GigaOM
Google Docs for Android adds real-time collaboration
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS GigaOM
Android smartphone and tablet owners can collaborate on documents from their devices with the updated version of Google Docs for Android, released on Wednesday. The software, supporting Android 2.1 devices and up, adds the same real-time collaboration found in the full web version of Google Docs on a laptop or desktop.
This real-time interaction in documents is another example of how mobile devices allow people to work together from practically...
$1.29 Can’t Buy Me Love, but it will get me the ringtone
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS GigaOM
Apple and EMI announced on Wednesday that the iTunes store is exclusively selling ringtones from The Beatles. The 30-second tones are from the The Beatles no. 1 hits album called 1, which represent the 27 top Beatles tunes in both the U.S. and U.K. Each individual ringtone is $1.29 for iOS device owners.
The catalog of 27 tones ranges from their first U.S. no. 1 in 1964, Love Me Do, to the Fab Four’s final U.S. chart-topper in 1970: The...
Should mobile operators embrace over-the-top VoIP?
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS GigaOM
Voice-over-Wi-Fi pioneer Kineto Wireless is trying to convince operators that if they can’t beat the over-the-top VoIP challengers like Skype, they might as well join them. Kineto is now selling a VoIP client and platform to operators that would allow them to bypass their own voice networks and offer their own cheap IP telephony services over Wi-Fi, LTE and even 3G.
AT&T has already started exploring such offerings. In November it began offeri...
Rapportive officially bought by LinkedIn
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS GigaOM
Contacts startup Rapportive has been acquired by LinkedIn, according to a post on Rapportive’s blog Wednesday. The official announcement comes a few weeks after rumors of such a buy were first reported by AllThingsD.
According to Rapportive founder Rahul Vohra, the company will continue to support its Gmail plugin, which enables users to get more detailed information about people that have emailed them. That includes social connections such...
Submit once, sell everywhere? Mozilla to open mobile Web app store
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS GigaOM
In an app-centric world, those who are trying to embrace mobile Web development have to think in terms of stores and marketplaces. Mozilla announced plans Wednesday for its own take on a mobile app shopping experience, one built around the promise that Web applications will bridge the gaps between mobile devices.
There weren’t a lot of details revealed by Mozilla’s press release, but the company plans to talk more about the Mozilla...
Orange customers flee to Free Mobile’s new ultra-cheap plans
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS GigaOM
Last month we reported on the wireless revolution Iliad’s Free Mobile was leading in France. Now the first casualty reports are in. France Telecom’s Orange on Wednesday lost 201,000 net subscribers in a little more than a month, as waves of customers suspended their voice and data subscriptions and signed up for Free’s market-busting all-you-can-eat plans, Mobile Europe reported.
Those 201,000 lost subscribers may not seem like a lot, but keep in...
Why do we need academic journals in the first place?
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS GigaOM
It may not get as much attention as the disruption that is occurring in newspapers, e-books or other parts of the mainstream media industry, but there is a revolution of sorts going on in the academic publishing business. It has recently exploded into public view with the boycott of Elsevier — one of the largest publishers of academic journals — over legislation that would block researchers from sharing their work. And for some, it...
Why connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot is about to get easier
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS GigaOM
In the near future, getting your smartphone, tablet or laptop connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot won’t be an exercise in frustration or require annoying pop-up log-in screens. The Wi-Fi Alliance will begin to certify wireless devices for its industry-wide Passpoint initiative this July. With devices using the Passpoint standard, users will be able to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots without having to enter logon credentials with each connection...
We’re not out of spectrum. Let’s talk terahertz
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS GigaOM
I know we’re freaked out about spectrum shortages in the U.S. as we clutch our iPhones and download the latest cute kitten video on YouTube, but new advances in chip technology could help alleviate these concerns. Thanks to recent research at the University of Texas at Dallas and the Semiconductor Research Corporation, we may soon be able to tap into the terahertz wavelengths that are hovering out there at the edge of the infrared band...
Apple sued by patent holding company Brandywine over voicemail
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012
BLOGS GigaOM
Apple is being sued by Brandywine Communications Technologies over multimedia voicemail in its iPhone and iPad products. In the complaint filed in the U.S. district court for the middle district of Florida Tuesday, Brandywine claims that Apple is infringing on two patents it owns related to mobile voicemail.
The patents in question are No. 6,236,717 and No. 5,719,922, which are very similar, and both are described as covering a &...
Dreamhost Coupon