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When you join together the terms “online” and “whiteboard,” you probably conjure an image of some super-simple utility that allows one or more persons to share ideas. Companies like 37signals and Stixy offer such services. Yet they don’t take literally to the concept. Sure, they let users toss up text and files and so forth. But they don’t offer spaces totally open to a myriad of inputs, including free-form drawing and line figures and so forth. Scriblink appears unique in that respect.

We first introduced Scriblink to you about ten months ago, and while its basic presentation is the same as it was originally, it’s been refined into a more user-friendly device, and there are some new features that might catch your attention.

For starters, Scriblink’s toolkit is now displayed entirely openly. All components are positioned around the top and right borders of the main window, which you can use to specify your input type, color palette, etc. Everything seems easy to understand, and putting the board to use takes no time at all. Want text? Click the corresponding icon, find a suitable place on the screen, and write as you wish. You can even display a grid overlay if you like to keep things as organized as possible. An arrow button to adjacent to the ‘Clear’ option allows you to expand the size of the board if the default space proves too small.

As was the case months ago, there is no registration necessary to get started with the basic Scriblink device, and with it you can do things like chat with collaborators, send files and enable a conference call. However, one recently upgrade not seen before is a new Business Solutions dimension. This allows small businesses to gain access to an API and create customized whiteboards with company logos and so forth. “SBS,” for short, the new option allows three different levels of group whiteboard use, segmented with Silver ($9/month), Gold ($19/mo), and Platinum ($29/mo) designations.

As one would expect, all options are open for use on-demand. But they differ in two areas: users and time allotments. The Silver plan provided access for 6 simultaneous users, while Gold and Platinum allow for 8 and 10, respectively. As for usage permissions, Scriblink separates the plans with different bandwidth allotments: Silver, 25 hours; Gold, 100; Platinum, 200.

Source:Mashable!

Most anyone currently wielding an iPhone or iPod touch plus the 2.0 software update today is well aware of the volume of convenient apps made themselves available upon Apple’s (somewhat tarnished) App Store launch on July 11. In the social networking department, the most popular comes, perhaps predictably, by way of Facebook. Among the top free applications listed today, it sits in ninth place, just ahead of AIM.

Of course, we’ve already spoken about the availability of Facebook for iPhone, both in Web-based and native download form. When I sized it up against its primary competition in the market, MySpace, it managed to convince me to give it a first-place start to MySpace’s own iPhone application, which, while well-crafted and visually impressive in its own right, was a little too stuffy for my taste. (For perspective, the MySpace Mobile iPhone application currently sits at #15 among Apple’s App Store’s top free downloads.)

As of last evening, however, when Facebook introduced an update to its application, I must say I really can’t imagine how I had come to think so highly version 1.0. Honestly. Version 1.1 is clearly what should have been there at day one. I mean, really. To think I considered 1.0 a treat….

The best way to describe the 1.1 update is that it is pretty much everything what Facebook amounts to without third-party applications. The important stuff, anyway. Yes, Status updates are there, just as they were for the debut of the App Store. And the mobile Facebook Chat feature was and remains a nifty item to have in your hand. You could also have looked at shortened versions of friends’ profiles and emailed back and forth among your contacts. Still, it is only now that the application comes full circle. How so? Pretty simple, actually.

Now there are options to view your wall and the walls of all your pals. And write to them. You can also view users’ photo libraries (as you’ve been able via the website served to iPhone owners for many months already).

These may seem like such basic additions. Sort of “duh, why not?” But though they are what comprise the core of what makes Facebook such a popular social platform, they weren’t in evidence the first time around. Facebook has become one of the preeminent photo hosts on the Web, and its users’ activity on their personal walls and mini-feeds is so extensive, yet Facebook decided to keep them out ‘til the download’s second week in play.

It’s only sensible that these options be available in an application built for a device often described as the benchmark for smart smartphone computing. In fact, looking back now, it seems a bit bizarre to think the biggest functions of 1.1 were absent 1.0.