Feed: mocoNews - AggScore: 85.9

Just in time for Thanksgiving travels, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is rolling out turn-by-turn navigation to all Android phones that have received the latest Android operating system update.

Google Maps Navigation was first available on the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid that was running Android OS 2.0. Now it will run on any devices running Android 1.6, which is code-named Donut, according to the Google Mobile Blog. That includes such devices as the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and the original G1. The beta service allows people to get GPS directions using voice prompts and even automatic re-routing when you take a wrong turn.

Now that navigation is available on Android devices for free, will other smartphone-makers follow?

Twitter’s generous investors—the latest round was $100 million—may be pleased to hear that “2010 is really going to be the revenue year” for the high-profile startup. Or so Biz Stone, one of three cofounders, told reporters at Oxford University Monday, the latest stop on a talky tour of the UK. That idea is tied to Twitter’s plans to introduce an unidentified but “amazing” new way of advertising to the status-update service, Stone said at Oxford, according to Reuters and promised that “everyone’s going to love it.” Perhaps his traveling has kept him from keeping up with the chatter on Twitter, where love and ads aren’t exactly hashtag pals. (Stone’s comments echoed CEO Dick Costolo’s promise last week, via New TeeVee,  that ads would be “fascinating,” “non-traditional” and “really cool.”)

As for the company’s other financial future, Stone stressed again a lack of interest in selling the company but talked about the possibility of an IPO: “The point is, we want to build our own company that will last for a long time. If an IPO’s the way to do that, then sure. We don’t have it checked off on the calendar yet.” He raised the vague notion of an alternative, suggesting “maybe some other new way will emerge.”

Telegent Systems, a mobile TV receiver developer, has filed for an IPO—potentially worth $250 million—per an SEC filing. Telegent plans to trade on Nasdaq under the “TLG” symbol; the IPO is being co-managed by Jefferies & Company, Oppenheimer & Co., and Piper Jaffray.

The company is backed by over $50 million in funding from Northern Light Venture Capital, Index Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and Walden International; its most recent raise was a $20 million third round in 2007.

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is obviously not happy with AT&T’s network reputation taking a beating—especially since it’s the only network in the U.S. selling its iPhone during the busy holiday shopping season.

Tonight, Apple will do its part to defend AT&T (NYSE: T) against Verizon’s ad campaign that has criticized the iPhone network as having more holes in its 3G network coverage than Verizon does. AT&T hasn’t been able to do much on its own. It lost a preliminary injunction in federal court, and then launched its own ads with Luke Wilson, which touts AT&T as the “nation’s largest network.” The heart of the problem is that so far Verizon’s ads have been viewed as truth, not spin. Apple’s ad, which will air tonight, may be slightly more convincing since it focuses on AT&T’s ability to hold a simultaneous voice and data connection at the same time—something you can’t do on Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ). BusinessWeek reports that in two different ads, Apple touts both business and social scenarios. In one, you can look at an email from a client while you’re still talking to him and in another, you can send your friend directions to the movie theater while you’re still talking.

»  The latest iPhone/AT&T (NYSE: T) rumor has the deal supposedly ending in June, changing subsidy costs paid out to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). [Fortune]

»  Reasons why less than 10 percent of fliers who have WiFi available on their flights actually use it. [Fierce Wireless]

»  A report from AdMob shows Android’s market share to be growing fast. [GigaOM]

»  Also, real-time search engine Tapu heads to the Android. [ReadWriteWeb]

»  Even though phones are getting more advanced, the prices (aided by BOGO offers) are falling. [Cellular News]

»  In a test of the speed of retail mobile sites, Amazon’s was the quickest, while Target’s was the slowest. [MediaPost]

Mobile commerce app developer ROAM Data has raised $6.5 million in a second round of funding, per an SEC filing. The new round was led by Ingenico Ventures, the new VC arm of global payment solutions company Ingenico SAS; former Hypercom CEO George Wallner also participated.

UK femtocell maker picoChip has secured $20 million (£12.1 million) in VC funding from a host of investors including Altas Ventures, Highland Capital Partners and Pond Venture Partners. Also joining the round are Intel (NSDQ: INTC), Samsung and AT&T (NYSE: T), which is keen to boost its own femtocell offering. Femtocells are 3G mobile signal generators, designed to boost mobile network and wireless internet coverage in homes or offices. Release.

Spotify already previewed its in-development Symbian S60 app in September. Now it’s ready, giving the music service a much wider mobile footprint (Symbian runs half the world’s smartphones).

Premium users can download the app themselves from m.spotify.com, but the real potential for Spotify is in carrier relationships. Pretty much all of them carry Nokia (NYSE: NOK) phones, and consumers - at least, in Europe - are still pretty likely to pick one of those over rivals.

Several reports leaked out today that Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) will start selling the new Samsung Omnia II starting Dec. 2 for $200. But the cool part of this announcement, which was mostly neglected in all the fuss, is that this Windows Mobile 6.5 device will include something Samsung calls “Genius Texting.”

The technology, developed by Seattle-based Swype, is an attempt at making touchscreen keyboards way easier to use and more accurate. Who knows who fast users will pick up on it because it’s not like anything you’ve used before. Start by pressing the first letter of a word, and then without lifting your finger, drag it from letter to the next until the word is spelled—and sort of like waving a magic wand, the word will appear. With the proliferation of touchscreen phones, it’s nice to see advancements in inputs, and if what I’ve been hearing about Swype in the Seattle wireless community is any indication, we should be seeing this in a lot more phones, on a lot more carriers and manufacturers, early next year. We’ll expect to hear more when the phone’s officially announced sometime next week.

Renting Redbox movies is extremely inexpensive—the 99-cent per night rentals are why the company is currently battling three of the big Hollywood studios—but a new iPhone app is aimed at making it even cheaper. The app, which launches Monday, tracks down and ranks free rental promo codes; developer Neese Products is charging 99-cents.

Users can rank the promo codes based on their “validity” and “usefulness;” the app sends code updates twice daily. There’s no-rev share with Redbox parent Coinstar, because it’s not a Coinstar or Redbox-branded app. Redbox currently offers SMS-based alerts, but it’s not clear whether those alerts include discount codes. It’s the first app from Phoenix-based Neese Products, which says it develops products designed to solve “everyday household problems.”

Motorola (NYSE: MOT) said it is buying a division of privately held RadioFrame Networks, which makes network equipment for Sprint’s Nextel division. The iDen base station technology will become part of its Motorola’s Home & Networks Mobility business, which was rumored to be for sale. Motorola did not disclose terms of the deal. Release.

Redmond, Wash.-based RadioFrame Networks also makes femtocells, which carriers can give to subscribers to boost cellular coverage at home or in the office using a broadband connection.

»  Mobile ads aren’t a big hit with consumers. [MediaPost]

»  Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) like TomTom will hit their sales peak in 2012. [Mobile-Ent]

»  Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is adding support for Windows Live Messenger in its messaging platform. [Cellular News]

»  Watch manufacturers are embracing the iPhone, a device they once saw as their rival. [Mobile Tech Today]

»  Air Canada is testing out WiFi on its Toronto-LA and Montreal-LA flights. [Mobile Tech News]

»  Specs for the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Motus, the next phone in the Cliq line, have been released.[Android And Me]

Mobile payments provider Boku is gaining traction, seemingly evolving into the chosen platform for social and casual gaming companies that want to make it easier for their users to pay for virtual goods and downloads on-the-go.

The company—which officially launched its service in June—already counted big publishers like Playfish and Slide as clients; now it has added 12 new partners, including King.com (co-founder Toby Rowland is extremely bullish on the “freemium” model), dating game-creators Snap Interactive and Zoosk, as well as MMORPG-creator Perfect World.

The iPhone store is processing about five times more downloads than its Android counterpart, and according to sentiments from mobile gaming company Gameloft, it’s a trend that will continue, because there will be fewer games—specifically—for Android users to buy.

At an investor conference, Alexandre de Rochefort, Gameloft’s finance director, said the company had “significantly cut” its investment in the Android platform for two reasons: Google “has not been very good” at enticing users to buy mobile content through the Android store, and Gameloft (EPA: GFT)—as well as other developers—haven’t been making “significant revenue” as a result (via Reuters).

A fresh set of rumors are circulating that Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) is looking for a partner in the U.S. to help finance a high-speed data network for its T-Mobile wireless subsidiary.

Reuters reports that the German paper Handelsblatt cited unidentified people from the German company as saying they are looking at partnering with other competitors, such as MetroPCS, Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) and AT&T (NYSE: T). They are also looking for a financial investor from outside the space that may take a stake in the company. While the search is still in its initial stages, the company has abandoned other potential strategies such as a takeover of Sprint-Nextel.