Cyber Monday Surpasses $1 Billion in the U.S. Becomes Heaviest Online Shopping Day in History, comScore

comScore today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 29 days of the Nov-Dec'10 holiday season -- "holiday season-to-date, $13.55 billion has been spent online, marking a 13% increase versus the corresponding days last year. Cyber Monday reached $1.028 billion in online spending, up 16% vs. year ago, representing the heaviest online spending day in history and the first to surpass the billion-dollar threshold."

Cyber Monday Surpasses $1 Billion in the U.S. Becomes Heaviest Online Shopping Day in History, comScore

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DTWB/~3/PEiJsY_vVQw/

Comment on iPhone Becomes a Universal Remote This February by Geekoy

Awesome! When is it available in India?

Comment on iPhone Becomes a Universal Remote This February by Geekoy

Backlink: http://gigaom.com/apple/iphone-becomes-a-universal-remote-this-february/#comment-526250

HubOne and Paradyne Becomes Aussie World’s First Partners to Join Cloud Accelerate Program

Microsoft Australia announced the first two partners to qualify for one of its newest worldwide partner programs -- "Cloud Accelerate".

HubOne and Paradyne Becomes Aussie World’s First Partners to Join Cloud Accelerate Program

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DTWB/~3/VcJAEwp7csE/

MiniTycoon Casino Becomes Number One Social Game On The iPhone

Less than a week after its global launch, MiniTycoon Casino, is now the number one mobile social game on the iPhone ahead of the real social games including Empire City, TapZoo, Restaurant Story and Farmville. This is SGN's first pure social game on the iPhone and iPod Touch. No doubt as a result of its social features, it's also now the number one casino game, although you don't bet real money but instead purchase virtual goods to pimp out your place, Soprano like. I caught up with CEO and founder Shervin Pishevar at the Monaco Media Forum to discuss the news, video below. Launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in September, it's available free in the App Store here.

Post originale: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_6Ri38GttvY/

SCVNGR Goes Global and Becomes the First Service to Use Google's Places API

SCVNGR is a location-based service with apps for the iPhone and Android that wants to add a "game layer on top of the world." Starting today, the company is getting closer to this goal, as it is going international and expanding to about 80 new countries. Until today, SCVNGR was only available in the U.S.

SCVNGR is also switching away from its own proprietary location database. Thanks to its close relationship with Google (SCVNGR is, in part, funded by Google Ventures), the service is the first site to leverage the new Google Places API.

Sponsor

As the company's founder and "Chief Ninja" Seth Priebatsch told us yesterday, switching to the Google Places API allowed SCVNGR to quickly scale globally, as it can now rely on Google's extensive location database to power its service. SCVNGR users will now also be able to create challenges and treks - the central gaming elements on the service - at all of these locations. As we noted when Google first announced it, the Places API "could do for check-ins what Google Maps did for maps." As Priebatsch told us, the fact that Google gave his company access to this comprehensive global database with millions of locations made switching to it a no-brainer.

While SCVNGR plans to launch localized versions of its apps in the future, the interface is currently only available in English. Users can create challenges using their own languages, however.

The service, which launched just 20 weeks ago, currently has about half a million users, though it's not clear how many of these are active users. Priebatsch also told us that the company has managed to double the number of enterprise clients since its official launch to over 1000. SCVNGR clearly has a lot of momentum going for it right now and it will be interesting to see how the service develops now that it is going global.

Discuss

Post originale: http://jkdodd.soup.io/post/85464714/SCVNGR-Goes-Global-and-Becomes-the-First

Android Becomes Top Mobile Operating System in U.S., No. 2 Worldwide

Research firm Canalys released new numbers today on the mobile smartphone market and they are impressive, especially when it comes to Android. According to the latest report, the Android platform has grown 1,309% since Q3 2009, going from 1.4 million handsets to 20.0 million by the close of Q3 2010. Android is now eating away at Nokia's top spot among smartphone OS vendors worldwide, where Nokia still retains a 33% share compared with Android's quarter of the market.

However, in the U.S., it's Android that's number one, with 43.6% market share lead.

Sponsor

Says Canalys Senior Analyst Pete Cunningham, "Android has been well received by the market and in some geographies it is becoming a sought-after consumer brand." He also cites devices makers including Samsung, HTC, Motorola and Sony Ericsson as aiding in Android's growth, with large shipments of devices throughout the year.

Another factor that bodes well for Android is the broad range of price points available for Android devices, from high-end products like the Samsung Galaxy S or HTD Desire all the way down to affordable, "budget" devices like the LG GT540 Optimus or Huawei's Vodafone 845. The Optimus, incidentally, will be coming to Walmart in the U.S. for only $0.97 (with a 2-year contract agreement), according to leaked news from unofficial T-Mobile blog TMoNews.com this morning. 

For Apple, there is some good news - it has now jumped ahead of Blackberry maker RIM with a 26.2% market share in the U.S. compared with RIM's 24.2%. Worldwide, Apple reached 17% share, beating RIM's 15%.

However, Canalys's headline for their report - "Apple takes lead in the U.S. smartphone market" -  is a little misleading, since, as noted above, the Android OS now has a 43.6% share in this country. Apple's U.S. "lead" here is a title that comes with qualifications: among companies who ship their own hardware, Apple leads. But Android wins it overall in the U.S., and, if the trend continues, may even rival Nokia for the number one spot worldwide at some point in the future.  

Discuss

Post originale: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/kyxnhs2dEy8/android_becomes_top_mobile_operating_system_in_us_number_two_worldwide.php