Author: Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Multitasking, the feature that has been the absolute top of every iPhone user’s want list –which, by proxy became a major marketing point for both Android and webOS — has made its way to iPhone OS 4.

“We figured out how to implement multitasking for third party apps and avoid those things [battery life and lag]. So that’s what took so long,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs this morning.

While it’s not actually full background processing, Apple has devised a way to reproduce the feeling. The company provided 7 APIs to developers which constitute the always-on services that apps can communicate with. These include: background audio, VoIP, Background Location, push notifications, local notifications, task completion, and fast app switching.

With these 7 services in place, users can now run music apps like Pandora in the background, they can run location-aware apps in the background, or can run VoIP apps. With a double-click of the home button, the user can pull out of the app he’s currently in and go to a list of running tasks. If you back out of a game to check your email or answer a Skype call, the game can then pick up and resume where you left off.

We’ll follow up with more on the iPhone OS 4 update as it arrives.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

“The first day we sold 300,000 iPads, and I want to update you — as of today we’ve sold about 450,000,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs at today’s iPhone 4 OS presentation.

The first day sales numbers were about average for Apple when compared to all of the company’s prior mobile device launches, and included all of the units pre-ordered between March 12 and April 3 (22 days). In the 4 days that have followed the device’s launch, a further 150,000 iPads have sold.

This means a rough average for Apple is 17,307 iPads per day since pre-ordering began.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Windows Mobile was never just a consumer product; it was also a significant player in handheld terminals, in-vehicle systems, and ruggedized consoles for business and industry.

But that whole branch of business-oriented Windows Mobile devices used to be overseen by Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business group (MCB), the same group responsible for Windows Mobile-powered consumer devices, despite the fact that they were very different.

Yesterday, David Wurster, senior product manager for Windows Embedded, announced that things will no longer be run that way. Now, all of the ruggedized and industry-specific device development will be the responsibility of the Windows Embedded Business group, regardless of their operating system (WinCE, WinMo.)

This means that consumer mobile products is finally its own division.

“We decided to make this move for a variety of reasons,” Wurster said. “First, Windows Embedded’s strength and experience in building software for specialized devices make WEB the ideal group to lead the handheld terminal and ruggedized device space. Second, with the transition of support to WEB, Microsoft gives the handheld terminal and ruggedized device products a holistic roadmap across both platforms and into the future. MCB will continue to focus on the mobile phone needs of customers with Windows Phones.”

Windows Embedded is expecting a new release based on Windows Mobile 6.5 optimized for handheld terminals and ruggedized devices, as well as a full roadmap with technologies from Windows Phone 7 and Windows Embedded Compact 7 for this market.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Popular third party mobile Web browser Skyfire posted an announcement last week that it would be opening up alpha testing for its forthcoming Webkit-based Android browser. Within one hour of making the announcement, over 3,000 people contacted Skyfire to get in on the test. The alpha team, unfortunately, is only going to be 30 testers.

So today, Skyfire’s Jeff Glueck addressed the undoubtedly huge interest swelling around the new Skyfire product, and talked about why Android development has superseded development on the BlackBerry platform.

“We decided to place Android development ahead of Blackberry a few months ago,” Glueck said. “We see Android as a fast-rising ecosystem, with a rich, totally open developer environment, a healthy app market and a healthy advertising and search ecosystem. The Android OS has a tremendous amount of interest from handset makers and carriers, and also has a strong need for making the explosion of video more network optimized (Skyfire’s wheelhouse).”

By comparison, BlackBerry’s developer environment is weak.

“The APIs are fragmented and inconsistent, and the Java virtual machine Blackberry requires is not efficient,” Glueck remarked. “While Blackberry users are desperate for a better browser – we know, and we hear them – we only want to bring out something that meets our high standards and is truly great.”

Besides, Research in Motion has been working on improving BlackBerry’s browser since it acquired Torch Mobile in late 2009. When BlackBerry OS 6.0 comes out later this year, it is expected to have a new Webkit browser that is a result of this acquisition. At Mobile World Congress this year, RIM showed off an early version of this new browser that supports HTML5, CSS3, DOM L3, and server-side assistance for HTML and text which helps it score 100/100 on the famous Acid3 browser compliance test. It looks extremely promising.

“We understand it will be a long way from able to handle native Flash 10.1 and similar rich media plug-ins, and we think we can build on that webkit engine and add cloud-based new features around it,” Glueck said. So it looks like Skyfire is waiting to see just how improved the new BlackBerry browser is going to be before it jumps back into development on Skyfire for BlackBerry.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

In March, the Windows team announced the upcoming release of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2, but did not set a date of availability.

At the time, Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc said, “For Windows 7, SP1 includes only minor updates, among which are previous updates that are already delivered through Windows Update. SP1 for Windows 7 will, however, deliver an updated Remote Desktop client that takes advantage of RemoteFX introduced in the server-side with SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2.”

Now, ahead of the beta cycle, it appears a recent build of Windows 7 SP1 beta (6.1.7601.16537.amd64fre.win7.100327-0053) has leaked, and it is available as a torrent. We checked a couple of torrent sites, and it is a relatively easy archive to find, so it has been downloaded thousands of times already.

Have you tried this out? Let us know!

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Dropico is a new rich Web application that lets users manage their photo albums from Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket, Myspace, and Bebo all in one central location with a simple drag and drop interface.

Users pair their accounts from those sites with Dropico, and then they can pull photos off of one site, edit them, and pipe them down to another site quickly and easily. Additionally, users can pull photos from their friends or favorite profiles and move them to other sites. For example, if you follow the Library of Congress’ Flickr stream and you discover something that you really like, you can drag it from the Flickr window over to the Twitter window and post it to your Twitter feed via yfrog, twitgoo, or twitpic.

An account on Dropico comes with a free .mobi email address associated with your login info. With that, you can mail photos to yourself and they’ll show up in your Dropico mobile folder. While it is certainly a handy feature, it is only of limited usefulness since pictures must be sent one by one by devices with email capabilities.

Other devices such as Eye-Fi connected cameras or the Nintendo DSi (which can upload pictures directly to Facebook) cannot take advantage of this feature. It’s just as well though, since their content is received through Dropico’s connection with other sites.

Overall, it’s an easy and functional service which is especially useful for social photo sharing.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) frequently cracks down on advertisements from consumer technology companies, asking companies to fix commercial claims that are confusing or misleading.

In 2008, the ASA requested that Apple remove or change iPhone 3G television advertisements because their claims that the device was “really fast” were exaggerated and misleading.

Now, Motorola is being cited for a television ad which says “HOW SOCIAL IS YOUR PHONE? Introducing MOTOROLA DEXT with MOTOBLUR. THE FIRST PHONE WITH SOCIAL SKILLS.”

INQ Mobile Ltd a subsidiary of Hutchinson Whampoa, challenged Motorola’s claim that Dext (aka Cliq) was the “first phone with social skills,” because INQ released an entry-level phone in 2008 called the INQ1 which it billed as “The World’s First Social Mobile.”

That device integrated Skype, Facebook, Myspace, Last.fm and Windows Live Messenger and was given the “best handset” award at the 2009 Mobile World Congress.

Motorola responded to INQ’s complaint by saying the concept of “social skills” was too vague to be objectively measurable, and that it could have easilly referred to good manners or etiquette and consumers aren’t likely to be misled into thinking an inanimate object has social skills like that. Furthermore, they said they did not intend to say the phone was the first to integrate with social networks, but rather that Motoblur presents a unique way to interact with them.

The ASA, however, has upheld INQ’s complaint.

“Although we noted there were differences in the way the Motorola Dext and INQ phone functioned, because we considered the ad implied the Motorola Dext was the first phone to integrate social networking applications in one place, but that was not the case, we concluded the claim was misleading,” the ASA’s announcement says.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Since Apple’s iPad launch just over two days ago, frustrated users have packed Apple’s iPad support forum with complaints of weak and unreliable Wi-Fi connections. The problem has even affected two Betanews staffers who got iPads on the device’s launch day.

Some users have speculated that Wi-Fi issues are related to chassis shielding, antenna placement, or software problems, but there has not yet been any concrete evidence to support any of those guesses.

Apple posted a support article yesterday called “iPad: Does not automatically rejoin known Wi-Fi networks,” which suggests that users with simultaneous dual-band wireless routers take additional measures to simplify the iPad’s connection process. Apple suggests that users label their different Wi-Fi networks according to whether they’re 802.11b/g or 802.11n, equip them with the same type of security, and make sure the router’s firmware is up to date.

But we’ve seen troubles like this with other Apple products in the past, with similar knowledge base suggestions, so we began to investigate the Wi-Fi module inside the iPad.

According to iFixit’s recent teardown, the wireless radio inside the iPad is the Broadcom BCM4329, which the chipmaker says is its “smallest and lowest cost dual-band 802.11n solution.” The tiny IC has a complete 802.11 a/b/g/n system (MAC/baseband/radio), Bluetooth 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate, and an FM radio transciever on a single die with a single antenna.

This is the same chip found in the third generation iPod Touch, which, like the iPad, exhibited problems sticking to Wi-Fi signals.

Apple’s solution to this problem included such advice as “Move closer to the Wi-Fi router or hotspot.”

It’s true that Wi-Fi connection problems are most often stem from router compatibility issues, but when both of Apple’s products using the 4329 chip are having the same issue, we wonder if Apple hasn’t chosen a wireless module that is too light duty.

We repeatedly attempted to communicate with Broadcom about the wireless module to find out what other devices have been equipped with the BCM4329, and what the ideal usage scenario for it would be. Unfortunately, the company was not interested in commenting.

What we do know is that this same chip has been used in the Google Nexus One, which, again, has a number of support threads open related to poor Wi-Fi connectivity.

This by no means implicates Broadcom’s chip in the iPad’s connectivity problems, nor is there any indication that this is a widespread problem. However, it does look like Wi-Fi issues are a trend among the three devices known to use the tiny, low-power unit.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Since Rhapsody has spun off from RealNetworks and Viacom/MTV, the subscription music service has gone down in price from $14.99 to $9.99, and its first app for Android has been released.

The service has thus far proven to be extremely popular on the iPhone/iPod touch, and has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times since debuting just about eight months ago. That application lets subscribers access Rhapsody’s 8 million song database for streaming over 3G or Wi-Fi connections, they can make their own playlists or listen to commercial-free Rhapsody Radio programming.

The Rhapsody Android app is a welcome addition to the platform as there are still fewer music services for Android than there are for iPhone/iPod.

Android’s new Rhapsody beta app side by side with iPhone/iPod version 1.4

Rhapsody’s welcome screen on Android.

Browsing by genre on Rhapsody for Android.

Artist information on Rhapsody for Android.

Rhapsody Radio on Android

Rhapsody’s “play” screen on Android.

The alert associated with Rhapsody playing in the background on Android.

Rhapsody for Android is available now in the Android market or directly from Rhapsody here.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

In August 2008, the Federal Communications Commission issued a cease and desist order to cable company Comcast, demanding it stop throttling BitTorrent traffic. It was considered the first citation ever for the violation of net neutrality rules.

Comcast then filed suit against the FCC, contesting that the Commission overstepped its boundaries because net neutrality guidelines were not a law. They’re not.

Under US law, telecommunications service may be directly regulated by the FCC. But in 2002, the Commission classified broadband as an “information service,” which is subject to different rules. However, the FCC does have some authority to regulate the Internet on an “ancillary” basis. The FCC argued that this was all it had done.

Last January, this argument didn’t look like it would stick, and many believed that the Court was going to side with Comcast.

The three-judge panel today issued its ruling in favor of Comcast, overturning the FCC’s citation on the grounds that Congress has never given the FCC the power to regulate an ISP’s network management policies.

Net Neutrality advocates are already speaking out against the decision.

“Because this case has turned into a lawyers’ debate over technical issues, it is easy to lose sight of its importance to freedom of speech and expression,” Parul P. Desai, Vice President of Media Access Project, said. “ISP interference to lawful uses of the Internet must not be tolerated, and the Commission must have the power to adopt rules to prohibit such practices.”

“The FCC is firmly committed to promoting an open Internet and to policies that will bring the enormous benefits of broadband to all Americans. It will rest these policies — all of which will be designed to foster innovation and investment while protecting and empowering consumers — on a solid legal foundation,” FCC Spokesperson Jen Howard said this afternoon. “Today’s court decision invalidated the prior Commission’s approach to preserving an open Internet. But the Court in no way disagreed with the importance of preserving a free and open Internet; nor did it close the door to other methods for achieving this important end.”

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

As expected, Microsoft has pushed out a mandatory update to the Xbox 360 today, which adds support for USB storage devices, expanding the memory capacity of the five-year old video game console.

The update will ostensibly allow any FAT32-formatted USB storage device between 1GB-16GB in size to be used to save profiles, game saves, and downloadable content. There are, however, a number of caveats, which mean users can’t just plug anything in and have it work.

When the update was first announced, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb said “Since performance on flash based USB storage is usually better, I highly recommend using flash based instead of spinning media like a hard drive…it’s just going to give you a MUCH better experience.”

Microsoft has minimum performance recommendations for USB storage devices, and if the one you plug in does not meet them, you will be warned. So far, it looks like Microsoft is using this update to highlight the partnership with SanDisk on the branded Xbox 360 USB memory stick, which comes pre-configured with the software update on board, and includes a one month Gold subscription to Xbox Live.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Qualcomm’s mobile broadcast television service called FLO TV existed for about five years under different wireless carrier brand names: Sprint TV, Verizon V Cast TV, and AT&T MediaFLO TV. But the carriers didn’t push it very hard, so it did not break through into the public’s consciousness.

But then Qualcomm began advertising FLO TV on its own, with its own smartphone-sized pocket TVs made by HTC, and it looks like it is finally beginning to stick.

At CES 2010, Qualcomm announced it had partnered with Mophie on an external battery pack that contains a FLO TV chip so iPhone users could tune into FLO TV without the need for a cumbersome dock, external antenna or anything other than what they have shown an interest in already.

The juicepack TV receiver slips onto the iPhone like any other mophie battery pack, and works in conjunction with a FLO TV app to let users tune into their FLO TV subscriptions. It has not yet been released, but is expected to hit the market soon (first half of 2010.)

I got a hands-on experience with the juicepack TV at CTIA 2010, and while the experience is great, there is one aspect to the system that is absolutely brilliant. The 30-pin connector inside of the JPTV unit does not have to be connected to the iPhone for signals to come through.

All of FLO TV’s signals are streamed to the iPhone via a Wi-Fi connection, and the 30-pin connector is used to supply the additional battery power.

Since a physical connection between the JPTV and the handheld device is not necessary, this means users could conceivably connect an iPod Touch or an iPad to the juicepack if they have an active FLO TV account and the iPhone OS-based app. A source close to both companies confirmed that iPod and iPad compatibility does exist, but did not say whether the functionality will be restricted when juicepack TV is released later this year.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Third-party mobile browser Skyfire is regarded by many to be the best way to consume the Web on the go. With its support for all of the major browser plug-ins, and full server-side rendering, it can provide access to more sites than any other mobile browser, and do it quickly.

It was officially released a little less than one year ago on Windows Mobile and Symbian S60, and has seen one major update since that time. It has not, however, managed to be released on any new platforms, there has been a very early version for BlackBerry, but that has not progressed to the release stages.

Last February, Skyfire acquired kolbysoft, the developers of the Steel browser for Android, a browser which borrowed heavily from Opera and Safari.

At the time of the acquisition, Skyfire’s Jeff Guleck said, “Users of the existing version of the Steel browser will still be able to use the current version, but will be offered upgrades to Skyfire Android edition once it is released. We can’t share any timing or more details at this time, but I promise you’ll like it.”

The Skyfire team began admitting testers to the Alpha of the new Android browser last week, and unlike Skyfire for S60 and Windows Mobile, the Android version will reportedly be Webkit-based, and do the page rendering in-device instead of in the cloud. It is unknown how the browser will differ from Steel if this is the case.

The Skyfire team said the response to the alpha program was so overwhelming last week that they had to immediately stop taking email requests from interested parties. Further information about the program has not been supplied.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Now that the iPad is no longer a mystery, Apple is sparking up its magic machine to get people talking and rumoring again.

In classic fashion, Apple has sent out invitations to an event it will be holding this week, which contain only a little detail but a lot of room for speculation and excitement.

So this Thursday, April 8th at 10:00am, Apple will give the world a “sneak peek of the next generation of iPhone OS software.”

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

In October 2008, Californian Elliot Gottfurcht was granted a patent for
“Apparatus and method of manipulating a region on a wireless device screen for viewing, zooming and scrolling internet content.”

One month later he sued Apple for infringing on that patent.

The complaint was over 76 different ways that Apple’s iPhone displays Internet content. According to Gottfurcht’s attorneys, the patent claims include the way HTML is reformatted to XML on mobile devices, and the way the iPhone browser zooms and scrolls.

That case is still open in the District Court, Eastern District of Texas, but Gottfurcht’s company, EMG Technology LLC, announced today that it will expand the suit to include the iPad, along with the iTunes Store, iPhone, iPod Touch, and Apple TV.

“Apple refuses to pay reasonable royalties for its use of EMG’s patents relating to navigating Internet mobile websites and applications, which were filed in 1999, several years before Apple’s mobile patents were filed,” Gottfurcht said in a statement today. “Perhaps the reason lies in a statement Steve Jobs made in the 1996 documentary called Triumph of the Nerds, “We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”

The trial date is set for September 12, 2011.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

If you were sucked into the black hole of iPad hype, you may have guessed that Apple sold half a million or more of its new tablet on the first day, but really it was about average when compared to iPhone launches.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster first predicted Apple would sell between 200,000 and 300,000 iPads on its first day of availability, but then after his team gathered data and compared it to previous Apple device launches, he bumped up his first day sales estimate to between 600,000 and 700,000.

With sales like that, it would have meant the iPad was selling at about twice the rate of the iPhone 3GS, which reached 1 million units in about three days.

Today, Apple announced that “over 300,000” iPads sold on the first day, confirming Munster’s original estimate, and showing the iPad to be just about on par with Apple’s other handhelds.

Apple also announced software sales related to the iPad launch, which brought down 1 million apps in the iTunes App Store and 250,000 e-books in the iBookstore.

“It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world — it’s going to be a game changer,” Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO said in a statement to the media. “iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad.”

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

In February, the mainstream news media picked up a story about a rare 8-bit Nintendo game called Bandai Stadium Events that sold for $13,000 on eBay. The story was widely circulated mostly because the seller had no idea that the game was special in any way. The North Carolina mother who put the auction up was apparently unaware that she was selling a game that was only released in a handful of U.S. markets before it was quickly recalled, making it one of the rarest games for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Then another copy of the same game turned up on eBay less than a month later from a seller who heard about the huge bids on the last auction. The copy that he put up managed to be an even rarer version, because it was sealed in its original box. That seller reportedly earned a whopping $41,300 for it.

Thanks to the publicity of those two stories, an even rarer game has gone up for sale on eBay, this time it’s for a 28-year old Atari 2600 game.

On March 20th, CNN ran a story called “8 very rare (and very expensive) video games” , in which it mentions a game called “Air Raid.”

“Air Raid is a bit of an enigma for Atari fans. Some say it was the one and only game produced by a company called “Menavision” (or perhaps “Menovision”). The game is so shrouded in mystery, it can’t even be verified that “Air Raid” is its official title — there’s no name on the label.

This strange cartridge appeared around 1984 in a bright blue ‘T-handle’ casing that is very different from the standard, square, black Atari carts sold in North America, but is similar in style to those sold in Brazil. Furthermore, while a few second-hand copies have been sold, no one can ever say they were the original owner. The mystery, as well as the fact there are only 12 known copies, make it a must-have for serious Atari collectors.”

On March 21st, a Texas man named Tanner Sandlin read that article and realized that he owned Air Raid.

“I did not recognize I had the game until the article described the blue T-Shape handle, I thought ‘I have that game!’” Sandlin told us.

Within three days, Sandlin posted the cartridge on eBay and announced it on AtariAge.com, a popular forum for collectors of the classic video game console. The listing got a good deal of interest, but Sandlin pulled the auction on March 30th because he had found the original box to go along with the game.

No classic video game collector had ever seen the box for Air Raid before this, and Sandlin himself was no classic game collector.

“Convincing everyone I had one of thirteen cartridges was not difficult,” Sandlin told us. “Once I found the box, I knew that I was playing in a whole different league. I knew I was going to need an expert to verify that the box was genuine.”

Albert Yarusso, an administrator from AtariAge also based in Austin, met up with Sandlin to confirm that the game was genuine.

“There is no way to know with absolute certainty that this is the ‘genuine item.’ Especially without another example to look at, which, if we’re lucky, will happen at some point in the future,” Yarusso told us. “The best I can really do is say that if it is a fake, it’s a damned impressive fake, one that would have taken considerable time, effort and money to produce.”

The game was then relisted complete with the one-of-a-kind box. Unfortunately, this whole affair culminated on April Fool’s day.

“Little did I know that the fact that we both live in Austin would be used as a reason this could be an April fools joke. Apparently Albert had played pranks on his site in the past,” Sandlin told us.

“The timing was both unfortunate and amusing at the same time,” admitted Yarusso. “I’ve orchestrated various April Fools jokes in the past on AtariAge, so it was only natural for people to be skeptical when this ‘holy grail’ of Atari 2600 collecting appeared out of nowhere right around this time. Now that a few days have passed, I believe most people have come to the realization that it’s not a hoax.”

To have such a rare item turn up at such an inopportune time, Sandlin had to provide a pretty detailed provenance.

He says he bought the game at a Tuesday Morning store “near the corner of Arkansas Lane and Medline Drive” in Arlington, Texas in 1984 or 1985. When we asked why he chose that particular game over some other one, he told us, “I don’t think there was anything special that attracted me to the game other then the fact that in 1984, anything to do with video games was like a moth to a flame for an 11-12 year old boy.”

However, “It is a very bad game which is probably a contributing factor of why I still have it,” Sandlin said. “All of my friends and I used to loan out our games to each other. When I unboxed everything, I realized I was missing some of my games but I had a few I don’t remember buying. If Air Raid was any good there was a decent chance that one of my friends would have ended up with it.”

So now it’s for sale on eBay, with 23 bids and just over six days left in the auction. The current bid is $8,411.

I asked Yarusso about how he foresaw the auction ending. “I don’t really see the mainstream media reporting on it as happened with Stadium Events…the NES is more ‘recent’ in the minds of many gamers, so to see a commercially released NES game sell for $40,000 is extraordinary. I don’t feel we’ll see Air Raid go that high, but I would not be surprised to see it hit five figures. Also, you’re not going to see a flood of boxed Air Raids hit eBay, since, unlike Stadium Events, this is the only boxed copy to surface thus far. However, I would not be surprised to see reproduction boxes hit the stage.”

Even if it doesn’t climb to the heights that Stadium Events did, Sandlin’s copy of Air Raid is already the most valuable Atari 2600 title of all time.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Google today announced its strategy for delivering services on the iPad, and unveiled a new mobile Gmail interface optimized for bigger touchscreens. Since the iPad lies somewhere between a notebook and a smartphone, the Mountain View search company is taking a hybrid approach, offering some services in their desktop format, some in their mobile format, and some as standalone apps.

“We’re particularly excited by how tablet computers create the opportunity for new kinds of user interaction,” Punit Soni, Product Manager for Google Mobile wrote in the official Google blog. “Here on the mobile team, we often talk about how mobile devices are sensor-rich: they can sense touch through their screens, see with a camera, hear through a microphone, and they know where they are with GPS. The same holds true for tablet computers, and we’re just starting to work through how our products can become even better on devices like the iPad.”

The HTML5-encoded Gmail for mobile looks like it has simply been stretched to the right on the iPad, and it now includes a preview window that displays your highlighted email conversation threads. Of course, you can check your Gmail through the iPad mail client, but that does not support threading or “starring” of messages.

Among the 1,348 apps that are iPad-optimized, Google’s YouTube and Maps apps are two of the few that come pre-installed on the new device, and Google remains the default search provider in Safari for iPad. For the rest, today and tomorrow are going to be a game of getting noticed and downloaded on the new platform.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Shazam is a brilliant application. If you want to identify a piece of music that is playing, all you have to do is hold up your smartphone, and the Shazam app will tell you what it is based on its “audio fingerprint.” It’s simple to use, handy to have, and available on most mobile platforms. Though the idea behind Shazam wasn’t exactly new, it arrived when the app store craze took off, and has since climbed to impressive heights.

It has 50 million users in 200 countries and has enjoyed a sustained growth of half a million new users per week for more than a year. Shazam has been downloaded more than 1 million times from Nokia’s Ovi store, it was the #1 application on BlackBerry App World’s launch date, it’s Android’s third most-downloaded app of all time, and it’s Apple’s biggest reseller of iTunes music on mobile devices.

But Shazam has been pretty limited thus far. You can identify (“tag”) songs, organize and share the tags, and link to related information about the artist or song. It’s handy, but it’s still an app that applies just to the music industry and music consumers.

What do you do with your single-purpose app after you’ve got consumers eating it up with a spoon?

Apply it to the advertising industry, for one thing.

During the most recent Super Bowl, we saw Shazam’s first pilot advertising tie-in with men’s clothing company Dockers. If users “tagged” the advertisement in Shazam, they were entered into a drawing to win one of 5,000 pairs of pants the company was giving away.

Alex Musli, Vice President of product marketing for Shazam told Betanews that we’re going to be seeing a lot more interactive advertisement in the coming weeks.

“We think it’s a big deal because what comes out of the house with you?” Musli asked. “Your wallet, your keys and your cell phone. The beauty of this is that if you’ve got a 99¢ burger promotion or a 2-for-1 pizza offer, those promotions exist on your cellphone until the merchant expires them, so it can live forever and a day on your cell phone and you’re taking it out of the house. So as long as you remember the burger joint that you’ve got the promotion for, you can just show your cell phone as the coupon. And that’s just one application of the technology.”

The other place where Shazam is applying itself is in “contextualized” entertainment.

“We’re doing some piloting for HBO right now,” Musli told us. “There’s a lifestyle series called ‘How to Make it Big in America’ and people can actually Shazam the television program to get behind-the-scenes footage and additional content. That’s had a great reaction from the media industry and I think the reason for that is because we’ve already got over 50 million consumers that have the capability in their hand, so there’s a readily addressable market.”

And that market is especially valuable right now. Everybody seems to be attempting to link “offline” content to the Web through apps on our mobile phones. Like optical (QR) tagging, RFID “object hyperlinking,” and augmented reality browsing, audio tagging via Shazam is another way to enrich content, and with 50 million users built in, it’s a viable one.

“We’re still right at the start in terms of advertisers and partners,” Musli said. “But a lot of people are surprised in a good way that Shazam is going outside of music and going into interactive marketing. Not everyone saw this coming, in terms of product set, but we as a company have been talking about direct response -and how you can apply the technology- for some time now.”

But as it adds new segments to its business model, is Shazam going to change from a music app to something wholly different?

“We’re not going to be changing direction,” Musli asserted. “It’s just two different things around one capability from the handset, so it’s just giving people that have taken the time and effort to put Shazam on their devices more value. It’s not like we’re going to be pushing promotions to our audience, this is about stuff they’re interested in.”

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

In 2004, American jewelry company Tiffany & Co. sued online auction site eBay in the US District Court for trademark infringement. In the complaint, Tiffany sought to establish eBay responsible for the trade of counterfeit Tiffany goods on its popular site, saying that eBay was “liable for direct and contributory trademark infringement, unfair competition, false advertising, and direct and contributory trademark dilution. “

The suit opened the door for a number of luxury brands to sue eBay on the same grounds. In the years since Tiffany’s complaint, Moet Hennesy Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior Couture, Rolex, L’Oreal fragrances, and PPR, the conglomerate that owns Gucci, Yves Saint-Laurent and Stella McCartney all put legal pressure on eBay to curb the trade of counterfeit products.

But in 2008, eBay managed to come out on top of the Tiffany case and was declared innocent by New York District Judge Richard Sullivan, who said eBay made an acceptable effort to prevent the sale and trade of counterfeit goods on its site.

Tiffany appealed the District Court’s decision, but that judgement was upheld by the Second Circuit court of Appeals, eBay announced today.

“The decision is a critically important victory for online consumers who want the best prices for genuine products and underscores eBay’s commitment to connecting buyers and sellers under the pillars of trust, value, and selection,” eBay general counsel Michael Jacobson said today. “The ruling validates eBay’s leading efforts to fight counterfeiting and its commitment to providing consumers with choice and value in a safe and trusted marketplace. We continue to support cooperation, rather than litigation, as the best way to address these issues in everyone’s best interests and we remain confident that the one remaining issue in the case will be decided favorably on remand.”

Tiffany and Co. is expected to take the charges all the way to the Supreme Court.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010