Crowdsourced testing company uTest fleshes out expansion plans

Software testing company uTest uses the power of the crowds to test mobile apps. Today it’s launching a new product called uTest Express for Web that could expand its scope beyond mobile apps into web apps, websites and further still in the future.

In a nutshell, uTest’s idea is to outsource the time-consuming business that is software testing to testers around the world, effectively crowdsourcing the effort and thus providing early-stage start-ups with a chance … Continue Reading

Motorola Droid X2 available online tomorrow, in stores next week

After months of speculation, Motorola and Verizon have confirmed the launch date for the Motorola Droid X2 smartphone. Priced at $200 with a new two-year plan, The Droid X2 will be available online May 19, and will hit Verizon Wireless stores May 26.

The phone is the successor to the very popular Droid X, which was launched in June 2010. As far as the technical specs go, the phone isn’t offering much in the way … Continue Reading

Windows Phone 7's yummy Mango update gets turn-by-turn directions, voice to text, more

As Microsoft has been building up the hype for its major update to Windows Phone 7, code-named Mango, there are more and more rumours circling the Internet about what the update will bring with it.

The latest reports suggest that Microsoft is bulking up Mango with a full set of features, including turn-by-turn voice navigation, music discovery, voice-to-text and a fully fledged image scanner to search using barcodes.

According to a recent podcast with Microsoft’s … Continue Reading

American Express bets on Payfone for mobile payments

Mobile payments is a toughly contested battleground, with everybody from small start-ups to cell phone operators and banks trying to get as big a foothold as possible. One of those start-ups, Payfone, disclosed today a $19 million round of funding and a serious backer, American Express.

Payfone enables people to use their cell phones as a means of payment, to complete transactions for e-commerce purchases and virtual goods with the charges showing up on the … Continue Reading

Netflix planning overseas invasion, slowly but surely

It’s been a long time coming. The video-on-demand provider Netflix has been talking about launching its service as a streaming-only version outside the U.S. for a while, but only now does it seem that the company is really getting ready to test its service globally, Engadget reports.

Netflix has put out job listings seeking people for its Hillsboro, Oreg. customer service call center. While based domestically, the positions will support Netflix customers outside of North … Continue Reading

Bubbling under: Samsung's Bada app store hits 100M downloads

It’s easy to forget that there are other app stores—indeed, other operating systems—which are making headway outside of iOS and Android. To remind us, Samsung just announced that its mobile and TV app store for the Bada operating system, Samsung Apps, has hit 100 million downloads.

If you look at Samsung Apps’ numbers, they are impressive — despite being nowhere near as stellar as Apple’s or Google’s. Opened in June 2010 with the release of … Continue Reading

Wi-Fi-only Motorola Xoom hits stores on March 27 for $599

After all the hoopla surrounding Apple‘s iPad 2 launch has settled, Motorola announced that a Wi-Fi-only version its Android-based Xoom tablet will be available in stores on March 27.

While the lack of a 3G wireless connection may limit its appeal, the device may appeal to cost-sensitive device buyers who will primarily use the tablet at home or work and don’t want to pay an additional monthly fee for connectivity on the go

The device … Continue Reading

Groupon China launches after rumors of a bumpy start

Gaopeng.com, the joint venture from Tencent and Groupon, which offers group buying deals to Chinese consumers, has officially opened. The venture supposedly got off to a clunky start, with reports saying the site went live in mid-February for a day before being hastily taken offline, but now Groupon has officially launched the site.

Groupon is betting on having a strong local organization which it can leverage when trying to penetrate the notoriously difficult—but tantalizingly lucrative—Chinese … Continue Reading

Get your Kindle on at AT&T stores starting March 6

AT&T has joined the ranks of Staples, BestBuy, and Target and will start selling Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. Beginning March 6, shoppers keen on getting a hands-on experience with the device can hit an AT&T store nationwide.

AT&T will only offer the $189 Kindle 3G (the same price as Amazon’s website), not the megapopular $139 WiFi-only version. AT&T is not promoting the device with special offers or add-on deals either. Basically, the only upswing for consumers … Continue Reading

Clickatell scores $12M to rejuvenate texts with bulk messaging

E-mail, tweets, location-sniffing geofencing—the good old text message is still the way to go if you want to reach not just the technologically hip, but virtually every cellphone owner. Clickatell, the Redwood City, Calif.-based SMS gateway company has built its business around business-to-consumer text messages, and offers a way for businesses to send out text messages in bulk, for instance sharing discount offers, ads, or other notifications.

The company also provides solutions for carrying out … Continue Reading

FaceTime for Mac hits the App Store for $0.99

Along with the launch of new MacBook Pro laptops, Apple is also bringing its video chat application FaceTime for Mac computers today, with a price tag of $0.99 in the Mac App Store.

The Mac app has been available as a public beta since October, which is quite some time to wait for the official release, considering that FaceTime was originally announced in June for the iPhone 4 and was one of the device’s most … Continue Reading

YouTube wants to stream live NHL and NBA games

After a successful experiment with broadcasting cricket’s Indian Premier League last year, Google-owned YouTube wants to stream more sports events online.

The company is in negotiations with both the National Basketball Association and National Hockey Leage to start broadcasting live pro-basketball and ice hockey games, according to a Bloomberg report.

YouTube, the de facto website for user-generated video content, has viewers spending 15 minutes on the site daily, on average. While that figure isn’t unimpressive … Continue Reading

Mobile payments company Paydiant picks up $7.6M

A new mobile payments company, Paydiant, announced today that it has received $7.6 million in first round funding, led by North Bridge Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners. The Boston, Mass.-based startup says the funding will go into product development and sales and marketing.

Paydiant is still in stealth mode but is planning to launch officially later this year. According to a press release, the company is focused on a cellphone-based payments solution for everyday … Continue Reading

Yes, there will be Angry Birds for Windows Phone 7

A squabble occurred between Microsoft and the Finnish game house Rovio, maker of the incredibly popular mobile game Angry Birds. Microsoft used the Angry Birds logo when launching its mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, without Rovio’s consent, which didn’t go down well with the company. But now, Rovio has confirmed a Windows Phone 7 version of the hit game.

Bygones, right?

In truth, it makes a whole lot of sense for Rovio to let … Continue Reading

LoKast and Qualcomm put more muscle into wireless file-sharing

NearVerse, which makes the LoKast app that lets you share content from one mobile device to another within a 300-foot radius has partnered with Qualcomm to improve its service.

NearVerse will use Qualcomm’s AllJoyn technology for device-to-device communication, which uses Bluetooth and WiFi. AllJoyn is similar to Apple‘s Bonjour, which finds services within a local network, such as printers and file-sharing services in an office environment. LoKast uses AllJoyn to form ad-hoc connections between devices, … Continue Reading

The battle for Internet movies: Apple vs. Walmart?

Apple is currently holding strong as the dominant company when it comes to selling movies online, as a new report from the research company iSuppli shows.

Apple’s iTunes is so far the number one service for selling movies—in the U.S., it accounted for 64.5 percent of all movie purchases online in 2010—but the company is going to have to deal with a new contender: Walmart.

This is the prediction that iSuppli is making. Even though … Continue Reading

Hotmail introduces aliases to create temporary email addresses

Microsoft has enabled the use of aliases its widely-used Hotmail email service. The new feature enables Hotmail users to add temporary email addresses in situations when they do not wish to use their personal, or every-day email address.

According to Windows Live director of product management Dharmesh Mehta, the move is really about pushing Microsoft’s email beyond the competition.

And when he says “competition”, he means Google.

Aliases are a nifty way of routing one-time … Continue Reading

Mobile app revenue will hit $15B in 2011

It’s good to be Apple. This is true in many ways, but especially in the mobile applications business. According to research firm Gartner, nine out of ten downloaded mobile applications in 2010 came from Apple’s App Store.

Last year was a booming year for mobile apps. Mobile apps hit globally 8.2 billion downloads and $5.2 billion in revenue, but 2011 will blow those numbers out of the water, as Gartner predicts that worldwide mobile app … Continue Reading

Acer's new tablets a step in phasing out netbooks

Goodbye netbook, hello tablet.

Taiwanese computer maker Acer is phasing out its netbook series of ultra-small computers with the forthcoming release of new Android tablets, which are due in the first half of 2011, according to a Computerworld report.

Acer’s announcement marks for the company a move away from the netbook-style computer — a category which helped fuel Acer’s rapid growth and profitability — in favor of the tablet.

Tablets are seen as a vital … Continue Reading

Software bug testing on the go: uTest heads to the iPhone, iPad

Crowdsourcing is proving to be highly useful these days, whether it’s used for getting real-time traffic data, providing accurate business listings, or testing for software bugs, which is the business the Southborough, Mass.-based uTest is in.

Now the company is taking software testing truly mobile, as it has launched a native testing app for both the iPhone and the iPad (available free on the iTunes store).

The company’s idea is to outsource software testing, a … Continue Reading