News
How Siri, Google Now Respond to 5 Questions
April 30, 2013 9:29 am | by Associated Press | CommentsWith Google's voice assistant now available on iPhones and iPads, The Associated Press used an iPad Mini to throw five test questions at Google Now and Siri on Monday afternoon in New York. Here's what the two digital assistants had to say for themselves...
IBM’s MessageSight Looks Ready to Deal With the “Internet of Things”
April 30, 2013 9:01 am | by Ben Munson | CommentsIBM’s looking big picture at the needs of a smarter planet with the unveiling of its new appliance, MessageSight, which could come in handy once the “Internet of things” blows up in the consumer market. The message hub comes ready to handle the galaxy of micro-transactions connected devices...
Clearwire Draws Sprint Funding for Third Straight Month
April 30, 2013 8:55 am | by Ben Munson | CommentsAfter declining funding from Sprint in January and February, Clearwire has elected to take the funding for May, making it three straight months of $80 million draws for a grand total of $240 million. The initial offer from Sprint totaled $800 million to be lent...
IBM Hits Refresh On Its Mobile First Focus
April 29, 2013 4:40 pm | by Ben Munson | CommentsIBM Monday announced updates to the “Mobile First” initiative it has adopted toward its integrations with enterprise customers. At the kickoff to its annual Impact conference Tuesday morning, the recurring message was “Business. In Motion,” and that mantra materialized in numerous new products and updates to existing offerings in IBM’s portfolio.
First News Briefs for April 29, 2013
April 29, 2013 11:01 am | by Wireless Week Staff | CommentsMyriad Group AG, the company creating and connecting communities across mobile and TV, today announces that it has completed the acquisition of RCS products and intellectual property from Metaswitch. The acquisition enables Myriad to extend and enhance the social messaging portfolio it provides to network operators...
SoftBank Allows Sprint to Conduct Talks with Dish
April 29, 2013 10:49 am | by Associated Press | CommentsSprint Nextel says SoftBank is allowing it to seek more information from Dish Network related to its rival bid for the third-largest U.S. cellphone company. Sprint has agreed to sell 70 percent of itself to Japan's Softbank Corp. for $20.1 billion. But it recently got a competing...
Google Now Update Hits iOS App
April 29, 2013 10:43 am | by Andrew Berg | CommentsGoogle continues to make inroads on iOS today with the launch of an update to its Google Search app. The company today announced it was adding Google Now functionality to its iOS app. Google Now is a kind of virtual assistant akin to Apple's Siri...
Report: Investors Pan Rumored $100B Verizon Bid for Vodafone's Share in VZW
April 29, 2013 10:12 am | by Andrew Berg | CommentsA Reuters report from Wednesday that claimed Verizon had hired advisers to prepare a $100 billion bid for Vodafone's 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless was apparently credible enough to provoke a response from major Vodafone investors...
Smartphones Overtake 'Dumb' Phones Worldwide
April 29, 2013 9:32 am | by Peter Svensson, AP Technology Writer | CommentsResearch firm IDC said more smartphones than "dumb" phones are being made this year, a milestone in a shift that's putting computing power and Internet access in millions of hands worldwide. Manufacturers shipped 216 million smartphones worldwide in the first three months of this year...
First News Briefs for April 26, 2013
April 26, 2013 10:29 am | by Wireless Week Staff | CommentsNexmo announced it has been selected by Line Corporation as an SMS API provider for its mobile service platform, LINE. With this announcement, Nexmo added LINE to its growing list of global messaging app customers, including Viber, KakaoTalk and ICQ.
Amazon Reports Lower 1Q Earnings, Higher Revenue
April 26, 2013 10:24 am | by Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer | CommentsAmazon.com Inc.'s net income declined in the first three months of the year even though revenue increased 22 percent, as the online retailer continued to spend heavily on order fulfillment and rights to digital content. The world's largest online retailer, which also sells the Kindle devices...
Samsung to Block Access to App Store in Iran
April 26, 2013 10:04 am | by Associated Press | CommentsIranian users of Samsung mobile applications said Thursday that the company had notified them that they will no longer have access to the company's online store as of May 22. The move is seen as part of international sanctions on the country over its disputed nuclear program...
Samsung Posts $6.5 Billion Profit
April 26, 2013 10:00 am | by Ben Munson | CommentsSamsung posted a gigantic $6.5 billion in profits for the first quarter of its fiscal 2013, up significantly from the same quarter last year when the company posted $4.5 billion. Overall sales for the quarter tallied $47.6 billion, down quarterly after the holidays but up from the $40.7 billion it posted in the first quarter of 2012.
AT&T Digital Life Launches in 15 Markets
April 26, 2013 9:54 am | by Andrew Berg | CommentsAT&T has officially launched its IP-based Digital Life home automation service in 15 markets, with plans to introduce the service in up to 50 markets by the end of 2013. The new service, which was announced last spring and has been trialing in Dallas and Atlanta, will be served up a la carte, depending on which aspects of their...
AVG Android App Hits 70M Downloads, Investors Cheer 1Q
April 25, 2013 10:58 am | CommentsAVG Technologies, which offers Internet and mobile security, is hitting a chord with Android users. The company said today that its flagship mobile product, AVG AntiVirus Free for Android has surpassed 70 million downloads on Google Play...
