In its first acquisition since its spin-off, Motorola Mobile announced it has bought 3LM, a stealthy startup by ex-Google employees working on building security software for Android devices. The acquisition will help Motorola as it looks to expand the presence of Android into corporate settings. Read more »
Adobe believes it’s got some increasingly popular weapons in Air and Flash to win the hearts of mobile developers. On the eve of the Mobile World Congress, the company shared some new statistics, hoping to get developers to see the value in its tools. Read more »
Internet radio pioneer Pandora announced Friday it was filing for an initial public offering, hoping to raise $100 million through the sale of stock. Though saddled with a deficit, the company has seen incredible growth and has been a bright spot in the digital music industry. Read more »
BankSimple, a New York start-up, is poised to begin a limited beta soon, as it looks to launch a next-generation online banking service that combines real-time data, predictive money management and smartphones without the fees and penalties associated with many banks. Read more »
The signs have been coming, but now that it’s official, the Nokia-Microsoft partnership is still stunning. There are huge implications and tons of questions, from execution to integration and how Nokia will fare as it weathers two years of transition. Here’s what the Web is saying: Read more »
The Twitter app on Android got a major facelift today, making the app not only nicer to look at but more powerful to use for experienced hands and more inviting for newcomers. Twitter 2.0 shows a lot of thoughtful upgrades that integrate tightly with Android and help users leverage location. Read more »
Yahoo unveiled a new personalized digital newstand app called Livestand that will serve as a showcase for magazine content on tablets but will eventually drive the overall Yahoo experience across all devices. Livestand represents Yahoo’s drive to become more mobile and personal. Read more »
Gowalla continues to plug along in the location check-in space and has updated its Spot pages for places to make them more browsable and added new Highlights for locations. The improvements, while not ground-breaking, typify the steady progress of Gowalla. But is it enough? Read more »
Taming Twitter’s stream of endless data can be daunting, especially the more people you follow. But start-up My6sense is bringing some order to the chaos with a new Chrome browser extension that prioritizes a user’s Twitter stream, making it relevant to their tastes and interests. Read more »
Tapjoy is launching a new Pay-per-action service that allows app makers to offer virtual currency or goods to users who complete actions within an app. The idea is that incentives inside an app can keep people tuned in and help turn them into more loyal customers. Read more »
Parents and one lawmaker are raising questions about the way Apple handles in-app payments for children. Rep. Edward J. Markey on Tuesday urged the FTC to review the way Apple markets its apps because of questions about the ease with which children are buying in-app items. Read more »
Skyfire, which has racked up millions of downloads of its mobile browser, is now poised to announce its first trials with a tier-one wireless carrier in the U.S. The test will establish how well Skyfire can help operators better manage the explosion of mobile video traffic. Read more »
HTC’s move to buy video platform provider Saffron Digital for $48.6 million and invest $40 million in streaming gaming service Onlive show that manufacturers can’t be content to just deliver great handsets. Video and gaming content is increasingly necessary to stand out in a crowded market. Read more »
E-commerce rebounded last year, buoyed by rising consumer confidence and the fast emergence of deal sites like Groupon and Living Social, according to ComScore’s U.S. Digital Year in Review, which looked at the changing face of digital media as it expanded through social, mobile and video. Read more »
In an attempt to generate some more momentum in the competitive smartphone market, Sprint unveiled a new Android phone the Kyocera Echo that offers a dual touch-screen design. The design allows for interesting onscreen multitasking as well as more real estate for app and game use. Read more »
New start-up BillGuard is looking to build a crowd-sourced anti-virus billing protection system that digests a consumer’s transactional history and pulls in alerts from banks, existing members and the web. The system uses big data analysis and machine learning to help users spot fraud and errors. Read more »
Smart Communications, a wireless carrier in the Philippines, unveiled the Netphone, an Android-based smartphone that will be the first to support the Wholesale Application Community. The launch shows that the WAC effort is still alive but the odds are stacked against the effort. Read more »
Former Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin, best remembered for his failed AOL merger, has made a quiet return to the online world as an investor of health-information start-up OrganizedWisdom and now sees the power of channeling social media to help better the lives of people. Read more »
RunKeeper Pro’s move to a permanently free model last month signaled a bigger shift for the company as it moves beyond its roots as a running app and branches out to a wider audience across a multitude of connected devices. Read more »
With companies looking to leverage your data trail, why not take possession of that information and find innovative uses for it yourself? That’s the question that Jeremie Miller – the developer known behind the open-source protocol that powers many Instant Messaging programs – is trying to answer. Read more »
AT&T is ramping up its courtship of developers with the opening today of the first of three Foundry Innovation Centers in Plano, Texas. The center signals AT&T’s increasing willingness to collaborate with app developers as it tries to remain on the cutting edge of communications services. Read more »
PocketGear, a major mobile app store, sees more opportunity in powering other app markets than in selling directly to consumer. The company is relaunching itself as Appia, a white label app store provider to take advantage of a potential explosion in app stores. Read more »
Getting paid on Android has been a touchy subject for developers, who have had trouble turning their apps into big money makers. But now Google has rolled out a new web store for Android Market and in-app purchases for apps that developers are hoping will kick-start revenues. Read more »
Massive Health, a new San Francisco start-up aimed at tackling health care problems, has just raised $2.25 million from a stellar list of investors. The company plans to apply the money toward mobile applications that help users treat chronic diseases using big data, analytics, social and game mechanics. Read more »
Salesforce bought social productivity app maker Manymoon today in another push toward social collaboration. The acquisition gives Salesforce the top app in Google’s Apps Marketplace and a popular product for businesses looking to enhance existing tools for better collaboration and sharing. Read more »
PopCap’s string of success building top-notch video games like Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled has won it a reputation for making premium titles. But as the gaming industry moves to become more social and emphasize cheaper games and in-app purchases, PopCap is learning to evolve with it. Read more »
Google is adding check-ins to its Latitude location service, but it’s pairing the service with its persistent location feature allowing users to check-in automatically at locations. The update takes the check-in game to the next level and shows how persistent location can enhance location-based services. Read more »
App makers are quick to talk about downloads. It’s the most obvious metric for consumer adoption. But according to analytics firm Localytics, 26 percent of apps were only used once which means those download stats often mask the fact that many apps fail to catch on. Read more »
Skyhook’s deal to provide the location information for Priceline’s Hotel Negotiator Android app illustrates the recent work Skyhook has done to get around an impasse with Google that has limited the reach of its location technology on mobile apps. Read more »
Google has updated the interface on Google Docs to help users navigate and sort through the increasing number of files they’re storing and editing in the cloud. The update includes new filters for document types, preview tools, priority sorting and new features for grabbing and sharing documents. Read more »
Early signs of success for mobile rich media ads suggests they’re poised to take off. Volvo recently completed a video ad campaign with Admob on the iPhone and found the ads have led to almost a 10x improvement in click-through rates compared to traditional banner ads. Read more »
2010 was the year of Android. That’s according to research firm Canalys, which reports that Google’s operating system eclipsed Symbian in the fourth quarter to become the top smartphone OS in the world by shipments. It caps a huge year of growth for Android. Read more »
While Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop set tongues wagging with talk that it is open to “build or join a competitive ecosystem,” which suggests that it is looking at Android or Windows Phone 7, I think it’s still too early for Nokia to look to another OS. Read more »
BilltoMobile is expanding its relationship with Verizon Wireless to process transactions from other payment platforms including Boku. The agreement allows Boku to tap into BilltoMobile’s direct billing gateway and will greatly expand the number of merchants and consumers who can use direct billing on Verizon. Read more »
Despite reports that location-based services are far from mainstream, new research by Microsoft suggests the technology is gaining adoption and may be poised to follow in the footsteps of the ATM, which took some time to dispel safety concerns on its way to being universally used. Read more »
PayPal’s Osama Bedier, vice president of platform, mobile, and new ventures is leaving to join Google in a similar position, according to sources close to the situation. Bedier, one of PayPal’s longest-serving employees, will be integral in helping Google ramp up its mobile payment efforts. Read more »
Less than a week after Kongregate Arcade was pulled from Android Market by Google, Kongregate is hopeful that tweaks to the Flash gaming app will satisfy Google. The gaming site said it worked to address Google’s concerns by making its app less like an app store. Read more »
Seven Networks is leveraging its push email technology to create a new system for app data syncing that can help reduce traffic from smartphones and mobile devices by up to 70 percent. The solution has big implications for carriers and for mobile users. Read more »
Developers apparently were tuned into the tablet parade at CES and are making bets on the armada of Android tablets, the iPad and the BlackBerry PlayBook. This is the gist of the most recent Q1 2011 Appcelerator developer survey, which polled developers right after CES. Read more »
Facebook is ready to go big with its Facebook Credits virtual currency and is announcing that all application developers will have to use the credits starting July 1. Facebook Credits could prove to be a major revenue source for the social network as it expands. Read more »
