Motorola focusing exclusively on Android in 2010

In business, it's a simple strategy - when you find a winning formula, you run with it.  After being on the brink of bankruptcy, it's safe to say that Motorola has finally found success in the Android OS.  In a conversation with Spiros Nikolakopoulos, vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific and International Distribution for Motorola’s Mobile Devices business, CNET Asia was able to obtain more information about the company's plans:

“There will be between 20 and 30 smartphones globally and, at this moment, all of them will run Android. Naturally, not all will be available everywhere as it depends on the company’s partnership with the various telco operators in each country. For non-smartphone models, they will run either Brew or the Motorola’s own operating system.”

With Windows 7 expected at some point this year, it's entirely possible that Motorola will forego a relationship with Microsoft and Windows Mobile 7.  As a Windows-centric blog, wmpoweruser thinks that Motorola is driving itself into oblivion, which I couldn't disagree with more.  It's evident that the Windows strategy hasn't worked for them over the past few years (think Motorola Q here), and the focus on Windows Mobile and their proprietary UI put them in the position they're in now.  I'm not saying focus solely on Android, but given the immense popularity of Android at the moment, Motorola couldn't be making a better move.

What say you?  Agree with me, or are you in the Windows Mobile camp?

 

http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-research/blog/motorola-focusing-exclusively-on-android-in-2010.aspx

WinMo7: All-new Windows Mobile and Project Pink phones coming soon?

Not to be outdone by all of that iPhone tomfoolery cluttering up the rumor mills, Windows Mobile kicked up some dust today with a few juicy bits of leak/rumor info of its own. We've got Windows Mobile 7, we've got Project Pink (remember that one?) and we've got flagship devices from HTC and LG. Wowsers.

First up is word that WinMo 7 is going to be a major overhaul that looks, feels, and acts very little like the Windows Mobiles of today and yesteryear. While contradictory information is flying around - as it should be in the rumor mill - best I can tell it looks like WM 7 will come in two distinct flavors, neither of which will run very many legacy WinMo apps. I'm not sure how I feel about that last bit, nor how thousands of WM 6 owners will feel if their current software libraries in fact won't run on the new OS, but such is life in the techno fast lane.

According to various sources, tipsters and NinjaConnects (or whatever the kids call them these days), WM 7 will be made available in "Media" and "Business" editions. As John Biggs put it, "Microsoft is about to get all Apple up in this piece," with WM 7, and I'm guessing that means the Media version, which will look, feel and act like a Zune HD with some phone stuff thrown in there for good measure. The Business version will be super stripped down - that is, sanded and primed and ready for HTC Sense and other OEM customizations to be applied.

WMExperts - by way of Engadget - have gotten all wacky and specific in taking going beyond the dual-platform rumors into hardware specifics. Specifically (see what I did there?), they're saying that the Biz Edition will require higher baseline-specs while Media Edition will focus on HD media and networked services integration like Xbox Live and those social sites everyone from John Mayer to Gilbert Arenas can't shut up about. To wit, WMExperts published some specs for two mythological - I mean, rumored - WM 7 Media Edition devices:

LG Apollo

• GSM/EV-DO/HSDPA world phone
• 1.3 GHz Qualcomm processor
• 3.8", 1280 x 720 WXGA (HD) AMOLED display
• 10 MP camera with 720p HD video capture

HTC Obsession

• GSM/HSDPA 
• 1 GHz Qualcomm processor
• 3.7" AMOLED display
• 5MP camera with 720p HD video capture

As Paul Miller at Engadget said, "Some of those specs are admittedly suspect, like the WXGA resolution on the Apollo and that seemingly 10 megapixel sensor, but we want to believe." Word. Amen. Indeed.

Then there's Project Pink, the Zune Phone/Sidekick thingy that I'd all but forgotten about in the past nine months. According to some analyst quoted on some Walt Mossberg-blessed blog, Microsoft is gearing up to pull a Google and launch their own mobile phone as soon as MWC or CTIA of this year. MWC is in, what, four weeks? That's soon! Said analyst said the Microsoft Phone will be ... wait for it ... "Zune-like," and feature a 5MP camera, 720p HD video capabilities, and support for subscription-based music services. Kind of like, you know, every other mid-to-high end phone out there.  Well, like everything except iPhone 3GS and its decidedly SD imaging features.

Hey, wait, did you just notice what I just noticed? Windows Mobile Seven Media Edition and Project Pink sound kinda the same? And the "Microsoft Phone" and the HTC Obsession sound kinda the same, too! So either one is the other and the other is the one, or MIcrosoft's gearing up to confuse the bejeezus out of everybody by releasing two new versions of WM 7 and a Zune Phone, with two of those three flavors tasting an awful lot alike.

Hmm ... A totally revamped Windows Mobile 7 sounds like a good thing. A consumer-friendly, media-centric version of WM 7 alongside of a business-centric version made to be skinned by non-MSFT phone makers also sounds like a good thing. But that business about legacy WinMo apps not being compatible with the new platform sounds like a very, very bad thing. For as much as I'm not really a Windows Mobile fan (I see you nodding your head, saying, "No kidding, Noah") I am a fan of competition and consumer choice amongst high-quality offerings in the mobile marketplace.

And so I leave you with a few more quoted words, again from Mr. Biggs, which I really hope don't wind up ringing true:

As for developers, they're kind of pissed. As far as we can tell they're not quite sure they want to take the steps necessary to move over to the new platform. This is a Hail Mary pass and could mean huge changes in the WinMo ecosystem.

Ruh-roh. Say it ain't so, Steve Ballmer. Without developers in tow, you've got nothing. And as awesome as Zune kinda sorta really is, ditching the enterprise for a full-on consumer media WinMo play would be risky business.

 

http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-research/blog/winmo7-all-new-windows-mobile-and-project-pink-coming-soon.aspx

January 27: Rumors swirl around iPhone OS 4 and Apple tablet

The Apple rumor mill moves like clockwork. First you get the constant stream of rumors all year long. Then you get spikes in rumor traffic leading up to the usual times on the calendar: January (post-CES / ex-MacWorld), Spring (WWDC), Summer (iPhone refresh), and Back to School (iPod event). And then, in the week that always falls between Apple announcing a media event and the event actually happening, the rumor mill goes bezerk.

Yesterday, Apple announced a press gathering for next Wednesday morning in San Francisco. Ergo, today the rumor mill has switched into overdrive.  The latest? We've got rumors about the Apple Tablet, iPhone OS 4.0, and even Apple's iLife multimedia creation suite, which currently only runs on Mac OS X for computers, not iPhones.

BGR says they've got iPhone OS 4.0 intel from one of their "trusty Apple connects," who must be Mr. Blurrycam's silent partner. Notably, BGR says to look out for the following in the next generation of Apple's mobile platform:

• iPhone OS 4.0 will only run on the 3G and 3GS models, which makes sense to me (sorry original iPhone owners). The update will be the much-needed dramatic overhaul that I've been waiting for, and according to BGR's sources it will “put [Apple] ahead in the smartphone market because it will make [iPhones] more like full-fledged computers.”
• The OS refresh will include "Many graphical and UI changes to make navigating through the OS easier and more efficient"
• Everyone at Apple is "really excited" about iPhone OS 4.0

Important new features will include improved multitasking (backgrounding of apps), improved syncing of calendars and contacts, system-wide multi-touch gesture support. That last bit of info jibes with earlier reports that the OS 4.0 will power iPhone, iPod Touch, and the new "iTablet," though the tablet may run a slightly modified version of the OS.

All Things Digital has been focusing on the content aspects of the tablet launch, which could prove incredibly important to the magazine and newspaper industries (something us hardware junkies may be overlooking in our gadgetlust). According to today's MediaMemo post:

• Look for the New York Times to join Steve Jobs at the Apple event next Wed. That means some kind of newspaper content being delivered via the iTunes Store
• Look for some kind of E-Reader content coming to iTunes, as well. There's been lots of buzz in the past few days about publishing giant HarperCollins holding negotiations with Apple as of late
• Don't expect any big music labels in the house next week. The Apple tablet may well play music (it'd better), but beyond iTunes LP support, the device doesn't look to offer anything new in the music content arena. Music videos? Sure. But not music itself.

I've got some thoughts on iTablet and the future of magazines and newspapers that I'll pull together in a separate post. For now, let's leave it at this: Something's coming from Apple next Wednesday, and it's going to involve content and content delivery methods as well as hardware. Whatever it is, we'll keep you informed right here on the Dog.

And, oh yeah, there are also reports that Apple will launch iLife 2010 at next week's event.  iLife is Apple's multimedia software suite for creating and managing music, photos and video. While the software is currently only available for use on Mac OS X laptop and desktop computers, it wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility for Apple to include some media creation/editing software on the tablet computer. Then again, it would also make sense to position the tablet as simpler and lower cost than Apple's MacBook/MacBook Pro line of full-fledged notebook computers, thus keeping iLife off of iTablet.

What say you? iPhone OS 4.0 - are you excited? Are you expecting another Apple phone revolution, or merely some evolutionary steps aimed at keeping pace with Android and WebOS, the current pace-setters in the modern smartphone arena? Sound off in the comments!

 

http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-research/blog/january-27-rumors-swirl-around-iphone-os-4-and-apple-tablet.aspx

The Google Nexus Two is the Motorola Shadow?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHYpv8QlX2U

Rooting Motorola Milestone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hc20WMlV8U

T-Mobile myTouch 3G Fender LE "Clapton"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__PAOvbJR6M

Hands On With Palm’s Mobile HotSpot For Pre Plus and Pixi Plus

By the time Palm announced the Pixi Plus and Pre Plus at CES earlier this month, there wasn’t a whole lot left to reveal. From the names, to the specs, all the way down to the carrier the handsets would launch on — just about everything had made it into the realm of public knowledge by way of the rumor mill.

However, there was at least one feature that Palm managed to keep hidden up their sleeve: Mobile HotSpot. With the flick of a switch, the Mobile Hotspot application turns the Pre Plus or Pixi Plus into a WiFi router for up to 5 users simultaneously, fueled by Verizon’s 3G network. We’ve spent the last few hours tinkering with a pre-release copy of Mobile HotSpot – read on for our impressions.

The Setup:

Attempting to explain how simple it is to set up Mobile HotSpot is probably more difficult than actually setting it up. You install it, flip the switch from “off” to “on”, and then choose a password. Bam! Within about 5 seconds, you’ve got a new WiFi hotspot waiting for you in your list of available networks. Remember the first time you plugged in a mouse via USB and it fired right up while you were digging around for the instructions on what to do next? It’s like that, except you’re not even plugging anything in.

Operation:

Like the setup process, keeping it all running couldn’t be much simpler. Want to change the name of the network? Tap the name, punch in a new one. Want to change the password? Same deal. If you forget your password or need to share it with a friend without shouting it to the entire room, they’ve got a “Show Passphrase” button right at the top – tap it once and your password is revealed, tap it again and it’s obfuscated. Palm has made this as absolutely, drop-dead simple as they possibly could have, and it’s a really great experience.

Oddly, there’s no way to manage connected users. While you’re alerted the instant someone connects and there’s a running list of everyone who is currently connected, there isn’t any means of disconnecting users without changing the password. This probably won’t be an issue as long as you play it smart with your security info, but it’s still something we expected to see.

Also strange: there’s no data usage meter. Considering that Verizon’s charging $40 bucks (on top of the normal voice/data plan fees) for 5 gigs of 3G Hotspot access with an overage fee of 5 cents per megabyte (or roughly 51 bucks per gigabyte), I’d imagine that people are going to want to keep a close eye on just how much data they’re gobbling up. Sure, you can find these numbers in your Verizon account pages – but why can’t the application pull that same information down, or at least provide the data for the current session for the sake of keeping tabs on things?

Battery:

This is not something you’re going to want to run all the time, unless you’re near an outlet. As we probably could have expected out of any application that is simultaneously pulling and pushing a ton of data, Mobile Hotspot hammers the battery. Even when no clients are connected, we were noticing the battery drain about 50% faster than it otherwise would.

The more people you’ve got connected simultaneously, the faster it’ll drain the battery; with 2-3 people pulling down a fair share of data, you can probably expect to drain this thing dead in about 3 hours.

Speed:

Ah, speed. Once you’re all setup, it’s the most important factor.

Unfortunately, our tests in this department were.. inconclusive, to say the least. Verizon seemed to be having some issues in my little corner of Central California today; while the network seemed stable enough at first glance, the speeds I was seeing were considerably slower than normal.

I ran speed tests across the Pre Plus, Pixi Plus, and Verizon Mifi, all of which were averaging about 85 kilobytes per second for both upload and download. I generally see download speeds that are very, very much faster than that. With that said, I’ve seen no evidence that suggests the Mobile HotSpot app pushes data out at speeds any slower than a MiFi or a dedicated Verizon mobile broadband dongle; as far as I can tell, it’s matching them kilobyte-for-kilobyte. Up until we sat down to do the formal testing, Verizon’s network — and the Mobile HotSpot app — were awesomely fast.

Your mileage will obviously vary from region to region, but I wouldn’t expect Mobile Hotspot to be the bottleneck. I’ll run a few more tests in other locales over the next few days and update accordingly.

Conclusions:

Simple to set up? Check! Simple to use? Save for a few trivial nitpicks, check! Nice and speedy? Well, as much as my local Verizon towers will allow at the moment.

While AT&T continues to promise that tethering on the iPhone is just around the corner, Verizon and Palm have launched what is quite possibly the slickest tethering solution to ever grace a mobile handset. The $40 monthly price tag seems a bit steep considering the 5 gigabyte cap, but that same 5 gigabyte plan would set you back $60 if you instead opted for a MiFi.

At this price, it’s certainly not for everyone – but if you’ve got a need for multi-person mobile broadband and were already looking to pick up a Pre Plus or Pixi Plus, it’s your best bet.

 

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/01/20/review-palm-mobile-hotspot-pre-pixi-plus/

iTunes.com Launching In The Cloud This Summer?

Buried all the way at the bottom of the Wall Street Journal’s latest piece about the Apple Tablet is a very interesting nugget of information. Apple is apparently gearing up to launch a cloud-based iTunes replacement called iTunes.com as soon as this June, WSJ states citing sources familiar with the matter.

Yesterday, we ran a guest post by Michael Robertson, the former CEO of MP3.com, who laid out Apple’s cloud-based media strategy going forward. An iTunes-in-the-cloud offering is the central part of this, and could happen “almost over night,” as Robertson laid out. And late last year we wrote about how a move to the cloud was inevitable for iTunes. The planets seem to be aligning for this to happen sooner rather than later. Apple’s recent purchase of the music startup Lala has potentially made this possible, because of that team’s talent, if nothing else. But there’s more.

Apparently, part of Apple’s strategy in moving iTunes online would be to make it so that third-party sites could easily implement one-click purchases of iTunes content, presumably through some iTunes APIs. Yes, plenty of sites offer iTunes click-to-buy buttons now, but they require that you load up the iTunes software and enter the iTunes Store through there to make the purchase — it’s cumbersome, to say the least.

A fully web-based iTunes could have huge business potential for Apple which has traditionally counted on the service as just a small source of overall revenue (aside from the newer App Store element), and used it as more of a way to move iPods with their higher margins. Such a move would potentially turn services like Pandora into mini-iTunes stores.

[photo: flickr/vsz]

 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/20/itunes-dot-com-cloud/

Apple may replace Google with Microsoft's Bing on iPhone

Rumors by Todd Haselton on Wednesday January 20, 2010.

Please note that this story is based upon rumor and/or speculation.

iPhone owners may get a taste of Microsoft on their phones shortly. According to a BusinessWeek report, Apple has been talking with Microsoft about implementing Bing as the default search option on the iPhone instead of Google.

The article cites two people close to the matter, who claim that the two companies have been in talks for a few weeks now.

A switch would mean increased ad revenue for Microsoft through its Bing placed mobile advertisements.

We may find out as soon as next Wednesday, as Apple has a planned press announcement that may involve a new tablet and an updated iPhone OS. [via BusinessWeek]

 

http://www.mobileburn.com/rumors.jsp?Id=8597

Apple To Form iPhone Search Alliance With Microsoft To Topple Google?

Business Week has reported that Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are in talks to replace Google search engine with Microsoft’s Bing search engine as the default web browser on Apple’s iPhone smartphone.

Bloomberg owned Business Week, claimed that according to "two people familiar with the matter", the negotiations between Apple and Microsoft has been going on for weeks.  

Several industry experts believe, now that Google has come out with its own smartphone offering, the search engine giant has emerged a direct threat to the iPod maker as the Google Nexus One is designed to compete with the iPhone smartphone, Apple’s blockbuster smartphone.

If the search engine deal goes through, then Google is predicted to suffer a significant setback in its mobile search market share as a significant number of people access Google via the iPhone. According to Nielson and Co, 86 percent of mobile search users use Google as their preferred search engine while only 10 percent use Bing.

 

The deal will also prove instrumental in boosting the popularity of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, which after a $100 million ad campaign has managed to garner a desktop search market share of 10.7 percent in December last year.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/1/20/apple-form-iphone-search-alliance-microsoft-topple-google/showall/#ixzz0dCwCyKe8

Apple Might Change MacTablet Name To iPad

Mac Rumors, a blog dedicated to reporting news related to Apple Inc., has claimed that new evidence point to the fact that Apple might rename its rumored tablet device as ‘iPad’ instead of the highly speculated name, ‘iSlate’.

The company is expected to unveil its tablet device sometime next week. The blog has unearthed a trademark application for the name ‘iPad’ by one IP Application Development LLC in the Canadian trademark registry.

The application says that the company is based in Wilmington, Delaware, US. Interestingly, ‘iPad’ is also an acronym for the company’s name.  

Mac Rumors failed to find a link between Apple and IP Application Development LLC and the address listed on the trademark application belongs to Corporation Services Company, which provides registration services to many companies.

The Mac Rumors report also revealed that Slate Computing, the dummy corporation owned by Apple, had also filed an ‘iPad’ trademark application in Canada in July 2009.

The site also found out that similar trademark applications for ‘iPad’ were filed in Europe and Hong Kong.

The European application was done by a UK law firm whereas the application filed in Hong Kong was traced back to IP Application Development, which has also applied for ‘iPad’ trademark applications in Australia and New Zealand, apart from Canada.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/1/20/apple-might-change-mactablet-name-ipad/showall/#ixzz0dCrHUTyR

 

Microsoft Zune Phone To Launch At Mobile World Congress?

Global securities and investment banking group, Jefferies and Company, has released a note where it has claimed that Microsoft will be launching the Zune phone or the Pink phone in the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona next month.

A Zune-like smartphone by the software giant has long been rumored as Microsoft’s Windows Mobile smartphone OS has been struggling against the likes of Apple and RIM, which have been instrumental in deteriorating Windows Mobile’s market share to less than 10 percent.

Katherine Egbert, a analyst with Jefferies and Co while commenting on the subject mentioned “Our recent industry checks indicate Microsoft will be debuting its own phone sometime in the next two months.”

According to the client note reported by the AllThingsD blog, Egbert has announced that Zune phone will be based on the platform offered by Danger’s Sidekick smartphone along with the design and media platform of Microsoft’s Zune media player.

The notice also claimed that the phone will probably come equipped with 5 mega-pixel camera along with 720p HD video support. Interestingly, the Zune phone will be based on integrated content/store concept widely used by Apple iPod and now Amazon Kindle.

The phone will operate on the much-awaited Windows Mobile 7 platform, which is being looked upon as Microsoft’s last hope of survival in the mobile phone OS market.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/1/20/microsoft-zune-phone-launch-mobile-world-congress/showall/#ixzz0dCnbY0ss

Screencast

Re-signing Apps For Dev-to-Dev Distribution from Mobile Orchard on Vimeo.

 

http://www.mobileorchard.com/developer-to-developer-iphone-app-distribution-without-ad-hoc-provisioning/

Developer-To-Developer iPhone App Distribution Without Ad-Hoc Provisioning

Developers can share iPhone applications that they’ve created with other iPhone developers without using ad hoc provisioning. Setting this up takes less than 5 minutes.

This is one of the method’s I’m considering for distributing CodePromo, my app that makes it easy to generate and share promo codes from the iPhone.

This article provides step-by-step instructions; it’s an expansion of the summary of the technique by Erica Sadun.

Overview

When you build and run on your development device Xcode first creates a device-compatible binary. and then signs it using your developer certificate. This latter step is what allows your device and its development provisioning profile to run the application. Apple provides tools that allow a binary’s signature to be replaced; if you’ve got a development certificate and a binary you can re-sign an app; it’s this re-signing that’s at the heart of this technique.

Preparing For Distribution

Step 1. Compile A Device-Compatible Binary

You create a device-compatible binary when you build to your device in Xcode. Open any iPhone project in Xcode and:

1. In the Overview menu, choose iPhone Device for the Active SDK.
2. While still in the Overview menu, choose Release for the Active Configuration. This will produce the smallest sized binary.
3. Build the project using Build > Build from Xcode’s menu or by using the command-b keyboard shortcut.

Proceed to the next step after everything builds cleanly.

Step 2. Locate The Binary

Locate the compiled binary:

1. Locate the Products folder under the project’s folder in the Groups & Files panel in Xcode. Expand it to show its contents.
2. Locate the .app file for the app, right-click or command-click its icon, and click Reveal in Finder.

This’ll reveal the binary in the Finder.

Step 3. Create A Re-Signing Script

The binary you’ve created will only run on devices that have your development provisioning profile installed on them. For other developers to run your app they’ll have to re-sign the app using their provisioning profile. We’ll include a shell script to make it easier for them:

1. Create a shell-script using the text editor of your choice.
2. Paste the contents below into the editor.
3. Replace the _APP_NAME_ in the shell script with the name of your app.
4. Name it re-sign.sh and save it somewhere convenient.

#!/bin/bash
export CODESIGN_ALLOCATE=/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/usr/bin/codesign_allocate
codesign -f -s "iPhone Developer" _APP_NAME_.app

Step 3. Bundle Items For Distribution Folder

We’ll distribute a zip containing the binary and helper script from the previous steps:

1. Open a new Finder window, navigate wherever you want the folder to reside and create a new folder. Use the app’s name as it will appear on the springboard as the name of the folder.
2. Copy the app’s binary and the helper script from the previous steps into the new folder.
3. Zip the folder.

And you’re ready to distribute the app.

The next section of this article shows the steps the recipient uses to install the app onto their developer provisioned iPhone.

Installing The App

It’s straightforward to install an application prepared as above:

Step 1. Extract and Re-Sign The App

1. Extract the contents of the zip to a convenient location.
2. Open a terminal window and navigate to the folder containing the zip’s contents.
3. Type re-sign.sh from the command prompt to run the helper script to re-sign the binary. The script will output _APP_NAME.app: replaced existing signature if successful.

Step 2. Install The App

1. Connect your phone to your computer and open Xcode.
2. Use Xcode’s Window > Organizer, or the keyboard shortcut command-o, to open the Organizer.
3. Select the phone from the DEVICES section in the left panel.
4. Click the “+” beneath the Applications list/section of the Summary tab in the right panel, locate the .app file in from the zip, and click Open.

And that should do it. The app should now installed on the phone.

 

http://www.mobileorchard.com/developer-to-developer-iphone-app-distribution-without-ad-hoc-provisioning/

iSites Will Let Publishers Simultaneously Build Apps For iPhone And Android

 

It’s becoming increasingly common for the web’s many publishers to offer their own native smartphone applications in addition to mobile-optimized web versions. But few web publishers have the resources to actually develop an app for themselves. iSites is a new service launching today that allows publishers to quickly build applications for the iPhone, allowing them to create a customized and branded app in as little as 10 minutes. And soon, you’ll be able to use the platform to simultaneously publish Android apps from the same platform.

Of course, you’re not going to be able to build out a particularly complex app in ten minutes, but if your primary goal is to syndicate your stories to users, with basic features like browsing by categories and the ability to ‘favorite’ stories, this will suit you just fine. Building an app is straightforward: first, you tell iSites which RSS feed it should include in your app. You can also include feeds from a dozen popular web services like Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, and Wordpress.  Once you’ve figured out what content you’re going to include, you can tweak the color scheme of the app, add your own logos, and attach an icon and a description to include in the App Store.

Once all that’s done, you submit the app and wait for it to appear on the App Store (iSites handles the submission process). Once the app is live, you can log in to your iSites account to view analytics on the app’s performance, including which content in your app is the most popular.

One of the nice things about iSites is that even after you’ve deployed your app, you can modify the various feeds the app is pulling content from. And soon, you’ll be able to deploy apps to both the App Store and Android Market (the Android version is currently in Beta testing, with release planned in the next few weeks). Changes made using iSites (like your app’s layout or feeds) will be reflected on both your iPhone and Android apps.

iSites costs users a flat fee of $25 for the standard version, or $99 a year if you want to be able to include your own AdMob ads. The service is currently being used by a number of clients, including university papers like The Daily Californian, The Stanford Daily, and The State Press.

iSites certainly isn’t the first player to offer a solution for helping publishers build mobile apps — we’ve been seeing similar tools for nearly as long as the App Store has been around, with competitors including AppMakr, Mobile Roadie, and plenty more.

  http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/20/isites-publish-iphone-android/

Google Now Targets Mobile Ads (and App Download Links) By Device

You can target Google mobile ads by location, but now Google is opening up two new targeting options for mobile ads running through AdWords. Ads shown on a mobile browser can now target by mobile device or by carrier. It is not clear how many devices are supported, but at the very least advertisers can specify that their ads only be seen on iPhones or Android devices.

To the extent that people who own those types of devices represent a more affluent demographic, it might make sense to concentrate a mobile ad campaign on those consumers. Targeting by carrier seems less helpful for advertisers and more like something Google is just making available because it gets that data automatically and it is technically possible. Other than for carrier-specific promotions or attempts by mobile phone competitors to steal away each other’s customers (okay, that’s a huge business right there), it is not going to improve ad effectiveness that much.

In addition to targeting ads by device, Google can also customize download links for mobile apps by device so that if a company is advertising a mobile app, people who se the ad on an Android will get the Android market download link and those on an iPhone will get the Apple App Store link. Already, Google offers contextual in-app ads via AdSense, which have their own targeting capabilities (by app, category, location, and keyword). The new Mobile AdWords ads brings better targeting to regular search ads seen in mobile browsers.

 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/20/google-mobile-adwords-target-device/

Complaints Paint Snackable Media As A Scamville For Mobile Phones

How is it possible for a company to build a $170 million business selling text-message games on mobile phones? As I wrote in a post on Monday, Snackable Media claims to be pulling in that much revenue selling $10 monthly subscriptions to text-message games such as Predicto and Deal or No Deal. It’s an eye-popping number, but like most things that sound too good to be true there might be a catch.  In fact, some complaints about the way that Snackable Media signs up new customers through affiliate partners paint it as a Scamville for mobile phones.

As several readers mentioned in comments to the original post, the way Snackable Media signs up customers at the very least looks fishy. There are many complaints on the Web from consumers who say they never signed up for Predicto or were tricked into doing so. There is even a class action suit (embedded below) against Predicto and cell phone carrier Alltell for recycling “dirty numbers,” a practice whereby a phone number of a previous subscriber is assigned to a new customer who continues to be billed for the service that the old customer signed up for. And this isn’t the first lawsuit against Snackable Media’s founders. They have a history of similar complaints when the company operated under different names (including NextWeb Media and the Email Discount Network) and even settled one with the attorney general of Florida (also embedded below), a settlement which Washington state and others joined .

According to a former employee of the company I spoke with who requested anonymity, here is how the alleged scam works. Nearly all of Snackable Media’s customers—CEO Eyal Yechezkell told me there are one million monthly active players of Predicto alone and was open about the fact that he acquires customers mainly through online advertising—sign up through online affiliates, but often they don’t know that they are signing up for a $10/month mobile game. Consumers might take an IQ quiz, sign up to win an iPod or register on a job website, at the end of which they are asked to enter their cell phone number and then enter a PIN number. According to one complaint:

what I remember is I was in yahoo and I saw a little window on the side about IQ test they asked my phone number thats all I remember few days later I got a message asking about what I tought about some celibrities [sic], are they going to divorce or would they stay togehter something like that I erased it,

The registration all happens online or via a text message opt-in.  Then they get signed up for Predicto or some other game and the cell phone carriers start billing them on behalf of their partner, Snackable Media. “All the people they got were through affiliates,” says the former employee. One of the biggest affiliates is Smiley Media. “The reason we can drive so many sales is they can do it all online,” a Smiley Media account manager confirmed to me.

I spoke again with Yechezkell and asked him whether Snackable or its affiliates sign up consumers using misleading ads. “No, we don’t do that,” he says. “We don’t have any of the IQ quizzes. Our offers are very clear. You have to wait to get the actual service, everything is audited weekly by the four major cellular services, everything is opt-in.” He adds that “you cannot opt in unless you enter a PIN we send you or you reply OK or Yes. We are continuously in compliance. We had a suit dismissed completely.”

And what about the complaints? “The complaints are a tiny fraction of our overall business,” he maintains. Snackable’s games are no different than any other subscription business, he says: “It is just like any subscription. If I don’t use my Netflix, they charge me every month. They don’t email me every week saying you did not send back your DVD because they want me to stay on. Every month, we have to send a renewal message with how to cancel. It has the price.”

Snackable might be in compliance, but that doesn’t mean consumers realize what they are signing up for. The former employee notes that Snackable does everything it can to stay “on the right side of the law, they follow carrier regulations to a ‘t,’” but “they are tiptoeing a line between the carrier and the user.” For example, according to the former employee, after sign-up Snackable will send as few messages as possible to people on their cell phones to reduce the churn rate and what they call “fast cancels.” (I’ve noticed this myself. It’s been days since I got a Predicto text message, and I’ve got a comp account).  If Snackable can get someone not to cancel until they get on the second or third billing cycle, they make money, because they pay affiliates a one-time fee of $4 to $5 per sign-up, and they share the other half with the carriers. So Snackable only starts to collect its half of the $10 in the second month. If consumers complain to the carriers about the added bills, they say they have to take it up with Snackable. AT&T and Verizon are Snackable’s largest carrier partners.

While these sign-ups might be technically legal, there are enough complaints out there to suggest that some are misleading. We saw a similar problem with Scamville offers in social gaming. Misleading online offers are not the only complaint against Snackable Media. There is also the recycling “dirty numbers” ploy, where Snackable allegedly just fails to cancel accounts for numbers that are reassigned to new wireless subscribers. According to that class action lawsuit against Predicto and Alltell filed last September:

Despite its knowledge about the problem of recycled dirty numbers, Predicto ignores the protocol established by wireless carriers such as Alltel to prevent this problem.

. . . As a result, Defendants have for years systematically, repeatedly, and without authorization caused charges to be placed on the cell phone bills of thousands of consumers across the country for content that was never authorized to be purchased by the current subscribers of the affected phone numbers, but rather by the previous subscribers formerly assigned such cell phone numbers, . .

In that case, Yechezkell says Snackable Media “never received the number on the blacklist” of the primary defendant from Alltell and that it has refunded the money to the person.

What makes all of this even worse is that Yechezkell has a history of running similar scams under different company names and has settled with at least one state (Florida) who brought complaints against him. For example, he ran a service called Email Discount Networks which allegedly would charge people’s home phone number $14.95 a month for an email account which they either didn’t authorize or didn’t realize they were signing up for.

The former employee adds that when Snackable Media was known as NextWeb Media it also signed people up for voicemail service which would appear on their home phone bills through a process known as LEC billing, which only required the consumer’s phone number. “The reason they switched to mobile is a lot of people don’t have home phones anymore,” says the former employee. Yechezkell says the company has “completely stopped running that product.” However, a similar business called Voicemail Direct USA, which has an F rating by the Better Business Bureau because of the number of complaints against it, lists Snackable co-founder Itai Kathein as its manager. Kathein is also named along with Yechezkell in the Predicto lawsuit.

All of these allegations and complaints could be isolated incidents.  Businesses that are total scams don’t usually approach us for coverage and brag about how much money they are raking in.  Snackable Media does operate real mobile games, and if consumers willingly subscribe to pay $10 a month for a chance to answer trivia questions and win prizes, that is their problem.  But it appears that at least some of them are being duped by Snackable or its affiliates into signing up for the service unknowingly.  When there is so much easy money to be made, the temptation to step over the line is hard to resist, especially when all of your new customers are coming through an army of hard-to-control affiliate marketers.

 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/20/complaints-snackable-media-scamville-mobile-phones/

140 Proof Distills Ad Network For Twitter

by Leena Rao on January 20, 2010

We’ve all been anxiously awaiting how Twitter will turn on advertising in its microblogging platform. We know Twitter is going to be incorporating advertising of its own this year and is currently in talks with advertisers, but we don’t know what this will look like yet. In the meantime, other startups have emerged with advertising models for Twitter, including Ad.ly, Assetize, SponsoredTweets, and Magpie. And last November, Robert Scoble presented us with a compelling model for advertising on Twitter, called a Super Tweet.

Now, startup 140 Proof is entering the mix with its Twitter-based ad network. The network bypasses Twitter’s site completely and allows 3rd-party Twitter clients sell space on the network to advertisers. The ads appear in third-party Twitter clients who use 140 Proof’s API to serve and measure their ads. Ads are served within users Twitter streams on these clients (mobile, desktop or web) and clearly marked as ads.

And 140 Proof promises targeted advertising. Twitter clients passes 140 Proof a user ID list (with no names) and the public information contained in a Twitter users profile, and on the advertiser side, advertisers bid on ads to be directed toward users based on keywords in tweets, followers, as well as device, location and platform. 140 Proof’s algorithms calculates Twitterer’s “persona” based on public tweets and who they follow and serves ads to users based on this data. So if many of my Tweets have the term “red wine” in them, 140 Proof would characterize me as an ideal target for a wine manufacturer.

Similar to traditional ad networks, advertisers pay per click, plus retweets and direct replies are considered a free bonus. Advertisers can create their own ad tweets through a self-service interface, define a specific Twitter persona to target, and then measure the effectiveness of their ad campaigns through clicks, retweets and @ replies. 140 Proof has already signed on a number of smaller developers and recently brought on a major Twitter client developers but declined to name the startup. And the network has over 40 advertisers on its platform and continues to add businesses both big and small daily.

Backed by a $2 million investment from BlueRun Ventures and Founders Fund, 140 Proof may help many Twitter-client developers monetize their apps via advertising. Monetization is a perplexing issue when it comes to Twitter, so this network could provide a way to for both advertisers and developers to use the stream to actually make money. OneRiot is doing something similar with its realtime ad network RiotWise, and is seeing promising results during its private beta. And Seesmic appears to be working on a stealth application involving brand advertising, called Look, which will be unveiled tomorrow.

 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/20/140-proof-rolls-out-ad-network-for-twitter-clients/

INFOGRAPHIC: With New Mobile Rates, There Are Now 10 Million Ways to Pay for a Cell Phone

After AT&T and Verizon announced new mobile rates this past weekend, many users were happy to hear that the cost of voice calls would be reduced for two major American carriers.

Today, the restructured mobile plans and packages went into effect, but the costs, benefits and corporate revenues aren't as simple as a few saved dollars for cell phone calls. In a word, what all gadget geeks, tech-heads and mobile users know is that data is one of the more costly - and ever more popular - aspects of any user's mobile plan. As smartphone adoption increases, how do major carriers' plans stack up to one another?

Our good friend (and startup BillShrink rep) Tony Adam wrote today in a blog post, "The real truth behind the story is that the profits are in the data: Verizon's revenue is now up 24% (they reported $15.8 billion in Q309), with 17% coming from data services."

To put it bluntly, we're all texting, emailing, tweeting and updating constantly - who even has time for a phone call these days? The laws of supply and demand state that as demand for voice services wanes and the public consumption of mobile data services rises, corporations will realize that it's worth their while to create a false economic incentive for voice packages while maintaining and increasing rates for data packages.

The tricky part, then, becomes stripping away the marketing-ese, the convoluted packaging structures and the hard-pitch sales routines that go along with them to determine how users can get the best fitting data and voice plans.

Thanks to BillShrink's unwavering focus (and they said the process behind this achievement was "painful... the carriers didn't make it easy"), we have a concise, clear infographic on how mobile plans and rates from Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile all measure up to one another. Or at least we have a start: Based on data they collected, the BillShrink folks estimate there are now 10 million ways to structure a cell phone plan.

To see the full-size, fully detailed infographic, check out BillShrink's large version.

For example, Verizon and Sprint are currently asking $119 for unlimited voice, text and smartphone data plans, while T-Mobile and Sprint's equivalents ring in at $20 less per month. In fact, just about all the plans from these four carriers are identical until you start to factor in text messaging and mobile Web browsing, at which point Verizon and AT&T start to charge more than their competitors.

As smartphones and superphones take over the market, do you think we'll see more network-agnostic devices? And with more network-agnostic smartphones sucking up more mobile 3G bandwidth, do you think all carriers will raise their pricing for data and text packages?

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/with_new_mobile_rates_there_are_now_10_million_way.php

U.S. Government in Your Pocket: White House Launches iPhone App

The White House announced the release of a new White House iPhone app via a late-night blog post on WhiteHouse.gov. Included in the mobile application are features like news items, photos, blog posts, videos, and even live video streaming. That's right - live video. According to White House blogger Dave Cole, the app lets users watch public events like speeches and press briefings in real time using their mobile device. Next week's State of the Union address by President Obama will kick off this effort, delivering live video of the speech to anyone running the free application on their Apple iPhone or iPod Touch.

The White House App

This downloadable mobile application (iTunes link) is the first of its kind to be released by the current administration... that is, unless you count the Obama campaign's iPhone application, which offered mobilized access to campaign news, media and events prior to the election. The Obama administration is notable for the way it's embraced technology, using everything from YouTube for weekly "fireside chats" to wikis for recruiting purposes. They even licensed the transition site Change.gov using Creative Commons, which allowed a company called Cerado the ability to translate the site into a Web-based iPhone application.

What's most interesting about this new mobile effort is the fact that the iPhone application was launched prior to the mobile-ready version of WhiteHouse.gov's website. While that effort is "coming soon," says the blog post, it won't be available in time for Obama's next presidential address, and there are no details as to whether or not it will offer any sort of video features, much less live streaming.

Of course it's important that the government's efforts aren't iPhone-only, but it's clear that the Apple platform is an important part of the administration's efforts to reach its constituents - especially the young, tech-savvy mobile users who some say helped Obama win the election.

Mobile Web's Explosive Growth

Also of interest: The White House states that mobile Web use has grown over 100% in the last year in the U.S., and higher worldwide. That's putting it mildly. Over the past year, we've heard from numerous companies and analyst firms regarding the explosive growth of the mobile web. For example, in spring of 2009, Opera reported a 157% increase in usage of their Opera Mini web browser and a 319% increase in year-over-year data traffic. AdMob released a report in October revealing a 19% increase year-over-year in iPhone/iPod Touch data traffic alone, and last month, analyst firm IDC predicted over a billion mobile web users by 2010. Ignoring the mobile masses at this point would be a mistake and it's clear that the White House understands that. Notes the blog post: "this is just the first step for WhiteHouse.gov's mobile platform."

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/us_government_in_your_pocket_white_house_launches_iphone_app.php