In an interesting public-private partnership, children’s reading app Ruckus is teaming up with Connecticut Public Television to offer a CPTV-branded kids’ iOS app. Read more »
The FT launched a new version of its iPad offering, a move that reinforced the publication’s contrarian web-only mobile strategy, and an FT executive predicts that the problem of collecting mobile payments outside of app stores will soon be solved. Read more »
A long-running debate over apps has taken a new turn with the rise of the mobile web and the proliferation of tablets. At paidContent Live on April 17, leading publishers will share their thoughts on whether the industry should embrace or abandon them. Read more »
Craigslist has never released a mobile app, but Mokriya, a company that has worked on apps for Hipster and Sidecar, has licensed the classified site’s data for its new app, Mokriya Craigslist. Read more at GigaOM »
Fewer publishers are treating apps as a make-or-break business decision. Instead, a shift in the economics of app making means publishers can choose from a wider variety of app options that are tailored to the type of content they produce. Read more »
Financial giant Bloomberg has opened an app store in which it wil take 30 percent of revenue. The move is significant because it is the first time the tightly-controlled company is opening up its rich pools of data to outside developers. 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 »
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 »
Barnes & Noble is skipping out on Google Maps for tablets and is partnering instead with Berlin-based mobile map company skobbler. skobbler’s ForeverMap 2 app is available in the Nook store today, and Nook will open up to location-based app developers later this year. Read more »
The same kind of criticism levelled at the photo-sharing service Instagram — that it ruins photography, or makes it cheap and shallow — has been made about other forms of media, including blogging, citizen journalism and Twitter. And in each case the critics have been wrong. Read more at GigaOM »
Rovio has finally released its next title after the smash hit Angry Birds — a physics puzzler called Amazing Alex that reworks an existing iPhone game with a few little extra touches. Will the Finnish company prove it’s not a one hit wonder? Read more »
How timely: right as we seem to be reopening the debate over whether or not the iPad is a consumption or creation tool, Martha Stewart, the high priestess of crafty creativity, debuts a brand new iPad app called CraftStudio. Read more »
The distinctive three-dimensional globe is giving way to a new three-edition iPad app strategy for ABC News. The new version relies not on ideas about what iPad users might want — as was the case when it first launched in July 2010 — but on nearly two years of usage. Read more »
The Kobo Vox tablet now comes preloaded with the Google Play app. Current Kobo Vox owners will see the app the next time their device updates. Separately, Books on Google Play is launching in Germany. Read more »
The campaign for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will spend big dollars this summer to deliver ads to voters’ iPhones and iPads, a move that could pep up sluggish demand for mobile ads. Read more »
User engagement can be a very slippery statistic. Although sites and apps like to talk about how fast their unique visitors are growing, it’s more important to know how many of those users are actually using the site regularly. Read more at GigaOM »
There has been a growing revolt in the publishing community against the idea that iPhone and iPad apps are the best route to digital dollars. The Financial Times shuttered its apps this month while a popular essay by another publisher lamented that apps were a “collective delusion” and an expensive failure. Read more »
“Operators treat partners like vendors.” That quote comes form Google director of global android partnerships John Lagerling, who said it at a Dublin conference where it was captured by Light Reading. It’s a telling statement — one that sums up a big problem facing the wireless industry. Read more »
Big-six publisher Hachette Book Group is making free chapters of upcoming books from bestselling authors like James Patterson and Michael Connelly available through a new Facebook app. Read more »
An outfit in Nevada is touting a new smartphone tool that lets you itemize your possessions and decide who will receive what. Read more »
Publishers saw the iPad as a chance to turn back the clock and convince consumers to pay for content in a new form. But that dream has collided with reality, and now some content producers — including MIT’s Technology Review — say the standalone content app is dead. Read more at GigaOM »
The Daily, which launched in early 2011 as a tablet tabloid available only on the iPad, finally is adding an iPhone edition, with Android handsets to follow. It gives the News Corp. startup its best chance for a burst of new subscribers in potentially meaningful numbers Read more »
Read It Later is making its app completely free — no more premium version — and renaming it Pocket to express the fact that users can save any type of content, not just articles. Read more »
Children’s e-book reading is still in very early stages — but with parents increasingly handing iPads down to their kids, publishers see room for fast growth. A new iPad app offers children’s books from brands like My Little Pony and Curious George. Read more »
Worldreader has already distributed over 75,000 e-books to students in sub-Saharan Africa. Now the literary nonprofit is launching an e-reading app designed for basic mobile phones. Read more »
The Wall Street Journal (NSDQ: NWS) is running a 24-hour “Digital Open House.” For today, all subscriber content on the website, mobile site… Read more »
Now that Forbes has 460,000 subscribers on Flipboard and 900,000 across properties on Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Currents, the brand is close to ad… Read more »
At a Nook Developers Workshop in London today, Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) said it won’t be opening stores outside the U.S., but did not offe… Read more »
We’ve heard that social media is a great source of traffic for news outlets so often that it’s close to textbook. Yes, Facebook, Twitter an… Read more »
The new iPad isn’t exactly like Oakland and Gertrude Stein – there’s a there, there — but it won’t be obvious to most people. Read more »
Two Android phone users who purchased defective products from Google’s app-store have filed a lawsuit, saying the company’s 15-minute refund… Read more »
It can be hard to put a dollar figure on privacy. Unless, that is, you’re suing Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and app makers like Path for uploading a… Read more »
A sprawling lawsuit filed in Texas this week targets Path, Instagram, Facebook and others for instructing their apps to suck up user address… Read more »
Months after it began testing a program that provided select advertisers with information about the readers of tablet editions, Condé Nast… Read more »
Marvel (NYSE: DIS) Comics is beefing up its digital presence with a new digital-only line and print-digital bundles. Read more »
Last week, I lambasted Virgin Media for taking two years to launch its iPad TV guide for its TiVo (NSDQ: TIVO) set-top box.
I have since le… Read more »
The Associated Press this week unveiled snazzy updates to its popular news apps. Here’s a review plus a look at what the apps mean for the A… Read more »
With yesterday’s launch of Google Play, the poor old Google (NSDQ: GOOG) eBookstore has a new name and is part of a portal that also offers… Read more »
So long, Android Market: later on Tuesday Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is scheduled to begin rolling out a new version of its storefront for apps, mu… Read more »
The kids’ e-book market is still nascent, with e-books making up just about three percent of children’s book sales. That could change now th… Read more »
