Jack Gold is the founder and principal analyst at IT analyst firm J.Gold Associates. RIM has been feeling the heat in the smartphone business, along with everyone else who is not iPhone or Android powered. Indeed, Android has even been pressuring Apple’s success in the marketplace with new and attractive smartphones from HTC, Motorola, Samsung and others. And BlackBerry has fallen behind in compelling features and functions, and particularly its user experience. So does that mean BlackBerry will follow the same path as Windows Mobile and Symbian, becoming a has-been in the market as many have predicted? Maybe not
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RIM’s secret plan to get BlackBerry out of the smartphone jam
We’ve already seen a couple screenshots of the iPod touch FaceTime system from BGR but we’ve found some more details about how it will exactly work. Boy Genius? showed ?that FaceTime on these non-iPhone devices would be based on email addresses.
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In-depth FaceTime for iPod touch details
ProSkat 1.9 Category: Games Price: $4.99, Version: 1.8 -> 1.9 ( iTunes ) Description: ProSkat – the game for professionals, and everyone who would like to be one! This version of skat – which has long been available on other platforms – is finally available as an iPhone Application, and it puts the rest in the shade. Play feels live and your opponents seem real. This application is suitable for beginners, experienced skat players and professionals alike
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Update: ProSkat (Games)
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The last few months have been full of news for digital comics, with ComiXology getting most of the attention for the iPad applications it created for Marvel and DC Comics . Now another startup, Graphic.ly , is launching its own reader for Windows 7. Graphic.ly already offered apps on Windows and also using Adobe’s Air technology (so it could run on non-Windows computers). But chief executive Micah Baldwin said the previous Windows versions were early tests, and that today is the official launch of the polished product. Baldwin also emphasized that Graphic.ly wants to reach a broad audience beyond Apple fans, rather than saying, “Unless you’re cool enough to buy an Apple product, you’re not cool enough to buy a comic book.” Not that the Boulder, Colo. startup is betting on Apple’s failure — it has an iPhone app, and plans to release an iPad app as well. However, Baldwin said that the company is focusing its energy on other platforms, because “comics should be read by anyone, anywhere.” Hence the Windows 7 app, which should also work on forthcoming Windows tablet computers.
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Graphic.ly aims its digital comics reader beyond the iPad
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While not exactly a competitor to the hot mobile payment startup Square , Google released last week a mobile payment option of its own for merchants and Android phone users. The company has developed the new Android Payment extension which merchants can use to allow Android users to pay for items with Google Checkout, reports ReadWriteWeb . Merchants first need to create a Google Checkout merchant account , and then use the Gadget Wizard to embed the web store template on their website (they can also create a free Google Sites page just for this purpose). Then, after filling in their products in the Gadget’s spreadsheet, they need to install the Android Payment Extension for the Chrome web browser. When a customer decides on what to buy, the merchant creates a cart on their own computer and selects the green “Checkout with Android” button — at which point a QR code (a two-dimensional bar code) is generated for the purchase. The customer then simply scans the code with their Android phone, and is directed to a checkout page to complete the purchase on their own. It certainly doesn’t sound as dead-simple as Square’s checkout method — which entails customers swiping their credit card on a retailer’s iPhone or Android device with Square’s tiny card reader, and then going through a quick signing process.
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Google offers its own spin on mobile payments for Android users
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Section: Web , Online Music/Video We’ve known it was coming eventually, and it’s finally arrived.? Hulu has announced it’s upcoming Hulu Plus subscription service.? The service will cost $10 a month, and will be an add-on to the service Hulu already supplies, effectively making Hulu a freemium service. That $10 a month will net you streaming to devices including iPhones, iPads.? Other platforms that will support the service include Samsung Internet-connected TVs or Blur-Ray players, with support for PlayStation 3 coming soon, Sony and Vizio TVs and Blu-Ray players coming in the fall and Xbox 360 support coming in 2011.? In terms of content, Hulu Plus will offer 720p streaming for video.? Some shows will have the “season ticket” option, meaning you will be able to watch all shows in the current season for popular shows like House and Glee.? Hulu Plus will also offer full series run for some shows, both current and classic.? That includes full runs of shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Law & Order: SVU and Grey’s Anatomy. The service launches sometime in July, and Hulu is currently taking email addresses for a “Hulu Plus Preview.”? This is huge, and could potentially lead many to many canceling their cable subscriptions.? All Hulu would be missing is sports, which, provided you have an ISP that supports it, you could find on ESPN 3 that’s coming to the Xbox 360 soon, or if you only want Baseball, there’s MLB.tv that can stream to a number of boxes including the PS3 and Boxee Box.? With so many services available why pay so much money for cable when Hulu Plus in addition to services like Netflix would work just as well for less money? Read [ Hulu ] Full Story ? | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell .
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Hulu finally announces subscription service: Hulu Plus
We are delighted to announce that Omar Hamoui, Google’s new vice president of mobile ads, will be sharing his views on the future of mobile advertising in a fireside chat at VentureBeat’s MobileBeat 2010 conference next month. The theme: “The Year of the Superphones.” Few in the industry are more qualified to sketch out their vision of the industry. As the founder of Admob, Hamoui has walked the walk
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MobileBeat 2010: Google’s Omar Hamoui to speak on the next wave of mobile advertising innovation
Coca-Cola’s digital marketing chief said the company was seeing “phenomenal” results from its advertising campaign on Twitter. In a promising review of the microblogging network’s nascent advertising program, Carol Kruse, a top executive at the beverage company, said that its initial Promoted Tweet ad received 86 million impressions in its first 24 hours and drew an engagement rate of 6 percent, compared to the typical 0.02 percent clickthrough rate that mosts ads see. Coke was also the second company behind Disney to buy a Promoted Trend ad (pictured right), which is a sponsored space below the network’s top 10 trending topics that links to a search results page. “The amount of impressions in such a short period of time around our whole World Cup campaign, to me it was a phenomenal time,” Kruse, the company’s vice president for global interactive marketing, told the Financial Times . “It made this emotional connection at the time, it was great.” She added that the campaign wasn’t expensive compared to other types of online advertising.
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Coke boasts “phenomenal” engagement from Twitter ads
The E3 video game trade show ended today after five days of events that drew more than 45,000 attendees. The show blends the traditional marketing of “booth babes” and “booth dudes” targeting young gamers as well as the nouveau style of marketing that Microsoft used with its Cirque du Soleil performance in the introduction of the Microsoft Kinect motion control system
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From Cirque to booth babes: Our photo gallery of marketing games at E3
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Sony said it will sell its motion-sensing Move controller for $49.99, a low mass-market price that could kickstart the company’s attempt to take games to the next level. The company will also sell its PlayStation Eye camera, which is used with the Move, for $29. Bundled with a game, the Move and Eye together will cost $99. And bundled with a PlayStation 3, it will sell for $399. The Move will go in on sale in North America on Sept
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Sony to sell Move motion-sensing wand for $49.99