Foursquare and Open Table’s new partnership is just the latest in the location-based app’s moves into the local search arena, challenging popular resources like Yelp by aggregating user check-ins to provide personalized recommendations. Booking tables seems like the next step in these moves. Read more »
Last week, we published The Mobile 15, our list of the most-innovative companies in the world of mobile. It explored how these companies, large and small, are changing — or are set to change — the mobile landscape in big ways. Some of you emailed to […] Read more »
With the future of mobile quickly evolving, what do you need to know now? After a long cross-country flight home, I had plenty of time to digest the key data nuggets from our GigaOm Mobilize 2012 event held last week. Here are five worth sharing. Read more »
While publishers and developers have evolved to take advantage of new digital platforms, advertisers are lagging behind. Too often, they are simply repurposing TV material rather than tailoring their creative material to the online video environment. Read more at paidContent »
You don’t need to be some kind of infrastructure-loving genius to bild a mobile app — and really, you shouldn’t have to be. That was the message from Kevin Lacker, the CTO and co-founder of Parse, who gave some tips on how to build engaging apps. Read more »
Educational content still looks and feels like mobile apps before the iPhone, argued Rafter CEO Mehdi Maghsoodnia at GigaOM’s Mobilize 2012 conference. His thought-provoking take: What education really needs is not more digitized textbooks, but open platforms, where smaller innovators can compete with big publishers. Read more »
The future is bright for mobile payment company Square, which as COO Keith Rabois noted Friday is not only taking off with a Starbucks partnership that will bring its technology to stores across America, but with a popular product that sells itself through in-store presence. Read more »
The connected home — which would let you control your thermostat from your phone, check on the dog while you’re traveling, automate the downloads of your favorite entertainment — is getting closer, but it ain’t here yet. Here’s why. Read more »
For a long time iOS app monetization was far and away better than on Android. But as monetization strategies change in the app world, the statistics are changing. Android is no longer as far behind. Read more »
Mobile virtual network operators are popping up everywhere, but will they ever be large enough to threaten the large national carriers? Can they build a profitable business? Time will tell, but these companies have high hopes. Read more »
The internet of things is for real, even if it’s nowhere near the nirvana of devices that speak with each other and take care of our every waking need automatically. The only way it will get there, says RIM’s Sebastian Marineau-Mes, is with industry-wide standards. Read more »
T-Mobile is now ready to start marketing its HSPA+ service to unlocked iPhone owners in one city, though T-Mobile’s CTO said more will quickly follow. Previously iPhone users could connect to T-Mobile at mere 2G speeds. Now they have a 42 Mbps network at their disposal. Read more »
App developers are at the mercy of the app store charts, which play a huge role in determining an app’s success. That prevents a lot of good apps from being discovery and can lead to chart manipulation, said a panel of experts at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference. Read more »
Smartphones have a unique potential not just to support online shopping but also to enhance the physical store experience – but, to do so, they must think digitally and quickly, retailers tell GigaOM’s Mobilize conference. Read more »
Despite the dust up over FaceTime, not all carriers see blocking or restricting over-the-top communications services as their option. VoIP player Sidecar thinks carriers will try and match the features of OTT apps, while T-Mobile says it actively encourage the use of competing IP communications services. Read more »
GigaOM’s Launchpad contest at Mobilize brought nine companies on stage to compete for the distinction of the greatest disruption and innovation in mobile technology. The companies pitched Thursday at the conference in San Francisco. Read more »
Yes, 4G and LTE networks are huge improvements over previous-generation mobile networks, but they’re not about to cure mobile-data woes without some smart development to help them. Speaking at GigaOM Mobilize on Thursday, Aspera’s Serban Simu and Akamai’s Kris Alexander espoused the value of both intelligent […] Read more »
Rich Miner isn’t a huge fan of Apple Maps. The co-founder of Android, who is now a partner at Google Ventures, had that to say, as well as that carriers just keep on conceding and RIM’s market share loss is an opportunity for startups. Read more »
Sprint CTO Stephen Bye didn’t want to say what he had to promise Apple in exchange for getting the iPhone 5 with LTE when quizzed about it at GigaOM’s Mobilize 2012 conference. Instead, he said that Sprint isn’t all that concerned about the spectrum crisis. Read more »
Electronic Arts has survived in the cut-throat gaming business since 1982. And it plans to keep its console games alive while diverting resources to the fast growing mobile and social gaming world, company senior vice president Nick Earl said today. Read more »
Consumers’ desire to consume content on mobile applies to video just as much to display. YouTube’s head product developer shared what this means for content makers and for advertisers. Read more »
At GigaOM’s Mobilize conference in San Francisco on Thursday, Jack Buser, Sony’s senior director of PlayStation digital platforms, talked about why Sony developed the PlayStation Mobile platform for PlayStation games that can, for the first time, be played on devices not made by the Japanese company. Read more »
Dennis Crowely of Foursquare has a big goal of creating an ambient-aware location service that will recommend people, places and events happening nearby, but the hardware isn’t quite up to snuff yet. In the meantime, he’s using location data to take on Yelp and Google. Read more »
Despite the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated connected car platforms, those systems remain largely closed to developers due to safe driving concerns. While those platforms will eventually open up, automakers have to be wary of placing too many limitations on development today. Otherwise consumers will ignore them. Read more »
For the co-founders of mobile web darling Instagram, they might never have anticipated the kind of success they see now, with over 5 billion photos uploaded to the service. At GigaOM’s Mobilize conference Thursday, co-founder Mike Krieger advised startups to focus on doing one thing well. Read more »
While TripAdvisor first looked at building a mobile app that “didn’t suck,” it’s now looking at how deep it can go with mobile apps by taking advantage of all the capabilities of mobile devices. Read more »
Private social networking apps like Path and the SMS-based GroupMe are trying to capitalize on the fact that most people only communicate regularly with a relatively small set of contacts. That requires thinking about social networking and content in a new context. Read more »
Imagine the day when your mobile is constantly suggesting new things, based on what it knows about you. Voice interaction may not be there today, but an epic shift is coming soon, Mobilize 2012 panelists say. Read more »
You’ll find all of our Mobilize 2012 coverage here, as well as a livestream of the event. Join us for a wide-ranging discussion on the future of mobile devices, networks, and software. Read more »
Ford is joining Chevy in offering a smartphone-based navigation app that integrates with its connected car platform. TeleNav’s new Scout for Sync AppLink doesn’t have all of the features or a full-bore nav system, but it could fundamentally change the in-vehicle mapping game. Read more »
Reports are coming in that T-Mobile will start selling the nano-SIM in October, and you know what that means. It will be able to activate unlocked iPhone 5s on its network. Most customers will still be limited to 2G speeds, but that’s changing quickly. Read more »
No iPhone for T-Mobile, but exasperated T-Mo customers, take heart. The iPhone 5′s configuration aligns perfectly with the new network upgrades T-Mobile is rolling out today. It will take a year for the network to be fully LTE compatible, but T-Mobile isn’t waiting that long. Read more »
T-Mobile will have a “material” HSPA+ footprint in its iPhone-friendly PCS band by the end of the year. That means there will no longer be any technical barriers to supporting the iPhone as a full-fledged broadband device, a fact T-Mo is already starting to capitalize on. Read more »
If you want in-dash vehicle navigation in your GM car, you pretty much have one choice, OnStar. But in the fourth quarter Chevy is launching an alternative to OnStar called BringGo that makes use of in-car connectivity to meld smartphone and dashboard navigation. Read more »
With shipments of the Galaxy S III beginning this week, mobile virtual network operator Ting has broken the curse of the budget operator: It not only has the latest iconic handset, it has the access to the latest network technology, LTE. One hurdle remains: the iPhone. Read more »
Sprint has come full circle on 4G. Four years ago, the country’s first 4G service, Xohm, went live in Baltimore using the technology Sprint championed at the time WiAMX. On Wednesday, Sprint turned up a new 4G network, using WiMAX’s competitor LTE, in the same city. Read more »
Verizon must believe in the Internet of Things because it has pre-certified LTE chips from Altair Semiconductor. The action means that companies can build sensors and devices containing Altair’s chip and then avoid the lengthy testing process in order to get their gadgets on Verizon’s network. Read more »
