Ditto, a new app from Jaiku founder Jyri Engestrom, is coming out of the gates with the premise of helping users get recommendations on the fly as they figure where to go next. But what’s interesting is the ability to help facilitate future check-ins with friends. Read more »
Microsoft, like its rival Google, sees dollars in daily deals. The company today announced Bing Deals, which integrates daily discount information from The Dealmap into its Bing mobile and desktop sites. The idea puts Microsoft into the same game as Groupon and Living Social. Read more »
Thrutu is introducing a new free Android application that allows users to easily share their location, contacts and pictures during a phone conversation. The company hopes to replicate the interaction people experience when talking face to face by enabling better multitasking within calls. Read more »
Android in the U.S. pushed ahead of rivals iOS and RIM in January, according to Nielsen Wire, and is finding more popularity among younger consumers. HTC is also winning both the Android and Windows Phone 7 manufacturing race ahead of rivals Motorola and Samsung. Read more »
Marco Arment, the former CTO of the Tumblr blog platform, is best known these days for his time-shifting reading app Instapaper. But he could start a side-job as a financial advisor to start-ups. His motto: Get the money from your customers, not investors. Arment’s more traditional […] Read more »
Amid all the fanfare over the iPad 2, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs boasted that the company has paid out $2 billion to developers for apps sold in the App Store. This comes just eight months after it announced developers had made $1 billion on downloads. Read more »
Google has apparently pulled more than 50 Android apps that were pirated and infected with malware which transmitted information from the apps. The issue highlights some of the vulnerabilities of the marketplace, which can be exploited through its openness. Read more »
The Q&A space is red-hot right now, but it’s not just Quora or Stack Overflow. Startup Opinionaided is announcing it has raised $1 million to expand its mobile, real-time, feedback service, which is getting noticed for its high engagement levels. Read more »
RedRover, a social location-based network for parents, helps them connect, plan play dates and discover new kid-friendly locations. The service, which launched this week as an iOS app, speaks to the power of niche social networks that play to specific demographic and privacy needs. Read more »
Games on Android are poised to get a lot more robust with advanced 3-D graphics thanks to Unity Technologies, which announced today it is releasing Unity for Android, its 3-D game engine that will allow developers to port over and create robust games for Android devices. Read more »
Facebook announced it is acquiring group text messaging start-up Beluga, snatching away what might have been a good pick-up for Google. Om recently talked about the opportunity for Google to gain ground on Facebook by focusing especially on synchronous interactions created by Beluga and other apps. Read more »
In a move that signals an end of an era and carries a hint of irony, T-Mobile and Microsoft said it will end the Danger Service for existing Sidekick devices on May 31 as the carrier prepares to release new Android-based Sidekicks. Read more »
If Priceline can ride its “name your price” model to a $22 billion market cap, can it work in the mobile local shopping market? That’s the question small start-up Spreezio is trying to answer with its app MAKEaDeal, which recently launched as a $2.99 iPhone app. Read more »
The race is on to see who can help enterprise customers secure and manage the emerging fleet of employee-bought smart devices. The latest entrant to the space is Enterproid, a start-up that has built an app environment for smartphones that partitions corporate data from personal information. Read more »
SocialEyes is launching today with the promise of making video chat truly social by leveraging Facebook Connect. The San Francisco company is building a video messaging platform that tries to move beyond largely one-to-one or group chatting experiences and looks like something Facebook would make. Read more »
After releasing an API in private beta a couple weeks ago, Instagram is looking to spark a lot more Instagram-linked apps and services with a public real-time API that will help developers tap into the power of the fast-growing photo sharing network. Read more »
In a move that could signal Google is taking a hard line on in-app payments similar to the way Apple has outlined new subscription rules, Google has pulled the popular Visual VoiceMail app from Android Market citing a violation of the developer payment rules. Read more »
Slovenian start-up Outfit7 last year managed to quietly rack up more than 60 million downloads of its Talking Friends apps, led by its breakout hit Talking Tom Cat. The company has built a fast-growing empire by constructing a modern toy with communications at its heart. Read more »
CupidsPlay, a new startup, is looking to leverage the power of social games to bring potential matches together. The site, which is officially launching today, believes that social games can be the bridge that helps singles break the ice. Read more »
DreamIt Ventures, the Philadelphia start-up accelerator program that is expanding to New York, announced a list of freshly-minted CEOs and founders who will sit on its first Entrepreneur Advisory Board, helping mentor the upcoming class of start-ups this summer. Read more »
The FTC is reviewing Apple’s in-app purchase system because of concerns about the ease with which children are buying virtual goods without realizing the actual cost. FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a letter the commission would examine the way Apple markets its apps to children. Read more »
In a shot across the bow of Intuit and Verifone, mobile payment startup Square is dropping the transaction fees it charges businesses. It will now rely solely on a 2.75 percent flat fee and will waive the 15 cent per transaction fee that it previously charged. Read more »
Mobile location app WHERE is taking the next step in the local recommendations game by integrating its service with Facebook and Bump, helping its 4 million users get and share suggestions more easily. The company updated its Android and iPhone apps today with the added functionality. Read more »
After riding Android and Verizon to help fuel its comeback, Motorola Mobility is sounding a cautious tone about its reliance on Verizon in the wake of slowing sales. Motorola sales on Verizon Wireless accounted for 28 percent of Motorola’s sales last year. Read more »
SeatGeek, one of a raft of ticket comparison and price forecasting sites for sporting and entertainment events, has a combination of powerful data, great design and key partnerships and investments including new funding from Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s A Grade Investments. Read more »
Caplinked has built a platform for entrepreneurs and investors that combines the social community of LinkedIn with the customer management tools of Salesforce. The site, which went live last fall, just nabbed $525,000 in angel funding led by Peter Thiel and a stable of heavy hitters. Read more »
In a little less than two years, Kickstarter has helped thousands of artists and creative types raise millions of dollars for projects, validating a new form of crowd-based fundraising that’s opening the eyes of not only artists, but also technology leaders. Read more »
A year ago, few people in the U.S. had ever heard of BilltoMobile, a direct carrier billing company. But the San Jose company is fast emerging as a leader in the mobile payments space with direct billing arrangements with Verizon and AT&T and now Sprint. Read more »
In an apparent response to rising concerns about children buying costly virtual goods in freemium apps, Apple is reportedly discussing the possibility of reducing a 15-minute purchase window for users to make purchases with only one password sign-in. Read more »
Location is still an acquired taste for a lot of consumers. But the power of location and its ability to bridge the online and the offline worlds are increasingly being realized by start-ups like SCVNGR, which has found success building a game layer over the world. Read more »
Google is finding its social legs and is launching a set of improvements to its search product that help it keep pace with rivals, who are increasingly weaving social signals into search results. Google is now including more results that are created and shared by friends. Read more »
Mobile phones increasingly being tapped to serve as the first line of protection against credit card and banking fraud. Banks, credit card companies and start-ups are all looking to leverage the ubiquity of cell phones and their location capabilities to help combat fraudulent activity. Read more »
New York start-up Stack Overflow has been growing rapidly by focusing on specific content niches and pushing experts answers. The site is now poised to expand its career site as it looks to help its experts leverage their knowledge for better jobs. Read more »
Google is answering Apple’s subscription model with a new micropayment service called One Pass that appears to give publishers more freedom in selling their content. One Pass will allow publishers to set their price and terms for their digital content and manage direct relationships with customers. Read more »
We’re still a ways off from our prediction that every mobile app will have location. But we’re seeing more and more of that reality take shape, especially as location-as-a-service providers create the tools necessary for developers to weave location into their mobile apps. Read more »
While Amazon and Netflix increasingly win over web consumers, a significant decline in online retail customer satisfaction dropped overall e-commerce satisfaction to its lowest point since 2004. That’s according to the latest figures from ForeSee Results’ annual e-commerce report on American Customer Satisfaction Index. Read more »
Independent mobile app store GetJar announced it has grabbed $25 million in funding as it looks to become the premier open Android market. The funding highlights the excitement around app stores, which are looking to capitalize on estimated $15 billion in app revenue this year. Read more »
Google is concluding that if people are up in arms about its perceived declining search results, then it will let them get to work in helping refine its searches. Google announced a Chrome browser extension that lets users block sites from appearing in their search results. Read more »
After Nokia’s much-publicized decision to embrace Windows Phone 7 over MeeGo last week, early previews of MeeGo on a tablet are underscoring why Nokia was probably right to move on. The OS looks buggy, unpolished and far behind competitors in the mobile space. Read more »
The mobile app boom is still largely a smartphone phenomenon, requiring more expensive hardware and often pricier data plans. But we’re now seeing more examples of apps that avoid the need for better hardware and data plans, bringing the love to a wider array of users. Read more »
