Category Archives: google
Confusion surrounds Google Hangouts & SMS support
Perhaps our Indian & Israeli readers can help us out
Well Google certainly knows how to confuse the Hell out of this particular GoMo News hack. And in the case of its recent release of Google Hangouts, the company has really got us scratching our heads. Initially we were just trying to ascertain whether Hangouts already supported SMS as an alternative communications’ medium. No we’re trying to ascertain where Hangouts fits into the scheme of things. We can definitely say we’ve got Hangouts working but we also need the help of our Indian and Israeli readers to investigate if SMS/text is genuinely supported. Continue reading
Microsoft overtakes Google in direct billing stakes
Not only the future but the present, too
The guys running the Windows Phone development blog here have come up with some very interesting stats on the WP ecosystem since the launch of Windows Phone 8. Microsoft has seen over a 100 per cent increase in app downloads and a nearly 140 per cent increase in paid app revenue. However, the most interesting revelation is that Windows Phone has added 15 new mobile operator billing partners since August 2012, That brings its total number of supported partners to 25 in 19 markets – which actually surpasses Google Play. As Michael Whelan, CEO with txtNation, points out, “Operator Billing is not only the future, it is the present.” It’s obviously the way to go. Continue reading
Adblock Plus adblocking software still desktop centric
Rating: Even though it zooms past 200 million downloads milestone
Adblock Plus has been trumpeting the fact that it has surpassed 200 million downloads for its adblocking add-on for browser. This has secured its official position as the number one most downloaded browser add-on of all time. However, as GoMo News pointed out in our previous story ‘Adblock Plus warns that 44% have heard of adblocking apps‘, the creators are still very much desktop-centric. We spoteed that only one per cent of those who download the Firefox version of the add-on are Android users. Continue reading
Brit retail consortium sees 198% growth in tablet searches
Rating: Importance of omnichannel offering highlighted
This week the latest BRC [British Retail Consortium]-Google online retail monitor results were released. Total search volumes from UK consumers searching tablet devices increased a staggering 198 per cent and growth on smartphone devices was an impressive 66 per cent. Significantly, total search volumes from UK consumers searching overseas retailers increased by 18 per cent in Q1 compared with the previous year. However, whilst total overseas searches for UK brands rose a modest 16 per, there was particular interest from North America with searches up 75 per cent. “This reinforces how critical it is for retailers to be visible across all digital channels in order to reach today’s hyper connected shoppers,” commented Adam Stewart, marketing director, Rakuten’s Play.com. Continue reading
BRC-Google online retail monitor Q1 2013: retail searches on tablets up 198%
Press release
April 22nd 2013. The latest BRC [British Retail Consortium]-Google report has found that total retail search volumes grew 16 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 compared with the same quarter a year earlier. In the first quarter, search volumes on tablet devices outpaced those on any other device, increasing 198 per cent compared with growth on smartphone devices of 66 per cent. Total search volumes grew fastest for homewares, up 34 per cent year-on-year. Homewares also had the highest growth in search volumes on tablets (236 per cent) and smartphones, up by 88 per cent year-on-year. Continue reading
Adblock Plus warns that 44% have heard of adblocking apps
Rating: Google stops spread to Android by removing it
It appears that adblocking software provider, Adblock Plus has decided to get onto its high horse to come up with a five point plan for acceptable online advertising. It seems to GoMo News that Adblock itself still has a desktop advertising headset. However, the results of a study which it commissioned Censuswide to carry out are worrying. The Research1 found that almost half (44 per cent) of respondents were either aware of, or had signed up to some form of adblocking software. GoMo News‘ own research shows that it’s extremely difficult to gauge how many people have installed AdBlock Plus for Android because Google removed it from Google Play in March [2013]. Continue reading
Apple still rakes in lion’s share of app revenues, but Google is closing gap fast
Search giant’s app income jumps 90 per cent in just one quarter
App revenues at Google Play are growing much faster than those at rival Apple’s iTunes, though it’s the latter that still accounts for three quarters of all purchases. Collectively the app stores brought in $2.2 billion in the first three months of this year, according to Canalys, with Apple’s App Store generating $1.48 billion of that. But Google is catching up fast. Separate data from another research firm, App Annie, show the search giant has made significant headway from a year ago when its apps generated just a tenth of Apple’s revenues. In fact, Google’s revenues jumped 90 per cent in Q1 2013 from the fourth quarter last year. Continue reading
A quicker way to re-install favourite Android apps
Rating: The fastest method GoMo could come up with
In a separate story here, GoMo News was describing the joys of moving the contact entries from one Android handset to another. One of the options we considered to remove the addressbook entries was a remote wipe. That facility used to be part of Motorola Blur but the latest RAZR HD doesn’t support Blur. The obvious answer is to install a remote wipe app but that means migrating all your favourite apps from one handset to another. Continue reading
Chrome may come to dominate mobile browsers
Rating: We may be witnessing the rise of Chrome as the mobile Browser
According to mobile data analysis experts, 51degrees.mobi, over the last six months, Google’s Chrome mobile has started to take chunks out of the native Android browser’s user base. With Google announcing its new rendering engine Blink l earlier this week, the company’s ‘Chart of the [...]
Guest Post: Future smartphones probably won’t replace the laptop
by Dr Matthew Candelaria, a professional technology writer from WriterMC.com
The rise of the smartphone for internet usage seemed like the death knell for the laptop. Smartphones are relatively commonplace (Pew and Nielsen agree that still only 50 per cent of North Americans have them) and their usage is growing steadily. However, it is unlikely that smartphones will ever replace the laptop because of their inherent limitations and the rise of alternative technologies. Continue reading
Apple may have to pull Pokerstars iOS app
Rating: Aussie report does features a Mr Xenophon. Hmmm
We’re pretty sure that this story isn’t intended as a joke but on April 1st it is hard to tell. Anyway, according to reports which first surfaced in the Canberra Times, an iOS poker app may be illegal in Australia. Called PokerStars, it appears to let players to bet real money. Its existence has angered one Australian senator, Richard di Natale, who is quoted as saying that Apple has “an obligation to take down apps that are against Australian law.” He also claimed that people in Australia are not allowed to lawfully play online poker under the Interactive Gambling Act. Continue reading
101: Direct operator Billing/Direct Carrier Billing
Sponsored by txtNation
Within the mobile and cellular worlds, there’s a growing appreciation of the true worth of DoB (Direct operator Billing) or Direct Carrier Billing as it is often referred to in North America. Essentially DoB is an easy way of making payments to purchase goods or service by placing the charge against a prepay or postpaid mobile phone’s bill. Mobile network operators (MNOs) and MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) alike see Direct operator Billing as a means to regain ground lost to the online majors such as Google (Play); Apple (iTunes); and Amazon in mobile commerce (m-commerce). This is especially true now that MNOs and MVNOs have come to accept that their own portals cannot compete effectively with the online giants. We suggest you contact a DoB specialist (such as txtNation) for a full list of territories in which DoB/DOC is offered. 1 Continue reading
Windows Store apps pass magic 50,000 mark
Bunging developers $100 for every app made seems to be working
Microsoft’s initiative to pay developers $100 for every app they make for Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 looks to be paying off, with 50,000 programs now available. The landmark number was passed at the weekend [March 2013], according to industry watcher MetroStore Scanner, which says that an average of 279 apps have been developed daily in March alone, reversing what had been a rapid decline. Continue reading
App developers given helping hand by Google
Google Drive, a feature that allows users of the search engine to store and share documents in the cloud, is being rolled out to app developers for the first time.
Drive’s new Realtime API (application programming interface) is being offered up to the development community so that teams can collaborate through Google, with the interface helping to resolve such issues as network communication, storage, presence and conflict resolution on the fly. Continue reading
Smart devices could backfire on Apple & Google
Rating: Big watch is watching you
There’s been a great deal of buzz surrounding the latest outing which Googles’ ‘Glasses’ got at the recent SXSW show in Texas. GoMo News can fully understand the benefit of a ‘heads-up’ display on a set of glasses which would provide a very user friendly UI linked to some kind of mobile device. But the latest reports claim that the glasses will start to capture images using a forward facing camera. Google apparently hasn’t learnt a thing from the furore surrounding Street View. Invasion of privacy is written all over it. There’s also been some very detrimental publicity surrounding cameras in watches which won’t help Apple’s iWatch. Continue reading
