Android has hit a lull in ad impressions as it competes with a resurgent iOS family of devices. According to the latest figures from Millennial Media, ad impressions for both iOS and Android were tied at 38 percent, similar to last month when both were tied. Read more »
Appsfire, a popular app discovery tool, just got updated to version 2.0 on Android, delivering its handy Appstream tool to Android devices. The move follows announced improvements late Friday to Android Market, which should also help some of the discovery issues for Android users. Read more »
After losing out on 3PAR to HP, Dell satisfied its storage fix by securing an agreement to buy Compellent Technologies for $960 million. The deal gives Dell a solid enterprise-class storage maker that can help bulk up Dell’s data center offering. Read more »
The location battle lost a pioneer today as Brightkite announced it was pivoting away from check-ins and toward group text messaging. The move suggests that the rough-and-tumble world of location-based services is beginning a weeding out process with more competitors dropping out or moving on. Read more »
With the release of Chrome OS Web Store this week, I started thinking: Where is that online browser-based Android Market Google promised? In May, Google VP Vic Gundotra took the stage at Google I/O and gave a “sneak peak” of Android Market accessible through a browser. Read more »
Rovio is taking its success with Angry Birds — 50 million downloads and counting — and using it to launch a new carrier-billing payment system. The mobile developer said it is launching Bad Piggy Bank early next year, allowing one-touch in-app billing to a user’s wireless bill. Read more »
Getting companies to adopt online tools and social collaboration software is getting easier, but the hard part is making sure employees don’t give up on the tools in the face of an overload of information. That’s the next big battle in shifting the way people work. Read more »
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff said embracing social media and collaboration can obliterate hierarchies and transform companies. And he should know. It’s already happening inside Salesforce with his enterprise social networking product Chatter. Benioff spoke at the GigaOM Net:Work conference about the company’s shift to social. Read more »
As the world transitions through a “work shift” with remote workers increasingly collaborating online, success will be defined by the companies that can adapt to the new realities, according to Brett Caine, president of Citrix Online at the GigaOM Net:Work conference. Read more »
Michael Birch, the founder of Bebo, is returning to where it all began, signing on as an investor and advisor to the social network he built and later sold to AOL for $850 million. Read more »
Despite its fast growth and media clout, Twitter remains a niche service in the U.S., used by just 8 percent of American Internet users, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. Twitter is most popular among Hispanic, Black and younger urban users. Read more »
Factual, an open data start-up built by Applied Semantics co-founder Gil Elbaz, has raised $25 million in first-round funding to expand its data API service. The company is trying to build a platform for open data that developers can tap to power their applications. Read more »
Twitter is quietly improving its location feature, allowing developers to access an expanded database of locations for tweets associated with a place. The move will allow users to tweet from more locations and will allow developers to to more easily display tweets associated with one place. Read more »
European wireless carriers are resurrecting a failed wireline move and trying to extract more money from the likes of Google, Apple and other web and mobile companies. The operators say the costs of building out their networks to handle growth in traffic is outpacing data revenues. Read more »
Salesforce is bulking up its position as a cloud platform for developers by agreeing to snap up Heroku, a Ruby application Platform-as-a-Service for $212 million. The deal will further establish Salesforce as a platform for app developers along with its VMforce enterprise cloud collaboration with VMware. Read more »
Offering freemium versions of mobile apps is a now a full-fledged trend, so shouldn’t all app developers employ the model? Not so fast. The strategy has worked, but it requires understanding of both the market and your product, along with careful thought, planning and a willingness ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The freemium mobile app movement is now a full-fledged trend among consumers and developers with freemium apps representing one-third of the top grossing iPhone apps. Here’s a list of things to keep in mind for developers wanting to employ in-app purchases and freemium apps. Read more »
Google is shipping a surprise with its upcoming Chrome OS notebooks: free cellular data. Google is teaming with Verizon to offer 100 MB of free data every month for two years on the upcoming devices. This should appeal to consumers interested in checking out Chrome OS. Read more »
Despite Google’s comments that its new search update Google Instant has had a minimal effect on revenue, it hasn’t stopped Morgan Stanley from upping its revenue estimates by $1.5 billion for 2011, based largely on the strength of Google Instant’s potential impact. Read more »
As it has with other technologies, Apple may hold the key to help bring 3-D technology to the masses. Apple has been awarded a patent on a new auto-stereoscopic 3-D projection system that allows multiple viewers to watch 3-D content without glasses. Read more »
Google is revamping its Google Maps for Mobile product, relying less on the cloud and more on the processing power of the phone to help improve the experience and give users more offline help. The upgrade should appear first on newer Android devices soon. Read more »
MoPub, a mobile ad serving start-up built by ex-Google and AdMob guys, has raised a seed round from Accel Partners and Harrison Metal Capital. The team is angling to become the DoubleClick of mobile, serving up ads to apps and websites from various networks. Read more »
Ilya Bukshteyn, senior director of marketing for Microsoft’s speech business, explains how voice control is an integral part of the interfaces for both Xbox Kinect and Windows Phone 7 and how it will increasingly be a consistent experience across many of Microsoft’s products. Read more »
Loopt is incorporating background location updates its latest version, allowing you to alert a select group of friends about your location without having to open the app. Loopt 4.0 gives a glimpse at how other major location companies may incorporate background location sharing into their apps. Read more »
Sprint is rolling out a $4-5 billion plan to modernize and converge its network in a wide-ranging effort that will mean the end of its iDEN network and a possible embrace of LTE down the road. The plan will take 3-5 years to complete. Read more »
This week was dominated by the deal that didn’t happen. While the rumored $6 billion acquisition of Groupon by Google hasn’t been consummated, it seemed to spur action among local e-commerce rivals and prompted a lot of thought about the future of local social shopping. Read more »
Kindsight’s efforts to pair deep packet inspection for PC security with targeted behavioral ads will serve as a good test to see how well it can utilize the controversial DPI technology and make it attractive to consumers concerned about maintaining their privacy. Read more »
Though some have derided the Galaxy Tab as a big phone with an OS that needs maturing, it hasn’t stopped Samsung from selling 1 million units in its first two months. Samsung announced this just 12 days after it reported selling 600,000 units of the tablet. Read more »
A collection of data miners and tracking companies is creating a one-stop shop for consumers to see how ads are targeting them and how they can opt-out if they choose. The move is a preemptive attempt to head off a possible “Do Not Track” registry. Read more »
Zynga announced it’s snapping up Words with Friends game developer Newtoy to help expand its gaming empire into mobile. The pick-up gives Zynga a hot mobile studio and a key partner in bringing its existing Facebook titles to mobile devices. Read more »
Research in Motion still has a few months before it launches PlayBook, but the company showed it’s prepared to compete, with the announcement today that it has bought Swedish design firm The Astonishing Tribe, a respected team respected for its take on mobile screens. Read more »
Now that Verizon Wireless’ 4G data network has a launch date of Dec. 5 and pricing attached, let’s take a look at how it stacks up to the competition. Verizon Wireless joins Sprint and T-Mobile, who are also touting high-performance 4G networks. Read more »
Mobile gaming network OpenFeint is launching a new tool for developers to implement freemium models and is enticing developers to hop on board with a $1 million challenge. The move helps developers tap the growing market for freemium games, expected to heavily drive mobile gaming revenues. Read more »
The FCC is moving forward on a vote for long-promised net neutrality rules, fulfilling a goal Chairman Julius Genachoswski laid out more than a year ago. The regulations, which will be heard on Dec. 21, will require wireline providers to follow stricter rules than wireless. Read more »
While Android has come on like gangbusters, Apple’s iOS has pushed aside BlackBerry to become the top current smartphone platform as of October, according to Nielsen Co., and the most desired smartphone for future purchases. Android, meanwhile, is most desired among current feature phone owners. Read more »
The FCC moved to begin freeing up TV broadcast spectrum for wireless and fixed Internet use in a decision that could ultimately lead to an auction of 120 MHz of spectrum.The vote could help the U.S. stave off a spectrum crunch as mobile Internet use soars. Read more »
A showdown between Comcast and Level 3 over fees Level 3 has agreed to pay the cable giant to carry its traffic has touched off a debate as to whether Comcast is abusing its power or if it’s simply holding Level 3 to a fair standard. Read more »
Nine months after reports first surfaced that the European Commission was investigating Google over its search tactics, the commission is now confirming it’s indeed opening up a formal antitrust investigation looking at how Google uses its dominant position in the online search market. Read more »
Check-ins have given consumers a glimpse of the power of location and the deals they unlock. But there’s another world awaiting as mobile users learn to appreciate the era of “persistent location,” in which a user’s location is passively used to deliver them relevant information Read more »
Autodesk believes Android has grown to become a viable opportunity, enough so that it is bringing a version of its popular drawing app SketchBook Mobile to the platform. It’s another sign that Android is becoming a destination for big-name developers as it competes with iOS. Read more »
