To hear Cyriac Roeding tell it, CBS Mobile started in 2005 as a "department of one." Just two suitcases and three boxes in tow, Roeding left his home in Europe after convincing top executives to let him build a new mobile business out of...
LAS VEGAS-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said during a keynote last week at the CTIA Wireless 2008 event that he opposes Skype Ltd.'s petition to impose open access throughout the cellphone industry, prompting cheers from cellular carriers and criticism from others. "In light...
Amazon.com is making purchases from its Web site as easy as sending a text message. The online retailer announced a new service called Amazon TextBuyIt, which allows users to text an item search term to "AMAZON." In response, they receive a numbered list of...
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said he opposes Skype Ltd.'s petition to impose open access throughout the cellphone industry, prompting cheers from cellular carriers and criticism from others. "In light of the industry's embrace of this more open approach, I think it's premature...
Nickelodeon/MTVN's Kids and Family group is launching three mobile Web sites designed for wireless and personal video devices, one for each of its target demographics.Nickelodeon Mobile (wap.nick.com) will feature content aimed toward young children, with The N (wap.the-n.com) angling for tweens and teens and...
Seems there are nearly as many wireless March Madness applications as there are teams in the men's NCAA basketball tournament.First-round games tipped off this morning, and hoops fans have plenty of ways to track the action -- and their savaged brackets -- on their...
Sprint Nextel Corp. is touting an updated Web browser designed to deliver "a PC-like experience" on mobile phones. But some users aren't impressed.The carrier announced plans to launch Openwave Systems Inc.'s OpenWeb, a browser that transcodes Internet content for the small screens and limited...
A blizzard of impressionsAccuWeather.com said its mobile Web site experienced a record-breaking February, with more than 32.7 million page impressions. The previous record was 31.6 million page impressions, which happened in January. The mobile site also set a new record for daily impressions at...
While Opera Software ASA continues to attract attention with its mobile browsers and a host of startups go directly to consumers with their transcoding technology, InfoGin is quietly making headway by cozying up to carriers.The 8-year-old Israel-based startup notched its first big win in...
Four days after Apple Inc. released its iPhone software development kit (SDK), the company announced that more than 100,000 developers had already downloaded the set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and tools used to create applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.Interest is definitely...
AOL is the latest Internet giant to buy its way onto the online and mobile social networking field.The Time Warner Inc. subsidiary said it will shell out $850 million to acquire Bebo, a U.K.-based outfit that boasts more than 40 million users worldwide. Bebo...
Editor's Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.--NBC has canceled...
Just one year after tapping Yahoo Inc. to provide search for its mobile browsers, Opera Software is going back to Google Inc.The Norwegian developer said the Internet's dominant player will be the default search engine for Opera Mobile and Opera Mini in every market...
Local search provider go2 Media launched a mobile Web site centered on Sunday's Academy Awards.The site, http://oscars.go2.com, targets 18- to 34-year-old consumers with photos and art from nominated films, mobile polls for nominees in major categories and a promise of coverage during the event....
Editor's Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. 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...
Smartphones will come of age as the primary venue for mobile Internet content in the U.S. this year. The proliferation of these devices will reshape the sector and force content companies, operators, and advertisers to retool.Companies in the mobile advertising sector have been busy...
You may have never heard of it, but Google Inc. is behind it. So are AOL, Microsoft Corp., and Yahoo Inc. With that kind of support, OpenID may soon be coming to mobile in a big way.Designed as a standardized platform for online authentication,...
Like Britney Spears, mobile advertising is desperately in need of some monitoring.Market research firms seem to be tripping over themselves to offer the most optimistic projections for wireless ads. The Kelsey Group predicts the U.S. market will grow from $33.2 million last year to...
The opening day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, was all about mobile advertising.Nokia Corp. made the biggest splash with its Media Network, an alliance of more than 70 publishers and operators including Sprint Nextel Corp., Discovery, Hearst and Reuters. The company...
The answer to that old "WAP or app" debate? It might be, both.Ever since the early days of WAP - which, yes, was often crap - media companies and advertisers have struggled with how to approach users on their phones. While wireless Web sites...
Microsoft Corp.'s proposed acquisition of Yahoo Inc. may be centered on Internet search, but the takeover - if consummated - could make huge waves in the world of wireless.The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant offered $44.6 billion in cash and stock for Yahoo, marking a...
YouTube is bringing its entire catalog of video clips to mobile.The Google Inc. subsidiary expanded its mobile Web site, allowing users with 3G phones to access tens of millions of streaming videos on their handsets. The new service also enables YouTube members to...
Disney and ESPN Media Networks have appointed Tim Connolly to the newly created position of VP of mobile distribution.Connolly has extensive experience in the wireless industry, most recently serving as VP of sales and business development at L.M. Ericsson, where he was responsible for...
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...
