Florencio Benson

Television ads for the iPhone promise that "There's an app for that." And, if you're talking about to-do lists, tip calculators, and myriad other categories, that's likely true. And, assuming you have the programming chops to actually build such an app, how can you expect to garner any attention in an App Store that's jammed with 80,000 or so other programs also hoping to catch the eyes of users? But what if there's not an app to pull off the particular task you're hoping to perform on your iPhone? Appswell thinks it has the answer to both problems-an iPhone app that lets you propose ideas for mobile applications and vote on which ones should ever see the light of day. "We really believe the next big iPhone app idea is bouncing around the head of users," said Daniel Sullivan, Appswell's president and founder.

Other users, who've registered with Appswell, can offer their feedback on the idea, voting for the ones they like. The app-also called Appswell-allows users to submit ideas for iPhone and iPod touch applications. Every four weeks or so, Appswell picks a winner based on user votes. Appswell, along with its partner Bit Group will turn the app proposal into a finished product. The prize?

The user who came up with the idea gets $1,000 plus 10 percent of the profits from subsequent App Store sales. The idea has to be something that Appswell and Bit Group are able to build and it has to adhere to Apple's standards for iPhone apps-no porn, bandwidth hogging, privacy-compromising, malicious, or illegal apps, in other words. And then the contest kicks off again. (There are some general requirements for app ideas, Sullivan says. Which, sadly, eliminates, most of my app ideas right off the bat.) While Appswell is billing its crowd-sourced approach to app development as "The American Idol of iPhone apps, contest winners will be entirely chosen by other Appswell users, with no panel of judges weighing in with its opinions. By involving users early in the development process, Appswell believes, it can find out what consumers want before apps are even built.

So don't look for the App Store equivalent of a Simon Cowell making lemon faces while you describe your idea for the perfect iPhone app. "Right now, we really want to take this as the voice of the [Appswell] community," Sullivan said. "We don't want to put a filter on it." In addition to giving users the chance to propose ideas for would-be iPhone apps, Sullivan thinks Appswell's approach solves one of the major dilemmas facing developers-namely that it's hard to stand out in the App Store with so many apps arriving on any given day. And Appswell-developed apps will have a built-in fanbase of users who voted on the app from the get-go; that potentially gives the app an edge when it eventually arrives in the App Store. Mac users might remember My Dream App, a contest that generated several "winning" app ideas, but none of the apps ever saw the light of day. It remains to be seen, though, how successful the crowd-sourcing of app ideas can be.

Microsoft's acid-tongued covert blogger Mini-Microsoft offered up a report card on Thursday's all-company meeting at Seattle's Safeco Field, giving CEO Steve Ballmer   two zeros and accusing business division president Stephen Elop of "sucking the life out of the stadium." While Microsoft employees provided tepid tweets from the company meeting that pulled 20,000 of them into the baseball stadium and jammed AT&T's cellular network, Mini-Microsoft looked for signs that the company was tuned into the job at hand, understood the impact of thousands of layoffs over the past year, and how Microsoft might stem inefficiencies at the company. He must acknowledge it starkly. The evolution of Microsoft Windows Seven things to love, hate about Windows 7 CEO Ballmer was the first to disappoint, according to Mini-Microsoft, who hoped that the company leader would "come out front first, before any other Microsoft leadership, to speak the truth about the last year and where we are now. We had layoffs.

Ballmer got zeros on both counts. We had inefficiencies." Ballmer, however, didn't appear until the end, slapping hands with employees sitting close to the stage and tearing an iPhone out of an employee's hands and pretending to stomp on it. Elop faired even worse, drawing Mini-Microsoft's wrath for crushing the blogger's hope for short, sweet and powerful demos. "Elop. Baby. Steven. Dynamics.

What did I do to you to have that forced down my eyeballs? ... Geez. XRM. Really? Did anyone give you advice that this was a bad idea? If not, you're seriously lacking good reports willing to give you honest feedback." Mini-Microsoft had blogged before the confab on six hopes for the company meeting. If so, keep listening to them. In the grading system each hope represented a point and when all was said and done the score was 1.75. "Hey, almost one-third realized," wrote Mini-Microsoft.

The other hopes included "practical vision," which Mini-Microsoft graded out at .5, giving Craig Mundie, chief researcher and strategy officer, and Ray Ozzie, chief software architect, props for focusing on "practical aspects of product groups, research, and inbetween the technology transferring power of the labs groups."Mini-Microsoft's hope for short, sweet and powerful demos earned a .5. "Robbie Bach [president of the entertainment and devices division] did okay, but I can't say the demos blew me away," wrote Mini-Microsoft. Ballmer's zeros came from not coming out first to "set the context for the meeting in light of a pretty awful FY09 Q3 and Q4," and one for not giving a serious wrap up. The grade for Mini-Microsoft's hope on getting a good peek at new stuff came up .75. He called looks at Bing, Zune HD and new Laptop Hunter commercials "conservative." And the hope to see a new review system got a zero. And Mini-Microsoft had kind words for Dr. Qi Lu, formerly of Yahoo and now running Microsoft's online services group. "[He] might be my favorite techie right now. On the up side, Mini-Microsoft said he was surprised to hear COO Kevin Turner, who opened the meeting, admit that the company had over hired.

I was impressed with what he's brought together for Bing and what's coming and how he has focused the team and adopted some of the new technology that Satya [Nadella, senior vice president of research and development] was showing. Ever?" Who the hell thought we'd be feeling so good about our search decision engine?

Security vendor PandaLabs has discovered an online service offering to help those so inclined to hack into any Facebook account they choose for a price: $100. However, those who sign up for the service could find themselves becoming the victims instead, PandaLabs warned today. Users of the service are required to first register with the site and then provide an ID of the Facebook account they want hacked, said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs. The Facebook hacking service, which is delivered via a professional looking Web site, was discovered by PandaLabs earlier this week. Users who enter the ID and click on a "Hack it" button are then presented with the username of the owner of the Facebook account.

But to actually get the password, the user is then required to send $100 via Western Union to an individual in Kirovohrad, Ukraine. They then have the option to "Start Facebook hacking." Those who follow the instructions are eventually told that the hack was successful and a password for the account was retrieved. It's not clear whether sending the money will yield any login and passwords, Corrons said. The site contains an FAQ section, which claims the site has been in business for more than four years. But the way the site has been designed and the ease with which a potential client can interact with it lends it a certain degree of credibility, he said.

The site even provides a link to a Webmoney account that in fact does appear to be four years old, Corrons said. At least as of the last time PandaLabs inspected the site, it was not downloading or distributing any malware and seems to have been set up purely to scam those seeking to gain illegal access to Facebook accounts, Corrons said. However the domain itself appears to have been registered by someone in Moscow only a couple of days ago, he said. "We've been looking at it and we are 99.9% sure it is a ruse," to get people to pay up money in exchange for what they think will be legitimate Facebook credentials, he said. Those who do fall for the scam are unlikely to go to law enforcement to report it, he noted.

Even though demand for H-1B visas fell sharply this year, the debate over the program that lets employers temporarily hire foreign technology and other specialty workers has continued to intensify, especially in Congress. Thus the fiscal 2009 visa winners were selected via a lottery. The federal government's fiscal year began today with some 66,700 H-1B visas set to be issued, and nearly 20,000 still available under the cap of 85,000. A year ago, the available issues were reserved long before the start of fiscal 2009 after the government received 163,000 visa petitions within days of April 1, 2008, the first day applications were accepted.

Despite the the waning interest in applying for visas as the economy declined, Congress is gearing up for what may be the final showdown over H-1B, arguably the most heated technology issue today. A list of fiscal 2009's 10 top H-1B stories, as compiled by Computerworld , follows: Number One : Senators Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) filed the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2009. The bill, which has not yet faced a Congressional hearing, has already become the rallying point for H-1B opponents and a top concern for the technology industry as a whole. The status of the visa could be resolved for the long term during the debate expected during fiscal 2010 over comprehensive immigration reform. The sweeping measure would require companies to post all help wanted ads on the Internet, and first complete "good-faith" efforts to fill the posted jobs with U.S. workers. Indian offshore firms appear most concerned about the bill because it would limit the number of visa holders they could employ to 50% of their U.S. workforce.

The bill also includes new wage requirements which would raise the salaries of the lowest paid visa holders. Durbin and Grassley are both members of the Senate subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security and positioned to influence any comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Leading the debate is Sen. Number Two : The continuing debate over a comprehensive immigration reform prior to the filing of a bill in Congress. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who heads the subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security and is an ardent supporter of the H-1B visa program. Greenspan called for an end to visa restrictions and said the H-1B cap protects tech workers from global competition.

Schumer offered a tip about what he wants in a reform bill by inviting former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to a committee hearing on immigration reform earlier this year. In fact, Greenspan called the U.S. tech workers a " privileged elite ." Number Three : The indication that Congress would be willing to set restrictions on the H-1B visa program when it approved the $700 billion Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) in February. Grassley and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) imposed H-1B restrictions on banks that receive bailout funds. An amendment to the bailout bill by Sens. The restriction requires that the banks make a good faith effort to hire U.S. workers, though it didn't limit their use of offshore outsourcing firms. Number Four : The decision by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to step up enforcement of the H-1B visa petition process, demanding more evidence from companies to support the need for foreign workers.

The measure was driven by public anger over the bailout and fears of job losses. The paper chase was launched following a USCIS report last fall that found nearly 20% of H-1B visa applications had problems, which included fraud. Randall Sidlosca, an immigration attorney at Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, PC in Miami, said the main reason for the decline is the economic downturn, though the TARP restrictions also played a role. Number Five : A study by researchers at the New York University's Stern School of Business and Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found evidence that H-1B use is reducing tech wages by as much as 6%. Number Six : Demand for H-1B visas declined, at least temporarily, in recent months. The lack of H-1B jobs has prompted many foreign national students in U.S. universities to seek additional degrees, according to Sarah Hawk, who heads the immigration practice at Fisher & Phillips LLP in Atlanta.

Some say it was the largest H-1B enforcement action ever taken by the federal government on the H-1B program. Number Seven : The U.S. Department of Justice filed H-1B fraud charges against a dozen people and companies, alleging that they were "displacing qualified American workers," by avoiding prevailing wage laws, undercutting tech worker salaries and treating H-1B workers as itinerant laborers. Number Eight : President Barack Obama appointed strong supporters of H-1B visas to positions in his administration. For example, Diana Farrell, deputy director of the National Economic Council, is a former executive at McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm that has produced research that concludes offshore outsourcing is a means to improving the U.S. economy. The Obama administration has yet to outline its approach to the H-1B visa issue, but the views of his appointees, or at least the companies they have worked for, are well known. Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona and now secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the USCIS, is another H-1B advocate.

CEO Eric Schmidt, who has also argued against cap restrictions, was appointed to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), along with Microsoft's Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie. Google Inc. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has been a leading proponent of ending the visa restrictions. But the case forced tech workers into a Catch-22 situation after the government argued that the guild and its co-filers didn't have standing to bring a case, which raised the question of who should file the suit. Number Nine : The Programmers Guild's legal challenged a decision by President George W. Bush's administration to increase the term of student visas from one year to 29 months.

Number Ten : The shrinking IT job market brings the H-1B debate into clearer focus. Unless the tech employment picture improves before the immigration reform debate reaches its apex, The H-1B issue will draw ever sharper focus. For the technology industry and tech workers, the H-1B visa is at the heart of the globalization issue. It is a fight between those who believe H-1B visas are needed to foster economic growth, and those who see the visa as a means for displacing U.S. workers.

Top Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba.com aims to announce an Indian joint venture this year as the company expands its global footprint, it said Friday. A deal in India, where Alibaba.com recently surpassed 1 million registered members, would be the latest in the site's efforts to grow abroad. "I've got a lot of confidence in India," said Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba Group, the parent company of Alibaba.com. Alibaba.com is in talks with an Indian reseller about forming a joint venture, CEO David Wei told reporters at a briefing.

Alibaba.com is a platform for small and medium businesses to trade everything from lumber and clothes to iPods and PC components. Alibaba.com already works with Indian publishing company Infomedia 18, its likely joint venture partner, to promote its platform in the country. Its main member base is in China, but the site also has 9.5 million registered users in other countries and facilitates many cross-border trades. The site also has a joint venture in Japan and recently launched a major U.S. advertising campaign to attract more users there. Ma said Alibaba knows it needs to "do something" in Latin America as well.

Ma and other top Alibaba executives visited the U.S. early this year for meetings with potential partners including Amazon.com, eBay and Google. When asked if the company would also seek to expand in Eastern Europe, Ma said, "I will be there." Alibaba will not hold a majority stake in joint ventures it forms, instead taking a share similar to the 35 percent it has in its Japan operation. "Our global strategy means partner with local people," Ma said. "We want partners and we want partners to control their business." Users place total orders of more than US$200 million each day on the Alibaba.com international platform, Wei said. About 50 percent of those orders go to Chinese exporters, he said.