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Google Inc.’s Voice calling application has won approval to be on the iPhone after more than a year of haggling with Apple Inc.
The breakthrough announced Tuesday resolves a stand-off that triggered a Federal Communications Commission inquiry into whether Apple and AT&T Inc., the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. service provider, were trying to stifle competition by keeping the app off the popular device. Get the full story »
Google Inc. is taking another stab at designing a game-changing mobile phone, this time by including a built-in payment system that could eventually enable the devices to replace credit cards. The new phone got a brief preview Monday when Google CEO Eric Schmidt took the stage to kick off the Web 2.0 summit, a technology conference held annually in San Francisco.
Schmidt confirmed that Google has been working on a sophisticated new computer chip and an upgrade of its Android mobile operating system that will include a payment processing tool. He showed off the new phone with the device’s name and manufacturer concealed. Get the full story »
Mobile phone companies Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc and T-Mobile USA are poised to announce plans for a venture offering mobile payments services, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.
Discover Financial Services and Barclays will also announce they are participating in the joint venture, which will allow consumers to pay for purchases with their cellphones, the people said. Get the full story »
Motorola will separate into two publicly traded companies in January 2011, co-Chief Executive Greg Brown said Monday.
The Schaumburg-based company had said it was targeting the first quarter of next year for the split. Monday’s announcement, made at a financial analysts’ meeting in New York, marked the first time the company specified a timeframe in the first quarter. Get the full story »
A TV display at a Best Buy. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
The Pay TV industry has heatedly debated this fall whether consumers are dropping their cable or other TV subscriptions to watch more TV content online. A new study by Nielsen, commissioned by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, argues that most people who watch at least some content from the Web on their TV sets are “cord keepers” rather than “cord cutters.”
The study, called “Life is a Stream,” surveyed 769 people 18-49, and used eight focus groups to explore the viewing habits of consumers who watch at least some TV shows and movies from the Internet on their TV sets. That group makes up about 11 percent of the U.S. population, according to the study’s authors.
One key finding of the survey, which will be unveiled this week: 84 percent of such viewers reported that they are watching the same amount, or more, regularly scheduled TV since they started streaming or downloading content to watch on their TV set. Importantly for TV distributors, 92 percent of these entertainment enthusiasts subscribe to a pay TV service, with only 3 percent reporting plans to give up their subscription. Get the full story »
Motorola Mobility, the division of Motorola Inc. that makes mobile devices and television set-top boxes, has countersued Microsoft Corp. over patent infringement. Get the full story »
A suit filed Tuesday in federal court alleges that a Naperville marketing firm has been spamming cell phone users with text messages in an attempt to sell magazine subscriptions for the publishers of US Weekly, Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal.
The suit claims that the unsolicited text messages not only represent “an especially pernicious form of marketing” but also are in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which bars companies from making unsolicited calls to cell phones. Get the full story »
RIM plans to price the PlayBook tablet at less than $500. (AP)
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, a late entrant in the tablet computer market, will take on Apple’s iPad with competitive pricing of its PlayBook.
RIM, which said it will sell the PlayBook for less than $500, is confident the 7-inch tablet would help sustain “fast sales growth,” said RIM Co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie.
RIM’s Nasdaq-listed shares jumped more than 6 percent on Wednesday to as high as $58.72, their highest since June.
Get the full story »
AT&T on Tuesday cut the price of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Torch in half, down to $99.99.
The cut comes about three months after the smart phone landed on AT&T store shelves and amid intense price competition from Web sites such as Wirefly.com, which is offering the Torch for $29.99, and Amazon.com, which is selling the smart phone for 1 cent.
Smartphones running Microsoft Corp.’s new software are now available for AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA customers. Get the full story »
If you use Facebook to “check in” to your favorite restaurants or shops, you can now expect to see rewards and discounts from companies looking to drum up business and lure in loyal customers.
Facebook is looking to bridge online advertising with people’s offline behavior as it announced a service called “Deals.” It’s an extension of Places, the check-in feature the company unveiled this year. Rising with the explosive growth of smart phones, services based on people’s location help them find coupons, earn quirky merit badges or simply share with friends where they are. Get the full story »
Google is suing the U.S. government for excluding its products from being considered for a five-year contract worth about $59 million to upgrade the Department of the Interior’s email system.
In a complaint filed on Friday, Google said the government abused its discretion and acted in a manner that was “arbitrary and capricious” by only considering sales proposals with email technology based on Microsoft Corp technology. Get the full story »
Apple says the elusive white iPhone 4 will remain out of reach until spring.
Apple Inc.’s “Apple Store” iPhone app lets people reserve products to pick up at local Apple stores. On Tuesday, bloggers posted screen shots of the app appearing to offer the option to reserve a white iPhone 4. By late afternoon, that option was no longer available. Get the full story »
Shares of Tellabs were down more than 14 percent in afternoon trading Tuesday after the communications equipment maker reported a strong gain in third-quarter profit but its fourth-quarter projections worried investors.
Naperville-based Tellabs said it earned $57 million, or 15 cents a share, in the third quarter, compared with $29 million, or 7 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenues during the quarter rose 10 percent to $429 million. Get the full story »
