser. Electrolysis is a new technology in Firefox that splits the process that displays the browser UI, web content and plugins into separate processes. According to Mozilla, this will make the browser faster and increase stability, as malfunctioning plugins won't be able to bring the whole browser down.

No Need for 3.7

Instead of shipping a completely new version of Firefox to integrate this technology, Mozilla has now decided to simply release this update as a part of a regular security update for Firefox 3.6. Mozilla doesn't typically release major new features through these regular security updates. As Beltzner told us, however, Mozilla believes that this is a very important update and it wants to get this technology to users as fast as possible. Depending on how fast Firefox users switch to 3.6, the team might even release this update for older version of the browser as well.

This doesn't mean that Mozilla is changing the way it develops the browser. Beltzner did note, however, that nothing is set in stone and that Mozilla is always looking for the best ways to develop its software. For now, however, Mozilla isn't planning to "slip in new features and functionality every few weeks." Chrome, which is currently Firefox's most interesting competitor, releases weekly updates and constantly adds new features. That, however, is typical for a young project like Chrome and will likely change as the software matures.

Looking Forward

Firefox 3.6 will be released in a few weeks and Firefox 4.0 is currently scheduled for the end of the year. Typically, Beltzner acknowledged, this is a time where there is some confusion about how to go forward and the confusion about version 3.7 is a good example of this.

Real-Time View of App Creation

With the next generation of the product, Sweb Apps 2.0, some of the original concerns about the - well, let's say it - rather boring user interface of the Sweb-built apps have begun to be addressed. Whereas before you could only customize the background color and upload your own buttons, today you can customize the background to be an image instead. And if you don't have one of your own, Sweb Apps provides an online library of images to choose from. That's a step in the right direction, even if some of the backgrounds are reminiscent of early GeoCities Web pages or Windows 98 wallpapers... after all, you have to crawl before you can run.

As you build your app's landing page, you're provided with a real-time view of your app in progress, which makes it much easier to tell whether your images, buttons and colors look good together or not. That's a handy feature for SMB owners, who may be creating their app on their own without the aid of a professional designer. The app builder also uses drag-and-drop functionality to make the process even more painless for the inexperienced end user.

Mobile Storefronts

However, one of the most interesting developments in the 2.0 version of Sweb Apps' online service is the new "store" functionality. Now, as easy as it is to build an app, you can essentially build a mobile storefront for your business. This feature, still in beta, allows you to categorize, sub-categorize, itemize and write descriptions for your products. You can manage and maintain your inventory through Sweb's CMS, and your mobile customers can "check out" via the included PayPal integration.

Sweb Apps tells us that they envision this sort of feature being used by restaurants, boutiques and small retailers. That's easy to imagine. For example: wish you had picked up a t-shirt from that seafood place where you dined on vacation? In theory, you could now, even if you were halfway home, thanks to these new mobile storefronts. In a way, the mobile stores are even better than having the same functionality via an online store on the "real" Web, mainly because not everyone brings their laptop around with them 24/7. But their iPhones? People don't leave home without them.

And More...

Other features being introduced today include podcasts, audio streams and YouTube integration, all of which streams audio or video within the app itself, as opposed to launching an external program such as the iPhone's own built-in YouTube app. Also new is the ability for users to manage multiple applications from one account.

Sweb Apps says they've seen good results since their August 2009 launch, with a 400% increase in sales, but won't share actual numbers. That doesn't really tell us much about the service's adoption by the SMB market. Since the company isn't touting any high-profile clients or case studies in their PR though, we have to imagine that they're flying a bit under the radar on the business front at this point. Still, it's very early in the game, and services like this can take a while to catch on and gain popularity.

The pricing for Sweb Apps remains the same despite the new features. 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.

Google already gave a number of developers a preview of the API and you can see the fruits of their labor here. These tools, for example, include integration with content management systems and other analytics suites. One easy to install example for an app that uses the Google Analytics API is Polaris, an Adobe AIR widget from Desktop Reporting that displays basic information about your site.

Of course, Google Analytics, even with this API, does not give you real-time information about the traffic on your site. For that, you will still have to resort to other tools like Woopra, which uses a desktop application as it default interface, and which also offers an API.

The core product at LOLapps is actually two things: a quiz creator and a gift creator. You may not have much use for these types of applications yourself, but then, you would be in the minority. When it comes to social networks like Facebook, gifts and quizzes are some of the most popular activities taking place.

With the LOLapps tools, you're walked through a step-by-step process which allows you to create your very own custom gifts and custom quizzes which you can then share with your friends.

Essentially, the LOLapps application turns everyday users into application developers - without the user ever really knowing that's what's going on. With clear instructions written in casual, conversational language, the LOLapps building tools hop users through the somewhat convoluted and complicated steps (at least that's how they would appear to an end user) necessary to register as a developer on the social network and get the application published.

For now, the company says their business model is similar to that of a website-creation tool from ages ago: Geocities. Back in the early Web 1.0 days, users could create their own web pages at Geocities and the company made money by showing ads on those pages. LOLapps is working pretty much the same way today, except now the ads appear in apps, not web sites. LOLapps is also using virtual goods to drive revenue in some company-created applications but they will not be inserting those paid goods into the apps created by users themselves, LOLapps CEO Kavin Stewart tells us.

If you want to get a feel for what kinds of applications are being built with the LOLapps tools, we asked the company for the top apps, both quizzes and gifts. Here are the results - do any of these sound familiar?

Top 10 Quizzes

1. What Is Your Future Life?
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/futurelife/
2. What Greek God are you
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/what-greek-god-fdde/
3. What Type Of Heart Do You Have?
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/whatheart/
4. What's Your Best Quality?
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/bestquality-asdf/
5. Which movie star are you?
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/whatmovie-asdf/
6. What type of person do you attract?
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/attract-asdf/
7. What song are you?
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/what-song-are-jcge/
8. What will your Daughter be named?
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/what-will-your-hfie/
9. What video game character are you?
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/what-video-gam-bhdb/
10. What Kind of Music Are You?
    URL: http://apps.facebook.com/musictype/

Top 10 Gifts

1. Guardian Angels
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/guardian-angel-iibg
2. Because You're Special
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/because-your-s-badgc
3. Friendship
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/friendship-ciabh
4. Pinky Gifts
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/yildizs-gifts-djah
5. Childhood Memories of the 80s
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/childhood-memo-jhcf
6. Strawberry Gifts
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/strawberry-gif-bggdd/
7. Girly Girl Gifts
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/girly-girl-gi-geheh
8. Forever Friends Bears
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/forever-friend-fbgi
9. SUSHI
   URL: http://apps.facebook.com/sushi-ifia
10. CHOCOLATE!
    URL: http://apps.facebook.com/chocolate-bbghb

After the app undergoes a series of tests and reviews which analyze the app's potential for revenue as well as its "originality, functionality, simplicity, and fun," the app will be built by the company's in-house development team. When complete, MEDL Mobile will promote and market the application for you. All you had to do was have the original idea.

Since the company is doing all the hard work of app building and promotion, it makes sense that they plan on taking a cut. However, 25 percent of the app's revenues is shared with the app's "creator" (you). Considering how little effort there was put forth on your part, that actually seems rather generous. Still, if you want to keep more than 25 percent, you can just hire the company to build the app for you instead.

The AppIncubator is available for download in the iTunes Store here.

The next time you find your desire to write lacking, Plinky may be just the inspiration you need.

Shellen doesn't just know blogging, he's lived it. Now he's hoping to inspire others.

Where Does the Inspiration Come From?

Plinky is simple and straightforward. Every day, the service delivers writing prompts in hopes of eliciting short introspective answers. If Twitter is "What are you doing?", Plinky is "What do you think about this?"

Current prompts range from making a mixtape of favorite songs to defending your vice. Users compose responses within Plinky using text, images, maps, or other objects that help them craft an answer. Then, those answers can be easily repurposed to other microblogging and blogging services.

But Plinky also manages to provide a venue for social interaction of its own. Users have a stream of responses that are publicly viewable, they can follow other users, and they can favorite responses. Plinky also provides immediate access to other answers to the question you're considering - providing even more sources of inspriration. For a seemingly simple service, there is quite a bit going on.

Louis Gray got an early preview of the service. So if you're interested in more details on all Plinky has to offer, his thorough walkthrough of Plinky provides a solid overview.

In our testing, Plinky proved to be entertaining. The initial prompts are fun, inspiring good crosstalk among Plinky's early adopters. Reading others' responses proved equally compelling.

Whether that interest is sustainable remains to be seen. Facebook has found some of its success by prompting users with an endless barrage of surveys. There's no reason that Plinky can't do the same.

In the long-term, it will be interesting to see what types of users gravitate to the site and continue to return on a daily basis. In the short-term, however, one thing is for certain: with a known entity like Shellen involved, Plinky is sure to develop a rapid following.

Jinni says that its video content is automatically indexed, using a mixture of metadata and reviews. It has a strong semantic technologies component, as it uses a proprietary Natural Language Processing solution to assign semantic tags to content and users. The company claims that this allows Jinni to "rapidly index more titles, becoming the universal catalog for professional video." When it launched in December, Jinni had 10,000 movie, TV and video titles. It also offers APIs for Internet and TV content providers.

In terms of its recommendations philosophy, Jinni believes that a mix of algorithms and human selection is the best solution. Although the initial data set comes from humans entering movie information into a computer, the actual recommendations come from its algorithm - which "can deeply analyze the type of content you like" and hence learn about your tastes in movies. Jinni gives you recommendations by "comparing your Taste Types and the genes of all the titles in our catalog".

Does it Work?

I took Jinni for a test drive, with a search on 'mood'. I quite like an "offbeat" movie on a Friday night, so it was an appropriate place to start. Also 'offbeat' movies like Napoleon Dynamite are the type of films that have caused the Netflix Prize contestants a lot of problems. So I clicked on that mood to see what came up.

The default video selections included ones like Twin Peaks, Donnie Darko, Hot Fuzz, Monty Python, and so on. It was a fairly predictable selection, but where Jinni promises to come into its own is when you filter down. There is a 'Story Tuner', which presented some interesting filter options.

I filtered based on the story tuners (little known, light, realistic, fast-ish) and got recommended a 1990 movie called 'Mr Destiny' starring James Belushi. I can't recall ever seeing it (little known? check!) and while I'm not really a James Belushi fan, it'd be worth a try. I tweaked the light/serious meter up to 'serious' and that gave me a neat selection of 9 films, few of which I'd seen - but they all looked interesting. This is what you want from a recommendation engine - to be told about products you didn't know about before. So Jinni appears to work quite well. There are many other filters other than mood; rating, date, length, plot, genres, and more.

In his review, Chris Gampat concluded that Jinni isn't quite Pandora for movies. That may be true, but we think Jinni is worth a try if you're a movie or tv show buff. It's also similar to ClerkDogs, which we reviewed recently. So if you've tried either or both, let us know in the comments what you thought.

ReadWriteWeb Resources for Recommendation Technologies

We will be profiling other recommendation companies in upcoming posts. We also invite you to explore using our custom ReadWriteWeb Resources:

• RWW Recommendation Industry Feed Favorites OPML file (save link)
• RWW Recommendation Industry Feeds - Best of Feed (copy and paste to your reader)
• Click to preview the above feeds before subscribing (pop-up window)
• RWW Recommendation Site Search (Visit and Bookmark)

Creating Codes

Using iCandy is easy. You simply drag and drop a web site link or iTunes track into the iCandy interface to create the QR code. You can also add in photos from either your computer or an online service like Flickr or Snapfish. The iCandy application then creates the barcode which you can then print out or use elsewhere on the web...like in a Zazzle.com store for example, where you could sell your barcode-emblazoned merchandise. The iCandy application supports any URL from the web, but will specifically support media from iTunes, YouTube, flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Scribd, Slideshare, last.fm, Pandora, and imeem.

Scanning Codes

For end users interacting with the barcode, the process is simple, too. All you need is a webcam or a barcode reading application for your smartphone. The company suggests that iCandy could be used to create a digitally enhanced album collection which you could use to play tracks from your iTunes music library. This is demonstrated, quite adorably we might add, by one of the iCandy engineer's 4 1/2 year-old-daughter, who launches music (and dances around) in this YouTube video.

Although this idea of interacting with your music collection appears to be the primary focus of the iCandy application, we think its other uses are just as appealing, if not more so. With the QR codes created by the application, bands and other artists wishing to promote their music could create merchandise - flyers, t-shirts, cards, etc. - which link directly to their homepage on the web or the music itself.

Imagine how this could work: after a long night out at the local bars and clubs, you could simply scan a card or other giveaway item the band had handed out after their last set. That's much easier than entering in a URL or even having to locate the album listing manually. Thanks to iCandy's innovative technology, a code scanned for music you don't already own, would also give you a prompt to purchase it from iTunes, Amazon, or Rhapsody.

iPhone Application in the Works

Even better than having to use your computer would be using your iPhone as the barcode scanner instead. Since the QR codes are just normal barcodes, you can scan them today using any third-party QR code scanning application on your iPhone, or any other smartphone for that matter. However, the company is working on an iPhone application that would auto-play the track if you already owned it and it was in your iPhone's music collection. If it wasn't, you could be shown the track in iTunes so that you preview it or purchase it, if desired.

The auto-play feature is where the company is having problems at the moment because of how Apple has the phone locked down. A company representative told us that they will probably have to meet with Apple in order to get this sorted out properly and play by all the rules.

In the meantime, QR codes that link to other web sites - or even YouTube videos - will work with the iPhone. Other camera-equipped smartphones can also be used to scan the barcodes and direct the users to the appropriate web sites.

Try it Out!

The iCandy application is still in beta, but you can register to try it out now. To get right in, use the code "RWW" when you sign up here. Company feedback can be sent to the company via the feedback form on their homepage (http://icandy.ricohinnovations.com) or via email (feedback@icandy.ricohinnovations.com).