Michelle Megna

AT&T and Verizon lawyers at a hearing on Capitol Hill yesterday vehemently denied any collusion in setting increased text messaging rates while defending marketing practices that include exclusive contracts with handset makers. Wireless carriers were invited to provide testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights at a hearing titled, Cell […]

The summer smartphone showdown continues taking shape with new competitors joinin the fray, as Research In Motion unveils the 3G BlackBerry Tour while Samsung introduces the touchscreen Jet. Each will go up against a slew of rivals, coming on the heels of the Palm Pre and iPhone 3G S launches. Palm’s (NASDAQ: PALM) Pre — […]

E-tail giant Amazon and toy retail giant Toys “R” Us have finally — and officially — broken up after five years of sparring in the courts, with Amazon agreeing to pay $51 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Toys “R” Us. In a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Amazon said it […]

Microsoft is aiming to weed out adult and pornographic images and video in its new Bing search engine by placing those results in a separate domain, explicit.bing.net — a move that could help it address critics’ concerns and simplify filtering. The move is designed to make it easier for users to block explicit content, according […]

Google is eyeing the booming Chinese e-commerce search market after entering into the music search space there in March. Google China (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced that it rolled out a beta version of a shopping search channel, available on the Google China homepage, that will provide online buyers with information about a wide range of products. […]

The wireless world is buzzing about location-based services (LBS) thanks to two significant announcements this week from GPS makers that new turn-by-turn navigation systems for the iPhone are on the way. But Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) isn’t the only vendor making LBS headlines, as Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) acquired Dash Navigation and recent data shows LBS […]

Just days after launching the Palm Pre on Saturday, Palm has named Jon Rubinstein as its new chairman and CEO, replacing Ed Colligan in a move that continues efforts by the handset maker to try to capitalize on what it sees as a new era in its history. The news isn’t too surprising. While Colligan […]

Wireless operator sync services are more limited than other options, namely those from smartphone makers and portals, and few mobile sync solutions integrate with social networks, according to a study out yesterday that evaluated 12 mobile cloud sync offerings. Mobile cloud sync consists of syncing data and content on a mobile phone with a server […]

Localized content for mobile devices is in high demand, with growth in use of mobile browsers and downloaded apps accelerating at a fast clip, according to comScore Mobile. The online research firm’s latest data shows that the number of people who sought local information on a mobile device grew 51 percent from March 2008 to […]

One minute after the stroke of midnight on Saturday could usher in a virtual land grab for vanity URLs on Facebook, with the social networking site poised to enable members to create usernames for personalized online addresses. Currently, the URL for a Facebook profile ends with a string of digits. But beginning on Saturday morning, […]

Is the love for the new Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 3G S being soured by AT&T’s inadequate support for key features at launch and by pricey service fees? That’s the buzz today after the new smartphone made its debut with a host of new features and an upgraded operating system to support them. Apple’s iPhone […]

Local mobile advertising will be the next hot trend, with local mobile search leading the way, according to BIA’s The Kelsey Group. Local mobile ad revenue will grow to $3.1 billion in 2013, up from $160 million last year, while mobile search will reach $2.3 billion, according to the firm’s forecasts. Local searches made up […]