Today, Randall Stross takes apart Tesla Motors‘ request for a $400m government loan in an illogical, factually incorrect editorial that screams of a “Kill The Affluent!” ethos that spreads every time the market crashes. Putting aside the issue of bailouts–which many of you know I’m against–let’s look at Stross’ reasoning.

According to Stross, Tesla shouldn’t get a *loan* because:

1. According to the title: “Only the Rich Can Afford It.”

2. Battery pack life isn’t moving fast enough: “But 8 percent, compounded, would bring too few benefits, too late to Tesla: it would take nine years to halve the price of its battery pack.”

3. Randy says there is no upside to the loan: “Can you conceive any way that federal dollars could be put at greater risk — and for no equity in return, keep in mind — to benefit fewer people?”

4. Stross says the Tesla isn’t ready for prime time: “its all-electric technology remains woefully immature and don’t-even-ask expensive” and “The Roadster is not much more than a functioning concept car that sells for $109,000.”

These points are all, well, somewhere between short-sighted and outright false, leading me to think that Randy’s big problem with a *loan* to Tesla is that he needs to write a piece that appeals to the short-term sentiment of the country right now (”damn the billionaires!”) rather than one that pursues the actual truth. Car technology needs to advance, and the best place for that to happen in in Silicon Valley. If the government is going to give loans to any car companies, it should be the ones that have the best chance of successfully innovating, not the losers who haven’t competed for decades.

So, let’s take a moment to fisk* Randy’s story:

1. “Only the Rich Can Afford It. Should Taxpayers Back It?”

—————————

Yes Randy, the first version of technology tends to be expensive. Personal computers used to cost $5,000, flat-panel TVs were $10,000 and–gasp–the first decade’s worth of solar panels were not worth the price. You’re a *technology* journalist at the New York Times. You understand all too well that expensive technology becomes commodity technology within 10 to 20 years of its inception.

Personal computers now start at $200. Of course the first version of an all-electric sports car is going to be expensive.

2. Battery pack life isn’t moving fast enough: “eight percent, compounded, would bring too few benefits, too late to Tesla: it would take nine years to halve the price of its battery pack.”

—————————

Really?

If Tesla cuts the cost of the battery pack in half over the next nine years, they will have two choices: take about $20,000 off the price of the car or double the range to 500 miles. You correctly point out that Tesla over-did the battery range, as most folks are commuting way less than 100 miles a day. Ever wonder why they did this? Well, skeptics are obsessed with the limited range, and Tesla must fight the public perception that an electric car is not viable. You’re, of course, exacerbating this problem with your column today–something you should really think long and hard about, since you’re so wrong and you have such a big platform.

You, in fact, could be in the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car Part Two” as one of the contributors to the “It Can’t Be Done” movement.

The fact is that Tesla could–right now–produce a car that is 1/3rd to half the price if they set it to go only 100 miles. In nine years, they will easily be able to produce a $40k car that does this. Is nine years too long to wait for this technology to reach the price point that 80% of the new-car-buying country could afford? I don’t think so.

Your interpretation of the three central facts here–average commute, cost of the car and battery costs–all work about against your argument when you consider them holistically. You say in the same article that:

a) The Tesla is too expensive at $109k.

b) The Tesla’s range is too far, and only needs to be 50 or 60 miles

c) That battery technology doubles in nine years at the slow estimate

Well, that all adds up to a reasonably priced car that goes a reasonable range today (100 miles), a reasonably priced car that goes a very nice range in four years (say 150 miles), or a cheap car that goes an absurd range in less than 10 years (250 miles). Your own data would lead any reasonable person to the conclusion that Tesla is well on it’s way to an affordable electric car.

What’s the problem here exactly? You’re saying that America could have a brand new startup car company that produces an affordable car that goes an absurd range just 10 years from now? The cost is a $400 million dollar loan? You’re problem with this is what?

Also, Tesla has publicly stated that they are pursuing a flagship–or tent pole–release of their cars. This means they start with the sexy, fast and expensive car for affluent folks, then move on to the sexy sedan for middle income folks. Finally, they take all the technological advances from these two models and move them into the affordable car for everyone.

This is, in fact, the best practice for the automotive and technology industries–you, of all people, know this! How do you think it’s possible for cars under $30,000 to include GPS,antilock breaks, and air bags? Those items were once reserved for only the most elite cars, as you well know.

Why is what’s good for Intel, GM, and countless other tech and automotive companies so bad for Tesla in your mind?

3. America has no upside from the $400m loan.

—————————

First, these loans come with a very innovative concept: interest. The country would get *interest* on the loan. Second, the country gets added value from the following:

a) Sustainable, high-paying jobs for potentially thousands of Americans

b) Those employees spending money, buying houses and paying taxes

c) Tesla licensing its technology to other non-US companies (as they are *already* rumored to being doing with Mercedes)

d) Who says Tesla can’t give the country warrants on two percent of their stock as an added bonus?

e) The country would not need to send mountains of cash to the Middle East

f) Smog levels would drop, and with them massive health care costs associated with smog

g) We would be doing our part to slow down global warming (and every bit counts)

That stock kicker in (d) above I just invented. Perhaps all the companies we give loans to should be required to give a two percent preferred share stock bonus to the United States in exchange for originating their loans? That could be an amazing bonus.

4. Tesla isn’t ready for prime time: “its all-electric technology remains woefully immature and don’t-even-ask expensive” and “The Roadster is not much more than a functioning concept car that sells for $109,000.”

—————————

I own the number 16 production car of the Tesla, and I’ve been driving it for two weeks now. Anyone who owns the car can tell you that a) it is not “woefully immature” and b) that it is not a “concept car.”

The Tesla has been through many crash tests. It has air bags and, yes Randy, even a cup holder. It is a thrill to drive, safe and dependable. It gets the range it reports and the early owners have been delighted with the refinement of the car and the lack of problems. You are flat-out wrong when you say it’s “woefully immature” and a “concept car.” It’s a production car and when compared to my two other cars–a Mini Cooper and a Corvette–it blows them away. How Tesla could create a car that competes with two cars that have been in the “Top Ten cars of the year” for the better part of the past 10 years is just mind-blowing. You and the New York Times should really alter these incorrect facts in the article.

Question for Randy: on what basis do you label the car “woefully immature?” Here’s what other publications said (I found these in five seconds on Wikipedia–why didn’t you?):

Road and Track: “The Tesla feels composed and competent at speed with great turn-in and transitioning response.”

Motor Trend: “undeniably, unbelievably efficient” and would be “profoundly humbling to just about any rumbling Ferrari or Porsche that makes the mistake of pulling up next to a silent, 105-mpg Tesla Roadster at a stoplight.”

Slate: “A week ago, I went for a spin in the fastest, most fun car I’ve ever ridden in–and that includes the Aston Martin I tried to buy once. I was so excited, in fact, that I decided to take a few days to calm down before writing about it. Well, my waiting period is over, I’m thinking rationally, and I’m still unbelievably stoked about the Tesla.”

5. Factually Incorrect: Tesla is asking for help producing a rich man’s car. ————————— Yet another factually incorrect statement Randy. Tesla is NOT asking for a loan to build the Roadster. They are asking for a loan to build a second, family-friendly, $60,000 version of the car called the Model S. The Tesla production run and technology is already paid for–Tesla has said this over and over again.

You know this, yet you spun the entire article with the headline “Only the rich can afford it.” Only the rich can afford a $60,000 car? Really? I’m sure you make at least $80 to $120,000 as a New York Times writer, and your book advances have to be well into the six figures. Guess what, you can afford the Model S!

Finally, Tesla isn’t asking for a handout, they are a asking the tiny, tiny piece of an incentive program from 2007 called the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Incentive Program that was designed to give large automakers support in developing more energy efficient vehicles.

How did you miss this basic fact in your article? It’s not a bailout–it’s a loan that is part of an existing program for just this purpose! If we are going to give a loan for advancing vehicle technology shouldn’t we give it to the only company which has actually produced 100% electric cars? How about the company that has over 1,200 orders for those cars? How about the company that has gotten absurd reviews from the press for their extremely capable car–a car you, and only you, call a “woefully immature” kit car.

How could pack so much bias, incorrect facts and absurd conclusions into one article Randy?!

6. Some perspective please!

—————————

Randall says “Can you conceive any way that federal dollars could be put at greater risk — and for no equity in return, keep in mind — to benefit fewer people?”

Sure, how about the Iraq war, which costs around $400m a day–dollars that we have no chance of ever seeing again (as opposed to a loan, which is paid back with interest).

Your editorial should have started with this fact: if we leave Iraq a week early, we can give two billion dollars in loans to *five* electric car companies. That’s your lead right there, Randy. That’s leadership, that’s the truth and that’s your job as a journalist. Not this “damn the billionaires” crap. In fact, the billionaires in this country have done a hell of a lot (see Gates, Buffet, Turner and countless others)…But that’s for another email. Let’s get back on the subject.

You need to put things back in their proper perspective instead of obsessing about the fact that some of the investors in Tesla are really rich, that the first version of the car is slightly more expensive than a luxury car, and that battery power is *only* going to *double* every ten years.

You really should rewrite the editorial and give the public a fair world view instead of one warped by some short-term populist propaganda. Tesla isn’t about rich Silicon Valley guys in sports cars: it’s about extracting ourselves from the environment-killing, human-rights violating, terrorist-supporting regimes in the Middle East. The only reason we deal with countries that suppress women and homosexuals and give money to terrorists who kill based on a religion is because we are dependent on their oil. If we didn’t need their oil, we would treat them like we treat other rogue regimes–isolate them until they got their act together.

Companies like Tesla are the direct path to our independence from such treachery.

In Conclusion

—————————

The reason I bought the Tesla was to help fund the Model S–and because I like things that are fast, sexy and high-tech. I’m a proud sports-car loving technophile American and it gives me great joy that the best sports car money can buy is produced by an American company that is paving the way to independence from dirty, foreign oil.

I’ve already committed to buying the 16th Model S (Tesla lets you get to keep your production slot in future models), and if another company makes a better electric car, I’ll replace my Mini Cooper with that. Supporting American technology companies is one of the most patriotic things you can do–the technology industry is the reason our country has such a high-standard of living and why we can afford to spread the democracy virus around the globe.

You should be proud of Tesla and support them, as well, because if Tesla gets the *loan* (a loan, not a gift), you just might be driving an electric car built in the United States by American workers. That consumer purchase is a vote which, once cast, will help us shift our interactions with the Middle East back to condemning them for violating basic human rights instead of our dual-headed approach of insincere appeasement and inappropriate force. That approach hasn’t been working out to well, has it?

Good luck rewriting the article–which you or another New York Times journalist will wind up doing in another two or three years, I’m sure.

ps - If you’re ever in Santa Monica lets drive the Tesla down to the Promenade and you can see first hand what normal Americans think of the car–they love it.

* Fisking: The act of delivering criticism on a line-by-line basis established by conservative bloggers to check the British journalist Robert Fisk.

This is a guest posting by Tara Kaikini, cofounder of Phoload. The Phoload website offers free mobile apps and games that have been uploaded directly to the site by mobile software developers. We launched Phoload in September of this year because we were keen to create a website that was easy to use, simple to navigate and that presented some of the best software currently available for mobile users. Roger has kindly given us the opportunity to publish our top ten on his blog and to highlight some of the interesting mobile apps that make the list.

Phoload launched three months ago with support for Java Micro Edition (Java ME) mobile software. Since then, we have added support for the Android platform, and are currently adding Symbian support to the website. The games and applications that have already been uploaded to Phoload represent a cross-section of all the really cool and genuinely useful mobile software that is being produced at the moment, both by individual developers, mobile software startups, and large software publishing houses. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the software that has proved most popular with Phoload users since our launch, by looking at our top ten most downloaded apps:

The top ten remains quite fluid, with six new entrants since the last top ten was published on Techwinter, ten days after Phoload’s launch. amazeGPS by LocatioNet, a mobile satnav application, is still the most popular download on Phoload. In the top ten we also have another mapping/location based application, a language translator, a music player, a scientific calculator, a couple of apps that interface to various information feeds, as well as several games. We feel that the top ten really shows the diversity of mobile software available today.

Snaptu by Moblica is an interesting new entry worth highlighting. It gives users a slick interface to Picassa photos, Facebook, AccuWeather and Google Calendar. A neat feature of this app is that most of the functionality is not on the client (which is very lightweight), and when Moblica launches new interfaces to new content providers, they will appear on Snaptu the next time a user opens the application. This app is particularly useful, at the moment, for UK-based users, as it also interfaces to the Transport for London journey planner and Fancyapint UK pub reviews.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that half of the applications in the top ten require an Internet connection. Therefore, it appears that requiring access to the Internet does not appear to impede the adoption of a mobile software application in comparison to software that doesn’t require Internet access.

In terms of devices, the most popular phone with Phoload users is still the Nokia N95.
The top ten most popular devices in terms of the number of downloads we have served
to each device is as follows:

1. Nokia N95
2. Nokia N70
3. Nokia N73
4. SonyEricsson W810i
5. RIM BlackBerry Curve
6. Nokia 3110c
7. SonyEricsson W200i
8. Nokia 6233
9. Samsung Instinct
10. Nokia E51

Currently, the leading phone manufacturers on Phoload are Nokia and Sony Ericsson, followed by Samsung and RIM Blackberry, with smartphones of all marques being particularly popular. Since Android content was launched on the website, we have also seen a large number of downloads to the T-Mobile G1. Given the enthusiasm that G1 owners are showing for mobile software, we expect to see this phone, or another Android-powered phone, appear in the top ten devices in the coming months.

The emergence of powerful new platforms such as Android, coupled with the increasing capabilities of phones, and the vibrant communities of developers and users we see on Phoload and other sites, makes us believe that the mobile application business is really now showing its potential, and, hopefully, crossing over to the mainstream.

Here are just some of the companies and people I had the chance to speak with:

Startups

• IntelliView - The future of video security, more cameras, better video and no higher cost
• Psyko: Audio Labs - The future of gaming audio and 3D sound
• Userful: Managed Desktops - Making use of today’s very powerful PCs to lower CO2 emissions and hardware costs.
• Redwood - Specialised mobile software that allows you to monetise those on the go phone calls from clients. Currently only available on Blackberry phones.
• Allianceone - Keeping your corporate cell phone bills to a minimum
• CellBridge - Keeping our guys safe while working out in the tarsands and other far away or high risk zones
• New Energy Corporation Inc - Patented water turbines for sustainable hydroelectricity.
• Xtreme Tech - Ever wanted to be rid of your landline?
• Gushor - Unconventional Heavy Oil Extraction

Suppliers

• Techbent - A niche recruiter servicing startups and young companies looking for desirable employees
• Michael Sikorsky - Junior venture capitalist or Seed capital source and entrepreneur
• Cornerstone - Web Development Agency
• Accrue - Marketing consultant
• West17 Media - Marketing consultant
• Climate Change Central - supporting climate change
• Osborne Group - Supplying companies with temporary use of experienced executives

Great job guys! Thanks for making this happen.

If I get an iPhone I am going to spend (in Canada) around $1200-$1400 per year - 3 year contract required - of fees plus the down payment of $200-$300 for the handset. Right now there are at least a dozen vehicles in Canada, that’s right MOTORVEHICLES for no down payment and that sort of montly payment.

Does this seem rational to you?

It really doesn’t to me, I love my phone and I do really like being able to text friends, partners, and family. Its fun being able to check Facebook and FriendFeed really I ENJOY doing it. I feel connected! but the price we are paying just feels so high. Too high.

Maybe it is silly but thinking about this, reminds me of when my parents used to tell me not to smoke and how smokers spent so much money they were literally giving up holidays by continuing their habit. I identified with this expression because I realised no cigarette would ever give me the satisfaction I would get from travelling to New Zealand and living there for a year or travelling Europe, all of which I have done several times.

And where I am today is the same in my thinking towards my mobile purchases as it was then about cigarettes, too much money. What do you think?

Firstly let me tell you what Third Tuesday is and then I will tell you what made it so great.

About Third Tuesday

Third Tuesday is Canada’s own unique version of OpenCoffee if you are familiar with that very popular UK meet up. Founder Joseph Thornley describes it on his Toronto site as:

“Canada’s Social Media Meetup: Meet other communications professionals to explore new developments in social media and emerging best practices.”

What is particularly great about CTT is that every event starts with a guest speaker covering their unique experiences. This is an important distinction between them and many other events such as OpenCoffee and it gives those who come a great initial topic of conversation when networking.

Joseph Thornley believes Third Tuesdays should provide members with ‘Actionable’ intelligence and allow ‘members to walk away with new insights’.

If you haven’t considered going to a Third Tuesday yet regardless of where you are in Canada, now is the time to reconsider, social media won’t go away and every day it becomes more likely your boss or clients will demand ‘actionable‘ intelligence from you.

See bottom for a list of local Third Tuesday’s in your area, and if you are not mentioned maybe its time to get out a pen and paper and organize one!

Calgary’s 1st Third Tuesday

It was a great turnout, there are 43 people on the list of members as of this morning and around 15+ showed up last night. With Vancouver having already achieved 10x that, surely Calgary will perform similarly over time.

Last night the topic was “Developing a corporate social media strategy” which was delivered by Jacob George Manager of Corporate Marketing and Communications for the City of Calgary. Jacob even booked the room for us in City Hall. Until last night I had never been there, so it was a nice opportunity to go and see our cities nerve centre.

Chantelle is on the left and Jacob is on the right

I should point out that Sheldon Baily is the organizer for CTT and we owe him for sorting out the details, finding Jacob as a speaker and all the other over-looked details that make a well run event. Thanks guys!

Did you know the City of Calgary has a social media strategy? Did you know they have one of the largest Facebook networks in Canada?

Truly the City is doing some amazing things with social media and I was impressed which is saying something. Here are some of the ’social media’ activities the City is involved in either passively or actively:

• Their Facebook network has nearly 500,000 members and is 2nd only to Toronto in Canada.
• Their own blog! CentreCityTalk
• They promoted the summer event Dodgemania with only $20 in FB social media ads.
• The City is now looking at professional networks like LinkedIn to reach out the professional crowd. FACT - 25% of Calgarians are under the age of 35
• Mobile alerts are coming!
• They are in the process of implementing Microsoft’s Sharepoint to help socialize communication within the City. This was the only thing I bit my tongue on as about 10 questions came to mind.

Not only did we learn about what the City was doing but we also got some tips! As Jacob says he isn’t just another pretty face.

• Don’t make social media plans an annual event, social media is constantly evolving and this means regular reviews and observance of what is happening. One of the ways they do this is a general report for all to see internally that shows the highlights of what the blogosphere is discussing regarding the City.
• Don’t put your PR people between your staff and the world outside, trust them to operate wisely but also give them a framework of rules e.g. comment/blog policy to guide them rather than interfere and micro-manage.
• Social media must be part of a larger marketing strategy just as marketing strategy is based on corporate strategy.
• Don’t count on the viral effect but be prepared for it as you don’t want to hurt your corporate imagine by being ‘too’ successful and not being able to meet rapidly growing expectations.
• Social Media is not the ‘Field of Dreams’ if you build it they will probably not come, again back to what Jacob mentioned earlier, social media must be part of a wider marketing strategy.
• Develop specific objectives and make it clear from the proposal to wrap-up what management should expect from social media after all we spent 10 years telling them what the difference between a hit and a visitor was you shouldn’t expect them to just understand intuitively the value proposition and metrics of social media

If you are interested in knowing more just Twitter Jacob or make life really easy on yourself and comment your query below. I am certain Jacob and his team will be cruising this article answering questions as they come up.

Find your Third Tuesday Local:

• Calgary (of course)
• Vancouver
• Toronto
• Ottawa
• Montreal
• Edmonton (not yet but I imagine soon)
• Fredericton

The original list of men and women who showed up for the first Calgary Third Tuesday are;

• Sheldon Bailey
• David Cree
• Stefanie Curtis
• Ella Kinloch
• Louise Desmarais
• Jacob George
• Daryl Pamplin
• Roger Kondrat
• Doug Lacombe
• Andrew McIntyre
• Shawn Khan
• Trevor Nawalkowski
• Doug Nouwen

*From this point forward I would like to suggest we hashtag all Calgary chatter on Twitter regarding Third Tuesday as #ctt so we can continue the discussion outside the once a month offline social events.

What do you think?

Friendfeed can be such a great learning and discovery experience. Our FriendFeed links - Robert Scoble, Me, our FriendFeed Forum.

Roberts’ 7 lessons learned

1. People who ONLY Twitter have a high propensity for much more noise than signal. Those who are best? Those who post to a lot of different services, and who blog often.
2. People who change their avatar from the default are more likely to have signal than those who don’t.
3. Past results are best predictors of future results. As I look through my list of people who have fed a lot of “signal” into the system, like Tim O’Reilly, they have done a lot more signal in past week than most people in my list of about 3,300 people I’m following.
4. Those who use graphics in their FF posts are far more likely to have signal than others.
5. My list is very male heavy, and I went looking for women who feed good tech news to their friends. Looking to balance that out, will watch over next week to see if I can find anyone on the “Everyone” feed.
6. This hand-picked list is WAY better than the feed from the 3,300 people I subscribe to. MUCH lower noise (for me) and much better stuff, and easier to find the good stuff (again, in my opinion). I don’t like cat photos and there are a LOT fewer cat photos on this feed.
7. This feed does NOT match what is “popular” on FriendFeed right now. Very little politics. Very few “goofy posts.” No Bacon.

I found it funny that some of these petty differences can lead to a larger picture of a persons value proposition, but I can’t necessarily argue with the logic as he isn’t saying these things out of speculation or to be petty. Robert is just stating details that seem continuous or unique among his 3,300 subscriptions from observations.

What do you think of the new Zemanta? I think they are really making their product compelling, I just wish they would partner with TradeVibes now so we have choice.

Push delivery of apps

• Every month, during quiet time on your network, your network provider downloads to your handset a mobile phone application, e.g. a batman game loosely timed with the release of such a movie.
• Then you get an SMS from the operator, “new game/play invitation”
• When you say Yes, you are straight into the game. You get 10 free plays. After that you get a prompt to either pay for the game or delete.
• Over time, the game downloaded can be profiled much the same as Amazon works, because people with similar past choices make similar future choices.

*Editor, if you wish to contact Faisal please just leave a comment in that regard and I will forward him your contact details directly so spammers don’t get your email address.

This is awesome news, also our European forum for Social Media and Mobile technology readers, socialisers, and uber experts has grown to just under 100 active users in just over a week which is rather a surprise but a good one. If you want to join our forum you can find it here on friendfeed.

Also don’t forget you can subcribe to us via our Feed find out why we are one of the fastest growing sites or say hi to me on Twitter, I would love to hear from you.

This is the best time for a FFholic, like Twitter as FriendFeeds’ user-base grows demand for analytical tools like Twitter’s Twitterholic become increasingly necessary.

FFholic, a Turkish startup helps users analyse Friendfeed information displaying raw stats about popular users, popular entries, popular videos, rooms, etc.. and graphs on Friendfeed users. Their robots regularly scan the timeline capturing and keeping their analysis current. The current release, “version one”, provides all the basics features, future updates will take into consideration the needs of their users. For feedback FFholic has a Friendfeed account, monitoring discussion on their service. Also you can comment here as they will be watching this article.

Now FF users know how many followers Robert Scoble has; what’s the most “Like”d entries by categories(videos, photos, links, etc..) at this month or last 24 hours; and also knows the frequently asked question’s answer: Does Friendfeed have a room directory? No but FFholic has a room directory and lists rooms.

If you use FF and want to keep track of what is popular, when, whom and for how long you will want to give FFholic a close look. Additionally if you want to learn more about European Social Media and Mobile startups you can subscribe to TechWinter or join our FriendFeed room for daily discussions on many related topics.

*Editor notes: I encourage you to give Erhan a pat on the back because although his English is excellent this is his first blog post in English and in my reasoning it is very BRAVE to express ones thoughts in a second language for all the world to see. Thanks Erhan, I hope we get to hear more about Turkey in the near future!

Overview

Phoload a new UK-based startup offering FREE mobile Java software bootstrapped by their two employees/founders (Jamie McDonald and Tara Kaikini). Interestingly Phoload launched offering applications using the Java Micro Edition platform. Which sounds restrictive actually but in fact allows them to support over 2 billion handsets.

Eventually they will monetise their platform via advertising, but they intend to explore innovative revenue streams in the future. Additionally further platforms will be added with Symbian and Windows most likely to go first but we understand user-feedback will drive much of their early development for the near future.

The numbers

According to Jamie’s analysis - included below - the top types of mobile apps are;

“..location-based app, messaging software, a translation tools, and a variety of different types of games.”

With a growing number of developers (over 160 at launch) their roster of software diversity should grow rapidly as will their traffic if they execute well and provide a service that distinguishes itself from competitor GetJar which has monthly traffic of approximately 100,000+ (according to Compete).

Top 10 Software Applications (by downloads)

Jamie has drawn some attention to the innovation of some of their developers such as the ad-supported model adopted by, for example, the developers of amAzeGPS and Mesa Info Booth. Some would say in spite of their advertising they are still very popular and therefore this method of deriving revenue does not seem to put users off.

Consequently, it is a great time for consumers interested in free mobile software. Unfortunately, many consumers are still unaware of the quality and variety of software that is available for their phones.

We hope that Phoload will encourage more people to download mobile software and increase the visibility of accessible, free mobile software.

Source: Jamie McDonald, Phoload

In terms of devices, the most popular device by far has been the Nokia N95 which should hardly surprise most readers since it was and is the most powerful smartphone in the world.

Top device manufacturers (by downloads)

1. Nokia
2. Sony Ericsson
3. Motorola
4. RIM Blackberry

With these first 10 days of experience Phoload has learned much about the mobile marketplace such as they now know just how much more demand there is from certain platforms such as Symbian S60 over others and how massive a lead smartphones have over regular mobiles in the amount of traffic and downloads they generate.

Truly Phoload is a service worthy of your attention and review as ALL the applications on the site are free or fre with Ad-support. I encourage you to take a moment to try them out and see for yourself.

If you would like to learn more about Phoload they are easy enough to find but if you want the answer to these four questions;

• Can you tell us more about your service?
• What is your business model?
• What are the projects, additional features you’re preparing?
• What are the current users’ feedback, your learnings on the service’s usage?

Check out Services Mobiles for the answers to these questions.

A few months back the Inquisitr a new technology and pop media website launched under the stewardship of veteran blogger Duncan Riley and his band of merry men. Duncan at the time had only just left TechCrunch (TC) the owners of CrunchBase to start the Inquisitr and was heralded as a great man by Michael Arrington (deleted) his ex-boss.

Everyone thought it was impressive that outspoken Duncan could leave TC to start a rival site and still remain in the good graces of hard-liner Michael Arrington, but he did and that lasted about a week before Michael deleted his article of praise and brought the Iron Curtain down on Duncan blocking him from anything TC.

Now what is TradeVibes or for that matter CrunchBase well they are essentially the same product, as Duncan points out in his very comprehensive article;

“Crunchbase and Tradevibes are immediately similar in the information they provide, to the point that Michael Arrington has previously described Tradevibes as a Crunchbase ripoff.”

Source: Inquisitr - Battle of the Company Databases: CrunchBase Vs. TradeVibes

But this article isn’t about the nuanced differences between their offering as Duncan definitely hit that very well. Nope this article is about business and why TradeVibes should be your first and only choice.

The Choice

When you are thinking about placing a widget or really any other API driven application such as TradeVibes you are really with a handshake or pen and paper forming a partnership. So when choosing consider this, do you trust this service to be your partner? Is the relationship mutually supportive? And most importantly do they compete with you?

I always say ‘Trust is knowing what is in that persons perceived best interests’.

So do I trust TradeVibes or CrunchBase? NO, I don’t trust them. I don’t know their management, I have never met any of them, I don’t know their business plan and I don’t have an agreement other than agreeing to their TOS.

Is the relationship mutually supportive, it would appear that both TradeVibes and CrunchBase want websites to utilise their data, particularly now with their APIs and Widgets making integration easy and familiar. But what do they get? One could speculate, what do you think they get?

Here is the clincher point for this particular discussion, do they compete with you? TradeVibes does not appear to compete with me or any of my peers and they even rely on users like us to populate their database, this is not the case for CrunchBase. Additionally CrunchBase is owned by the biggest gorilla in the market TechCrunch the press release publishing machine.

So you see, the story about Duncan Riley choosing TradeVibes was hardly a surprise for someone as savy as him and is a testiment to Michael’s single minded nature that he could even be surprised by this decision. If you are smart you will follow Duncan’s lead and for that matter Mashable’s as well

It is actually a simple argument and I invite you to discuss the merits of it and as well as your suggestions.

They describe themselves as a “platform for users and businesses to upload and share their
documents with all the world, and serves as a vast repository of documents in variety
of categories including legal, business, financial, technology, educational, and
creative. All documents on docstoc can be easily searched, previewed and downloaded
for free.”

What I can’t figure out is how valuable this really service is even with the new features Sync and MyDocs that even Svetlana says ‘I think it won’t hurt to use it at least for backup of your documents‘, in her article over at Profy.

If I wanted to share docs online I could use Google Apps, any Wiki service or Zoho Writer any of which will allow you to sync and store documents. Also Zoho is partnered with EchoSign which allows you to digitally sign documents.

Would you use Docstoc? Have you used it? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Founded in 2000, Exalead now has five offices in five countries, an index of over 8 billion web pages (since 2006), and a roster of big brands like Brazil’s oil giant BNP Paribas. Google by comparison has an index that TechCrunch supposes in close to 40 Billion web pages but since Exalead is mainly focused on the business market this difference is less relevant.

Karen Blakeman has been following the evolution of the Exalead product for some time and she feels there are some really unique features that are now extinct on mainstream search engines or never implimented.

Some favourites are the use of the term NEAR which allows you to expand beyond mere phrases or individual words but to consider the distance between words on the web page. For example if one were to want to find an article with environment and climate change in it they could search in the usual way or simply put in the search box - “climate change” NEAR environment. Exalead then must find the word environment within 16 words of the phrase climate change in order to be displayed. This can be immensely useful in an enterprise environment when a very specific article is what the user is looking to find.

Exalead also has a large skyscraper of tags on the right side of their web pages that indicates dozens of ways to narrow a search further.

Mid-2007, Exalead added agreed to index content on the closed database of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information (INIST) which contains information in several languages, not just English as well they introduced the ability to search for images and videos.

Their latest offering tweaks their image algorithm to include the ability to further filter images by Face. For example if you are looking for a photo with Liv Taylor in it and did a standard search you may uncover many photos of which possibly half of them could be of her house or even her pets. With this new filter you won’t get anything except photos with her face (usually).

Exalead looks like a really solid enterprise product, and if you are looking for an enterprise search tool then you may wish to take a look at them.

The Nokia N96 offers the most personalized mobile internet experience to date

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced the availability of the much anticipated Nokia N96, its flagship multimedia computer in the iconic Nokia Nseries range. It boasts live TV, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, turn-by-turn voice navigation, 16GB of internal memory that can be increased to 24GB with an optional microSD card, superior sound and music, N-Gage gaming and a stunning 2.8" display. First shipments of the Nokia N96 have started and it will be available with an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before taxes and subsidies.

The Nokia N96 is mobile entertainment at its best, a fitting flagship for our Nseries range. It defines convergence by blending phone and multimedia options seamlessly with the unique Nokia Nseries dual slider that makes discovering and sharing experiences easy. Watch live TV and video, take high quality photos and geotag them to specific locations or directly upload them online via the fast internet connection - it is all about taking mobile entertainment and communication to the next level," says Jonas Geust, Vice President, Nokia Nseries.

Supporting live TV as it happens using DVB-H technology, the Nokia N96 delivers advanced television viewing across a number of channels. It is even possible to record favorite programmes to watch back whenever suits, be it on a train, in an airport lounge or in a café over a drink.

In many markets, the Nokia N96 comes pre-loaded with a blockbuster movie (title varies by region). Feel part of the action as it erupts through the vivid 2.8" display and built-in 3D stereo speakers. Sit back, watch the plot unfold and enjoy the special effects hands-free, practically anywhere, thanks to a cleverly designed 'kickstand' on the back cover.

The Nokia N96 has the ability to store up to 40 hours of video content transferred from a PC via hi-speed USB 2.0 connection or found online with WLAN and HSDPA support. The Nokia Video Center offers access to a variety of content ranging from movie trailers and comedy to news from world-leading providers such as YouTube, Reuters and Sony Pictures. The Nokia N96 supports the most common video formats including MPEG-4, Windows Media Video and Flash Video.

Capture clear, bright, high quality video clips at 30 frames per second as well as sharp, defined photos with the 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED Flash. Images can be geotagged instantly to record the location and directly uploaded to online communities such as Share on Ovi and Flickr.

The Nokia N96 has an enhanced navigation experience that includes rich, easy-to-use maps with urban detail as well as satellite views. Voice guided turn-by-turn navigation - for walking or driving - along with the new City Guides that offer a great way to explore undiscovered places. It is even possible to upload and share personalized journeys, favourite places and great new finds online.

The Nokia N96 boasts an advanced music offering and can hold a music collection that entertains even more dedicated fans. People can create personal music playlists by downloading tracks from the Nokia Music Store and other online sites or synchronize PC and mobile libraries via hi-speed USB connectivity. Alternatively, the Nokia N96 offers RDS radio or a wide selection of stations via the internet.

Making the mobile experience even more personal, the Nokia Download! application provides a broad range of tailored content - including a selection of branded entertainment as well as personalized content - to ensure each Nokia N96 is as unique as its owner.

1. Everyone hates creating the bibliography, well OttoMatic is a free and easy tool that only requires that you enter the ISBN number on a book and the bibliography information is created. Voilà!
2. College-Cram a social media learning tool that mashes up educational resources along with your notes, study groups and connections with other students.
3. Cram a Simpleleap software tool for studying your math or SAT, LSAT, etc on Windows PC’s, Blackberry phones and soon iPhone is available for download. This app is free though and costs $15.
4. Two great study tools from ProProfs are QuizSchool and FlashCards . Perfect for tests and assessments. When I did my emergency training I wish I had this these tools!
5. Ever find it hard to cite internet sources properly and accurately so you stick to offline resources when quoting or rephrasing sources? In many ways Zotero a FireFox extension/plugin is designed to eleviate this problem by making is easy to collect, manage and cite online research sources.



6. Want to go more upscale and professional with a GTD/project management style tool from Vitalist. It is free for individuals and best of all it has a mobile website so you are never disorganised.
7. On the go and there is no chance to even view a mobile website, try out Speepo a voice driven web app that enables users to easily record Voice and Video Messages which you can use to recall later. Also it allows for private recordings to be made as well.
8. Then there is the way cool Sendible which uses email and sms rather than voice to create reminders, organise team meetings or party invites or reach out to your social networks and post status updates. This is one flexible tool and whether you use it for good or evil it should be useful all day.
   
9. Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. It is designed to help
   you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF, but is also great for
   viewing any PDF file.
10. ChunkIt!’s a toolbar search tool that is perfect for mining academic databases and meeting your ‘cramming’ needs. They have a video demo on how students can benefit from using their tool.

Additionally I dropped any all the majors because they turn over too much content and quite often there is lots of junk in-between the good content.

Oh and one final point I also made an effort to add younger, fresh new voices to the group of talented bloggers.

I admit I do not read as widely as some others do e.g. Mike Fruchter, so if there is someone you think is exceptional that I am missing then please let me know.

Also feel free to share this searchme as it is easy to embed on any blog or website. Enjoy!

*UPDATE: As requested the links from the above embed have been added below for those who couldn’t view them in the embed. Sorry for any inconvenience I never considered compatibility when I used the searchme embed feature.

• Mike Fruchter
• Rahsheen Porter
  
• Justin Korn
• Louis Gray
• Chris Brogan
• Jeremiah Owyang
  
• Kyle Lacy
• Hutch Carpenter
• Jason Falls

Carphone Warehouse exclusive pre-paid channel with Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

London, UK - Nokia today announced that the United Kingdom will be the first market in the world to launch ‘Comes With Music’, its groundbreaking service which introduces a revolutionary way for people to discover and enjoy music. Comes With Music gives people a year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalog with the ability to keep all downloaded tracks even after the year is over.

Carphone Warehouse will be the exclusive UK pre-pay channel offering the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic ‘Comes With Music’ edition. People who buy the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic ‘Comes With Music’ edition will have unprecedented freedom to find and listen to music from a diverse catalog, including international and UK artists. Carphone Warehouse is accepting pre-orders via http://www.carphonewarehouse.com starting today.

Tero Ojanperä, Executive Vice President and Head of the Nokia Entertainment and Communities business, said: “We believe that Comes With Music will transform the way people enjoy music. With unlimited music access for a year, you can enjoy your favorite artists or delve into new genres without having to worry about individual track or album purchases.”

Simon Ainslie, Nokia UK Managing Director, said: “Comes With Music is the most compelling digital music offer ever introduced to the UK. You get a fantastic Nokia device with unlimited access for a year to a huge catalogue of music. We’re thrilled to be working with Carphone Warehouse to bring Comes With Music to the UK.”

Andrew Harrison, UK CEO, The Carphone Warehouse, said: “We expect the Nokia 5310 Comes With Music to be the gift for Christmas and at the top of all shopping lists. We know how much our customers love music and we hope to make music millionaires of people everywhere.”

Print quality photos can be found at http://www.nokia.com/A4632380?category=nokia_comes_with_music

Notes to Editors

Carphone Warehouse is the UK exclusive pre-pay channel until December 31, 2008. Further details about Comes With Music will be announced at a Nokia event to be held in London on October 2, 2008.

LeadVine is the brainchild of Allen and Bobby who were already paying for offline lead generation to their businesses and realised that their business model could easily be adapted to an online service.

The story on their website goes like this:

How was LeadVine started?

The concept behind LeadVine was started around 2002, after Allan was tired of unsuccessful cold calling for the Accounting temp agency he started. Allan’s business partner, Bobby, got business through contacts who had information about a company who needed accounting help. Allan and Bobby got the job and paid their contact a 20% finders fee. Bobby eventually got more business when he met a contact at a barbeque. Again Allan and Bobby got the client and paid their contact 10% finders fee.

Smartly LeadVine has a list of TOP10 reasons to use their new service which I have added below.

1. Make easy money by saying two words: “How’s business?” or “How’s work?”
2. Form strategic alliances / partners
3. Earn referral fees for positions your company is trying to fill
4. Use LeadVine to find qualified candidates and save up to 50% - 75% on recruiting fees
5. Search for hard to find antiques, cars, art, etc.
6. Meet well connected people
7. Have people mention your company to influential people in the industry
8. Make international connections
9. Search for hard to find information
10. Get access to places that you could never get into

The only feature I noticed that was obviously missing was that there was no social networking aspect to the tool such as ratings for businesses and lead generators, or establishment of permanent contacts with businesses to name a couple. Hopefully they will leverage social features to grow their product but only time will tell.

Speaking of leads, I currently know of a company looking to raise their first round of capital in the UK, if you are an interested party please let us know as we would love to help out these bright young entrepreneurs. Very simply the opportunity is a niche ad network but to say more than that would be very rude of course. Let us know via our contact information or Hot Tips if you are interested in hearing more and we would be happy to pass your information along to the co-founders.

*Do not confuse LeadVine with NewsVine they are completely unaffiliated with the only similarity being that they both have ‘Vine’ in their brand names.