The app takes advantage of the BlackBerry’s trackball for a quick and simple way to find, discover, and buy products from Amazon.com, as well as from thousands of other retailers.

There you go. Now you have no excuse not to shop, at least for inexpensive things. Just remember to do it responsibly.

Believe it or not, the way to help us get out of this recession is to shop as often as you can manage. And Amazon just made it even easier for you to do that, if you have a BlackBerry.

Beyond that, according to Director of Amazon Mobile Sam Hall, the app also allows you to access the Amazon Remembers feature, which is an easy way to build an image list of products you want to remember for later or to make price comparisons across multiple merchants.

Amazon’s iPhone app launched in December, and on Thursday the company released its Amazon App for BlackBerry. Like the
iPhone app, this new application can be downloaded for free.

The coolest feature of the app is that it allows you to snap photos of a product with your BlackBerry, and the photos are automatically uploaded to Amazon.com. The company will then try to find products similar to the ones in the photos. As soon as a product is found, you can purchase it immediately or save it to the “remember it” file in your Amazon account.

Purchase using Amazon’s 1-Click ordering and Amazon Prime Track packages or modify orders using the Your Account feature
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(Credit:
Amazon)

Updated at 8:45 a.m. PT with information from Google App Engine blog on planned data migration tools.

But it’s also possible that this is one more sign that one of the big guys is forgetting the principles–the Internet as a platform (not “my company as a platform”), harnessing the power of user contribution (which, as John Musser pointed out, means that you always “pay the user first”), small pieces loosely joined–that brought their success in the first place.

“With Google App Engine, you own all the data in your app. As stated in our terms, you always have the right to get your data out of Google App Engine at any point. We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Gibbs wrote.

Google appears to already be on the case of data portability. On the Google App Engine Blog, software engineer Kevin Gibbs said that one planned feature is large-scale data import and export.

Within a few days of its release, programmer Chris Anderson wrote some open-source software, called AppDrop, that shows that you can conceivably run an instance written for Google App Engine on Amazon.com’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon’s hosted server platform.

One thing both Amazon and Google could do to really show they are serious about their platforms is open up their data engines, which are really the core of most Web applications–open-source BigTable and SimpleDB. This would really reduce lock-in and make development easier, and it might even lead to some help improving their services.

Think his concerns are overblown? He’s not the only one.

O’Grady at RedMonk, too, argued that Google should open-source portions of its infrastructure or offer an API (application programming interface) to its data store that would ease portability to other databases.

But Google? The search giant is hosting a Web development conference next month, not to sell more software stacks or subscriptions, but to encourage more apps–and people–to move to the Web, it says.

As people get their heads around Google App Engine, they see some things they may not like. Namely, the dreaded “lock-in.”

It’s likely that Google will allow applications written with other languages, like JavaScript. But the nub of online-platform lock-in comes from the data store, Bosworth said.

But as more application development moves to hosted platforms, does data and application portability get lost in “the cloud”?

Still, O’Reilly takes Google to task for the lack of application portability–at least in this first iteration of Google App Engine.

Developer Alex Bosworth listed lock-in as his top concern with Google App Engine.

“Now, it may be that this is a temporary oversight, and that Google does intend, long-term, to make it easy for developers to export their applications. After all, Eric Schmidt says he reminds his employees all the time, “Don’t fight the Internet.”

Given that we’re at an early point in platform-as-a-service offerings, I’d say lock-in, to some degree, is inevitable. Most people consider Salesforce.com’s Force.com closed, as it’s based on the company’s database and query language.

Tim O’Reilly dissected whether Google’s App Engine is a lock-in play on Monday, and RedMonk analyst Stephen O’Grady hit the issue head-on with his excellent Q&A on what Google App Engine actually is.

But it’s good to see these issues raised and for developers to push for more openness. After all, standards, portability, and interoperability have been good to the Web.

Developers for years have been clamoring for more openness and standards. They are tenets of the open-source movement.

Once again, Google gets tongues a-waggin’, even when it isn’t the first to a party.

While the report’s conclusions weren’t surprising, some of the specific market data buried inside were. For example:

Radio rules. A Q3 2007 survey of more than 5,000 U.S. adults with online access showed that 94% of them still listen to the radio, and on average spend 43% of their overall audio-listening time with radio–far ahead of #2, CDs, which occupy only 20% of listeners’ time. I’d guess that a lot of this time is spent in the
car, and with talk radio rather than music, but those numbers still surprised me. Apparently not everybody likes to program their own playlist. An interesting and related point: among survey members who owned an MP3 player, radio listening time was dramatically lower at only 25% of total, but still comes in ahead of the time they spend listening to their MP3 player, which was only 22%.
PCs beat MP3 players. I thought the main reason you’d want to get your music onto a computer is so you could get it onto another device, like an
iPod. But the survey showed that 62% of the subjects listen to music files on a PC, while only 43% of them listen to music on an MP3 player. Even 48% of them listen to Internet radio–again, listeners want to be surprised from time to time.

A quarter of iPod sales are repeat customers. Of the iPod owners in the survey, 25% of them say they’ll buy another in the next twelve months. That’s phenomenal–I can’t think of another consumer electronics product that had such high repeat-purchase figures after only about five years on the market. Walkmen, maybe. DVD players as a group, perhaps, but not one particular brand. This just shows how dominant Apple is in this market.

Zune 1.0 was a non-factor. When researchers asked MP3 player owners which one they bought most recently, the
Zune was in second-to-last place, with only 2% of respondents naming it. Nearly everybody else–Toshiba (2%), iRiver (3%), Samsung (4%), Coby (4%), Creative (8%), Sandisk (11%), Sony (11%), and Apple (43%)–was ahead, with only Archos trailing. Now, this was before before Microsoft had cheaper Flash-based Zunes, while most of these other companies have multiple models on the market. Still, given the amount of marketing Microsoft put behind the Zune, I was surprised to see so many other companies ahead in the U.S.–the global figures are probably even lower, given that Zune isn’t available anywhere else. The Zune group’s recent silence about market data and price cut on the 8GB model don’t bode well, but we’ll see what the figures say for holiday 2008.

300 Gerbilpower

It turns out that I wasn’t missing a thing.

What I couldn’t get used to, however, was the terrible visibility in the rearview mirror or how easily the side windows fogged up. That, coupled with the distracting display panel and the poorly positioned hand controls on the steering wheel (changing the radio station from the steering wheel is an exercise in frustration) meant that I couldn’t wait to get rid of the car. Hopefully next time Hertz will give me a Ford Fiesta or Toyota Corolla.

It does have some nice touches. For one, it’s cool how fast the engine starts. You push the start button and drive. While it’s a bit disconcerting at first to not here the engine when I’d come to a stop (the gerbils didn’t even breathe heavily), I got used to it.

At any rate, if you drive a Prius, I apologize. It might make you feel good about yourself but while you might be saving the environment you’re killing gerbils en masse. And to think they’ve sacrificed so much for such paltry performance….

Hertz screwed up my reservation and so “upgraded” me to a Prius. Having lived in the Valley for a few years, I was used to seeing socially conscious, ecologically smug entrepreneurs driving around in their gerbilmobiles, but this was my first chance to drive one.

The worst thing about the Prius, however, is that it constantly reminds you of how socially conscious it is with an obnoxious display that shows the cogs turning (read: gerbils running). I managed to turn it off while I was driving, but it kept coming back whenever I restarted the
car (by yelling “Giddyup!” at the gerbils).

(Credit:
Matt Asay)

If you live in Silicon Valley, you dream of the day when you will be rich enough to slum around in a Toyota Prius. Today I got to live the Prius dream. I just hope the gerbils powering the “engine” get a rest tonight.

commentary

Recently, the Winklevoss twins have been in the news because of their long-running lawsuit against Facebook founder Zuckerberg, whom they had once hired as a programmer for ConnectU.

Since 2004, they have alleged that he stole their business plan and source code. The legal fight dragged on until a settlement was reached earlier this year. Then, however, ConnectU’s lawyers challenged the agreement and claimed that Facebook had committed fraud. Earlier this week, a judge decided to enforce the settlement, which provided ConnectU with a mixture of cash and stock (effectively, an acquisition by Facebook).

It was no secret that the Winklevoss twins (or “Winklevii,” as they are reportedly nicknamed) were in the running for the Beijing squad, but their spots on the roster were not guaranteed until Friday’s announcement.

(Credit:
usrowing.org)

Click here for more stories on tech and the Beijing Olympics.

Tyler Winklevoss, one-third of ConnectU’s founding and one-half of the U.S. men’s straight pair.

The identical twins, who founded one-time Facebook rival ConnectU with their Harvard classmate Divya Narendra, have earned spots on the U.S. Olympic rowing team that will compete later this summer in Beijing. The team’s roster was announced Friday and is currently pending approval by the United States Olympic Committee.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss might not have gotten their way with Mark Zuckerberg, but they’ve got a different prize in mind now: Olympic glory.

Also worth reading: a California company has developed a mobile fuel cell that can power a rugged laptop; Engadget has “in the wild” photos of the oh-so-shiny Voodoo Envy 133; Newmarket Technology acquired Everex, manufacturer of the CloudBook, from its Taiwan-based parent company; and the U.S. Congress debated the issues of searching citizens’ laptops when they return to the country from abroad.

Finally, as part of his summer road trip, CNET News.com reporter Daniel Terdiman discovered that your busted Toshiba laptop is likely to be repaired by UPS..

The week belonged to Dell, which finally confirmed one of the worst kept secrets in laptopdom, the Studio line of laptops. Somewhere between the budget Inspiron line and high-end XPS line, the Studio 15 and Studio 17 are available with a variety of colors and lid imprint patterns; buyers–whom Dell describes as “today’s digital nomad”–can also snap up optional color-coordinated accessories. But how do the new laptops perform? Read our Dell Studio 15 review for the full scoop.

Aside from launching new laptops, Dell also made headlines by briefly extending the deadline for ordering a system with Windows XP. Now that the deadline’s passed, though, you’ll have to pay $50 for the XP downgrade option. Buyers can take solace in the fact that Dell’s upgrades are still cheaper than Apple’s, according to the super-sleuths at CNET U.K.

Other product news this week included rumors of new Sony notebooks and an actual announcement of the Panasonic ToughBook CF-U1. Also announced were laptops to incorporate AMD’s Puma platform: the HP Pavilion dv5z and a raft of Toshiba Satellites.

Have a great weekend!

In little-laptop news, we waited in vain for the MSI Wind, which was supposed to start shipping today but didn’t. However, the Intel Atom-based Eee PC 901 did show up–am I the only one who’s losing track of all the Eee PC’s variations? Colleagues at CNET Asia reported on two Atom-based tablets from Kohjinsha that are popping up in Japan. Also in Japan, Mouse Computer announced the awesomely named, 10.6-inch LuvBook U100.

As promised in an earlier version of this post, I have secured more invitations to the Seesmic private beta. Send an email to rafe@seesmic.com (which is not me; I won’t see these). The first 100 emails will get access codes. Good luck!

Also, there’s now a mobile application (Nokia N95 only so far), from which you can create and view Seesmic posts. Mobile Seesmics aren’t streamed live like they are with Qik or Flixwagon, but it does make it easier to play in the network.

See my previous review, Seesmic: It’s video Twitter and then some.

Seesmic gets N95 support. But you don't get Seesmic.

Net income for the quarter was $10 million, or 8 cents per share, up from $3.7 million, or 3 cents per share, in the previous year.

On Wednesday, Salesforce announced it was acquiring InStranet, a Chicago-based maker of call-center software, for around $31.5 million. Salesforce plans to use InStranet’s technology both internally, and as a new software-as-a-service offering expected to launch within 18 months.

The stock slip came despite a strong second quarter. Salesforce announced revenue of $263.1 million for the second quarter ended July 31, up 49 percent year-over-year, and 6 percent from the most recent quarter. Revenue from subscriptions hit $239.7 million, up from $160 million in the year-ago quarter, while services revenue rose to $23.4 million from $16.6 million in the year-ago quarter.

Thursday, Piper Jaffray downgraded the stock from “buy” to “neutral.”

Shares were trading at $55.80 by midday, down from Wednesday’s close of $65.30.

Looking ahead, the company said it expects revenue in the third quarter to be between $273 million and $274 million, slightly below analysts’ expectations.

What about MySpace?:

“We’re not in a position to verify the age or legal status of any user, given the tremendous number of users accessing Google services. That said, when we become aware of a user who is violating our Terms of Service, including not being of proper age to accept the Terms of Service, we take appropriate action, which could include the termination of the user’s Google Account.”

When I asked what the company would do if it found out that someone under 18 were using search, or Gmail, the spokesperson told me:

The problem with this, of course, is that all 50 states in the United States require that someone be at least 18 years old to form a binding contract. As for what happens when a person under 18 attempts to agree to a click-through contract, the jury is still out on that one.

To this outside observer, it seems a little bit strange that 13+ year-olds can use social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, where many users post their gender, sexuality, religion, and a large number of potentially embarrassing photos. Yet, those same teenagers are forbidden from conducting a Web search. Surely things should be the other way around.

Google’s terms of service, thick with legalese, state that:

“This Site is intended solely for users who are thirteen years of age or older, and users of the Site under 18 who are currently in high school or college.”

The answer, for now, will remain unknown. Google’s PR people toe the company line, and its lawyers, well, remain lawyers.

Google’s terms of service, while ignored by the vast majority of users, contain a pretty shocking clause: Under 18’s are not permitted to use any of Google’s Web properties. That’s right, kids–no search, YouTube, Gmail, news, or images.

Facebook’s terms of service state:

Conflicting messages
Google is currently running a Doodle 4 Google contest, in which K-12 students take a shot at designing a Google company logo. The winner will receive $10,000 and their art will appear on Google’s home page for a day.

When contacted about the matter, a Google spokesperson initially told me that “users need to be at least 13 years old to use Gmail.”

“By using the MySpace Services, you represent and warrant that … you are 14 years of age or older.”

Under 18s wishing to watch YouTube videos of skateboarding dogs, or perform research for a school project will have to go elsewhere–Ask.com or Microsoft’s Live.com search, perhaps. The message from Mountain View seems clear: We don’t want your (underage) business.

This is hardly Joe Camel territory, but it is still very strange. Why has the company gone out of its way to write up a terms of service that bans kids, yet at the same time, is engaged in kid-friendly promotions? Why does the site include anti-kid legalese that none of its competitors has opted to include?

When viewed in light of the “no kids here” policy in the terms of service, Google’s school outreach seems rather strange. Ironically, the winner of the contest will be forbidden from viewing his or her artwork on the main Google page, unless a parent types in the URL for them.

After first seeing Google’s no-kids policy in the company’s terms of service, any rational person would assume that it’s just standard legalese that all companies are required to include. However, it turns out that Google’s dot-com competition is far more kid friendly.

However, when I pointed out that the language in the company’s terms of service contradicted her statement, she clarified her remarks, stating that: “We require users to be able to form a legally binding contract in order to use our services. The actual age required to form a legally binding contract may differ based on jurisdiction.”

As for Microsoft’s Live.com search engine and Ask.com, their terms of service don’t mention age at all.

Panasonic DMP-BD55

Key step-up features of the Panasonic DMP-BD55:

Panasonic DMP-BD35

Key features of the Panasonic DMP-BD35:

7.1 multichannel analog outputs
High-end internal audio components

The DMP-BD35 looks to have a pretty solid feature set. Profile 2.0 support means you’ll be able to take advantage of BD-Live features available on some newer Blu-ray discs, and onboard decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio means you’ll be able to take advantage of both high resolution soundtrack formats with any HDMI-capable receiver. This model seems to be pretty close to the DMP-BD50 in terms of features, but we’re hoping it sports a price tag under $400.

Blu-ray Profile 2.0
Onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, as well as bitstream output
Blu-ray and DVD playback at 24 frames per second
Ethernet port for firmware and content
Deep Color and x.v.Color support
SDHC card slot

While the step-up features on the DMP-BD55 look pretty minor, we’re happy to see this kind of product differentiation on Blu-ray players. The majority of home theater fans don’t need 7.1 analog outputs–and can opt for the cheaper DMP-BD35–while the few people that do need it can opt for the more expensive DMP-BD55. Of course, we’ll also be interested to see if there are any performance differences between these two players, and we’re hoping for improved DVD performance from players, as the DMP-BD50’s DVD playback had room for improvement.

Rumors of new Panasonic Blu-ray players have been kicking around for weeks, but now it’s official. Panasonic has announced two new Blu-ray players at CEDIA, the DMP-BD35 and DMP-BD55, which look to be mostly a refinement of the cutting-edge DMP-BD50 that was released this spring. There is no pricing or release dates yet, but let’s take a look at the major features of these new players.