T-Mobile USA Inc.'s new G1 phone will serve as a kind of one-stop shop for Google Inc.'s mobile offerings, but the device's prospects may hinge on the success of Android Market. The phone will integrate Google Maps (with Street View), Gmail with Contacts, Google's...
A $7 million settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit accusing Timberland Co. and others of illegally sending unsolicited advertising text messages to cellular subscribers. The development represents but the tip of a litigious iceberg in which the number of texting antitrust class...
Mobile video-messaging startup Mogreet scored carrier deals on both sides of the Atlantic.The Venice Beach, Calif.-based firm is partnering with Fun Text, a U.K.-based content and messaging service, to offer mobile video greeting cards for mobile phones. The companies' combined offerings will be available...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We've collected a group of the industry's leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry.Another CTIA show has come and gone. There was plenty of talk of new applications...
SanDisk Corp. is the latest player hoping to elbow its way onto the music-distribution playground.The Milpitas, Calif.-based company announced plans to sell microSD memory cards with preloaded MP3 music files through brick-and-mortar and online retailers including Best Buy and Wal-Mart. SlotMusic, as the effort...
Best Buy is surely hoping to give its digital-music business a boost with last week's acquisition of Napster Inc. But what it might mean for mobile music is far from clear.The big-box retailer agreed to pay $121 million for the once-iconic song distributor and...
Think Google Inc. has the mobile search space all sewn up? Think again.ChaCha - heard of 'em? - claims to have delivered search results to 1 million users since its launch earlier this year, answering more than 27 million queries via text message. And...
It's official. The plaintiffs' bar smells blood.The mobile-phone industry suddenly finds itself under siege over rising text messaging prices; there are now five different class-action antitrust lawsuits against the nation's largest wireless carriers over the issue. The growth followed Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee Chairman...
Just a few years ago, a Web site offering virtually every notable song ever recorded for free listening would have had music business executives speed-dialing their lawyers.
Electronic Arts Inc. announced a pact to bring "Tomb Raider Underworld" and other Eidos Interactive Ltd. titles to mobile.EA Mobile won wireless rights to "Just Cause 2," "California Games X" and "Minesweeper" in addition to the eighth Tomb Raider game, which is slated for...
San Francisco - Full-track downloads are spinning their wheels and subscription services are falling on deaf ears. So Nokia Corp. and its music-industry partners are hoping music lovers will shell out for devices that come with music.The Finnish manufacturer-cum-Internet services provider last week offered...
SAN FRANCISCO -- Wireless industry association CTIA and Harris Interactive think they have found the answer to one of history's most elusive mysteries: what teenagers want. In a report dubbed "Teenagers: A Generation Unplugged," Harris surveyed 2,000 teens across the nation to find out...
SAN FRANCISCO -- The world of off-deck content may be moving away from premium SMS and onto the wireless Web.Bango this week said it has seen its WAP transactions in the United States increase fourfold in the last three months as carriers increasingly look...
SAN FRANCISCO -- Verizon Wireless stoked the white-hot social-networking fire, launching three offerings that allow subscribers to share content and stay in contact with their friends.The carrier yesterday unveiled SocialLife, a $1.50-a-month application that connects users to a host of sites including MySpace, FaithBase,...
SAN FRANCISCO -- A California company believes e-mail shouldn't be just for smartphones and the application should be compatible with voice and text messaging.As the annual CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008 kicks off today in San Francisco, SEVEN is unveiling its new Integrated...
SAN FRANCISCO -- Nokia Corp.'s Ovi conjures images of cutting-edge mobile services that run the gamut from entertainment to navigation to social communities. But the success of the ambitious concept may hinge on much simpler -- and stickier -- features.The mobile behemoth this week...
SAN FRANCISCO -- Full-track downloads are spinning their wheels and subscription services are falling on deaf ears. So Nokia Corp. and its music-industry partners are hoping music lovers will shell out for devices that come with music.
The Finnish manufacturer-cum-Internet services provider last week...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Yay or Nay. Every week we'll review a new wireless application or service from the user's point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn't. If you wish to submit your application or...
Yahoo Inc. will serve as AT&T Mobility's on-deck search vendor, and will aggregate both Internet information as well as listings from the carrier's content catalogue - including ringtones, wallpaper and games - into its search results. Yahoo replaces InfoSpace Inc. as AT&T Mobility's search...
Advertisers looking to reach consumers through their phones should offer a little something in the process, according to new figures from ABI Research.A recent study from the market research firm found that roughly 37% of those who received text-message ads indicated they are more...
The carrier deck is still the most valuable real estate in mobile content, but the future of downloadable wireless goodies may just lie in third-party storefronts. And for now, at least, developers are the key to success.Apple Inc. stole headlines two months ago with...
There's nothing easy about being smallest national mobile-phone carrier. Competing day to day for customers against AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Next Corp. is brutal enough. But it's also about keeping pace - technologically and otherwise - with the top three cellphone operators....
National Geographic launched a division dedicated to boosting its mobile content business.The iconic brand said it hopes to boost revenues by increasingly licensing its library of content to handset manufacturers, aggregators, developers and carriers. National Geographic also unveiled plans to launch a wireless Web...
