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Yesterday, we talked a bit about how some companies are clearly trying to capitalize on the Swine Flu craze that is sweeping the nation. Naturally, someone just had to make an iPhone app.

And the winner is IntuApps, which has Swine Flu Tracker, waiting for approval from Apple before it’s released into the App Store. IntuApps’ Barry Schwartz, who is also a blogger, sent along some screenshots of the app. In it, you can see the current Threat Level for the disease, a map showing confirmed and suspected cases, a symptoms area to inform people, and an alert page for breaking news on Swine Flu.

Everyone is joking about Swine Flu because of the whole pig angle, but it is at least somewhat of a serious threat. And while this iPhone app may be the latest thing to capitalize on it, it’s also pretty useful as a way to know what areas to avoid on the go. It’s good to know that IntuApps will be giving the app away for free when it is available in the App Store.

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Millward Brown, a subsidiary of the WPP, has come out with its annual list and report, BrandZ, that ranks the most valuable brands in the world. Unsurprisingly, Google tops the list for the third year in a row, with the Google brand valued at $100 billion, rising 16% in value over the past year from $86 billion. Microsoft comes in second, with its brand valued at $76.2 billion, only rising 8% in value over the past year. Last summer, Google had the no. 2 reputation in the world, according to The Reputation Index, and Microsoft didn’t even break into the top 40 (the company was ranked #43 in terms of reputation). In last year’s BrandZ rankings, Microsoft was third on the list behind General Electric, so the company has inched a little closer to Google.

Other notable tech companies that made the top 10 in this years most valuable brands list were IBM (no. 4, valuation: $66.6B), Apple (no. 6, Valuation: $63.1B), China Mobile (no. 7, Valuation: $61.2B), and Vodafone (no. 9, valuation: $53.7B). Ten of the top 25 brands are technology brands. Amazon is no. 26, AT&T is no. 28, Cisco is no. 30, eBay is no. 54 and Yahoo is no. 81, falling from no. 62 last year. Yahoo’s brand value went from $11.5B to $7.9B.

Here’s the top 20 list and a screenshot of the top 100 below:

1. Google ($100 B)
2. Microsoft ($76.2 B)
3. Coca-Cola ($67.6 B)
4. IBM ($66.6 B)
5. McDonalds ($66.5 B)
6. Apple ($66.1 B)
7. China Mobile ($61.2 B)
8. GE ($59.7 B)
9. Vodafone ($53.7 B)
10. Marlboro ($49.4 B)
11. Walmart ($41 B)
12. ICBC ($35 B)
13. Nokia ($35.1 B)
14. Toyota ($29.9 B)
15. UPS ($27.8 B)
16. Blackberry ($27.4 B)
17. HP ($26.7 B)
18. BMW ($23.9 B)
19. SAP ($23.6 B)
20. Disney ($23.1 B)
21. Tesco ($22.9 B)
22. Gillete ($22.9 B)
23. Intel ($22.8 B)
24. China Construction Bank ($22.8 B)
25. Oracle ($21.4 B)

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This list is in. Time has released its annual Time 100 list, honoring the most influential people in the world. There are a lot of interesting names including Sarah Palin and President Obama, but let’s focus on the names from the tech sphere.

Moot (the creator of 4chan), Jeff Bezos, The Twitter Guys, Sam & Dan Houser, Jack Ma, Robin Chase, Nathaniel Silver, Nandan Nilekani, and Shai Agassi have all been included. And some of their write-ups are really interesting because of their authors. For example, Moot is written up by the man perhaps now best known for being the “Rick” in the “Rick Roll”, Rick Astley. The “Twitter Guys” (founders Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey) are written up by Ashton Kutcher, the first Twitter user with a million followers. And Jeff Bezos is written up by Bill Gates.

Here’s a line from the Twitter story that will no doubt infuriate those that hate Twitter:

Years from now, when historians reflect on the time we are currently living in, the names Biz Stone and Evan Williams will be referenced side by side with the likes of Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi, Philo Farnsworth, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

In his profile of Moot, Astley admits that at first he was a bit embarrassed by the phenomenon of Rick Rolling, but then embraced it. Oddly, he spends almost the entire article talking about himself. He also uses the word “bonkers.” 4chan dominated the online voting portion for the Time 100 list, to win it easily and his followers even manipulated the 20 runners-up to make a joke. But Time kept its promise to honor the winner.

[photo: Robyn Twomey for TIME]

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It looks like all it took for details of Palm’s post-Pre phone to begin spilling out was for us to break the news of it yesterday. Just hours after, a blurry shot of the handset was out. Now, before the next day is even half way over, a decent shot and a full list of purported specs have made their way out.

We’re getting conflicting reports of what this thing is codenamed. Some are calling it “Pixie”, while others are calling it “Castle”. As for it’s official name, it’s currently rumored to be called the “Palm EOS” - which seems like a horrible name compared to “Palm Pre”. Looking like the oh-so-gorgeous offspring of a Centro and a Pre, all we know is that we’re aching to touch it.

Read the rest of this entry >>

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Many of us have been saying it for a long time: location based services are the future. But up until now they’ve been a distant, hazy future, because they’ve been so difficult to use. That’s going to change soon, and it looks like Google is going to be leading the way.

Google has just announced that it has become the default location provider service in Firefox, which means beginning in the latest Firefox Beta (available here) users will be able to update their location from their web browser without having to install an extra plugins or programs through Google. This is big.

Location based services take a lot of flack for their privacy issues, but so far the biggest obstacle in their acceptance has been that they’re a huge pain to use, typically requiring extra browser plugins and annoying sign-up processes. The new version of Firefox is probably going to change that, at least for desktop browsers, because it will have location detection baked in. Up until now it seemed like Mozilla was going to be using Geode, a plugin it first annouced back in October, as its default location provider.

The switch to Google is obviously a big win for Google Latitude, and it will also likely give Google access to volumes of local data that will allow it to offer hyper-targeted advertising to businesses (or maybe not, at least for now - see below). As with Google’s search deal with Mozilla, which was recently extended through 2011, I suspect Google is paying a pretty penny for the right to be the browser’s default provider. In 2006, that search deal alone reportedly accounted for $57 million, or around 85% of Mozilla’s total revenue.

Update: Mozilla says that there is no money changing hands in this case, and that it is totally unrelated to the search deal. Mozilla wanted to break the ‘chicken and the egg’ problem of location, and decided to go with Google because they saw eye-to-eye on privacy issues.
Update 2: Google says that the data isn’t currently being used for advertising purposes (at least for now), and that this is really about getting location-based functionality deployed to the web. But even without the advertising dollars, there is one very major upside: Google is going to be able to perfect its location database, with millions of users tapping into it on a daily basis. And that database is going to be extremely valuable going forward.

Google’s plans extend well beyond the Firefox browser, too. Internet Explorer is still the dominant browser on the web, and Google recently released an update to its Toolbar which includes the same location detection service as Firefox will. Of course, users will still have to download the plugin, which makes the barrier to entry significantly higher than it will be on Firefox.

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Update: This story is breaking incredibly fast - we’ve already got more details, including the name and hardware specs.

We’ve got more information on the upcoming Palm WebOS device to debut later this year. We broke the news yesterday of its existence. Now we’ve got the internal name for the project: Pixie.

The Pixie will use the same WebOS operating system and software as the Palm Pre, but in a smaller candy-bar form factor and a target $99 price point, say our sources. It will be released only a few months after the Pre in June, so this isn’t an upgrade device. It’s targeted at the lower end of the market.

Yesterday we didn’t know if the device would have a fixed physical keyboard. Today we’ve confirmed that it does. Physically the device will resemble the existing Palm Centro line of phones, but the hardware and software is a clean wipe. The Pixie is the Pre’s little brother.

We have conflicting sources talking about launch plans. One source says it’s full steam ahead. Another says Palm is waiting to see how the Pre does before announcing the Pixie.

This morning Boy Genius Report posted a blurry picture (which we use above) of a new Palm device that fits all the facts as we’ve heard independently. Until we see something we trust more, we’re going with this.

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Today Aroxo launches an ambitious play, aiming to create a brand new space in between online retailing and the auction model - specifically targeting eBay. This is, put simply, the thousands of years old process of buyers and sellers haggling over price put into an online model. But there is more to it that that, since it also brings pre-qualified leads to sellers who want to offload inventory quickly. And unlike the group-buying models of old, it can dish out instant sales. Unlike on Priceline, buyers can negotiate the price and aren’t initially committed to a purchase. It can be an anonymous disposal system for the supplier, or they can brand the hell out of it with their logo, the works. It’s the sort of site that could well appeal to recession-hit retailers and backyard eBay businesses.

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In a few hours, Facebook will roll out changes to one of its main areas, “Friends,” designed to make it easier and more obvious as to how to add friends, make Friend Lists and edit those lists. This is important as filtering is a key part of the newly redesigned homepage, and up until now it’s been a bit confusing for some users as to how to create these lists.

The specific changes to the area involve moving “Create New List,” “Edit List,” and “Delete List” buttons to the top of the area above your list of friends. Clicking on the Create New List button will open an overlay that allows you to click on friends’ faces to add them to this new list. You can also type in their name and have them show up. Editing an existing friend list is just as easy.

But something else really interesting that Facebook is doing is that it is now auto-populating some lists for you, if you don’t have any. It’s doing this by using the details you entered when you confirmed a friendship with someone — the “How do you know this person?” question. This auto-generation of lists will no doubt spur more usage of them and will hopefully help less savvy users figure out how to use them to make the site more manageable.

When you visit this new Friends area, you’ll also see at the very top of the page a big box to help you find friends that you email most often. Below this, is the Suggestions area which lists several people Facebook thinks you may be friends with based on your existing connections. You can also find people based on what school you went to and also based on their IM name on various services.

Friend lists have existed in one form or another on Facebook since 2007. Their most obvious usage before the redesign was to give different friends different privacy settings, to modify what they could or could not see. But as I mentioned, these lists are now just as important for your own experience on Facebook, to filter the social stream. All of your Friend Lists will now show up on the left hand sidebar of the main page. You can easily rearrange these lists by dragging them into new positions. The top one will be your default view of the Facebook News Feed.

Facebook is quick to note that your friends will not be able to see what lists you’ve put them in. So when you add Jim to your “Dumbass” list, you’ll be fine unless he’s looking over your shoulder when you’re signed into your own account.

Check out the screenshots and a video below.

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Viximo, which provides a platform for the creation, distribution, and monetization of virtual goods for social networks and mobile devices, has secured $5 million in a round of funding from North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners. Former CEO Rob Frasca has been replaced by acting CEO Dayna Grayson, who works at North Bridge Venture Partners.

Viximo, which launched last fall, provides an embeddable gift store and showcase that can be integrated into any site, and also markets its own micro-transaction system. Viximo has formed partnerships with a number of Facebook applications, as well as stand alone websites looking to integrate their own stores. Partners include Always Athletes, which produces a Facebook app called My Sports Career; We’re Related; Birthday Calendar (another Facebook app), and World Winner, a standalone site. Most recently, Viximo released a landmark new development platform called VixML that allows iPhone application designers to create basic applications with a minimal amount of programming knowledge.

Thanks to VirtualGoodsNews for the tip.

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The latest 2009 JD Power Consumer Smartphone Satisfaction Study numbers are in. And the winner is … the iPhone. Apple’s device nearly swept every category, with top marks in operating system, features, ease of operation, physical design and overall satisfaction. In fact, the only device it didn’t receive the highest marks in was “battery aspects.”

Looking at the chart, all of Apple’s rivals in the smartphone field were middling. HTC, Motorola, Palm, RIM and Samsung had mostly 2 or 3 stars across the board where Apple had 5. LG faired second best with 4 stars across the board expect for operating system, where it got 3.

Palm should feel okay knowing that early reports on its upcoming Pre device have it battling the iPhone in design, operating system and features. Perhaps next year, Apple won’t sweep so easily through the field. Of course, its weak spot, battery, may be improved shortly with the launch of the next version of the iPhone, which may happen this summer.

Speaking of battery, that’s the only category RIM did well in. And according to the consumers surveyed, that was the least important feature (in terms of this survey) of the device. That can’t be good new for the BlackBerry-maker, as consumers largely viewed its devices as “meh.”

Overall, Apple scored 791 on a 1,000-point scale. LG was second with 772 and Samsung third with 759.

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