Android ups lead over iOS on mobile ad network

Android has strengthened its leading position as the most popular smartphone platform on Millennial Media’s mobile ad network, according to the company’s January Mobile Mix report. For January, Google’s mobile OS captured 54 percent of all ad impressions seen on smartphone platforms on the network, up from 46 percent in December. At the same time, …

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HTC chief: “We are very committed to Windows Mobile”

Will HTC continue to make Windows Phone 7 handsets? Yes, according to chief executive Peter Chou. He was asked the question on stage during a Mobile World Congress panel session this afternoon. It’s not a silly question to ask, given Microsoft’s recent buddy-buddy act with Nokia, and more importantly, the promise that Nokia’s engineers will be working with their Microsoft …

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Microsoft’s ecosystem is a tough sell to Verizon

BARCELONA, Spain–Verizon Communications Chief Technology Officer Tony Melone would love to see a third player in the mobile OS market, but Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform may not be it. Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone. Verizon Wireless Melone said during an interview yesterday at the Mobile World Congress here, that it is important for the mobile industry to have more than …

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Can’t make the meeting? Attend it remotely with free Join.me app

You’re stuck in a cross-town taxi. An important meeting is just getting under way at the office. What do you do? What do you do? You can dial in, of course, but then you’ll be missing out on all the visuals: slide decks, spreadsheets, and so on. Solution: fire up Join.me, a universal application that lets you connect to remote …

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Netflix Android

Qualcomm announced this week that future Android devices running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform will have support for streaming television shows and movies through Netflix. The on-demand service has long been a desired feature for phones and tablets. Currently, the only Netflix option for Android users is to watch through Google TV. According to a press release issued yesterday, the holdup was …

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GetJar aiming to rival Android Market

App store GetJar plans to “aggressively expand” its software for Android devices with at least part of a new $25 million funding round. GetJar, which started its app shop in 2005, touts itself as the world’s largest open app store and the second largest app store behind Apple’s. GetJar boasts more than 1.5 billion downloads to date for multiple mobile …

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MWC Day 2 wrap

The second day of Mobile World Congress has come to a close, and while it’s a little slower than the last few days, there was still plenty to see in Barcelona. The big news of the day was from HTC, which introduced several new phones including the so-called “Facebook phones”–the HTC ChaCha and the HTC Salsa–which apparently might have Android …

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Did HTC just out Android 2.4? Not quite

We could scarcely believe our eyes when we read in HTC’s press release last night that both the HTC Salsa and ChaCha “Facebook phones” will run Android 2.4, Gingerbread’s successor. Android 2.4? That at first seemed unlikely given several factors–the fact that Android developers are just starting to roll out Gingerbread 2.3 phones at this show and elsewhere, the fact …

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Mobile operators warn regulators to back off

Executives from the some of the world’s largest wireless operators participated in a keynote event at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona. Stephen Shankland/CNET BARCELONA, Spain–The recession is over and wireless operators are finally growing again, but they are warning regulators in Europe, Latin America, and the United States to keep their paws off. CEOs from some of the largest …

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Carriers try outflanking app stores with WAC

China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou cautions against carriers becoming "dumb pipes," WAC is central to that effort. Stephen Shankland/CNET Nokia and Microsoft want to create a “third ecosystem” to rival the mobile phone realms built by Apple and Google–but carriers have an even broader alternative of their own. Last year at the Mobile World Congress show, a group of them …

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Should HTC have waited for a Honeycomb Flyer?

As you probably know by now, HTC has officially unveiled its first Android tablet, the 7-inch Flyer. With all the major players recently announcing new tablets, it was only a matter of time before the Taiwanese manufacturer threw its hat into the ring. In terms of hardware, it has pretty much everything we were expecting. Thanks to its 1.5GHz processor, …

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Foursquare wants to change your behaviour (but only in a positive way)

Think Foursquare is just about bagging the mayorship to your local kebab house or getting a discount on your Starbucks coffee? Think again. The social location service wants you to shape up, and wish your friends a happy birthday. Its VP of mobile and partnerships, Holger Luedorf, explained Foursquare’s moral purpose in a social-networking panel this afternoon at Mobile World …

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Rumor: iPhone 5 to feature A5 processor, iPad 2 stays with A4

The oft-quoted DigiTimes, a Taiwanese tech industry favorite publication, has revealed that Apple is outsourcing the production of its A5 processor chip, which many expect will be based on the ARM Cortex A9 design and used in the forthcoming iPhone 5, to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. AppleInsider reports that Apple’s A4 chip is currently produced by Samsung Electronics, but the …

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HTC Flyer joins the tablet wars

BARCELONA, Spain–With Apple, Samsung, LG, and Motorola all entering the tablet space, you had to know HTC would join them sooner or later, so we can’t say we were completely surprised when the Taiwanese handset manufacturer unveiled its first tablet today at Mobile World Congress 2011. Everyone, meet the HTC Flyer. This Android 2.4 2.3-based tablet features a 7-inch Super …

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HTC Desire owners face long wait for Android 2.3 Gingerbread update

The HTC Desire and its desirable siblings will receive an update to Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but owners could be facing a long wait. The current Desire range won’t be updated until after the new Desire S launches in spring. A HTC representative confirmed that the phones would be upgrading to Gingerbread during our natter at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but he …

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