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Funware Dominates iPhone Apps In 2008December 2 2008

Apple has released a series of lists showing which apps have been downloaded the most in the 5 months since the App Store launched.

You can read thro the lists over at MobileCrunch.

The key takeout: funware apps rule.

DeWolfe Talks Up MySpaceDecember 1 2008

Speaking at the Reuters Media Summit, MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe forecast advertising revenue growth in 2009. While advertising in general has slowed, he points to a continued switching trend form off to online media.

Still one of the world’s largest social networks, MySpace enjoyed an 18% year on year growth in revenue last quarter. It will indeed be impressive if they are able to keep this up.

There is growing speculation that MySpace may move towards a subscription model, something that DeWolfe does not corroborate nor does he rule it out.

He further points out that now is a good time to be contemplating acquisitions for cashed up companies (and private equity players looking to put their funds to work) as valuations are dropping off significantly.

MySpace Taps The RIM: Record Breaking Blackberry AppNovember 26 2008

Designed to help Blackberry users stay connected to the MySpace social network, a new app from the Fox Interactive company has been downloaded 400,000 times in its first week. This goes a long way towards dispelling the unhipster Blackberry myth.

A Facebook app, which launched in 2007, has been downloaded 2.5 million times.

Android Followed iPhone, But Wait (There May) Be More: The MicroPhoneNovember 24 2008

The Inquirer reportedly has knowledge of a Microsoft Phone, which we are dubbing the MicroPhone.

Thanks to MG Siegler for bringing this to our attention. The veracity of this report is pegged as “highly dubious”.

Either way as I see it at the moment the two key platforms to focus on for native, mobile Internet-focused apps are the iPhone and Android, given that there are already millions of iPhones out there in the wild and it is anticipated that there will be millions of Android-enabled phones out there next year.

iPhone Image Recognition: Snap And TellNovember 19 2008

Wouldn’t it be great if you could take a picture of a book someone is reading in your local coffee shop and before the sugar sinks into your cappucino you have all the data on it and where you can buy it.

Or similarly, what if you could snap a billboard as you hurtle down the 101 (preferably with someone else driving) and before you reach your destination you’ve already pulled up more details on the concert being advertized and bought tickets.

Palo Alto-based SnapTell has the solution. Their image matching technology handles real life photos snapped on the majority of cell phones and parses these against a growing database of products. They are also able to extract text from pictures and use this to drive search.

The company has recently launched an iPhone app - read Jason Kincaid’s review.