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 →

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... 

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... 

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 →

For the first time in a long time, an Apple press event will be live-streamed to the public. Tomorrow Apple.com will host a stream of the rumored and expected announcements of a new iPod Touch, iTunes rentals, and an overhaul of the Apple TV.  Read More →

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is actively watching app stores for apps that it deems fill a medical purpose with an eye toward regulating them, according to an attorney specializing in health care issues. Developers should be aware that apps may warrant FDA approval.  Read More →

Flash has been touted as one of the advantages for Android mobile devices. But how does Flash video perform on handsets running Google’s mobile OS? To find out we asked Kevin Tofel to test Flash video on his Nexus One — and the results are not good.  Read More →

Apptio, a Bellevue, Wash.-based enterprise software company, today said it’s raised a $16.5 million Series C round of funding led by Shasta Ventures, which includes participation from current investors Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners and Madrona Venture Group just a year after the last round.  Read More →

A few days ago, Hilary Mason, a data-mining engineer at N.Y.-based, URL shortening service, Bit.ly,  made news for her attempts at creating a smarter email inbox that kept the important and urgent messages ahead of what are messages of less importance. Some of us eager for Ms. Mason’s creation might have a near-term solution to handling the backbreaking load of email, thanks to Google and the engineers behind the Gmail team. The company today... 

This past week, Nova Spivack , founder of Twine, a web service that dealt with information overload , stopped by in our offices to discuss the future of the web. I first met Nova when he started Earthweb (now called Dice.com), and over the years have kept in touch with him. I followed the birth and fall of Radar Networks , the company behind Twine. He is now the co-founder of LiveMatrix, a directory of live events on the web. Lately, I have...