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As Twitter quickly grows everyday, more and more opportunities slowly arise for Twitter to expand its domain. That is exactly what the latest startup, Chirpify, is doing by teaming up with PayPal. Chirpify will allow users to purchase anything from companies that also use Chirpify from their Twitter-enabled smartphones. In addition to shopping, users can transfer money to other users in a peer-to-peer transaction as long as both are using Chirpify. Beyond what is already done, Chirpify and future applications will only expand and demand more from social media marketing agencies as a necessity, not just an afterthought.

There are high hopes for Chirpify given the combination of a majority of cell phone sales being smartphones and people becoming more comfortable shopping through the internet. If Chirpify takes off, it would become the first major add-on to Twitter to expand it’s reaches as a social networking tool. With social networking sites quickly trying to expand their reaches by diversifying, it’s plausible they will eventually morph into near-identical entities. Seeing as how for example Facebook has its marketplace, which seems on par with Chirpify. If that were to happen, what would happen to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook? Would they possibly merge into one giant site? All we can do is wait and see.

As it is getting closer to the beginning of the semester, many students are beginning to think about purchasing their textbooks for their classes. Every student dreads this time of year because, honestly, who wants to pay $500 for books?! If you have a Kindle, you’re in luck.

Kindle allows you to rent textbooks for up to 80% off the list price of printed textbooks. Sure, the list price is for the new, unused textbook, but if you’re a procrastinator when it comes to buying books (like myself), then you’ve probably gotten stuck buying a new book once or twice because you missed out on all of the used ones.

With Kindle’s textbook rentals, you can choose how long you would like to rent the book for from 30 to 360 days so you only pay for the time you need the book. You can also extend the rental from as little as one day, as many times as you want, or even convert your rental into a purchase.

One of the best things about this is that once you rent the book, you can access it from not only your Kindle, but your PC, Mac or mobile device.

After your rental is up, you can access your notes and highlights any time you want at kindle.amazon.com.

About 8 months ago, Motorola split into two companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions. Motorola Solutions offers communication solutions for enterprises and governments while Motorola Mobility focuses on consumers and manufacturing mobile devices, including those with the Droid brand.

Google has acquired Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or approximately $12.5 billion, a 63% premium to the closing price of Motorola Mobility on Friday, August 12, 2011.

While it is unusual for Google to purchase a hardware company, Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, said in a statement released early Monday morning, “We expect that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem. However, our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community. We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices.”

CEO of Motorola Mobility, Sanjay Jha, said, “This transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility’s stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and partners around the world.”

While Motorola is only one of many manufacturers that use Google’s Android software, other companies such as Samsung and HTC, will still be allowed to release phones with the Android software.

Google will now be in direct competition with Apple and Blackberry.

Google anticipates the transaction will close at the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012, and Motorola Mobility will run as a separate business.

Mobile phones capable of face-time video chatting, Internet browsing, social network status updating and sharing are arguable the years hottest accessory. Smartphone’s allow us to stay updated and in-touch with our friends, family and business engagements in a content rich fast-pace environment that is our World. Location based mobile search changes the way we seek information, making it easier to find the things we need, when we want, from wherever we are. A Mashable article describes the relationship between human and Smartphone as addictive, reporting that, “37% of adults and 60% of teens admit they are addicted.”

CrackBerry.com

The Smartphone has integrated itself into every aspect of our lives, evolving the way we conduct business and socialize with others. The development of sleek applications that support and maybe even encourage questionable social media habits make web browsing easier. There are mobile applications for just about everything, and we can get information about anything from just about anywhere. Technology is evolving and we are evolving with it, adapting our communication, research and sharing habits. Is it really that big of an issue? Only time will tell, but until then mobile phones will continue to improve and influence our daily habits and lifestyle.

Mashable: Are Smartphone’s Taking Over Our Lives? [Study]

The phrase, “that’s going to cost me an arm and a leg,” typically means something is going to cost a large sum of money. For 17-year-old Zheng, a high school freshman in China, that expression took on a more literal meaning…only a Kidney.

Zheng really wanted an iPad 2, but didn’t have enough money so he did the unthinkable and sold his kidney. I’ll repeat that. He sold his his kidney. The majority of student’s would save up for this kind of purchase but Zheng couldn’t wait. After coming in contact with a kidney-selling agent on the internet he decided that risking his life for 20,000 yen ($3K USD) was a pretty great deal. Zheng had the operation, received his money and returned home with more than one new Apple gadget.

Photo: MyChinaViews.com

His mother became very suspicious and reported her son to authorities, ultimately exposing Zheng’s secret kidney transplant.The hospital Zheng claims to have had his surgery at is denying any connection to the 17-year-old and authorities haven’t been able to contact any one involved in the organ transplant fiasco.

It seems Zheng is getting the last laugh here as he enjoys his new toys. After reading this article I wondered how many illegal organ transplants go unreported? Who are the recipients of these organs? Are the iphone mobile applications worth it? How far would you go to get what you wanted? I just hope Zheng doesn’t find another organ-selling agent online and another part of his body to sell in a year when his Apple gadgets are out of date.

The Next Web: Chinese student reportedly sells his kidney to buy an iPad 2

It was announced yesterday that Foursquare has finally released it’s 3.0 update. If your a Foursquare junkie like me than this is great news. The service, for those of you who don’t know, allows you to “check-in” at the places you visit throughout the day and show’s you where local deals might be. It’s also a great way to keep tabs on your friends (but not in a stalker way). It’s not only a deal finder, you can also check in to get badges, which are little rewards for visit certain places, or visiting a certain number of places, and duke it out for “mayor ships” of your favorite hot spots. It’s fun.

Anyway, the new update offers many revamps that make it a much more complete and useful app to have.

The first new feature, and perhaps the coolest is the “explore” tab that they’re adding. This will become the bulk of the mobile application as it offers the most content to use. Essentially was it is is a “Yelp” type app that takes where you’ve been and suggests places that you might like in your area. It also allows you to explore the area you’re in for recommended places that are similar with your interests, or just places recommended in general. This is cool because it would make traveling much easier, as well as open you up to places in your area that you might have never heard of. In addition to food it also shows you where there is nightlife, shopping and touristy stuff, so that you can truly explore wherever you are.

Another cool feature, which get’s back to what makes Foursquare an app to have, is that they have greatly expanded their “deals” options for companies. They have added things like Flash Deals (first 10 people after 5 get a free drink), Newbie Deals, Loyalty Deals and many more. This, hopefully, will encourage more companies to offer specials and therefore make Foursquare a great way to save some money as well.

I am psyched about these new features. It takes Foursquare from an almost strictly “fun” app to one that is very functional. So, if you don’t already have it on your phone, get it. It is available for pretty much every platform that exists.

Apple announced on Tuesday its new guidelines to App Store for publishers. Applications will be working the same for users, it is the rules for publishers where the changes have been made. There are many apps available that charge subscriptions fees; either weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, semiannually, and annually; therefore these companies (who have created the apps) are consistently making money off of their content. Since creating the platforms (iPhone, iPad, and the iTouch) in which all the information is communicated on, Apple decided that it should be getting a piece of the funds being made by these companies, I mean after all these companies would have subscribers if is wasn’t for Apple…right? The new policy follows these guidelines, as long as users are purchasing the apps from the App Store, Apple will be taking the 30% cut of the purchases being made to the from subscription applications.

image provided by: zedomax.com

The publishers of the content driven apps are 100% free to make the subscription to their applications available on their own site, and this is where Apple cannot take a cut from the information.  However, according to Apples new app policy, unless a users sign up for the app on the publisher’s site, publishers cannot provide in-app links for customers sign up outside of the App Store. Therefore these companies would have to get users to go directly to their site to avoid losing some of their profits to Apple. Many of the people who currently run these apps are worried they won’t be able to survive, and are also unsure as what Apple will do in the future…who’s to say the won’t try taking a bigger cut from profits made by theses content driven subscription applications.  Has this

It is hard to figure out who do side with on this matter, to me it make sense that Apple would be taking a cut, because without having the technology created by them none of the companies would be able to be gaining profits. Although if you are thinking about it from the perspective of the app creators, who are building content for readers to have daily, weekly or monthly, publishers are the ones creating the content for readers to subscribe in the first place. Maybe you’ll think a little differently next time you are purchasing one of your apps for the App Store or directly from the publisher.

Facebook’s stronger integration with phones is a hot commodity these days. Two recent devices, the HTC’s Salsa and ChaCha, have launched, now equipped with a physical Facebook button. Facebook is also promising dozens more mobile phones will be similarly equipped throughout the year. Facebook has officially shot down the idea of an official “Facebook phone” but promise to help with a deeper integration with phone software.

Facebook’s own, Charles Wu, discusses the new changes in an official Facebook blog post. It appears that different providers will advertise the Facebook integration in different ways; Wu writes, “Some manufacturers will be highlighting Facebook as a part of their phones’ on-screen interfaces, and others will use our brand as an element of the device hardware itself.”

The new Facebook integration will allow users to access Facebook Chat on their phones without actually having to install a smartphone application. Wu also explains the deeper integration regarding your Facebook friends on your mobile phone, “When you make a phone call, the screen displays your friends’ status updates and photos, and even their birthdays.”

Phone software that is this integrated with Facebook is both good and bad. It’s great to have all your friends available at your fingertips, but, to me, Facebook is going somewhat overboard. So many people are addicted to the social networking site as it is, and it’s getting easier and easier to avoid face-to-face interaction with individuals. This integration does, however, allow people to be reached at pretty much any point and time, at least when they have access to their phone, and let’s be serious, that’s pretty much all the time these days. It’s going to be interesting to see how the integration plays out on the different phones. I’m anticipating the effect that the Facebook integration with the software on some phones will be somewhat overwhelming, while others will find the perfect balance.