Pokki Gives Quick Acces...

It’s the Super Bowl season, when a host of services and apps debut just in time for the biggest television event of the year. And, if you’re a fan of Madden’s NFL Superstars (a web app that’s available through Facebook), then you’ll like this launch: the game is now available as a Pokki right here . Pokki , for those that haven’t used it, is a platform that lets you install lightweight apps that live in your Windows Taskbar (a Mac version is on the way). Each app gets its own icon — click on it, and the app will pop open immediately, click away and it’ll hide itself, and when you click it again, it’ll pick up right where you left off. The point is to give you quick access to apps without having to deal with browser tabs or standalone windows, and it works well.There are other apps and services that do something similar (Mac users may want to check out Fluid ), but Pokki’s platform features apps that are specifically designed for its quick, pop-over design. Pokki has landed two major gaming companies so far: Kabam and, with this launch, EA, and it seems likely that more will follow suit (the platform is well-suited for quick sessions of gaming throughout the day). And there are other apps available as well, including Gmail and eBay. The company says that Pokki is still in beta and hasn’t yet focused on marketing, but that its early numbers are very promising — so far they’ve seen “hundreds of thousands” of app installs, with users who have used the apps “tens of millions of times”. The platform is also seeing strong traction with its built-in app market: 60% of users are browsing and installing two new apps per month. Pokki is one of two main products from SweetLabs — their other major product is OpenCandy , which lets developers include targeted ads within their application’s install flow.

The 16-Year-Old Startup...

We covered the launch of Summly an application that summarises text last year , but I recently caught up with Nick D’Aloisio, the16 year year-old programmer who came up with the application for a video interview.

RIM’s New CEO Backtrack...

On Monday of this week, RIM’s new CEO made a statement that set off a bomb on the blogosphere, and I’m not sure he understood its repercussions at the time. “I don’t think any drastic change is needed.” If you’ve been paying attention to RIM and its numbers, you know that what the company desperately needs is change. Sales are declining, platform market share is dwindling, and the BlackBerry brand, to a large extent, has lost the power it once had behind it. So in a recent interview with CrackBerry , Heins made sure to clarify exactly what he meant by “no drastic change is needed.” I think this got into a little bit of the black and white zone. I was talking about drastic or seismic changes. What I was trying to address was that there was some suggestion that RIM should be split up or should even be sold. My true belief is that RIM has the strength and the assets that we can really succeed in this market . There is a LOT of change. There is a lot of structure change, there has been already a lot of change in terms of our software, our software platform, bringing QNX in. There is no standstill at any moment here at RIM. What I wanted to make clear to the market is that we believe in our own strength, we are BlackBerry, we are an integrated solution, hardware, software, services, and network. Perhaps, Mr. Heins makes a point. RIM is clearly trying to change. We just haven’t seen it yet. A QNX-based BlackBerry 10 operating system is a huge step in the right direction, but it was announced in April 2010 and won’t be ready until the second half of this year. Quite the wait, if I may be so bold. Then there’s the PlayBook 2.0 OS that’s supposed to make its way to us next month, and refreshed hardware to go along with it which hasn’t been given a clear release date. Again, these are solid changes. PlayBook 2.0 brings everything that the first tablet OS was lacking and does it in a seamless, elegant manner. But … the original PlayBook should’ve launched with this version of the OS, even if it meant the launch would be a bit later. Another case of attempted change, but poor execution. Another change we’ll soon see from RIM has to do with their launch strategy. RIM usually puts out two or three new phones all on the same day. It’s like a BlackBerry explosion. But according to a leaked roadmap , the company seems to finally realize that a staggered approach is the only way to give each device a moment in the sun. It’s a smart move, we just need to experience it. Finally, the BlackBerry London . Despite the fact that RIM’s bread and butter lies with its full QWERTY keyboard, the company is expected to debut BlackBerry 10 on an all-touch device, codenamed London. I have to say I applaud RIM for this choice, for now. RIM’s core audience enjoys the full QWERTY, no doubt, and the company will likely continue to be the de facto when it comes to communication and QWERTY handsets. But (yep, another but)… the world is moving to all-touch whether RIM likes it or not. This is the company’s chance to tap into a different, younger segment of the market. Of course, the London will need to be just about perfect in terms of hardware to get the ball rolling again, especially since RIM’s found itself in an uphill battle. Long story short, RIM certainly is in the midst of a change. Whether it’s big enough or coming soon enough is an entirely different story.

Google Stockpiles Data ...

Data is ammunition in the war for delivering the most relevant information. And Larry Page, the prototypical war-time CEO , has just told everyone to empty their ammo packs so Google can build one big bomb with the words “Facebook” and “Twitter” and “Apple” chalked on the side. The privacy policy change announced today rolls more than 70 separate policies into a single one,  and will let the company combine any piece of data it has about you into a single profile. The point is, in the company’s own words, to help it tailor any of its service to who you are, what you do — and to any friends you have. Think of any random thing you or anyone you’re somehow connected to has done on any Google service ever. Now, assume any of that data could play a part in tailoring search results and ads or anything else to you. Before the launch of Google+ for search last week, this would have been a seminal moment in Google’s history. Lots of people prefer to use Google products separately from each other, and don’t want everything getting mixed up. After the launch, it’s more like a logical follow-up — of course those videos your friends watched on YouTube are going to shape your search results, just like anything else that Google has access to. What we are looking at is how Google is trying to make its social relevancy suck less – a big question that a lot of us have . Google’s data stockpile, once the new privacy policy is pushed through, will be constantly fed by the more than 70 services it currently offers. It’s like an in-house rival to Facebook’s developer platform, through which Facebook can gain valuable new insight into what users care about through how they use apps and web sites. It’s hard to think of any other company with so many web services that have so many users (maybe Yahoo? What if it were do something this ambitious under the new CEO, Scott Thompson — yeah, I twitched writing that sentence). Will the data stockpile actually be that good? Can its social features, however poorly done, provide enough value to users that the shortage of data from competitors like Facebook and Twitter isn’t missed? Or is more like an Alamo, where Google counts its bullets and discovers it just doesn’t have many good ones left. The test, beyond the expected privacy complaints , will now be users actually feel about the results. At this point it’s hard to think of anything as drastic left for the company to do. Assuming tons of users don’t leave in protest, and assuming there aren’t life-threatening legal issues, get ready to sit back and watch Google fight a war of iterative feature development with Facebook, using absolutely every weapon available. [Image via the Frugal Cafe .]

BigCommerce Establishes...

Exclusive - E-commerce platform company BigCommerce has set up a $2 million fund for developers. With the launch of the fund, the Sydney, Australia-based company aims to sway third-party developers into submitting their integration and application ideas for Web, mobile or desktop apps that make use of the BigCommerce API . Caveat: investments in successful entries are capped at $20,000 per project. According to BigCommerce, applications will be assessed on “their ability to drive more traffic to stores running on BigCommerce as well as their ability to integrate BigCommerce with existing systems and applications already used by business owners”. BigCommerce currently integrates with more than 100 applications , including Facebook, eBay, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, SurveyMonkey and more.