Editor's Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks...
Shares of Local.com shot skyward after the online search company said it received a patent for ad-supported mobile search.The Irvine, Calif.-based outfit said the patent addresses "the method of responding to enhanced directory assistance" including voice- and text-based searches from wireless handsets. The patent...
Hello! And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCR Wireless News to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the...
Madrid, Spain-based "social router" company FON announced it has given away 7,000 routers in its Fonbucks campaign designed to encourage people living next to a Starbucks Coffee Co. location to provide free or inexpensive Wi-Fi services. FON said it ended up giving away 5,000...
I spent much of the past week on my phone, browsing mobile content storefronts, accessing local business listings and checking out the latest baseball scores. Surprisingly, though, my thumbs are well-rested-which is a feat, considering all the megabytes of data I accessed. What's my...
MEDIA COMPANIES AND RETAILERS are beginning to target wireless users with free, advertising-supported services. And carriers are slowly tolerating-if not quite embracing-such offerings.USA Today last week launched a mobile search service that delivers text alerts about news, sports scores, stock quotes and other topics...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our new Tuesday feature, Mobile Content and Culture. This weekly e-mail service will cover the most important mobile content news of the week, and will also include contributed columns by big names in the industry, application and service reviews by...
YouTube Inc. quietly launched a stripped-down, mobile version of its popular video-sharing site.The wireless offering, available at m.youtube.com, offers a small selection of streaming videos in a handful of categories such as "Featured," "Recently Added" and "Top Rated." The service marks the conclusion of...
It's no secret that a stroll through the offerings on carrier decks is enough to give you carpal tunnel syndrome. A recent study of four U.S. wireless services providers by Strategy Analytics found that a simple music download from a carrier portal required anywhere...
Perhaps it is just as well that Allen Salmasi is still flying under the radar, given the tumult and upheaval that ensued when his last startup found it couldn't repay the federal government the nearly $5 billion it owed for scores of mobile-phone licenses...
Perhaps we should all just go back into hibernation for a few weeks until some of this iFrenzy subsides.On the other hand, given that iHysteria will only gather greater force in the weeks ahead from its virtual-life-source-namesake-master-the Internet-we might as well sit back and...
FIRST IT WAS Cyren Call Communications Corp. Then, more recently, Frontline Wireless L.L.C. And now, even more recently, Google Inc.The mobile-phone industry, itself an iconic symbol of cutting-edge disruptive technology, suddenly is uncomfortably under siege by a new wave of disruptors that have their...
A collection of wireless industry entrepreneurs urged Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin to build open access into one of the 700 MHz licenses set to be auctioned later this year, saying the agency has an historic opportunity to unlock a new wave of...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our Monday 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. In the coming weeks look for columns from Compete's Miro Kazakoff, Current Analysis' Avi...
Google Inc. is jumping onto the crowded m-commerce field with a wireless version of its Checkout service.Google Checkout, which launched a year ago, is a PayPal-type offering that allows users to make purchases online from partners including Toys "R" Us, RadioShack Corp., Dick's Sporting...
As the 700 MHz auction nears, the intensity over auction rules is heating up. And indeed, the legacy of this Federal Communications Commission could very well ride on the success-or problems-of this auction. Potential bidders are trying to persuade the commission to write...
The Internet is rapidly evolving from a desktop experience into a multi-platform phenomenon available on the go and around the world. Carriers, publishers and marketing firms are just hoping advertising doesn't get lost in translation. The wireless Web remains a nightmarish territory, fraught with...
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards urged the Federal Communications Commission to fashion 700 MHz rules to further the reach of the Internet using an open-access approach advocated by Frontline Wireless L.L.C., consumer groups and Internet giants. "By setting bid and service rules that...
When cold weather began to take hold in the nation's capital a couple years back, Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, attempting to dispense a bit of common-sense wisdom to readers and put in a dig at a consumer culture based on brand names,...
Mozilla Corp. is looking to Joey to help untangle the wireless Web.The Mountain View, Calif.-based developer is toying with a service that allows users of its Firefox browser to store content on a remote server. Firefox users can save pages on the server, which...
If you believe the talk on the street, Google Inc. is eyeing everything wireless from becoming a mobile virtual network operator to building Google-branded handsets. But it's the company's recent work with the Federal Communications Commission that stoked the gossip mill last week.The Internet...
Google Inc. expanded its mobile features, allowing users to access its Calendar offering from wireless phones.The Internet behemoth said mobile users can visit www.calendar.google.com to view upcoming events including date, time and description, and can access both past and upcoming events. The service is...
Funambol plans to push ahead with its open source mobile e-mail strategy this week with an upgraded version of its white-label offering for carriers.The Redwood City, Calif.-based startup is set to unveil Funambol v6, a Java-based application that pushes e-mail to wireless devices from...
This summer is starting to look pretty good.First of all, "The Simpsons Movie" is coming out in July. That's reason enough to get excited. But that's not the only reason to stay conscious, oh no, not by a long shot.Also this summer the iPhone...
