At a New York ad event, Google executives explained how ad buyers should invest in small screens. The presentation contained hype and nonsense but very few practical suggestions. Read more at GigaOM »
I spent a week testing Amazon’s new e-reader, the Kindle Paperwhite, which starts at $119. The verdict: The front-lit screen improves the reading experience all day long, not just at night, making this a big step up from the Kindle Touch. Here are my review and video. Read more at GigaOM »
Cliptamatic, a new mobile video app, is designed to make sharing short premium video content easy. The app is starting with sports, election and comedy clips but will soon include TV and movie clips. Read more at GigaOM »
Fans who preordered the ebook edition of J.K. Rowling’s new book, “The Casual Vacancy,” are in for a disappointment today: Due to a file formatting mishap, It’s basically unreadable on e-readers. Read more »
Barnes & Noble’s new Nook HD tablets, priced starting at $199, aim to stand out from the pack with reader-centric features and enhanced reading experiences for magazines and catalogs. The company’s goal is to drive book discovery and purchasing through the tablets in new ways. Read more at GigaOM »
Thirst Labs is working on a new version of its iPhone and iPad apps that removes the Twitter timeline and mentions from options available, but the app’s news reader still has nice features to offer, assuming it can bring in more news sources outside of Twitter. Read more at GigaOM »
Google added new Japanese reading features to its ebooks app yesterday and is now selling the Nexus 7, ebooks and movies through the Google Play store in Japan. Kobo expanded to Japan in July, and Kindle is expected to launch there in October. Read more »
Google is adding some new features to its Android ebooks app, including highlighting and annotation, translation, dictionary definitions and geographic information. Google Play Books for iOS lacks these features for now. Read more »
Much digital news consumption is moving to mobile devices. But the money isn’t yet following. UK publishers say slow-coach ad agencies still wedded to desktop web ads are at fault. Read more »
Consumers’ desire to consume content on mobile applies to video just as much to display. YouTube’s head product developer shared what this means for content makers and for advertisers. Read more at GigaOM »
At GigaOM’s Mobilize conference in San Francisco on Thursday, Jack Buser, Sony’s senior director of PlayStation digital platforms, talked about why Sony developed the PlayStation Mobile platform for PlayStation games that can, for the first time, be played on devices not made by the Japanese company. Read more at GigaOM »
Walmart has announced that it will stop selling Kindles in its stores and on its website, suggesting that as it beefs up its own e-commerce strategy it does not want to turn sales over to a competitor. Target also stopped carrying Kindles in May. Read more at GigaOM »
One of the recent crop of mobile personalised news aggregators is being acquired by an RSS advertising company looking to take its ads in to smartphones. Read more »
Is Instagram the next best place for advertising? VenueSeen, a startup based in Columbus, OH, is aiming to crack the nut on marketing brands via Instagram, by taking advantage of the platform’s exclusive, organic nature and integrating brand engagement with user content. Read more at GigaOM »
Adobe sounded the death knell for Flash on Android last month. Deciding there is no viable alternative video technology, the BBC is keeping Adobe’s alive through its own workaround app. Blame Android fragmentation. Read more »
Announcing our initial speaker lineup for our 2nd RoadMap conference! Our focus this year: design in the age of connectedness. It is scheduled for Nov. 5th in SF. Some of our speakers include Kevin Systrom, Evan Williams, David Karp, Tony Fadell, Yves Behar and more. Read more at GigaOM »
Kobo is partnering with Brazilian bookstore chain Livraria Cultura to sell e-readers and ebooks. Ebook sales makes up less than 1 percent of book sales in Brazil but are expected to grow fast. Kindle also plans to launch in Brazil this year. Read more »
The company which powers mobile music for Sony and RIM says it is buying a Swedish indie and will acquire further, after it turned a pre-tax profit last year. Read more »
Bye-bye, crummy old iOS YouTube app: YouTube just launched a brand-new app on the iPhone and iPod touch that comes with a much-improved UI, social sharing and access to thousands of major label music videos. However, users of the new app also have to endure ads. Read more at GigaOM »
With the releases of the Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Glo today, we saw an evolution in e-readers. The devices don’t have more tablet-like features, but they should still provide much better reading experiences than older models. Read more at GigaOM »
Amazon’s big press event announced four new Kindles, an e-reader as well as a a feature called Kindle Serials, which will bring old-school serialized publications to the e-reader age. Read more at GigaOM »
We’re here in Los Angeles for Amazon’s press conference. The company is expected to announce a new Kindle Fire and Kindle e-reader today, and we’ll have all the details for you live from Santa Monica. Read more at GigaOM »
South Africa’s government has been urged to get tough with ISPs that refuse to pay royalties and to introduce graduated-response piracy measures against freeloaders, by a report that decries a dysfunctional digital content market. Read more »
Though most eyes are on Amazon’s Thursday press conference, Kobo is angling for early attention with its announcement of two new e-readers and a new 7-inch Android tablet called the Arc. How do the devices stack up to the competition? Read more at GigaOM »
Nokia is back with another music service in the U.S. and this time, it’s completely ad-free and no cost. Lumia 710 and 900 device owners can grab it now from the Windows Phone Marketplace to start streaming or customizing their playlists; even when offline. Read more at GigaOM »
Facing off against Sainsbury’s with a string of digital content vendor acquisitions, Tesco is now buying e-book store maker Mobcast for £4.5 million to translate its success in the aisles to the net. Read more »
What should we expect from next week’s Amazon press conference in Los Angeles? The rumor mill suggest a front-lit Kindle e-reader, a new Kindle Fire with a camera and location technology, and more streaming movie offerings for Prime members. Read more at GigaOM »
Amazon says the Kindle Fire is sold out, meaning the company will definitely announce a new tablet at its press event next week. Meanwhile, Amazon says the Fire makes up 22% of the U.S. tablet market — suggesting actual sales far lower than early analyst estimates. Read more »
Amazon is taking its Appstore for Android abroad for the first time, launching it in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The move was expected, and its eems to pave the way for an international launch of the Kindle Fire. Read more at GigaOM »
Carrier bundling will help grow music subscription income by 46 percent a year, one analyst forecasts. Spotify continues on that road by allying with Deutsche Telekom in Germany. Read more »
Personalized tablet magazine Zite is releasing a large upgrade to its Android app Tuesday afternoon. Among the changes: The end of support for large-screen Android tablets, enhanced sharing options and bug fixes. Read more »
The app start-up has made waves by aggregating text web articles as though they were magazine pages. Now it wants to do the same for video. Read more »
Cricket is going to couple a music subscription with every Android phone it sells starting next month. The company hopes that this will lead to millions of new subscribers for its Muve Music service, which could make the offering more popular than Spotify. Read more at GigaOM »
Barnes & Noble’s first overseas retailer for its Nook e-reader will be the respected UK department store John Lewis. But shoppers won’t find Nook Color nor Nook Tablet on British shelves yet. Read more »
The implications of Apple’s recent billion-dollar victory over Samsung in a patent-infringement case go beyond the specifics of this particular battle — the reality is the war over software and design patents is bad not just for individual companies but arguably for society as a whole. Read more at GigaOM »
Samsung has suffered a massive defeat at the hands of Apple in the first major patent trial of the smartphone wars. The ruling appears to be a clear win for Apple which could help entrench the iPhone maker’s power in the marketplace. Read more at GigaOM »
Reports say the Apple-Samsung verdict is in. The case has large implications for the smartphone and mobile industry. We will be reporting shortly on whether the jury finds either side infringed the other’s intellectual property. Read more at GigaOM »
Between apps, services, devices and more, it’s impossible to keep track of all the changes in the mobile industry. So it’s easy to miss some super start-ups. Here are the top 10 that entered our Launchpad competition, which takes place at Mobilize 2012 on September 20. Read more at GigaOM »
The Wall Street Journal is offering free Wi-Fi in more than 1300 hotspots in New York plus more in San Francisco. It’s a novel idea for a newspaper and one that could deliver the WSJ both new customers and valuable marketing data. Read more »
Prismatic, a news-filtering service, has launched an iPhone app that founder Bradford Cross says makes the experience of reading news on a mobile device appealing for the first time, because it strips away all of the clutter that tends to slow down mobile news sites. Read more at GigaOM »
