Today brings us a small slew of mobile related acquisitions. Starting with atel-Lucent who look to extend their range of mobile applications through an acquisition of OpenPlug through the company’s ELIPS Studio. This product is a developer tool, which allows developers to write an application once and have it translated automatically across multiple platforms. From the Alcatel-Lucent, While demand for mobile apps is peaking, so is the fragmentation of mobile development platforms and tools,” said Michael Cote, analyst for Redmonk. “This makes it very expensive to target all devices and can lead to putting all your eggs in one, often tightly controlled basket, like Apple's, or doing a least-common denominator, mobile web app that c

Another buy for Google, with the acquisition of SocialDeck, as announced on its homepage. Just last week, we posted an info-graphic about Google’s acquisition history. One of the revelations from this graphic happens to be Google’s recent foray into gaming—and while this buy is no exception, it also thrusts them further into the social media market. According to Chris Morrison at Inside Social Games, this could put Google head-to-head with Facebook as he writes, Google’s gaming interest is obviously with Android. But it’s also reportedly working on a social platform to rival Facebook; Google’s technology plans could be advanced by SocialDeck’s experience in extending the social experience across multiple devices. With tha

Joining a litany of devices that are already Netflix capable—like the Wii, PS3, Xbox360, PC, iPad, and iPad Touch—the iPhone is the newest into the fold. Subscribers to the DVD-by-mail and watch-on-demand company will have instant access to this product as long as they run iPhone OS 3.1.3 or higher. Starting at only $8.99 a month, subscriptions are competitively priced. The app streams video as well as gives users access to their instant queue, rating system, show details, and the genre search. As will all Netflix titles, you can stop in the midst of watching on any one device and pick up in the same place you left off on another. A feature that I’ve used more than once to move around the house without disrupting the continuity of

Google Voice and Gmail may be getting hitched, allowing users to make phone calls via Google Voice through the GTalk IM interface or directly from their mail in-box. According to the CNET article, "...Google is testing a Web-based service within Gmail that will allow users to place phone calls from their in-boxes. It's launched from the Google Chat window on the lower left-hand side of a Gmail page and allows users to place and receive calls from within their contacts through a user interface that strongly resembles the one used in Google Voice." Google Voice has been a great boon for people who want to keep records of their voicemails online, or to keep their normal phone number private, but as a service it has always routed calls thr

The release of Facebook Places has paved way to some privacy issues in the iPhone application. One of the major flaws of Facebook for iPhone users is the default privacy settings, which keep mobile updates public by default.  If there was ever a time to improve the mobile settings around Facebook, it would be now. Facebook Places is still a new feature, and you can only make the most of your privacy settings if you're sitting behind your computer screen. This resulted in the release of a newer version of the iPhone app for users to set their privacy settings to a selected few, and to individually tweak each setting to keep personal stuff on the hush-hush. From Facebook: "...updates include more granular privacy settings, a snappier i

Appolicious already provides resources for iPhone and iPad users to discover apps for those platforms have decided to diversify further into the app market by adding the Android and Yahoo! platforms. They write over at the Appolicious Adviser, Leveraging the technology and institutional expertise of Appolicious - which combines social networking, journalism and a cutting edge federated search tool - AndroidApps.com and yap.appolicious.com will help consumers source and share mobile and web-based applications that are most relevant to them. Appolicious features including Curated Lists, the app Library Builder and the ability to rate and write reviews for individual apps are all available on AndroidApps.com and yap.appolicious.com. As w

Apple has announced the closing of Quattro Wireless network for advertisements till September 30th, the mobile ad network it acquired within the past year.  The purpose of this move is to concentrate on the iAds mobile advertisement.  Andy Miller, VP of iAds at Apple describes the product and Apple's policy about it, in a letter as follows : iAds are captivating viewers with high-quality video and rich media experiences, engaging customers like never before and already delivering dramatic results. Advertisers are seeing a huge spike in the amount of time customers spend watching and interacting with ads, making them more comparable to television advertising than traditional online ads, and developers are thrilled with this new sourc

Diversity is key for mobile advertisers, as operating systems and devices become more attuned to consumer needs. The July 2010 Mobile Mix report from Millennial Media notes this trend, witnessing a widening sea of advertisements, applications and verticals across a number of mobile operating systems. Android Takeover The days of Apple iPhone domination have ended for the time being, and this is reiterated with the persistent adoption of Android’s mobile platform. It’s not just a fad—Android has now become the second-largest OS on Millennial Media’s platform for the first time since the mobile advertising network began reporting the OS mix in August 2009. Even more interesting is the growing domination of the Motorola

After the promise of Apple’s iAds helped to soften the potential blow of Google’s growing Android influence, it looks like iAds hasn’t been able to follow through on all the hype. Apple’s mobile advertising platform is suffering from some control issues on Apple’s end, which is apparently stifling some creativity from the marketers’ perspectives. Reports today reveal the slowed completion process of early advertisers utilizing iAds, resulting in only a handful of campaigns actually coming to fruition. The 8-10 week process, longer than expected for most mobile ads, has been an obstacle for these early advertisers, which include Citigroup, Disney and J.C. Penney Co., which has high hopes for campaigning around the back-t-sch

Back in Janurary we learned of YMAX’s plans for a femtocall gadget, which would enable free VoIP calls to landlines and cell phones, giving some oft-needed boosting power to your mobile devices, such as the iPhone or iPad. And the service comes from a brand with which you’re already familiar--magicJack. What makes YMAX’s upcoming femtocall service, called magicTalk, different from other free VoIP tools like Google Voice is that its service is free with fewer restrictions, such as time limits on calls. The focus on mobile devices is a big plus for consumers, particularly as YMAX looks to apply its radical idealogy to yet another everyday activity--making calls from your cell phone. We’ve already had to wait 6+ months for YMA