Google has stoked the fire burning underneath the mobile payments industry by announcing its acquisition of “some exciting technology and intellectual property from Softcard to make Google Wallet better.” The payment software will come pre-installed as standard on Android phones running KitKat or higher with three of the big four carriers across the USA, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.
Apple has unveiled a new section of the iOS App Store which features games free of in-app purchasing, suggesting a move away from the vastly successful, yet at times controversial, freemium model.
Google is reportedly planning to start an MVNO business, which according to unnamed sources quoted by the Information would operate on T-Mobile US (TMUS) or Sprint’s network. The report claimed the project, apparently codenamed Nova and headed by Google Executive Nick Fox, is set to launch this year.
European Parliament has approved a motion stressing among other things the need to unbundle search engines from the other commercial services offered by those companies. Though technically non-binding, largely symbolic and heavily criticised, the move seems largely aimed at pressuring the European Commission to investigate the possible breakup of Google. The move was brushed off by some as “political theatre.”
A leaked report has fuelled speculation that the European Commission intends to unbundle Google in response to the internet giant’s growing share in multiple markets. According to the FT, a draft motion from the Commission states that “unbundling search engines from other commercial services” is being investigated as a means of curtailing the company’s growing dominance.
Engineers from US giants Verizon and AT&T say they have identified the requirements for an interoperable voice over LTE (VoLTE) service, and have begun extensive testing in lab environments. Interoperability field trials are expected to take place before live services launch in 2015.
Lenovo has announced the completion of its acquisition of Motorola Mobility from Google, claiming that makes it the 3rd largest smartphone maker in the world. The company said it expects the mobile firm it purchased for a total of $2.91 billion to be profitable within four to six quarters.
Stealth mode augmented reality start-up project Magic Leap claims to have raised $542 million in Series B financing. Google and Qualcomm led the round of financing, indicating that both businesses see significant potential in the product to help drive more commercial uptake of augmented reality inspired technology.
Internet giant Google has released the latest major version of its ubiquitous mobile platform Android. Version 5.0 has been nicknamed Lillipop, in keeping with the sweet-themed alphabetical naming convention, and features a new user interface called Material Design.
Ofcom has announced it is coordinating testing of wireless technology that uses white space spectrum to potentially deliver a range of digital services including internet access in rural areas, wifi-like services, video streaming or M2M connectivity.
A consortium of six companies has agreed to build and operate a new trans-Pacific cable system linking Japan with the US. It has an initial design capacity of 60Tb per second and is consequently called ‘FASTER’, despite not apparently being an acronym.
Google has announced that it has set up an arm of Google Ventures in Europe and allocated an initial fund of $100m for local startups. The announcement will presumably be welcomed by startups in the UK, where we’re so keen to emulate Silicon Valley that we insert “Silicon” into the name of anywhere a tech startup spends more than a couple of hours.
Web giant Google has been left without a leader for its Google+ social networking site after Vic Gundotra has stepped down as senior vice president for social at Google after almost eight years at the firm.
US operator AT&T has announced plans to expand its fibre network across the US to up to 100 further cities and municipalities. The operator will be extending the footprint its triple play U-Verse TV, fixed internet and telephony service which it claims delivers speeds of up to 1Gbps.
Leading handset manufacturers and operators in the US have teamed up to introduce a ‘killswitch’ in an effort to curb smartphone theft in the country.
Web giant Google has announced a tie-up with eyewear specialist the Luxottica Group as part of its Google Glass project. The Group is parent to several eyewear brands, including Ray-Ban and Oakley, and has over 5,000 retail outlets in the US. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Telecoms trade association the GSMA has announced that it has joined the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), a coalition with 50 members, including Google, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Facebook, Intel and Microsoft, committed to bringing down the cost of internet access in developing nations.
Smart wearables are set to be one of the sexier topics in the industry over 2014. Kicking off next week, consumer electronics trade show CES is expected to be a showcase for progress the industry has made in this nascent product category.
According to National Security Agency documents recently leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, the US intelligence agency has hacked the main communications links between the public internet and Google and Yahoo’s datacentres globally. Google is ‘outraged’ by the reports, saying it underscores the need for urgent reform.
Keynote speakers on the first day of the Broadband World Forum talked about changing network architectures to build an internet better designed for a generation that has grown up with broadband access.
Three UK reports flat 2014 sales growth http://t.co/XAPTctYVl5 #lte #operator #financialresults2014
26 February 2015 @ 14:37:47 UTC
#LG claims first LTE #smartwatch http://t.co/3lTdO9xjxj #handsetsdevices #huawei #mwc2015 #pebble
26 February 2015 @ 12:42:05 UTC
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