As more detail unfolds of companies swearing off any involvement with Carrier IQ (and some admitting using it for diagnostics) amid allegations over privacy on mobile device use, Carrier IQ has released a new statement to try clarify and defend its position—although some pretty big questions remain about what data…

With 550,000 activations per day, and 200 million activations to-date, Android is fast shaping up to be the world’s biggest OS, but that growth is also attracting a lot of unsavory elements, it seems. McAfee, the IT security specialists owned by Intel (NSDQ: INTC), says that nearly all of the…

So a changing of the guard at mobile ad company 4INFO, which announced a funding round of $14 million just last month: Zaw Thet, the company’s outspoken founder, has left his role as the CEO and is getting replaced by Tim Jenkins, who has worked for a number of tech…

More VC money getting invested into one more independent mobile ad network: 4INFO has raised $14 million in funding in a round led by Paul Allen’s firm Vulcan Capital and Mitsui Global. The money will mainly be used to spin off and develop the company’s AdHaven mobile audience platform division.

Millions of people are embracing free mobile messaging services like WhatsApp and Kik as a way to avoid outrageous carrier charges for texting. But now one user says he has evidence that the popular service WhatsApp engaged in an egregious breach of his privacy.

Facebook’s annual conference, F8, was pretty thin on mobile news, but a news item today demonstrates how it’s not far out of Facebook’s sites, and also how third parties could play a big role in how Facebook goes mobile in the future. Gemalto, a company that makes SIM cards for…

Telefonica (NYSE: TEF), the multinational operator with mobile networks spanning across Europe and Latin America, is now fully focused on squeezing more revenue out of its substantial assets. After a month in which it formed a new business unit, Telefonica Digital, to further this strategy, the operator is rolling out…

Everyone likes to talk about the boom in smartphone use, but the reality is that even in the most advanced markets, there is still a long way to grow: figures out from comScore today indicate that in the U.S., only around 35 percent of all consumers over the age of…

Wireless carriers are the punching bags of the mobile industry, notorious for holding back innovative services they don’t control to preserve existing profits. Oftentimes they’ve earned that enmity, but making the leap from a voice-oriented world organized around a ten-digit number to a data-oriented world organized around bits and identity…

Analysts are feeling ever-more confident in the growth of mobile advertising. The latest comes from BIA/Kelsey, which is predicting that the U.S. mobile ad revenues will grow from $491 million last year to $2.9 billion in 2014. That’s a compound annual growth rate of 43 percent and is based on…

Marketron, which sells sales and billing software to radio and TV stations, is expanding into mobile with the acquisition of mSnap. mSnap’s customers are primarily radio stations, who use its platform to communicate with listeners via SMS. For instance, a radio station might use the platform to run a “text…

Mobile payment provider Zong of Palo Alto, Calif. has spun off from its Swiss parent Echovox and has raised $15 million to help pay for its rapid growth, which includes expanding into as many as two countries per month. The second round of capital was led by Matrix Partners. The…

Twitter has acquired Cloudhopper after working with the startup for the past eight months to manage the billions of text messages it sends worldwide. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. On Twitter’s blog, it said it processes close to a billion text messages a month worldwide, and has bought…

Mobile data has been growing at a fast clip since the iPhone went on sale almost three years ago. But with the introduction of many more data-focused devices, the industry continues to break records. In a report released today, telecom consultant Chetan Sharma tallied up the financial statements of carriers…

Mobile marketer Vibes Media has acquired text-messaging ad server Zeep Mobile. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Zeep’s technology will be folded into Vibes’ platform and all Zeep employees will become part of Vibes Media. Additionally, Zeep President and CEO Scott Robertson has agreed to relocate to Vibes’ headquarters in Chicago. The…

Donations by text message have now exceeded $22 million to the Red Cross alone for the Haiti earthquake relief effort. Update: Tallies are being kept by two primary organizations, both Denver-based mGive and Bellevue, Wash.-based Mobile Giving Foundation, which offer competing services to various non-profits. Together, they are helping more…

NBC Universal’s latest attempt to refine its social media strategy includes an everything-but-the-kitchen sink app called the NBC Communicator (pictured, left). The tool is designed to attract users and advertisers to full-length episodes directly on NBC.com, as opposed to video site Hulu, which is backed by the network along with…

Giftango, a virtual commerce software firm, has raised $1.4 million worth of a $2.1 million first round of funding, per an SEC filing. The company confirmed the investment, but did not disclose the source. Retailers like Shilo Inns and Za Restaurant use Giftango’s platform to offer their customers virtual gift…

Twitter has sealed a deal with Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile carrier, that will let its wireless subscribers receive tweets by SMS for free, and send them at standard rates. Co-founder Biz Stone said the company had worked “quickly” to get cheap, full-service SMS set up for users in India,…