Tel Aviv-based mobile startup MobiApp has raised between $700,000 and $800,000 in a round of funding from Maayan Venture Capital. The Office of the Chief Scientist (a division of Israel’s Ministry of Industry and Trade) also invested as part of a government-sponsored tech incubation program. MobiApps’ core product, Mingle, is…

Smartphoniacs are described as people who take their phone to the restroom; send messages when driving and at all hours of the day and night; and are people who make excuses for rudely typing away on their device during conversations or meetings. This class of smartphone users span just the…

Hyderabad, India-based mobile content distributor IMI Mobile is buying Mobytec, the operator of mobile backup and content sharing service Mobyko, intending to pitch it to carriers as a consumer social media aggregation service. No acquisition price was disclosed. Mobyko is a bit like Zyb, which Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) bought in…

PacketVideo, the San Diego-based mobile video and software company that has been around since 1998, has sold about 35 percent stake in the company to Japanese mobile giant DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM). The firm is part of NextWave Wireless. The all-cash deal is intended to “strengthen DoCoMo’s position in advanced music…

»  Dada cutting staff in U.S. a day after announcing an acquisition. It is merging Dad.net with Dada Entertainment. [Billboard] »  Shock and horror in Twittersphere: followers can be bought. [BBC] »  More interesting mobile patents from Apple: haptic tactile feedback. Finally coming to iPhone soon? [MacRumors] »  AT&T (NYSE:…

While the larger M&A market has all but dried up in the first half of 2009, “companies that have something, anything, to do with mobile,” are the exception to the rule, reports AllThingsD, which quotes The Jordan, Edmiston Group. Release. In the past six months, the number of overall transactions…

Update: And lo behold: with 30 minutes of launching, the fanboys brought down the site. It is unreachable as of 11:30 AM PST. Delicious irony here. The founders of two of the biggest and most well known gadget sites Engadget and Gizmodo have finally launched their gadget site, appropriately titled…

It’s been two years since Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) first started selling applications for the iPhone through the App store. In that time, investors have flocked to the opportunity, pumping slightly more than $100 million into 17 companies. The figures are being reported today by “the ChubbyBrain database,” which keeps a…

»  The rise of both smartphones and social networking could give mobile advertising a much needed boost. [Reuters] »  In an ironic twist, an iPhone magazine may be coming to a newsstand near you. [MIN Online] »  While it is still apparently putting the finishing touches on its mobile Firefox…

Give them easier access and they will upload and watch. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) said today that since the iPhone 3G S has come out, YouTube uploads have risen 400 percent. That’s a mighty jump being attributed to one phone model. But Google, which owns the online video site, said that…

RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) released its latest media player today, called RealPlayer SP, which stands for “social” and “portable.” It makes it easier to record online videos to a computer and then send them to social networks and devices, such as mobile phones, iPods or the Xbox. The free version is…

Whether you hate it or can’t live without it, there’s no denying that Twitter has gone from early adopter craze to genuine mainstream popularity—according to the latest figures from Hitwise it was the fifth most visited social nework in the UK and the 38th most visited overall in May after…

Fox Mobile Group has appointed two new executives to help run its mobile content division, and in the release, briefly mentions its upcoming new consumer initiative that’s suffered from several set-backs and delays. The News Corp (NYSE: NWS). division confirmed the brand will “debut in the coming months,” and is…

The success of the “Facebook phone,” built by INQ, has not been lost on either carriers or handset-makers, which are starting to introduce copycats into the market. The beauty of the INQ phone is that it commoly drives three to four times more traffic than smartphones that cost three to…

New media developer Fanzter, which runs the celebrity, style and entertainment platform Coolspotters, has acquired iPhone app creator Mustache. Terms were not disclosed, but the transaction involved a combination of cash and stock, Aaron LaBerge, Fanzter’s CEO and co-founder, told us. The deal follows Fanzter’s $2 million second-round funding in…

T-Mobile USA confirmed details about its latest Google phone today that will hit the market in August. Along with it, they partnered with Santa Monica, Calif.-based Geodelic, which developed the “Sherpa” application for the T-Mobile’s myTouch coming out in August. Release. Geodelic also issued a release today, unveiling the company…

Twitter management app Tweetdeck has ridden the wave of Twitter’s popularity to become one of the top Twitter clients, with one million downloads. The free iPhone app launched this week got more than 100,000 downloads in its first 30 hours. But its London-based founder, Iain Dodsworth, sees the company’s business…

Charging for apps may just be the wave of the future, according to Chris Wade, the brand new CEO of Shozu, whose application allows users to upload content on their phones to content sharing sites—such as Flickr and Facebook—on the internet. Though there’s been much debate about whether its only…

Now that the Ovi Store has been running for a few weeks now, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has some stats available on the apps that are being downloaded. Interestingly, the applications store’s overall top download and its current bestseller are both paid ones—bucking the notion that the most popular apps are…