Polls generally flow in one direction with an organization looking to find information from a pool of people or a community. But Urtak, a small, New York startup is finding that democratizing polls unlocks a lot of interesting interaction, engagement and new information. Read more »
Location-based services are still traveling a long road toward mainstream adoption but the growth of smartphones and acceptance by women appear to be helping accelerate the rise of check-ins and suggest location services could have a bright future ahead. Read more »
AT&T is reportedly preparing to turn on its LTE 4G network on in New York City by the end of June and then flip the switch on Los Angeles less than a month later. That would be consistent with previously announced plans for an LTE roll-out. Read more »
The iPhone’s debut on Verizon Wireless in January was one of the most anticipated moments for many consumers and wireless lovers. But it turns out the launch wasn’t bad news for most rival carriers. Take a look at how they fared in Q1. Read more »
Corduro, a Google Ventures backed start-up, is hoping to provide a potent challenge to mobile payment providers like PayPal and Square as well as back-end payment processors and customer relations software providers with its new cloud payment platform. Read more »
Android Market has hit 4.5 billion app downloads, but it’s sometimes been in spite of the store experience not because of it. Today, Google announced a set of improvements to Android Market meant to highlight more apps and developers and help guide consumers to relevant content. Read more »
Visa is starting to put its big payment acquisitions to work with a new a digital wallet offering that looks to bring one-click transactions to ecommerce, mobile and social networking sites. The wallet will help consumers checkout faster and should reduce online abandoned shopping carts for retailers. Read more »
Groupon is investigating the case of a Seattle man who was able to log into another user’s account using Facebook Connect. The issue could be an isolated incident or could suggest some larger sloppiness on the part of fast-growing Groupon. Read more »
Silicon Valley start-up PayNearMe is addressing the 1/4 of households that don’t use credit cards and today, it’s rolling out four new options that ramp up the number of things consumers can pay with using cash. Read more »
Now that the word is out on the Microsoft-Skype deal, the pick-up is still leaving many scratching their heads. Others, however, are seeing some of the wisdom in the move, though it still comes down to Microsoft making the deal work, which is far from given. Read more »
Microsoft confirmed that it has agreed to acquire Skype for $8.5 billion and plans to integrate the Internet communications service into a wide array of products from Kinect and Windows Phone 7 to Lync, Outlook and Xbox Live. Read more »
A mobile analytics firm found that 15 percent of app launches happen offline. That’s a fair amount of offline app launches suggesting that our wireless connectivity needs to improve and app developers might be well served by building in more offline use for their apps. Read more »
LocalResponse is taking location data from check-ins and combining it with implicit location information gathered from social status updates to create a targeted marketing platform that lets businesses reach consumers in real-time wherever they are. Today, they’re rolling out the engine for national brands. Read more »
Rdio, the social music subscription service built by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, is one of the later entrants to the digital music space. But it’s working hard to catch up by tapping developers to make its service widely available. Read more »
LinkedIn is upping its expectations for its much-anticipated IPO, which it now believes can pull in as much as $274 million. The company this morning released the pricing for its IPO and is now prepared to offer 7.84 million shares at $32 to $35 each Read more »
Happy Cloud, a Cambridge, Mass. startup believes the key to accelerating online gaming of top titles is intelligent progressive downloads that leverage the cloud to make games playable within a few minutes. The goal is to make video game downloads as on-demand as videos on Netflix. Read more »
Tabbedout, an innovative Austin, Texas start-up that is tackling the problem of closing out bills at restaurants and bars, said it has completed its Series A round with an additional $3.7 million, raising the total to $5.75 million for the round Read more »
Rather than scaling back on its plans for its own NFC payments network, the carrier-led Isis joint venture is ramping up and welcoming more credit card companies and banks. And that, Isis believes, will make the carrier venture even more critical to the success of NFC. Read more »
Mobile advertising is ramping up quickly and is poised to grow by more than 40 percent over the next several years, outpacing traditional online advertising. And that is fueling a spate of funding announcements and deals as the competition in this space heats up. Read more »
T-Mobile USA struggled in the first quarter, reporting a loss of 99,000 subscribers in the quarter, and increased churn compared to the year before. Revenue was flat, while income fell. It highlights the challenges for the fourth-place carrier, which is preparing to merge with AT&T. Read more »
While Apple still holds a strong lead in apps, there is an increasing number of cutting-edge, innovative mobile apps that are initially launching on Android before they go to iOS. It highlights the unique appeal of the Android open platform. Read more »
Tablets are cutting into PC usage and are also stealing time from ereaders and gaming machines, according to a Nielsen survey. Tablets have started to shift the computing load away from more traditional machines and now present a significant challenge to hardware makers. Read more »
Sal Khan, a former hedge fund manager, turned some personal tutoring videos for his niece into an online educational academy with backing from Bill Gates and Google. The Khan Academy is providing students with powerful online tools to accelerate their learning in ways traditional teaching hasn’t. Read more »
AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are reportedly downsizing plans for a joint near field communication payment network called Isis and are looking to partner now with credit card companies Visa and MasterCard on a more modest mobile wallet offering. Read more »
The iPhone has been quietly taking money out of people’s pockets with its addictive apps. But Gigwalk, a new app, is looking to put some money back by turning iPhone users into an on-demand mobile workforce that can collect and report real-world data with their phones. Read more »
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings spoke at a conference today about his company ,what its strengths are and the limits he sees for Netflix. As he talked, a picture emerged of how Netflix has achieved its success and how it hopes to keep it going. Read more »
To solve the world’s energy problems and combat a rise in global warming, the solutions need to be dramatic and powerful. And definitely not cute. That’s the blunt assessment of Bill Gates, who dismissed smaller scale technologies like residential solar installations as being “cute” but ineffective. Read more »
Y Combinator was already a popular accelerator program for young start-ups, but with Yuri Milner and Ron Conway offering $150,000 to all YC companies, it has boosted applications by 40 percent for the upcoming class, said Harj Taggar, the newest partner at Y Combinator. Read more »
The check-in was big last year though people are now questioning its basic usefulness as many look to what’s next beyond the simple act. But the check-in still has a lot of value, something social travel site Gogobot is illustrating with new Foursquare and Facebook integration. Read more »
More than almost any other national brand, the Gap has been on the cutting edge with its marketing trials, working with Facebook, Groupon, Foursquare, Visa, JiWire and others to figure out how to craft its image and message for a much more social and mobile audience. Read more »
Wi-Fi provider Boingo Wireless is set to go public Wednesday in what could be a good measure of how hot the wireless boom is. The company is seeking to raise some $75 million with its debut, which comes as IPOs are growing hot again. Read more »
While the focus on handset location data has been focused largely on Apple recently, new internal Google memos that emerged yesterday illustrate why the search company is also very serious about collecting Wi-Fi data through its Android handsets. Read more »
Microsoft unveiled a new set of tools for iOS developers to help them port their apps over to Windows Phone 7. But to really catch up in this game and significantly bump up developer support, Microsoft needs more than tools. It needs to sell more phones. Read more »
Smartphones are remaking the lives of their male users, according to a new survey from Spike TV. The study found men are unabashedly in love with their smartphones, a borderline addictive relationship that has empowered and also distracted men in both small and profound ways. Read more »
With recent mobile app store changes forcing developers to emphasize more engagement in their apps, it’s highlighting the importance of push notifications, which can be key tools in retaining users and keeping them involved in an app. Read more »
Freemium game apps have an outsized influence in the Apple App Store, making up 40 percent of all free game downloads in the App Store in March. But with the recent crackdown by Apple on incentivized installs, freemium app makers are having to adjust. Read more »
Despite the introduction of the iPhone on Verizon, Sprint Nextel managed to hold its own and actually improved in almost every way, adding 1.1 million net wireless subscribers, reducing its churn to record levels and improving average revenue per user. Read more »
Ted Morgan, CEO of Skyhook Wireless, said with all the attention on location data and privacy concerns, it’s important for mobile companies to come clean now, rather than face a backlash from users or worse, government intervention. Read more »
Visa’s investment in Square is the latest move by big credit card companies to better position themselves for the coming mobile payments boom. The companies need to stay active in this market or risk being bypassed. We look at the efforts of the big three. Read more »
Less than a week after OpenFeint was bought for $104 million, and six months after DeNA picked up Ngmoco for $403 million, social game platform operator PapayaMobile announced it has raised $18 million, further highlighting the momentum in the social mobile gaming space. Read more »
