Photo by Scott Huber

Last week, I spoke at Inverge 2008, the interactive convergence conference held in Portland, Oregon. Conference founder Steve Gehlen was kind enough to give me not one, but two five-minute slots to talk about the iPhone. The first talk focuses on the platform opportunity and why I am passionate about the iPhone as a game-changer in the mobile space (passionate enough to transition out of a very cool job as an open source analyst and focus on the iPhone full-time). The second talk focuses on the diversity of applications available today in the App Store. In an attempt for this talk to be a bit more entertaining to the audience during that 3-4pm hormonal low point after lunch (and it worked), a fair number of the 20 applications I cover fall into the amusing or absurd categories. I hope you enjoy my slides!

Why 2008 changes everything (in mobile tech)

2008 will be known as the year that mobile computing changed forever. With the launch of a development ecosystem around the Apple iPhone, the global launch of the iPhone 3G, the pending release of Google’s new mobile operating system, Android, and Nokia’s acquisition of Symbian, what we’ve known historically as ‘mobile phones’ have suddenly become something much more. We are witnessing the birth of a new class of technology – pocket-sized devices with always-on broadband that understand who you are and where you are. The implications of this convergence are far-reaching, and perhaps a bit disturbing for some.

20 things you never thought you’d do with a mobile phone!

July 11th marked the release of iPhone 3G and with it, Apple’s launch of the App Store, an online marketplace of downloadable applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. In just over a month since its debut, more than 2,000 third-party native applications are already available. While many of the applications fall into predictable categories – multimedia, entertainment, and productivity tools, many of these innovative, amusing, and even absurd applications are the talk of the ‘net. Raven takes a look at 20 things you’d never thought you’d do with a mobile phone.

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