Boku up until now has been known for enabling carrier billing for online goods. But the San Francisco payment start-up is leaping into the physical world with the launch of a new white label offering for carriers that will include in-store payments. Read More »
Bio: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.
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My Focus
Mobile apps
Gaming
Virtual payments
Personal technology
Recent Posts
Independent mobile app store GetJar is looking to virtual currency to get users to come and keep downloading and interacting at GetJar’s app marketplace. The company today is introducing GetJar Gold virtual currency which will be awarded to users for downloading Android apps. Read More »
Zipmark, which leverages the existing check-processing infrastructure to create a digital payment system, is opening up its platform to developers. It’s also poised to release an iPhone app next month, enabling consumers to pay bills and make transactions from their phone. Read More »
Striiv, a mobile device that tracks movement and provides fun motivation like a personal trainer, has released some statistics on how users are actually engaging with the pocket gadget. Users check their Striiv 29 times a day on average and a majority check-in every day. Read More »
Exclusive: Ingk Labs, an IP accelerator in New York City, has purchased payment platform ORCA Inc. and will use it to power a new PayPal competitor called Payz. Ingk Labs is ramping its efforts to rescue and accelerate IP and put it to work in start-ups. … Read More »
Analytics firm Distimo said that, of the top 110 apps that appear in both Android Market and Amazon Appstore, 42 of them make more money on Amazon than on Android Market. That’s a strong showing for Amazon’s Appstore, which got a boost from the Kindle Fire. Read More »
Android apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will not be able to support mobile advertising at launch, RIM said. That means Android developers who make free apps will have even less incentive to bring their apps to the PlayBook through the Android App Player. Read More »
More Must Reads
Facebook, which is still planning its mobile advertising strategy, could generate $1.2 billion in its first year in six markets alone. That’s according to MobileSquared, a mobile research firm, which believes Facebook could become one of the two biggest companies in mobile advertising next to Google. … Read More »
Memrise, a TechStars Boston graduate, has raised $1.05 million for its gamified approach to memorizing languages. The company supports six languages officially and has more than a million words created by its community. It’s now looking to expand beyond languages and will launch mobile apps soon. … Read More »
Mobile backend as a service StackMob is announcing a hosted HTML5 solution that will make it easier for developers to build HTML5 and hybrid apps that use HTML5. The move allows the company to become a more full fledged platform as a service. Read More »
Chirpify, a Portland, Oregon, startup, is unveiling its Twitter commerce platform today, an all-in-one tool that taps PayPal and allows users to monetize their tweets. The company said it’s the first one to turn Twitter into a direct sales channel. Read More »
Design shopping site Fab.com is taking a big step toward becoming the Amazon of design with the introduction of five weekly specialty shops for categories like fashion, pets and food that will more than triple the number of products Fab offers at any given time. Read More »
The promise of cord-cutting may get a lot brighter with the introduction of Aereo, a new TV broadcast service backed by IAC that enables mobile devices, set-top boxes, TVs and PCs to receive local broadcast programming over the Internet. Read More »
Forrester says 1 billion consumers will have smartphones by 2016, with 257 million of them in the U.S. That’s not just a big trend. It’s forcing companies to rethink their IT strategy as the world goes increasingly mobile first. Read More »
Foursquare has updated its Android app to include support for tap-and-go check-ins and P2P sharing using NFC. The app will now be able to read NFC tags at a location and immediately take a user to a venue page, where they can check-in. Read More »
For the first time, not one but two Kickstarter projects eclipsed the $1 million pledge mark, within hours of each other yesterday. The milestones highlight the bigger momentum behind Kickstarter, which is rounding into form as a major funding tool. Read More »
New York City kicked off voting on Thursday on its third annual BigApps competition, which rewards apps that use its open data sets. But one of the most popular resources appears to be Foursquare, which is in use in more than half of the top apps. Read More »
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