The collective groans of supervisors all over the world was heard this week as the phenomenally successful Angry Birds game was released for the Android platform. Angry Birds is the addictive game that’s been setting the iPhone (and iPad) world on fire. The Android release is an early beta, available in the Android Market as a free download. Rovio Mobile, producer of the game, had intended to conduct a closed Android beta, but pleas from... 

Apple iTunes’ Ping launched Wednesday night to a flurry of chatter  lauding it as a MySpace killer , only to land Thursday morning amid criticism and a  nasty break-up with Facebook . Now that the dust is beginning to settle, let’s take a look at what Ping is, as well as what it could have been. Om claimed that Ping is the future of social commerce , but its sole focus on purchases and its presence behind a walled garden…  Read More →

As expected , Facebook has started integrating social activity from around the web into the search results on its site, by showing how many people “liked” or shared a specific news story or blog post, as shown in the screenshot below (first noticed by All Facebook ). The results are powered by the social-graph plugins embedded in hundreds of thousands of websites, which Facebook launched earlier this year at its F8 conference. The... 

As expected , several Google Android slates were unveiled at the IFA electronics show in Berlin, which kicked off yesterday. Three in particular are garnering buzz: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, Toshiba’s Folio 100 and Viewsonic’s Viewpad 7. All three enter as underdogs though, because Apple’s iPad has owned the tablet market up to this point, and is estimated to sell 12.9 million units this year . So what chance of success do... 

At its core, Twitter is a “recipient-driven medium,” said CEO Evan Williams in a public conversation tonight in San Francisco, Calif. What does that mean? Williams, an unusually theoretical CEO, is happy to explain. He spoke at a high level about the ideas that drive his company (which is now up to 145 million users ). Williams contended that the medium of Twitter is (gasp!) actually well-suited to handle information overload. Williams…  Read More →

Apple has conquered the wireless world with the iPhone and iPad. Now they want to do to the cable industry what they have done to the wireless carriers. Forced them to get bigger pipes to deliver more big file content, more quickly. The announcement yesterday about streaming video is a dream come true for those of us in the streaming media world. And it’s well timed. Add to it that more and more Apple devices can now handle this type of content... 

Can I get a drumroll please? Or maybe just the trill of a thousand ringtones to celebrate the selection of our Mobilize 2010 Launchpad finalists ? It’s hard to sift through the excitement around the mobile sector right now, so for the second year , GigaOM hopes to help cut through the hype and present 10 companies we think have interesting products and ideas in the mobile space. Neilsen estimates that by this time next year,  half the... 

I had to laugh when I saw this tweet from Dave Troy last week: With the ubiquity of mobile phones and the change they bring to the dialing paradigm, will the generation growing up now only really know about “dial tone” as a historical artifact  mentioned in places like Wikipedia ? For those of us who are older, we grew up with idea that you picked up the phone, listened for the dial tone, and THEN dialed your number.  But only AFTER... 

Today we’ve released an update to Skype for Windows. The second beta of Skype 5.0 brings a number of changes both outside and in – most importantly, you can now make group video calls with up to 10 people. It also welcomes in a fresh new look, as well as increased stability and better quality when making group video calls. Read on to find out more, or download it now . Make group video calls with up to 10 people You can now use Skype... 

Back in April, I encouraged everyone to respond to the French authorities’ consultations on net neutrality. Thank you very, very much to all of you Internet users, software developers, and other good people who spoke out in favour of the open Internet. Late July, French Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet sent her report to the French Parliament (not public yet… suspense). Just before her, as summer approached, the French telecoms... 

Twitter is launching the first native app it’s built from scratch tonight, Twitter for iPad. Aimed at fostering content consumption, the app is designed for new users and power users alike. The iPad app indicates the direction all Twitter-designed apps will be heading, said Leland Rechis, Twitter’s mobile product manager, in an interview at Twitter headquarters on Wednesday. “It’s not about timelines, it’s about... 

Apple  announced on Wednesday a cornucopia of new hardware and software : sleek iPods, a brand new Internet-enabled video streaming device and new versions of its iOS software and iTunes 10. However,  the most impressive to me by far was Ping , the music-only social network that Apple is opening up its 160 million existing iTunes users. No, I’m not blown away by the 160 million number. What I’m impressed by is the thinking behind... 

The folks over at Mashable.com are running one of their “faceoff” polls between Skype and Google Voice – right now it’s neck-and-neck between Skype and Google Voice. Care to share your opinion?  Click on the image to go to Mashable’s page: If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either: subscribing to my email newsletter ; following me on Twitter ; or subscribing to the RSS feed  Read More →

After nearly a decade, iTunes is getting a new icon with the release of version 10. Jobs also introduced Ping, a social network Apple created specifically for iTunes. Ping allows users to share activity with their friends, and follow their favorite artists to receive updates.  Read More →

In my last two posts I discussed the features and highlights of the Polycom video conferencing units HDX 4000 and HDX 6004. Now it’s time to take a look at the Polycom video phone, VVX1500. Polycom VVX1500 Multimedia Phone While this offering from Polycom can accurately be called a video phone, as it is a phone that has This information was originally posted on the VoIP Insider blog . Looking for a reliable Fax over IP solution? Check out the...