After a month of beta testing, Mozilla has released its official Firefox app for Android.
The app “sports a slick new interface, incredibly fast startup and browsing speeds, support for Adobe Flash, and new HTML5 features,” reports VentureBeat.
The Firefox app functions with Android 2.2 devices and higher, while Google’s Chrome beta app only works on Android 4.0 devices. “That gives the new Firefox a potential market of around 94 percent of Android devices, while Chrome only has 7 percent of the market running Android 4.0 or newer,” according to the post.
“The new Android Firefox app isn’t just fast, it’s also gorgeous,” notes VentureBeat. “When you first launch it, you’re presented with a start screen that features your most recently and frequently visited sites. There’s a new tab interface that’s a far leap beyond the previous Firefox app, and the mere act of scrolling through websites feels smoother.”
Although Firefox claims to operate up to two times as fast as Chrome, the hands-on review suggests that the two services on average operate at similar speeds on most sites.
Verizon and T-Mobile have agreed to an Advanced Wireless Services spectrum swap that would add LTE capabilities to T-Mobile’s network, reports CNET. The deal must first secure approval from the FCC, and then would allow T-Mobile to begin building its LTE support.
“For iPhone users, this deal is particularly interesting, especially if you’ve already been using Apple’s smartphone on T-Mobile’s existing HSPA+ network,” notes the post. “T-Mobile already offers tremendous support for the iPhone on its network even though it is not officially part of Apple’s sales partnership.”
Current iPhone models do not support LTE connectivity, although the long rumored iPhone 5 would presumably include this technology. T-Mobile is clearly preparing for this release.
“By adding 4G speeds, T-Mobile would have to be high on Apple’s partner list (and high on the lists of iPad owners looking for cheaper data plans), though no official deals have been announced” explains CNET.
The trailer for “Breaking Dawn – Part 2” — the final installment of the “Twilight” series — has broken the Yahoo! Movies record for unique streams with over 7 million views in 24 hours.
“Yahoo! Movies attracts over 27 million unique users a month, so 7 million streams is a sizable achievement for a single day,” explains a Yahoo! spokesman.
“Twilight” studio Summit released its trailer on Wednesday in an exclusive window partnership with Yahoo! Movies for 24 hours. The previous record-holder was “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.” Even though the trailer is no longer an exclusive, its viewing numbers are holding strong.
In October 2011 users downloaded “The Avengers” trailer on iTunes 10 million times in one day. In December 2011 the trailer for “The Dark Knight Rises” received 12.5 million downloads in a single day.
“It’s possible that the discrepancy may be the size of the different platforms — ‘Breaking Dawn – Part 2’ was, after all, a record breaker for Yahoo! — or simply a commentary on the ways in which different audiences interact with material offered to them, but it’s also a strong possibility that, in this year’s conflict between superheroes and vampire romance, it’s the guys in the skintight suits who’ll emerge victorious,” comments Digital Trends.
“Apple is making potentially significant changes to the search algorithm in the App Store, at least according to some app developers,” reports TechCrunch.
“If you’re a developer or publisher counting on a well-chosen name to help with visibility, things could get tougher from here on out. But if you’re a popular and well-reviewed app, things might be looking up,” notes the post.
Apple acquired app discovery start-up Chomp in February, but developers are just beginning to see the results of its topic detection.
Developers report changes in Apple’s search algorithm which seems to now focus more on downloads, ratings, and themes rather than simple keywords.
“Chomp’s proprietary algorithm learns the functions and topics of apps, so you can search based on what apps do, not just what they’re called,” explains Chomp.
TechCrunch uses the BestParking app as an example, noting that this app is now displayed as the top result for searches such as “chicago parking” and “sf parking.” The post notes that this change benefits generalized apps that serve multiple geographies and possibly hurts app developers who focus on local markets.
Search giant Google doubled its global ad and promotion spending to $1.5 billion last year. “Factor in 2011 ad spending for just-acquired Motorola Mobility Holdings, and Google is now a $2.1 billion global advertiser,” reports Advertising Age.
Google receives most of its revenue through advertising, with 96 percent of its $38 billion revenue in 2011 coming from advertising.
Ad Age notes that Google is also a big ad buyer: “Google’s stated worldwide advertising and promotion spending doubled in 2010 and doubled again in 2011. Ad and promo spending as a percentage of revenue reached 4.1 percent in 2011, up from 2.6 percent in 2010 and 1.5 percent in 2009.”
“Estimated U.S. ad spending for Google and Motorola topped $1 billion in 2011, placing the combined company No. 34 on Ad Age‘s ranking of the 100 Leading National Advertisers,” adds the article. “This marks Google’s debut on the list.”
According to Google: “We expect that sales and marketing expenses will increase in dollar amount and may increase as a percentage of revenues in 2012 and future periods as we expand our business globally, increase advertising and promotional expenditures in connection with new and existing products, and increase the level of service we provide to our advertisers … and other partners.”
Facebook announced it will replace its Facebook Credits system with a payment system that allows global users to pay in their local currency.
The move signals the beginning of a payment rivalry between Facebook, PayPal, Google Wallet, and iTunes, reports VentureBeat.
Facebook explained the move, saying that it makes “it easier to reach a global audience of Facebook users who want a way to pay for your apps and games in their local currency” because “you will be able to set more granular and consistent prices for non-U.S. users and price the same item differently on a market-by-market basis.”
VentureBeat contributor Rocky Agrawal noted that “Facebook is PayPal on steroids, with the strength of a billion members.”
Perhaps this move, and not advertising, is the most effective way for Facebook to monetize its massive user base.
The U.S. State Department is proposing to increase its efforts in monitoring social media sites by asking software developers to create multilingual tools that can perform “deep analysis of topics, conversations, networks, and influencers of the global social Web.”
The government believes that close inspection of social sites will “more effectively engage with foreign populations and track conversations in the wider world.”
Related efforts have already been in the works. For example, the State Department recently launched the trial run of a social media game that offers public users cash rewards for identifying criminals.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Social Networking/Media Capability program monitors online activity to gather awareness of individuals’ behavior.
“In addition, the FBI is working to persuade Facebook, Google and other Internet companies to make their sites friendly to wiretapping,” reports Mobiledia. “Bureau agents argue the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, originally passed to permit phone tapping, should extend to social media sites as well.”
The article notes that it seems ironic these initiatives come from the same administration that recently criticized Syria for shutting down social media sites in an attempt to quiet dissidents.
“This prevents people from speaking their minds,” said Ginger McCall of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “It quells dissent.”
As CE devices continue to integrate new features, developers want to make the complexity visible. “But all the features in the world don’t mean a thing if you can’t present them in a welcoming, intuitive way,” argues Sam Grobart in The New York Times.
Grobart cites Samsung’s Smart TVs as an example of a product line with impressive functionality, but often frustrating design. The TVs essentially mimic smartphone designs with floating applications over a background, but while smartphone users can click to launch applications, the approach does not work as well on a television as it creates what Grobart describes as “a new source of confusion right on my screen.”
Grobart suggests part of the problem may stem from a need to boast impressive functionality. “I can see how this layout came to be,” he writes. “First, a TV like this can do a lot of things, so wouldn’t you want everyone to know all the great things it did? You don’t want to hide your capabilities, so you give many of them pride of place on that opening screen.”
Whereas smartphones thrive using touch-based systems, “an interface that is based on touch and proximity may not play as well on a TV. Seeing all these options in front of me on a 60-inch screen was almost overwhelming, not simplifying,” he explains.
Grobart closes with some advice for manufacturers: “If you are going to cram a device full of features, figure out a way to organize things so your users don’t pass out from frustration. The interface is every bit as important as the features. Maybe even more important, actually.”
According to the report “Choosing Content: Viewing Video” by Parks Associates, “17 percent of premium cable channel customers and 16 percent of video-on-demand pay-per-view customers would consider using an online subscription service such as Netflix Watch Instantly instead of their current viewing choice,” reports Digital Trends.
Netflix receives higher customer satisfaction ratings because it has more material available and boasts a lower price point.
“Consumers can pay for a month of Netflix for about the same amount as for two pay-TV VOD movies. Parks Associates research shows consumers know the quality of the [subscription] service is not comparable to pay-TV quality, but the cost-benefit comparison is enough to affect their purchase decisions,” notes Brett Sappington, director of research for Parks Associates.
In a related Forbes article, Mark Rogowsky argues that while cable purchases used to be the norm when moving into a home or apartment, today’s younger generations skirt the system using Internet television solutions and illegal websites.
“Given that excess disposable income doesn’t appear headed for the wallets of twentysomethings in the U.S. anytime soon (and even if it were, it’s not clear they’d rush to sign up for cable),” writes Rogowsky, “there’s a real possibility that over time, multichannel penetration in the U.S. will drop off meaningfully from the current 90-plus-percent level as the current customers die and the prospective new customers don’t automatically opt in.”
Digital Trends suggests that cord-cutting may soon become less of a concern for television companies than consumers who never establish cords to begin with: “It’s not that people will give up their television for the Internet, but if the Internet can convince people who’ve never really had a cable subscription before that they don’t even need one… Well, that could be a real problem.”
Former Microsoft executive Fritz Lanman has launched Livestar, a an iOS app intended to supply “trusted” recommendations for restaurants, movies and music.
While the app currently only offers three categories of recommendations, Lanman hopes to expand to “wine, clothing, books, bars, hotels, and shows,” reports TechCrunch.
“We can just keep turning on more and more categories, just like Amazon did, using the same infrastructure/architecture,” explains Lanman.
Users access Livestar through their Facebook login and can access their friends’ reviews. Livestar also allows users to refine searches using keywords to better define categories.
“Livestar pre-computes restaurants your friends are likely to recommend, simplifying the process even further,” notes the post. “If a friend’s recommendation isn’t pre-populated, Livestar lets them enter it in.”
The advertising model for Video On Demand will soon change. Some cable operators, including Comcast, allow users to fast-forward through commercials while viewing On Demand content, but operators plan to change this within the next few months in an attempt to better monetize the service.
“We have 400 million monthly VoD views on Comcast. I’d love to have a dollar for every view,” explains Chip Meehan, Comcast Spotlight’s West regional VP of integrated media sales.
Meehan also projects a “tenfold” increase in ad impressions for Comcast’s VoD content within the next year.
VoD will change by offering dynamically inserted ads. Whereas current VoD offerings often show the same advertisement during every commercial break, the new ads will make the experience “more like linear TV,” according to Scott Criley, the director of new media at Harris’s Broadcast Communications division.
“That’s something that’ll appeal to viewers, advertisers and content providers, but it’s not enough to ensure the uptick in ad revenue for Comcast; that’s why they’ve also disabled the ‘trick-play’ (fast-forward) capability for a lot of their VoD content,” reports Digital Trends.
Verizon announced it will expand its 4G LTE network to 46 new markets and will introduce expanded coverage to 22 existing markets this week.
The move will push Verizon’s 4G coverage to 304 markets. The company hopes to cover 400 markets by the end of the year.
“Verizon isn’t the most popular carrier right now, as it looks to begin killing off grandfathered unlimited data plans in favor of capped plans and family share plans starting June 28,” reports CNET.
“The carrier, however, has often touted itself as the premium player in the market because of the perceived superiority of the quality of its network,” notes the post. “Verizon was the first major carrier to move to LTE, something the other carriers have all committed to or are in the process of rolling out.”
Currently, AT&T covers only 39 LTE markets. Sprint is in the process of covering its first six and T-Mobile USA plans to begin 4G coverage by next year.
AT&T has wider 4G coverage on its HSPA+ networks, although the technology has slower data speeds than LTE.
Sharp has added a 90-inch television to its AQUOS line, the largest LED TV available in the United States.
The massive 1080p TV nearly triples the viewing area of a 55-inch HD units. Customers may have some difficulty mounting it on the wall, however, as it weighs 141 pounds and is 5-inches thick.
The Sharp LC-90LE745U features “a 120Hz refresh rate as well as Sharp’s AquoMotion 240 technology that helps avoid blurring images during fast-paced scenes in action movies or live sporting events,” reports Digital Trends. “In addition, the television is ready for 3D playback and comes with two pairs of active-shutter glasses.”
With built in Wi-Fi, the SmartCentral user interface offers access to apps such as CinemaNow, Facebook, Hulu Plus, Netflix, Twitter, Vudu and YouTube. Video chats are made possible through Skype (camera sold separately).
“Related to the Wi-Fi connectivity, Sharp has included a service called ‘Aquos Advantage Live’ that allows a trained technician to connect to the television remotely and accurately calibrate color levels,” notes the post. “This could be particularly helpful when another family member screws up the settings when fooling around in the television menu.”
Despite its colossal size, the television only consumes about as much energy as two 75-watt light bulbs. This translates to about $28 in annual energy costs for a typical consumer.
Facebook has introduced a new tracking service called Facebook Exchange. The service allows advertising companies to use cookies to track users after they visit the social network, and then allows the companies to bid on advertising space.
The tracking mechanism allows companies access to users’ Web browsing after they leave Facebook.com.
“So a Facebook user who visits a travel Web site to buy airline tickets but does not complete the purchase may see an ad on Facebook that will allow them to do just that,” reports The New York Times. “Facebook is only displaying the traditional thumbnail ads that users see in the right hand column of the page and not other ads like sponsored stories or mobile ads.”
Facebook assured users that it will not share any more data with advertisers, and users can opt out of the service either by disabling cookies in their browsers or by going to the “About Ads” page on Facebook.
Facebook hopes to take a step toward addressing its mobile challenges with real-time location-based advertisements.
“Phones can be location-specific so you can start to imagine what the product evolution might look like over time, particularly for retailers,” said Carolyn Everson, Facebook vice president of global marketing solutions. “We’ve had offers being tested over the last couple of months.”
“The holy grail of advertising is finding people when they are at their closest point to making a purchase,” suggested stock analyst Colin Sebastian in an interview with Bloomberg. “Having some location-based element to advertising can be very powerful, and if you combine that with all the personal data Facebook has, the potential is enormous.”
Facebook wants to expand mobile-only news-feed advertisements, as this would allow Facebook to monetize its increased mobile use.
With Bloomberg projecting 80 percent mobile spending increases over last year, Facebook needs to figure out an effective mobile strategy, or its stock prices may plummet even further.
After a month of beta testing, Mozilla has released its official Firefox app for Android.
