MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Google Inc. quietly snapped up mobile photo-recognition software developer Neven Vision for an undisclosed sum. Neven Vision’s technology automatically extracts information from photos, allowing users to categorize images or search for specific types of pictures. Google plans to use the company’s software...
SAN FRANCISCO—More than 34.6 million people used mobile Internet services in June, according to market research firm Telephia. E-mail and weather information sites proved the most popular among mobile Internet users, followed by sports Web sites, search sites and city directory and map sites....
SAN DIEGO—Hey, it’s all about my life, not your network. That’s the disruptive thinking that Sony Electronics—not Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P., the wireless handset maker—is following in launching a Wi-Fi-only device (no monthly cellular service fees!) for Voice over IP communications, instant messaging...
Commercial telematics, in particular mobile research management, is driving location-based services today, according to ABI Research. But the next big battleground will be to add Web portals to vehicle navigation devices. Following is a roundup of trends to watch in location-based services. The technology...
Digital map developer Navteq announced a product licensing agreement with LandSonar, a predictive traffic supplier. The deal gives Navteq the right to use LandSonar's Predictive Speed product, which estimates trip time and advises routes based on driving speed combined with the continental road network...
BOSTON—The Khronos Group continued to gain steam as high-profile players including Apple Computer Inc., Dell Computer Corp. and Google Inc. joined the association’s effort to develop open standards for mobile phones and computers. Khronos aims to define open standards for the development of dynamic...
Welcome to Hedgehogging. As you know from your own jobs, there is always something happening in the wireless industry. Some of it makes us stop what we're doing to clap, boo or simply question these developments. This column is a round-up of wireless happenings...
Proving to be more than a grand illusion, Junxion Inc.'s wireless Ethernet and Wi-Fi LAN router was on the center stage of Styx's blog as the band told its fans why it needed the green Junxion Box on the road. "What is this thing...
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...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Drivers in 30 cities can check traffic conditions on their handsets through a new offering from Google Inc. The developer upgraded its Google Maps offering for wireless Web surfers, allowing users to choose a desired location from their phone and select the...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Shares of VeriSign Inc. lost ground despite a rebound in the company's mobile content business during the second quarter. The network infrastructure and wireless content company said its Jamster and Jamba businesses generated a combined $74 million during the recent quarter, with...
WASHINGTON—A confluence of legal, technological and political forces could slow or significantly alter mega-merger mania that has raged largely unabated in the wireless and wireline telecom sectors in recent years, with AT&T Inc.'s $67 billion bid for BellSouth Corp. materializing into a grand test...
SUNNYVALE, Calif.—Yahoo Inc. took yet another step onto the wireless playground, inking a deal to preload its Go for Mobile service on "tens of millions" of handsets from Motorola Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The application, which includes Yahoo-branded mobile services...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Shares of VeriSign Inc. lost ground despite a rebound in the company's mobile content business during the second quarter. The network infrastructure and wireless content company said its Jamster and Jamba businesses generated a combined $74 million during the recent quarter, with...
SUNNYVALE, Calif.—Yahoo Inc. took yet another step onto the wireless playground, inking a deal to preload its Go for Mobile service on "tens of millions" of handsets from Motorola Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.The application, which includes Yahoo-branded mobile services including...
The nation's wireless carriers are caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to net neutrality. When net-neutrality proponents make passionate cries for a "free and open" Internet, it's hard to answer with logic and pragmatism-yet that's exactly what wireless carriers...
WASHINGTON-Next month's advanced wireless services auction, anticipated for years due to the infusion of an additional 90 megahertz of spectrum into the U.S. wireless industry, may come to be remembered by who didn't show for the big dance. In the no-surprise category, Cingular Wireless...
The company working to establish a mobile-exclusive Internet domain is hoping to lure customers by extending its initial registration period. DotMobi-also known as mTLD, or mobile Top Level Domain Ltd.-said it will extend the trademark sunrise registration by a month, allowing companies to lay...
Finally, EarthLink Inc. did it. Last Thursday, the company launched its first municipal Wi-Fi network in Anaheim, Calif., offering the city's 328,000 residents, as well as local businesses and visitors "affordable and portable broadband." EarthLink said access to the network costs about $22 per...
LONDON—Yahoo Inc. scored a major wireless win with an agreement to provide mobile Internet services for Hutchison’s 3 Group carriers in Europe and Asia. The 3 Group tapped Yahoo to deliver mobile search, instant messaging and e-mail services as well as to provide the...
Companies looking to monetize surfers on the wireless Web should consider giving stuff away. That was the consensus of the three speakers featured last week in RCR Wireless News' first webinar, "Wireless portals: Who owns the mobile Web user?" While content providers and carriers...
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry continued to press for pre-emption as telecom reform plods along in the Senate. But the industry could be making some headway on universal service provisions that are more favorable to wireless carriers. At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, CTIA President Steve...
WASHINGTON—The wireless industry continued to push for pre-emption, Sprint Nextel Corp. urged inclusion of special-access reform and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, floated a network-neutrality compromise Tuesday as the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on the latest version...
WASHINGTON-EarthLink Inc. is set this week to respond to privacy concerns raised about its bid with Google Inc. to build a municipal Wi-Fi system in San Francisco. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Electronic Frontier...
