Apple drops VoIP-over-3G restrictions on the iPhone
While the Apple iPad is dominating tech news left and right, there was another bit of news from the company yesterday that should be noted: Apple has removed restrictions that previously prevented VoIP iPhone applications from working over 3G. This unleashes a world of opportunity for VoIP applications, which have only worked over Wi-Fi thus far.
Currently, several popular VoIP application developers have announced that they’re taking advantage of the new provisions. The first was … Continue Reading
Google adds click-to-call ads for mobile search
Google has been on a tear as of late, rolling out location-sensitive mobile features week after week.
Today it added another to the arsenal: click-to-call ads that are visible in your phone’s search results. They look like typical search ads, but include the local phone number of the business in case you want to make a call.
They’re useful in situations where you’re searching for a place, like a restaurant, and want to call ahead … Continue Reading
International partners, competitors react to iPad launch
While most carriers and handset vendors in Europe and other international markets have yet to comment on the Apple’s introduction of the iPad yesterday, here is a quick summary of some carriers and handset vendors’ reactions in the last 24 hours.
Fujitsu may sue over the iPad name
Clearly, Apple’s entry in the tablet PC space is a serious threat to vendors such as HP, Toshiba, Fijitsu, and Motion Computing. One of the most severe … Continue Reading
Microsoft shipped 5.2M Xbox 360s in the December quarter
In its earnings report today, Microsoft said it shipped 5.2 million new Xbox 360 game consoles, bringing the total sold since 2005 to 39 million.
That’s a solid number, but it’s down 13 percent from 6 million a year ago. The company’s Entertainment and Devices Division, which includes Xbox 360 sales as well as Zune music players and Mediaroom TV software (among other things), saw its sales fall 12 percent to $2.9 billion in the … Continue Reading
Windows 7 carries Microsoft to earnings bliss
Microsoft reported better than expected earnings today because of brisk sales of its Windows 7 operating system during its first quarter of availability.
For Microsoft’s fiscal second quarter, which ended Dec. 31., the company reported revenues of $19.02 billion, up 14 percent from a year ago. Earnings per share were 74 cents, up 57 percent from a year ago, and net income was $6.6 billion, up 60 percent from a year ago.
Windows 7 launched … Continue Reading
Obama loses to iPad, which loses to Haiti on social networks
Clearspring AddThis makes some of those buttons that let you one-click a story you like onto Twitter, Facebook or email. As a result, the company also collects a lot of data. As a follow-up to my post about iPad tweets going crazy yesterday, Clearspring provided a chart of what topics were clicked onto social networks yesterday. The winner was … nope, look again:
Nissan bags $1.4B from DOE — could shake up the charging station game
Yesterday, amid the iPad madness, the U.S. Department of Energy quietly released a press advisory suggesting that it would have big news for the green car industry today, and indeed it did. It announced a $1.4 billion loan to Nissan North America. The major automaker says it will use the money to set up a Tennessee plant to churn out its fully-electric Leaf model.
The announcement is significant for several reasons. Nissan is one of … Continue Reading
iPad tweets maxed out at 7,000 per minute, but Obama hits 9,000
Update: Retrevo says President Obama’s State of the Union address whupped Apple’s launch with 9,000 tweets per minute.
Retrevo Buzzmeter, a new service from the online consumer electronics marketplace, tracked tweets about the iPad as part of its inaugural operation this week. Buzzmeter counted 7,000 tweets per minute for “iPad” at maximum.
By contrast, tweets for “Kindle” average 10 per minute. Tweets for “Dell” are at 5 tweets per minute. This despite the fact Dell … Continue Reading
Disrupting Wall Street: Receivables Exchange raises $17M
We’ve covered plenty of companies that are trying to disrupt the finance industry and ease the flow of credit to small businesses and people. Here’s another finance-related startup to add to the list: Receivables Exchange, which lets small businesses trade their accounts receivable to cover short-term cash needs. The company raised $17 million in a third round led by Bain Capital Ventures this week.
Larger companies typically go to the commercial paper market where they … Continue Reading
McGraw-Hill: We blabbed about the iPad on our earnings call, too
On Tuesday, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw broke the Apple Code of Silence live on CNBC. He gushed that Apple had a tablet computer that runs the iPhone operating system, for which McGraw-Hill, one of the world’s largest publishers, would provide customized content. As a result, Steve Jobs removed McGraw-Hill’s name from his iPad launch presentation on Wednesday.
Now, a McGraw-Hill spokesman claims Terry didn’t say anything on CNBC that he hadn’t already said on the … Continue Reading
5 reasons not to buy an iPad
Update: This article was corrected to fix an error in the description of the iPad’s multitasking limitations. Thanks to John Gruber for help with that.
Yes, it’s awesome. But should you blow five hundred bucks or more on Apple’s new iPad tablet computer? If you’re looking for reasons to back out, we’ve got ‘em. In descending order of dealbreaking:
You can only one run non-Apple application at a time. iPad runs the iPhone operating system,
Why Asia's not so excited about the iPad
I’ve been watching Asia’s reaction to Apple’s iPad unveiling, and it’s been mixed. Search trends from Google indicate that while Singaporeans were interested in finding out more about the device and its availability, Indians were not really bothered. That could have something to do with the fact that the iPhone has seen very limited uptake in India thus far, owing to the hefty unsubsidized, yet carrier-locked, price tag of ~$800.
Moreover, Apple’s announcement didn’t cover … Continue Reading
NDS shows off the next generation of TV interfaces (video)
NDS is a London-based company no one has heard about. But it has 4,200 employees, a billion dollars a year in revenue, and has made its living over the past two decades providing technology to the TV industry. Among its contributions is conditional access, the security software that governs your cable or satellite TV subscriptions, and electronic program guides to your TV channels.
The company often noodles around with futuristic TV ideas that its partners … Continue Reading
Motally delivers mobile analytics to iPad apps
After the influx of news yesterday around Apple’s newly launched iPad, it’s not surprising that companies are beginning to announce their own iPad related news. Mobile analytics firm, Motally today announced that it will be expanding its current tracking services for mobile web and apps to include those running on the iPad.
Motally’s platform lets publishers collect data and create analytic reports on usage of their mobile websites or applications. The extension to Apple’s iPad … Continue Reading
Speed and Tempo: Fearless decision making for start-ups
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. This column originally appeared on his blog.)
I was catching up over breakfast with a friend who’s now CEO of his own startup. One of the things he mentioned was that when it came to decision-making he still tended to think and act like an engineer. Each and every decision he made was carefully thought through and weighed. … Continue Reading
Mobile game powerhouse Gameloft will make iPad games (video)
French mobile game publisher Gameloft has scaled back its investments in Google Android games. But the company is very excited about making games for the new iPad tablet computer from Apple.
Michel Guillemot, chief executive of Gameloft, said he believes in the iPad because it has a great design and Apple has a strong ecosystem. Apple showed off Gameloft’s Nova first-person shooter game, optimized for the iPad, on stage today. Check out our video interview … Continue Reading
Nintendo says Wii shipments have now passed 67 million, but sales disappoint
Looks like Mario wasn’t enough to give Nintendo a spectacular holiday season. Nintendo reported lackluster earnings for the first nine months of its fiscal year, with both profits and sales falling because of the recession, a strong yen, hardware price cuts, and weakening demand.
Earnings were $2.1 billion for the nine months ended Dec. 31, down 9.4 percent from a year ago. Revenues for the nine months were $13.1 billion, down 23 percent from a … Continue Reading
An investor's take on the iPad — how to parse the hype
Paul Grim is a General Partner at venture capital firm SunBridge Partners and blogs on wireless issues at Grim Times.
As an investor, whenever a major consumer electronics launch creates a fuss (especially when it’s from the master himself), I try to step back and see the bigger picture. Is this a game changer in any way? Does it create real investment opportunities that didn’t exist before? What companies or technologies will be impacted by … Continue Reading
Stoke's Mobile Data Offload helps carriers deal with 3G data overload
With more and more data-heavy 3G phones hitting the market, mobile carriers are having a tough time dealing with the influx of new traffic. The data hungry iPhone has caused problems for AT&T, and things will only get worse for other carriers with the rise of Android, Palm, and a potential new mobile platform from Microsoft.
The logical solution to these issues is to add more network capacity, but that can be an expensive and … Continue Reading
Roundup: All the news that was not about the Apple iPad
Considering that almost all of our news yesterday rotated around the launch of Apple’s new tablet device, here’s the latest (non-iPad) action:
Not so fast, Google Books – Google has reached a revised agreement with authors that looks less like a monopoly in digital books that the first one, but still not everyone is happy about it. Amazon, Hachette and other publishing giants have filed official objections claiming the new deal still violates the U.S. … Continue Reading
