In the land of mobile, patents have never been more crucial. He with the most patents has the most power. Period. In the last few months alone we’ve seen Apple and Samsung duke it out, Apple and HTC take it to the mat, Google chat it up with InterDigital, and I won’t even start on Nortel.
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn — notorious for pumping money into companies and then bossing them around — has taken quite the interest in Motorola Mobility’s patent portfolio. → Read More
According to Gartner Group report, there are 141.1 million mobile payment-ready devices in circulation and that the vast portion of the world’s population (mostly in Asia) is actively using NFC and other techniques to pay for items via mobile. However, the US is lagging wildly in this regard, with nearly no activity in the space at present even though two-thirds of young people would be happy to wave their phones in front of a candy machine to grab a bite. Sadly, two-thirds of older folks would balk at the opportunity. → Read More
Two weeks ago, during an exhibition in Tokyo, Panasonic showcased an Android-based e-book reader/tablet hybrid without revealing too many details. Fast forward to today, and we have the complete spec list of the device (now named “Raboo”) plus price and availability (in Japan, at least). → Read More
There are plenty of companies that are trying to digitize the loyalty card space. Punchd, which was just acquired by Google, lets customers accrue digital versions of buy-10-get-1-free cards. PlacePop also offers a similar application. Now SparkBase, one of the largest processors of traditional private label gift and loyalty card programs to the financial and merchant services industries, is launching its mobile version of loyalty cards. → Read More
Dow Jones VentureSource released its second quarter numbers for the venture industry today, and there’s a reason they’re not dominating the headlines. They’re pretty boring: Overall investors put $8 billion into 776 deals in the US in the second quarter, a decrease of 5% in terms of invested cash and 2% in terms of deals. The median amount raised per deal was $5.2 million, up from $4.6 million a full year earlier. Yawn, right?
But the fact that the numbers are so unremarkable is what makes them interesting. It reinforces what people like me have been arguing for months: A handful of hot companies does not a bubble make. → Read More
As a barely 23-year-old, my deepest connection to most classic Rock songs is through a PlayStation game. My favorite PlayStation game. You may have heard of it — it’s called Guitar Hero. So when Activision said that it was calling it quits on Guitar Hero, I found myself humming: “lay your weary head to rest, don’t you cry no more.” Ok, maybe I exaggerate. But it was a sad, sad day — not just for me but for fake guitar players everywhere. Since then I can’t bring myself to play, a little tinge of sadness poking at me every time I pass the now-dusty collection.
But it’s been a little less than a year, and Activision has told Forbes that the whole “Guitar Hero is over” thing was a bit of a fib. → Read More
Something of a black comedy involving white hot startup Color and still-green-behind-the-ears Instacolor.
Red in the face, the developer behind the latter app, which combines the key functions of Instagram and Color, was forced to change its name to Instalook after the Color folks developed a gray mood about the Instacolor name.
Color’s lawyers earlier this week sent a cease & desist to the developer of Instacolor Instalook, asking him to change the name of the iPhone app pronto.
Color says it is prepared to turn to the courts if the developer, Rakshith Krishnappa, fails to “immediately discontinue all unauthorized use of Color labs’ trademark”. → Read More
SkyGrid, a startup that offers a powerful business news aggregator, is bringing its news reader to Android tablets today. The company previously launched Android, iPhone and iPad apps.
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This TokyoFlash concept watch looks like it might be great for motorcyclists and other folks who have their wrists at eye-level most of the day. The watch has a digital display that is almost unreadable head on but appears, magically, when looked at at an angle. → Read More
I’ve never really been a fan of anything “rugged” — all that heft and rubber tends to push me in another direction. However, the Motorola Defy for T-Mobile did spark my interest with its bright, sharp screen, nice size and shape, and the ability to swim.
This was a strong seller for T-Mobile priced at just $100 on-contract (and $50 elsewhere). But according to TIMN, the Defy’s successor (being called the Defy+) will be more suited for T-Mobile’s betrothed than for the pink carrier itself, sporting AT&T’s 850 / 1900 / 2100 HSPA bands. → Read More
Are you friends with your local barkeep, barista, or leather salesman? We&Co is a way to let them know you care. This iPhone app, launched on July 15, allows businesses to register their employees and then visitors can rate those employees (with an emphasis on positive criticism) and add them to your “favorite people” collection. Think of it as Yelp with considerably more granularity.
I suppose the question then is “Why?” Why use an app when you can thank them yourself? Well, presumably, the aggregate score will encourage others to frequent the employee’s place of business, thereby gaining them more tips and potential creepy stalkers. It also puts a name to the faces you see every day at your local eateries, drinkeries, and provisionaries. → Read More
With U.S. mobile ad revenues expected to hit $2.8 billion by 2015, according to BIA/Kelsey, it’s becoming pretty clear that mobile advertising is growing like gangbusters. This is largely thanks to the rising ubiquity of smartphones, as comScore showed in its May report, which included the eye-grabbing fact that 76.8 million Americans now own a smartphone.
Of course, the big players in mobile OSes, Android, iOS, RIM, Symbian, and Windows, continue to duke it out for market share, with Android currently leading the way. However, the most intense battle has been set between Android and iOS, and thanks to a nifty infographic from inneractive, the mobile ad mediation platform, we have a peek into which of the two is winning the battle over mobile advertising. → Read More
The board of directors of Verizon Communications has promoted COO Lowell McAdam to president and CEO of the company. Ivan Seidenberg will step down from the CEO role at the end of this month, completing a CEO succession plan that has been under way since last year. → Read More
Short Version
As a long-time fan of Olympus’ Micro 4/3s series of cameras, I came to the E-P3 expecting good things. I was not disappointed. The camera is like Mini Cooper or a Smart car: it gets you where you need to go, you have fun on the way, and the resulting savings in size, bulk, and, in some ways, price makes it a great second camera for a DSLR buff or a great first camera for someone just getting started in the world of removable lens shooters. → Read More
Diversion, a Los Angeles-based social gaming studio backed by Shawn Fanning and Michael Eisner – who are billed as ‘founding advisors’ – has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Google chairman Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures, Hearst Corporation and Eisner’s The Tornante Company. → Read More
Our sources in Turkey (local tech blog Webrazzi) tell us Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Tiger Global have invested between $25 million and $30 million in private shopping site Trendyol. → Read More
Sony is discontinuing yet another format: after killing the cassette Walkman last year and deciding to stop producing MiniDisc Walkmans just 2 weeks ago, the company today announced [JP] in Japan they won’t be supporting the 8mm video format anymore. Sony was one of the several Japanese and American (i.e. Polaroid) tech powerhouses that established the format format back in the 1980s.
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Back in the old days, if you wanted to record your Bruce-Springstein-esque yowlings in the comfort of your bedroom you had to use an old Tascam four track and slap down the music at a quality that was questionable at best.
Now, with the advent of micro-recorders like the Boss Micro BR BR-80, you can sound like a pro without much assistance. The device records to SD/SDHC and supports full eight-track recording, effects, as well as playback control so you can play along with your favorite records. You can also use this as an effects unit when connected to a PC or Mac via USB. It also includes a small condenser mic for recording quick audio sketches.
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After the discovery of a fake Apple store in Kunming, China caught the blogosphere’s attention, MICGadget ran down a selection of some of the more impressive fakes that have cropped up over the past few months, perhaps culminating in the Giger-esque egg pod version full of iPhones, Macs, and (though not for sale) the iPad 2.
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