My favorite highlight is his post of the week, penned by Richard Marshall who compares today’s mobile app landscape to the gold rush and railroad days of early America. Go have a look!

Developers can apply for the beta program here. Before you rush over to apply, you should know that developers must agree to the following:

• Participate for at least 3 months
• At least 100k pageviews per day
• Apps must be free
• iPhone or Android apps only
• Must be ready to implement now, and be live within 4 weeks

For marketers looking to get their ads on these mobile apps, it looks like they are already placing Adsense ads that are targeted to high-end mobile devices. According to Google, they will also open this specific program up to marketers as well.

Find out more in this testimonial video from Urbanspoon:

So what do you think of ads on these free apps? As a developer, are you excited about a new revenue opportunity? Or are you disappointed that your favorite free mobile apps will now have banner ads taking up precious real estate on your phone?

Dolores from Connecticut wrote:
“I just used your service a 2nd time. Thank you!! I had been having difficulty texting Nextel from their site (and Verizon, my carrier) — can only get texts through with your site. Thanks so much!! AGAIN!!”

Kate from Seattle wrote:
“This service has been more than helpful during the recent loss of my phone. I could conact home to tell my mom I was alive and reach co-workers and friends as needed. Thank, I am very impressed and will rcommend to my friends.”

Send your free text message now!

Of course, we also get messages like this:

Catherine from Australia wrote:
“Please make your service available to Australia, with providers such as Optus, Virgin, and 3! Thankyou !!”

And this one just came in today:

Patricia wrote:
“We have a loved one in the Digicel network. Do you think you might be covering that soon? It’s all of the Carribean area.”

Looks like we have more work to do.

We do get negative, yet very entertaining emails from time to time as well, and we’ll save those for another post. Thank you Delores, Kate, Catherine, Patricia, and everyone else that has provided feedback on our free text message tool.

If you have not tried it yet, go send a text message for free right now, then let us know what you think. Happy texting!

The Pre has received extremely positive reviews, even in a world where most cannot compete against the ubiquitous iPhone. One big reason is it’s Linux-based webOS, which provides a powerful set of features that even the folks in Cupertino would be impressed with.

If you’re one of the lucky few Sprint customers that are getting your Palm Pre hardware a day early, let us know your first impressions!

The event includes a mobile Developer’s Day on June 18, and the conference event on June 19. There’s also a Demo Launch Pad that highlights a select group of mobile-related start-ups that will be presenting. Both days promise to bring the latest developments in mobile technology, and they have corralled an impressive line-up of speakers.

No conference is complete without a sponsored party, and this year TechCrunch is hosting the TechCrunch Mobile 2.0 party on the 19th.

Have fun, and for those that go, let us know what you liked and we’ll post your feedback here!

Here are the features as described by foofactory:

• View your friends status messages
• Set your status message
• See comments your friends made about your status
• See comments on the status messages of your friends
• Add comments to your friends status messages
• View your friends updated profile picture
• Works in the background
• Sound and vibrate notifications
• Change polling period

This app is available for $2.00, and there is also a fooBook-lite version that you can try for free. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Android App:

foofactory.co.uk/foobook.html
(Image courtesy of foofactory)

Apparently someone thought there was a need, and created a mobile version of their website, which allows users to browse solar panels, wind generators, backup power systems, and other energy-related products. While users are not able to purchase through the site, there is a click-to-call link in the header of the mobile website.

The variety of mobile websites never ceases to amaze me.

Mobile Website:

m.wholesalesolar.com

Here’s what the firm had to say in a recent press release:

With the new mobile video portal, Youku formally enters the domain of (the) wireless Internet. On the front page of 3g.youku.com , users will find editors’ recommendations for the latest long-form, professionally-produced content as well as shorter user-generated video. The front page will also offer easy navigation to five video channels, including current topics, user-generated content, music, sports, and humor. The mobile portal’s browsing and watching experiences have been optimized for China’s mobile phone users.

The timing could not be better, so we’ll see what’s in store for Youku’s mobile video efforts.

Mobile Video:

3g.youku.com