Google’s VP of engineering Andy Rubin hit back at a recent Businessweek article suggesting that the company was exerting much more control over mobile operating system. But in defending Android’s openness, Rubin seems to be setting the company up for more stories questioning Android’s openness. Read more »
Microsoft and Toyota are jointly investing $12 million in a bid to build a cloud-based platform that will connect cars, homes and the electrical smart grids. The joint venture will be run out of Toyota Media Services and will leverage Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud services. Read more »
Twitter is arming marketers with more tools to help them target users with a new followers dashboard and the ability to aim messages at specific locations. The changes show how the company is working to make it easier for marketers to use the network to reach consumers. Read more »
Not long after I wrote about the need for more engagement numbers from app makers, Google has apparently gone ahead and started factoring in daily active user statistics for apps in its Android Market rankings according to one app publisher. Read more »
Twitter is a company in search of a business plan and to a lesser extent an identity. But the company is quickly making strides on both fronts with new changes including a revamped home page, better search tools and new potential brand pages for companies. Read more »
Mobile video chat was all the rage last year. But the new battleground is now becoming group video chat. Oovoo kicked off the competition late last year and now Fring is keeping pace with a group video calls, a new feature now launching in limited beta. Read more »
Hulu’s CEO Jason Kilar reiterated that the video service is expected to double its revenue in 2011 and is expected to hit 1 million paid subscribers. The figures point to the larger effect that Netflix and Hulu are having on consumer behavior and also hardware sales. Read more »
In what could be a larger push by the federal government to stem the sharing of personal online information, a federal grand jury has served internet radio provider Pandora with a subpoena looking into the practices of information sharing on mobile apps. Read more »
As we’ve noted, the rise of LTE opens up the potential for wireless carriers to court wireline broadband subscribers. Well, even with the limitations of wireless, the comparison is valid, at least for now, according to Deutsche Bank, which studied the latest 4G offerings. Read more »
Despite some bad examples of gamification, the concept of adding game mechanics to tasks has merit as I’ve said when done in a thoughtful way. And that takes offering real world rewards, said Irving Fain, CEO of New York start-up CrowdTwist. Read more »
A mobile app with millions of downloads is noteworthy, but what I want to hear is how many users are still around in a week, a month, six months later and how often are they engaging? I want more information than a download number can give. Read more »
Skype users, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, are getting a new powerful desktop tool that brings a lot of Google Voice management features to Skype. MySkypeOffice offers a host of in-bound call management tools for businesses that rely on Skype as their phone system. Read more »
Zong has been a major player in mobile payments, best known for allowing people to bill Facebook Credits purchases to their phone. But the provider sees a bigger audience in payments and is expanding support to Flash, Unity, the mobile web and to interactive TV platforms. Read more »
Visa is getting into personal payments ring by offering the ability to receive and send funds directly to Visa credit, debit or prepaid card accounts in the U.S. The move pits Visa against leader PayPal and others and further validates the market for personal payments. Read more »
Google’s ongoing effort to turn Google Docs into a formidable competitor with Microsoft Office continues with a new feature that allows users to hold discussions in real-time while working on shared documents. The new feature lets users of its productivity service discuss shared documents in real-time Read more »
AdMob is releasing a software development kit for Windows Phone 7 developers and is updating its platform to full HTML5 for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7. The changes mean developers will be able to include rich media AdMob advertising units easily across all three platforms. Read more »
Twitter is downplaying suggestions that it’s on a crusade against developers. But a new analysis of Twitter traffic indicates why the company may be getting nervous. While Twitter officials downplay the company’s crusade against new third-party clients, fresh analysis suggests third-party apps account for more traffic. Read more »
Web apps saved to the home screen of iOS devices run less than half as fast as the same apps launched from the Safari browser and don’t have offline caching access and other features, according to a new report. Did Apple design this deliberately? Read more »
Web apps saved to the home screen of iOS devices run less than half as fast as the same apps launched from the Safari browser and don’t have offline caching access and other features, according to a report by the Register. Read more »
Facebook confirmed it’s working on a Groupon-inspired discount service that will help bring together merchants and its 600 million users. But for all its assets, Facebook doesn’t appear ready to compete fully against social shopping leaders Groupon and Living Social. Read more »
Angry Birds developer Rovio is launching its follow up game Rio exclusively on the Amazon App Store for Android, giving Amazon’s new market a marquee title as it prepares to open for business. Here’s what the deal means for Amazon, developers and Google. Read more »
Kayak is now handling hotel bookings itself, rather than just referring customers to partner sites like Expedia and Orbitz. The move marks a significant turn as Kayak shifts from simply aggregating travel deal information into being a destination where users can complete their purchase. Read more »
Twitter today removed all doubt about what kind of relationship it wants with developers. In a blunt message on its developer forum, platform lead Ryan Sarver basically said new Twitter apps are not welcome and existing ones are going to be on a very tight leash. Read more »
We’ve had smartphones for a while and disasters for far longer. But the growth of smartphones has helped turn natural disasters like the Japan earthquake into far more personal, powerful and real-time events for both the victims on the ground and people consuming the news. Read more »
When does this story get better? Clearwire, the early 4G WiMAX pioneer announced its CEO Bill Morrow is stepping down for personal reasons, part of a larger executive shake-up. This follows not long after the December departure of company founder and chairman Craig McCaw. Read more »
Google is making it easier for users to block unwanted sites in their search results, ratcheting up the pressure on low quality content sites. The search giant is allowing users to hide or block sites from future search results right from within Google search. Read more »
UPDATED: In an apparent attempt to quell concerns from parents, regulators and legislators, Apple has moved to require password entry on every iOS in-app purchase, closing a 15-minute grace period that some children used to inadvertently rack up pricey charges of virtual goods. Read more »
SCVNGR is applying game mechanics and a new business model to daily deals in an attempt to strengthen the relationship between merchants and their customers. With LevelUp, merchants offer a series of three deals to consumers, who unlock each one as they try out a business. Read more »
Square founder and CEO Jack Dorsey responded to VeriFone’s much publicized and questionable attack on its security with an understated letter that defends his mobile payment system’s protections, saying VeriFone’s claims are neither fair or accurate and don’t reflect existing protections in Square and credit cards. Read more »
Opera Software isn’t sweating the recent ban of its browser in the GetJar app store, because the effort is just one part of a larger plan by Opera to become a major distribution point for native and web apps around the world. Read more »
With all the growing competition in the market for app stores, it’s inevitable that this jockeying is leading to some competitive measures. The latest sign of that is GetJar’s move to ban Opera Mini after Opera announced it was launching its own app market. Read more »
Q&A site Stack Overflow has been on a tear, as we recently reported in a profile of the company. The site supports 45 vertical categories for questions, relaunched a career site and now has $12 million in new funding and a new name to boast about. Read more »
Foursquare is taking a big leap ahead in its story with version 3.0 as it matures into a much more complete and polished location-based service capable of tackling its original vision of making cities easier to use for people. Read more »
Sprint and T-Mobile are reportedly talking up a possible deal. But if the story wasn’t T-Mobile in talks with Sprint, it would involve one or the other in talks with LightSquared, the startup network backed by Harbinger Capital Partners, Clearwire or even MetroPCS. Here’s why. Read more »
Backupify, an online information back-up provider, is getting into the social search act by launching CloudSight, a new service that lets users search for data across their cloud-based accounts but also restore them in their original location. Read more »
Local recommendation service Bizzy is hoping users can make its personalized suggestions even better by introducing a new mechanism: the check-out. Instead of checking in to a location, Bizzy is asking its mobile app users to rate a place when they check out. Read more »
Opera Software is getting into the app game by launching the Mobile App Store, a web storefront where 100 million Opera browser users will be able to buy apps. The move highlights the growth of app stores, but also raises questions about how many can survive. Read more »
As an IPO looms, Skype is looking for new revenue streams that will help continue its growth and improve its financial prospects. And today it unveiled the next big revenue generator: ads on its Skype Windows desktop client, which should lessen its reliance on SkypeOut. Read more »
The mobile messaging space, already hot with a number of start-ups on a roll and last week’s purchase of Beluga by Facebook, got a little hotter today with news that Kik has raised $8 million from Union Square Ventures, RRE Ventures and Spark Capital. Read more »
One major obstacle for NFC technology has been merchant adoption of NFC-enabled point-of-sale terminals. Well, Verifone is reportedly looking to shelve that concern, saying it will include the technology as a standard offering in all of its new payment terminals. Read more »
