What about apps for other smartphones?

There ARE other smartphones capable of running apps besides the iPhone. Last week BlackBerry launched BlackBerry App World (you have to use Microsoft's browser for access), It offers Pandora, Clear Channel and Slacker audio players, AOL and Yahoo instant messengers, a New York Times shortcut, MySpace and Bloomberg apps. (BlackBerry's maker, RIM, gets a 20 percent cut of every app sale, and cell companies want a cut, too, according to MoCoNews.) Palm is inviting developers to write apps for its new smartphone operating system. The Pocket Tunes online radio player, recommended by satisifed listener Izzy Smith, is now offered for earlier Palm and Windows Mobile smartphones as well as iPhones. And T-Mobile, which offers smartphones with Google's Android operating system, says the average user has downloaded 40 apps -- most adding more than one a week. Google's Android Market offers a range of apps including a free NPR Podcast player (built by a developer who calls himself CodeShogun). Meanwhile, iPhone users can choose from 25,000 apps. As of tomorrow, for example, users of France Telecom's cell service, Orange, can install an iPhone app that lets them watch 20 channels of live TV, MoCoNews.net reports.