Category Archives: apps

Google Removes Ad Blocking Apps from Play Store

Google has removed all ad blocking apps for Android from its Play Store, including AdBlock Plus, which we reviewed and spoke to the creator of when it launched in November. AdBlock says that this ‘unilateral move threatens consumer choice’.

AdBlock Plus is a free tool created by an open-source community that its creators say helps users avoid misleading, malicious and distracting advertising. The app currently blocks all ads but the creators planned to have a ‘whitelist’ of acceptable ads – similar to its desktop version – along with ad filters for users.

Ad blocking software violates section 4.4 of Google’s Developer Distribution Agreement by disrupting the ad funding model which enables developers to offer free apps. “We remove apps from Google Play that violate our policies,” a Google spokesperson said.

“We believe that the user, not Google, should be in charge of what kind of content can be displayed on their device,” said Till Faida, co-founder of Adblock Plus. “Of course it’s important that developers can still monetise but many overdo it or use ads that present a privacy invasion or promote malware. We encourage advertising that is done appropriately and conforms to an acceptable ads policy, which is debated and decided in an open public forum.

“By unilaterally removing these apps, Google is stepping all over the checks and balances that make the internet democratic. People should be really alarmed by this move.”

Android users can still install Adblock Plus from the AdBlock website.

Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and published here: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/google-removes-ad-blocking-apps-play-store

Oxfam and Coldplay Ask Scoopshot Users to Help End Land Grabs

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Oxfam and Coldplay are asking mobile photographers to help create a crowdsourced music video using Scoopshot to call for an end to land grabs by governments, banks and other investors.

Scoopshot has a network of photographers in 170 countries who have been asked to show displacement in their lives by moving a personal object or task done in their home to somewhere unfamiliar. Coldplay’s music video director, Mat Whitecross, will curate and stitch together the film and photography submitted via Scoopshot’s apps and Oxfam’s website to play alongside Coldplay’s ‘In My Place’.

The film will be launched in April as the World Bank convenes its annual Spring meetings. Campaigners say that the World Bank is in a unique position to change the situation as an investor in land and an adviser to companies on buying and selling land. This is the first time that Scoopshot’s crowdsourcing service has been used for this kind of campaign.

Oxfam’s Campaigns Director, Ben Philips said: “Campaigning is all about putting yourself in someone else’s place we know that when we unite and stand up against global injustice we can make a real difference”

Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and published here: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/oxfam-and-coldplay-ask-scoopshot-users-help-end-land-grabs

Spotlight: Mobile Activism with Qwanz App

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It’s not often that the word ‘revolutionary’ is heard in mobile without someone thinking, ‘yeah, that’s what they all say’, but Qwanz has been created with the potential to help people change the world.

The poll booth for the mobile age enables Qwanz app users on iOS and Android to vote in polls on their favourite topics, share the question with friends on social networks and even create a poll to add weight to their own cause. The polling app enables its users to quickly download for free and sign in with Facebook. I created a poll in minutes.

Become an opinion leader

Its competitors, which include Survey Monkey and Polldaddy, don’t offer the same range of functionality, including the ability to forward the results to the right decision-makers and an unlimited number of responses per poll. Users can earn badges for their participation and even become a Qwanz world opinion leader.

Like a good dating app, developers of something like this almost certainly need a critical and diverse mass in order to ensure the polling has impact. Qwanz says it is an independent platform without ties to any political, religious or ideological organisations. Its founder, Pierre Sernet, started the fine arts database Artnet.com, and doesn’t appear to have any sinister motives.

Qwanz also says it has a network of more than 20,000 journalists watching the results – although it is not clear how this has been achieved – but it certainly appears to be a good tool for hacks in a hurry. Is this more armchair activism or can it really make a difference?

Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and published here: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/spotlight-mobile-activism-qwanz-app

Hailo Puts $30m on the Meter

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The taxi-hailing app founded by three London cabbies has raised $30m (£19m) from the VC firm that backed Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr. With Tom Barr, former Starbucks exec, joining as the company’s US president and COO, the company’s next stop this quarter is New York.

The funding was led by Union Square Investors, others backers now include Richard Branson and the Japanese telco, KDDI, which has an exclusive partnership to support launches in Asia, starting with Tokyo’s 40,000 taxi drivers in a market estimated at $25bn.

“In just over a year, we have operations in ten cities across six countries and sales in excess of $100m. We now have the senior team, resources, and the investment and corporate partners to deliver our vision of bringing Hailo to NYC, Tokyo, and every street corner in every major city in the world,” said Jay Bregman, Hailo CEO and co-founder.

Nailed Dublin, Madrid next

Hailo secured $17m from Accel Partners in March to launch in Dublin – where it became the number one taxi service in the city in just three months – and has gone live in Boston, Toronto and Chicago since the service was unveiled in November 2011. Twitter’s US sales director, Bruce Daisley, speaking at today’s Mobile Marketing Association Brand and Agency Briefing, reveleaved how Hailo uses hastag targeting to drum up new business, tweeting out statements like ‘heading for the #websummit in Dublin today?’.

Hailo, now considered the best-funded taxi app in the world, with $50.6m raised to date, is on its way to Spain, beginning with Madrid and Barcelona. Hailo says it has 10,000 London taxi drivers, from whom is takes a 10 per cent cut from the fare, which makes it the dominant e-hail application in London. Earlier this month, Hailo launched an outdoor, print and digital campaign in the capital.

The $30.6m Series B round also included Moscow-based Phenomen Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, as well as existing investors Accel Partners, Wellington Partners, which provided initial seed money, and Skype founder Niklas Zennström’s Atomico Ventures.

Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and published here: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/hailo-puts-30m-meter