Mod500 map

Foursquare is eyeing mid-summer for the launch of its paid-media platform, which will include a product that allows merchants to promote their deals. When users search for local specials, they'll be able to see offers via paid ads, and those promoted placements will be targeted using the same algorithms that power the "explore" functionality, which recommends establishments based on a user's check-in history, as well as check-ins by friends and the wider Foursquare user base.

testing with about 400 Android devices

March 2012 smartphones were in use by 50.4 percent of consumers in the country, with Android continuing its domination in the space, accounting for 48.5 percent of all smartphone handsets.

Apple is not a very close second, at 32 percent, but through that percentage it has remained the single-biggest smartphone handset brand.

The 50.4 percentage of smartphones represents growth of about three percent since December 2011, when 47.8 percent of mobile consumers were using smartphones.

O’Connell said $111 million of that money was allocated in prior federal budgets and should still be delivered later this year. He added that the company should be able to launch the satellite into orbit even without the remainder of the money.

first time that Flipboard will be making the jump to Android, previously having seen a home on iOS. Samsung say that they have an exclusive window on the app, so it won’t be hitting the Play Store or other handsets until a later date.

ndroid’s application growth is largely coming in the free application category, with 68% of applications now available free of charge to end users, a 13% increase from April 2011 to December 2011.

There are 306,554 iPhone apps available, and 201,635 of them are paid apps.

4.2 million iOS games are downloaded per day in the US. 2.4 million in key EU territories.
Share of mobile gamers that spends money is highest in Asia (47%) followed by the US (36%).

Of all American mobile gamers, 19 million play on an iPhone, which is 28% of all smartphone gamers. An additional 18 million plays games on an iPod Touch. In the tablet gaming space, the iPad is dominant with a share of 60%, or 12.7 million Americans. Apple’s position is strongest when it comes to revenues. In March 2012, all iOS devices combined earned 84% of mobile revenues generated by the top 200 grossing games in the three stores combined: iPad, iPhone/iPod App Store and Google PlayStore. For both Android and iOS devices, the majority of money is not spent on downloading games but within the games:  an astonishing 91% for Android and 91% for iOS games. This share is significantly higher in the US than in Germany and France, where figures are between 73% and 87%. The comparison does not include advertising revenues.

In the United States, mobile gaming overall grew from 75 million to 101 million players across all platforms. That is broken down into 69 percent of people playing on smartphones and 21 percent on tablets.

Ninety-one percent of mobile gaming revenue comes from money spent inside the game on both Android and iOS.

Instead, we expect WWDC to be a lot like last year, where software is in the spotlight. Specifically, we expect Apple to announce iOS 6.0 and launch Mountain Lion OS for Mac.

India currently has 11 remote sensing and earth observation satellites in orbit, providing imagery at different resolution levels, from 500 meters to about one meter resolution. These spacecraft include the TES, Resourcesat-1, Cartosat-1, 2, 2A and 2B, IMS-1, Oceansat-2, Resourcesat-2 and Megha-Tropiques. Risat-1 joins Risat-2 in orbit, an Israeli SAR satellite launched in 2009. Both satellites carry synthetic aperture radars (SAR). Risat-1 operates in C-band while Risat-2′s SAR works in the X-band.

The two companies are sharing the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) EnhancedView multi-year geospatial imaging Service Level Agreement (SLA) program awarded in 2010, granting the government options to buy imagery from commercial providers worth US$7.3 billion over the next couple of years. DigitalGlobe is believed to possess a larger image database delivered by multiple satellites (Quickbird, Worldview 1 and Worldview 2), enabling it to provide about 80% of the imagery needed by the government, for 62.5% of the SLA contract revenue (Indie Research). Therefore, if the government cuts its spending on satellite imagery, as President Obama Fiscal Year 2013 budget request reflects, GeoEye is likely to be effected more than its rival. Hence, its current motivation to tap into its competitor’s main asset. Moreover, the proposed cuts are expected to have a profound impact on the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s Enhanced View (EV) Program. “A weakened U.S. commercial imagery industrial base would create a real opportunity for foreign competitors, particularly in Europe, to take over the industry.” warns the Space Enterprise Council at TechAmerica, a Washington based space commerce loby.

Baidu is the world's largest Chinese search engine and is China's largest online advertiser, with 80 percent market share and over 50 percent year-over-year growth.

Subsequently, the satellites are able to capture much more imagery and far faster than would otherwise be possible. DigitalGlobe has also passed the milestone of obtaining more than one billion square kilometers (km2) of color imagery, 60 percent of which is less than two years old.

GeoEye rose 3.3 percent to $24.83 at the close in New York and has gained 12 percent this year. DigitalGlobe, based in Longmont, Colorado, jumped 22 percent to $16.44, and has fallen 3.9 percent this year.

Google, on the other hand, knew Sun wanted licensing fees for Java use in Android, but Schwartz and Google executives failed to reach a satisfactory agreement on what that partnership would look like (or cost). Still, in the end, Schwartz and Sun were content enough to let Android be — which, on its own, makes Oracle’s suit seem predatory or trollish to the untrained eye.

“You lie awake at night worrying about what is that which will disrupt your business model,” the CEO told the conference audience. Apparently, mobile data disrupted AT&T more than anyone could have guessed.

“But with the iPad having the faster processor and being a more powerful mobile device, we felt like the web-based version could give us the performance we needed.”

In the end, Prasad continued, it came down to the little things: Did onscreen buttons depress and pop back up quickly when tapped with a fingertip? Was scrolling snappy? Did crossfades occur smoothly and without any lag?

“We did users studies in-house, and I don’t think people noticed a big difference. Nobody said, ‘Oh that’s native,’ or ‘Oh, that’s web,’” said Prasad. “As long as we can make the experience fast enough, nobody can tell the difference. It still feels right.”

And a lot of that performance, Prasad said, came from removing unnecessary design wankery (our verbiage, not his) — the rounded corners, the omnipresent gradients. By making things simple, clean, modern, flat, and even print magazine-like, the LinkedIn app only got faster and better on the performance side, as well.

“Our focus on trying to get a simpler design is actually helping us make things faster. It’s a good feedback loop,” said Prasad.

Groupon commands 79 percent of U.S. visits to the group buying category, whereas No. 2 in the category LivingSocial only commands 8 percent of the market. While that is a formidable gap in marketshare, LivingSocial is on track to bring in $500 million in revenues next year which is a really positive sign.

LivingSocial

Free or one-time purchase apps, for example, can consume no more than 100 KB of wireless data per user per month. If they use more data than that, users will have to pay subscription charges (Amazon charges developers 15¢ per megabyte.)

“It’s hard to make the argument that the companies are better off separate, and I think anyone in government would agree with that as well,” said Andrea James, an industry analyst with Minneapolis-based Dougherty & Co.

Letter from DigitalGlobe

the digital map lined up with many residents’ own mental maps

Mass Downloads are map tiles that are downloaded to a device for later display and re-use. Using Mass Downloaded map tiles carries additional fee that will be added to your account each month. The fee structure is as follows:
0 – 10 million map tiles $50 per million map tiles
10 – 50 million map tiles $40 per million map tiles
50 million+ map tiles $30 per million map tiles

4.4 Cache Restrictions. Customer may not pre-fetch, retrieve, cache, index, or store any Content, or portion of the Services with the exception being Customer may store limited amounts of Content solely to improve the performance of the Customer Implementation due to network latency, and only if Customer does so temporarily, securely, and in a manner that (a) does not permit use of the Content outside of the Services; (b) does not manipulate or aggregate any Content or portion of the Services; (c) does not prevent Google from accurately tracking usage; and (e) does not modify attribution in any way.