Ryan has covered personal technology and wireless for the San Francisco Chronicle before joining GigaOM. He is based in New York and covers a number of topics including mobile development, app economies and East Coast start-ups.
Mobile app downloads over the week from Christmas to New Year’s Eve increased to 1.76 billion, up from 1.2 billion a year ago. It’s also a significant spike over the 1.07 billion weekly average recorded earlier in December. Read more »
Avis Budget is buying Zipcar for $500 million in cash as it takes a big leap into the car-sharing market. Zipcar will get a big backer who can make it more efficient and help it grow. Read more »
Fab is just 18 months into its existence as an online design store, but it’s been an eventful ride. Here’s a look at far the company has come based on some figures and slides provided by CEO Jason Goldberg. Read more »
Runkeeper is updating to 3.0 for iOS just in time for the New Year. The improvements include a cleaner UI, better photo sharing and tracking abilities and refactored code base that should enable faster and better improvements in the future. Read more »
Car keys may soon be a thing of the past. Hyundai is testing out a concept in which it allows users to access their car using NFC-enabled smartphones. The tap-and-go interaction can also trigger individual user preferences and initiate streaming between the phone and car. Read more »
Ouya, an open $99 gaming console built off of Android, raised $8.6 million on Kickstarter. And now it’s shipping 1,200 consoles to developers, who can begin to create games for the system using Ouya’s SDK. Read more »
Moovit is trying to be the Waze of public transit by offering a crowd-sourced transportation app for bus and train commuters. The system hopes to provide more accurate estimated time of arrivals and better updates on upcoming travel conditions. Read more »
Christmas Day, the biggest day for mobile device activations, lived up to its billing, said Flurry, which noted that device activations hit 17.4 million devices, up from 6.8 million a year ago. Tablets edged out smartphones for activations. Read more »
The Pew Research Center reported that almost a quarter of Americans are reading ebooks. But more of the growth in ebook reading devices is happening on tablets than dedicated e-readers. Read more »
RIM posted better than expected results but it’s still facing an uphill battle as it looks ahead to the launch of BlackBerry 10. RIM’s got cash but its subscriber base slipped in the most recent quarter. Read more »
Kickstarter project POP, which promised a fast-charging, high capacity charger for mobile devices, is refunding backers their money after Apple rejected the project. It’s one of the biggest projects to issue a refund on Kickstarter. Read more »
Kickstarter is not a store, but many people who back technology, design and game projects sometimes think that way, which can be a problem when projects gets delayed. Here’s my suggestion for how to fix this issue. Read more »
Trip planning is getting a little easier with the launch of Dcovery, which uses a bookmarklet to help people save their travel research and create guides that are synced to their iOS device. Read more »
Evernote Food wants to be the only food app users need. With the upgrade to Evernote 2.0 for the iPhone and iPad, users can not just remember past meals but get restaurant recommendations and recipe ideas for future meals. Read more »
Facebook’s new Nearby local search feature could become a Foursquare killer one day. So far, however, it’s not as comprehensive, deep or personal for users. But if Facebook can get its 600 million mobile users to think of it as a local search utility, look out. Read more »
Fab is getting ready for a big expansion into India and has lined up a “seven-figure” investment from The Times of India. The investment comes on the heels of Fab’s acquisition of India-based technology partner True Sparrow. Read more »
For the Makers is part of a new trend of DIY boxes that allow would-be makers to try their hand at creating crafts and accessories. The New York-based company launched out of private beta in December and has deals with Anthropologie and Gilt City. Read more »
Fitness app maker Noom is backed by Kleiner’s iFund and yet it still hasn’t put out an iPhone app. The company has instead focused on Android, earning the top grossing fitness app on Google Play. Now the company is raising $2.6M as it targets iOS. Read more »
Swipely, a startup launched by former Tellme co-founder Angus Davis, has been through a couple of business models but it is now finding a sweet spot with its combination of card processing, data analytics and marketing and loyalty. Read more »
Facebook is leaping into the local discovery and search market with an upgrade to its mobile Nearby feature, which will allow users to find relevant places based on social signals and other data. Nearby will pit Facebook against Yelp, Foursquare and Google. Read more »
Ori Allon, a two-time entrepreneur who sold his previous companies to Google and Twitter, is back now with a third startup called Urban Compass. The details are scarce but it will be a local, human-powered service that relies on algorithms to mobilize workers. Read more »
Sprint has bought up the half of Clearwire it doesn’t own, paying $2.2 billion for the 4G provider. The deal gives Sprint some much needed spectrum as it competes against Verizon and AT&T. Read more »
Just seven months after introducing Sail, a payment platform for small merchants that competed with Square, VeriFone is now saying it is retreating from that business and will look to banks and other channel partners to sell the service to merchants. Read more »
New York is getting on board with e-hailing services for taxi cabs though it’s doing so slowly. The Taxi and Limousine Commission approved a one-year pilot program that will allow companies like Uber, Hailo and others to offer taxi hailing from a smartphone. Read more »
PayPal is targeting cash lovers and the underbanked with a new cash card that allows people to use cash for online purchases. The cards can be bought at 30,000 locations and can be used to fund a Paypal account. Read more »
EasilyDo, a new personal assistant and productivity app, looks to proactively complete dozens of tasks for users rather than waiting for them to do it. The app, which rolls up a lot of services, just raised $4.3 million in Series A funding. Read more »
Did you really mean to click that mobile web banner? Google is introducing a two-stage process to root out accidental clicks. Advertisers will have to brave a click-through dip for a quality hike. Read more »
Maluuba, a Siri for Android app, is now offering users a way to shop by just asking Maluuba questions. The app has integrated with Walmart and Best Buy and pulls up data from Google as well. Read more »
Flickr has been largely forgotten in the mobile photo market. But it’s trying to make a comeback with a new iPhone app that adds better social sharing, photo editing and viewing and discovery tools. Read more »
Vodafone Ventures is leading an $8.3 million investment in Jibe Mobile, which is working on a platform to help developers integrate Joyn. Joyn, which is backed by GSMA, enables rich communications such as IM, voice and video calling and file transfers. Read more »
Grokr, a new startup from former McAfee CEO and founder Srivats Sampath is looking to be the Google Now for iOS. The app learns a lot about a user and then tries to push information when it think it’s relevant. Read more »
Rebtel is opening to developers with a new SDK that will allow developers to create a free calling layer in their iOS and Android apps. Users will be able to talk app-to-app over 3G and Wi-Fi. Read more »
Yahoo is updating its Mail product for the web, iOS, Windows 8 and Android. The improvements are designed to make Yahoo Mail faster, more easy to use and consistent across platforms. Read more »
MobileDay lets you get into conference calls from your mobile device without having to dial-in or tap out a password. It’s a good tool for enterprise workers, especially ones who are on the move. Read more »
The FTC is lighting a fire under the mobile app industry to improve its privacy and disclosure policies for children’s apps. The FTC said that most apps still don’t do basic disclosure about the use of data for advertising and other third-party services. Read more »
Businesses interested in recreating the success of the Starbucks mobile app have a new option in Cardfree, a startup that is launching with $10 million and is led by a team that helped build the Starbucks mobile experience. Read more »
Square is enabling gift cards for the first time, allowing its users to send presents to each other that can be redeemed at Square merchants. The system also works with Apple Passbook for iOS 6 users. Read more »
Zipmark, a payment system that rides on the existing checking network, is working to retire the traditional rent check. It has signed deals with rental payment portals and property management software companies that will enable tenants to pay with an electronic check. Read more »
Spotify rolled out new discovery tools that allow people to find new music. There’s a new Twitter-like follow system so people can follow musicians and influencers. Spotify also provides new recommendations based on what a user is listening to. Read more »
Christie Street is trying to be the Kickstarter for hardware products. The new site gives inventors a thorough review and doesn’t approve projects that aren’t viable. It also provides protections for backers, who can even buy insurance to get their money back if a project fails. Read more »
