developing world

Coinbase poaches Google Shopping VP as CPO for cryptocommerce

“We’re trying to shift cryptocurrency from this speculative asset class to driving real-world utility,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tells me. How? Through commerce and micropayments

Instagram Lite quietly launches to find a billion more users abroad

Instagram’s future growth depends on the developing world, so it’s built a version of its app just for them. “Instagram Lite” for Android appeared today in the Google Play App

Element wants to give identity to the whole world, raising $12M Series A

Who are you? That’s both an existential question, and also a very practical administrative concern. Today, identity is often exchanged through the use of government ID cards and official paperwork,

Instagram Stories adds no-frills photo-only posting from mobile web

Instagram really wants the developing world on Stories. They won’t be able to use Instagram’s augmented reality masks or share videos, but starting today mobile web users can post to Insta

Facebook will test video downloads for offline viewing

The developing world can’t join the age of social video since streaming sucks up too much costly data and is sluggish on slow connections. But Facebook wants to change that with a new video down

Facebook Saves Developing World’s Data Plans With 65% Smaller, 50% More Efficient Android App

Data is expensive and phones have low storage in developing nations like those in Africa, so over the last year, Facebook quietly undertook a massive engineering overhaul of its Android app to make it

Where In The World Are The 1.2M Raspberry Pi Microcomputers? Mostly In The West — But Pi Founders Want More Spread This Year

One to 1.2 million Raspberry Pi microcomputers have shipped since the device's launch just over a year ago but where in the world are they located? While it's impossible to say exactly where each Pi h

Global Mobile Subscriptions To Rise To 8.9BN By 2017 — With 80% Of Them In The Developing World, Says Strategy Analytics

Analyst Strategy Analytics is forecasting that the worldwide base of mobile subscriptions will rise to 8.9 billion over the next five years -- and a massive four out of five of these (80 per cent) wil

How The Future of Mobile Lies in the Developing World

In less than three decades, the mobile phone has gone from being a status symbol to being a ubiquitous technology that facilitates almost every interaction in our daily lives. One month after the worl

Vodafone's $15 phone for the developing world

<img src="http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/vodaphone150.jpg" />The mood in Barcelona must be somber, for the city's team lost to Atletico Madrid yesterday. Granted, Atletico Madr

Sony Ericsson launches two sexy HSDPA phones you shouldn't care about

Oh boy, rest of the world! Sony Ericsson is looking out for you with their new Z780 and the sexy-stylish G502 are basically aimed at the developing world where mobile Internet might not be as popular.

Biofuel producers catching heat amid rise in food price

There’s been riots over the rise in food prices. You may heave heard about, or even seen first-hand, rising food costs. (As have I—milk is how much?) Just be grateful you’re not a bi

Intel develops method to transmit Wi-Fi 60 miles

[photopress:rcpwifi_1.jpg,full,right] Intel has developed a way to transmit a standard Wi-Fi signal some 60 miles. Created for rural areas and the developing world, the technology, called rural connec

$20 Indian cellphone to bring telephony to developing world

[photopress:spicephone.jpg,full,left] An Indian telecom corp will release a $20 cellphone that’s aimed at the developing world/celphone market. The phone, nicknamed the people’s phone (muc

Give a OLPC, get a year of T-Mobile HotSpot access

Feeling generous? T-Mobile will give anyone who participates in the OLPC “Give 1 Get 1 Program”—for $399 your child and a child in the developing world gets a OLPC laptop—a fre