I really love my iPhone.  I got the phone about 2 weeks after they released (when they were still almost $500!) and have since upgraded to the 3G (I decided against the 3GS mostly because I felt like I didn’t need the video).  I have never been particularly “app crazy”, but I do have some that I really enjoy.  I mostly like apps that have practical uses – for cooking, sharing information, etc. Here are some of my favorites?  Do you have a favorite app?

Epicurious -  This food app has saved so many dinners.  It gives you recipes, helps you make shopping lists, ideas for parties, etc.  If I have an ingredient I’d like to cook with, I often just plug it into the search field and find a recipe from there. Price: Free

Bump – Bump is a way to transfer information wirelessly – you just have to bump (literally) phones with someone.  This can work with contact info, pictures, email, etc.  This is probably best used for someone that you want to add to your phone – when I tried to bump phones with someone that already existed in my phone, it replaced their custom ring tone, picture, etc.  Price: Free

Cronk – Cronk is a fun game.  It sort of reminds me of the game Zuma (if anyone is familiar with that).  You are a little caveman and shoot colored balls.  You need to match three colors in a row to make those balls disapear before they reach the cave!  It’s addicting.  Price: $2.99 (might have changed.  I’ve had this a year)

Photoshop Mobile- Photoshop, as you might know, is a popular image-editing software.  Well, now it’s available for the iphone.  You can use selected pictures to change the saturation, brightness, tints and add different effects.  It’s a nice way to fix up a picture that’s a little too dark or blury.  Price: Free

Rolando (Lite) - Rolando, despite the fact that I don’t play it as much as I do my other games, I still love this game.  It’s so nicely designed, from the colors and shapes to the music.  You’re a little ball (a rolando) that goes through different adventures.  You tilt and tap the screen to get your rolandos behave and make it through the levels.  Fun!  Price: Rolando (Lite) is free

Each year Christmas seems to be getting a bit earlier.  Just yesterday I saw a Facebook status by a former schoolmate proclaiming how great her new Christmas tree looked in her house.  What happened to Christmas in Decemeber?  And, more importantly, why the eight weeks of non-stop Christmas music on the radio?  Last weekend it was 70 degrees in Baltimore.  I’m still walking around without a jacket.  Where’s winter?   Perhaps we are over-compensating with more Christmas.

Enough of that tangent.  Happy Holidays from Google! For all you holiday travelers (like me), you can now pick up FREE wi-fi in airports from now until January 15, 2010.  Google has worked with Boingo Wireless, Time Warner Cable, among others to make this possible, and those that are stuck in the airport due to delays or layovers will most likely appreciate this.

In addition to the free wi-fi, you can also donate to a few charities that Google is supporting this season, including Engineers Without Borders,  the One Economy Corporation and the Climate Savers Computing.

There are very few “catches” with this promotion, and the security protection is about the same as if you were using any other wi-fi network.   In addition, you must accept TOS, which is the same as if you were using the paid airport wireless.   Not a lot of downsides to gift!  (Read more here.)

Free internet (fast enough to stream your favorite YouTube videos) AND have an easy way to donate to charity.  Happy Holidays indeed.

I know this article is a little old, but is still interesting to me nonetheless.

Is Facebook Like Google, or More Like Yahoo?

I found it interesting because a relatively young blogger, in terms of AOL, Yahoo! and Google,   I never knew the specifics behind any of these companies or where they were headed.  Growing up, I never knew how they were affecting the World Wide Web.  All I knew was that I could IM my friends, change my AOL profiles, go into chat rooms, and look at web comics.  No fancy explanation needed.

Now that I’m a little older, perhaps a little wiser,  I have studied some of the history of Yahoo!, and have been more aware of the changes it’s gone through, especially when compared to Google.   Comparisons can then be drawn between Yahoo! and Facebook.

Yahoo and Google have grown in much different ways.  Yahoo! started as search engine but quickly tried to diversify its market by obtaining email, games, messenger, chat,  and a myriad of other products.  It became a publicly traded company within a year of incorporation.

Google, on the other hand, did not make its first acquisition until nearly 3 years after its inception.   They started off slowly, waiting 6 years to become an IPO and 5 years to start introducing things that weren’t search related.   Confidence was built in their search engine and the rest seemed to fall into place after that.  Google loyalists who would use any product they offer, since it all works so seamlessly.

The article then delves into the Facebook – Yahoo! connection – how the two companies parallel.   Facebook, not unlike Yahoo!, started and quickly rose in popularity.  Using that as a springboard, it gave way for Facebook to introduce secondary services and features.  It wasn’t just about straight social network and profile.  Facebook tried to turn itself into a place where you could buy things from other users, write notes and import blogs, play games, chat, among other things.

I can’t say I disagree with the author’s comparison of the two companies.  Like Yahoo once did, Facebook has diversified too soon.  It tried to become too many things at once.  It didn’t devote enough time to perfecting the profile and the connections that can be made from there.  Instead, it introduced news feed, live news feed, the highlights bar, all having been met with some chagrin from its users.

I’m not saying I don’t like some of the features that the site comes up with (such as commenting on statuses), but they could have taken a bit more time to consider where they want to go (goal-wise)  instead  of jumping in with both feet first and attempting to use their popularity to try out a bunch of different new things.  People don’t seem to respond very well when something “isn’t broken”.  Google’s slow and steady approach seems to be winning the race, while fast and furious has a greater chance of crashing and burning.