Month: August 2010

Vonage has just lowered the barrier to free VOiP calls from your mobile device. By simply downloading an app to your Android or iOS device (which includes iPhone and iPod Touch with iPad support on the way), you can have a voice conversation with any of your Facebook friends, worldwide.

The Vonage Mobile application for Facebook comes from one of the leading providers of high-quality voice and messaging services over broadband networks. After installing the app, a single touch of your screen lets you call up any of your FB friends for free. The service works over Wi-Fi and 3G /4G networks in most countries.

“The Vonage Mobile app for Facebook is a tangible example of our commitment to deliver extraordinary value and a better communications experience for individuals and their social networks, across broadband-enabled devices, around the world,” said Marc Lefar, Chief Executive Officer of Vonage Holdings Corp. “This is just the start. In the future we will expand on this service to include a wide range of integrated voice and messaging services that change the way people communicate.”

There is no need to remember cryptic usernames or phone numbers. The app just taps into your existing Facebook network and displays your friend list. Just touch to talk. Their profile pic is displayed when dialing or calling so that you can identify them. To get started:

• Downloads the app from the iTunes Store, Android Market, the Vonage fan page on Facebook or vonage.com/talkfree.
• Enter your Facebook ID and password into the app (one time only).
• Your Facebook contacts are automatically loaded and are grouped by friends who can be called for free and friends available for instant messaging on Facebook. A Vonage logo will appear next to the names of friends who have downloaded the app.
• Invite additional Facebook friends to get the app so that you can call them.
• Touch a friend’s name from the Call Free list to make a free call anywhere in the world; no need to be online.
• Your phone rings for incoming calls, even if the application is closed.

Given the size and popularity of Facebook and the proliferation of Android and iPhones, this is a pretty big announcement. Not only from the standpoint of being able to make free calls over your data connection, but it opens up many new possibilities. You may not have a problem chatting with someone you know on Facebook, but you also may not be ready to give them your phone number. Phone numbers are also kind of a pain. This eliminates the need for them, letting you call people simply based on their identity. The application is cross-platform, which is always a good thing.

There aren’t many people using the app yet, so go download it and tell us what you think in the comments.

Taking a page from Apple’s playbook, Research In Motion held a media event to promote their new Blackberry Torch 9800 Smartphone, which will run on AT&T’s network. The phone features:

• Multi-touch screen (480×360)
• Slide-out keyboard
• 5 megapixel camera
• 8GB internal memory
• 4GB Flash
• 4GB MicroSD
• Optical trackpad

The Torch will be coming to you via AT&T, Best Buy, Walmart, and RadioShack on August 12th. You can grab one for $199.99 with a two-year agreement. If this all sounds familiar, it should. We just went through the same type of scenario with both the iPhone 4 and the HTC Evo.

According to the recent Nielsen numbers, Blackberry sales have dropped from 39 percent in the fourth quarter to 33 percent in the second quarter. Last year, RIM’s share in the United States was 45 percent. They seem to be making the very changes necessary to keep themselves relevant as many Blackberry customers are feeling left out of the smartphone race. More than half of existing Blackberry users want an iPhone, Android, or other device as their next choice.

The Blackberry Torch takes its name from a company Blackberry acquired last year. Torch Mobile brings technology from their Iris mobile web browser, which lays the foundation for Blackberry OS 6 and brings the Blackberry interface and user experience up to par with its competitors.

BlackBerry 6 features a redesigned interface that seamlessly works with the touch screen and trackpad, includes expanded messaging capabilities with intuitive features to simplify the management of social networking and RSS feeds (Social Feeds), and provides integrated access to the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™), Facebook®, Twitter™, MySpace™ and various instant messaging applications available on the BlackBerry Torch smartphone. Its enhanced multimedia experience rivals the best in the industry and includes a dedicated YouTube app and Podcasts app.

This news comes just days after Blackberry’s conflict with the United Arab Emirates regarding security concerns. Because RIM stores customer data outside of the UAE, they have concerns about being able to monitor personal information. They say this is to protect national security and to allow local authorities to monitor for illegal activity or abuse. Blackberry’s will be banned in the UAE for citizens and visitors beginning Oct 11th. You will still be able to make calls, though.

via AppleInsider

According to a recent Neilsen study, Android sales are rising past the iPhone; 27 percent of U.S. smartphone sales are attributed to Google’s Android, with 23 percent going to Apple’s iPhone. While these numbers show only U.S. sales, Canalys estimates that Android smart phone sales grew 886 percent worldwide during the second quarter of this year. We must also keep in mind that the Nielsen numbers only account for one week of iPhone 4 sales.

It’s all comes down to numbers. While Apple releases a new iPhone every year on one carrier, Android seems to have multiple handsets coming out on every carrier on a monthly basis. Customers thinking about getting an iPhone most likely have to make the harder choice of switching carriers. Those looking for an Android phone simply have to choose one from their current carrier.

Android still has some work to do, though. 71 percent of Android users say their next phone will be another Android device, while 21 percent said they will be switching to iPhone on the next go-round. This pales in comparison to the iPhone, which has 89 percent of users looking forward to the next iPhone release.

Android and iPhone are both in difficult positions. While iPhone’s exclusivity and closed atmosphere has given them the ability to control user experience, it also blocks users from doing whatever they would like with their expensive new handsets. This is why jailbreaking is such a common practice, even among the less tech savvy crowd.

Even though the Library of Congress ruled that jailbreaking is not a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, thus making it a legal practice, Apple is still looking to take action against it. In a bulletin on their support forum, it looks like they’re thinking about bricking iDevices that violate their rules:

“Apple strongly cautions against installing any software that hacks the OS. It is also important to note that unauthorized modification of the iOS is a violation of the Phone end-user license agreement and because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software.”

Because of their openness, the Android platform is also suffering from rampant software piracy. Rather than buy apps from the Marketplace, users can simply download copies of the software and install them on their devices without paying. Just recently, they added a feature that will allow developers to check whether the running copy has been paid for.

As Android enjoys some accelerated growth early in their development, it remains to be seen if they can sustain it. Android will need to slow fragmentation of the OS to provide a more stable, safe, and consistent user experience. They also need to tighten up the Marketplace. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Apple will need to decide whether they will release a little control to keep users happy.

via GigaOM, SFGate

New York Times Co. said in a statement today that they will offer a method to help other publishers deliver content to digital platforms such as Apple’s iPad and iPhone devices. Individual publishers and media that take advantage of the technology will continue to control and own their advertising and subscriptions while New York Times Co. collects licensing and maintenance fees. The new product will be called Press Engine.

“This is part of the multi-faceted move into new technology. They’ve got the content, they’ve got the brainpower. We’ll see if people will pay for this stuff.” — Ed Atorino, analyst at Benchmark Co. in New York

The product will be introduced in the fourth quarter. Among the first to take advantage are The Telegraph Media group, publisher of the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph, and A.H. Belo Corp., the Dallas-based owner of the Dallas Morning News. According to data from the Newspaper Association of America, print advertising sales fell 11 percent in the U.S. in the first quarter. Publishers are in desperate need of a way to replace that revenue and this could be just what the industry needs.

In January, the New York Times will be launching a new online subscription-based model, limiting access to much of their content for paid subscribers only. While they already have a free iPad app, they will also be selling an enhanced Apple iPad application to work alongside it. Release of Press Engine comes after other publishers kept asking about it.

“Over the last year there’s been a particular amount of interest from different clients asking whether we would be willing to license the code of our own New York Times application.” — Christine Topalian, a director of the News Services division at the Times

This platform not only brings revenue in for Times Co., but also extends the possibilities for other companies and shows us one idea for ways to diversify the publishing business. Before today, Times Co. had declined 29 percent this year. This announcement brought a rise of “58 cents, or 6.6 percent, to $9.32, at 12 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.”

via Bloomberg, Adage

The mobile market is constantly exploding. Advances in mobile device technology, and high-speed data connectivity (4G, WiMAX, etc.) are taking your cell phone well beyond a simple device for making calls and texting. This also means that mobile devices are encroaching on other areas. For instance, do you need a fancy GPS device in your car when your mobile can do the same thing? Now, mobile providers want to do away with your plastic credit cards by allowing your smart phone to authorize payments.

AT&T and Verizon Wireless want to bring this technology, often called contactless payments, to the forefront. It’s not new, but it hasn’t caught on on a large scale. This is surprising because this is a technology that many consumers want. As our mobile devices take over more and more facets of our lives, it’s only natural that making payments would become one of them. The major stumbling block comes with adoption. While we as consumers seem to want the technology, we aren’t going to jump on the bandwagon until we know it will work at our favorite shops. On the other side, retailers aren’t going to spend the money to update their systems until there is a large enough base of customers to support them. Looks like a catch-22.

I’d wager that most people will leave their credit cards or wallet at home before they leave their cell phone. On the same note, many people in the black community will probably own a cell phone, but not have access to a credit or debit card at all. This is why we see things like buy-here pay-here and payday loans running rampant in our communities. Prepaid “credit” cards like the Rush Card are another symptom of this situation. Being able to used your phone for payment could be a partial solution.

Another angle here is the growing popularity of location. It’s a double-edge sword in regards to privacy, but could be an excellent way to protect your assets. Your handset would have an RFID chip embedded in it, a short-range radio signal to identify your virtual credit card. This would be combined with a PIN to authorize your purchase and could also integrate with the GPS in your phone to verify your location. Retailers could potentially send data about sales/promotions back to your phone. Imagine a scenario where you are walking around your favorite store and get alerted to nearby deals (who listens to those annoying sales announcements, anyway?). When you see something you like, buying it is as simple as laying your phone down and entering your PIN.

As Fast Company notes, Apple may play a larger part in all this than other phone manufacturers. They have already been researching this technology and have been “very aggressively patenting ideas in the contactless credit card/smart phone space–including rethinking many aspects of the traditional shopping experience.” Hopefully, they don’t end up trying to monopolize or deadlock mobile payments via the patent office.

via Bloomberg, Fast Company

The Slate Group, owned by The Washington Post, is shutting down The Big Money. Launched two years ago and sponsored by American Express and Infiniti, this spin-off was supposed to be a business media site that leveraged Slate’s existing brand and the financial crisis. According to Slate Group editor-in-chief Jacob Weisberg and publisher John Alderman, the site was “not pointed toward profitability on a fast enough timetable.” They went on to say that they “struggled to grow the site’s traffic to carry enough ad inventory to run a profitable business.”

Just a short while ago in May, Weisberg was boasting a 52 percent increase in revenues for the Slate Group during the first quarter. He also mentioned that they were one of the few publishers expanding on web journalism while others were being forced to cut back. This is obviously no longer the case and it’s interesting that such a major move as shutting down one of their properties would come in such a short time after.

Even though The Big Money didn’t make it, Weisberg and Alderman are quick to point out that these problems are centered around The Big Money. The Slate Group is doing well as a whole with a “strong first half” and revenue up 26 percent during the first six months of this year. Other properties like TheRoot.com and ForeignPolicy.com are said to be “doing well.”

The Slate will still be covering business, choosing to redirect The Big Money to a Slate Business page. A note on this landing page greets readers of The Big Money, saying: “Welcome to Slate’s Business and Technology section. The Big Money ceased publication on July 30, but the great business coverage you’ve come to expect from it continues here on Slate. Look below for the newest business and technology stories.”

The Big Money editor Jim Ledbetter is joining Slate as a full-time, staff business writer. Publisher Brendan Monagahan will be a VP of business development, in charge of developing alternative revenue streams and partnerships. Only time will tell if The Big Money was simply mis-handled, or if it’s demise points to deeper issues within The Slate Group.

via Slate to Close ‘The Big Money’