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Posts Tagged ‘Foothold’

Earthquake detection software gains foothold in California

Stanford’s Quake-Catcher Network has been up and running since early 2008, but it looks like it’s just now starting to reach the critical mass of users that’s essential for its success. As you may be aware, the software takes advantage of the accelerometers built into many new laptops to watch for any signs of shaking or vibration, which it then compares with data from other laptops in the same area — if they’re all shaking at the same time, that’s a pretty good indication there’s an earthquake happening. Until recently, however, there hasn’t been enough users in any particular area to produce reliable data, but Stanford now counts more than 450 users in California alone, which has provided it with its first truly viable testbed. Of course, more users would be even better, and you can sign up and download the software at the link below if you’re interested in helping out.

Earthquake detection software gains foothold in California originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile Social Network Mozat Makes Waves In Asia, Raises Funding

Mozat, the mobile social networking platform formerly known as Morange, is making strides in Asia and the Middle East. The eponymous company behind the app has just announced that it has surpassed 10 million registered users, predominantly based in those regions.

The startup has also disclosed that it raised a Series A funding round led by JAFCO Asia earlier this year, although it didn’t disclose the size of the investment.

Mozat is in the mobile social networking business, and markets free J2ME and Symbian clients, a Windows Mobile and an Android app. The company currently doesn’t offer custom apps for iPhone, BlackBerry or Palm WebOS devices (yet), but we should note Mozat targets consumers in regions where those are not nearly as popular as in most Western countries.

Mozat is similar to apps like eBuddy and Nimbuzz, as it enables users to connect and communicate with friends on MSN, YAHOO, ICQ and AOL using a single application. It also boasts other tools like email, chat, photo sharing apps and games, which it distributes through a custom ‘Application Center’ which functions much like Apple’s App Store or the Android Market.

Mozat’s main objective for 2010 is to sign up more mobile operators and ISPs in Asia and the Middle East in order to increase their foothold as the carriers in those regions prepare to roll out more powerful networks in the near future.

Mozat was founded in Singapore back in 2003 by a group of Ph.D. scholars and professors of the National University of Singapore.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

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Google, DST Make Play For AOL’s ICQ

A number of companies are pursuing AOL’s ICQ instant messaging product, we’re hearing. Russian press is saying DST (a recent Facebook investor) is talking about buying the service. Our sources say they’re a relatively new bidder to the process, and others continue to show interest. One of those interested parties is Google. Another, at least at one point, was Skype.

ICQ, which AOL acquired in 1998 for $400 million, has 33 million worldwide monthly users, according to Comscore. But 8.3 million of those are in Russia, where it hold the no. 1 spot for instant messaging. That explains DST’s interest. It also explains some of Google’s interest as they struggle to get a proper foothold in that market.

The end price for ICQ may be higher than $250 million.

Rumors of ICQ’s possible sale were first reported in mid November. We’d heard speculation that Naspers was interested late last month but have since dropped out of the bidding process.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

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American Express Acquires Revolution Money: Challenges PayPal

American Express just announced that it plans to acquire Revolution Money for $300 million. The deal is still subject to regulatory approval. Revolution Money, which was founded by AOL’s co-founder Steve Case, launched in 2007. The company offers a number of services, including a payment and ATM card that offers discounts at participating retailers and the Revolution Money Exchange, which enables online person-to-person money transactions. It seems reasonable to assume that American Express made this acquisition to get a foothold in the online e-payment market and to challenge eBay’s PayPal.

Sponsor

According to today’s press release, Amex hopes that this acquisition will give Revolution Money – and Amex – room to grow as it goes “head-to-head with other online and person-to-person payment providers.” Amex will put its own brand and marketing reach behind Revolution Money’s services.

Chances are that Amex is mostly interested in the P2P payment system that Revolution Money has developed. It will be interesting to see what the company will do with the Revolution Money card, which, even though widely accepted, hasn’t exactly become a household name yet. Amex also plans to expand Revolution Money’s reach beyond the US.

Lots of Participating Merchants – But How Many Customers?

The Revolution Money card is current accepted at about 650,000 stores in the US, including Barnes & Noble and Whole Foods. Merchants have been drawn to Revolution Money because the company charges lower fees than credit card companies. The company didn’t announce how many actual users it currently has, though just like GigaOm’s Om Malik, we still haven’t met anybody who owns a Revolution Money card.

Discuss

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Confirmed: Yahoo Acquires Arab Internet Portal Maktoob

Yahoo has just officially acquired Maktoob, a very popular Arabic web portal that offers services including search, payments, social network, and auctions. Rumors of an aquisition have been building for months, and in the last hour they reached a head as news of an impending press conference broke. The price hasn’t been announced, but our sources say $85 million.

The MaktoobBusiness Twitter acccount notes that the deal will unite “Yahoo’s 20 million users from the Arab world with Maktoob’s 16 million”, with Vice President Ahmed Nassef stating that it will bring “a sea change in the industry.”

Up until now, Yahoo has held a weak presence in the Arab region, with no dedicated portal to speak of (though it still managed to attract millions of Arab users to its sites). The deal effectively gives Yahoo an instant foothold in the market. According to MaktoobBusiness, products will be cobranded with Yahoo and Maktoob, with the deal completing in the fourth quarter and new products rolling out next year.

However, the deal does not include a number of Maktoob’ products, including Souq (an eBay-like auction site), CashU (prepaid card payment system), Araby (search), and Tahadi MMO games. These will become part of Jabbar Internet Group, which we hear may be headed by one of Maktoob’s founders.

Maktoob launched in the late 90’s as the first free Arabic Email service provider. Since then it has grown to encompass a variety of services, including payments, gaming, search, and auctions. According to comScore, Maktoob has seen very impressive growth over the last year, growing from 6 million unique visitors in June 2008 to 21.8 million a year later. Likewise, its page views have grown from 406 million to 1.1 billion over the same time frame.

Update: Yahoo has now confirmed to acquisition on its blog:

We plan to join forces with the Maktoob team, the strongest in the region, to create locally relevant content, services, and programming. That’s no easy task when you consider the differences between countries like UAE, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. But we’re committed to literally translating our winning formula for this growing market in many ways, including through locally-based editorial teams.

Initially, we’ll plan to introduce Arabic versions of Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, Search, and our homepage and then eventually local versions of properties like News, Sports, and Finance. We’ll also focus on creating content and services tailored to the region. No other global company has made this kind of investment in local relevance for the Arab world.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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Microsoft: how to port iPhone apps to Windows Mobile

Filed under: Multimedia, Portables, Software

With just a few months to go before launching the Windows Marketplace for mobile applications, Microsoft has published details on porting iPhone apps to its Windows Mobile platform. It’s a case study of the app Amplitude [App Store link], which lets users hear far-off sounds with ease. It’s a detailed writeup that takes readers through the entire process.

Microsoft will have quite a task ahead of them in this market, considering Apple’s considerable lead and foothold. However, there are many (to say the least) Windows Mobile devices out there as well as people for whom “Windows Mobile” means business.

It will be interesting to see if and how iPhone/iPod touch app developers choose to move their products to Windows Mobile. The Windows Marketplace for mobile applications is expected to drop between September and December of this year, as are Snow Leopard and Windows 7. It’s going to be an exciting autumn.

[Via Macworld]

TUAWMicrosoft: how to port iPhone apps to Windows Mobile originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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