I was out for the past two weeks so TechCrunch beat me to the punch, but just before I left town we closed an investment in SPARQCode (the company has been operating as MSKYNET but is rebranding to match their flagship product name). I think of SPARQCode as “Bit.ly for the real world” – a drop-dead easy way continue…
This story is all over the news today (here’s a link to the New York Times take on it) but I can’t get over how great an idea this is. Google is releasing a software development framework that makes it drop-dead easy to build and publish simple Android apps. My kids are only 3 and continue…
Android apps at AppStoreHQ Just spotted on Hacker News: Google Labs has just released an Android app + game called Open Spot that shows a map of open parking spots (as reported by drivers). Their description says it all: Open Spot works by letting people who are leaving parking spots share their spots with people continue…
Before all you fanboys out there get your backs up, let me start by saying that Apple gets full credit for blowing up the mobile software business and creating an entirely new market for software entrepreneurs. The iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad / iTunes juggernaut is one of the most awesome technology ecosystems ever continue…
Fascinating news today from Ford (by way of Mashable’s Christina Warren): the automaker has just released the first version of their SYNC AppLink platform, allowing hands-free voice control of Android and BlackBerry applications to drivers of SYNC-enabled Ford cars. The company is working on an API for developers who want to tie their smartphone app continue…
In March of this year I speculated that – between Google Voice and Android – the era of the carrier-free cellphone might be upon us. Many of my mobile-savvy friends scoffed – the existing model was too entrenched, they argued, and the carriers would fight like hell to delay their transition from value-added service provider continue…
…and The Google taketh away. All of our companies at Founders Co-op rely on organic search traffic to drive revenue and margin (some more so than others), and we’re very careful to stay well on the “white hat” side of SEO best practices to ensure that our hard-fought gains on that front are lasting. But continue…
A while back I made a prediction that 2009 would be a breakout year for Google’s Android project. With the mid-year mark approaching and no new devices shipped that bet was looking a little shaky, but today’s announcements from the Google I/O conference put a little more weight behind my bullish view (phew). There’s been continue…
I just came across this mini-rant by Fred Wilson in my feed reader and couldn’t agree more. His key point: “Aggregation is the central element of distributing content on the web. It’s not going to get shut down by calling these services names, suing them, or even worse taking your content out of them. The continue…
Since switching to the G1 I’ve become even more dependent on Google Contacts as my default contact manager (because it now powers my phone contacts automagically). I’ve never loved the product – it’s always been slow, hard to navigate and even harder to edit – and I wasn’t excited about increasing my reliance on it. continue…