iZettle will start offering its credit card reader to its U.K. banking customers. That gives iZettle another key distribution point as it waits for Square and PayPal to challenge it in Europe. Read more »
One of the announced features in iOS 7 that Apple didn’t get to discuss is one you’ll like to use, particularly if you hop between Wi-Fi networks. It’s called Wi-Fi Hotspot 2.0 and it makes it seamless to roam on Wi-Fi. Read more »
The Sprint board is kicking Dish to the curb, saying the company has yet to submit an “actionable” offer, but it is giving Dish another week to come up with something better. Read more »
Vine is probably the best we’ve seen in mobile video-sharing so far. But as good as Vine is, the technological limits of mobile networking still haven’t quite caught up yet, and creating a consistent user experience for video is shaky. Read more »
Developers playing with the previews of Safari for iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks have discovered the inclusion of Russia’s leading search engine as an option in some countries for the first time. Read more »
Apple picked 11 best-designed apps of the year, on the iPhone, iPad and Mac, and announced them on the first evening of WWDC 2013. Read more »
Comcast plans to crowdsource its Wi-Fi network, turning millions of home gateways into public hotspots. It’s a revolutionary, and probably controversial, move that could benefit its customers immensely — as long as it doesn’t pimp out their broadband connections. Read more »
Besides overhauling the look and feel of iOS 7, some of the core iOS apps Apple offers on the iPhone got major updates. And some new features will seem strikingly familiar to some third-party app makers. Read more »
Most connected vehicle technologies have focused squarely on the car, but BMW and Honda are working with the University of MIchigan and Cohda Wireless to develop autonomous driving technologies that work on two wheels. Read more »
Watching the iOS 7 debut I couldn’t help but notice design cues from Android, HTC, Microsoft and even Palm. In some ways these have caught up to Apple in terms of design, but Apple is best at putting the pieces together. Read more »
Now part of the cable connected home experience from Comcast: a learning thermostat service and remote-controlled LED light bulbs. Read more »
Intel’s Haswell chip has a new home today: You can find it in the latest MacBook Air laptops from Apple, now available. Apple promises 9 and 12 hours of battery life on the two models. Read more »
OS X gets a new look and name: Mavericks was introduced at Apple’s WWDC event and has much familiarity to iOS in both look and behind-the-scenes technology. Read more »
The blocking of Skype and WhatsApp rival Viber in Saudi Arabia may or may not be a matter of censorship, but CEO Talmon Marco is pointing a finger at Google for making the process too easy. Read more »
Sprint’s Nextel has always been the king of push-to-talk services, but the king is on its deathbed. AT&T hopes to capitalize on its demise with a new PTT app for its most popular smartphone. Read more »
In a single year, five cable companies have banded together to deploy 165,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the U.S. That’s triple from the 50,000 the CableWiFi group offered last May. Read more »
Cisco and iRobot have teamed up to bring the Roomba’s ability to avoid furniture to the corporate office, and added on a human face via Cisco’s Telepresence software. But this platform is for more than telework. Read more »
AT&T is aligning its upgrade policy with its 24 month contract terms: No more early upgrades for fully subsidized hardware. The move pushes out AT&T’s subsidy costs by several months and follows a new $0.61 monthly administrative fee. Read more »
Here’s an RSS reader app for Google Glass. Users can save articles to Pocket or email them to themselves to read later. Read more »
If Sprint’s shareholder vote doesn’t go its way on Wednesday, SoftBank has another option for entering the U.S. mobile market. According to Reuters, SoftBank is considering T-Mobile US as a plan B. Read more »
America’s underbanked are large in number (68 million) and very familiar with mobile phones – which makes them good candidates for mobile payments. But cracking the market means dealing with scaling and regulatory hurdles. Read more »
If you ever want to feel ripped off, try sending an SMS to a foreign phone number. MVNO Ultra Mobile, however, is killing one of the industry’s most sacred cows by making all international messaging free. Read more »
Hang on tightly to that smartphone: theft is on the rise! We chat about that in our weekly wrapup show, while our other GigaOM podcasts discuss the included costs for connected devices and Chromebook buying advice. Read more »
Google’s standard Android keyboard with gesture typing and floating word suggestions is available for all Android 4.0 or better devices. Sony’s Xperia Z looks like the next Google Experience phone while Samsung boosted the Galaxy S 4 free storage with an update. Read more »
Pouring money into Google Wallet is getting Google nowhere. Slow adoption, reluctant phone carriers and lack of enthusiasm for NFC are weighing heavy on the mobile payments trend, and something’s got to give. Read more »
Twilio acts as universal translator between the arcane language of telecom networks and the new speak of the developer world. Apparently VCs are buying into the power of its APIs, and they’re investing accordingly. Read more »
Apple iPads and iPhones can become unified communications end points for workers using ShoreTel Dock to transform the devices into business desk phones and enterprise collaboration tools, utilizing voice, IM presence and conferencing on a favored, personal device as they follow the BYOD trend. Read more »
Although an anonymous HTC executive reported 5 million HTC One sales, a Citigroup analyst suggests a figure of 1.2 million. Why? A delayed launch and consumers already looking ahead to Apple’s next iPhone. Read more »
Sprint needed a national security director to keep eye on its soon-to-be owner SoftBank. So it picked a doozy of a candidate: Retired Admiral and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen. Read more »
BMW’s not totally picking sides in the mobile platform wars, however: Samsung’s S-Voice software will be right alongside Apple’s Siri EyesFree in the automaker’s iDrive software package. Read more »
Skype’s founding team originally set out to build a crowdsourced Wi-Fi network, much like the one operated by Fon. Only, it didn’t have an adequate VoIP solution for that network. Read more »
AT&T estimates that it will close the quarter with half a million new contract customers. The big improvement on last quarter is probably due to new promotions and some key smartphone wins. Read more »
WWDC, as you may know, is Apple’s annual conference for iOS and Mac OS X developers. Om Malik and I are bringing you up-to-the-minute updates of what transpires at the keynote on Monday. Read more »
Another manufacturer may be joining Samsung and HTC in offering “Google Experience” smartphones. Sony is expected to announce a version of the Xperia Z with pure Android as the Nexus line could be lower priced phones. Read more »
Apple is said to be very close to completing all major deals necessary to launch a competitive streaming music service. But will it be too little, too late? Read more »
Since debuting its 41 megapixel “PureView” technology, Nokia has reportedly been working to shrink it down for a Lumia device. Based on this video, the company doesn’t look far off from accomplishing that goal. Read more »
Amazon launched the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Fire HD in China on Friday and its digital bookstore has quickly jumped from 25,000 to 47,000 titles in the past six months. Read more »
The startup-within-a-telco comprises a Spanish team with a track record, who will try to develop speedy solutions to network and mobile vulnerability problems. Read more »
The reports circulating the web that Apple is in cahoots with the carriers to restrict your iPhone’s speeds are just plain wrong. Read more »
The promise of wireless charging for the Galaxy S 4 is now met. For $40 you can get a compatible back plate while $50 adds a wireless charging pad. Both are Qi compatible, which may be the best news of all. Read more »
