mobile

Facebook's mobile ad revenue forecasted to skyrocket in 2013

Facebook's focus on upping its mobile ad presence over the last year seems to have paid off. Literally.

The social network is expected to make nearly $1 billion from mobile ad revenue in 2013, according to a report released today by market research firm eMarketer.

"Facebook, the No. 2 mobile ad publisher in the country, accounted for 9.5 percent of mobile ad revenues in 2012 and is expected to take 13.2 percent this year," eMarketer wrote in a blog post today. "In the mobile display market, however, Facebook is on top, projected to grab … Read more

Verizon CEO says he's open to dropping contracts

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam cracked open the door to a full no-contract wireless world.

McAdam said it was "pretty easy" to change up the model to eliminate contracts, and added that he would watch the consumer response that T-Mobile gets from its recent decision to drop contracts and phone subsidies altogether. He indicated a willingness to follow suit if consumers start asking for it.

"I'm happy when I see something different tried," McAdam told reporters on the sidelines of an event to raise awareness for Verizon's "Powerful Answers" initiative today. "We … Read more

Facebook and mobile browsing: Pretty much the same thing

New research from mobile analytics firm Flurry suggests that Facebook is so powerful a force on mobile that the social network has become synonymous with browsing on smartphones and tablets.

Facebook accounts for 18 percent of U.S. consumers' total time spent on smart devices, a percent that translates to more than 28 minutes per day on average, according to Flurry, which measures application usage on more than 1 billion monthly active smart devices.

Facebook's new home on Android: Catch our live coverage on Thursday at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET

The firm, which used its … Read more

Hyundai's E4U vehicle is an egg on training wheels

Segways are run of the mill these days. To turn heads with an unusual vehicle, you need something like the Hyundai E4U.

Recently unveiled at the ongoing 2013 Seoul Motor Show, the E4U is a one-seater that can move easily in any direction. It travels on a rotating front sphere and two rear training-wheel-like supports. Propulsion is controlled by foot pedals, which cause the spherical front to tilt.

In a demo at the car show, the pod moved at about walking speed, according to Japan's Nikkei Tech-On Web site, which provides us with this remarkable photo of the E4U and what must be some of the stupidest headgear ever conceived. … Read more

Get a Virgin Mobile Overdrive Pro 3G/4G mobile hot spot for $83.99

Remember back on Monday when I said I was the victim of flaky hotel Wi-Fi? It's true: I couldn't publish my Cheapskate post because my room had a weak, inconsistent signal. It was incredibly frustrating, like trying to work using a dial-up modem.

The smart thing would have been to pack a mobile hot spot. Of course, I don't want to get stuck with a two-year contract and hefty monthly fees for a gizmo I need only occasionally. That's why today's deal is so appealing.

For a limited time, Virgin Mobile has the Overdrive Pro 3G/4G mobile hot spot for $83.99 shipped. … Read more

FCC refuses to state the obvious: Mobile market is competitive

Late last month, the FCC issued its 16th Mobile Competition Report, a 400-page document that analyzes in detail the competitive landscape for mobile carriers and the ecosystem that surrounds them.

Congress charged the FCC with answering one simple question in the annual report: Is there "effective competition" in the mobile ecosystem?

But since the 2009 confirmation of Genachowski as the chairman, the FCC has refused to answer the question one way or the other. Here, as in its previous two reports, the commission comes tantalizingly close to the right conclusion, but then backs away from it in the … Read more

How T-Mobile's new service plans could change the industry

Imagine a world where you could take your mobile phone to any carrier you wanted.

You wouldn't be bound to a contract, and your phone would be free from technical constraints that make it impossible to use on other carriers' networks. And forget about that $700 price tag that left you wondering if you were buying a phone or a computer. In this new world order, pricing on smartphones would fall as quickly as the components inside them become commoditized, much like the prices of all consumer electronics. That means no need to cling to a service contract in … Read more

Twitter adds more 'Cards' for app and photo gallery embeds

When you see a photo, article summary, or video in a tweet from a Web site, it most likely was done with a feature called Twitter Cards. The social network announced today that it's expanding this feature to include "deep-links" to mobile apps and also offer up some new Cards, such as product information and photo galleries.

"We first introduced expanded Tweets with three card types: summary, photo, and player/video," Twitter's head of platform, Jason Costa, wrote in a blog post. "Since then, we've heard that publishers want to be able … Read more

T-Mobile said to provide LTE on unlocked iPhones on April 5

Unlocked iPhone 5 owners on T-Mobile's network might be able to update their devices to LTE a bit earlier than expected. According to TmoNews, the carrier is said to be sending out an update on April 5 that will enable LTE, Visual Voicemail, and more.

"The T-Mobile Carrier Update is a minor iOS software update that enables official iPhone support by T-Mobile," a notice sent to TmoNews says. "When installed, the software update enables a handful of capabilities like Visual Voicemail, MMS Settings, and Network/Device optimizations that customers do not have access to today. On … Read more