by Techno Witch on May 28, 2009
Despite massive write-downs at BT last year, Frenchman Francois Barrault, who led BT?s global services business, was paid £2.85 million. Barrault quit BT at the end of October as it became clear some of his division?s contracts were much less profitable than the company had anticipated.
Failure to deliver on cost savings which BT had promised the City resulted in 2 profit warnings which contributed in a large part to BT?s loss of £134 million in the year to the 31st of March according to a report on thescotsman.
An annual report from BT has revealed that on top of Barrault?s £1.25 million salary he was given a severance payment of £1.6 million, and
BT has stated that the payment was in “strict accordance with his contract” and no bonus was given.
by Techno Witch on May 28, 2009
The Apple iTunes App Store is one of the fastest growing enterprises in recent history, and is known as a developer?s goldmine due to success stories like iShoot which earned developer Ethan Nicholas some $900,000.
MEDL Mobile is a company which aims to make it possible to get peoples ideas into the iPhone App Store without financial outlay or technical knowledge reports The Guardian. MEDL Mobile?s principal, Dave Swartz has said?”The runaway success of the App Store has created the legend of the iPhone millionaire.”
Therefore Swartz and partner Andrew Maltin have launched App Incubator which is a service that offers to turn your great ideas into applications for a share of the profits. The company has thus far received some 12000 idea submissions from 5000 applicants of which roughly a 3rd are flagged for consideration.
by Techno Witch on May 28, 2009
Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T has hinted that AT&T might be interested in taking on the Palm Pre smartphone according to an article on itproportal.
Apparently Stephenson made it clear while in an interview with WSJ?s Walk Mossberg that he wants to see fewer platforms but a broader selection of mobile phones.
Stephenson specifically referred to the Palm Pre and stated he would like to see the Palm Pre on the AT&T network. Currently AT&T holds exclusivity with the iPhone while Sprint holds exclusivity with the Palm Pre which is only available as CDMA so AT&T would need to wait for a GSN/UMTS model before having it on their network.
by Techno Witch on May 28, 2009
So you are a mobile phone application developer and want to earn a few big bucks, do you create a great app and submit it to the application stores or do you go for the change of gaining some real cash?
According to an article posted by Cnet, the 2nd Android Developer Challenge, or ADC2 as it has become to be known offers developers the opportunity to win $250,000 for 1st place, $150,000 for 2nd place and 3rd pulls in $125,000.
Google hasn?t confirmed actual running dates as yet for ADC2 but the word is judging will commence for the first round in August followed by polls in October and final judging in November where 30 teams will walk away with the cash.
by Techno Witch on May 28, 2009
AT&T plans to expand to a quicker wireless network later this year, known as HSPA 7.2, which if the new iPhone supports video chat could well enrich that experience for iPhoners according to computerworld.
A spokeswoman for AT&T would not comment on whether the new iPhone would support HSPA 7.2 but did say that multiple 7.2 compatible laptops cards and smartphones will be coming this year.
Analysts believe that AT&T?s HSPA 7.2 is part of a general trend to support smartphone traffic of all types and doesn?t necessarily make room for video chat, and some analyst?s believe that even if the new iPhone did have video chat it wouldn?t be used much.
by Techno Witch on May 27, 2009
AT&T, sponsor of American Idol, has attempted to quash the latest ?Adam Lambert was robbed? theory by stating some over eager AT&T employees helped Arkansas fans by text at a viewing party, however they didn?t influence the final result.
Last week Idol favourite, Lambert, lost out to Kris Allen of Conway, Ark. Customers of AT&T were allowed to text in their vote. According to an article on mercurynews, roughly 20 mobile phones were brought to 2 parties in Arkansas and 2 of those mobile phones were capable of ?power texting.?
However, a person with knowledge of the voting results confirmed that Kris Allen won by a considerable margin and a handful of voters would not have changed the outcome.
To encourage both companies and individuals to add new content and features onto its platform, boxee launched app development challenge that will culminate with a boxee meetup in San Francisco on June 23rd.
Here you have some details:
The boxee dev challenge will have 3 categories: Video, Music and Photos.
In each category we will have a People?s Choice award and a Judge?s Choice award:
People?s Choice Award: Drobo + 4TB from Seagate
Judge?s Choice Award: Sony Bravia XBR9 46?
The deadline for submitting your application is June 14th at 11:59pm PT, but we encourage you to submit early and often as we?ll be talking up cool applications as they come in.
Voting will take place between June 15th – June 22nd.
On June 23rd will have a boxee event in San Francisco (RSVP here) announcing the People?s Choice and our esteemed judges will choose a winner from the 10 most popular apps in each category.
The judges at the event will be:
Veronica Belmont – Tekzilla, Qore
Ryan Block – GDGT, former EIC Engadget
Cali Lewis – host of geekbrief.tv
Avner Ronen – boxee founder and CEO
Looking for more info on how to develop boxee apps: check out http://developer.boxee.tv and take a look at the sample app (we will publish additional sample apps). Please submit your app to dev_challenge@boxee.tv.
Whether you?re a developer or just a boxee fan, we look forward to seeing you @ the event.
by Techno Witch on May 27, 2009
by Techno Witch on May 27, 2009
The Mobile 2.0 Europe Developer Day is a two day even to be held in Barcelona on the 18th and 19th of June, and is a conference to bring together experts and leaders from all aspects of the mobile arena.
The Mobile 2.0 Europe Developer Day is an opportunity is a great opportunity for companies to connect with start-up innovation, industry leadership and to broaden their C-level relationships.
At this 2 day event there will be exploration of emerging mobile ecosystem and disruptive mobile innovation, and is to be help at Espacio ESADE FORUM, Barcelona and runs from 9:00am through to 6:00pm
by Techno Witch on May 27, 2009
Mobile banking can deliver low cost financial services to millions of mobile phone users, especially in developing countries where banking services are not always easily available.
This is where the GSMA Mobile Money Summit 2009 will deliver insights, connections and solutions to make the most of mobile banking.
The 2nd annual GSMA Mobile Money Summit 2009 is to be held at Fira Montjuic in Barcelona on the 22nd to the 25th of June this year and will bring together senior exec from financial services, solutions vendors, mobile network operators, regulatory and policy makers, and development organisations.
