MobileCrunch |  |
- Seatwave Releases iOS SDK To Help Music And Event Apps Monetize
- Toshiba Japan Announces 10.1-Inch, Windows 7-Powered Tablet
- Nokia Exec: iPhone, Android Handsets No Longer Appeal To Youth
- Apple Reportedly Buying Flash Memory Company Anobit For $400 Million – $500 Million
- Fast Society Deadpools Its Messaging App, Preps Cameo For Launch
- No AT&T, No Problem: Dish Network Open To Partnership With T-Mobile
- AT&T, T-Mobile Ask To Postpone Court Proceedings To “Evaluate Options” (Update)
- Mobile Passes Print In Time Spent, But Doesn’t Get The Ad Dollars
- Evernote’s Skitch Sees 3 Million Downloads On Android
- Samsung’s LTE-Friendly Galaxy Tab 7.7 To Find Home On Verizon
- Adaptu Takes On Mint With Mobile Wallet Launch
- Lightbox App Debuts New Photo Journal: It’s A Lazy Man’s Tumblr
- Any.DO Android App Downloaded 500,000 Times In 30 Days
- Urbanspoon Adds Check-ins With New “Dineline” Feature For iPhone
- RadioShack Combines Promos To Offer The iPhone 4S (AT&T) On The Cheap
- Rogers Extends LTE Reach In Canada
- Apple: 100 Million Downloads From Mac App Store In Less Than One Year
| Seatwave Releases iOS SDK To Help Music And Event Apps Monetize Posted: 13 Dec 2011 04:52 AM PST  Seatwave is a long-time secondary marketing startup in the UK which competes with Viagogo. However, it appears to be tacking towards trying to out-innovate the competition by today releasing an iOS SDK. As far as we know this is the first time a ticketing company has done such a thing, and it could well boost the company’s traction, especially amongst the plethora of music iPhone apps out there which point towards live events.
   |
| Toshiba Japan Announces 10.1-Inch, Windows 7-Powered Tablet Posted: 13 Dec 2011 04:50 AM PST  Japan seems to really like Windows 7-powered tablets: this time, it’s Toshiba, which has announced [JP] the so-called WT301/D for the local market. Just like so many Windows tablets, this model is specifically designed for use in enterprises. These are the main specs:
Toshiba plans to launch the tablet on the Japanese market next month (the price hasn’t been fixed yet).
  |
| Nokia Exec: iPhone, Android Handsets No Longer Appeal To Youth Posted: 13 Dec 2011 03:36 AM PST  Looks like Nokia executives are increasingly picking up on a specific kind of skill honed by Microsoft execs over the past few years: saying something stupid about their competitors that is undoubtedly coming back to bite them in the ass at some point. Straight from the foot in mouth department: in an exclusive interview with Pocket-lint, Niels Munksgaard, Director of Portfolio, Product Marketing & Sales at Nokia Entertainment says iPhone and Android devices no longer appeal to younger crowds:
Now, I like Nokia’s Lumia 800, which runs Windows Phone Mango, a heck of a lot (more on that later). But why this executive felt the need to scoff the iPhone and Android as a whole, is beyond me. Yes, Windows Phone looks and feels different, but not everyone agrees that it’s better. The reality is Nokia has everything to prove betting the smartphone farm on Microsoft, and a lot to lose. Throwing around statements that today’s youths are fed up with the iPhone because “everyone has it” – what does that even mean? As the proverb goes: speech is silver, silence is golden. (The awesome facepalm image above = courtesy of Flickr user MithrandirAgain)
  |
| Apple Reportedly Buying Flash Memory Company Anobit For $400 Million – $500 Million Posted: 13 Dec 2011 12:04 AM PST  Apple is reportedly going to use part of its enormous pile of cash to buy an Israeli fabless semiconductor company that specializes in flash storage solutions. Calcalist reports – in Hebrew – that the world’s most valuable company is in talks to buy Herzliya Pituach, Israel-based Anobit for $400 million to $500 million. If the report checks out, this would mark Apple’s first acquisition in Israel (and the first with Tim Cook at the helm as CEO), and also a rare occasion because the consumer electronics giant doesn’t usually buy non-software companies. The only hardware companies Apple is known to have acquired in the past two decades were Steve Jobs-founded NeXT, Raycer Graphics, Intrinsity and P.A. Semi. Anobit provides flash storage solutions for enterprise and mobile markets, based on its proprietary MSP (which stands for ‘Memory Signal Processing’) technology. Its solutions are designed to improve the speed, endurance and performance of flash storage systems while driving down the cost. Anobit's technology is comprised of signal processing algorithms that compensate for physical limitations of NAND flash, the company claims. Anobit does not publish a list of customers or references, but says its clients are among the world’s leading flash manufacturers, consumer electronics vendors and storage system providers. According to Calcalist reporter Assaf Gilad, Apple relies on the company’s solutions for the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air product lines, among other devices. South Korean Hynix is said to use Anobit’s solution for a flash memory chip you can find inside the iPhone 4S. Anobit says it has 21 granted patents (and 95 in total). The company has raised $76 million from Battery Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital and strategic investors, including Intel Capital. Apple is likely interested in Anobit for its MSP-powered MSP20xx embedded flash controllers for smartphones and tablet computers, which can significantly boost memory performance. Last August, Anobit announced that it had shipped a remarkable 20 million of said flash controllers. Anobit was founded in 2006 and is led by co-founder, chairman and CEO Prof. Ehud Weinstein. Prior to co-founding Anobit, Prof. Weinstein was a co-founder and CEO of Libit Signal Processing, which was acquired by Texas Instruments in 1999. Anobit co-founder and president Ariel Maislos was previously co-founder of Passave, which was acquired by PMC Sierra in 2006. The rest of the Israeli company’s management team members also have impressive resumes, which is certainly another argument in favor of an Apple acquisition. Calcalist reports that Anobit employs roughly 200 people today.
  |
| Fast Society Deadpools Its Messaging App, Preps Cameo For Launch Posted: 12 Dec 2011 05:46 PM PST  Fast Society today announced it will shut down its group messaging app and instead devote resources to its new app Cameo that will launch next month. Group messaging seemed like such a big opportunity a few years ago. But that was before Apple launched iMessage, Skype bought GroupMe, and Facebook converted Beluga into Messenger. Suddenly, there wasn’t much to add by being a mobile group texting app without OS or other platform integration. Fast Society will apply its existing team and investors towards offering unique value by helping people share moments rather than just messages. After 9am EST on Wednesday, December 14th, all Fast Company apps will cease to function and messages won’t be delivered. Users should save any photos or other content as it will all be deleted then as well. Don’t take this as a sign of defeat, though. Fast Society’s co-founder Matthew Rosenberg tells me “It seemed dumb to just quit. We’re not quitters, we’re New Yorkers. We’re used to hustling every single day. It’s unfortunate to have launched something into a crowded space, but the benefit is we saw a lot of people doing it one way and we’re passionate about doing it a different way.” One area where I see potential in mobile sharing is unifying all the different types of content people usually publish separately. I’d love an app that lets me accumulate multiple photos, videos, status updates, location, friend tags and more behind a single shared link, creating a sort of collage of a moment. This seems to match with Rosenberg and Fast Society’s mission with Cameo. “We’re trying to capture experience and be part of fun events. Group messaging became the lowest common denominator.”
  |
| No AT&T, No Problem: Dish Network Open To Partnership With T-Mobile Posted: 12 Dec 2011 11:42 AM PST  It looks like AT&T and T-Mobile aren’t the only ones preparing for all contingencies: Dish Network CEO Joseph Clayton said in an interview with Bloomberg that if the pending merger were to fail, he would consider striking up a partnership with T-Mobile. Strange move, no? Not necessarily — Dish Network picked up some wireless spectrum on the cheap when they acquired DBSD and Terrestar, both of whom had filed for bankruptcy. Instead of flipping their spectrum for some easy revenue, Clayton says that the company has bigger plans for it. "We want to use it to create a national wireless network, video, voice and data. We've got expertise in satellite-TV, and we will in satellite broadband. The voice part, we'll need some help with." That’s where T-Mobile comes in. Dish would get T-Mobile’s expertise in providing voice services while T-Mobile’s network gets a kick in the pants thanks to Dish’s spectrum holdings. A move like that could definitely give T-Mobile a bit more clout when stacked up to the rest of their national rivals, though how much the balance of power would shift is questionable. Ever the schemer, Clayton seems to have a plan for every possibility. The company can approach T-Mobile regarding a formal partnership if the AT&T merger doesn’t pan out, but Dish will also be there to snatch up network assets that AT&T and T-Mobile may have to divest in order to get the FCC’s blessing. And, failing that, Clayton is also considering Sprint as a potential network partner. It wouldn’t be the first time a television service provider has expressed an interest in scooping up assets from a mobile operator — Comcast and Time Warner Cable were eyeing Clearwire up as recently as this past August, though Sprint’s recent sign of commitment to its ailing network partner may have put an end to that.
  |
| AT&T, T-Mobile Ask To Postpone Court Proceedings To “Evaluate Options” (Update) Posted: 12 Dec 2011 10:46 AM PST  And the curve balls keep coming. On Friday the Department of Justice announced its intentions to postpone its antitrust suit with AT&T and T-Mobile, as the deal they were investigating had been summarily yanked off of the table just a couple weeks earlier. Now AT&T has responded, asking for its own winter recess to “evaluate all options.” Here’s the statement in full:
Notice the end there? “AT&T is committed to working with Deutsche Telekom.” And it looks like they’ve let slip the goals of try number two, as well: spectrum and wireless assets. Who’s ready for round two? Update: Judge Ellen Huvelle has granted the stay, according to CNN.
  |
| Mobile Passes Print In Time Spent, But Doesn’t Get The Ad Dollars Posted: 12 Dec 2011 10:13 AM PST  The web passed print a long time ago in terms of time spent by consumers, but 2011 will be the first year that mobile passes print, according to new estimates by market research firm eMarketer. Time spent on mobile devices is now an average of 65 minutes a day, compared to 44 minutes a day for print (magazines and newspapers combined). Last year mobile and print were neck and neck at 50 minutes each. Time on the internet was 2 hours and 47 minutes (an increase of 12 minutes from 2010), but TV still dominates with an average of 4 hours and 34 minutes. TV was also able to increase its share of people’s time by 10 minutes. So much for the cord-cutting theory. Mobile, however, saw both the biggest absolute and percentage jumps in time spent. That additional 15 minutes translates into a 30 percent increase. About 10 percent of the average U.S. adult’s day is now spent on mobile, yet mobile only accounts for about 1 percent of advertising spending. Expect mobile marketers to point out that gap when pitching for a larger share of advertising budgets. Meanwhile, print still commands an outsized share of ad budgets, taking 25 percent of ad spending, despite dwindling to only 7 percent of time spent with media. That discrepancy won’t last forever.
  |
| Evernote’s Skitch Sees 3 Million Downloads On Android Posted: 12 Dec 2011 10:09 AM PST  Continuing today’s theme of awesome Android apps (how did that happen?), Skitch also has something to announce: it has reached 3 million downloads of Skitch for Android. Given its Android launch occurred just three and half months ago, the company says that’s equivalent of a new download every 1.5 seconds. Skitch has also added a new feature to its Android app – image rotation. Well, that’s awesome, too. Technically, the image rotation feature rolled out last week, but Skitch is making it publicly known today via blog post. This feature lets users rotate arrows, text and shapes by tapping the object, pressing with two fingers, then rotating. You can rotate multiple objects at once, by tapping them individually then doing the two-finger rotate. The Skitch Android application was launched at the Evernote Trunk Conference, when CEO Phil Libin announced the company had acquired the popular Mac app, and was bringing it to mobile. Surprisingly, the Mac app arrived on Android first, but the company says that an iOS version is “coming soon.” Stay tuned.
  |
| Samsung’s LTE-Friendly Galaxy Tab 7.7 To Find Home On Verizon Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:50 AM PST  Verizon is awash in solid tablet options right now, but their current LTE-capable lineup may leave you wanting for something a little less unwieldy. If the thought of manhandling a 10-inch tablet is too much to bear, then take note: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7 will be coming to Big Red in due course with support for the company’s 4G network in tow. Droid-Life reports that entries for the 7.7-inch tablet have begun to trickle into Verizon’s employee-facing support systems. Despite being the runt of the Galaxy Tab litter, the pint-sized tab is no slouch: it features a 1.4 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 1280×800 Super AMOLED Plus display, and a 5100 mAh battery. Hopefully the battery will be able to provide enough juice to accomodate the Tab’s LTE radio, which could be a make-it-or-break-it factor when it comes to usability. It’ll certainly be a great choice for people looking to lighten their load, but as of yet there’s no word on when Verizon will push it out the door. Pricing details are nonexistant too, but hopefully Verizon cuts us consumers a break: they recently launched the Motorola XYBOARDs with a pretty hefty contracted price, so maybe Verizon can afford to dial the price gouging down a bit.
  |
| Adaptu Takes On Mint With Mobile Wallet Launch Posted: 12 Dec 2011 09:45 AM PST  It’s hard to take on the entrenched incumbent Mint when it comes to delivering personalized financial management tools (just ask Wesabe), but Adaptu thinks it has found a niche where it can compete. With today’s launch of Adaptu’s mobile wallet, the company is focusing on a few differentiating factors, including its predictive analysis of cash flow, tools to help prevent overspending and support for other types of cards, like your insurance card, rewards cards and business cards, for example. The end result is a fairly decent competitor to Mint’s mobile solution, which complements Adaptu’s online money management service at Adaptu.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of StanCorp Financial Group, launched at the beginning of the year. Like Mint, Adaptu can track your accounts including your checking, savings, credit cards, investments, loans and mortgages. But for consumers, one of Adaptu’s key features is the app’s ability to tell you – on the spot – if you can afford to buy something. This goes a bit beyond Mint’s budgeting feature because it looks at current and past spending trends in order to predict your future cash flow. This way, you’re able to see how a purchase would impact your monthly spending goals. The app is also able to track your bills and utilities, so it has a full picture of your cash flow situation from month-to-month. In some ways, what Adaptu does is similar to HelloWallet’s “spending guidance” feature in its own newly launched iPhone app – a feature that tells you how much you have left to spend at that moment within a given budget category. However, HelloWallet isn’t a consumer-targeted service. It’s sold to enterprise customers. Still, given both companies’ emphasis on spending guidance, there are hints that this may be an area where Mint falls a little short. The other big differentiator from competitors’ mobile wallet/mobile financial solutions is Adaptu’s ability to mimic a real wallet, thanks to its ability to host your business cards, insurance cards and business reward cards. To use this feature, you snap a photo of the card in question and add notes if need be. Everything is secured in the mobile wallet via a complex password and PIN, plus bank-grade security. Overall, Mint seems to have a better user interface and design, but that’s a matter of personal preference. Adaptu’s (purposely) hand-drawn logo and the design of its financial analysis charts come across a little juvenile, when I think it was going for “user-friendly” instead. Pet peeves, perhaps, but I still want my bank-related apps to look like something a grown-up would use. Your opinion may vary. But the sum of Adaptu’s features make it an interesting alternative to Mint for those who want more focus on cash flow details, financial planning and spending help. Mint, however, still leads in terms of number of banks, cards and accounts supported and the richness of its tools. Adaptu is a free download for iPhone, available here and does not include a monthly fee.
  |
| Lightbox App Debuts New Photo Journal: It’s A Lazy Man’s Tumblr Posted: 12 Dec 2011 07:51 AM PST  Lightbox, the beautifully designed social photo app for Android backed by $1.2 million in seed funding from Index, Accel, SV Angel, 500 Startups, and others, is today launching a revamped web interface that’s like a lazy man’s Tumblr. As with the hot blogging startup Tumblr, the idea with Lightbox’s new photo journal feature is to provide a stream of updates others can follow, share, like and comment on. For all its simplicity, Tumblr still involves the set up of a blog and mostly manual updates. Automatic posting of content requires additional configuration or the use of third-party tools. But with today’s Lightbox update, all users get their own Tumblr-esque photo blog, no extra effort required. Previously, Lightbox users were given a page for their public photos at a custom URL (format: your-username.lightbox.com), but the layout involved pages of thumbnails to click through. Today, that URL will now become a photo blog, where photos are automatically organized into albums for you. To accomplish this, Lightbox looks at the timestamp associated with the photos taken, enabling the service to group photos together appropriately. The end result is an automatically created photo blog with an attractive layout which ends up feeling very much like Tumblr. Here’s an example. And here’s another. Users are given a “follow” button next to which their social stats display, including the number of photos posted, number of followers and the number of people they’re following in return. When you hover over one of the photos, you can quickly click a heart button to “like” it. You can view these favorites later on from your profile section. On an individual photo’s page, you can comment, tweet, share to Facebook or Google+. The entire post itself can be socially shared as well. Lightbox has been an interesting company to watch, given its focus on building for Android first. Despite the mobile platform’s large market share, it’s still rare to see companies choosing Android over iOS for their debut. But that’s where Lightbox’s creators, Thai Tran and Nilesh Patel, see a market opportunity. So far, the company seems to be proving there is a case for well-designed apps on Android (And it’s not the only one). Lightbox has now reached nearly 1 million downloads in less than six months. Going forward, the focus will be on both Android and HTML5. For example, the new Lightbox website and photo blogs are optimized for HTML5 web browsers, including Safari on the iPhone and iPad. Lightbox’s update was submitted to the Android Market this morning, and the rollout to all of Google’s servers should complete by 9 AM PST today. You can download the Android app here.
  |
| Any.DO Android App Downloaded 500,000 Times In 30 Days Posted: 12 Dec 2011 07:29 AM PST  There are not many breakout mobile apps that are Android-first, but if the last 30 days are any indication, social to-do app Any.DO has a shot at getting there. The app’s been downloaded 500,000 times in the past 30 days from the Android market, and people are downloading it at a rate of 40,000 a day. The app is not quite one of the top 100 free apps yet (it is currently No. 113), but it is moving up the ranks. (As a point of comparison, Kevin Rose’s Oink app was downloaded 100,000 times in about three weeks on the iPhone and Yelp took 7 months to reach one million downloads on Android). “The openness of the Android platform allows us to do many things that are impossible on other platforms,” says CEO Omer Perchik. Any.Do launched a month ago as a sleek to-do list with social sharing features. When we covered the launch, Sarah Perez wrote:
The app has an average 4.6-star rating out of more than 4,600 ratings. The initial growth spurt was due to the inherent social sharing features of the app (virality, FTW) and promotion on the Android Market. The installs seem to be leveling off a bit, but if people keep using the app and sharing to-do lists the growth should continue. Drilling down into usage sats, according to the company, 2.5 million tasks have been added, with more than one million completed. There are an average of 100,000 tasks added every day, and 50 percent are added by voice.
  |
| Urbanspoon Adds Check-ins With New “Dineline” Feature For iPhone Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:50 AM PST  Urbanspoon, the mobile restaurant recommendations and reservations application, is today adding a new feature called “Dineline,” which allows users to check-in to restaurants in order to track their dining habits. While most check-in apps are meant to register your presence at a venue for the purpose of game play, social networking, or receiving offers or discounts, Dineline is meant to be used to remember a meal, something more akin to Foodspotting than Foursquare. The feature, rolling out to iOS users this morning via an app update, adds a new icon to the Urbanspoon homescreen. For those of you who haven’t been on Urbanspoon for a while, it’s no longer just a clever slot machine-style toy to find new places to eat. It also lets you browse and search for restaurants, connect with friends, and snap and share photos of the restaurant or your meal. It’s this latter feature – the photo-sharing aspect to the service – that is most improved with the addition of Dineline, as it now gives that photo a more personal context and purpose. When you launch Urbanspoon now, a check-in button appears on the top right of the homescreen, allowing you to enter the “Where” and “When” of your latest meal. If you choose to share more information, you’re able to add a photo, meal price, notes and tap “I like it” or “I don’t” to save your quick opinion. From then on, that check-in and the additional information you added will be available in the Dineline section of the app for future reference. The app will even make you charts and graphs about your favorite cuisines, restaurants, neighborhoods and more. One nice thing about the check-in feature is that all this info can be added after the fact – which is great for those of you who don’t want to be the nerd at the table taking notes about your food. Just steal a quick photo and you can do the rest later. This is also handy for the security-conscious, who don’t want to broadcast where they are when not at home. Despite being called a “check-in,” the addition is clearly not mean to pit Urbanspoon against Foursquare or Facebook, as it’s more of a utility than a social feature. That makes a bit more sense than Yelp’s check-in, for example, which blatantly rips off Foursquare’s idea of “Mayors” for its “Dukes.” However, at least Yelp’s check-in lets you push your arrival out to Facebook and Twitter, but Urbanspoon is Twitter-only. That needs to change. (Seriously, the whole Twitter is about “tweeting what you had for lunch” thing is a myth. Most don’t). The Urbanspoon mobile apps have been downloaded over 20 million times across mobile platforms. The app update should roll out shortly on iOS.
  |
| RadioShack Combines Promos To Offer The iPhone 4S (AT&T) On The Cheap Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:48 AM PST  So you missed out on getting the new iPhone 4S when it came out. Worse, all your friends got the new Apple flagship and make fun of your 3GS at every possible opportunity. Plus, all the holiday shopping you’ve been doing has made it nearly impossible to afford the 4S without giving up every shred of financial responsibility. If that description fits you, even a little bit, then rise up, dear reader, from your sad, Siri-free existence. Because Radio Shack just offered up an excellent way for you to be #winning with regards to your 4S-toting friends. By combining a few different programs, namely RadioShack’s $30 instant savings promo and its Trade & Save program, you might find yourself walking out of a RadioShack with a free AT&T iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S. Here’s how it works: Starting yesterday through Sunday, December 17, customers can automatically lop $30 off the price of a new iPhone 4 or 4S. Those are some rather measly savings to start, but when you pair them with savings from RadioShack’s Trade & Save program things get really interesting. RadioShack is offering a guarantee of at least $100 (max $200) for eligible 3GS and iPhone 4 trade-ins. That means you could actually end up with up to $130 store credit after picking up what would be a $99 iPhone 4 (for you, it’s free of course). Then there’s the 4S. If everything goes as planned concerning your iPhone 4/3GS trade-in, you could nab a 16GB model for free too, with a little store credit left over. Even the mamma-jamma 64GB beast can be had for $169.99 if you play your phones right, which usually goes for $399.99. Below you can find the pricing chart for savings, along with eligibility rules for trade-ins: Rules:
  |
| Rogers Extends LTE Reach In Canada Posted: 12 Dec 2011 05:57 AM PST  Folks in the Great White North have reason to be excited today, especially if they’re a customer of the Rogers network. Canada’s largest wireless carrier has today announced the expansion of its new LTE network in the Greater Toronto area and surrounding Vancouver. The service initially rolled out to Ottawa this summer, and then stretched to Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Today, residents of Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, and Markham can enjoy LTE speeds. As far as Vancouver is concerned, folks from West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Port Coquitlam, Delta, Langley, Surrey, and Maple Ridge will also have access to Rogers’ 4G LTE service. Rogers offers up a few different pieces of hardware to help you make the most of LTE, the most enticing of which would be the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE. You’ll also find the HTC Raider smartphone, the HTC Jetstream LTE tablet, along with a mobile hotspot and a WiFi stick. Interested, eh? Check out Rogers’ dedicated LTE page for more information.
  |
| Apple: 100 Million Downloads From Mac App Store In Less Than One Year Posted: 12 Dec 2011 05:36 AM PST  Apple this morning announced that there are now over half a million applications available in the mobile applications-specific App Store, and that over 100 million of apps have been downloaded from the desktop software marketplace Mac App Store in less than a year after its debut. When the Mac App Store opened for business on January 6, 2011, there were only 1,000 software applications available from the store. The company did not specify how many are available today, but says there are now “thousands” on the store’s landing page. Ouriel Ohayon from Appsfire estimates there are currently about 10,000 live applications on the Mac App Store, to give you an idea of its current size. How many of the 100 million downloads to date were paid vs. free apps remains anyone’s guess. As for the App Store, Apple says more than 500,000 apps available, and that customers are ‘continuing’ to download more than 1 billion apps per month. Press release:
  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from TechCrunch » Mobile To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
