At the end of his keynote on Monday at Sharepoint 2009, an interviewer asked Steve Ballmer about social computing. He recounted a story about a friend of his, a CEO for a Fortune 50 company. Ballmer said the guy is adamant in his opposition to social computing in his company. But if he had assurances that corporate data would be safe, then it might be a different story.SponsorIt was an interesting end to Ballmer's keynote. It was all Ballmer, yelling, practically, at the crowd to make his point about the ways the social web will make it into the enterprise. Ballmer sounded like a guy rallying his troops. He kissed his fingers to his lips as if he were talking about a masterpiece. He then told the audience that after the conference they will be equipped to tell the Sharepoint story. And they will be the ones who bring social computing into the enterprise.This may seem like arrogance to some but we are further convinced that Ballmer's remarks do reflect the monumental fears that top management has about social services like Twitter and Facebook. But it is also important to look at what Ballmer says and temper it with the reality of the market.Ballmer said that Sharepoint provides the path for social computing in the enterprise. It provides security, information management and compliance along with social features that allow people to communicate in the way they want.For many steeped in the social web, it's clear that the Sharepoint 2010 features look pretty basic. But for the enterprise user, the features may be just right. For instance, Sharepoint 2010 uses a ribbon interface, which is quite familiar to most people who work in the corporate world.Simple things do matter. People may now upload pictures from their computers to a Sharepoint site and then re-size the image. Sharepoint 2010 includes an activity stream for each user. Team sites are now wiki-oriented. Users may use wiki editing commands. Search has been beefed up for people to find experts faster. For instance, if you are looking for a person with product sales experience, you can do a search with results showing the person's profile, which shows notes, ratings and their activities.Tagging is unified in Sharepoint. For example, in a profile you may see the tags that are associated with person who appears in your search results.These are all fairly basic social features that are old-school to many people. But in many ways these features are just right for the mass market enterprise user. Plus, there are some capabilities to make the platform compelling. These include the ability to make mashups.We know there are a host of other factors that will come into play and provide some advantage to the companies that provide social technologies. But the reality is that many of these smaller companies are working in Sharepoint to provide an additional social layer. NewsGator made an announcement today about its integration. Jive Software, which today announced a new $12 million in funding, integrates, too.These companies are important to social computing in the enterprise. But it will be the big players that forge the path. The major force is still Microsoft with Ballmer leading the way.Discuss

  In a few weeks moviegoers will flock to Philip Seymour Hoffman's latest rock ensemble flick Pirate Radio. A fictional period comedy about an illegal station in the North Sea, the film embodies the same anti-authoritarian sentiments that Gen X and Y audiences have grown to love. Jelli.net, a crowdsourced radio station with a web-based interface, has found a way to democratize sound waves and captivate that same 18-35-year-old audience. The Bay Area company launched in June allowing users to access a Digg-likeinterface and vote up and down realtime FM radio during CBS' Live 105 KITS' Sunday programming. As of this evening the company has penned a national deal with 450 Triton Digital Media radio stations and a distribution deal with Australian broadcaster Austereo. SponsorSays Jelli's CEO Mike Dougherty, "What makes this different than request radio is that while program directors set up the broadcast sandbox, there is no actual middle man between a request and radio play." According to Dougherty, Jelli's voting platform directly informs programming servers sitting at the radio station's transmission tower. In other words, if the community decides to vote up a War of the Worlds-style radio scenario, it's entirely possible to do so. As of today, the community now has access to a nationwide network of stations, and in a few months time, they'll also have access to stations in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne. Rather than kowtowing to advertisers and labels, programming is directly affected by the likes and dislikes of the Jelli community. According to Dougherty, on average two tracks are voted off the air per hour. Just as music fans vote their favorite songs onto the radio, they can also "bomb" them down into the lower echelons of Jelli's charts. In some cases waring factions of fans have rallied to take over the airwaves, and in other cases programming revolves around a specific theme. Jelli's chat feature makes it possible to sway the music mob. In the past, community music sites have struggled to increase their catalogues due to the balancing act they must maintain between freemium music models and major label licensing fees. With Jelli, the community gets the music they want via streaming web service or traditional radio, and stations continue to tackle the ad placement and legal work. With radio transmission towers constantly connected to the cloud, Dougherty believes that there is a world of opportunity to pull in Facebook applications, mobile interfaces and additional levels of a web-based feedback loops. For developers, stations and advertisers, this cloud-based data means the difference between waiting on a quarterly

  You could write a novel in binary, but it's hard enough getting people to pay attention to your words in plain English. Futurists and programmers like Paul Graham, Eric S. Raymondand Ray Kurzweilmay be prolific thinkers, but if they hadn't bothered to write down their ideas, many of us would have never found them. All of us have stories to tell, and Fast Penciloffers us a chance to format and publish them. SponsorFirst launched mid-summer, Fast Pencil began as a basic outline tool for novelists and has since added a number of cool project templates. In addition to being able to create novels using the template tool, members can also add memoirs, photography, recipes, children's stories, coloring book pages and blog posts. Users can upload a completed PDF, write directly into the template or import blog posts and images. From there, you can drag and drop your content into editable chapters and preview PDFs of your work. One of the great features of this service is that you can contact your friends when you've updated your content. This means that rather than waiting on feedback, you can invite editors and reviewers through FastPencil, Facebook and Twitter. When you're ready to publish, you can create a print copy, PDF, Kindle-formatted book and DRM-free e-publication. If you'd just like to save the book as a PDF for yourself, that's free; however, you're required to purchase a premium package if you'd like to publish it to the FastPencil marketplace, Amazon or Barnes &Nobel. Packages range from $10 to $100, depending on the quantity and format of your book. A complete list of pricing is available here. Users can also purchase

  On this day 30 years ago, Dan Bricklin'sVisiCalc spreadsheet program changed the way people thought about computers and how they applied to business.Bricklin remains a leader in the field and on this anniversary date is seeing his SocialCalctechnology come out of beta and become a fully developed product from Socialtext, the company he has collaborated with since 2006.SponsorThe news coincides with the Microsoft announcement that Sharepoint 2010 provides the the capability to co-edit Excel documents.SocialCalc is a social spreadsheet designed for distributed teams. Typically, companies using Excel have had to save their versions and email the document to other members of the team. Each time an update is made, a new version of the document is created.SocialCalc provides the ability for users to collaborate across a number of spreadsheets. Users may do this in conjunction with the wiki-based Socialtext Workspace, and Socialtext Signals, their microblogging platform.Sharepoint will offer a co-editing feature through its integration with Office 2010. In a demo from the Sharepoint conference in Las Vegas, the Microsoft team showed how multiple people can edit an Excel document simultaneously. It is still not entirely clear how rich this feature set is in comparison to products from Google, eXpressoand EditGrid. Both eXpresso and EditGrid are stand alone applications.In comparison, Google's spreadsheet product is as close as it gets to the Socialtext offering but lacks SocialCalc's ability to keep track of revision histories.Bernard Lunnwrote last week that Google is missing the boat by not focusing on the spreadsheet market. Microsoft has not put tremendous energies into making its Excel spreadsheets more collaborative but it appears it is also a notch behind what Socialtext offers.According to Socialtext, SocialCalc is immediately available for trial and for current customers in the October Appliance release. It costs $3 per user per month. New customers who purchase the full Socialtext platform in 2009 get SocialCalc without charge for 2010. Current customers that participated in the beta program get SocialCalc without charge for 2009.Discuss

  This past weekend, public media enthusiasts, developers, and staffers from around the country met in Washington, D.C. for the first Public Media Camp. I was there on behalf of the Public Radio Exchange (PRX.org), where I produce EconomyStory.org, one of several new projects that fits neatly into public media's latest forays online.While I'm willing to admit here that I went to yearbook camp and computer camp as a kid, this one might take the cake as far as camps that don't include S'mores and Kumbaya go.Sponsor"Both NPR and PBS have very loyal and talented fans who are interested in new ways to be involved in our work," Andy Carvin, senior strategist at NPR's social media desk told us, "and the Internet is making it easier than ever for new types of collaboration to take place, from citizen journalism initiatives to volunteers developing iPhone apps for stations."The organizers hope this was the start of a series of "unconferences" for public media outlets around the country, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Public Media Campis the latest in a slew of events and projects pushing the public media agenda forward on the Web.Recently, NPR gathered its executives, including CEO Vivian Schiller, in San Francisco to meet with Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs and funders. The Columbia Journalism Reviewreportedon the conference, called NPR Digital Think In. And the ongoing Engageproject at PBS, funded by the Knight Foundation, is creating social media tools for PBS stations and producers, such as a chat series with PBS personalities and a map showcasing projects at stations around the country."In many communities, public broadcasters are among the few news outlets that are weathering the financial crisis intact. As more news outlets close due to economic pressures, our public service mission is going to be more important than ever, creating a powerful opportunity to provide accountability journalism at both the local and national level," Carvin says.Having been a part of many of these projects, I'm excited to see the changes that have happened in the public media sphere online, from the This American Life/Planet Moneycollaboration taking on a life of its own, to CPB 2008's collection of election projects like Video Your Voteand Twitter VoteReport.Some of the most exciting projects happening in public media include:Local Aggregation SitesThe Economy Projectat the University of Missouri and Public Media Texasare two new local public media sites that are aggregating stories using blogging software and encouraging public participation in the news conversation at the local level. WBUR's Commonhealthblog covers health care issues in Massachusetts by tapping doctors, lawmakers and citizens to help report. And WNYC's Brian Lehrer show is crowdsourcing "Uncommon Economic Indicators" - from the price of pizza to for-rent signs.Economy CoverageCovering the economy is a major focus of public media this year. Station and producer projects are drawing a line between local and national coverage in new ways. EconomyStory.orgaims to collect these stories and feature exciting new projects from around the country, and EconomyBeat.orgfeatures user-generated content about the economy.PBS NewsHour's Patchwork Nation mapincorporates statistics and stories from 12 types of communities around the country and compares how they are coping with various economic issues.Facing the Mortgage Crisisasks users to share their experiences in dealing with foreclosure and other recent real-estate woes, as well as provides community resources to help cope. A variety of public stations nationwide are involved in this project at a local level.NPR's Social Media Guidelines for ReportersThis list, released last week, includes concerns about expressing political views online and how reporters should present themselves on Twitter and Facebook. It's a great starting point for other organizations concerned about similar issues. Carvin says that while NPR reporters are using online tools more and more, it still can be a challenge."The one thing I never do is show up and insist that they use a particular tool simply because lots of other people are using it," he says. "People are often resistant to learning new tools simply because they don't seem relevant to them, so you need to figure out with them what may or may not be relevant."Guest author: Laura Hertzfeld is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles. She has worked in public media in several capacities, including her current role as managing editor of EconomyStory.org, a Public Radio Exchange (PRX.org) project aggregating public media coverage of the economy. She previously produced PBS.org's coverage of the 2008 presidential election.Discuss

  At our ReadWrite Real-Time Web Summit in Mountain View last week, we came across Stinky Teddy, a new real-time meta-search engine developed by David Hardtke. Before starting this project, Hradtke worked as a physicist at the University of California Berkeley Space Sciences Lab. Hardtke namedhis new project after his daughter's "trusted (and abused) stuffed bear." Stinky Teddy, which Hardtke describes as "real-time gossip powered metasearch," combines search results from Bing, Yahoo, VideoSurf, Twitter and Collecta and reshuffles the search results to focus on topics that are trending right now.SponsorBefore the rise of Google, meta-search engines like Dogpileand MetaCrawlerwere pretty popular, though no meta-search engines have been able to garner any market-share since. Stinky Teddy's odd name probably won't help the company in the long run, but this search engine reinvents meta-search for the real-time web. The assumption behind Stinky Teddy is that searchers are probably interested in the topics that are buzzing right now. Stinky Teddy gathers search results from multiple sources and then uses real-time trends as a signal to rearrange results according to what it decides is most relevant at that moment.In our tests, Stinky Teddy performed pretty well, especially when we searched for politicians and celebrities. The only real disappointment was that the videos from Videosurf- which we like a lot as a video search engine - were often rather old. Sometimes, old search results also slipped into the news search. You can, however, filter results according to the type of source, so that Stinky Teddy displays only items from news sources, for example, or from real-time sources like Collectaand Twitter.Bridging the Gap With Meta-SearchWe have seen quite a few real-time search engines like OneRiot, Faroo, and Collectarecently, but it seems that every time the search engine market hits on a new concept, meta-search engines like Stinky Teddy come in to bridge the gap between existing products and the new generation of search engines.In its current state, Stinky Teddy is definitely worth a look. It's still in its early days, and Hardtke is still actively tweaking the algorithms in the background; but the variety of sources make it a worthwhile alternative to other real-time search engines.Discuss

  Spring Design, a relatively unknown hardware design company, just announced that it will enter the eBook market with a dual-screen eReader based on the Android operating system. This device, the 'Alex,' will combine a 6-inch eInk display with a 3.5-inch color LCD touchscreen. According to Spring Design's press release, the company will use an 'enhanced' version of the Android OS that has been optimized to facilitate the integration between the two screens. Spring Design plans to release this device later this year.SponsorHardwareThe dual-screen concept is definitely interesting and somewhat reminiscent of the rumoredBarnes &Noble-branded eReader that is scheduled to be announced tomorrow. For now, Spring Design's press release remains quiet about any content partnerships. Even though the company says that the device will be able to connect to 3G, EVDO/CDMA and GSM networks, Spring Design doesn't appear to be ready to announce any partnerships there either.Multimedia BooksMaybe the most interesting aspect of the device is that the company plans to give developers and publishers the ability to enhance the text that appears in the eInk screen with multimedia content on the LCD screen. This could open up a lot of new avenues for publishers, but at the same time, we have to wonder how many publishers would be willing to develop new content for this device. Creating an eBook version of a manuscript is easy, but adding additional content to this text could quickly become a costly undertaking.Color Us SkepticalGiven how vague the details are, we remain skeptical about this device until we get more details. For now, all we know is that it will run Android, feature two screens and have an SD card slot, and that users will be able to cache Web content on the device and then display it on the eInk screen.We also can't help but look at the device and think that it would be rather unwieldy to use. It is definitely excitingto see that somebody is using Android to develop an eReader, but this device seems to forgo usability for novelty. While we are all looking forward to color eInk displays, this device looks like an odd chimerathat is meant to bridge the gap between these two generations. In the long run, this concept probably doesn't have much of a future. Discuss

  Loopt, makers of a popular mobile social networking application of the same name, is introducing a new iPhone application today called Loopt Mix. Where their original app focuses on connecting you with your friends while you're out and about, Loopt Mix is more about introducing you to "the people you wish you knew." In other words, "people" like that attractive person giving you eye from the other end of the bar. SponsorThe new application is actually a spin-off of Loopt's "Mix" feature, which lets you browse the Loopt profiles of those around you within its original mobile social networking application. Now Mix is its very own app - a change that could attract a whole new user base looking to do a little more than just basic "networking." Although the company is not specifically marketing Mix as a dating application, it's clearly designed for mobile singles because - let's face it - who else would want to browse the photos and profiles of nearby folks and strike up IM-based conversations with those who look interesting? If that's not about dating, then it's just borderline creepy. While Loopt Mix is not the first iPhone-based dating application - others like DatingDNAand Skouthave beaten them to the punch - the company may have a leg up on their competition already, thanks to brand recognition alone. That's because Loopt was featured in one of the many iPhone TV commercialslast year as a great way to stay in touch with friends. Given widespread exposure like that, Loopt is already well known beyond the early adopter set. Loopt Mix FeaturesLike its competitors, Loopt Mix lets you tap into the iPhone's location-based features to see which other Loopt Mix members are nearby. You can browse their profiles, view and post photos and status messages, and start chat sessions - all of which is par for the course with mobile dating apps these days. In fact, there's nothing all that revolutionary about Mix's feature set, except perhaps for its ability to send you real-time push notifications - something that a few other social networking apps, Facebook included, have yet to adopt. In Loopt Mix, the push notifications work with the app's built-in chat functionality, so you're notified when and if someone responds to you, without you having to sit there looking uncool while constantly reloading the page or staring at a blank chat window. It's also worth mentioning that you don't have to be out on the town to take advantage of Loopt Mix. Since it simply locates people near you, you could use this anywhere - even in your own home - to find and connect to other interesting people. However, should you ever want to go offline, you and the other person would have to make arrangements to meet somewhere... just as you would on a "real" dating website like Match.com or eHarmony. The only difference with Loopt Mix is that, unlike traditional dating sites, the app is completely free. That, too, could help Mix grow - especially in this tough economy, where finding love for a fee is a luxury many can no longer afford. Discuss

  The new FTC guidelines for disclosure by bloggershave stirred up some anger among bloggers accustomed to getting free stuff and blogging about it without the heavy hand of governmental Big Brother yadda yadda - oh, you can finish the sentence yourself.SponsorI can respect that it might get people's backs up to suggest that their integrity is for sale, especially for such low prices. (Although, the last time I checked the exchange rate, integrity was down sharply against the dollar... and against the free chewing gum.) Then again, I've seen enough obviously feigned enthusiasm in some "reviews" to convince me that at least a few bloggers are happy to rent their voices - and readers - to any marketing department with a gift card and blogger outreach program.All easy enough for me to say, of course; I have a job and make a pretty good living (touch wood). I can imagine that I might be tempted to modify my views if money was short and a blog review could put another meal on the table for my kids. Then again, for every blogger outthere who's struggling to make ends meet, there are countless more blog readers - the people the marketers are really trying to reach. Don't they deserve to know about the relationship between product and blogger when they assess what they're reading?I'm a fan of disclosure, and while I haven't examined the FTC guidelines in detail, I support the idea in principle.But it's interesting that the FTC went after bloggers rather than, say, entertainment writers who don't mention the expensive junkets that movie studios take them on. A blogger who has to disclose that she or he received a free package of hot dog weiners has every right to feel burned after dropping fifty bucks to take the family to the latest "THRILLING!" "FANTASTIC!" "SURE-FIRE WINNER!"More Noise to Signal.Discuss

  New from Sweb Apps, the company whose online service lets anyone create their own iPhone application - no coding required - is Sweb Apps 2.0, the next generation of the company's app builder product. Among a handful of new features, including a real-time WYSIWYG-style landing page builder and YouTube integration, is the ability to create an iPhone-based store where you can sell inventory within your app and take payments via PayPal. SponsorSweb Appsis an interesting company to watch because it's one of the first to democratize the iPhone app-building business by taking the complexity of coding out of the equation. With their service, anyone can create their own application in as little as five minutes. Of course, you aren't necessarily designing any masterpieces with this sort of click-to-build process, but it provides an easy - if a bit simplistic - way for small to medium-sized businesses to establish a presence in the iTunes App Store. Real-Time View of App CreationWith the next generation of the product, Sweb Apps 2.0, some of the original concerns about the -well, let's say it- rather boring user interface of the Sweb-built apps have begun to be addressed. Whereas before you could only customize the background color and upload your own buttons, today you can customize the background to be an image instead. And if you don't have one of your own, Sweb Apps provides an online library of images to choose from. That's a step in the right direction, even if some of the backgrounds are reminiscent of early GeoCities Web pages or Windows 98 wallpapers... after all, you have to crawl before you can run. As you build your app's landing page, you're provided with a real-time view of your app in progress, which makes it much easier to tell whether your images, buttons and colors look good together or not. That's a handy feature for SMB owners, who may be creating their app on their own without the aid of a professional designer. The app builder also uses drag-and-drop functionality to make the process even more painless for the inexperienced end user. Mobile StorefrontsHowever, one of the most interesting developments in the 2.0 version of Sweb Apps' online service is the new "store" functionality. Now, as easy as it is to build an app, you can essentially build a mobile storefront for your business. This feature, still in beta, allows you to categorize, sub-categorize, itemize and write descriptions for your products. You can manage and maintain your inventory through Sweb's CMS, and your mobile customers can "check out" via the included PayPal integration. Sweb Apps tells us that they envision this sort of feature being used by restaurants, boutiques and small retailers. That's easy to imagine. For example: wish you had picked up a t-shirt from that seafood place where you dined on vacation? In theory, you could now, even if you were halfway home, thanks to these new mobile storefronts. In a way, the mobile stores are even better than having the same functionality via an online store on the "real" Web, mainly because not everyone brings their laptop around with them 24/7. But their iPhones? People don't leave home without them. And More...Other features being introduced today include podcasts, audio streams and YouTube integration, all of which streams audio or video within the app itself, as opposed to launching an external program such as the iPhone's own built-in YouTube app. Also new is the ability for users to manage multiple applications from one account.Sweb Apps says they've seen good results since their August 2009 launch, with a 400% increase in sales, but won't share actual numbers. That doesn't really tell us much about the service's adoption by the SMB market. Since the company isn't touting any high-profile clients or case studies in their PR though, we have to imagine that they're flying a bit under the radar on the business front at this point. Still, it's very early in the game, and services like this can take a while to catch on and gain popularity.The pricing for Sweb Apps remains the same despite the new features. The company offers four-, six- and eight-button packages, which all include a one-time set-up fee of $50 per button. Then there is a $25 monthly hosting fee applied to every application going forward.Discuss

  On the eve of Microsoft's Sharepoint conferencein Las Vegas, Google is launching the international phase of an advertising campaign that is the largest ever for its push into the enterpriseand one of the most extensive in the company's history.The "Gone Google" campaign is significant in a number of ways.Sharepoint is one of Microsoft's crown jewels. It's a huge business. The technology generates a cool $1 billion in revenues. The technology is at the heart of Microsoft's strategy to remain king of the enterprise. Steve Ballmer says Sharepoint will surpass 1 million developers in the next year.SponsorSteve Ballmer is banking on customers making major investments in Sharepoint 2010. With the upgrade, customers face a host of new IT expenses.For example, Sharepoint 2010 requires upgrading from 32-bit to 64-bit technology on all servers. Office 2007 will run on Sharepoint 2010 but Microsoft is recommending investments in Office 2010 for richer integration. Office 2003 users will need to upgrade to Office 2007 to even run Sharepoint 2010.Google App services require no IT environment to manage, no expensive software upgrades and no new server purchases. That's enticing for any sized business.The Google campaign highlights why the Microsoft model may be slipping a bit. Companies are questioning if they need to make such major investments in Microsoft technology. For its part, Google has more than 2 million businesses on Google Apps, representing 20 million users. Google is expanding its Google Apps service to the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Japan, Australia and Singapore. Clients include Motorola, New York Life and Konica Minolta.The "Gone Google" campaign is a continuation of the roll-out that Google did over the summer. It features changing messages from businesses that have switched to Google Apps, Google Search Appliance and services such asGoogle Postini, their hosted security and archiving service.The campaign is now running across the globe. With the launch, Google released a montage video. We find this interesting. If nothing else, YouTube offers Google a great way to promote its own products.Google has not slowed down with its service offering. In September, Google announced an application program interface (API) for its Google Sitestechnology, effectively providing users with a way to import and export apps from Microsoft SharePoint sites. Google Waveis a collaboration platform. It has received mixed reviews; its effectiveness in the enterprise still too soon to tell.Google and many others see in Microsoft a giant that can be slow and at times uneasy in how it steps through the market. With each step, they face a community network of micro-sized businesses that are proving formidable with their best-in-breed technologies.It's a big week for Microsoft. Sharepoint is at a juncture. With Google in such an aggressive mode, Microsoft will have to move faster with its own product development and convince its customers that what it provides is still the best choice for the enterprise.Discuss

  At the ReadWrite Real-Time Web Summit last Thursday, Jason Shellen, a former Google engineerand current Thing LabsCEO, sat down to talk with us about filtration and discovery on the real-time web.One of the greatest problems of this environment is said to be the capacity for information overload. At a Summit session, representatives of some of the most "filter-geeky" real-time startups debated the methods and merits of parsing data from the real-time web. Shellen's was one of the most authoritative voices in the session, and his one-on-one insights are well worth listening to.SponsorDiscuss

  Quite a bit ahead of schedule, Wolfram Alpha's iPhone appappeared in the iTunes App Store today. The app, which costs $49.99, gives users full access to Wolfram Alpha's capabilities and greatly improves on the speed and ergonomics of Wolfram Alpha's mobile site. The company is targeting this app at students and professionals and marketing it as a replacement for stand-alone graphing calculators, which is clearly reflected in the price.SponsorDual KeyboardsOne of the most interesting feature of the app, besides the ability to quickly access all of the power that Wolfram Alpha now offers, is the fact that the company has found a way to make inputing queries very easy. Instead of a single keyboard at the bottom of the screen, the app actually displays two keyboards - one for numbers and symbols, and a regular QWERTY keyboard at the bottom of the screen. Given the nature of a typical query for Alpha, this makes perfect sense and we hope that others will follow Alpha's lead here.A Web-Connected Graphing Calculator, But With Some LimitationsIt's important to note that the app only works when a user is connected to the Internet. This could be a deal-breaker for some, but then, the app store already offers plentyof basic graphing calculators for those times when you don't have Internet access. Thanks to its vast database of chemical compounds, nutritional data, geographical information, financial data, and its ability to solve pretty much any math problem that a high school or college student will ever encounter, the app can do a lot more than any current graphing calculator can offer.For some students, though, the problem could be that some teachers won't allow them to bring a full-blown Internet-capable device like the iPhone or an iPod touch into an exam. In addition, it's also important to note that the Wolfram Alpha doesn't offer the ability to write programsinside the app, though maybe somebody else will build an app that can do this based on Alpha'snewly released API.It's also important to remember that Alpha isn't as easy to use as Google. Alpha, and, by extension, the app, can be rather strict about how you structure a query, for example. If you don't capitalize a chemical formula, the app won't know what to do with these symbols. While Google has virtually no learning curve, Alpha works best if you invest some time into exploring the intricacies of how to structure queries. To help you along the way, the app features a demo video, lots of example queries, and an FAQ section.Native App Offers a Bit More Than the Web Service, But Is That Enough to Justify the High Price?In its press materials, the Wolfram Alpha team stresses that the app offers a number of features that the web app can't currently offer. The app can now make assumptions based on your location, for example. Wolfram also has added quite a few features that make using the app easier than using the web service. You can easily bookmark queries and the app keeps a running list of recent searches available as well. In addition, you can easily email queries or share them on Twitter.Is $50 Too Much?At $49.99, there can be no doubt that Wolfram Research is pricing the app at the higher end of the spectrum. A spokesperson for Wolfram Alpha told us that the company wants to target the app at "serious users, and is priced as such." The team is clearly aware that this price could be controversial, especially given that the mobile web site offers a similar interface, though without the ergonomic benefits of the native app. In addition, Wolfram tells us that the team wants to use this price to make a statement about the "non-trivial nature" of Wolfram Alpha's capabilities. While the company plans to offer regular discounts and sales, we can't help but wonder if the price isn't a bit too high. At $9.99 or even $19.99, the app would be more of an impulse buy, while now, even though it obviously offers more features than a user would ever expect from a high-priced hardware graphing calculator which would generally retail for more than $100. VerdictWolfram Alpha launched to so much hype that a backlash was inevitable when it finally launched. As Schoeller Porter, the product manager for the iPhone app, notes, the company is also launching this app "as an opportunity to highlight how far the system has come since launch." Indeed, the Wolfram Alpha team continuesto add new data sources and new ways to query them, making the service more useful with every new dataset it adds.The high price will probably keep quite a few potential users from downloading the app, however. While we understand the company's rational behind this high price, users generally consider a $10 app to be a 'premium' product. $49.99 is a hefty price for this app, especially considering that the majority of features is available through the web service. If you are a student or engineer who really needs these features, though, the app is worth a look, but we recommend you try the web service and see how it works for the kinds of queries you would enter before you spend $50, especially given that the company will surely offer discounts or bring the base price down at some point.Discuss

  Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to explore the latest Web technology products and trends. We're fortunate to have a great group of sponsors who support this goal. So, once a week, we write a post about them; about who they are, what they do, and what they've been up to lately. Please pay them a visit or tweet them a "Thank you" (see link below each sponsor) to show your appreciation for their sponsorship of this site. You can also start following some or all of our sponsors on Twitter with a few clicks on this TweepML page.Interested in being a ReadWriteWeb sponsor?ReadWriteWeb is one of the most popular blogs in the world and is read by a sophisticated audience of thought leaders and decision-makers. We have several innovative new features in our sponsor packages that we'd love to tell you about. Email our COO Bernard Lunnfor all the details.SponsorReady to learn more about the smart companies that support this site you love to read? Read on...Skip to info about:Mashery: API management services |Rackspace: cloud computing experts |Aplus.net: Web hosting |Crowd Science: demographic data |Hakia: semantic search |Domain.ME: .me domain registrar |Codero: Managed hosting |Groupsite: Social collaboration |TechSmith: Screen recording |NaviSite: Managed hosting |Verio: Small business hosting |PayPal: Online payments |Media Temple and SixApart: our hosts and blogging softwareCrowd ScienceCrowd Sciencegives online publishers reports on the demographics and attitudes of their audience. We at ReadWriteWeb have signed up to this new service, because demographic data is something we've struggled to get in the past. It's important for any online business to know their audience, so Crowd Science is a welcome addition to the stats armory that most of us in the Internet biz use.Sign upto get demographic data from Crowd Science.Thank Crowd Science on Twitterfor making ReadWriteWeb possible.MasheryMasheryis a platform for Web services, allowing companies to manage their APIs using Mashery's expertise. At the "Business of APIs" conference, Mashery CEO Oren Michels explained to the audiencethat while APIs are a technology, their use is a business decision. He went on to say that Mashery has helped customers such as WhitePages.com, Thumbplay, Compete.com, and Calais. Check out the white paper "Five steps to scaling your business development using Web services" to discover how you can use APIs for your business.You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.Thank Mashery on Twitterfor making ReadWriteWeb possible.RackspaceRackspaceis one of the world's largest hosting providers, but it's also competing in the cloud computing arena. Rackspace Cloud Hosting offers a suite of services which combines a scalable web and application hosting platform (Cloud Sites) with a cloud storage solution (Cloud Files) and on demand server instances (Cloud Servers). The addition of SliceHosta popular cloud computing and hosting provider and JungleDisk, a favorite online backup servicethat supports Cloud files, makes the Rackspace Clouda powerful cloud hosting solution.Explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions.Thank Rackspace on Twitterfor making ReadWriteWeb possible.Aplus.netAplus.netoffers a variety of services relating to Web hosting, including shared hosting, Web design, marketing and online advertising services, search engine optimization, e-commerce solutions, and domain registration.You can register for Aplus.net here.Thank Aplus.net on Twitterfor making ReadWriteWeb possible.HakiaHakiais a semantic search engine. It delivers a new search experience based on focus, clarity, and credibility. You can compare Hakia to Google and Bing here.Hakia currently powersthe contextual advertising link engine at ReadWriteWebwith its semantic advertising module, Contexa. Contexa provides page-level contextual analysis (in this case, of blog posts) on the fly and outputs keywords that represent the meaning of the page along with their meaning score. The Contexa system then matches ReadWriteWeb sponsors' requirements with the contextual representation of the page to provide relevant ads for readers. Contexa is offered as a service and can be integrated into any ad system.Learn more about Contexa.Thank Hakia on Twitterfor making ReadWriteWeb possible.Domain.ME.Meis a true phenomenon among TLDs. With its unforgettable meaning and limitless word combination possibilities, .Me gives a truly personal tone to your domain name. If you are looking for a name that speaks for itself .Me is your best choice. Let .Me speak for your online business or personal blog..Me potential is enormous and it simply asks for you to be creative and coin the name that suits you best. If you have a great, original idea for a domain name, register .Me before it's taken. To check out other ideas, explore the world of .Me.Thank Domain.ME on Twitterfor making ReadWriteWeb possible.CoderoCoderois a former division of Aplus.net. Codero became a separate entity focusing on dedicated and managed hosting solutions after the acquisition of Aplus.net's shared hosting, web design, and domain registration services by Hostopia. "Codero" stands for collaboration, engagement, focus, reliability, and flexibility. It means a more secure computing experience for email, shopping, and data transfer.Codero is a dedicated and managed hosting company focused on the real needs of today's small and mid-sized businesses. The company believes in supporting robust websites, storefronts and online communities that will grow and adapt.GroupsiteGroupsite.comis a self-serve platform for creating social collaboration communities called Groupsites. Groupsites combine the most useful features of social networking and collaboration tools enabling groups large and small to communicate, share and network. Groupsites are currently in use by more than 30,000 groups as user communities, intranets, member communities, team workgroups and social networks. Each Groupsite can be branded and customized and includes discussion forums, calendaring, file sharing, member profiles (professional or social), activity feeds and full-featured sub-groups among other group-centric features.Sign up and createa free Groupsite in minutes.Thank Groupsite on Twitterfor making ReadWriteWeb possible.TechSmithFounded in 1987, TechSmithis the world's leading provider of screen capture and recording software for individual and professional use. People use its products to capture content from their screens in ways that help them communicate more clearly, create engaging presentations for diverse audiences, and analyze product usability and customer experience.With products localized into five languages and a distribution network of resellers in more than 30 countries, TechSmith's global reach is continually expanding.Thank TechSmith on Twitterfor making ReadWriteWeb possible.NaviSiteNaviSiteis a leading provider of enterprise hosting and application services for a diverse client base. Leveraging a diverse network of 16 enterprise-class data centers across the US and UK, NaviSite offers a predictable technology environment and a complete suite of infrastructure and application solutions.NaviSite's product and service offerings include:Vast custom application development capabilities, including SOA solutions, eCommerce, and Web 2.0 applications.Full stack of enterprise hosting services for mid-market companies, including shared, dedicated, and complex hosting, SaaS enablement, and colocation.Best in class managed hosting, such as virtualization and utility computing.Thank NaviSite on Twitterfor making ReadWriteWeb possible.VerioVeriois the recognized industry leader in delivering online business solutions to SMBs worldwide. Distributed through its network of OEM and viaVerio channel partners, Verio's solutions provide web hosting, application hosting and SaaS applications that enable SMBs to drive online success.Verio has emerged as the preeminent provider of web hosting services worldwide. In 2000, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications, one of the largest companies in the world and supports its operations through NTTs highly reliable and scalable Global IP Network. Through this network, customers and partners can extend their global reach with access to business solutions around the globe and in more than 200 countries.Today, Verio leverages its financial strength and stability to support its growing customer base, extend its product leadership and expand its global footprint for partners worldwide.Thank Verio on Twitterfor making ReadWriteWeb possible.PayPalPayPalis a safe, easy way to pay and get paid online. The service allows anyone to pay in any way they prefer, including through credit cards, bank accounts, buyer credit or account balances, without sharing financial information.PayPal has quickly become a global leader in online payment solutions with more than 153 million accounts worldwide. Available in 190 markets and 18 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce by making payments possible across different locations, currencies, and languages.Thank PayPal on Twitterfor making ReadWriteWeb possible.Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging SoftwareReadWriteWebis hosted by Media Templeand is published using SixApart's Movable Type.If you've ever wonderedwhat ReadWriteWeb looks like behind the scenes, or if you've never seen the Movable Type publishing interface - that's it on the left. We recently upgraded to MT 4.23, which is the latest version. We got onto this release as soon as it was available - in fact our contacts at Six Apart emailed the actual codeto us before it was up on their website. That's customer service for you!Thank Media Templeand SixAparton Twitter for making ReadWriteWeb possible.The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer.Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb's?Drop us a lineand let's talk.Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!Discuss