I’ve been working on a side project lately. It’s giving me a chance to use a lot of tools and tech that I’ve been interested in for a long time, like Google Maps, jQuery and AJAX. It’s also going to serve a good purpose once it’s reached an alpha state, which should be relatively soon.

There are several posts on Hacker News about the Podcaster application being rejected by Apple for inclusion in the App Store because it duplicates functionality in iTunes. I’m not convinced this app was rejected because it competes with iTunes as some people are suggesting (the line from Apple was that it “duplicates functionality”), but I do agree it’s a serious issue for developers to be only getting this pass/fail vote from Apple after they’ve committed the time, energy, and resources to build the app and submit it. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, but I’m guessing Apple will be going back on this one.

This is one of the reasons that I think Android (Google’s open platform for mobile devices) is going to be a majorly disruptive force (in a good way) for mobile apps. They are breaking down the barriers that have existed around mobile app development, and putting control back into the hands of developers instead of the service providers and handset manufacturers. I guess we will have to wait and see just how this plays out as well, but the idea of the mobile development space becoming more like development for the web is very interesting and exciting.

I’ve never completely understood the world of stock markets and investment banks. Sure, I get the (very) basic ideas and concepts of how it works, but my reaction is always the same… “Are you serious?”. I’m amazed it works at all.

This “intrigue”, coupled with a few years working in the Federal Reserve, leaves me standing in awe of the events that have transpired this year. When Bear Stearns collapsed and the Fed stepped in to save it, I couldn’t believe I was living in such interesting times. To think that the Fed would step in and save a private institution, an investment bank (outside it’s regulatory supervision) was really surprising. And then they took over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which didn’t have quite the shock factor at first, but becomes more interesting considering recent events… which of course are the fall of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch.

I’m not going to comment or analyze it all, I’m neither qualified nor really interested in trying to figure it out. I think it’s clear though that the financial world is undergoing drastic change.

And as a result the world of startups and technology and the web will undergo drastic changes too (well, maybe not as drastic as the financial world). This article really covers it well and was the inspiration for this post. Basically, we’re going to see more of a movement towards apps and services that provide real, tangible value (like saving people money or providing value in their real, non-online life). This is really exciting to me.

I am very much in interested in building products and services that are customer oriented and that solve real problems. I’m working on a small app that I hope does this for it’s intended audience. I won’t go into details here, but it’s really got me thinking more about creating things that help people in real ways.