Yesterday, Wolfram Research shut down the iPhone-optimized version of Wolfram Alpha , the company's "computational knowledge engine." Many pundits speculated that Wolfram decided to shutter the mobile site in order to drive more users to the company's $50 iPhone app. Earlier this morning, we got a chance to talk to Schoeller Porter, Wolfram's product manager for the iPhone app . According to Schoeller, the reason for killing the mobile site was simple: not enough people were using it. Sponsor It is important to remember that while Wolfram offered an iPhone optimized landing page, the actual results pages were always identical to those of the regular web version. All Wolfram did was shut down this landing page. According to Porter, users can still get the same result pages by entering their queries into the search box on the default Wolfram Alpha website. Porter argues that nothing of substance was actually removed. Why Did Wolfram Kill the Mobile Landing Page? In our conversation, Schoeller Porter pointed out that this landing page was only meant to be a test, and traffic to the site had decreased to the point where the company simply decided to pull the plug. It's not surprising that Porter would defend Wolfram's decision to shut down the mobile site as a traffic issue, and not as a ploy to sell more of the company's pricey mobile app. According to Porter, users can still choose to get a good mobile experience through the website and those users who need a mobile experience can always get the mobile app. Until now, though, the mobile landing page offered a happy medium between the regular desktop website and the mobile app. Currently, the team wants to focus on enhancing the experience on the default website and the mobile app; Wolfram is also thinking about mobile apps for Android and BlackBerry. Why Not Just Keep the Mobile Site Up? One could argue, however, that it really wouldn't have cost Wolfram a lot of money or manpower to keep the mobile landing page up for the time being. The company also didn't help itself by killing the mobile site without any explanation on its blog. The fact that the mobile site now features a big add for the iPhone app only helped to fuel the speculation about Wolfram's intentions. Discuss

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The Real Reason Why Wolfram Alpha Shut Down Its Mobile Site

What exactly from Office Web Apps and Office Mobile 2010 can you use on your mobile right now and what will be available when the product ships next spring? Mary Jo Foley does the best job of outlining what is happening here. Let's take a sky high look and see if we can make sense of things so you know what to do if you really have an interest in giving Office a try on the mobile. Sponsor First of all, Office Web Apps is now in beta and available for download. It is free. Here is the first point of confusion and in our book goes to the heart of the issue. The Office Web Apps you download today is NOT the Office Web Apps that will ship next spring. What you download today is actually the business version, which is the paid version of the product. We expect that if you download the application today then you will have to download a new one when the REAL Office Web Apps launches next spring. Let's move on to the next issue. What is exactly available with Office Web Apps ? According to Foley, it works with the following phones and apps: * IE on Windows Mobile 5/6/6.1/6.5 * Safari4 on iPhone 3G/S * BlackBerry 4.x and newer versions * Nokia S60 * NetFront 3.4, 3.5 and newer versions * Opera Mobile 8.65 and newer versions * Openwave 6.2, 7.0 and newer versions Hold on one more time. There is more we need to explain. According to Foley, you can only view documents in Office Web Apps. You can not write to

As we reported Thanksgiving Day , web searches and traffic for online retailers during the holidays were significantly down as compared to previous years, according to research from Experian Hitwise. However, this Black Friday showed a 4 percent increase in site visits versus Thanksgiving Day traffic - a stat that usually falls between those two days. The retail site that got the lion's share of traffic this year was Amazon.com, which netted 13.55 percent of the traffic seen by the top 500 retail websites. Read on for a few surprising stats that might signal changes in the U.S. economy - and changes in how U.S. consumers will be doing their holiday shopping. Sponsor Interestingly, Apple's website saw the largest increase - by a huge margin - between Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Overnight, their traffic skyrocketed 110 percent. Traditionally, Apple's online deals for this red-letter day in commerce were modest at best. However, this year, rumors of substantial discounts were leaked online and spread like wildfire. The lesson: If you want to see a ridiculous upswing in traffic on a major American retail date, maintain relative stinginess and secrecy, then "leak" good tidings of great joy just before the big day. Other sites that saw a significant traffic increase in this 48-hour period include Staples (47 percent), Dell (40 percent) and Amazon (9 percent). So, Apple, Staples and Dell take the cake for getting the greatest traffic spikes overnight; how did websites fare on Black Friday overall? As you can see in the graph below, Amazon and Walmart each performed admirably. What's more, most sites saw a marginal increase in traffic over last year's Black Friday traffic - as you'll recall, the global economy had recently tanked. Do we see this as a sign of tentative optimism about the economy, at least on the part of American consumers? Finally, who got the most downstream traffic from Black Friday websites? That would be our friends at Walmart, Best Buy, and Target - the latter of which more than doubled its downstream traffic from last year: Details for Cyber Monday - traditionally the online retailer's biggest day during the holiday season - will be available shortly. Discuss

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Amazon Wins for Most Visited Site on Black Friday

The holidays are now upon us and after today's turkey is digested, it will be time to strap on your most comfortable shoes and prepare for an early day of marathon shopping. "Black Friday," the unofficial retail holiday that lands the day after Thanksgiving, kicks off the season with deals and doorbusters...not to mention crowds and chaos. However, those of you with an Apple iPhone can get a leg up on the other shoppers who have to fumble through old-fashioned newspaper printouts that list each store's bargains. You can have you all the deals at your fingertips thanks to new iPhone applications that list everything on sale. And that's not all, either. Read on for our guide to preparing your iPhone for Black Friday and the holiday shopping season beyond. Sponsor 1. Apps That List Black Friday Deals First and foremost, you need to download the apps that list this year's Black Friday Deals. Our favorite is the Black Friday app (iTunes link) put out by Dealnews . This app not only features the "official" deals already revealed through company press releases, but also includes "leaked" deals that have found their way to the net without the company's consent. Although today's paper is likely to now reveal those leaked deals to the world, we already trusted their accuracy thanks to a Best Buy employee who fact-checked a few of them against what he knew would be on sale. Spot on, he told us. The Black Friday app is simple to use as there are only three buttons to deal with: a deals buttons that lets you scroll through a long list of tomorrow's bargains, a Black Friday button that list deals by store, and a shopping list button which stores the save while browsing through the other two sections. A search box at the top of the stores listing also lets you find a store by name instead of having to scroll for even faster lookups. Another bonus about this app is that its life extends beyond Black Friday. After tomorrow, the app will be updated to show you Cyber Monday and After-Christmas sales, as well as year-round deals. Other contenders: Powered by TGI Black Friday and DealCatcher.com, another great app (iTunes link) lists deals and stores, too. Plus, this app lets you search by category and browse through the latest ads. 2. Price Comparison Having already established itself on other mobile platforms, ShopSavvy (iTunes link) finally made its way to the iPhone just in time for Black Friday. This barcode scanning application lets you know if you're really getting a deal by comparing the store's price with more than 20,000 other retailers who provide their pricing data to ShopSavvy. The app isn't limited to online deals, either. It also compares prices with local stores so you can find out if it's just a matter of heading down the street to save a few more bucks. ShopSavvy works on all iPhones (2G, 3G, and 3GS). Just aim the red laser over any barcode and the pricing info will automatically appear on the screen. Other contenders : Red Laser (iTunes link) is another popular barcode scanning application for the iPhone, but unlike ShopSavvy which is free, this app costs $1.99. The Amazon Mobile app (iTunes link) is nice to have as well thanks to its experimental feature called "Amazon Remembers." Using your phone's camera, you can snap a picture of an item to store it in a virtual shopping list. The app will then seek out that item on Amazon's website and post the pricing information and other details to the app for you to view. 3. Store-Specific Apps A few big name brick-and-mortar retailers also have their own iPhone applications listed in the iTunes App Store. With these store-specific apps, you can search for deals, reserve products, check local availability, makes lists, and more. Some of the best apps in this genre include the following: B&N Bookstore : Browse products or search through millions of books, DVDs, and CDs. You can also use your phone's camera to snap a photo of the cover of the item in question to get product details, reviews, ratings, and local availability. Best Buy: The electronics retailer offers two iPhone applications - Best Buy Weekly Deals and the Best Buy Gamers Club . The Weekly Deals app lets you scour through the weekly ads (great for after Black Friday is over, too) to get product details, read reviews, see the ratings, and even purchase using a special mobilized version of the Best Buy website. The Gamer's Club app is similar, but focuses just on video games, consoles, and accessories. Wal-Mart : Wal-Mart does have an app, but it's nothing to get too excited about since it just focuses on electronics. And when you need to get more details, it redirects you to the company's mobile website. However, it's worth installing if only to remind you to compare that big screen TV you're eyeing with the often cheaper prices found at Wal-Mart. Target : Target's app is a bit better since it lets you search for all products at your local store. You can check availability and it even shows you where inside the store the item is located. Great for scoping out your Black Friday route in advance! Plus, if you don't know what to get someone, a handy gift finder feature will make recommendations based on age, gender, price, or other attributes. Toy "R" Us : The Toys "R" Us app lets you virtually shop through the company's "big book" for toys by popularity or category. You can see product details, read reviews, and add toys to a list of favorites which can later be emailed to you. A "Find a Store" button also helps you find the closest store to your current location. 4. Don't Get Lost - Download Mall Maps to Your iPhone MEDL Mobile's Mall Maps app (iTunes link) is an essential download for Black Friday shoppers. Featuring the maps and store lists for over 1,000 shopping centers across the U.S., this app saves you time as you no longer have to fight the crowd gathered around the mall's directory board. Instead, you can view detailed floor plans and store lists with corresponding numbers all within the palm of your hand. This app isn't free (it's $2.99), but committed shoppers will agree the price is worth it. 5. Didn't Find It? eBay It Instead If your shopping expeditions left you empty-handed, there's still eBay. But now you don't need to be at a computer to find items, bid, watch, or makes purchases. The latest update to the eBay Mobile app (iTunes link) also takes advantage of the iPhone's pop-up notifications to remind you when an auction is about to end or if you've been outbid. A new eBay app called eBay Deals specifically focuses on finding you deals based on personalized searches that you can create, edit, and save. This is handy if you're looking for a hard-to-find item that isn't always available on the site or if you like regularly browsing a particular category or genre. Like the main application, eBay Deals is also free. Discuss

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How to Prepare Your iPhone for Black Friday

A year ago we polled you, the ReadWriteWeb community, on your favorite mobile apps . It's become an annual tradition to run this survey, so in this post we're collecting your top 5 lists for 2009. To get you inspired, the ReadWriteWeb team have listed their personal favorites below. We first ran this poll in November 2007 , before Apple's App Store opened on July 10, 2008 and when Android was but a twinkle in Google's eye. At that time, the 5 most mentioned mobile apps were the Gmail Java app, Google Maps, Opera Mini, Fring and Shozu. In November 2008 we began to see popular web services being mentioned as favorite mobile apps too: Facebook, Twitter, last.fm, FriendFeed. Also newer mobile-focused apps like Evernote and Brightkite. Read on for the 2009 edition of this reader survey... Sponsor Note: ReadWriteWeb's iPhone app is coming soon! To be notified as soon as it becomes available, email notify@readwriteweb.com . Richard MacManus, ReadWriteWeb founder and editor (iPhone user): Diamedic; diabetes data input and monitoring tool that I use multiple times a day. Encamp; new Basecamp project management app that the RWW team has just begun using. Shazam; amazing song discovery app that I use regularly, e.g. holding up my iPhone to the car radio to identify cool songs! Evernote; notes service which I was late adopter of, but it's since become essential. Tweetie 2; my current Twitter app of choice on the iPhone. Marshall Kirkpatrick, lead blogger and VP Content Development (iPhone and Android): Aardvark Tweetdeck SuperSearch Regator Appsfire Sarah Perez, feature writer and RWW's resident Mobile Web expert ("Only 5?" she replied to my Basecamp message...Sarah uses iPhone): Facebook Tweetie 2 Yelp NYT Mobile Bump (app for swapping contact details) Frederic Lardinois, writer (iPhone): Tweetie2 Beejive, for IM Notifications picposterous Pandora Jolie O'Dell, writer and RWW Community Manager (Blackberry): TwitterBerry Flickr Jolie notes (and you can sense the frustration!): "The BlackBerry user of the group has few options and fewer favorites. In fact, I'd almost post a response rant about how the development for BlackBerry devices AND the OS make enjoyable user experiences a near-impossibility." Dana Oshiro, writer (iPhone): Foursquare Tweetie Breaking News Online Aardvark Yelp, or OpenTable Alex Williams, ReadWriteEnterprise editor (Blackberry, who notes that "the experience is just awful."): Yelp Slandr Facebook Gmail Google mobile Jared Smith, RWW webmaster (Blackberry and iPod touch): RadarScope; weather radar viewer for iPhone and iPod touch. TouchTerm; on-the-go SSH for iPhone and iPod touch. MyKite; BlackBerry Brightkite app. Yatca; BlackBerry microblogging client that supports Twitter and identi.ca with seamless inbox integration. Google Sync for BlackBerry; "while not true push, it works so quietly and seamlessly I don't give it a second thought." Now, RWW readers, it's time for your feedback! Let us know in the comments below what your favorite mobile apps are and what mobile device(s) you use. Please limit this to 5 apps , so we can identify trends more easily and report back on them in an upcoming post. Discuss

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Your Favorite Mobile Apps of 2009 (Reader Survey)

Thanksgiving is generally a horrible day for air travel, but tradition and the sweet smell of Thanksgiving turkey still makes millions of Americans forget the potential horror of being stuck in an airport. If you are one of them, or even if you are just heading to the airport to pick somebody up, here are some mobile applications and web sites than can help you make your Thanksgiving travel less stressful. Sponsor Flightcaster Not sure if your flight will leave on time? Surprisingly, the airlines often don't have the most accurate information. Flights will show up as 'On Time,' even though your plane, which is supposed to take off in 15 minutes, is still sitting on another airport 500 miles away. FlightCaster looks at data from the airlines, FAA and combines this with historical data and weather information to give you a more accurate picture. The result is a good prediction whether your flight will leave on time. Flightcaster is available as an iPhone and Blackberry app. The service is also available on FlightCaster's website. WorldMate WorldMate , which is available in a free and Pro version for the iPhone, BlackBerry and most other mobile phone operating systems, gives you a one-stop shop for all your travel info. You can simply email receipts for your flight and hotel bookings to a private Worldmate address and the software will automatically update your itineraries on the mobile app. What makes the pro version so useful is that WorldMate also alerts you of delays and gate changes through push notifications and SMS messages. WorldMate also offers a list of nearby hotels and the ability to search for alternative flights if yours gets cancelled. TripIt's iPhone app offers similar service. TripCase TripCase offers fewer features than WorldMate, but it's free and also comes with push notifications. It's available for the iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. Besides flight information and baggage claim info, TripCase also allows you to send out information about your flight status to your friends and family. You can also publish photos on your personalized TripCase site. Next Flight If you get bumped off an oversold flight or miss a connection, Next Flight can help you find alternative flights. The company indexes schedules from over 1,100 airlines and 4,200 airports around the world. Next Flight currently sells for $2.99 in the App Store. Flight Status If you are just picking somebody up at the airport, Flight Status is a nice iPhone app that gives you arrival information, including which baggage claim to go to. Flight Status is only available for the iPhone and costs $4.99. Flight Status was developed by the same company as Next Flight and also features data from 1,100 airlines. Bonus: Flight Advisor Twitter Feed If you just want to get a quick overview of airport delays in the US, also have a look at the Flight Advisor Twitter feed . What About You? Do you have your own favorite travel apps that we didn't mention here? Let us know in the comments. Discuss

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5 Mobile Apps For Flying This Thanksgiving Weekend

Google Apps is making it a bit more enticing for companies of all sizes to adopt its service for the Blackberry smart phone. In a post this morning on the Google Enterprise blog , the group announced Google Apps Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Server has doubled the number of Blackberry phones it can support. This effectively allows larger enterprises to place more users on fewer servers. Sponsor Google is also offering the capability to host multiple Google App accounts, broadening the number of users that can be supported. In August , Google Apps launched its integration with Blackberry. The most significant aspect of the integration is the syncing capabilities. Google Apps Connector provides access to Google Apps email, calendar, and contacts from the built-in BlackBerry applications. Email, folders and contacts are all synchronized between Google Apps and the Blackberry application. Discuss

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Google Apps for Blackberry: Now for Businesses of all Sizes