We wrote on Monday that Apple had accepted Opera's mobile browser into its app store. A day after it debuted it has topped the list of free apps in all of Apple's online stores. Opera is now #1 from Australia to the United States. Sponsor Discuss
Read more:
Opera Tops iTunes Apps
Buyers outside the United States who planned on buying iPads are going to have to grit their teeth a while longer yet, as the release date has changed. Based on the strong U.S. demand for Apple's new iPads, the company has decided it would delay the product's international release for a month. Sponsor According to the official Apple statement on the matter, the sale of 500,000 of the tablets stateside in its first week of availability has put the screws to the supply. The company has "made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May" Apple "will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10." Discuss
Read more:
Apple Delays International Sales of iPads
For websites that find themselves stuck in the middle of the ongoing feud between Apple and Adobe, there might be another way out of the mess - Ripcode . According to the company, its latest product is a server-side solution for websites that want to get their Flash-based content onto Apple's iPad and iPhone. Sponsor The somewhat futuristic sounding "TransAct Transcoder V6 can intercept Adobe Flash-based file or live video" and translate the video into a format compatible with both the iPhone and the iPad. As the company points out in its blog post , Flash is used in a number of settings, especially live streaming of news and sports and other video content. And while HTML5 is one solution, it is not yet widely adopted and the company's transcoding service offers an immediate and seamless solution. The transcoder is a completely server side solution, meaning it does not have to be installed by users or pass by Apple's scrutiny to get into the app store. Instead, it runs on the website server and detects the requesting platform and transcodes the video as needed. "The 'Flash on iPad' dilemma is really just the latest in a long line of speed bumps on the road towards 'any-content, any-time, any-place, any-device' that we all desire. Fortunately, our technology removes this barrier in a way that is attractive to content hosters, a key device manufacturer, a key video player provider, and the end user alike," RipCode CEO Brendon Mills says in the company's blog. The best part of this solution, as far as it relates to both Apple and Adobe, is that it has nothing to do with either. And rather than having to swap out services and modify your whole website, a simple server-side install handles the issue entirely, outputting the appropriate video format for whatever the device. The service supports a number of formats and will be demonstrating this week at the NAB 2010 in Las Vegas. Discuss
Read the original here:
RipCode Brings Streaming Flash Video to iPhone & iPad
Looking for that next booming trend in the tech industry to sink your entrepreneurial teeth into so that you might come up with a great product to receive funding for? Well perhaps you need to look no further than music, as reports show that first quarter investments in 2010 for music tech startups nearly doubled from 2009 and 2008 figures - an upward trend entrepreneurs could take advantage of in the near future. Sponsor Duncan Freeman, author of the site Indie Music Tech and founder of Band Metrics, estimates that around 25 investment deals in the music tech space were inked in the opening months of this year. Compared to 13 and 14 approximate investments in the first quarter of 2008 and 2009 respectively, Q1 2010 is off to a great start with huge early investment growth. Among the largest and most notable deals of the year so far include Spotify 's undisclosed amount of funding from Founder's Fund, $20 million which when to startup Guvera , and speaker manufacturer Sonos which received $25 million from Index Ventures. Other well known startups, such as SeatGeek, Songbird, TuneWiki and BlogTalkRadio all received various amounts of VC investment in the first quarter of this year. While there was nearly twice as many investments this year than in 2008, the amounts of those investments were much smaller. Freeman's estimates put 2008's 13 first quarter investments at a value of around $90 million, an average of nearly $7 million per investment. This year's 25 investments managed just around $110 million, or just over $4 million per investment, which is no better an average than from Q1 2009 which saw around $62 million. So while more deals are going down in the music tech industry, only slightly more cash is being doled out. It seems like the market for music startups is slowly warming and gaining traction with investors as companies like Spotify are thriving while others like Lala, which was acquired by Apple, are being snatched up by large corporations. Music could be an interesting industry to watch over the course of 2010 as these Q1 estimates suggest it could be a busy year of investments, so entrepreneurs may want to take a look at how they might provide a valuable service in this sector. Let us know what you think about the music tech space and where you think trends may lead this year by posting a comment below! Chart from Indie Music Tech . Discuss
Read the original:
First Quarter Music Tech Investments Nearly Double in 2010
Norway-based browser company Opera has announced it will be available at the iTunes app store for download into Apple products. "Opera Mini has been approved for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store," the company announced . "Opera Mini will be available as a free download within 24 hours, depending on market." Sponsor Opera is a significant mobile player and the ability to tap the iPhone and iPod markets may boost that play. Opera has broken the 100 million user mark but lags on the desktop. Prior to this, as ReadWriteWeb has noted, the iPhone has remained off-limits for any browser besides Apple's own Safari. Their early February notice that they would be developing for the iPhone was thought possibly be primarily a public relations act. Not so. Features include the following. Easy to sync phone with computer Speed Dial gets user to a website with a single tap Address field with auto-completion Tabs allow for multitasking with several Web pages Bookmarks easily managed and accessed If Opera sells, and works well, for iPhone and iPod Touch users, perhaps other browsers will make their way into the orchard. Discuss
Follow this link:
Opera in iTunes