How would you like to get a bill paid for something that is just lying around?  Do you want a cell phone or have an old one to sell?  Maybe you have some old accessories to sell.  It doesn’t matter which one is true because Celltradeusa.com has a NEW FREE Classifieds section that does all of this.  That is right, I said FREE!  You can go to the site and make a post for free.  We all know that we have some old cell phones, chargers or cases lying around.  I know I do.  In fact, I wish I would have checked my email before I listed my old cell phone case on Ebay just last night.  Oh well, my bad!

Anyway, go to the classifieds section from the link below and click Post an Ad.  Drop down the category to choose.  Fill out all of the goody information.  You can even upload up to 4 pictures.  The layout reminds me of Ebay a lot.  The classifieds are still in beta for now; but Celltradeusa is celebrating.

Celltradeusa is having a promotion right now! For existing users and new users, place a post for a chance to have your JULY cell phone bill paid by Celltradeusa.  Five blessed souls will be picked at random by the ad id.  So, what are you waiting for?  Go dig up the old cell phones and accessories and start placing ads.  Remember, it is free and tell your friends.  This site also allows you to look and see if there is some phone or accessory that you want  to get.  I for one would like to have my cell phone bill paid.  My wife gives me static about it all the time; but that is another story.

Celltradeusa Classifieds

Iambic has announced that Agendus for iPhone version 1.01 is now live in the iTunes App Store.  The update contains several bug fixes and incorporates new functionality, including OS 3.0 support, full landscape support in all views, and additional offerings for display of tasks and contacts.  Read the full details below:

- Product Summary

Agendus enhances and extends the built-in iPhone Contacts App while introducing its comprehensive Task management functionality, which allows users to get things done quickly and efficiently when on the go, on their iPhone or iPod Touch.

The app includes a Today View, a Task List View, a Compact and
Expanded Contact Views, and facilities such as Contact Linking, One
Tap Dial / Email, quick item deletion, task categories, colors,
grouping and filtering, over-the-air services such as integrated
weather forecasts, and much more.

- Release Highlights

Version 1.01 includes a large number of improvements and fixes over the initial 1.0 release. Most notable are full landscape support in all views and dialogs, OS 3.0 compatibility, and  various new sorting, grouping and display options for both Contact and Task related views (such as priority indicator, due date, default categories, etc.).

The new “services” preference panel allows to have the weather
location automatically determined,  as well as to specify a twitter
client for the “share on twitter” functionality. For the complete
rundown (30+ improvements) please visit the “What’s new” page.

Microfi has recently updated Nitrogen, a free and finger friendly music player for Windows Mobile, to version 1.1.  The update incorporates several bug fixes and addresses memory leaks present in 1.0.  Perhaps the most notable new feature, Nitrogen now supports additional music codecs, including WMA, WAV, AAC, MP4 and M4U thanks to supporting GSPlayer plugins.  You can download the update here.  The full list of new features and fixes found in version 1.1 is below:

• Fixed many memory leaks and minor bugs.
• Added multilanguage support.
• Added option to resume playing when program starts.
• Added GSPlayer support (now accepting WMA/WAV/AAC/MP4/M4U) files.
• Improved the option “Change playing song through previous/next buttons”.
• Nitrogen now pauses when phone received call.
• Song info is available on registry.
• Fixed the MP3 ringtone issue.
• Now handling large album art files.
• Media browser and Equalizer now show “Ok” button instead of “X”, allowing users to close them without closing the whole app.

So, the other day, my wife noticed an email indicating that Amazon had reimbursed us $4.95.  Hey, I am never one to quibble over free money, so I took it.  Well, maybe I should have looked a little closer.  Apparently, that rebate was for a book I had purchased, The Works of George Orwell, obviously by George Orwell, and published by Mobile Reference.  Unbeknownst to me, along with that rebate, Big Brother Amazon was automatically sneaking in over the Whispersync connection and automatically removing the book from my Kindle.  Say what now?  Lucky for me, I had turned off Whispersync in order to conserve power, so I still have the book for the time being. 

The question on everyone’s minds now is what the heck happened.  And what gives Amazon the right to essentially unsell me a book.  I mean, I know when I bought it I did not call “No Give Backs”…but I really did not think I had to do so.  And really, I cannot possibly be the only one who is struck by the absurd irony of doing this with the book 1984, a book in which Big Brother literally controls your thoughts and feelings.

There is a bit of conflicting information going around as to what exactly happened here.  Over at Mashables, they are reporting that the publisher, Mobile Reference, changed their mind and decided not to publish a Kindle edition of the book.  Cnet News, on the other hand, is quoting an Amazon source who stated that the book was improperly distributed without the permission of the rights holder. 

For Amazon’s sake, I certainly hope the second explanation is the truth.  While I do not like the idea of Amazon reaching in and grabbing books off my virtual bookshelf without my knowledge (note to Amazon, an email would have been nice) I can live with this action much better if this was intended to right a wrong, rather than just a wishy-washy publisher.  Then again, every six year old can tell you that two wrongs do not make a right.

Nonetheless, it seems like Amazon has heard the outcry from this one.  They have indicated that they are now changing their terms of service in order to ensure this does not happen again.  Still…it should not have happened in the first place.

I have to say, I love the convenience of the Amazon Kindle, but I am starting to get tired of Amazon’s shenanigans.  In addition to this move, since February, we have seen:

• the on-again-off-again text to speech interface
• prices on the rise
• unadvertised limitations on downloads.

What could possibly be coming next?  The best thing Amazon has going for it right now is the almost complete lack of competition.  They can do whatever they want…and it shows.  Both Barnes and Noble and Borders have waded into the shallow end of the eBook phenomenon, but have both stopped well short of giving the Kindle a true run for its money.  Until that happens, I suspect we can plan on many more of these random and arbitrary moves from the eBook powerhouse.

I have been using the PALM Pre for about five days now, and I think it is fair to say that I am truly impressed by this fantastic device (review coming real soon).  In fact, I have become one of the Pre’s biggest advocates around the JAMM water cooler…with not notable exception.  Although the Pre includes an App Catalog, Palm has not allowed developers to significantly populate it.

Although the Palm Pre was officially released on the Sprint network about a month ago, the SDK was only publicly unveiled yesterday, meaning that only a handful of lucky developers had an opportunity to create applications for the Palm.  In fact, the app Catalog is currently limited to only 30 apps, and is completely unrepresented in many categories.

Now that the SDK has been released to developers, I am sure that over time, this situation will be rectified.  But the question still remains…why wait?  Given the popularity of the iTunes App Store on the iPhone platform and the rate at which both great and terrible apps are coming out over there, why wouldn’t Palm release a more fully stocked App Catalog.  Given the fact that the SDK was privately released to a small group of developers months ago, it could not be argued that the SDK was simply not ready.

One of the biggest arguments I have heard from my iPhone bearing friends is a comparison of the App Store to the App Catalog.  The App Store, they say, has hundreds of iPhone apps, the App Catalog has less than three dozen.  I can’t argue with the numbers.  Though I can point out that for the first year of its life, the iPhone (officially) had no 3rd party apps, while Windows Mobile had thousands of apps available.  Plus, the iTunes App Store has been around for over a year now, the Palm Pre App Catalog has not even been officially released.

All of that being said, though, I still have to question Palm’s strategy here.  They designed this phone to compete against the iPhone.  To be a so called iPhone Killer.  They designed an app store to compete against the iTunes App Store.  So why not have it full loaded and ready to go so that new Palm Pre users opening the App Catalog for the first time are not met with mostly empty shelves.   Hopefully this will not be the miscalculation which sinks an otherwise fantastic platform.

In the days leading up to the official launch of the Palm Pre App Catalog, I can only say that I hope Palm will learn from Apple when it sets its pricing structure.  It is extremely easy to hit purchase on a 99 cent app or game. Not so much on one which is $9.99 or above.  I think one of the great moves Apple made was making the apps in the App Store entirely affordable, with an extremely high percentage of them rolling in at $2.99 or less.  Take it from me, Palm, that is an example to follow.