Hey Google, it's 2010 and this is your wake up call. Buy Skype. If I were at Google corp dev I'd be running those numbers now. Get cracking Google. More on that below back to the news at hand. Today, Skype is announcing that they are making Skype available to more smartphone users - hello Nokia and Symbian. In the announcement more than 200 million smartphone users worldwide now have Skype at their fingertips. Skype and Nokia jointly released Skype for Symbian, a Skype client for Nokia smartphones based on the Symbian platform, the world’s most popular smartphone platform. Skype for Symbian enables Skype to be used over either a WiFi or mobile data connection (GPRS, EDGE, 3G) This is a much need shot in the arm for Nokia wh

Well, both touchscreen tablets are coming out this spring? Both have interesting publicity, fans and naysayers. What's the hard facts though? The Apple iPad: Price tag of $499-$829 according to data plan and/or connectivity iPad screen 9.7 inches iPad battery 10 hours 1GH apple chip 1/2 inch thick multi-touch wifi+3g enabled The Joo Joo: $499 price tag Capacitive touchscreen display. It directly (9 seconds) boots into a web browser. 12.1-inch display with 1366 x 768 resolution USB 2.0 port, WiFi, Bluetooth, and audio / headset I wish we had more choices. The Microsoft Courier is a distant dream and the Dell mini 5 is only 5inches so that's not an option, really. What

I spotted a surprising article today over at Gizmodo.  It was surprising not for the fact that it deemed talked about piracy in general, but the attitude it treated piracy.  The story focused around Apple App Store piracy, which it found in general to be at about 10% or less for most apps, and deemed it not a big deal. Here’s the money quote: At first I found many developers' silence on the issue curious. But after talking to a few, and finding out the scale of the problem, it makes sense: An app developer has nothing to gain by taking their fight public — Apple is clearly aware of the issue, and it's not like you can somehow convince hardcore pirates to start paying for all the dozens of apps they steal, because they we

How sad. This is just Windows Vista all over again. In efforts to make us buy new hardware, Windows Phone 7 will not work on devices slower than  1ghz and with more than 3 buttons? Despite the HD2 meeting many of the criteria laid down in Microsoft’s ‘Chassis 1’ spec – including a 1GHz Qualcomm processor, high-res capacitive touch display, 5 megapixel camera and 3.5mm headphone jack – the phone will be ruled out for the simple reason that it has five buttons instead of the three mandated for all Windows Phone 7 devices. That means the shiny new HTC HD2 you broke the bank for is now worthless. That also means any new apps developed for the narrow minded 7 series won't work on your 6.x phone. Way to go M$FT, bring us int

MG Siegler on Techcrunch mentioned the other day that the location-based software company Foursquare is airing their first commercial on cable TV channel Bravo. Are we ready for that? While it is true Google has added that feature to their new product Buzz  and Maps, the question remains whether we really need to show and check where everyone is? I added that function to my in-laws' smartphone because they were always calling me asking directions to certain destinations while enroute to the place. Connecting them to Google's Latitude was the logical step to them and me. I'm not so sure that same practicality applies with Foursquare, though. Just the fact that sites inciting crime are brave enough to capitalize on location based a

Mobile World Congress (#mwc10) was a great trip last week. One thing was crystal clear mobile everything (networking gear, operators, developers, devices, and services) is all about applications. In previous years Mobile World Congress was about the mobile Internet, but this year it was all about apps. This is why it's exciting to see Millennial Media buy up a small startup in the analytic space. This past week Millennial Media announced the acquisition of a small analytics startup in San Francisco called TapMetrics. Over the past 6 months the big firms Google and Apple have picked up two of the top mobile ad companies - Google bought AdMob and Apple bought Quattro. Now Millennial Media stands alone in the market as the largest indep

Millennial Media today is going to announce an acquisition today of real time analytics firm TapMetrics. A source today sent us an advance copy of the press release due to hit the wires this morning. Today’s acquisition is just another in a long line of mergers, acquisitions and partnerships to fundamentally alter the shape of the mobile monetization world in recent weeks. You could say that the clues things would heat up just after last summer when AdMob purchased rival AdWhirl, but the latest round of M&A really kicked off when Google acquired AdMob for $750 Million in stock (and subsequently purchased Gizmo5 to merge into it’s Google Voice platform). A few days later, Millennial Media secured their $16M C funding round and a fe

There's a mobile battle brewing out there. The iPad, smartphones with big screens, netbooks and Kindle-like devices are all vying for our attention. Thanks to the iPhone, people are viewing the internet while mobile in record numbers. Can just one internet platform prevail? Not really. The great thing about choice is that you have several. Clear 4G is trying to better our choice in Philadelphia with highspeed internet via WiMax. Who can use it? At just 25/month anyone with windows and an USB port can use it. The real question though is who needs it? Most phone carriers are selling smartphones like hotcakes. Along with that slick devices is a mandatory data plan so who's going to use WiMax when you can just use your phone? One of my clie

Back in December when Millennial Media launched their 2010 mobile ad predictions, they said that 2010 is not going to be the Year of Mobile, because 2009 was.  Advertisers asked us for more proof points on that assertion, but Millennial wasn’t able to share year end information at that time.  Now they can. This year-end summary is based on observed traffic, server log reports, and other sources on our network.  Since Millennial Media is the largest mobile ad platform, we anticipate much of this data is fairly representative of the industry as a whole. Some Highlights Brand business grew 756% (brands really embraced mobile in ’09, especially compared to performance advertisers) Average deal size increased 35

Sounds like Microsoft has serious iPhone envy. We all knew they were going to integrate the Zune into it. The Xbox features are a plus, but how about the dedication to form factor? For Microsoft to say that the form won't change across phone manufacturers is … brave. My worst nightmare though is that they will scrap their mobile business plan. If anything create one for work and one for play. Apparently I'm not alone. Here's an email I received from one angry developer... Tam Hanna, Tamoggemon's CEO said: "When I saw the slides, one thing was clear for me: this is an iPhone clone. Windows Mobile as we know it is dead! If my XPERIA X1 would run that, I'd ditch it ASAP" Microsoft has attempted to out-iPhone the iPhone, and h