Yahoo! Contributor Network will pay you for your words, but it spells doom for bloggers

March 12, 2012 1:35 pm by Mic Wright

Categories: Apps & Software Tags: opinion, yahoo

Yahoo! has today announced that its Contributor Network, which it describes as a “platform for crowd-sourced content”, is making the jump across the Atlantic to hit UK shores. Unlike its rival, the Huffington Post, the Yahoo! Contributor Network will pay contributors, but they’re paltry sums (£20 upfront with small bonuses based on page views). It’ll draw people writing for a hobby or eager for a break but professionals will balk at the prospect of pay far below minimum wage from a big corporation.

Read more

Nokia backs Windows Phone app fund: can it buy love?

August 31, 2011 11:35 am by Mic Wright

Categories: Mobile Phones Tags: Microsoft, Nokia, ovi, vision, windows phone

Nokia has announced that it will be an anchor investor in a new independent investment fund, Vision+, which will fund apps and games “for Nokia supported platforms, especially for the Windows Phone platform”. The Vision+ fund will be headed up by Tero Ojanperä, a former Nokia CTO and known as the architect of Ovi. He’s set make the move on September 30.

While the announcement says Vision+ will also invest in other industries including clean water and energy projects in the future, it sounds like its biggest aim to start with is to lure developers over to Windows Phone. App makers will keep the rights to their intellectual property but share sales revenue with Vision+.

Hit the headline and tell us in the comments: do you think Nokia and Vision+ will get developers to dash to Windows Phone?

Out now | £NA | Nokia

Apple pulls FT iPhone and iPad apps

August 31, 2011 11:14 am by Mic Wright

Categories: Gadgets Tags: Apple, Financial Times, FT, html5, iPad, iPhone

Just over a month after Amazon changed its Kindle iPhone and iPad apps to comply with Apple’s new rules on in-app payments, the iTunes App Store has seen its first major casualty from the policy change. The Financial Times’ iPhone and iPad apps have been removed from the store. The FT says its main disagreement with Apple was over access to subscriber data but the ability to send users to an external subscription page was clearly a factor.

The FT is now encouraging readers to use its HTML5 web app instead. A spokesperson told paidContent: “The FT iPad and iPhone apps will no longer be available to new users through iTunes. We are directing readers to the FT‘s new web app available at app.ft.com. iTunes will remain an important channel for new and existing advertising based apps.”

Out now | £subscription | FT (via paidContent)

Motorola Pro+ aims to solve your BlackBerry headaches

August 31, 2011 10:45 am by Mic Wright

Categories: Mobile Phones Tags: Android Gingerbread, Google, Motorola, Motorola Pro

If the BlackBerry Bold 9900 doesn’t satisfy your QWERTY cravings, Motorola has just kicked out another business-minded Android Gingerbread phone. Following the Motorola Fire, the Motorola Pro+ is the follow up to the Motorola Pro which finally arrived in the UK last month.

Want to know what that extra + adds to the specs sheet and what the Motorola Pro+ has to offer besides the reassuring presence of a full keyboard? Click through for the full Motorola Pro+ specs and to see it put through its paces on video…

Read more

Firefox Android Honeycomb version revealed

August 31, 2011 10:28 am by Mic Wright

Categories: Apps & Software Tags: Android, Android Honeycomb, firefox, Google

Mozilla is hard at work on Firefox for Android Honeycomb and Ian Barlow, one of the design team working on the project, has revealed a sneak peek at what it’ll look like. Following on from Firefox for Android, the new version takes advantage of the extra screen real estate with tabs optimised for landscape and portrait. In landscape mode, the tabs stay put in a sidebar while in portrait they’re in a drop-down menu to save space.

While it’s still early days for the Firefox Android Honeycomb UI, it mimics the rest of the OS’s minimalist design while packing in familiar features. The Awesomebar makes the jump to tablets but with its tabs moved into a left hand column to leave more space for bookmarks and your history.

Click the headline to see the full gallery of Firefox for Android Honeycomb screens and check out Barlow’s Flickr page to see the stages of the design process. Mozilla hasn’t given any clues on when we can expect Firefox for Android Honeycomb to hit the Android Market.

Out TBC | £free | Mozilla/Ian Barlow

iTunes Match music streaming is not what it seems

August 31, 2011 10:02 am by Mic Wright

Categories: Apps & Software Tags: Apple, caching, iCloud, iTunes Match, streaming

That iTunes Match music streaming video we saw yesterday might not be as simple as it first seemed. While the clip from Insanely Great Mac appeared to show the iTunes cloud service streaming songs directly from Apple’s servers, AllThingsD has heard from an Apple spokesperson that things are slightly more complicated. Apple says that what looks like streaming is really the ability to listen to the song while its downloading to local storage.

Apple is keeping its cards close to its chest about precisely how the iTunes Match service will work when it launches for real in the US later this year but it seems it will feature very limited caching for songs. A music industry source told All Things D that while Apple has streaming rights, it doesn’t trust mobile networks to effectively handle on-demand streaming. That’s a little odd since Spotify seems to be doing just fine.

Out TBC | £TBC | Apple (via AllThingsD)

HP TouchPad: one last batch incoming

August 31, 2011 9:28 am by Mic Wright

Categories: Computers & Accessories Tags: HP, HP TouchPad, webos

Update: Sadly, we’ve just heard from HP that the final run of the HP TouchPad is a US-only deal. Here’s the company’s official statement:

“We are pleased by the response to webOS and look forward to customer feedback so we can further enhance the platform. A limited quantity of TouchPads will be available in the coming weeks in North America only. In EMEA we are discontinuing the webOS hardware operations and will not offer any additional products beyond what might be currently available in selective outlets.” Oh well…

Bummed that you missed out on a cut-price HP TouchPad? You could be in luck. HP has revealed that it plans to push out “one last run” of the webOS tablet to satisfy the demand created by slashing the price of the hardware. It also might just have more than a little to do with appeasing suppliers stuck with stacks of HP TouchPad components.

How many more units of the HP TouchPad will be up for grabs isn’t clear but the company is promising to get the final batch on the shelves imminently. Read on for full details of what appears to be the HP TouchPad’s last hurrah, unless HP goes and changes its mind again…

Read more

Motorola Defy+ UK bound: world’s toughest Android phone returns

August 30, 2011 3:50 pm by Mic Wright

Categories: Mobile Phones Tags: Android Gingerbread, Google, Motorola, Motorola Defy

The Motorola Defy achieved a real feat when we reviewed it by managing to be a rugged phone that was actually good. Clumsy Android fans should rejoice then that its successor, the Motorola Defy+ will make its UK debut this month. Beneath the rugged water-resistant and dust proof body and Gorilla glass 3.7in touchscreen, there’s a Android Gingerbread phone lurking with a 1GHz processor, 5MP camera, 2GB of onboard storage and a 2GB MicroSD card thrown in.

Of course there’s MotoBlur slapped on top of standard Android Gingerbread and the CardioTrainer fitness app and Zinio magazine reader come preloaded. You’ll also get some pretty stellar battery life: the Motorola Defy came with a 1540mAh battery which we got three days use from, the Motorola Defy+ steps that up with a 1700 mAH battery powering the show. Expect to see a network offering the Motorola Defy+ imminently but in the meantime check it out on video after the jump…

Read more

Hot chat, right here!