A party of five representing TV and cable networks and a diverse sampling of distribution providers failed to collectively define mobile television as it exists today or where it is going. All agreed that more needs to be done to inform large swaths of...
The buzzword du jour: presence. "Presence" is getting a lot of play, from the focus of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's opening keynote address on Tuesday to a panel discussion Wednesday. But what the heck does it mean? Like most buzzwords, that depends on...
So this is what they mean by "One show, two personalities."Wednesday's keynote coupled the buttoned-down executive style of Research In Motion Ltd. with the hip, edgy verve of Facebook. Dustin Moskovitz, who co-founded the popular social networking site, unveiled a new application that delivers...
Thumbplay said it signed an exclusive deal for ringtones and other mobile content across the AOL network. AOL is integrating Thumbplay's content through AOL Music, AOL Games, the AIM instant-messaging service, Winamp and Spinner.Thumbplay said its content also is integrated on the new AOL...
RCR Wireless News met with PacketVideo's VP of Marketing Gretchen Griswold for five minutes on the show floor to see where the multimedia software company is tapping into the wireless industry and what it sees coming down the pipeline. Q: Where is PacketVideo experiencing...
John Wang momentarily wears a distant look on his face. How to convey a sense of the process at HTC Corp.'s MAGIC Labs that resulted in the Touch device and its innovations? (The Touch launched globally this past summer and arrives at Sprint Nextel...
Groove Mobile is going directly to consumers with a new track from indie hip-hop artist Aceyalone. Users can send a message to a short code to receive a link enabling them to access the tune via the wireless Web. The song, "Can't Hold Back,"...
Consider WiMAX a bit schizophrenic. The technology is taking two divergent paths as different countries and different companies explore how best to put it to use in their respective markets.Dr. Mohammad Shakouri, board member and VP of marketing for the WiMAX Forum, has described...
After more than two years, a plan to blanket San Francisco with seamless wireless Internet access at no cost to consumers is back where it started. All that stands in the wake of the failed citywide Wi-Fi effort now is a mountain of paperwork.At...
Apple Inc.'s iTunes dominates the digital music dance floor. But following Apple's lead may not be a wise move for mobile music services.An astounding 89% of teens go to iTunes for their legal music downloads, according to a recent report from investment bank Piper...
With ringtone revenues in decline and full-track downloads struggling to find an audience, carriers and third-party vendors are working furiously to breathe life into a withering mobile music industry.Ringtones for years have been the most popular type of content on (or off) carrier decks,...
The grandiose vision of ubiquitous WiMAX connectivity for everything under the sun is intoxicating, at least to Sprint Nextel Corp. and its partners.And when the world's top three mobile handset vendors, which also produce WiMAX infrastructure, pledge to support Sprint Nextel's plans with traditional...
WiMAX could be the technology that fuels the fusion of all sorts of mobile applications, integrating video, location-based services and a host of other offerings.And analysts generally agree that speedy access to the wireless Web will be the key."When I talk WiMAX, I always...
In the past, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has managed now and then to wrestle away the spotlight (albeit temporarily) on major telecom-tech issues of the day from the Federal Communications Commission. NTIA, a Commerce Department unit that serves as the principal adviser...
You're hearing a dizzying stream of promises and jargon aimed at convincing businesses to "go mobile."But you'd like to hear unvarnished advice from folks who have done the heavy lifting. Case studies, from the horse's mouth. Ya shoulda been at the roundtable Monday...
The direct-to-consumer mobile content space is being shackled by inadequate billing systems and an overall lack of traffic, content providers and mobile software developers said Monday.The market for off-deck mobile content was once seen as a kind of equalizer for publishers and brands too...
Upper echelons of the wireless industry have been having the same dream for years: an unassuming wireless subscriber is walking past a coffee shop and up pops a mobile coupon on their device for that specific location. "If I hear it one more...
With more than 15% of wireless carriers' revenue coming from data services, operators are eyeing the next leap in usage. Executives from the big-five carriers were all on hand yesterday for a panel discussion on the state of mobile content, spelling out their strengths,...
The Mad Ballmer remained out of sight for Tuesday's keynote address before a standing-room-only crowd.Instead, a calm, determined Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Corp.'s CEO, offered a new, enterprise-friendly, mobile-device-management suite, touched device maker HTC Corp. with his magic wand and just said no to spectrum...
For Verizon Wireless and its recently installed chief, Lowell McAdam, life seems great. Customer growth remains near the top, customer churn remains nearly invisible and the carrier recently unveiled new devices targeting fast-growing demographics as well as a certain "fruity" competitor.Of course, not all...
Nokia Corp. is preparing to add a new feature to its mobile sharing site, MOSH, that will allow users to request specific content from the growing number of members and developers that frequent the site.SEEK will allow the MOSH community to respond with suggestions...
What's plaguing the mobile gaming market? Pretty much the same headaches that have been there for years.Mobile gaming continues to struggle to move beyond what publishers have dubbed the "golden nickel"-the 5% or so of mobile users who pay to download and play games...
As capital flows into the wireless space, the companies who are lucky enough to reap the benefits span a wide range of wireless ventures, from infrastructure to content. Among recent deals are those of Conterra Ultra Broadband Inc., which provides wireless connectivity for K-12...
Big things tend to start out small, or so the saying goes.So it was that Voice over Internet Protocol provider Skype Ltd. came out of nowhere in February to petition the Federal Communications Commission to extend to the mobile-phone industry a landmark third-party connectivity...
