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The Associated Press will begin running advertising aimed at consumers, according to The New York Times. The ads are intended to promote the A.P.’s mobile news app, called A.P. Mobile, which is available on Apple, Android, Blackberry and Windows phones. Though the A.P. has run ads before aimed at journalists, the goal of this campaign is to build usage of the app, which has existed since 2008. The A.P. app is ad-supported, with the ads sold by a company named Verve Wireless, and recent advertisers have included Fidelity and Porsche. The ads for A.P. Mobile were created internally. In keeping with the just-the-facts reputation of the news service, the ads are straightforward and free of glitz.

NY Times

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Recently, the New York Times Co.  decided that they will no longer be supporting their applications for Blackberry and the Palm Pre. Though the company has not ruled out developing an app for devices that will run on RIM’s new operating system, BlackBerry 10, as of now BlackBerry users can only read the NY Times via the newspaper’s mobile website. More than a decade ago RIM brought mobile email into the mainstream with its first BlackBerry devices but as consumers flock to Apple’s iPhone and devices based on Google’s Android system, RIM has seen its market share evaporate. NY Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told Reuters.com “It’s a matter of usage of our apps, and we dedicate our resources where we think there’s the highest level of usage. We’ve seen a drop-off.”

Reuters

English: Andrew Cuomo, 11th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and 64th New York State Attorney General as a candidate for Governor of New York, outside of City Hall, little American flags on his tie. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NY Governor Cuomo will not communicate with his staff by email, according to the NY Daily News. If Cuomo cannot talk to his people on the phone or in person, than the only other way he communicates with them is by BlackBerry PIN to PIN messaging system. This allows the Governor to avoid any kind of lasting paper trail because the PIN system bypasses data-saving email servers. Only people that are in Cuomo’s inner circle have access to his pin number.

Governor Cuomo had promised to have the most open and transparent administration in state history. Josh Vlasto, a spokesman for Cuomo, explained that the Governor does not like email and that, “His primary mode of communication is talking on the phone, as has been widely reported for years.”

Daily News

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Fairfield, CT-based General Electric Co. has been providing employees the option of choosing between Apple’s Mac notebooks or Mac desktops instead of a Windows PC. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company now has about 1,000 Mac users and anticipates their ranks to heighten further as more employees become aware of the year-old pilot program.

GE began offering its employees the iPhone as an alternative to BlackBerrys in 2008. Now about 10,000 GE employees carry the Apple smartphone, compared with 50,000 still using BlackBerrys. Staffers across GE businesses are eligible as long as there aren’t security clearance issues, such as devices for defense work, or big compatibility problems with needed software,.

“All businesses are participating at some level in making this [option] available to their employees,” said Greg Simpson, GE’s chief technology officer. “To find out that we support Apple, we support iPhones, we support Macs, it does take away one question for people, ‘Are they a contemporary company or not?’” Mr. Simpson said to the WSJ.“ I think that is a recruiting-positive thing.”

Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

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Small businesses are changing the basic ways they interact with clientele. To compete in the uncertain economic environment, businesses are going mobile, to “meet” customers wherever they might be, according to Crain’s New York Business.  The readers plug into smartphones—primarily iOS, Androids and BlackBerrys—and allow small businesses to accept credit cards almost instantly

Major market movers include Square Inc. The company’s reader, debuted in late 2010, is used by nearly a million small businesses, processing $2 billion of payments annually.  Intuit also distributes a mobile-reader solution, known as GoPayment, as does Sage Software, with a product called Sage Mobile Payments.

Greg Kefalas, founder and creative director of NY Holiday Singers Inc., based in Astoria, Queens, has found Square indispensable, according to the article. The seasonal business has $12,000 in annual revenue and two full-time employees; approximately 10% of sales are now processed by Square, Crain’s NY Business notes. Read the interview here.

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The rapid releases of new innovations in mobile technologies have caused Blackberry developer, Research in Motion, to fall behind. The company showed a decrease in quarterly profits, an eight-year low in share price, and a  depressing forecast for shipments during the holiday season.

What has been more telling, however, is that even one of Blackberry’s biggest markets, Wall Street financial users, are beginning to shift loyalty to other mobile devices. According to Wall Street & Technology, a CTO of a Connecticut-based hedge fund said that “when a top hedge fund manager wants to use an iPhone instead of a BlackBerry they can now switch, even though he prefers RIM security.”

Wall Street & Technology

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With Halloween festivities underway today, CBS 7 has compiled a list of mobile apps for parents to track their trick-or-treaters:

Lookout Mobile Security – a free app available for the iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 includes a “Missing Device” feature that can locate one’s smartphone through on online map. After installing the app on their child’s device, parents can log onto http://www.mylookout.com (either on their PC or a smartphone) to track their children on an online map.

Google Latitude – also free, allows users of the Latitude app to share their location with others.

Trick or Tracker – Halloween app that is not free, but it allows users to send text messages with location information to a preset phone number. The app must be downloaded on both the parent’s and child’s phone and have one password to sync up the phones, according to CBS 7.

Footprints – This app, also not free, can be used on iPhone and iPad. This app tracks locations in the background of one’s phone and shares where you are with others, CBS 7 notes.

Where’s My iPhone – iDevice functionality. App users download and sync iPhone, iPod and iPad and then are able to see the location of each of the devices.

CBS 7

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Though the Occupy Wall Street protesters have been looking to disrupt daily life for Wall Street financiers, yesterday a BlackBerry outage breakdown might have accomplished this goal much more efficiently. According to Dealbook, Research in Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry service has experienced major outages across the globe and yesterday they hit the United States with full force, affecting many on Wall Street who still use the device for their day-to-day comings and goings. Dealbook summed up the collective frustration as “bankers’ meetings fell through, when attendees couldn’t look up the locations. Employees had to leave voice mail messages. And staff members had to pay attention during meetings, without the usual e-mail distractions,”  as even RIM could not determine when the situation would be cleared up.

One unexpected side effect is that the outages may force Wall Street firms, in the long-run, to reevaluate their addiction to “CrackBerrys” and to look at other competing devices, or as Stephen Hilton, Credit Suisse’s Global Head of technology infrastructure services says to Dealbook, “Blackberry used to be the only option. We believe that a personal Android or iPhone with a secure container for corporate data provides a very attractive solution for many people to manage both their personal and business mobile requirements.”

Dealbook

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The mobile ad network Jumptap has compiled data about US mobile activity, which has shown that NY prefers Blackberries over Android, Apple’s iOS or other smartphone platforms.

According to research from June, Android controls the overall market at 38%, Apple’s iOS has 33% and Blackberry has 22% of the market.

The NY Egotist

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Two years ago Joel Simkhai launched the iPhone application Grindr, which has now become the largest all male social network, according to the Village Voice. With over 2 million worldwide users, Grindr is the favorite app for gay males looking to find potential dates.

Though NY is Grindr’s second biggest city for users, it appears that the entire world is taking notice, according to founder Joel Simkhai, as the application is now available on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Apple iOS.

The Village Voice

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Foursquare announced this week that it will be offering daily deals from five partners to iPhone, Android and Blackberry users. Deals from Living Social, Gilt City, AT&T Interactive, BuyWithMe and Zozi, will be incorporated into Foursquare’s app. Groupon is not yet one of the partners, but rumors say the two companies are in negotiation.

Using time, location and check-in histories, the app offers appropriate deals to customers. Foursquare describes the new service as “targeting with social justification.”

Mashable

Andrew Lees, president of Microsoft’s mobile communication business, said the operator market will be four times as large as it was for the Windows Phone 7 and will include new handset makers, Nokia, Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE, on top of the original three for the Windows Phone 7, Samsung, LG and HTC.

Bits (NYTimes.com)

Also, according to VatorNews, GroupMe has expanded its full-time staff to 17, forcing it move from its shared space in Soho to the Flatiron District, which some say is the heart of NY’s Silicon Alley.

VatorNews

So far the product has been off to a slow start, perhaps due to its lack of e-mail, calendar or address book applications.

Wall Street & Technology

The app streams the latest videos from The Early Show, 48 Hours Mystery, CBS Evening News, Sunday Morning, Face The Nation and Up to the Minute as well as original content from  CBSNews.com. The app also features daily top stories and provides full searchable news categories.

RBR.com

All webcasts and broadcasts will be able to be viewed on the iPhone,
iPad, Blackberry and Android based mobile phones.

Champagne Living

[Editor's Note: Zeitbyte is a client of Trylon SMR, publisher of NYConvergence]

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>  Fashion Week to Embrace Barcode Technology

>  CBS.com To Air "Fashion Night Out" Webcast

The conclusion: The Safari-optimized version of USOpen.org is a bit confusing, and images of the five courts don't come with helpful details like who is playing where. However, video quality is good when the connection is good and users can switch between matches easily. Video delay is a serious problem, since matches shown on live TV, have a long head start on the mobile apps.

Primarily used by people in the stands in Flushing, the US Open iPhone app has highly useful features like seating charts, dining guides, venue maps, and USOpen.org Live Radio, paidContent said. The USTA also created a WAP site which includes live scores, limited spectator info, and the radio app and can by used by iOS, Blackberry, Android mobile phones, but not by Windows phones.

paidContent

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> CBS Sports Expands U.S Open Streaming

This introduction of Wi-Fi follows a trend of increasing technology in the city's cars after installing credit-card readers and TV screens into yellow cabs in late 2007. Cars with this new Wi-Fi system also come with outlets and 10 different plugs, including specific ones for the iPhone and BlackBerry. 

"Our plan is to basically blanket the city with tens of thousands of vehicles," Mashinsky said, where after this first launch, he hopes to expand the number of vehicles with Wi-Fi. However taking this new technology into yellow cabs will be much more difficult, where those cars are heavily regulated by the city.

The Wall Street Journal

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> TVs in New York City Taxis Need a Boost

> Use Your iPhione, Droid to Hail an NYC Cab

The company also said that it would soon add offline play to the iPhone version of its $9.99 per month subscriptions service.

Digital Media Wire

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> Thumbplay Cloud Music Service Launches for Android

Instead of using models, Kamali is showcasing mannequins that are interactive, meaning that people can scan pre-made barcodes on the clothing using Blackberries, iPhones, camera or mobile phones. The barcode then links to information about the designer including videos, photos, and news clippings.

shuttervoice

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> NY
Clothing Store Offers Integrated Cellphone Shopping

> [Fashion Week]: Fashion 'Gets' Technology

Gottlieb said the company created the app based on what it had learned from developing the Nook reader, from creating apps for other devices like the Blackberry and Android, customer feedback, as well as "drawing from our own experience as avid readers."

Foliomag.com

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> Barnes & Noble Makes App for iPad

The new cloud-based streaming app costs $9.99 per month and offers nearly 9 million tracks.

Digital Media Wire

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> Thumbplay Cloud Music Service Launches for Android

> Thumbplay To Launch Mobile Subscription Service

The Telegraph

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> Silicon Valley Gives NYC-based Tesla New Fame

> A Fight on Long Island Over the Legacy of
Nikola Tesla

Apps reviewed include Exit Strategy NYC, HopStop, KickMap, CityTransit, and NYC Bus and Subway Maps. The reviewer said that none of the apps do everything well, but they are all fairly useful. Exit Strategy turned out to be the best app for directing the reviewer to the right train to take, as well as the right car in the train that would position him to beat everyone to the exit.

New York Times

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> More Transit Apps Coming as MTA Makes Data
Available

The company has secured licensing arrangements with numerous music publishers, as one of the primary features of the music service is "the power of having complete music collections and playlists in-sync," between a device and a PC.

Thumbplay

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>Thumbplay To Launch Mobile Subscription Service

This week NY-based Thomson Reuters kicked off The StreetApps Challenge, a competition for software developers created by ChallengePost, the same company that helped the city develop its NYC BigApps contest.

The contest challenges developers to build mobile apps, based on Thomson Reuters premium information, for the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, or Android platforms. A total of $25,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded as the company is challenging the industry to think differently about how customers view and receive financial information while they are mobile.

Submissions will be accepted until June 25 and entries will be judged by senior execs and commentators from the financial and tech community including:

•      Tom Glocer  (CEO, Thomson Reuters)
•      Eric Frank (President of Investment and Advisory, Thomson Reuters)
•      Roger Ehrenberg (Managing Partner of IA Venture Partners)
•      Stephen Sparkes (CIO of Morgan Stanley's Investment Bank)
•      Rikki Tahta (Founder & Chairman, Covestor)

StreetAppsChallenge

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> NYC BigApps Award Winners Announced

According to a press release received by NYConvergence, today an agreement was reached by cable operators Cablevision, Comcast and Time Warner Cable allowing its NYC area high-speed Internet customers to roam across their companies' respective WiFi networks for no fee.  The free Internet roaming applies to all WiFi enables devices, including laptop computers, iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry devices. 

Authentication for all three networks is already active on the thousands of WiFi access points across the area.  This means that  when New Yorkers log on, they will see authentication options for all three WiFi services – Optimum WiFi, Time Warner Cable WiFi and Xfinity WiFi (Comcast), which will allow them to use their own provider’s sign-on process to get online.

Cablevision, Time Warner Cable and Comcast

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> Time Warner Cable Launching NYC Wi-Fi Hotspots

> Cablevision to Enter Mobile Phone Market?

Since the smallest scanners are small enough to fit into a Blackberry or iPhone, the company is looking at the mobile device market for future growth . Mobile financial transactions could be made much more secure using this technology, Hoyos said. Right now the technology costs $50 per device, compared to competing technology at up to $10,000 per device, he said.

Forbes

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> Manhattan DA's Office to Focus on Cyber Crime

Instead of using technology, Reboot, through its Sabbath Manifesto, suggests using the time for other activities, like connecting with loved ones and avoiding commerce.

The New York Times

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> New Play Explores "Kosher Cell Phones"

Into Mobile