What could make iPhone app development and monetization a more seamless operation? Combining the two to create a one-stop-chop-shop. Offerpal Media has partnered with Tapjoy to present such an offering. As part of Tapjoy’s Software Developer Kit for iPhone apps, developers can choose to optimize monetization options through Offerpal Media. It’s a package deal that covers some of the most important bases for iPhone app developers.

For Tapjoy, the inclusion of Offerpal’s monetization platform means that the company can offer a range of new features for its own clients. This holds especially true as Tapjoy already benefited from creating package deals that encompass advertising and monetization options through companies such as Google. As a core focus for Tapjoy’s SDK is to enable developers to profit from their iPhone apps, broadening options towards this end is in the best interest of Tapjoy.
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AT&T’s 3G network is being used for yet another socially savvy mobile device; the upcoming Moterolla Karma QA1 is curvy, compact and socially aware. The phone will have quick access to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, JuiceCaster and more. From Motorola’s perspective, the idea of a mobile device is to support communication, no matter how it occurs.

That’s a good point of view to have, considering the dominance of Apple’s iPhone, and the multimedia support mobile devices need for creating, sharing and consuming content. With what appears to be a main tab for social networking, a menu of socially integrated applications are ready and able to connect you with your web world.
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Super Rewards started as a project for monetizing Facebook applications, and the company is expanding outwards to now include Twitter. The virtual goods and currency platform that works for online games and social networks has created a way to generate revenue for games that have been designed to work exclusively with Twitter, including 140 Mafia.

So how does it work? Users earn points redeemable within the game by recruiting new users via Twitter. It’s yet another exchange-based system that has proven successful, to certain degrees, on Facebook. In exchange for a user participating in certain offers and actions, they earn points and other benefits to be used in the game or social network. As Twitter continues to prove useful as a distribution platform, taking advantage of its cross-device access and usability, there are other “platforms” that are cropping up in order to build on that spreading reach.
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SGN has announced an update to its F.A.S.T. (Fleet Air Superiority Training) iPhone game. Bluetooth integration. The iPhone application was initially announced earlier this year, and was still unnamed at the time.

It’s all about jet-fighting and flying aircrafts, complete with a variety of armed aircraft that are loaded with missiles and guns. There are radar-guided and heat-seeking missiles, and let’s not forget about the accellorameter, which has become a focal point for many iPhone games but have become signature for those created by SGN.
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Social banking service SmartyPig is going mobile today, with compatibility for the iPhone, Blackberry and a number of other cellular devices. From the mobile site, SmartyPig users will be able to access their account information while on the go. They can also view the current status of their savings goals and their friends’ goals. Other functions for the new mobile offering include the ability to track the history of a transaction, and make any additional transfers directly from the cell phone.

Along with iPhone optimization, SmartyPig has taken several other handsets into account when creating the new mobile site. The upcoming Palm Pre, HTC, Blackberry and Android are all supported by SmartyPig.
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Lots of Microsoft support coming from MySpace today. Announced at the CTIA Wireless 2009 conference as well as the Web 2.0 Expo that will be going on in Las Vegas and San Fransisco respectively, Microsoft Windows Mobile as well as Microsoft Silverlight are both supported by MySpace. The added support extends MySpace’s mobile accessibility as well as the potential for more MySpace OpenSocial applications from developers and third parties.

MySpace has actually partnered with Microsoft to set up the new offerings. While the Windows Mobile 6.1 support won’t be available until later on this summer, the application will be better optimized for a friendlier user interface with improved options for direct delivery of MySpace-related content. Several of MySpace’s main social features are to be tied in with the Windows operating system itself, for better accessibility and media-sharing options for users on the go.
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Earlier this month Pelago’s mobile service Whrrl launched an updated version at the SXSW conference in Austin, TX. Today, the company is revealing some useful enhancements to Whrrl v2.0, with SMS and email integration along with digital camera functionality.

You may recall that Whrrl is a mobile-to-web service that enables users to create collaborative stories around a particular event, contributing content through photos, videos and more. With location-based capabilities and an inherent community that can be built up around these collaborative events.
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Are you interested in location-based hook ups? SNAP Interactive, the company behind the Are You Interested application on Facebook, is going mobile with its new app that’s now available for iPhone users (get it here). With over 12 million monthly active users on its Facebook application, SNAP is looking to convert a lot of those users to the mobile realm, giving a new meaning to instant gratification.
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Ribbit has partnered with Best Buy to display yet another way in which its phone service can be integrated for a unique solution that makes so much sense in hindsight. Using Best Buy’s recently released Remix API, Ribbit has created an application Called Consumers Price that allows consumers to make shopping on Best Buy a little bit more social, and a lot easier to do. It’s called social mobile commerce, and it combines the best of both worlds for an altered approach on how to convey, access and share information regarding retail products and online shopping.

There’s a few ways in which Ribbit’s phone integration makes shopping more social. The first and easiest way is through voice comments that Ribbit enables with a call-in feature. Instead of leaving a text review of a Best Buy product, you can use your phone to call a number and leave a voice review for others to hear. Of course, such comments can convey much more emotion and manage to drive the point home, similar to how easily integrated video comments have done the same for blogs and product review sites.
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Zynga’s at it again. The social gaming company has launched a mobile version of Scramble Live for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

The game itself, if you’re unfamiliar, is a grid of letters that can be connected to form words (think word search with options for all-directional word creation). While the words themselves cannot be re-ordered, the grid can be rotated in its entirety. This gives you additional perspectives in order to find your words. As with many other Zynga games made for the iPhone, Scramble Live takes advantage of the accelerometer, though this particular use case may not be as exciting as an action-oriented video game.

I gotta admit this game is pretty addictive for me in its online Facebook app version. I know… I’m a sucker for word games and they’re of the few things I get viciously competitive about. So I’ll be happy to take advantage of some of Scramble’s social features in order to beat all of you.
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