Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie: Apps don’t make your phone special
Microsoft’s chief software architect Ray Ozzie weighed in at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference today on the battle between different smartphone platforms (including Windows Mobile). It’s not the applications available on the various platforms that will be the differentiators, Ozzie said, even though that’s what many companies and writers seem to focus on.
“All the apps that count will be ported to every one of them,” he said. “I don’t think there’s going to be differentiation at… Continue Reading
Qualcomm’s FLO TV makes a bid to become the mobile TV king
Bill Stone, president of Qualcomm’s FLO TV division, is making a huge bet that users won’t mind paying for mobile TV subscriptions to view shows on their tiny screens.
Speaking at the Streaming Media West show in San Jose, Calif. today, Stone said Qualcomm has collectively invested more than a billion dollars in lining up the digital spectrum license and other infrastructure to make the company’s live mobile digital broadcast TV service a reality. That investment… Continue Reading
AdMob launches interactive video ads on the iPhone
AdMob, the mobile ad network that Google plans to acquire for $750 million, announced that it’s supporting a new kind of iPhone ad — interactive video.
This is the first interactive video ad unit for iPhones, AdMob says. Mainly, the new feature allows application developers to run a video ad while the application is loading, the way video sometimes plays when you load a website. (You’re a big fan of those ads, right?) Advertisers can also… Continue Reading
ARM sets up Android gadget development effort
Google’s Android mobile operating system is picking up steam. The latest evidence is a move by ARM, the low-power chip design company, to create an Android Solutions Center that will make it easier for companies to build Android-based gadgets.
The solution center consists of a bunch of tools that companies can use to create their own Android hardware, built around ARM’s chips, said James Bruce, mobile segment manager for ARM, in an interview. More than 35… Continue Reading
Warner Bros. launches first Harry Potter iPhone app
Independent developers have had great success creating apps for the iPhone in the past couple of years. But big brands are expected to elbow their way into the market as it grows more mainstream.
So it’s worth nothing that Warner Bros. has launched its first Harry Potter app on the AppStore this morning. Harry Potter Spells is a magic game that lets players cast spells at their opponents by using their phones as wands. With more… Continue Reading
Chelsio raises $17M for high-speed networking adapters
The transition to high-speed 10-gigabit per second networking adapters has spawned a lot of broadband communications companies. One of them, Chelsio, has raised $17 million to expand its business of making 10 gigabit Ethernet network adapters, chips and storage solutions.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Chelsio designs a family of custom chips dubbed the Terminator (T3) ASIC. It uses those chips in network adapter cards for enterprise computers and storage devices. The storage devices include high-speed network-attached storage devices,… Continue Reading
Smarter Agent expands mobile presence for real estate listings
Smarter Agent has given real estate agents a lot of help in the difficult housing market in the past year. The company provides real estate listings via mobile phones with navigation data so that potential home buyers can easily find homes for sale while driving.
Now the Camden, N.J.-based company is expanding to cover Verizon Wireless phones as well as phones based on the Google Android platform. With those distribution deals in place, Smarter Agent is… Continue Reading
Verizon boosts smartphone cancellation fee to $350
Ditching a BlackBerry, Android or other smartphone from Verizon will cost twice as much as it used to starting next week. Canceling a two-year service contract early on top-of-the-line phones will cost $350 at first, sliding down to $110 at the end of two years.
New York Times gadget guy David Pogue asks the fairly obvious math question about Verizon’s charges: “If the premise of the early-termination fee is to help Verizon recoup its original cost… Continue Reading
Voxeo raises $9M for voice communications business
Voxeo said today it has raised $9 million in funding for its voice communications business.
The Orlando, Fla.-based company is focused on making open platforms based on what it calls “unlocked communications,” such as voice-over-Internet-protocol on mobile platforms or unified messaging and voice communications. It essentially helps companies run their phone systems using modern web-based technologies. The investors include North Atlantic Capital and the Florida Growth Fund. The company will use the money for acquisitions and… Continue Reading
Vega unveiled as first in home Android device
For some time now Google’s been talking about having their Android operating system run on multiple devices, not just phones. In August, T-Mobile even suggested that Android would be appearing on a home phone and a tablet computer early next year, both running Android. Today unveils the first in home device to run the Android OS and it’s even kitchen-friendly.
UK and Seattle-based Innovative Converged Devices (ICD), an engineering company focusing on the mobile and computing industry, today launched Vega,… Continue Reading
Why Droid was worth the wait
The dirty secret in the smartphone business is that it’s not marketing, but patience that makes a top-selling phone — the patience not to jump in until you’ve managed to couple great software with great hardware.
Consider Apple, which made the insane figure of $1.67 billion last quarter. At a high level, to the uninformed, it would seem like Apple is nothing more than a design house that can order components. It rarely uses hardware that… Continue Reading
Kyte brings high-end mobile video publishing to Android, Nokia
Kyte, which gives high-end media publishers a way to distribute video on mobile phones, is launching support for Android and Nokia devices. (That’s on top of existing support for the iPhone and Blackberry devices.)
The San Francisco-based startup lets brands and labels like Universal Music Group and the NBA deliver video content to fans. Kyte says what makes it stand out from enterprise-focused competitors like Brightcove is that it integrates more social functionality like Twitter, chat,… Continue Reading
IBM upgrades its e-commerce software with mobile support
IBM is entering the burgeoning mobile commerce market today with the latest version of Websphere Commerce, its technology for creating online stores. Version 7’s big addition (at least according to IBM’s press material) is the ability to create a version of your web store that’s tailored for smartphones like the iPhone and BlackBerry.
Mobile stores created using Webshere are supposed to be full-featured stores that include some mobile-specific features. Customers can compare different products side-by-side, see… Continue Reading
Analysts: Either 100,000 or 400,000 Droids sold
How many Droid phones has Verizon sold? It depends which respected industry analyst you ask.
Telecom analyst Mark McKechnie from research firm Broadpoint AmTech told Bloomberg reporters that Verizon began sales with 200,000 units in stock last weekend, and that most stores had sold roughly half their stock. That multiplies to 100,000 units sold. (Mark is not pictured at right. These guys just had the best Droid team spirit in a Google image search.)
The number is impressive, but… Continue Reading
Google-Admob: A storm for Weather.com?
If you’re looking for some consequences from Google’s bold acquisition of leading mobile ad network company AdMob yesterday, consider Weather.com.
Weather.com, a subsidiary of the Weather Channel, has done well because of its focus. You want weather? It will give it to you, wherever you are. It has roughly 100 million viewers on TV, 40 million viewers on the web, and more than 10 million users on mobile devices.
Weather.com is the fourth most popular mobile destination… Continue Reading
Will Google’s deal with Admob invite antitrust concerns?
Google announced its acquisition of mobile display-ad company AdMob today. It feels a bit like a replay of Google’s 2008 acquisition of online ad company DoubleClick. The question is, will the Department of Justice’s eager anti-trust crime fighters scrutinize this deal to the extent it did the DoubleClick deal? Google has said it expects the deal to close in the next few months. And while it said it doesn’t anticipate any regulatory concerns, it also… Continue Reading
Which phone should you buy: Droid or Eris? Go with the Droid!
We’ve been hearing about the Droid for weeks, getting screen shots and teasers, reviews and comparisons. Finally, it’s come out to play! While many have spent countless hours fantasizing about the joys and uses of such a phone (or maybe that was just me), time for mental window shopping is officially over and now it’s time to buy.
(For anyone who’s had their head buried in the sand for the last month, the Droid is the… Continue Reading
Shazam, the song-recognition app, launches $4.99 version with more features
Shazam, owner of the application that lets you identify a song by holding your phone up to a music source, has released a paid ($4.99) version of its iPhone app that makes it easier to share music and discover what’s popular among other users.
The move is part of the company’s efforts to make serious dough, now that it has a massive base of 50 million users — but it is also part of the company’s… Continue Reading
Happy Droid Day!
After weeks of speculation, followed by a real announcement, followed by more waiting, Motorola and Verizon have finally released the Droid, the supposed iPhone-killer which is the first device using version 2.0 of Google’s Android operating system.
The reviews have been positive so far, with gadget king Walt Mossberg calling it “a more credible alternative to the iPhone” as well as “the best super-smart phone Verizon offers, the best Motorola phone I’ve tested and the best… Continue Reading
Skype is finally free — eBay settles with Skype co-founders, clearing way for buyout
EBay has settled with the founders of Skype, clearing up some nasty lawsuits that had stood in the way of a Skype acquisition. Now the Internet phone company to be sold to a consortium of investors that includes Skype’s co-founders.
Private equity firm Silver Lake Partners leads the investor group, and is joined by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, as well as Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis.
As… Continue Reading