On my smartphone, I have applications for managing my tasks, appointments and documents, creating my shopping lists, a flashlight, games and quizzes, videos, educational tools for my little one, etc. Recently, based on my colleague’s recommendation, I downloaded another app Beat the Traffic for easing my commute to the office. The smartphone surge has led to an ‘app culture’ surge.

Last week, RIM announced plans to greatly expand the application options and abilities for the BlackBerry PlayBook which is scheduled to launch in the U.S. and Canada on April 19th.  The BlackBerry PlayBook is RIM’s answer to the tablet.  It is expected to be in direct competition with the iPad and iPad 2 as well as Android powered tablets.  The PlayBook will run on a new operating system, the BlackBerry Tablet OS based on QNX Neutrino.  The tablet has been surrounded with a lot of hype since it’s announcement back in September.  So far it is receiving positive reviews.  If you already have a BlackBerry smartphone, you are able to wirelessly connect to the PlayBook for real time access to Email, calendar, address book, task list and BBM.  The PlayBook has a 7” LCD display, 1 GHz dual-core processor and 1GB RAM.  It allows high speed connections for 3G network access using your BlackBerry smartphone as a modem as well as 4G network access available on the BlackBerry 4G PlayBook tablet as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities.

Greetings from 35,000 feet over the United States.  As I sit here with my Android tablet playing a movie (The Social Network, of course) and my iPad on my lap, I can't help but thinking about last night watching Tron Legacy with my kids.   They called it the Grid and whether you call it the Grid, the Net, the Web, or the Cloud I am constantly amazed at what we've created.  

I recently went to my doctor to investigate something that was troubling me.  Believe it or not, several times a minute I feel a short vibration or buzz in my heart area. It has been happening for 3- 4 weeks and, until late last week, I did not realize it was actually my heart. I had dismissed it for weeks thinking it was my breathing, vibrations in the floor of my office, and, yes, my BlackBerry.

In response to Clint’s last blog “Fear the Droid,” sure, his points are valid from an IT perspective, but as user, here’s what I think is great about the Droid.When the Motorola Droid by Verizon was first announced and commercials started to air, I remember thinking (as I am sure thousands of others did), what is this device? What can it do? What does it look like? (They didn’t include photos in the first commercials.) And wait—it’s NOT an iPhone? I didn’t want to jump into it purely because it was the new thing or because of their commercials, but as a fan of Google and their applications I was excited to see them develop a mobile OS and partner with Verizon.

A With government pumping hundreds of billions into the U.S. economy this year and last in an attempt to save the country from total economic disaster, more and more people are asking where and how that money is being spent.  An article in the Washington Post last week outlines the problem the Obama administration “tech-savvy as it is,” according to Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), will have ensuring transparency.

Saw this ad on the back of this week’s Newsweek.  The ad copy starts with “Introducing a new workspace that is less stuffy than the office, and more productive than your home.”  Those assertions are debatable.  But what really struck me is how it ends: “You can now feel confident announcing that you’re Working from Phone today.”