Today Cisco launched AppHQ, a custom app store created to give IT departments complete control over device app loading, allowing them to limit access only to enterprise apps, or the entire Android Market. We went hands-on with the tablet and AppHQ at the company’s offices in NYC, and were impressed with the tablet’s ability to integrate seamlessly with Cisco services. Even though Cius isn’t intended to be used for entertainment, it’s designed to be both your primary portable device and desktop workstation — so that ability to play HD video will definitely come in handy. You can access all of Cisco’s popular communications tools, making private calls as you walk, joining a video conference from the train over AT&T or Verizon LTE, and then slipping the device into its dock once you reach the office, which adds speakerphone functionality, three USB ports, video out, and even Ethernet connectivity. You can use Cius to access an offsite virtual Windows desktop, using a mouse, keyboard, and monitor to control your primary machine. The tablet has begun rolling out to some clients and will be available worldwide on July 31st.

In other words, what you’re looking at in the screenshot above isn’t just a single program, but an entire virtual Android smartphone with working mouse controls, where you can not only try out Paper Toss, but also delete it, browse through the device’s photo gallery, listen to a few tunes, or even surf the web from the working Android browser — as difficult as that may be without keyboard input. Amazon explains:

Clicking the “Test drive now” button launches a copy of this app on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), a web service that provides on-demand compute capacity in the cloud for developers. When you click on the simulated phone using your mouse, we send those inputs over the Internet to the app running on Amazon EC2 – just like your mobile device would send a finger tap to the app. Our servers then send the video and audio output from the app back to your computer. All this happens in real time, allowing you to explore the features of the app as if it were running on your mobile device.

Today, Amazon’s Test Drive is basically just Gaikai for mobile phones — its purpose is simply to sell apps, nothing more. But imagine this for a sec: what if you could access your own smartphone data, instead of the mostly blank slate that Amazon provides here?

We’ve spent a while chatting with a Google rep, and they explained that the company is actually just reinstating the official rules — typically, apps have to use Android’s contacts API, but Facebook was granted an exception which allowed its contacts to remain in the cloud. In effect, what Google’s claims it’s doing here is the same thing that would happen if you uninstalled the app, or deleted your Facebook account — your contacts created and stored in the network would no longer be visible on your handset. In other words, Google’s attempting to push Facebook into making that data available to itself, which would be handy (think of the other apps that could use your Facebook data on the go) but potentially worrisome in terms of privacy as well. Either way, the argument is not likely to directly affect many individuals in the short term — Google tells us that Facebook’s sync privileges will only be revoked in the Nexus S (not the Nexus One) and other “lead devices” yet to come.

Update: The lucky winner was Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, UK, who downloaded Paper Glider. PR after the break.

“Almost two-thirds of iPad owners have already downloaded a paid app,” concludes The Nielsen Company’s survey of over 5,000 “connected device” owners entitled “The Increasingly Connected Consumer: Connected Devices” (PDF).

The way we see it, that statement is a classic “half-empty or half-full?” analysis. Well, to be accurate, “one-third empty or two-thirds full?” — but you get our point.

Between when the iPad began shipping in early April and the end of Apple’s most recent fiscal quarter, 7.46 million of its magical and revolutionary tablets found homes. Nielsen’s figures indicate that just under 2.4 million of those buyers — about half of whom identify themselves as “early adopters” — haven’t downloaded a single iPad app.

According to the latest report from the app-watchers at Distimo, the average price of the top 10 iPad apps is $4.49. If those 2.4 million download virgins had downloaded just one of those top 10, that’d be over $10.7m, of which Apple’s take would have been about $3.2m.

Which is chump change to a company that raked in $20.34bn last quarter — about five one-hundredths of one per cent of that haul, to be specific.

And then there’s the revenue Apple is sucking in from advertisers paying top dollar to participate in Cupertino’s iAd program, pumping pricey ads to iPad users, which Nielsen describes as being “far more receptive to advertising” than other connected-device owners.

So if you’re an Apple fanboi — or, more important, an Apple investor — don’t worry even a smidgen about those 32 per cent of iPad owners who aren’t downloading apps. Although $3.2m may seem like a hefty chunk of change to us mere mortals, it doesn’t even qualify as a itty-bitty bedbug bite to the world’s second-largest company. ®

Apple has since published new review guidelines which streamline the approval process. The changes have allowed many developer’s apps to finally see approval. Apple has already approved 3rd party Google Voice apps, but the official client from Google should be coming shortly. Despite already being approved, Google is holding back the release in order to revamp the app to support the latest SDK changes including iOS multitasking.

Google Voice is a free phone service that allows U.S. customers to manage incoming calls:

Users may select a single US phone number from various area codes. Incoming calls to the number may ring simultaneously any of the user’s configured phones or the account’s Google Talk feature. Based on the calling number, or contact group (e.g., Family, Friends, Work), or on time of day, e.g., disabling a home phone during business hours and routing calls to mobile or business number, individual numbers may be configured to ring. The service also features voicemail with indexable automated voicemail transcription, accessible via a web browser, e-mail, or by phone. Google Voice provides automatic blocking of known numbers, e.g., telemarketers, the ability to switch lines in mid-call, differentiated voice mail greetings based on caller, SMS forwarding, and call recording.

Blow a kiss with your iPhone

If you’re a guy in the mood for Valentine’s Day who doesn’t know what to do, well, I don’t have any dating or relationship advice.

I do have something you might want to try, however. It lets you literally blow kisses to that very special person, or persons, regardless of the distance. All you need is an iPhone (or iPod Touch) and, of course, the ability to blow a kiss properly.

The application is aptly called “Blow a Kiss” and can be downloaded for free at Apple’s App Store. I tried it on my iPhone 3G and it worked wonders: once launched, you are required to type in your name, plus the recipient’s name and e-mail address and a short message. Then you just blow into the phone’s screen (I tried some audible smooching and that worked, too).

The app then detects the kissing sound and automatically sends an e-mail to the recipient. The e-mail is adorned with hearts and displays the message in an eye-dazzling pink theme. I believe most ladies would like this very, very much.

Also, the e-mail is sent from the embracethesavings.com domain, which is not exactly romantic but means you can blow kisses anonymously .

I am not into pink, neither are most of the ladies I know. However, I think it’s really cool how the application works. And by works, I mean strictly in technical terms. The app doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a kiss back, via e-mail or not.