Furthering a week already teeming with significant acquisition news, Adobe Systems Incorporated has just revealed at its MAX 2011 technology conference that the software giant is acquiring Nitobi Software, a private firm known primarily as the creator of PhoneGap and PhoneGap Build.

PhoneGap is a popular open source platform for building cross-platform mobile applications with HTML5 and JavaScript.

According to the formal announcement from Adobe, with PhoneGap, Adobe will “offer developers the choice of two powerful solutions for cross-platform development of native mobile apps, one using HTML5 and JavaScript with PhoneGap and the other using Adobe Flash with Adobe AIR.

Continue Reading

AT&T isn’t afraid to shell out the cash when it comes to beefing up its mobile device security platform.

And the carrier is putting its money where its mouth is.

Aware of the increasing need to protect consumer and enterprise mobile devices from the growing number of troubling cyber attacks, AT&T is investing in a new mobile security platform, the telecom giant said Thursday. It will allow customers to better protect their devices against security threats.

Continue Reading

The following is the weekly guest series by Derek Johnson, Founder & CEO of mobile marketing company Tatango. You can text him at (206) 334-4012 or email him at derek@tatango.com.

When I first saw the title of the press release last Thursday, “Augme Technologies Enters Into Agreement to Purchase Assets of Mobile Marketing Pioneer JAGTAG“, the first thought through my head was WTF?

Continue Reading

On Tuesday, another prominent Twitter account was hacked.

Just hours after a Fox New Twitter account was broken into by hackers who subsequently Tweeted false information about US President Barack Obama, an unrelated incident was reported involving PayPal UK’s Twitter account.

According to a report from Reuters, hackers managed to force access to the PayPal Twitter feed for more than an hour – a period in which the digital intruder distributed messages criticizing the payment processor.

Continue Reading

We cover a lot of mobile healthcare technology and trends on Mobile Marketing Watch these days, but most has to do with new smartphone apps, mobile monitoring or more basic health and fitness applications.  While most are excellent examples of what the future of mHealth holds, what about an example of an app from an already well-established healthcare player?

Continue Reading

‎In the world of mobile payments today, it is, indeed, hip to be Square, as the iPad may soon replace the antiquated cash register thanks to the latest advancements made by the mobile payments innovator.

This week, Square rolled out the “Square Register,” a new application optimized for the iPad that effectively replaces the cash registers of yesterday with a cutting edge “touch-enabled point-of-sale solution” that even sends customers a digital receipt for their transaction.

But Register delivers more than just a new way to check-out. It also helps small business owners create a mobile virtual storefront. Consequently, merchants can display their products (complete with in-depth product descriptions) “on virtual shelves.”

Continue Reading

The following is a guest post from Mikhail Damiani, CEO & Co-Founder of Blue Bite.

Lately, one would be hard-pressed to read through a tech journal or mobile-focused publication without finding some mention of NFC (Near-Field-Communication).  But why the sudden surge of excitement and evangelization of the not-so-new technology? In fact, NFC has been around for years, and manufacturers like Nokia have been embedding the technology in their handsets as early as 2006, albeit, these phones have not made their way into the U.S.

Continue Reading