SEAN TINER

Apple's new Iphone 3G will be released on Friday. One of the phone's new features is the application store, where consumers can download new programs. Several of the applications sound exciting and quirky , but it's Loopt , a geosocial networking application that will alter the dial tone. Loopt allows users to see where their social networking friends are located and receive alerts when they are in near proximity. Are consumers really ready for this? Are you ready to know where that old class mate is constantly located? How about that person you met once at a party, but never saw again? You are friends with them on Facebook, Myspace or Bebo, so why shouldn't you have access to their location 24/7? ...Right? The benefits of geosocial networking sound cool in theory, but how much of our personal lives are we willing to reveal public and constantly accessible? As new applications and Internet media are created, it's interesting to see how the public responds.

( Big Brother , Portrait by Tiner). Yes, gasoline will probably reach $5 USD a gallon this summer. Shocking? Yes, considering it was only around $1 USD a gallon six years ago. Ah, the good old days, when $20 would fill up your SUV and you would still have change for a Double Double, lotto ticket or a cold one. If you think gasoline prices are overvalued, then you will be shocked by the value of Web 2.0 entities, in particular Facebook applications. According to Adonomics , a website that assigns monetary value to Facebook applications, the most popular and expensive application is Super Wall . The application has over 2.2 million active users and is valued at over $30 million USD. In fact, the majority of the top ten applications are valued at over $8 million. Yes, this makes the price of gasoline seem trivial in comparison. Today marks the start of The Supernova Conference , a symposium that "brings together business, government, and technology thought leaders to understand h...