Ok, going to combine various thoughts in one post here. I've sold Nokia and bought some RIM on its recent 17% crash (I don't think Nok will break its resistance point at $16 any time soon, so I bailed while being up a measly 5%). That said, I'm seriously beginning to wonder if Apple might take over the world. The amount of applications being built for the Apple iPhone is mind boggling. We think of Apps like software applications, but really, they are services. They are just the interface, the entry point, to service offerings.

Take Intelius. Now this is pretty freaky. Intelius has an iPhone app that lets you look up all kinds of info on anyone - how much they make, whether they have a criminal record, etc. - it's only available in the US though.

While I'm a big fan of honesty... and so part of me wants to say an app like this is great... I'm also a fan of privacy (I wouldn't go rummaging around in someone's garbage, so why would I do so electronically?)
I almost never form opinions on gossip and rarely view people's past decisions as defining who they are today. I like to judge situations based on what's in front of me. But I have to admit, with an app like this, the simplicity of background checking people out of curiosity would be tempting.

It really seems like we are heading toward a big brother type of world - but the irony is that it may be each of us who act as big brother.

Anyway, while this app is currently being pushed as a 'dating' utility, let's be real, its applications are multifaceted. I can already see PR folks using this kind of app to look up info on reporters.. find out their personal history to tailor conversations around things they know will resonate with the reporter.

Which would be really unfortunate if this kind of 'background' checking became a part of the PR world - because it could undo so much of the hard work PR has done to become a respected reliable function of an organization and lead many PR people down the path to 'spin'.

Now that I think about it, this app might have some serious PR challenges to it. While you can use someone's number to find out everything about them to protect yourself, it could also be used the other way. Predators could use this app to find out everything about people they were targeting.

Anyway, freaky stuff. All this to say, even though I think Apple is ridiculously overpriced (so for now I'm not touching it), it's stuff like this that makes me think in five years every person in the world might have an iphone in their pocket (in which case, Apple would be ridiculously underpriced).

To check out Intelius visit:

www.intelius.com