mobile apps

Facebook: Mobile could be our worst enemy

Buried in Facebook's filing for its much-ballyhooed initial public offering is the sort of contradiction that might sink a lesser company: The more that people use Facebook's mobile offerings, the worse the company's bottom line becomes.

That's because Facebook's mobile offerings don't feature display ads. Or as Texas Gov. Rick Perry was wont to say on another occasion, oops.

It's a pretty big oops.

To be fair, Facebook can pat itself on the back for turning out a product that's wildly popular with users. More than 425 million people were using Facebook … Read more

Magisto is magic at CES Mobile Apps Showdown

LAS VEGAS--Magisto took home the top prize in this year's CES Mobile Apps Showdown.

Amid a minefield of technical difficulties at the show, magical one-touch video editor Magisto and its well-rehearsed app demonstration emerged from today's CES Mobile Apps Showdown victorious.

The Mobile Apps Showdown featured 10 finalists, whittled down from dozens of total submissions. At the show, each developer had 4 minutes to pitch his app to the packed LVCC Conference room, and were ultimately judged by a good old-fashioned applause-o-meter.

Attendees were treated to presentations with flashy costumes, acted-out skits, and even a bit of … Read more

QNX demos mobile app platform in cloud-connected Porsche

LAS VEGAS--It's the classic show formula: put your product in the hands of an attractive model and people will look twice. In the case of QNX's new mobile app platform, the attractive model is the Porsche Carrera sports car.

As the cars of tomorrow gain Internet connections and applications, they'll need infotainment software that allows them to be as flexible and easily updated as your average smartphone. RIM subsidiary QNX Software Systems Limited thinks that the solution to that problem lies in the HTML5 framework and is showcasing its new HTML5-based QNX CAR 2 application platform at … Read more

Developers still favor Apple's iOS over Android

Despite the boom in Android's market share, Apple's iOS is still holding onto the hearts and minds of most app developers, says mobile analytics firm Flurry.

Analyzing both iOS and Android for a new study, Flurry calculated the number of new projects launched by developers on both platforms this past year.

Looking at more than 16,000 new app projects, stats for the fourth quarter alone showed 73 percent of developers choosing to target iOS and 27 percent opting for Android.

Those percentages were virtually the same for the previous two quarters but showed an increase from the … Read more

There's an app for that... but why?

I love mobile apps, which is a good thing since a big part of my job is reviewing them. But there are apps I see that make me ask, "Why is this an app at all?"

Case in point: Credit Sesame. This service is the Mint of debt. The Web site will tell you what you owe and how you can reduce your monthly payments (usually by signing up for new mortgages or credit cards). It also gives you your Experian "National Equivalency" credit score, which, I'm told, is a score that "lenders are … Read more

Facebook, Nielsen to devs: Smartphones are your future

SAN FRANCISCO--The U.S. is becoming a smartphone nation.

Today at the AppNation conference here, Doug Purdy, Facebook's director of developer relations, reminded the developers in the audience of the existence of the recently updated Facebook Platform for Mobile. Then, to emphasize the imperative for developers to focus on the mobile platform, he was followed by Jonathan Carson of Nielsen, who rolled out adoption figures that made it clear that the action in development has definitively moved to the mobile space.

Facebook: We're serious about mobile While Facebook announced a platform for mobile in 2007 (see this blog post … Read more

Apple, Google kneecap 'universal' content rating for apps

Smartphone-app makers have a new way to classify age-specific ratings for their software using an already-popular program, but some of the biggest players in the mobile-app business are not on board with its launch.

Wireless-industry trade group CTIA and the Entertainment Software Rating Board today formally announced a system that lets developers assign a rating to their game, letting users and parents get an idea of its content before download or purchase.

Under the free program, developers designate what types of content are in the software. That information is turned into an age-specific rating assigned by the ESRB, which the … Read more

Facebook's Buffy: The Smartphone Slayer

Amazon is selling many smartphones for just a penny through Cyber Monday, Microsoft uses bacon to entice potential employees to its Kinect for Windows group, and Facebook may be working on a smartphone with HTC codenamed Buffy after the TV show.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Facebook's Buffy: The Smartphone Slayer Mobile app content ratings Bacon bonuses for Microsoft employees Adobe's new pricing scheme Amazon sells 1-cent non-iPhone smartphones Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (HD) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS HD

Mobile app content ratings system to debut next week

Next week brings the unveiling of a new rating system for mobile applications, akin to what the video game industry has used for the past 17 years.

The CTIA-The Wireless Association today said that it's taking the wraps off a new mobile application rating system early next week with with the help of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). That's the self-regulating body that reviews and assigns age appropriate ratings to video games.

The original initiative (PDF) behind a mobile apps rating system was launched by the CTIA near the end of March and calls for "voluntary self-certification of apps." The program seeks to have app-makers define the content within their creations based on a specific set of ratings and guidelines. The end result is a system the CTIA hopes will give consumers "more informed choices" when using applications on mobile devices.

On the docket to talk at the unveiling, which takes place on November 29, are U.S. Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), alongside CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent and ESRB President Patricia Vance. … Read more