Back in June, Brightcove unveiled a new strategy to take its App Cloud development platform open source, and at the same time it introduced a new dual-screen Apple TV feature aimed at growing its business on connected TVs. Today, Brightcove is announcing the very first implementation of that, with Discovery Networks International, which will be using it first in Italy. Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Brightcove, tells TechCrunch that this is a global deal with Discovery, meaning that if all goes well, Discovery could take the features to other markets where it operates in Europe, the U.S. and the rest of the world.The new service will run on iPad and iPhone apps from DMAX Italy, a free-to-air channel operated by Discovery with 20 million subscribers. And it will give users the ability to initiate an action on, say, an iPhone or iPad, and then shift that content directly on to the larger screen of the TV using Apple's AirPlay technology. This makes dual-screen functionality a step beyond companion apps -- now very common in the TV world -- in that it gives users the ability to actually port features and functions from one screen directly to the other. read more..
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
Discovery Networks Is Brightcove’s First Partner For Its Dual-Screen Apple TV Service, Live First In Italy
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Unconditional Clearance-Mobile Payments-Vodafone
A mobile payment joint venture from the UK's biggest carriers, first announced over a year ago, today finally received "unconditional" clearance from European regulators. The move means that now Vodafone, Telefonica's O2 and Everything Everywhere (the JV from T-Mobile and Orange) can proceed developing a cross-carrier mobile payments platform -- not unlike the Isis initiative in the U.S. They say they will be getting the service "up and running as quickly as possible," although no launch dates or other specifics -- including a name -- have been announced. In other words, now the hard work begins.Given that one of the biggest pain points in mobile payments has been lack of interoperability between platforms, this is potentially a big step in helping such services grow: the idea is that with a bigger potential audience to serve, bigger merchants, banks, payment providers, developers and handset makers will be more likely to make the necessary investments in infrastructure themselves. read more..
Friday, 31 August 2012
Aalto University In Finland-Windows Phone-Microsoft-Incubator-Nokia
Next week Nokia and Microsoft are expected to unveil the first handset(s) running on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform, and today comes news about the apps they hope will lure in more users to buy them. AppCampus, an $23 million (€18 million) JV between Microsoft, Nokia and Aalto University in Finland, first announced in May, to foster more app development on the platform, said it has doled out the first $1 million-plus of their budget on 36 developers out of a total of 900 submissions, an average of $30,000 per app, although individual investments over the course of the JV will be between $25,000 and $88,000.Pekka Sivonen, Head of AppCampus, tells me the apps are expected to be coming out starting in October, and will run exclusively on Windows Phone and "other Nokia platforms" for their first six months -- potentially touching some 500 million devices out in the market today. read more..
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Incubator Hitfox-Mobile Games-Startups
Well that was quick or just well timed PR: HitFox Game Ventures, the games distribution incubator that launched last month, has given birth to two new startups already.AppLift, co-founded and managed by Kaya Taner, who was an early employee at HitFox, promises to be an affiliate network that will focus solely on mobile games. App Discovery, also co-founded and run by another HitFox manager, Xavier Rezgui, operates at the consumer end to help mobile gamers intelligently navigate the 100,000 or so games in the iOS App Store.Both startups hatched with a "seven figure" Euro seed investment from HitFox. read more..
Saturday, 4 August 2012
Car Service-Party Buses-Variation-Car Rides-Uber
Uber is still growing its business as a disruptive (sometimes controversial) car service app, but in the meantime it continues to push the envelope on what else it might eventually do with the logistics infrastructure it is also creating. The latest development comes by way of Chicago, where Uber is now laying on busses with DJs and drinks. Yes, it's bus bumping from Uber.Uberpalooza will feature DJs Dante, Bobbylite, Megan Taylor and Andrew Hayden, and is being run to coincide with the Lollapalooza music festival taking place in the Windy City this weekend. Those requesting the service will be charged $50 for 25 minutes or 5 miles -- whichever comes first (so pick your traffic-clogged streets of Chicago carefully). Up to 10 other people can join in on the party bus -- as long as all are over 21. read more..
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Management Service-Management Company-Technology Assets-Deutsche Telecom-Global Telecom
Apigee, the API management company that was most recently spotted powering that new "print to Walgreens" feature in half a dozen or so mobile applications, is now acquiring the technology assets of WAC, aka the Wholesale Applications Community. WAC, an alliance of global telecom companies, like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Deutsche Telecom, China Mobile, Orange, and others (and pegged by TechCrunch writer Jason Kincaid back in 2010 as "a disaster in the making") was intent on building a platform that would allow mobile developers to build an application once, then run it on any carrier, OS or device. The group also developed network API technology, which is another key piece to today's acquisition.WAC itself is now being folded into the GSMA, while its assets and the personnel behind the program (14 or 15 folks) are being acquired by Apigee. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Apigee CEO Chet Kapoor confirms that there are no new investors as a result. read more..
Monday, 16 July 2012
Thorsten Heins-Blackberry
Blackberry's future is the tech debate du jour, with pundits on either side promising either a BB10 renaissance or a slow-motion tailspin. While the jury was still out, we had a few moments to speak with RIM CEO Thorsten Heins about RIM's way forward and where BB10 was going to put the company when it launches. He was unsurprisingly forthright and more than accommodating even when we asked him the questions any BB fan would ask today: Why should I buy a new Blackberry device?TC: In this interview we wanted to see what was in store for the consumer, what RIM is doing to maintain the energy that a lot of the BlackBerry users currently have, especially at work or in academia. What do you see as the best way forward for those folks?Thorsten Heins: What we are doing right now is, if you look at the installed base, specifically in enterprise, corporate and consumers worldwide, there is still a lot of phones running BlackBerry 5, mainly in Asia-Pacific. So we are still working on a program to upgrade the installed base to BlackBerry 7, which from today’s view and perspective still is competitive, and I think an exciting platform. read more..
Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Social Network-Glam
Glam Media is announcing a flurry of new features today centering around Ning, the social network building service that it acquired last year. Collectively, they give some sense of what Ning looks like once it has been integrated into Glam's business and products.Since Glam is primarily an ads business, perhaps the most important change is the fact that Ning creators can now run Glam ads in their community. Previously, if you had a network on Ning and you wanted advertising, you were mostly on your own. (In fact, Glam CEO Samir Arora says there were already two Ning networks had decided on their own to join Glam's advertising program.) Now, assuming you fit into one of the company's ad verticals, you can start monetizing in a more serious way, by running premium advertising from the network. read more..
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Incubator Program-Nokia
Nokia may still be fighting some pretty major fires on its burning platform, but it's also building some bridges -- namely the Nokia Bridge incubator program -- to help those running from the flames, with financing of up to €150,000 ($185,000) to pursue new startups, before they've even paid a visit to VCs and angel investors.The activities in Nokia Bridge are a small but encouraging counterpoint to the fairly-constant, grim updates on the state of the Finnish mobile company, once the world's biggest by a long shot, and now under the gun with falling handset sales and dwindling cash reserves as it struggles to compete against the Apple/Android smartphone juggernaut. It's understood that there are already some 100 companies in the incubator -- dozens in the UK alone -- although Nokia has not published a list of them anywhere. Jolla, the startup formed by ex-Nokia execs that will try to give MeeGo phones another shot, is one of them. read more..
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Windows Phone-Microsoft
The past few years haven't been kind to Microsoft. (There's no need to walk down memory lane. We all know what's happened.) But somehow that's all changed in the past few days. Surface and Windows Phone 8, along with Windows 8 and Xbox prove there's still some fight left in the old dog. It's a bit premature to say that the company is back and that the decades long string of mediocrity coming out of Redmond is over but the company is clearly focused and we haven't seen that Microsoft in a long, long time. read more..
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Mobile Advertising-Facebookfacebook-Mobile Audience-Credit Cards-Advertisers
Facebook just made several changes to its self-serve ad options. The big one: That advertisers can now buy mobile-only news feed Sponsored Stories -- potentially huge for app developers looking to buy installs.This could be a key step for Facebook to monetize its massive mobile audience in a significant way — a constant topic among skeptics in the run-up to the company's IPO. Facebook was already moving into mobile advertising, but this new option should be especially attractive to advertisers who want to reach a mobile-only audience. read more..
Saturday, 26 May 2012
Errands-Exec
Exec, a mobile app that instantly gets people to do your errands, has raised $3.3 million, according to an SEC filing. The company's co-founder Justin Kan, who is also behind Justin.tv, Twitch.tv and SocialCam, says he's not ready to disclose investors yet, except to say that there are around 25 different individuals in the round. The filing only shows Exec's team on it, so it's hard to tell who the firms or angels in the round are. What's Exec? It's kind of comparable to TaskRabbit, because you can call on people to run your errands from an app. But Exec doesn't require a bidding process and it calls up 'Execs,' or people to do your tasks, instantaneously. It also has a flat rate of $25 an hour. Exec covers all sorts of errands -- deliveries, chores, cleaning, even art. One 'Exec,' who cleaned my house once, has also coached YC founders on their pitches for Demo Day. Seriously."This money is for building out the San Francisco Bay Area market," Kan said. read more..
Thursday, 24 May 2012
Patent Infringement Case-Deliberations-Bated Breath-Oracle
Just over a week ago, the jury began deliberations on the ongoing patent infringement case between Google and Oracle. After waiting in the wings, with bated breath, the verdict is finally in, as Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court of Northern California dismissed the jury this afternoon after a unanimous decision that ruled in favor of Google's mobile OS -- declaring that Android did not in fact infringe on the Oracle patents in question. The decision follows an opposing verdict earlier this month, in which the jury in the long-running infringement case found that certain components of Android APIs had too close of a resemblance to code used in Oracle's Java programming tools. However, the jury ended up splitting on the notion of whether or not Google could in fact claim fair use in its defense (which could have then led to a mistrial.) read more..
Social Networks
We spend more and more time on social networks, but sometimes it can feel like work. I mean, scrolling through your news feed isn't work work, but it's not quite as easy as vegging out on your couch and watching TV.That's where a new startup called Stevie comes in, with a website launching today at Disrupt, along with mobile apps that function as remote controls. Stevie looks at content shared in your social network feeds and elsewhere on the Web, and it assembles that content into TV shows that you can watch, shows with names like The Comedy Strip, Music Non-Stop, and Celeb TV. Naturally, the shows incorporate video content that your friends have shared, but they also include things like Facebook status updates, tweets, shared headlines, and birthdays, running mostly as tickers under the video. Essentially, it's a way to watch Facebook and Twitter on your TV. read more..
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Fitness Calculators-Health And Fitness-Mapmyfitness-Google Maps
MapMyFitness is a veteran of the online health and fitness space, with the first iteration of its website appearing back in the summer of 2005. Since then, the startup has developed a suite of fitness-oriented websites (like MapMyRUN.com, MapMyRIDE.com, MapMyWALK.com, et al) to let users track and store their running, cycling, walking and hiking endeavors, along with accessing a database of international routes, fitness calculators, events listings and more. MapMyFitness has long had a solid community of committed users, but it's seen a significant bump in adoption of late, this week passing 9 million registered users.Building on this uptick in adoption, MapMyFitness is today launching one of the most significant updates to its platform since its rebranding back in 2007. The startup has completely rebuilt its portfolio of websites, adding a number of new features, with the main attraction being a new service called "Courses," which includes "one of the most advanced integrations of Google Maps’ API to date," says CEO Richard Jalichandra. read more..
Saturday, 19 May 2012
Gamestop
GameStop is hurting. Same store sales fell 5%-11% and revenue was down 17% to $2 billion. Profit fell to $72.5 million. Arguably, those are still huge numbers and presumably a new console refresh should push the company out of the doldrums. But what the company has just launched - a new MVNO called GameStop Mobile - is almost inexplicable.GameStop Mobile is, in short, an unlimited data and voice offering for $55 a month (down to $20 a month for pay-as-you-go plans.) Gamestop is just selling SIM cards and service and is running on AT&T's network with some notable dead spots. read more..
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Mobile Payment Service-Square Of Europe-Mobile Payments-Free Readers
With Square yet to reveal when or where it might offer its mobile payment service in Europe, and PayPal apparently still only talking with would-be partners, the door is wide open for more local players to jump in and pick up some market share. Sweden's iZettle, which often gets compared to Square, is now doing just that: today it is launching its iOS, dongle-based mobile payment service to the UK, four months after its pan-nordic live launch, and as it is preparing to launch an Android version of its product later this year.iZettle kicking off its service by giving away 3,000 card readers to small businesses and sole traders in the country as part of its invitation-only beta, which it is running in cooperation with MasterCard, American Express and Diners Club. In its still brief life, it has seen some decent traction in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, where it now has 50,000 active merchants on its network. read more..
Monday, 30 April 2012
Music Festival-Conference-Startups
MLOVE is a European mobile conference with a difference. If a mobile conference was crossed with TED and a music festival, that's vaguely like MLove. Its big annual event is in an old East German castle 200 miles outside of Berlin. Yes, it's as exotic as it sounds. But this week it took the plunge and brought its special atmosphere to Monterey.Amid the excellent speeches about the future of mobile, and the future generally, organiser Harald Neidhardt throws together a diverse range of speakers, from Grammy Award winning Musician Chamillionaire to "CameraGirl", who runs tech at Burning Man. As one delegate, Dr. Robert Daubner of billiger, put it to me, "mobile is poised to disrupt the world." Never were truer words spoken...Amid the high concept presentations from the likes of the Singularity University and others were a number of startup pitches from U.S.-based startups. Here's a run-down on those: read more..
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Unfounded Rumors-Liquidmetal-Lte Iphone-Rumor Mill-Iphone 5
After a period of unnerving quietness, the Apple rumor mill is back up and running at full capacity producing two somewhat credible rumors over the last 24 hours. The next iPhone will not be announced until October if the latest rumors are believed. A separate rumor is just so wild that it might be true: The iPhone 5, or whatever it's to be called, will be made of LiquidMetal, which will allow for a unique unibody construction. But again, these are just unfounded rumors. Please proceed with caution. read more..
Monday, 16 April 2012
Consecutive Quarter-Mobile Platform
Google’s stock declined by over 4% yesterday. Many have put this down to the company’s decision to create a non-voting class of stock as part of a control-retention exercise as the founders sell shares. But more is going on here.In the same week Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion as part of its efforts to be more relevant on the growing mobile platform, Google, for the second consecutive quarter, suffered a decline in “Cost Per Click” rates that is in large part attributable to the shift in traffic from the desktop/laptop to the mobile platform. read more..