AdMob, the mobile advertising platform that was acquired by Google, just launched a new software development kit (SDK) for the iPad that will make it easier for developers to integrate AdMob/Google ads into their iPad apps. This is an extension of AdMob's unified iPhone OS SDK. Currently, the iPad SDK supports text & tile, as well as image ads, but AdMob also highlighted that it will soon support HTML5 and allow developers to create more interactive ads.

Interactive HTML5 Ads Coming Soon

The iPad SDK was already available as a beta for the last few months, but now that Google has officially acquired AdMob, the competition between the two companies has brought AdMob – which is already the largest ad network on the iPhone – into the middle of this rivalry. With iAds, Apple is trying to enter the market for interactive in-app ads written in HTML5 (instead of Flash), but Google is obviously not going to just stand by and wait for Apple to corner this lucrative advertising market.

For now, AdMob is only showing a “sneak peek” of the “creative potential of iPad ads using HTML5,” but we wouldn’t be surprised if AdMob/Google unveiled a beta of this solution by the time the iPhone 4 OS arrives later this summer.

The latest quarterly survey by comScore reports that the iPhone just passed Windows Mobile phones in US market share, though it remains at just over half the level of the Blackberry.

The iPhone has been outselling Windows Mobile for some time, so it was only a matter of time until there were more iPhones in peoples’ hands. Android is still at the back of the pack but is showing signs of significant momentum.

Tracing links back from blog to blog the comScore phone survey of users about what types of phones they have in their hands appears first on FierceDeveloper; comScore’s press contact was unavailable for comment but mobile developers say the numbers are unsurprising.

Android growth has been steady but that platform remains below Windows Mobile, Palm’s WebOS and Symbian. Another report by comScore this morning though found that consumer interest in Android is growing fast and now rivals consumer interest in the iPhone.

“Of those American consumers in the market for a smartphone,” comScore writes, “17 percent are considering the purchase of an android-supported device in next three months, compared to 20 percent indicating they plan to purchase an iPhone.

Android’s prospects may fare even better in the global marketplace.

“Android will continue to pick up market share, especially in the global smartphone market, because of Symbian’s lack of innovation in the last 3-4 years,” mobile blogger Jason Harris told us today. “Symbian is said to have 37% worldwide market share, and this will further erode as more folks give Android a look. Especially with the Nexus One coming out – a phone that is sold directly from Google and not from your carrier – that’s very cohesive with the European model. Right now Android has only been available from carriers, leading to OS fragmentation. Now with the Nexus One, the phone will come from Google itself, meaning your OS updates will be direct from the source, not via the carrier, who has customized the Android OS to their liking. That might work in the US, where we are carrier-centric, but not in other markets, especially emerging markets.”

Kai-fu Lee, who announced his departure from Google China last week, has cause the Internet to erupt with speculation on the reasons for his departure and future plans.

News on this hot topic has been difficult to report, as many original sources are difficult or impossible for tech bloggers with limited resources to translate. However, according to a Reuters report, the former president of Google China is planning to start an angel investment firm with the equivalent of $117 million.

Lee confirmed his plans on his verified Twitter account, and this blog post seems to speak to his desire to “provide [a] business platform that provides angel investment funds and to assist and guide young entrepreneurs.”

Recent tweets suggest that Lee is already shopping his new company to analysts and media. He will hold a press conference Monday to give more details on the investment firm.

We and the rest of the tech world wait with bated breath to hear more about Lee’s new venture and what it will mean for the startup ecosystem in China.

EBay is working on software to replace the guts of Skype but is worried that it may not succeed, may lose a court battle with Skype’s founders over rights to the core technology and may need to do something drastic in the next few years. The company said in a regulatory filing yesterday that if it fails in both the legal and technical avenues it’s pursuing then “continued operation of Skype’s business as currently conducted would likely not be possible.”

Joltid, a company owned by Skype’s founders, merely licensed some of the system’s core technology to eBay when it sold Skype to the auction giant in 2005. Joltid now says that the license has been revoked and eBay is infringing on its rights by continuing to use the technology. The case is scheduled to go to court in June of 2010 but eBay is trying to replace the technology in the meantime. It may not succeed.

Joseph Galante at Bloomberg News cites Jayanth Angl, an analyst at Info-Tech Research Group, who argues that replacing the technology will not be easy. “It would be quite difficult to replace what they already have as the underlying component to their service,” Angl told Bloomberg. “There are a number of barriers to that, not the least of which are legal barriers.” The creation of another global P2P VOIP and video network that doesn’t infringe on existing patents is no small task.

Skype is one of the shiniest stars in eBay’s portfolio of companies and is aimed to spin out as an independent company that can sell its own stock in an IPO sometime soon. That’s unlikely to happen until this most important of several lawsuits the company faces is somehow resolved.

This Spring we reported that Skype’s founders were also interested in raising enough capital to buy Skype back from eBay. It’s been three months since that news was first disclosed and there have been no updates on the effort that we’re aware of.

Skype continues to grow very quickly. Now with 480 million users around the world, it is twice the size of Facebook and adding users almost as fast. Skype being gutted would cause substantial disruption to the communication of millions of families around the world.

You gotta hand it to the Bing guys, they just don’t stop coming up with kooky ideas to drive interest in their little search engine (or whatever you want to call it) that could. The latest is a new contest starting tomorrow on Twitter that will see one winner a day walk away with a Bing backpack and a $500 Visa cash card to use for back-to-school shopping.

But reading over the fine print, it doesn’t appear that you need to use the money for back-to-school shopping. And in fact, the rules state that you have to be over 18 to enter the contest, so unless parents are doing it for their kids, or it’s all college kids entering, it doesn’t really seem all that student-friendly. And that’s good, because it will increase my chances of winning and using the $500 on something more desirable than protractors — like maybe beer.

Here’s how the contest works: Starting tomorrow, the Bing Cashback Twitter account will start tweeting out trivia questions. Anyone who @replies back the correct answer within an hour, is then eligible to win the money for that day.

This is a good idea by Bing because the trivia will be Bing Shopping and Cashback-related, so basically you have to use Bing to find the answer. And you are required to use the #cashbackpack hashtag in your public tweet to ensure others will start following the content. Not to mention that you will have to be following the @bingcashback account closely all 7 days to see when it asks its question.

Unfortunately, this contest is only open to those in the U.S.

Come on Bing, beer me.

[photo: flickr/elvissa]

Source: ReadWriteWeb

There was lots of activity in the digital lifestyle space in 2008, with new devices, services, and platforms being launched and some of our favorites from last year getting significant updates. One notable trend throughout the year was the way these products and services began to converge; not in the sense that they were becoming all-in-one devices, although some of that was happening, but rather by hardware, services, and content playing together nicely, often through open standards and platforms, with the Internet acting as a conduit. On that note, here are our picks of the 10 best digital lifestyle products of 2008.

1. The App Store

The real upgrade to the iPhone this year wasn’t the iPhone 3G but the accompanying App Store. Launched just five months ago, the store now offers over 10,000 third-party apps, and Apple has seen over 300 million downloads. Part of that success can be attributed to the way in which the iPhone as a platform has galvanized developers; a second major factor is the simplicity of the App Store itself. As a result, lots of our other favorite digital lifestyle-related products and services wound up on the iPhone and iPod Touch, such as Pandora and Last.fm (digital music), Joost (Internet TV), Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter (social web), as well as location-based services, games, remotes (VLC Player and Sonos), and much, much more.

See also: The real surprise of the App Store isn’t number of downloads or revenue

2. Netflix

When Netflix starting talking up plans to deliver its online streaming service, Watch Instantly, to “Internet-connected high-definition DVD players, Internet-connected game consoles, and dedicated Internet set-top boxes,” we were a little skeptical, especially of the time frame. However, the company really delivered in 2008: Netflix streaming is now available on TiVo, the XBox 360, Internet-connected DVD players from LG and Samsung, along with the Roku Netflix Player set-top box.

3. Android

Our initial review of the first Google phone, T-Mobile’s G1, was mixed, but the Android OS had us pretty excited. “Without a doubt, the Android operating system is spectacular,” last100′s Daniel Langendorf wrote at the time. “It’s fast, with little or no lag time. It’s responsive, fun to use, and full of promise.” A few months on and we’re still impressed. In particular, Android’s mobile web browser is the best post-iPhone one yet. And likewise, the Android Market does a great job of copying the iPhone’s App Store. Of course, the best thing about Android is that it’s open source; as a result, we’ll see it powering numerous new smartphones next year, along with other hardware, such as set-top boxes, MIDs, and GPS devices.

4. Nokia E71

In our extensive review, we described Nokia’s E71 as our favorite smartphone yet. So, admittedly, this one is a very personal choice. The E71 is roughly the same size as the iPhone but has a completely different form-factor, omitting touch for a more traditional user interface and with enough room to pack in a compact but very usable QWERTY keyboard. Other pluses are the device’s overall responsiveness, bundled applications, and a number of welcome improvements to the S60 line’s user interface, along with decent web browsing and media playback, superb call quality, and extremely good battery life.

5. Hulu

Although online video site Hulu was available in private beta in 2007, it didn’t launch publicly until March of this year. Our initial verdict was mixed, but since then the Fox and NBC joint venture has become the third biggest video destination in the U.S., according to Nielsen. Perhaps a testament to that success, a number of device makers have released set-top boxes marketed on their ability to put Hulu content on the TV, such as ZeeVee’s recently announced PC-to-TV solution, the ZvBox, and the Neuros LINK. Now, if only Hulu would release an iPhone app or, like Netflix, form official partnerships with consumer electronics companies.

6. BBC iPlayer

Hulu could certainly learn a thing or two from the iPlayer, the BBC’s TV catch-up service (UK only). Since its controversial Windows launch, when the public broadcaster was accused of getting too close to Microsoft, the iPlayer has added streaming for the Mac and Linux, a version for the iPhone and iPod Touch, numerous other portable media players, and support for the latest phones running Windows Mobile. There’s also an iPlayer application for select Nokia phones and a browser-based version optimized for the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

7. PlayStation 3

Sony’s PlayStation 3 wasn’t launched in 2008, but it certainly came of age this year. The company has always pitched the PS3 as a device that goes far beyond gaming. Instead, like Microsoft’s XBox 360, it’s designed to be a trojan horse in the living room, delivering a range of non-gaming content and services through the television. On that front, Sony made significant progress in 2008 by winning the next-generation format war with Blu-ray, adding DVR functionality in the UK with PlayTV, launching a video download store in the U.S., adding support for DivX video, and, finally, rolling out its own virtual world called Home.

8. Songbird

After being in development for two years, the open-source desktop music player Songbird reached its 1.0 release this month. What sets Songbird apart from the likes of iTunes is the array of available plug-ins that extend the app’s functionality. For example, mashTape, one of six default add-ons, let’s you delve into artist info, discography, links, and news and scroll through Flickr photos and YouTube videos. Other add-on services that ship with the player out of the box are Last.fm, Concerts, and SHOUTcast radio. With these installed, you can sync your tracks to Last.fm’s online service, check out upcoming concerts in the area, and stream music over the Internet using the player. As of publication, there are over 70 plug-ins available for Songbird.

See also: ReadWriteWeb’s full Songbird review.

9. Wii Fit

Nintendo has long contended that “everyone’s a gamer,” and now the console giant wants everyone to get fit. Announced last year but released in 2008, the Wii Fit aims to improve the health of family members through the kind of active play first seen in Wii Sports. The “game” comes with a balance board that assists with aerobic, toning, and balancing activities. A neat feature is that household members can review each other’s progress on a new Wii channel.

10. The Netbook

This isn’t an individual product but a whole new product category that has really taken off in 2008. Initially targeted to the education market and those wanting a third machine, netbooks are resonating with a much broader market — and not just because of their lower price point compared to more traditional, higher spec’ed sub-notebooks. Despite years of industry propaganda, consumers are wising up to the fact that they don’t have to step on the processor upgrade treadmill. Instead, in an age when more and more of our applications and data reside in the cloud (on remote servers, rather than local computers), a machine with Internet connectivity and powerful enough to run a modern web browser (a netbook, in other words) is often all we need.

The DEMO Fall conference today saw the launch of a number of interesting online photo applications. Out of this group, one service that especially caught our eye was Photrade, which not only gives you an online photo album, but also the option to easily sell copies of your photos and license them to other web sites. During the open beta, Photrade is giving all users a Pro account for the next year, with the ability to upload an unlimited amount of pictures. After this first year, Pro accounts will cost $25 a year.

Features

To upload photos to Photrade, you currently have to use the standard uploader on the site. Photrade is planning on letting you transfer images from Flickr directly, but unlike other online photo applications like Picnik, it does not establish these connections for you yet. Over time, we expect that Photrade will also support other sites like Picasa or Photobucket.

For groups, Photrade offers a very nice ‘Events’ feature. You can invite a number of your friends to upload their photos from a conference, for example, though it is not quite clear to us how the potential revenue generated from sales of photos in this group would be distributed.

One very neat feature of Photrade is that you can easily move pictures between different galleries by simply dragging and dropping them. Tagging your photos and adding additional information to your albums is also extremely easy, thanks to Photrade’s easy to use interface.

Overall, the photo-management features of Photrade are very much up to par with its competition.

Making Money

At the heart of Photrade is, as the name implies, its system for selling, buying, and licensing photos. This is, of course, a very competitive market, with both free and paid competitors like SmugMug or even Flickr, but after our initial review, we can see how Photrade could create its own niche. Unlike most of its competitors, though, Photrade really emphasizes the sale and licensing of photos over just storing and sharing them, which gives the site a slightly different feel from SmugMug, for example.

As you log into Photrade, you are immediately greeted with detailed statistics for how often your pictures were viewed and how many of them were sold. To protect you photos from theft, you can also add watermarks to your pictures. As you upload your pictures, you also get to set a price for each one of them.

Besides printing on standard paper, Photrade supports putting your photos on all the standard merchandise, including mugs, key chains, shirts, and puzzles.

You can choose the exact markup you want to charge for each picture. If you just want to give your friends a chance to buy pictures from a party, for example, you can choose not to charge anything over Photrade’s standard price at all.

One issue we noticed though, was that, by default, Photrade activates sales for all sizes of photos, even when we just uploaded a very small picture that would not look good at any size over 4×6 inches. As you cannot really see pictures at a full resolution, a user might easily get fooled into buying a poster version of a less than VGA sized picture.

Besides selling pictures, Photrade also shares the profits it makes from advertising on pages with your photos on it.

Verdict

Overall, we can see how Photrade could appeal to a large number of photographers who want an easy way to sell some of their photos. One feature we would really like to see from Photrade would be the ability to theme albums, which would give professional photographers the option to keep their own branding intact.

Photrade is going up against some strong competition, including iStockphoto and stock.xchng, but Photrade seems to be courting amateur photographers a lot more than these sites.