MobileCrunch |  |
- E La Carte Raises $4M From Groupon Co-Founders To Bring Tablets To Restaurant Tables
- Why Kik Loves Windows Phone 7 (Spoiler: It Boosts Android And iOS User Growth)
- With iTunes In The Cloud, Apple Under-Promises And Over-Delivers
- BoltJS: Another Secret Piece Of Facebook’s Spartan Puzzle?
- iEmu Aims To Bring iOS Apps To Android, Windows, and Linux
- Isis: AT&T, Verizon, And T-Mobile’s $100 Million Gamble In Mobile Payments
- Seesmic Focuses On The Social Enterprise; Debuts Android, iPad Apps For Salesforce CRM
- iTunes Rival Rdio Launches Gift Cards, Available Online And At Target
- Video: Sense 3.5 UI Leak Shows The New Face Of HTC Phones
- Comex Answers Questions About iPhone Hacking Before Heading Off To Apple
- Samsung May Buy webOS, Recruits Former HP Exec
- CyanogenMod Team Gets Android Working On HP TouchPad
- LG Bolsters Optimus 3D App Library With 3D Game Converter
- NFC Mobile Advertising Startup Tapit Raises Seed Funding
- Junaio 3.0 Mobile AR Browser Update. Now Scans Barcodes Too.
- Samsung To Launch ChatON, A Cross-Platform Mobile Chat Service
| E La Carte Raises $4M From Groupon Co-Founders To Bring Tablets To Restaurant Tables Posted: 30 Aug 2011 04:57 AM PDT  E la Carte, a company that develops a tableside tablet for the restaurant and related hospitality industries, has raised $4 million in funding from Lightbank, the venture fund created by Groupon co-founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell. The Y Combinator-backed startup previously raised more than $1 million from angel investors including SV Angel, Dave McClure, Joshua Schachter, Roy Rodenstein, and Skip Sack, a former board member and SVP at Applebee's chain of restaurants. As we’ve written in the past, E la Carte launched ‘Presto,’ earlier this year to bring user-friendly tablets to restaurants to bring efficiency to the tableside and ordering experience. The 7-inch tablet includes a digital menu that lets you sift through the restaurant’s food and drink selection via photos and detailed descriptions using a touch-screen interface. There’s also a section for Games, including trivia and a drawing app. And, finally, there’s a tab for paying. Presto tablets have a full-day battery life, a credit card reader and sit comfortably and on restaurant tables. The tablets have also been designed for the tableside experience, and are more rugged than iPads. Similar to shopping for items in an online store, the Menu feature of Presto lets eaters pick which items they’d like to order and uses a shopping cart system so you can order multiple things at once. You can also filter menus by eating preferences (vegetarian, chicken-only, food allergy) and you can also manually type in food instructions. And Presto shows nutritional information for each dish. Once you click ‘order’ on the tablet, your selections will wirelessly sent to the kitchen (E la Carte integrates with the major POS systems) — and it will even give you an estimate on how long you’ll have to wait for your food. In the mean time you can start playing games or talk with your friends, which is especially useful when you are with children at a restaurant. Once it comes time to pay, E la Carte’s software allows uses to split the tab, pay for certain items and more. The tablet comes with a card swiper, so you simply swipe your card, enter how much of a tip you want to leave (there are buttons for 15%, 20%, and so on), and Presto will actually email you your receipt. Founder Rajat Suri tells us that since the launch in April, E La Carte has signed up close to 100 eateries with a waiting list of another 150. Early E la Carte-installed restaurants have enjoyed a sales increase of nearly 12 percent with national chain customers like Pizzeria Venti and Umami Burger already on board. And the startup has other high-profile deals in the works. Suri says that E la Carte isn’t aiming to replace the waiter but simple make the whole experience more efficient and to fill in the gaps in tableside service at a restaurant. Suri says that installations (which take around a week) can cost as low as $200 per restaurant, or has hight $600 to $700 depending on the number of tables. He adds that Presto fits the mold of casual dining, and perhaps is not as well suited for ‘white table cloth’ restaurants. As for why E la Carte didn’t just create an iPad app with similar functionality, Suri says that the device just wasn’t optimal for the company’s goals of creating a smaller, more lightweight, hearty device for tableside dining. Anecdotally, the startup actually exchanged emails with Steve Jobs when deciding whether to go iPad or build the hardware, and unsurprisingly Jobs advised them to build off the iPad and iOS platform. Lightbank partner Paul Lee says of E la Carte: "This team from MIT embraces the exact type of product innovation we are seeking to partner wit…E la Carte is already receiving rave reviews so we are excited for an opportunity to help scale their commercialization." The new funding will be used to scale the product, for product development, and for sales and marketing support. E la Carte develops tablets for restaurant tables so guests can order, pay and play games from their seats
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| Why Kik Loves Windows Phone 7 (Spoiler: It Boosts Android And iOS User Growth) Posted: 30 Aug 2011 03:05 AM PDT  Exclusive - Talk about a halo effect. Kik, a developer of cross-platform mobile communication apps, says something really strange happened when they launched their Windows Phone 7 application last June: user growth across the iOS and Android platform both accelerated significantly. Turns out every registered user of the Windows Phone 7 Kik Messenger app is ‘worth’ 2.53 users (see explanation on methodology and accompanying image below). Windows Phone’s market share may be low (according to Millennial Media, only about 2 percent of the U.S. market – PDF) but for venture capital-backed Kik, it was definitely worth launching on the platform. According to the company, Android and iOS user growth was actually 22 percent higher than anticipated following the launch of the WP7 app. What Kik did to come up with the numbers was tracking the average user growth on iOS and Android for five weeks before the Windows Phone 7 Kik Messenger launch on June 28, 2011, and subsequently comparing this trend to the month following the launch. The company found that, in addition to the expected average growth on Android and iOS, the platforms were experiencing that 22 percent bonus in growth as a result of the launch. Each Windows Phone user brought an additional 1.53 users of iOS or Android, netting a total of 2.53 registered Kik users. Concludes Kik Interactive CEO Ted Livingston:
Who would’ve thought? Kik Interactive develops mobile smartphone applications. This Waterloo, ON startup company is developing a mobile smartphone application that is used for sharing and connecting smartphones worldwide. Currently released is...
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| With iTunes In The Cloud, Apple Under-Promises And Over-Delivers Posted: 30 Aug 2011 01:51 AM PDT  As the summer winds down and we near the fall, we know two things are for sure about to enter existence in the world of Apple: iOS 5 and iCloud. Given that both offer third-party developers various opportunities, both are in the process of being tested by that community. And that means things are starting to leak out. Tonight brought perhaps the biggest surprise revelation yet: iTunes in the Cloud will support streaming as well as downloading of music. Now, before everyone works themselves into a tizzy yelling “FIRST!!!”, yes, it’s true that other music services have offered cloud-based streaming before — notably both Google Music Beta and Amazon Cloud Player this past summer. But neither of those is iTunes, the largest music retailer on the planet (online or “offline”). And there are plenty of other services that are streaming-only. It now seems certain that this fall, iTunes will offer both cloud downloading and cloud streaming. And this is a big deal because during the iCloud unveiling at WWDC in June, Apple didn’t say a word about streaming. This led everyone to believe the feature wouldn’t be implemented when the service launched — a disappointment, for sure. But it now appears that Apple pulled the old “under-promise, over-deliver” trick. iTunes Match went live to developers for testing earlier tonight and music streaming from the cloud is already up and running. It’s entirely possible that Apple didn’t announce streaming at WWDC because they didn’t yet have the music labels’ permission for the feature and now they do. It’s also possible that they don’t feel they need the labels’ permission — after all, neither Google nor Amazon obtained it before launching their services, and both are still live. It’s also possible that the MP3tunes decision last week affected Apple’s position. Regardless of how it happened, it happened. And that’s great news for everyone. It also shows Apple’s prowess when it comes to the little customer delights. Apple announced iTunes in the Cloud and people were excited, but a little letdown by the functionality. But Apple was also announcing it at least four months prior to launch — something they don’t typically like to do with products. When iTunes in the Cloud finally does fully launch, Apple probably wants a few other surprises to show off at the unveiling (undoubtedly at the fall event, which typically is focused around music). One of those can now be music streaming from the cloud (though a bit spoiled by the developer leaks tonight). Compare that to the way Google launched their cloud music service. Originally unveiled at Google I/O in May 2010, indications were that the service would launch later that year. Instead, everyone had to wait until a year later at I/O 2011 to get a rough version of the service. And I do mean rough: Google Music Beta requires you to upload all your music to Google’s servers in order to work. And there is absolutely no store attached to it for buying new music online. That’s still the case now, four months after the launch of the beta. Google over-promised and under-delivered. Compared to Google Music Beta and Amazon Web Player, there’s now little question that iTunes in the Cloud is superior. Not only can you stream any song in your library, you won’t have to upload most of them — iTunes will match them with their files already in the cloud. The only thing iTunes in the Cloud is lacking is web support. But again, iTunes is the biggest music retailer in the world — most people who buy music have access to it. Android users may be shit out of luck, but that’s probably a feature, not a bug. iTunes in the Cloud brings other surprises too. Notably, you can stream any TV show you’ve purchased on iTunes from the cloud as well. One has to imagine that movies will be next (though the rights may be trickier there). Again, none of this was announced with iTunes in the Cloud at WWDC. The iTunes streaming functionality also opens the door a bit more for another possibility: the “cloud iPhone“. Rumors continue to circulate that Apple could unveil a low-cost iPhone 4 alongside a new iPhone 5 this fall. And if they do, it may come with a minimal amount of on-board storage. Instead, it may rely on the cloud for most content, including music. Now that iTunes has streaming functionality, this is possible. Below, find some videos of the iTunes Match functionality on a computer and on an iPhone, by way of Insanely Great Mac. Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer,...
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| BoltJS: Another Secret Piece Of Facebook’s Spartan Puzzle? Posted: 29 Aug 2011 04:39 PM PDT  After a steady stream of information in June, all has been quiet on the Facebook Project Spartan front in recent weeks. Originally, at least some thought the plan was to unveil Spartan in July — but that obviously came and went. It’s certainly possible we won’t hear anything until f8 in late September now. But one new bit of information has come to our attention that could be related. Say hello to BoltJS. BoltJS is a UI framework that’s being built by Facebook for the purpose “helping developers build fantastic mobile web applications in HTML5 and Javascript,” as you can read for yourself here. It is written entirely in JavaScript and runs in the browser, meaning no backend processing is required. And guess where the focus of the project lies right now: mobile WebKit browsers — just like Project Spartan. Here’s the description in developer Shane O’Sullivan’s own words from the project’s GitHub page:
O’Sullivan is a software engineer at Facebook on the Client UI team. The other authors of the project are Will Bailey, Vlad Kolesnikov, and Tom Occhino. BoltJS is built on top of Javelin, and plays nicely with Facebook’s current code, O’Sullivan notes. It also features modules that use the CommonJS standard. For all the other technical details, check out the GitHub docs page. But here are a few other interesting things about the project. First, Facebook doesn’t seem to want to say a word about it. I asked them about it several hours ago after a back and forth about something else. So far, nada in response to this. That’s not surprising given what I’ve been told about BoltJS — namely that it’s still meant to be a secret. While the documentation does reside on GitHub, the source code hasn’t been released to the public yet. The links on this page to the zip and tar source files don’t work. But I’m told that BoltJS is already being licensed secretly to third parties who are preparing apps to show off using the platform. At least one of those third parties is a major player in the consumer web space. Again, this sounds a lot like Spartan. Also found on GitHub is a demo app built using BoltJS called “Weather App“. If it looks familiar, it’s because you own an iPhone. It is essentially the Weather app re-created using the JavaScript framework. Still think Facebook doesn’t intend to battle with Apple in mobile down the road?… That’s all for now. More as we get it. Update: As Holger Eilhard notes on Twitter, Google’s cache catches several other BoltJS examples that are no longer live. Among them: a few maze games. Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It...
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| iEmu Aims To Bring iOS Apps To Android, Windows, and Linux Posted: 29 Aug 2011 04:06 PM PDT  Ready for this week’s almost-too-ambitious Kickstarter project? Meet iEmu, a new project from one of the iPhone’s earliest hackers. The goal? To get iOS up and running in an emulated state on Linux, Windows, Mac, and Android.
By building on top of the open-source QEMU emulator, project leader Chris Wade (who had a role in some of the earliest iPhone jailbreak exploits) is hoping to fully emulate the Samsung S5L8930 (A4) chipset used in the iPhone 4 and first generation iPad. That should all be easy enough, right? I mean, your computer can play SNES games and arcade games! This should be a breeze! Yeah, no. Even once they’ve figured out how to emulate the CPU (which, according to this page, they’ve done), they still need to hack together emulated support for the GPU, USB controller, Multitouch controller, the memory, the audio system, and all of the secondary components (the Bluetooth chip, GPS, compass, etc.) And once they’ve got all the hardware stuff covered? Then they get to figure out how to force all this stuff to boot. As much as I’d love to see this all happen, to call it a massive project would be an understatement. “But wait!” you say. “Doesn’t Apple already provide their own iOS emulator?” Sort of — but with some rather large footnotes. First and foremost, Apple’s solution is Mac only. Second, and not quite as easy to explain in a few words: Apple’s iOS testing system is a simulation, not an emulation. While it looks like iOS and acts like iOS, Apple’s simulator isn’t actually running a virtualized version of iOS. It’s a trivial difference for 99.9% of the world (and even the very vast majority of iOS developers) — but for a tiny chunk of people (security engineers digging for system flaws, for example), the difference is massive. Now, for the ever-important question: Why? Because they (hope they) can. Beyond that, the goals are to get “most iPad/iPhone apps” up and running on non-iOS devices, allow for true iOS emulation on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices (Why iOS devices? Think virtual machines), and allow security engineers to properly explore iOS malware without potentially wrecking their actual devices. Plus, all the reverse engineering involved theoretically leads to documentation on all sorts of aspects of the iPhone that no one outside of Apple really understands. Chris is trying to raise $20k for the project, which he says should cover his living expenses for 3+ months, as well as covering hosting costs and the production/shipping of Kickstarter rewards. If you’re down to throw a few greenbacks into the mission, you can find the Kickstarter project here, but know this: these guys have one hell of a mountain to climb. If they do manage to get things up and booting in a reasonable timeframe, don’t expect your Android device to be chewin’ through tons of iOS-native apps and games any time soon — there’s still the matter of hardware emulation being crazy computationally expensive to deal with. And that’s not to mention what Apple Legal might think of all of this… Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer,... Kickstarter is a platform for funding creative ideas and ambitious endeavors. It is funded by an all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes...
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| Isis: AT&T, Verizon, And T-Mobile’s $100 Million Gamble In Mobile Payments Posted: 29 Aug 2011 01:19 PM PDT  NFC will be ubiquitous one day, but we still have quite a ways to go. Unlike other smartphone features, this requires adoption on a huge scale from just about everyone, which will definitely take a while. But we are getting closer. While Sprint fiddles with its Google Wallet, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have reportedly made plans to invest upwards of $100 million in their joint-venture mobile payments network called Isis. Can anyone else smell the competition simmering? According to Bloomberg, the carriers may invest way more than that depending on how much traction they can get out of banks and merchants. Isis already has the support of a major player in commerce: Visa. However, Google Wallet has its own big name credit card company in MasterCard. The two mobile payments networks also have "offers" services, which send coupons to users that they can save and redeem with their phone. At least in the case of Isis, the network will monetize the offers by charging marketers a fee to send out coupons to user's mobile phones. The carriers had originally planned to launch Isis around mid-2012, but since Google (and Sprint) seems to be on a faster track in terms of setting up merchants to use the service, Isis may pick up the pace. In fact, it had better hurry, as the mobile payments industry is expected to generate $240 billion by this year alone, according to Juniper Research. That number is only expected to triple in the next five years. Verizon Communications Inc. delivers broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s largest wireless network that... T-Mobile is a mobile telephone operator headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile has 101 million subscribers making it the worlds sixth largest mobile...
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| Seesmic Focuses On The Social Enterprise; Debuts Android, iPad Apps For Salesforce CRM Posted: 29 Aug 2011 12:35 PM PDT  Social application developer Seesmic is making a big move into the social enterprise and is debuting a dedicated Android app and iPad app for Salesforce’s CRM product (Windows Phone 7 will also be added soon), called Seesmic CRM. The Android app will be launched tomorrow morning at Salesforce’s annual conference, Dreamforce, and Seesmic will launch the iPad app in a few weeks. For background, Seesmic, which was founded by French entrepreneur Loic Le Meur, helps you monitor and track the social web. Seesmic’s desktop, web, and mobile clients integrate with Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. The bonus of using an app like Seesmic is the ability to aggregate your streams from a number of social web services, like YouTube, Foursquare, Techmeme, LinkedIn and others. But of late, Seesmic has been dabbling in the enterprise and launching more business-focused features. Last Fall, Seesmic launched a deep integration with Salesforce’s social network for the enterprise, Chatter. And then earlier this year, Salesforce led a $4 million round in Seesmic. Basically the Seesmic CRM Android and iPad apps bring all the functionality of Salesforce’s CRM to mobile phones. Users can search their Salesforce.com account from the native apps; look up leads, contacts, accounts, related activities and chatter newsfeeds on the go; create and update leads, contacts, tasks, and events; log calls and emails after meetings; and much more. And the apps leverage the mobile OS; allowing users to see maps of their leads respective to their current location; upload photos and more. While pricing hasn’t been announced yet, Seesmic may charge $10 per month per user for the apps. Le Meur tells us that he isn’t competing with Salesforce because the CRM giant currently doesn’t offer in-depth Android and iPad apps. In fact, Seesmic has been working ‘hand in hand’ with Salesforce’s mobile team to develop these native apps. And Salesforce is particularly bullish on the social enterprise of late—’Welcome To The Social Enterprise’ is the theme of Dreamforce this year. As Le Meur says, “We are working with Salesforce, not competing with the company.” Of course, it is interesting that a Twitter-platform developer is shifting focus away from building for the consumer and focusing on the enterprise. In March, Twitter basically told developers to avoid competing with them on native clients. It’s not that Twitter doesn’t want developers to build off their platform, they just don’t want developers to build clients that mimic Twitter’s own services. Thus, Seesmic has found a new user base in businesses. Le Meur explains that bringing mobile and social to the enterprise is the future for Seesmic. While the startup won’t give up its web and mobile apps (the company’s Android app has over a million users); all of Seesmic efforts are now fully ‘focused on bringing social to business users,’ says Le Meur. Seesmic also shuttered its BlackBerry app a few months ago. You can watch Le Meur’s recent conversation with TechCrunch TV’s Andrew Keene here. (Disclosure: TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington was an early investor in Seesmic.) Seesmic is a powerful suite of social media management and collaboration tools that provide businesses and individuals with everything they need to build and manage their brands online. With...
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| iTunes Rival Rdio Launches Gift Cards, Available Online And At Target Posted: 29 Aug 2011 11:50 AM PDT  Streaming music service Rdio from Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, is today launching two new music gifting options – physical gift cards and online credits. Consumers will be able to purchase the virtual gift card options in $10, $25, $50 and $100 values or in user-selected amounts. Meanwhile, physical cards in the $10 and $25 values will be sold in over 600 Target retail stores here in the U.S. The Rdio Gift Card is flexible in that it doesn’t specify how the money has to be used. The recipient can choose to use it towards their monthly subscription, offline music downloads or with the recently announced Rdio Unlimited Family Plan. Rdio vs. iTunes – “Rent” vs. “Own” The gift cards are the first time that Rdio is being sold in retail stores in the U.S. Although they’ll be sold alongside top competitor iTunes, the two services are actually quite different. iTunes charges you for the music you download, which can then be saved and synced to your Apple devices. Rdio, instead, provides streaming access to all the music in its catalog of nearly 11 million songs for a monthly fee. In other words, with iTunes you own the music you buy, but with Rdio, for the most part, you rent it. Like Apple’s forthcoming iTunes Match service, Rdio also employs a matching tool which scours your local library (in iTunes or Windows Media Player) to look for the names of artists, albums and songs that are already available in its catalog. This is included with Rdio’s monthly fee, but Apple will charge $25/year to do the same. However, Apple will also upgrade tracks to a high-quality, DRM-format when performing its match. In addition, Rdio users can buy select tracks for offline listening, if desired – a feature that’s more on par with the traditional iTunes offering. Often this option is due to the music labels and/or rightsholders’ restrictions on streaming. The new Rdio gift cards are available at Target now, or on Rdio’s website at www.rdio.com/gift. Rdio is an unlimited, on-demand social music service that lets subscribers listen to music on the web and mobile devices. Rdio differentiates itself by its social design which emulates...
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| Video: Sense 3.5 UI Leak Shows The New Face Of HTC Phones Posted: 29 Aug 2011 11:21 AM PDT  Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted the “With HTC Sense” badge on the newly-leaked HTC Vigor’s rear-end, and yet another leak may have disclosed what to expect when the thing turns on. A five minute video tour of HTC’s updated Sense 3.5 UI has just surfaced, and gives us a peek at what the next big HTC devices have in store for us. Speaking in broad terms, it looks very much like the Sense 3.0 skin as seen on devices like the HTC Sensation. This isn’t a surprise, given the small version number bump, but HTC’s UI team seems to have focused much of their work on smoothing out transitions and adding little details. The biggest visual difference is the disappearance of the standard three-button Sense launcher bar at the bottom of the homescreen. It has seemingly been replaced by separate app drawer and phone keys. Widgets have been updated as well, and HTC has also played with the ability to add and remove homescreens. HTC’s Sense 3.0 looks great, but the additional bits of polish that went into the 3.5 version make the device feel more… complete. The amount of stuff that Sense could do tended to mean cluttered homescreens for most devices, but Sense 3.5 at first glance feels much cleaner and much more open. In addition to the Vigor, the Sense 3.5 UI is also expected to pop up on the notorious HTC Bliss, Verizon’s girls-only smartphone. Much of Android’s popularity comes from the ability to customize it endlessly, but there’s definitely a market for a whiz-bang experience out of the box. There’s no word on when Sense 3.5 will start hitting handsets, but here’s hoping it won’t take too long. [via Droid-Life]
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| Comex Answers Questions About iPhone Hacking Before Heading Off To Apple Posted: 29 Aug 2011 11:10 AM PDT  If you pay even a small bit of attention to the iPhone jailbreaking scene, you’ve probably heard by now: one of its golden boys is heading for greener pastures. Nicholas Allegra — perhaps known better as comex (the brain behind the one-click, web-based jailbreaking tool, JailbreakMe) — is hangin’ up his hacker hat and heading for Cupertino, having been offered an internship at Apple. Before settling down in his new seat, though, comex took a bit of time to answer some questions from the community on his future, his thoughts on the jailbreak scene, and regrets. To be clear: the text excerpts below are highlights pulled from an AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) on Reddit. The AMA occured in the iPhone sub-reddit rather than the dedicated AMA sub-reddit. Each question’s original asker follows in parentheses. After your internship with Apple and after iOS 5 is officially released, will you continue to support the jailbreak community by providing exploits? (nishnasty) Comex: No. (But I’ll want to jailbreak my phone, so I hope someone finds them :p) (Of course, it’s worth noting that he probably can’t continue, even once the internship is over. Once you’ve signed up for an official tour on the mothership and have potentially mucked with source code [though Apple interns are generally kept at a distance from the source], activities like this are a no-go.) Why an intern position though? It seems like you could carry a regular position at apple. (AstroZombie138) Comex: I don’t know if I’d want to do that- I’ve never had a job before and I don’t know what it’s like- and I intend to go back to college soon. How has the core jailbreak dev teams responded to you going to work for apple? (AstroZombie138) Comex: Mostly with congratulations. Have you made any money from the [jailbreak] scene? (jamesvdm) Comex: I’ve made a good amount of money through donations, which is mostly being used to help pay for college. JailbreakMe 2.0 was like $40,000; 3.0 was $15,000 (not quite sure why it decreased). The jailbreak community took a huge hit when you left. Do you think the active players can outsmart you now that you’re playing for the other team, or are you Apple’s final solution to their jailbreak problem? (bitterorca) Comex: There are a lot of smart people working for Apple already; maybe I can help, but I doubt I can stop people from finding exploits. Paraphased – On Apple “stealing” ideas from the jailbreak community (as many concepts that have found their way into iOS, such as multitasking, improved notifications, and even the App Store were implemented by jailbreakers first): Comex: I certainly don’t mind. Jailbreak community puts an idea in front of people with a crappy implementation; Apple polishes it to the point where it can be an OS feature. I don’t know whether Apple actually pays attention to jailbreak apps, but see App Store, copy and paste, multitasking, etc… Why did you choose to get involved in specifically the iPhone jailbreaking scene, what was it attracted you to the iPhone? (Colonel_Ham_Sandwich) Comex: I had one… and it was a device that (a) had a lot of functionality, (b) had a nice and flexible UNIX OS, (c) already had an active homebrew community, and (d) was really cool. :p Did you always set out to be a hacker or was it just something that interested you and found you had a [knack] for? (Colonel_Ham_Sandwich) Comex: I never wanted to be a black hat hacker, but I did enjoy hacking (originally SQL injection and crap) as a natural extension of programming. Finally, in regards to the PDF bug used for the JailbreakMe.com jailbreak, where on earth did you get the brilliant idea for it? (Colonel_Ham_Sandwich) Comex: FreeType was one of the less studied open source components of iOS. Are you optimistic about the future of the iOS platform? What features are you looking forward to next? (iconoclaus) Comex: My personal opinion: it will probably continue to beat the pants off its competitors in performance for a while yet, and Apple’s “take your time but do it right” policy on features will probably continue to make it a pleasure to use. But I’m impatient: other platforms (WebOS) have a lot of fun stuff with no real equivalent in iOS. Do you have any regrets? (bitterorca) Will the current jailbreaks and/or the site disappear? (UntilWeLand) Comex: No, I’ll hand them over to MuscleNerd or chpwn or whoever will take care of them. Your thoughts on Steve Jobs’ departure? (MDevonL) Comex: Really a shame; I was hoping to meet him some day, and, company direction aside, keynotes won’t be as entertaining without him. What, besides money, made you flip to the other side? (Clavis_Apocalypticae) Comex: It’s not about money. A large part of my motivation to jailbreak was always the challenge; the internship will be a new sort of challenge. Again, these are just the highlights — for a deeper dive and a good bit of interesting conversation, be sure to check out the full AMA thread.
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| Samsung May Buy webOS, Recruits Former HP Exec Posted: 29 Aug 2011 10:51 AM PDT  When HP decided to kill off webOS, most people were more concerned with who would snatch up the PC business that went tumbling down the trash chute alongside it. A few options were thrown out, but most bets were placed on Samsung, who’s reportedly been looking to outsource some notebook orders. Little did we know, Samsung may be interested in grabbing webOS, too. DigiTimes’ sources report that Samsung may very well be considering the purchase of webOS to better compete against Apple and other Android phone makers. With Google’s proposed acquisition of Motorola, the game has changed significantly. IP wars have become a bit of trend lately within the mobile industry, and no one is completely safe. However, Android now has a much better position thanks to Motorola’s massive patent trove. HP made a similar move last year with its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm and its patent portfolio. If Samsung really does end up buying webOS, it may buy itself some desperately needed protection, as well. Which would be quite the boost since the South Korea-based company has been under a full-scale attack from Apple for the past four months. Plus, a webOS acquisition may give Samsung an edge competitively, as well. Though Google promises to leave Android “open,” Motorola will undoubtedly have the upper hand in terms of Android devices. That said, many Android partners are likely feeling a bit frazzled, and may be looking for their own way to comfortably differentiate. Android’s certainly a success story compared to webOS, but it’s also up for grabs and Motorola will henceforth get first dibs. That’s rather uncomfortable to just about anyone but Motorola. Apple has iOS. HTC has its massive supply chain. Nokia will have Windows Phone 7 Mango. And Motorola will, of course, have Android. That leaves Samsung, who is a notably strong competitor among these big five device makers, without something special to set it apart. While webOS hasn’t been a shining star among mobile platforms, that’s not to say that it’s a bad operating system. Quite the opposite actually. webOS partners the beauty and simplicity of iOS with the multi-tasking of Android, but just doesn’t have enough apps to walk the walk. With a little tweaking and some app support, webOS might just be what Samsung needs. Especially if the South Korea-based company is looking to free itself from the litigation-inducing Android. In other news, HP’s ex-VP of Marketing for the Personal Systems Group has reportedly been recruited by Samsung to take over PC sales, adding weight to rumors that Samsung is interested in HP’s soon-to-be spun off PC business. Samsung has denied, rather vehemently, any intention of picking up HP’s PC business. We agree it wouldn’t be the best fit, since HP’s lower-margin PC business doesn’t really jive with Samsung’s high-margin panel and DRAM businesses. Here’s Samsung’s statement on the matter:
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| CyanogenMod Team Gets Android Working On HP TouchPad Posted: 29 Aug 2011 10:14 AM PDT  There have been a flurry of efforts in recent days aimed at getting a workable version of Android up-and-running on the webOS-based HP TouchPad. The mission has been funded in part by modding community called HackNMod, which is hoping to give the tablet’s early adopters an operating system with a more certain future: Android. It appears that the CyanogenMod team has finally made that happen. According to a public statement and accompanying video, the developers say they now have an alpha version of the CyanogenMod 7 firmware running on the TouchPad. CyanogenMod is one of, if not the most popular aftermarket firmware for Android operating systems. It offers those willing to hack their phones an alternative to the stock system that shipped on their device, as well as several additional features. CyanogenMod 7 is the release based on the source code for Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The video (see below) shows CyanogenMod running on the TouchPad as of last week, but the team says more progress has been made since that was filmed. As of today, the build offers more tablet tweaks, includes LVM support (for managing storage), and will include 2D hardware acceleration “soon.” The team also says its ultimate goal is to create a multi-boot solution where the end user could choose to boot into webOS, CyanogenMod or another operating system. But as of right now, the developers are in search of more tablets, they say, to aid in their development efforts. Notably, the letter states that the CyanogenMod team is not interested in the above-mentioned bounty offered by HackNMod and others – they say only that they are “motivated to do it right, not do it fast.” Still, that $2,000 bounty could buy a few more TouchPads, couldn’t it?
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| LG Bolsters Optimus 3D App Library With 3D Game Converter Posted: 29 Aug 2011 09:14 AM PDT  Compelling content is the key to ensuring that 3D smartphones are more than a just a flash in the pan, and right now, there just isn’t much of it floating around. LG, maker of the Optimus 3D handset, aims to address that content issue with the recent announcement of their new 3D Game Converter software. Due for its first demo at IFA 2011 in Berlin, LG’s new 3D Game Converter does exactly what the name implies. After firing up the converter on the Optimus 3D, about 50 compatible 2D games will receive a 3D facelift, while unsupported OpenGL games can be manually tweaked to achieve the desired effect. The games will get a pretty comprehensive work-over, or so LG’s 3D Evangelist Dr. Henry Nho would have us believe: “LG's 3D Game Converter automatically recognizes the depth information based on the location of each object and separates the 2D graphic images for each eye. Using the existing depth information, the 3D Game Converter generates two different images — one for the foreground and one for the background.” LG has pledged that another 50 titles will get 3D support by the end of the year, a significant addition to the existing library of 3D content. It’s something of a win-win for game developers and their customers: devs get a no-hassle way to offer 3D functionality, and customers can expand their 3D content library at no extra cost. The converter will come as part of the Optimus 3D’s new maintenance release, currently scheduled for an October release. To their credit, LG seems to realize that for all their gimmicky fun, 3D smartphones will live or die depending on the quality of the experience they deliver. Some users will be more that happy to shoot stereoscopic video until they’re blue in the face, but that novelty will usually only last for so long. The announcement adds a bit of value to the 3D experience by making more content available, but the inevitable question is “will it be enough?” Games are one thing, but in order to transcend their gimmick status, 3D smartphones need more applications that designed from the ground up with 3D in mind instead of just as an afterthought.
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| NFC Mobile Advertising Startup Tapit Raises Seed Funding Posted: 29 Aug 2011 08:27 AM PDT  Tapit is a new mobile advertising startup, founded in March 2011, that enables content sharing and offer delivery simply by tapping an NFC-enabled phone anywhere the Tapit logo can be found. The company has now raised a seed funding round from Sydney Angels in record time – just 22 days from the pitch until the round was subscribed for. This is the fastest investment to date for Sydney Angels, the not-for-profit membership organization for angels which typically invests in Sydney-based startups. NFC (near field communication), a short-range wireless technology, is often associated with mobile payments and mobile wallets these days, as a new way to enable purchases at point-of-sale. But that’s only one of the many possible use cases for the technology, which can also support things like sharing files and media between devices, advertising, ticketless transactions and more. It can even be used to perform actions like those found in NTT DOCOMO’s nifty “tap to follow” offering that lets two Twitter users follow each other simply by tapping phones. With Tapit, however, the idea is to leverage NFC for use in marketing campaigns by working with agencies, brands, handset manufacturers and carriers. Its marketing services include mobile commerce, coupon distribution, ticketing, surveys and reviews, content delivery, competitions and social community building (e.g. tap here to “like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter). The company has already been involved with several campaigns this year – one for Australian radio group Nova Radio through the JCDecaux billboard network, another for Australia’s Channel 10 TV show “Renovators,” and a third involving an NFC-based marketing within shopping centers. Says Tapit CEO Jamie Conyngham, “the speed in which this round was closed is an endorsement of the Tapit team and the business models we have created around our unique NFC enabled technology. Everyone we meet loves the idea of Tapit, it's addictive.” NFC, indeed, would be a step up from the now-ubiquitous barcode scanning technology, which involves using smartphone apps to scan QR codes via the phone’s camera. Unfortunately, NFC generally requires an accompanying chip built into the phone itself. Due to this requirement, it’s currently being held back by the limited availability of supported handsets. Still, analysts are bullish on NFC’s future, with ABI predicting over 35 million supported handsets by 2012 and Frost & Sullivan estimating around 868 million by 2015. Terms of Tapit’s seed investment were not disclosed, but the Sydney Angels Sidecar Fund typically invests between $100K – $500K in its portfolio companies.
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| Junaio 3.0 Mobile AR Browser Update. Now Scans Barcodes Too. Posted: 29 Aug 2011 08:20 AM PDT  Junaio, the mobile Augmented Reality browser created by German AR firm Metaio, has been updated this morning: Version 3.0 now supports scanning barcodes. Some of you are probably thinking “Whoop-dee-doo, every app can scan barcodes nowadays.” And you’re right; it’s not really a big deal in that sense. When you consider Junaio’s capability at advanced image recognition, using it to scan 1D and 2D QR codes is kind of like using a bazooka to shoot an arrow. But from a usability standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. I’ll be the first to admit that Junaio’s “channel” concept for AR content has always been a little confusing to me. I mean, I get it and think it is a flexible way to break up content. I’m sure it also makes it easy for 3rd parties to make content available to the browser. But I always have to remind myself how it works…I choose X channel for X kind of content, etc. I think adding an “instantly on” scanner that can just scan posters, recognize images, experience natural feature tracking — do all the things Junaio could always do — plus 2D barcode scanning is a great step in the right direction for Junaio and its usability. It is definitely a faster way to get to the content. From a strategy standpoint, it also makes sense. Why not try to make Junaio a “one stop shop” for all AR and image searching needs? Especially when AR content is still not quite as mainstream as barcode scanning (not that I would say barcode scanning completely mainstream either). But why not try to make that less complex barcode functionality possible for users too. It’s a good idea. I installed it this morning and noticed that not all 2D barcode symbologies are able to be scanned. I confirmed this with a spokesperson from Metaio, who said that at today’s launch, Junaio will only be able to scan standard 1D barcodes and QR codes. They will be adding more symbol libraries over time to accommodate different code types. Multiple symbology recognition will be important for Junaio to become that “one stop shop” scanning app. I realize that QR codes are a more popular symbology, and their ability to encode Kanji characters make them a more practical, international solution. That is probably a good place to start. However, Data Matrix codes are still popular in North America and can be significantly smaller in print size. At a bare minimum, Data Matrix, PDF417 and maybe even Aztec should be incorporated. But in general, I think this added functionality is a step right direction for a great little mobile AR browser. The version for iPhone is available now, with the iPad 2 version coming later this week. The Android version will be available next week.
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| Samsung To Launch ChatON, A Cross-Platform Mobile Chat Service Posted: 29 Aug 2011 06:26 AM PDT  Samsung is launching ChatON, a cross-platform mobile chat service similar to RIM’s BlackBerry BBM. The service, which is expected to launch in September, will be showcased at this week’s consumer electronics-focused IFA Conference. is an interesting launch for Samsung because it will support a variety of mobile operating systems, including Samsung’s own bada mobile operating system, Android, feature phones and even competitors’ platforms, including iOS and BlackBerry. In addition to supporting mobile chat, ChatON will offer a Web-based client that allows users to chat from their PCs, too. The service’s users can have private 1-to 1-conversations or participate in group chats. ChatOn also supports sharing media, like photos, videos, voice messages and contacts. On feature phones, the service allows for text, images, calendar appointment and contact sharing. But on smartphones, users will have a few extra options, such as the ability to comment on each other’s profiles, send multimedia messages that combine text and audio, and view their own “Interaction Rank,” which displays how active they are on the ChatOn network. ChatON will go live next month in over 120 countries and 62 languages.
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