• Why Facebook Is Pulling The Plug On Parse
    What better time to concede a minor defeat than immediately following an exceptional earnings report? I assume that's why Facebook picked Thursday to announce the fate of Parse, a service platform for mobile developers that it bought back in 2013 for a reported $85 million. Over the next 12 month, the social giant plans to wind down the service to nothing. What changed?
  • First Ad Campaign On The NYC Link Kiosks
    The first 11 LinkNYC kiosks are installed, bringing high-speed WiFi to Third Avenue, beginning at 14 Street and continuing through 45 St. The 10-foot-tall billboards represent a few different kinds of crossroads: out-of-home (OOH) and mobile advertising; beacons and display; public policy and private sector innovation; LED screens and places in New York other than Times Square. Perhaps one of the most innovative things about the project is that it's going to pay for itself -- with advertising.
  • Apple's Silver Lining
    While analysts were understandably upset about Apple's poor first-quarter forecast, the company posted some darn impressive figures on Tuesday. Along with record profits during the fourth quarter, Apple said its active installed base surpassed a billion devices for the first time ever.
  • Why Brands Still Underinvest In Mobile
    Given all the hype and heaps of data showing the power of mobile, you'd think brands would be throwing money at the medium. But that's just not the case. Instead, expect most brands to underinvest in mobile in 2016, says Forrester analyst Thomas Husson. The problem is that "too many marketers still have a narrow view of mobile as a 'sub-digital' medium and channel," Husson explains in a new report. As a result, too few brands are going the extra mile to transform the entire mobile customer experience.
  • Mobile Driving Gaming Growth
    While the broader gaming industry is finally maturing, there's no end in sight to the growth of mobile gaming. In fact, the mobile sector should swell from $35 billion this year to $48 billion by 2020, according to a fresh forecast from tech advisory firm Digi-Capital.
  • Suit Shows 'Extraordinary Magnitude' Of Google's Mobile Business
    Like the truth, lawsuits will set you free -- or, at least, free sensitive information that you never wanted to see the light of day. That's the case for Google as the press pores over a transcript of court proceedings from a copyright suit filed by Oracle. The suit accuses Google of using Oracle's Java software to develop Android without paying for it.
  • Hey, Super Bowl Advertisers, Whatever Happened To Surprise Reveal?
    It's safe to say -- with scientific certainty in no way influenced by nostalgia -- that the best part of the ads at the Super Bowl is the reveal. So why is the Super Bowl turning into the equivalent of the holiday shopping craze for advertisers, who are releasing these ads before the championship teams have even been decided?
  • Push Notifications Require More Personalization
    We all know that sending the "right" number of push notifications is a tricky business. Too many, and users are ready to hit the uninstall button. Too few, and your relationships go stale. But how many is too many? Surprisingly, a full 46% of consumers said that receiving just two to five notifications in a week would cause them to disable an app's push notifications. That's according to a new survey from the mobile engagement specialists at Localytics, conducted in partnership with market research firm Research Now.
  • How Many Missteps Can Twitter Take?
    Poor Twitter. At the moment, no one knows what caused its extensive service outages, this morning -- not even Twitter. But the damage is clearer, including millions of irritated users, investors sending Twitter's stock to new lows, and rivals like Facebook and Snapchat licking their respective chops.
  • WhatsApp Says You Can Keep Your Dollar
    What's a measly dollar when you have a real shot at cornering the messaging marketplace? That's basically the thinking behind WhatsApp's decision to drop its annual subscription fee of 99 cents.
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