A couple weeks ago I wrote about SGN launching the iGolf game. The game went on to become the most downloaded free iPhone application for at least a day or two. The company has decided to move forward with their iPhone development and has released a successful game which leverages the iPhone accelerometer. That game is called iBowl and it’s a wii-like bowling game.

I downloaded the application and tried it out and it’s not too bad. The only problem with the application is that it isn’t very sensitive when it comes to putting spin on the ball. I have a feeling that the company will improve the sensitivity in their next release. The other interesting feature that I tried out was the “invite your friends” feature. Unfortunately this simply send them an email to check out the game on the iPhone.

Right now the iPhone doesn’t have many social features but once Facebook Connect launches, I think it will be a lot easier to integrate social features into the games. Alternatively, Apple could decide to add their own iPhone profile feature which lets users build their own profiles and connect with their friends through the phone. While this would be competition to Facebook and other social networks, it would be a quick way to enter the social networking space.

Fortunately for Facebook, I don’t think Apple has any plans to launch a social network on any platform, anytime soon. The game is extremely simple and my guess is that they will roll out new features quickly as they did with the previous application. The key to success in software is typically release and iterate as quickly as possible. We’ll have to wait and see if that’s the approach they take on this one.

Check out the iBowl application and let us know what your thoughts are!

Screw waiting for the government, build it yourself! That’s the approach that Intel is taking with their new WiMAX service. This morning I received an invite to the launch of Intel WiMAX in Baltimore. The company is not just backed by Intel though, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks are also investors in the joint company between Sprint and Clearwire.

From the sound of it WiMAX will be offered via a company called XOHM. Getting confused? Not surprising, I definitely am. Thankfully Intel has provided the following demo which shows How WiMax Works. Be warned though, the demo is pretty technical. The main takeaway from this is that wireless cities are becoming a reality thanks to this new technology.

One of the next cities to have the service rolled out is D.C. which is pretty exciting news. What’s the timeframe for this new service roll-out? I’m not completely sure but I’m confident I’ll have more information following the WiMAX Baltimore event.

Yesterday SGN launched a free iPhone game called iGolf. The new application enables users to take advantage of the accelerometer to hit the ball in a fashion similar to the Nintendo Wii. This move highlights SGN’s desire to move beyond social networks and take advantage of all the new platforms. When I spoke with Shervin Pishevar, CEO of SGN at f8 earlier this summer, he suggested that they were actively considering launching new iPhone applications.

It appears that the company has decided to proceed with new platforms and also a broader strategy as they acquire more wide reaching applications like (fluff)Friends. When it comes down to it, iPhone applications can be just as social as social platform applications so it makes sense that the iPhone is included in SGN’s strategy.

Personally, I found this game to be one of the more entertaining iPhone games even though it’s extremely simple. I could see an upgradable version in which you can purchase levels and actually play on a course rather than just hit the driving range. I’ll be interested to see if SGN decides to focus more on the iPhone instead of just social platforms.

This move also emphasizes how mobile platforms and social platforms are competing for developer resources. Larger companies will be able to play in both areas but smaller development teams have been stretched to the limits and now need to choose one or the other. Honestly, any company involved in social gaming needs to be expanding on to mobile platforms. That’s because mobile is inherently social.

Eric Eldon at Venturebeat has confirmed that Google will be releasing the first version of their much anticipated phone on October 17th. The phone will be called the “G1″ and will be launched with the HTC “Dream” later this month. It’s clear that T-Mobile is on board with Google but what about other companies that are in the space?

While in New York for the past week I’ve spoken with a number of individuals including people at large mobile manufacturers as well as startups looking to take advantage of the opening mobile platforms. Some have suggested that most device manufacturers as well as mobile service providers will quickly adopt the Android platform to stay competitive in the marketplace.

A few manufacturers though are going after Google and Apple. Nokia recently acquired Symbian and is now looking to open-source the platform in the near future. RIM has yet to state anything publicly about releasing a more open platform but given that the company’s stock has been down almost 35 percent since its peak back on June 20, the company must make a big announcement soon.

There are plenty of other smart-phone competitors which fail to provide as efficient and robust a directory as is now available via Apple and will soon be available with Google Android. The next 12 to 24 months will mark a massive shift for a domestic industry which was previously far behind in the international marketplace.

I have previously compared the launch of the Apple iPhone platform to that of the Facebook platform in that both were catalyst for substantial change within their industries. Now we are one month away from what will be the second big step in the mobile platform wars. One thing is certain: the mobile industry in the U.S. has an exciting year ahead!

Less than a month after the launch of Launchbox Digital Demo Day, Mpowerplayer, has announced their Series A funding round from New Atlantic Ventures, the Center for Innovative Technology GAP Fund, and LaunchBox Digital. The company enables mobile gamers to try games before they buy them, something Apple has been criticized of with their new iPhone applications.

Users of Mpowerplayer can access the games via the Mpowerplayer destination site as well as via a Facebook application. This is the first success story to come out of LaunchBox Digital and hopefully it is only the first of many. You can check out their Mobile Arcade Facebook application for a quick demo of the service. The company is still in the early stages but this first round of funding will hopefully give them the resources they need to make it to the next phase of development.

The company is at CTIA in San Francisco to let visitors demo the application. Stop by their booth if you are at CTIA. This is great news for the D.C. area to have yet another internet startup with a great team of advisors behind them.

Remember that thousand-dollar application that was for sale on the iPhone? Remember how it was shut down? Worry no more about meaningless applications being banned from mobile application directories with the soon to be released Android Market. This market place marks the emergence of the portable platforms, first released by Apple with the launch of their iPhone.

The first version of the Android Market may not have applications for sale but they soon will once a later version is released. How will applications be paid for? Not quite sure about that one yet but we can bet that Google is pushing hard for Google Checkout to serve as the backbone. I can hear geeks rejoicing as this platform is the first competitor to the iPhone directory positioning Google at the forefront of the mobile platform competition.

So where is Microsoft and Blackberry in this whole equation? Both companies have a massive reach but they appear to be falling behind when it comes to the latest technology. Almost overnight the mobile industry has been transformed from a battle of devices to a battle for the software running on this new wave of mobile platforms.

The Android Market appears to be the most open version of the market with no limits on the applications that can be displayed. This strategy mimics Facebook’s strategy when they first launched their platform last year which also resulted in a one of the largest shifts in developer attention ever. While I’m not sure how attractive the “open marketplace” is to most developers, there have been a ton of complaints about Apple’s restrictions in their directory.

Whether or not we’ll see a massive developer shift is still unknown but over the coming months Google and Apple are about to lead the battle of the mobile platforms of the future.

Today hi5 announced the launch of their mobile service. The social networking site is now available on mobile in 26 different languages. According to a release, users will be able to easily “send and receive messages, update status, view friends’ profiles, share photos, find out who is online and add new friends.” The service has been optimized to run on phones including the Apple iPhone, Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry, LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.

26 languages on a mobile service is significant as many competing social networks do not currently offer such a wide offering via mobile. hi5 is one of the top social networks globally but still ranks below Facebook and MySpace. The site is growing quickly though and appears to have a relatively large global reach with over 56 million unique visitors each month according to the release.

Mobile is going to increasingly become the center of discussion when it comes to the social web as mobile platforms become ubiquitous. Currently we are still in the early stage of the social/mobile revolution but competition is heating up. Today’s announcement by hi5 only emphasizes the ongoing race to the handset.

In contrast to a downloadable version of the site, the new hi5 service is available directly through mobile web browsers.

I spent some time poking around at the new LinkedIn iPhone application this morning and I was fairly impressed. The application is simple but useful. It enables you to browse through your contacts, view your contacts’ latest activity, search for contacts and update your status. Apparently status updates have become ubiquitous across all the social networks making tools like Ping.fm a necessity.

LinkedIn As the Simple CRM

One thing that I find interesting about this services is that it could easily compete with Salesforce. With a few additions, LinkedIn could be the CRM solution for those that don’t know what a CRM solution is. Let me explain. Imagine waking up in the morning to find out that you hadn’t followed up with a recent contact that you added in at least 6 months. Now would probably be a great time to follow-up so the LinkedIn application would automatically alert you.

Want to keep track of that conversation you just had? The call will be automatically noted next to the contact in LinkedIn and you can write a quick note about what you just discussed. While the application doesn’t currently provide these features, it’s something that has been needed for a long time and I have yet to find a simple yet useful contact management system that handles all of my contacts.

Race to My Contacts

The existing solutions are overly complex. One problem with LinkedIn is that when I add a contact, I don’t have a note about how I met that person. For the first time I have found the ability to do so (as “Edit Contact” is currently a beta feature on the site) but when I approve a contact it doesn’t automatically prompt me to enter those details as Facebook does.

I keep saying over and over that the social platform race is a race to my contact list but there still isn’t an effective solution! I currently subscribe to Salesforce.com but paying $55 a month seems like a lot of money to spend on something that isn’t extremely easy to use and offers 10,000 more features than I’ll ever use.

Conclusion

The new LinkedIn iPhone application shows the power of simplicity. It’s not necessary to build a feature heavy application to be successful. LinkedIn has only touched the surface of its potential and given its reach in the professional world, LinkedIn has the potential to become an amazing service that I can’t live without. Unfortunately for LinkedIn, all my contacts are now adding me on Facebook but that’s not to say I’m the average case.

This is a great step and it shows that the company is quick to adapt. Now the company needs to start rolling out new features so that I don’t need to continue relying on SalesForce.com as my overly robust contact management system. If you have an iPhone I highly recommend checking out the LinkedIn application.

In the middle of a phone call today, something dawned on me. Just as there is a “digital divide”, there may also be a “mobile divide” based on the types of phones people have access to. Hear me out on this one. While a small portion of us debate (as pictured in the video below) the battle between iPhone and Google’s soon to be released Android Phone, a much larger portion of individuals still have phones that they don’t access internet on. While there is most definitely an upcoming shift, the majority of users still do not use their phone for browsing the web.

According to a recent study by Nielsen, only 15.6 percent of users in the U.S. access the mobile web and this country leads among all other countries. While a large portion of mobile users will begin accessing the mobile web, the majority remain disconnected. While this doesn’t impact the mobile disconnected population the same way that the lack of internet access at home does, having access to all information on the go most definitely provides an advantage.

It’s no wonder then that four of the top ten websites accessed via a mobile device in May of this year were e-mail sites. Business in general has become mobile and as such I would suggest that those not accessing the web via their mobile device are at a competitive disadvantage. My guess is that most people that visit this site have viewed a website on their mobile device.

It’s very easy to become spoiled with technology. While traveling, you’ll find me immediately turn on my phone as my airplane touches down and I’ll read my email and get all the latest news. I’m not alone as I frequently observe my fellow flight passengers doing the same thing. While being “hyper-connected” can create more stress, it also can improve productivity.

While mobile web usage will surely grow dramatically over the coming years, I think that it’s important to recognize that the majority of the world still does not browse the web or use mobile web services via their mobile device.

The big news last night was that the live streaming video solution Qik.com released their iPhone 3G compatible application. The only problem? You need to hack your phone to make it work. Talk about a crappy solution. The reason that you need to hack your iPhone is that the iPhone 3G currently doesn’t provide video support. This is a huge problem with the phone. When I first heard that the iPhone was 3G, I was excited to be able to begin streaming video.

Soon enough I found out that this wasn’t possible. Then again, given the current battery life, I’d imagine the video streaming time to be exceptionally short. Soon enough video streaming from mobile will be ubiquitous in the United States. We are still at the early stages but my hopes were high when I saw that Qik was now offering video streaming on the iPhone 3G.

Unfortunately those hopes were dashed when I went to view how to install it. It could be months before this application is accessible without jail-breaking the iPhone. I don’t have experience in cracking the iPhone or installing “Cydia”, the application that’s necessary to install this app. Check out how the Qik application works below. Have you experimented with jail-breaking your iPhone?