I may have to start an iPhone blog soon. I’m now  up to four screens worth of apps ranging from IM aggregators like Fring to novelty services like Ocarina and UrbanSpoon. 

Animoto is one app I installed this morning and in minutes I was compiling a slideshow of iPhone pics with a matching soundtrack to boot.

After signing up on the Animoto website, you can upload content and quickly edit your slideshow. I created one movie using their web-based app and another on the iPhone version of the app. What I can’t figure out is why my accounts aren’t synced. The one I created on Animoto’s website doesn’t appear on the iPhone-based app. I followed Animoto on Twitter so I expect I’ll hear something soon.

A  few other nice touches include the ability to preview soundtracks and an email notification that your masterpiece is ready. It took me 3 or 4 minutes to produce the video below.

You can also see how the Fremium model (below) comes into play as users become more sophisticated and develop a need (addiction) for additional bandwidth and formats.  It should be interesting to see Animoto’s business model evolve as additional social services become easily connected allowing Animoto users to share and connect regardless of device or platform. The “Video from Friends” option should use OpenID or Facebook Connect to let me populate my widget on Facebook or LinkedIn instead of having to perform a one-off embed each time.

All in all, Animoto pulls the experience together quite nicely.

Sounds like the iPhone’s got all the bells and whistles and as expected, a striking design. Read about it at PCWorld.

Besides the steep price for most real smartphones, I think complexity still drives away most consumers.  The real question becomes, how smart can your average user make the smartphone after the purchase? Can you really rely on users to to point to an Exchange server, load Skype, or upgrade their instant messaging (IM) software? Add the fact that a lot of smartphones just aren’t very good phones to begin with and it makes the concept of a smartphone nice, but still daunting to most.

I bet if I configured GMail, gave you mobile access to XM radio, and a mobile RSS reader you’d say, WOW that’s a smartphone!

But even with complicated interfaces and bloated software, smartphones sales are growing steadily. In fact, according to eMarketer, the NPD Group says the US  is actually experiencing a ”growth spurt” in the smartphone market. 

And with all that growth comes plummeting prices. Case in point. It was less than a year ago that I dropped almost 5 bills, (yep $500) on one of the early smartphones. I think back then “smart” just meant it ran Windows and had WiFi. Same phone now? Couple hundred bucks. Upgrade anyone?

One tidbit from the report caught my eye.

“Smartphone users spent an average of $6.31 per month for wireless data in the third quarter. By comparison, owners of all types of mobile phones spent just $0.89.”

What I’m a little unsure of is how anyone manages to get any work done with $6.31 of downloaded data. I guess the $0.89 is a few text messages and a quickly downloaded weather forecast? Trust me, you can’t get much content these days without forking over $30-40 bucks for an unlimited data plan. But most consumers ( including myself) think data plans are too expensive. In fact, analyst firm IDC said recently that 73 percent of us think that way.

More importantly I think, you can see why the smartphone user is so coveted. They’re the ones looking at the mobile banner ads, receiving text messages, and using location-based GPS services to get to their next watering hole. That translates to disposable income. And it translates to dollar signs for advertisers and marketers. 

CNET writer Daniel Terdiman is rallying web workers to demand free wi-fi. I wholeheartedly agree. I mean, what does it take to set-up a hotspot these days, especially for companies like Starbucks? Honestly, I probably wouldn’t ever work in Starbucks if I didn’t have an EVDO-capable phone plugged into my notebook.

tags: wi-fi, free+wifi, starbucks, internet+access, web+workers, road+warriors, hotspots, internet

It’s not hard to imagine how technology will reshape future social environments, especially when you see the Intermission bar at London’s University of Westminster.

The tabletops enable users to chat with fellow drinkers by sending short messages, similar to using instant messaging. A list of preprogrammed pick-up lines is also included–and if they prove successful, there’s the option to send another student a drink or credit for one.

Source: Photos: Skipping the bar line | CNET News.com

tags: social+networks, social+software, technology, internet, IM, chat, text+messaging, texting