iPad, it’s a new breed of technology. That’s the phrase that stuck with me watching this video.  This isn’t really a review of the product; it’s more of sharing the passion video by Apple employees.

If you watch this and don’t want one I’d be surprised. Enjoy.

Robert Scoble at Jive in their new offices. He’s talking to their CEO about how Jive stacks up against Microsoft and Salesforce initiatives. They discuss next big challenges, the different approaches, and how Jive fits in.

Warning. There is a lot of buzzword use. You’ll want to listen for the sections on lessons learned, challenges, and the future predictions.

This is not one of Scoble’s best interviews. It’s partially his fault, as he seems to be ill prepared to ask some hard questions. Also the Jive representative uses a ton of market speak and avoids specifics.

This video found at Building43.

PixieApps is the set of software applications for the customer with a dollar in their pocket and a few minutes to download. Well, at least that’s how it might appear.

PixieaApps is brought to us by Chris Pirillo, long time geek, entrepreneur and cyber celebrity. This series of applications isn’t set to do battle with the bigger more famous apps such as Microsoft Word or Apple Mail. They are set to provide simple and straightforward functionality.

Each application tackles a specific niche and no more. The claim thought is that each of them integrates seamlessly with existing applications.

Let’s see what the applications are and what the site has to say. To note, each program has its own home page and best of all a why and what for each.

PixieChecklist - is a simple to-do program that lets you track all the important things you need to get done in your life.

PixieClips -allows you to create tiny “snippets” or chunks of text and paste these into your software applications.

PixieDiary – allows you to keep track of important events in your life, the same way a traditional diary would.

PixieMinder – allows you to keep track of all the important websites you visit regularly and allows you to keep track of your logins and passwords.

PixieProfiles – will save you time when filling out you profile at social bookmarking Sites, social networking Sites, video websites, news directories and forums.

Most likely for me to purchase is PixieMinder. I visit lots of sites and history just isn’t interactive enough for me. The idea of being able to store a regular list of sites with information about them, including passwords, makes this an extremely useful tool.

PixieClips sounds like my 2nd most likely purchase. The list of snippets sounds easy enough to use and something I already do via Notepad on my work laptop. The pixie app though would run across both work machines, running Windows, and home machines, running OS X.

I look forward to trying these applications out and hearing your feedback.

Good job Chris.

Todd
@tojosan on Twitter

     So I’ve had the Blackberry Curve about a week now and the new toy feel has yet to wear off.  I purchased it as an upgrade to the Razr, by Motorola.  The driving factors included my carrier, and the application choices.

     The Blackberry Curve is one of the most popular types of smartphones on the market today.  Though the iPhone and others are giving it a run for the money, it continues to be a well respected choice.  Chief among the reasons are the full QWERTY keyboard,  great Internet access, and the wealth of applications. Among the other features I like on this phone are the 2 megapixel camera and the built in GPS.

     So what have I been using it for? Social networking of course.  You know I’m big into social networking. My top used applications are Twitterberry and Shozu.  A third runner up is the Facebook app.  Of course the beginning and root of social networking tools is the browser, and it’s also seen heavy use this past week.

     Twitterberry is one of the most popular Twitter clients for the Blackberry.  Twitterberry has a simple and functional interface that works well with the Blackberry.  When first launched, it presents a screen to update your status.  It keeps count of remaining characters as you type and has one button send when your done typing. Another key press away are your replies and direct messages.   One winning feature of Twitterberry for me is the integration to the browser.  If a link is provided in a tweet, you can select it open it in the browser.  All in all a well put together application and it’s free.

     Shozu is the Swiss Army knife of social networking for tools for smartphones. It allows posting to a variety of sites including Flickr, Facebook, and some blogs.  I’ve used it to post photos to both Flickr and Facebook and it works as advertised.  It finds files on your phone and allows sending to multiple services.  The send goes on in the background and allows you to continue working.  Another example of photo sharing that can be done is to Twitpic.  The interesting thing about this application is that all of the real set up is done on the Shozu website, where you can register all of the interconnecting services, including Blogger.

     Facebook is another free application for that Blackberry. Heck, it’s on their own site and recommended.  The Facebook application is a simple interface to a few of the common things you’d normally do on the site.  You can update your status, as well as see the status updates of your contacts.  Poking is allowed of course.  Wall writing is even available. This application is streamlined but very functional. Everything is a button slide and press away.  Oh yeah, and you can upload pictures to Facebook as well.

     There are more applications I’ve been playing with, including the Flickr application and the Google applications.  Google apps includes Maps, Docs, Mail, Reader and News.  Believe it or not, I’ve used Google Reader the most.  All of the applications are tied to your Google account.  This enables me to read my Reader feeds while I’m out and about and idle.

     Games are another story. I’ve not played one game the entire week.  Oh, the Blackberry has a slew of them to be sure, and even has some free ones that are supposed to be fun.  It’s just that I’m not all that interested in that feature.

     The features I’m most interested in, and have been using, center around keeping involved in my social networks.  Photos seems to be universally easy to share, as well as messages.  What I’ll be looking into more is ways to post to blogging type tools, such as my blogs, and Utterz.

    Utterz, Brightkite, and other sites have mobile versions to make things easier though, and I’ve used those as well as others.  Utterz might end up being my simplest ‘path’ to blogging for now.

     So what’s my conclusion after one week? The phone is a keeper. I’ve not even given any applications that require a fee or subscription yet.  Some of those should prove to be really useful.  I’ll check in from time to time to share more about the phone and our adventures together.

Aaron Brazell aka Technosailor has dropped Facebook. You can read about it here, Facebook, You’re Banished.

For instance, earlier today I went in and declined 17 application requests and ignored 32 “Which Bible Character are you?” kinds of questions. It’s pointless noise that is distracting.

Aaron made not just a blanket statement about it, but provides a short video as well.  His comment above summarizes the main frustration well.  It’s all about usefulness.

Facebook applications are significantly more focused on games, quizzes and other time wasters than productivity oriented.  Chris Brogan shared only a handful when asked.  I find only a few add real value to my life and my objectives.

Facebook may soon be in a battle to keep it’s high end users, like Aaron, Scoble, and Brogan.  Those users don’t just desire sites to provide productivity enhancing environments, but require it.  Even sites such as LinkedIn and Dopplr might be in trouble if the time spent there isn’t directly resulting in new knowledge, bringing in business, or otherwise making lives easier.

OpenSocial claims to be a boon to social networking sites. Ultimately though, if the quality and usefulness of the applications doesn’t increase, then OpenSocial may only bring a geometric growth of the noise over value.  Are we doomed have all social networking sites become useless?

The question is really not will there be more game and quiz applications, that’s a given. The real question is will sites find more real tool applications to use.  Behind that even, what might drive their development.

The big problem is that application developers are driven mostly be ad revenue right now. This is even true of sites such as LinkedIn, which I use.  Sadly, game players are apparently into clicking on ads.

My suggestion is to create services where the value is high enough that even everyday folks like me will join up as a paying member.  Those sites then need to make their objects available to me where I want and need them, not just on their website. If I want a Dopplr widget on my browser, that’s common enough it should already be there.  Or how about Widgets on my desktop? Where’s my Grand Central notifier?  The concept of sites that users must visit might be fine for folks that have lots of time to spare visiting them, but busy people needs apps that will come to them. Mobile application versions is just one aspect. They need not to forget desktop and laptop users like me, that don’t want to open 10 tabs to see all my stuff.

Yes, I’ve ranted off course a bit, but it comes down to usefulness versus noise.  The noise isn’t just a steady trickle on Facebook, it’s a flood.  The pace is just picking up.  Aaron isn’t the first to weigh anchor and move on but he’s a strong sign of the movement away from such sites.

What’s your line? 10 invites? 100? 1000? What’s your camel back breaking app you’ll freak out over and drop Facebook for?