Mobile : Page 1
posted 14 mins ago
OS X Mountain Lion Brings The Mac Into The Game
Gamers, start your engines, lift your fruit-slicing swords, and lace up your Temple-running shoes.
Game Center, Apple’s gaming/social hub for iOS, has finally made it’s way over to the more mature Apple OS, OS X Mountain Lion. This is huge. Not because you’ll be able to enjoy the features of Game Center while playing around on your Mac (which will likely be great fun, too, I’m sure), but because gaming will now bust through the platform barrier allowing you to duke it out with anyone on just about any Apple device. → Read More
posted 4 hours ago
Facebook’s Mobile Net Widens As Orange Turns On Access In Africa
A significant announcement today that could have a big impact on Facebook and its mobile strategy: the mobile carrier Orange, part of France Telecom, announced that it is rolling out a new service that will let those using even the most low-end mobile phones to access the social network in Africa, where Orange has operations in 20 countries, covering 70 million subscribers.

The move is important because data access — both fixed and mobile — is still very minimal in many parts of the continent: Orange notes that on its own networks in Africa, only between seven and 15 percent of subscribers access data services of any kind. This gives Facebook (and potentially others) a way of getting around that issue and building up relationships anyway. → Read More
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posted 6 hours ago
Opera Snaps Up Mobile Theory, 4th Screen For $26M In Mobile Ad Push
Mobile browser company Opera today announced that it has acquired the mobile ad networks Mobile Theory and 4th Screen Advertising. The move is not just another sign of the ongoing consolidation in that space, but also of the need to bulk up to better compete with the likes of Google with more full-service solutions.
Opera will be paying $18 million for Mobile Theory and $8 million for 4th Screen, with potential earn-outs bringing in an additional $32 million and $6.5 million respectively in 2013 and 2014 → Read More
posted yesterday
The Address Book Fiasco: Another Reason For Apple To Get Its Social Platform Right
After a week of confused coverage around which mobile app developers access user address books and how they do it, we are finally getting a product-level resolution. Apple says today (in time to beat back some inquiring congressmen) that it will start requiring developers to ask for explicit user permission in order to access these contacts.
The new interface, slated for its next iOS operating system release, will provide a permissions notification to users after they install an app, similar to how it currently requires users to approve location sharing or push notifications. This change will add some arguably unnecessary friction to users of apps that pull address books — and a lot of developers will be affected, as 11% of free iOS apps were accessing address books as of the start of last year, according to one study.
→ Read More
posted yesterday
Flock The Vote: Twitter To Show Debate Candidates Real-Time Reactions
What if political candidates could see the public’s reaction to their debate answers in real-time while they’re on stage? That’s the future laid out today at Stanford University during the Future Of Media Conference by Twitter’s Director of Content and Programming Chloe Sladden. If candidates saw tweets that they were dodging a question, they might suddenly become more forthcoming. Twitter is working to make this a reality as soon as this year’s Presidential debates. → Read More
posted yesterday
Play With Microsoft’s Lousy Old Mobile OS From Inside Their Great New One
Windows Phone is great. Really, if you’re a phone geek and you haven’t played with it before, you owe it yourself to give it a shot. Windows Mobile on the other hand… wasn’t. It was arguably good enough for the time, but despite Microsoft’s efforts to breathe new life into it, Windows Mobile ultimately fell into disuse while more robust mobile operating systems took over.
Thanks to a new project from Windows Phone hacker Cotulla though, Windows Mobile is back and running smoother than ever from inside Microsoft’s modern smartphone OS. → Read More
posted yesterday
Valentine’s Day Procrastination Fuels Mobile Usage On Google
Not surprisingly, Valentine’s Day spurred lots of last-minute Web searches and phone calls — and the Google mobile ads team just published a blog post highlighting how much of that activity happened on smartphones and tablets.
For one thing, last-minute searches for national restaurant chains grew across-the-board, but they grew the most on smartphones — between February 7 and February 14, these searches increased 359 percent on mobile, compared to 142 percent from desktop computers and 135 percent on tablets. People were also more likely to search for flowers from their phones, and to select the “click to call” or “get directions” options in florists’ ads — mobile searches for flower-related terms increased by 227 percent, direction requests increased 514 percent, and people became 560 percent more likely to “click to call.” → Read More
posted yesterday
AT&T, Stop Blaming Your Horrible Network And Leave Your Best Customers Alone
Once upon a time wireless carriers offered unlimited data plans. Consumers signed the contracts, got their iPhone or Droids and went on to enjoy the smartphone revolution. Along the way streaming video and music hit it big and social media exploded into new demographics. All these things require data, but no worries — the carriers said we had unlimited data. Consume all you want, they said.
But then a glowing lightbulb appeared above some carrier’s executive’s head, suddenly realizing data is an untapped source of massive revenue. Unlimited plans were replaced by tiered data and fear-mongering marketing campaigns were launched to scare consumers into buying more data than they need. Carriers allowed current subscribers to keep their unlimited plans but they aren’t safe forever. Now AT&T is aggressively throttling users in an attempt to purge users from the open data bar.
The sad thing? AT&T is targeting their best customers with these attacks, many of which have plenty of better options now. → Read More
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posted yesterday
India’s Times Internet Launches Tablet App With Genwi
PJ Gurumohan, CEO of tablet publishing startup Genwi, likes to talk about creating unique experiences tablet, rather than just porting over an existing website. A good example of what he has in mind: Tweek, a new app that Genwi (pronounced “Gen Y”) has created with Times Internet Limited.
TIL is the Internet and mobile arm of Times Group, which publishes the Times of India. It already offers iPad apps for the Times of India and other publications, but with Tweek, TIL CEO Rishi Khiani says the company is trying to do something different — use “smart, interactive packaging” to reach a young, urban audience. → Read More
posted yesterday
Motorola Outlines Further Ice Cream Sandwich Update Plans
Motorola has already confirmed that the Xooms, Droid Bionic, Razr, Razr Maxx and the Droid 4 will get a hefty helping of Ice Cream Sandwich this year, but the company has added a few more devices to its ICS upgrade schedule. The Photon 4G, Atrix 4G, Atrix 2, and the Electrify will all see Android 4.0 at some point during the course of 2012.
Motorola lists most of the devices for a Q3 release, with just a few getting Q2 treatment, so there’s still quite a road ahead for you Gingerbread-packing phandroids. → Read More
posted yesterday
With Localmind 2.0, It’s About Expert Local Answers, Not Just Immediate Ones
Following five months of work, location-based Q&A platform Localmind is launching its biggest release today since its original debut with the arrival of Localmind 2.0. The newly revamped platform represents a shift for the company, which, as you may remember, sits on top of Foursquare, allowing you to pose questions in real-time to those checked in at local venues.
Today, the company is expanding its focus by allowing users to ask questions of local “experts,” even if they’re not currently checked in to a given location. However, answers can still be replied to in real-time, preserving the sense of immediacy found in the original product. → Read More
posted yesterday
Buck (Formerly Billing Revolution) Launches Single-Click Mobile Payments Service, Adds New Partners
Buck, the mobile payments company formerly known as Billing Revolution, is launching its new, single-click credit card checkout today, which allows shoppers to pay for goods or services without an account, username or password. Coinciding with the launch is news of where you can actually use the service: the company has lined up several new high-profile customers, including Glamour, SpyderLynk, Papaya Mobile and credit card processor Braintree.
→ Read More
posted yesterday
Bring On The Web Apps: StackMob Launches Hosted HTML5 Service
You can’t call StackMob a “backend service provider for mobile” anymore, because as of now, it’s a full end-to-end solution. The cloud-based platform for mobile developers is today launching hosted HTML5 services that tie to StackMob’s backend, making it the first platform offering integrated HTML5.
Developers can use the new service to host full HTML5 apps for desktop, tablet or mobile, or can use it to host the HTML5 running within their native apps.
→ Read More
posted yesterday
MTV Takes The Beta Label Off Its Music Meter App For Finding New Artists
MTV is unveiling an update to its Music Meter mobile app today. This is version 2.0, and also the first version to abandon the “beta testing” label, suggesting that MTV has worked out any early kinks — and is ready to make money.
The app first launched in March 2011 as the mobile equivalent of MTV’s Music Meter website. The goal is to track the online buzz for musicians, and to use that data to create a daily ranking that helps fans find new music. If you see an artist who interests you, the app offers songs, photos, and videos, as well as news and a brief biography. Senior Director of Product Development Mark Mezrich calls it an “artistic snacking” experience that should give you everything you need to get acquainted with a musician. Nor is that snacking limited to the daily list — Mezrich says there are more than 1 million artists in the system. → Read More
posted yesterday
Van Gogh Goes East: Online Auctioneer Saffronart Launches India’s First-Ever Sale Of Western Art
As the art world and the market for fine art and collectible items have becoming increasingly international, one would think digital platforms and technology would help speed their growth, open up new markets, and make transactions more seamless. After all, eBay was founded in the mid-90′s. When one looks to the international scene to find the prime movers of tech-based platforms, one of the names that surfaces is Saffronart.
Saffronart was founded in 2000, taking a page from eBay’s book, as an online auction house — yet one that specializes in modern and contemporary Indian art. Almost immediately, the company found an audience, quickly selling $125K worth of fine art. Despite some bumps along the way (the global financial crisis in 2008 wreaked havoc on the art market), Saffronart has grown to be the largest fine-art auction house in India, online or otherwise, and one of the largest online fine art auction platforms in the world. → Read More
posted yesterday
Sell Simp.ly Rebrands As Chirpify; Launches New Twitter Commerce Platform For Brands
We first covered Sell Simp.ly in November last year, as it looked to capitalize on the increasing interest in social media as not only a place to advertise and build an online presence for brands, but as a platform for conducting social commerce. Most of that interest has surrounded Facebook, as a host of solutions and services have emerged that allow big brands and startups alike to create retail storefronts on Facebook, sell to customers, and to a certain extent, manage their transactions. → Read More
posted yesterday
Video Plays On Tablets, Mobile Devices And Connected TVs Nearly Doubled in Q4
From Redbox and Verizon teaming up to take on Netflix to Connected TV and Netflix’s premier of Lillyhammer, offering consumers video content where and when they want it is no longer just a second thought. Serving content across platforms has become essential for publishers and brands that want to grow their audiences and earn more revenue with online video.
Ooyala, the online video provider, today released its fourth quarter review of web video, in which it analyzes the viewing behavior of 100 million monthly unique users. (You can find the full report here.) → Read More
posted yesterday
Gartner: Apple’s iPhone Stole The Smartphone Show In Q4, 2011
We’ve seen handset makers like HTC, LG and Nokia all warning of declines in smartphone sales. But if there is a slowdown affecting some, it’s not because people are not buying smartphones; it’s because they’re all buying iPhones.
Figures out from Gartner today say that smartphone sales totalled 149 million units in Q4 2011 — 47.3 percent higher than the same quarter a year ago, led by none other than Apple’s iPhone, which its analysts noted “saved†the smartphone market after two quarters of declining sales. → Read More
February 14th, 2012
Clear: Why This Simple To Do List App Has Everyone Talking
Clear, the heavily-anticipated touch-based to-do list app, is launching in the iTunes App Store tonight. And by heavily anticipated, I mean this app was getting tech blog coverage based on demos, previews and teaser videos.
Why the big draw for what’s typically been a rather ho-hum app category, the lowly to-do list? Clear is pure eye candy, for starters. But it’s also representative of a major leap forward in smartphone app design, as it’s been built from the ground up for the touch interface. The app is based solely on the use of now-common gestures: swipes, pulls and pinches. There are no buttons with Clear, and yet, it’s surprisingly simple to use. In fact, that’s the point. → Read More
February 14th, 2012
Apple Strikes Back In Jailbreak-Siri Arms Race
When Siri was announced strictly for the iPhone 4S, the mod community likely took that as a challenge. Before long, the service had been hacked and shortly thereafter ported to a number of potentially compatible devices.
The problem, of course, is that Apple gets to decide what devices are compatible, not the users. So they’ve taken steps to undo the work that hackers and jailbreakers have done to bring Siri to older iOS devices. Today brings a new volley, though it’s only a matter of time before it too is circumvented. → Read More
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