The iPad apparently isn’t about revolutionizing computing, it’s all about allowing new apps to revolutionize they way we use the iPad. At least that’s what a new app development fund, called AppFund, believes is the real draw of the iPad. AppFund was created by CNET co-founder Kevin Wendle and MusicNation co-founder Daniel Klaus with the goal of seeding development costs for app developers looking to launch new iPad and other tablet-based apps.
The AppFund will invest anywhere between $5,000 and $500,000 to help get iPad apps off the ground. The more complex the app, the more money AppFund will throw its way. AppFund has millions of dollars sitting in its coffers, just waiting to be doled out to eager developers with a great new iPad app idea. Developers are being asked to submit app proposals as soon as possible, in preparation for the launch of the iPad in mid-2010.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an investment fund created solely to jump-start app development in the mobile space. Previous funds have done a great job of nurturing interesting app ideas into full-blown, marketable apps. With a fund dedicated to iPad and tablet app development, we might very well see the tablet space take off in 2010 and 2011.
China and Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s relationship has been on the ropes since Google uncovered a Chinese hacking initiative that sought emails of Chinese dissidents, and it seems Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is expecting the worst. Motorola has announced that it will offer the Baidu search engine as an alternative to the default Google search engine on Android-powered Motorola smartphones in China. Baidu is China’s largest search engine, and Google’s top rival in the Chinese market. The move will give Motorola a viable search alternative for its Android phones, should Google decide to completely pull out of the China.
If Google does decide to leave the Chinese market to fend for its censored-self, it could hurt Motorola’s chances to make a big push with Android phones in China. Would you want to use a smartphone that’s powered by an operating system made by the search engine that just ceased all operations in your home country? Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Contacts – they’d all be gone. Motorola isn’t saying it explicitly, but it seems Motorola is hedging their bets and hoping that offering an alternative to Google Search will be enough to attract customers to its Chinese Android offerings.
No word yet on how this announcement will affect the delay of two Motorola Android phones intended for China Unicom.
One little footnote in T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) myTouch 3G Fender edition announcement that we missed was the inclusion of a music sync solution from doubleTwist. Well, it sounds like as of tomorrow, this app will come preloaded on some other Android devices from T-Mobile (like the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) cliq, Samsung Behold II, G1, and of course the Nexus One). doubleTwist makes a syncronization app for desktop computers that helps a number of mobile platforms stay hooked up with music, photos, movies (converted as needed), and even buy MP3s over Amazon. Basically, it’s iTunes, only not strangled by an iron, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)-shaped fist. I would bemoan the lack of PIM syncing for contacts and calendar, but it’s mostly managed over-the-air by Google (NSDQ: GOOG) anyway. The Amazon MP3 store apparently won’t make it into the T-Mobile-branded version for reasons yet unknown (maybe waiting on their own service, like VCast, or working with a different partner?). One way or the other, we’ll find out tomorrow!
It’s good to see wireless carriers, like T-Mobile (NYSE: DT), pitching in to help with recovery efforts in times of need. T-Mobile has just announced that they will waive international long distance calling charges for any T-Mobile customer trying to get in contact with people in Haiti, where a recent earthquake has wreaked havoc on much of the island population. T-Mobile says that all calls to Haiti from January 12 to January 31, 2010 will not be charged for international long distance. And, for any T-Mobile customers in Haiti, T-Mobile will allow them to roam on Haiti’s Voila and Digicel networks for free. The charges will be removed from customers’ bills as needed.
T-Mobile is also assisting with restoration efforts in Haiti by pledging to donate mobile phones and power generators to help bolster wireless communications infrastructure in Haiti as the country pushes ahead with humanitarian and restoration efforts. “Our company and our employees care deeply for our customers, and we know that many customers have been directly impacted by the disaster in Haiti,” said Robert Dotson, president and CEO, T-Mobile USA. “While our thoughts go out to those in Haiti who are suffering so greatly at this time, our promise is to help people connect with those who matter most. I can think of no better time to demonstrate this commitment.”
You can also help with Haiti relief efforts, dear reader. T-Mobile customers can simply text “HAITI” to “90999″ to donate $10 to the Red Cross to help with their aid work in Haiti. The donation will be charged to your monthly T-Mobile bill.
Things are bad in Haiti, but help is coming from a group of independent iPhone developers who are banding together to donate app sales to help relief efforts. The devs will be giving revenue from their iPhone apps to charities that are working to help relief efforts on the ground in Haiti. It’s called the Indie Relief project.
The charity project will launch on January 20. Participating devs are pledging to donate revenue from their apps (either all their apps or just a portion their app portfolio) to charities of their choice. The sales will go toward Haitian relief efforts currently underway on the earthquake-torn island nation.
Any iPhone devs interested in donating a day’s worth of sales to this noble cause should go here, or email Justin here.
MovieTickets.com, together with the folks at Mobiqa have announced a strategic partnership. The new arrangement will pave the way for a new paperless mobile ticketing pilot program.
The short of it? During the pilot program, users of MovieTickets.com can purchase their tickets on the website, and have a bar code sent direct to their mobile device as an SMS, MMS or email WAP link. The bar code will for all intents and purposes replace a physical movie ticket. Just show up, pull up the barcode, let the attendant scan the code… and you’re in!
Unfortunately the pilot program is running in Chicago area Classic Cinema theaters only, but if successful (I see no reason why it wouldn’t be), I’m sure we’ll see more applications of the paperless mobile ticketing system the near future. Mobiqa already offers mobile movie ticketing in Europe and Australasia.
I love to see this kind of stuff. Good on MovieTickets.com and Mobiqa… and best of luck to them during the pilot program.
Wow, this is a solid partnership right here. Seesmic is a twitter client available for Android and BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), with a long history in desktop apps. Ping.fm is what you might call a meta-sharing service, which allows you post status updates, pictures, bookmarks, and blog entries to multiple social networks in one go. Mix the two together, and you’ve got a whole lot of mobile social networking. Seesmic is still relatively new to the mobile app side of things, but this kind of acquisition could give them the boost they need to duke it out with established players. As a dedicated twitter client, this is a great way for Seesmic to spread its tendrils into the endless online networks available. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the BlackBerry app evolves in the next couple of months, and could very well replace UberTwitter as my client of choice.
Voice recognition giant Nuance Communications has just picked up a pretty big company in the transcription sector: Spinvox. Among other things, Spinvox runs a voicemail service that translates voicemail into text and sends it to you as an e-mail. Nuance’s involvement in mobile is wide-spanning, but the latest from them has been a pair of iPhoneapps. Overall, this sounds like a mutually beneficial partnership in that Nuance’s seniority can bring a lot of expertise to existing Spinvox customers, and Spinvox’s existing carrier relationships could be useful to Nuance, who has spent most of their time with handset manufacturers. Spinvox got in some hot water with privacy advocates over the summer for rumours that they actually outsource the transcription process to South Africa, but maybe that situation will change now that they’re under new management. The acquistion cost Nuance $102.5 million, broken up into $66 million cash and $36.5 million in shares.
Google’s recent acquisition of mobile ad network AdMob for $750 million is a really big deal for the Moutain View, CA-based search engine. Aside from the cost of the buy-out, the deal will give Google (NSDQ: GOOG) unprecedented influence in the mobile space. So much influence, in fact, that the Federal Trade Commission has asked Google for yet more information regarding the AdMob acquisition. The deal also has two consumer groups crying foul and claiming that Google’s AdMob purchase violates anti-trust laws.
Google has confirmed that they have received a second request for information from the FTC. The latest request apparently “may entail tortuous excavation of databases” that will take a lot of time and effort to satisfy. Google says that complying with the FTC’s wishes will delay the finalization of the AdMob deal until late 2010. Still, Google remains “confident that the FTC will conclude that the rapidly growing mobile advertising space will remain highly competitive after this deal closes.”
To make matters worse, consumer advocate groups Consumer Watchdog and the Center For Digital Democracy have petitioned the FTC to stop Google from bringing AdMob into its star-studded cadre of tech companies. The two groups argue, in their letter to the FTC, that the Google-AdMob deal will hurt competition in the mobile advertising market. AdMob would give Google control over 24% of the mobile ad space, with its closest competitors wielding no more than 18% market share. The deal would end up giving Google a concerning amount of mobile ad market share.
To make matters all the more concerning, the mobile ad space is still growing. As consumers increasing adopt smartphones, mobile applications, and mobile web surfing, the mobile advertising market will become increasingly more lucrative. If Google manages to nab one of the industry’s biggest ad networks, they’d be in good position to take over the mobile ads much like they did with online ads after their acquisition of DoubleClick in 2007 for $3.1 billion.
Check out the two consumer groups’ joint letter to the FTC below:
It’s Christmas Eve and you know what that means. That’s right, Santa Claus is already busy straddling the international date line in preparation for his yearly flight. It apparently also has the folks at NORAD a bit nervous. So nervous, in fact, that they’re tracking the His Redness’s flight around the world. I’d be nervous too if a sizable cherub of a man were flying around our sovereign airspace, dressed to the nines in red velvet. Who knows, he might even have weapons of mass destruction hidden in his big bag of gifts.
This little poem should explain the situation and help put your mind at ease:
‘Tis the night before Christmas
And all around the planet
Santa Claus is flying his sleigh, powered by rocket
The folks at NORAD
In their holiday cheer
Thought it prudent to track Santa and his red beard
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is helping, in their own little way
By giving cellphone users a map to track his sleigh
Okay, so I’m not a poet, but you should know that Google has teamed up with NORAD to provide real-time tracking of the Big Guy to anyone with Google Maps installed on their mobile phone. Simply fire up your Google Maps app and search for “santa.”
The iPad apparently isn’t about revolutionizing computing, it’s all about allowing new apps to revolutionize they way we use the iPad. At least that’s what a new app development fund, called AppFund, believes is the real draw of the iPad. AppFund was created by CNET co-founder Kevin Wendle and MusicNation co-founder Daniel Klaus with the goal of seeding development costs for app developers looking to launch new iPad and other tablet-based apps.
China and Google (
It’s good to see wireless carriers, like T-Mobile (
Things are bad in Haiti, but help is coming from a group of independent iPhone developers who are banding together to donate app sales to help relief efforts. The devs will be giving revenue from their iPhone apps to charities that are working to help relief efforts on the ground in Haiti. It’s called the Indie Relief project.
Wow, this is a solid partnership right here. 
Google’s 
