SanDisk launches memory card to expand usage of carrier services
Cell phone carriers need all the help they can get, given the pressure on profits in the tough economy. And they’re about to get some help from a surprising partner.
SanDisk is launching a new flash memory chip card today that will make it easy for cell phone carriers to add new services to existing phones or to direct users more easily to services the carriers want to push. It’s announcing the new card at … Continue Reading
Intel scores LG as a customer for mobile internet device that can make phone calls
Intel is announcing an important new collaboration with cell phone maker LG Electronics in a strategically important market for the world’s biggest chip maker.
Intel has been touting mobile internet devices, or MIDs, as the next big wave of innovation for a while now. These devices are smaller than laptops and don’t have full-size keyboards. Their main purpose is to access the internet, and they’re actually more like phones than computers.
LG plans to create … Continue Reading
Mobile Flash apps get better distribution, more money
In advance of this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Adobe is making several announcements to encourage developers to build applications using its Flash and AIR platforms. The biggest announcements are a new distribution method for Flash Lite (the mobile version of Flash) and a new $10 million fund for the development of Flash and AIR apps.
Mobile devices seem to be the next big frontier for Adobe’s Flash, which powers much of the media … Continue Reading
A dozen mobile startups to pitch at Mobile Peer Awards
Some 50,000 members of the mobile industry will be visiting the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain this coming week. It’s the industry’s largest event. And one of the show’s highlights is the Mobile Peer Awards, for which 12 young mobile companies have been nominated.
The 12 were selected from a pool of 42, each chosen by a regional chapter of MobileMonday, the international group hosting the awards. I’m representing VentureBeat on the jury panel
Will WiMax get a boost from broadband infrastructure spending?
The $789 economic stimulus bill could be a boon for WiMax, the wireless broadband and next-generation cell phone technology that is supported by some big tech giants.
Sean Maloney, executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer at Intel, said in a call this week with reporters that WiMax companies would likely be eligible to receive some of the $7 billion set aside to subsidize broadband for rural and inner city communities.
That’s important … Continue Reading
Will the stimulus package spur a recovery?
The Senate approved the $789 billion economic stimulus package tonight, and the House has already passed it. Do you think the stimulus will be enough to lift the economy into a recovery in 2009? Please leave your comments.
http://www.buzzdash.com/bb.swf?BB_id=149093… Continue Reading
Online audiences love Joaquin Phoenix as the crazed Unabomber rapper
Actor Joaquin Phoenix and late night talk show host David Letterman shared a special moment a couple nights ago on the Late Show. Phoenix, who is now clearly either insane or doing one hell of a publicity stunt, appeared on the show to promote his new film Two Lovers – and did anything but. As Letterman asked him questions, Phoenix, with long hair, a Moses-like beard and wearing sunglasses sat quietly and occasionally muttered to … Continue Reading
FunMobility: iPhone isn't so hot at mobile flirting
The iPhone may be an incredibly useful and flexible tool, but there’s one thing it can’t do that well — flirt. At least that’s what mobile content company FunMobility found when studying the usage of its America’s Best Mobile Pix application.
APIX lets people upload mobile photos, rate them, submit them to contests like Hottest Girl and Hottest Guy, and, yes, send each other flirtatious messages. During the month of January, users of both the … Continue Reading
Sony closing its Metreon PlayStation store — a stab in the heart for gamers
Sony is closing down its one-and-only U.S. PlayStation store at the Metreon mall in San Francisco. The recession is clearly to blame.
Sony will also close the Sony Style store in the Metreon. Sony Style stores are peppered throughout the country. But the PlayStation store was the flagship location for Sony’s game business in the U.S. It’s sad to see this announcement just ahead of another Game Developers Conference. The store will be shutting sometime … Continue Reading
Fart fight: One iPhone fart app takes another to court
People love the fart applications for the iPhone — or love to hate them. Either way, a lot of people are downloading them, and making the developers a lot of money. And where there’s money, there’s lawsuits. And now we have one.
Infomedia, the creators of iFart Mobile, have asked a federal judge in Colorado to rule that “pull my finger” is a common phrase and as such, doesn’t fall under trademark laws. (Yes, I’m … Continue Reading
Xoopit syncs Gmail with Facebook status updates: Neat, but useful?
Here’s a new way to get social context about your friends while you’re busy with email. Xoopit, a company that makes a Firefox browser add-on for Gmail, now also lets you both update your Facebook status while in Gmail and see your friends’ status updates when you’re reading email from them.
Sure, many people prefer other browsers and email programs. What’s interesting here is that Xoopit is using newly-available, two-way integration with Facebook status updates, … Continue Reading
Roundup: Google improves mobile spreadsheets, pirates plunder the App Store and more
Here’s the latest action:
Google improves mobile access to spreadsheets — Now, instead of just viewing Google Docs spreadsheets on your phone, you can add, edit, sort, and filter.
Pirates run rampant in Apple’s App Store — This article profiles Imagenuity New Media, which released its iPhone app Rocky Artue earlier this month, only to have a pirated version become wildly more popular than the paid app. The writer is a bit alarmist for my … Continue Reading
In battle for more status, Twitter raises $35 million
Micro-messaging service Twitter wants to be a core way people share information on the web or on any other device. But Facebook, MySpace and others are trying to do the same thing — and they’re increasingly offering Twitter-like features. Now Twitter (after turning down a purchase offer from Facebook last fall), has further cemented its intentions to fight the social networking giants. It has raised a new round of $35 million from Institutional Venture Partners … Continue Reading
Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots confirm Marketplace, iPhone icons?
Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft’s newest mobile operating systems, will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress event in Spain next week. We’ve seen some screenshots before, but there are a bunch of new ones today. Most notably, they show an area called “Marketplace,” which will apparently be Microsoft’s application store.
The shots, posted on the German mobile community site PocketPC.ch, also show more of the so-called “honeycomb” interface that Windows Mobile 6.5 will use. It … Continue Reading
Hey, must be the money? More details on YouTube's pay to download plan
It seemed pretty clear yesterday that Google wanted the focus of its YouTube announcements to be on the downloading and Creative Commons angle and less on the potential revenue it could earn from the downloads it will charge for. To me, this seems like a clear indicator that it doesn’t expect to earn too much money from this, and certainly not enough to silence its critics who argue that the service can’t make money.
More … Continue Reading
Early pictures: Google Chrome on the Mac
“It’s alive!” Google’s Mike Pinkerton wrote yesterday on his blog. What was he talking about? Google Chrome… for the Mac.
Before you get all excited, it’s not yet “alive” for you, the public — but the team has finally made enough progress that the software actually looks like Chrome. This news comes after the team (which Pinkerton leads) switched its focus from layout tests and WebKit (its engine) compatibility tests to user interface elements. The … Continue Reading
GamesBeat 09 preview: an interview with Facebook's top gaming dude
Our GamesBeat 2009 games conference on March 24 will explore the frontiers of gaming such as emerging gaming platforms. Facebook certainly qualifies as one of the hottest game platforms, now that it has 5,000 games. When the social network opened its platform up in 2007, it had no idea that games were going to become a big part of it. But now it’s up to Gareth Davis, the program manager for games in Facebook’s platform … Continue Reading
Onzo scores partnership to reduce energy consumption
Onzo, provider of software that helps users view and slash their energy expenses via a simple web portal, just forged a partnership with smart grid technology firm Silver Spring Networks. Based in London, Onzo builds applications that would let users select online where they can sacrifice some power, lowering their electricity bills as well as the risk of blackouts.
Silver Spring Networks says it already has a contract to build a smart grid serving up … Continue Reading
Tesla forecasts 2009 profit, despite recent hard knocks
Electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors announced it will hit profitability by the second half of 2009. The statement was made in a recent company newsletter. Boosted by the $40 million in capital it raised from existing investors in December, the San Carlos, Calif.-based company said this prediction is based on pre-sales of its new Roadster vehicle model, which is already sold out through November of this year. On top of that, the Department of Energy … Continue Reading
Ex-Googler founds Dasient for internet security, finds seed dollars
Neil Daswani, a former Google security product manager, has launched his own stealthy internet security company called Dasient. And the San Jose, Calif. company just announced $1.34 million of an expected $1.87 million in seed funding from Maples Investments, according to VentureWire. Prospective users can sign up for its private beta on Dasient’s web site — that’s all the information it currently makes available.
Daswani previously worked at DoCoMo USA Labs and directed wireless technology … Continue Reading
