Google Announces Rebuilt AdMob Developer Tools With Smarter App Promotion, Local Currency Support
Mobile app developers using Google’s AdMob ad network will start seeing a new version that has been rebuilt “in a ground-up sort of way,” according to Jonathan Alferness, director of product management for mobile ads.
The update, which starts rolling out today, also brings AdMob more in line with Google’s other ad platforms. That’s something the company has been working on since it acquired AdMob in 2010, for example by integrating AdMob with AdWords, but Alferness said today is the “culmination” of all that work, and that the new AdMob can be more easily extended with new features, setting the stage for future improvements.
More concretely, Google says there are a number of new features in the current update, including a version of the AdWords Conversion Optimizer, which allows developers to identify the cost-per-acquisition that they’re aiming for. It then automatically runs the ad types that are best-suited to drive the most app installations on that budget. There are also new filters allowing developers to block specific topics or specific ads for showing up in their apps. There’s a new setup for AdMob Mediation for showing ads from multiple networks. And AdMob now supports payment in local currencies.
There’s a new interface, too — Google didn’t show it to me, but Alferness said it fits much better with Google’s other ad platforms. At the same time it will have “a lot of the same tools, a lot of the same functionality,” so developers used to the old system won’t feel like “a fish out of water.”
“We’re continuing to see changes in the actual app monetization industry,” Alferness added. “The platform enables us to grow and pivot and change. You can look at the platform and start to imagine missing pieces — one of the areas where we know that we have more work to do is tracking and analytics.”
However, as AdMob changes, Alferness says the central vision remains the same: “We’d love to be a one-stop place for app developers to come to deal with various Google technologies.” And if mobile apps move to new business models, he wants AdMob to move with them.
You can read more about the update here.
Excerpt from: Google Announces Rebuilt AdMob Developer Tools With Smarter App Promotion, Local Currency Support
MetroPCS Finally Gets Shareholder Blessing For T-Mobile USA Merger
Things fell apart spectacularly the last time T-Mobile USA was tied up in a potential merger transaction, but it doesn’t look like history will repeat itself this time around. According to a report from Bloomberg, MetroPCS shareholders voted today to approve a deal that would see the nation’s fourth and fifth largest wireless carriers merge.
Getting to this point hasn’t exactly been easy for the parties involved. Deutsche Telekom’s and MetroPCS’ respective boards originally gave the transaction its blessing in October 2012, but Deutsche Telekom had to improve its deal earlier this month (a move they denied for a while) due to pressure from some of Metro’s most prominent shareholders. Under the terms of the revised bid, Deutsche Telekom gets 74 percent stake in the combined carried, while MetroPCS shareholders get $1.5 billion in cash and a reduction of Metro’s post-merger debts.
All told, the tie-up will see some 9 million prepaid MetroPCS customers join the T-Mobile fold, but that’s only part of what the magenta-hued carrier stands to gain. More importantly, T-Mobile USA will gain access to Metro’s spectrum holdings which should help the carrier in its bid to roll out a nationwide LTE network. Frankly, T-Mobile needs all the help it can get — it fired up LTE service in seven cities back in March, and rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless have had significant head starts when it comes to lighting up and managing LTE networks.
While it works to light up LTE in more markets, T-Mobile has also keenly rebranded itself as the “Uncarrier” by doing away with multi-year contracts and making price plans more transparent. It’s a savvy move from a carrier that can’t quite compete on the same level as its rivals (at least when it comes to LTE) — the company is trying to frame carrier value not in terms of network speed but how fairly it treats its customers. That’s unlikely to change now that T-Mobile and MetroPCS have been given shareholder approval to merge, but combining those sensibilities with a more pronounced LTE presence could do wonders for the combined carrier.
View post: MetroPCS Finally Gets Shareholder Blessing For T-Mobile USA Merger
Researchers Expect To See A $6.5 Billion Market For Home Robotics By 2017
Sure, we have our Roombas and a few AR Drones here and there, but researchers expect that we’ll have many more – and better – robots within the next few years and that the overall market should hit $6.5 billion by 2017.
According to ABI Research’s Consumer Electronics Research Service, the consumer robotics market is currently at about $1.6 billion and growing. A slow economy and fairly expensive parts has stagnated things for the time being but improved devices and more interesting implementations – home helper robots, for example – could push the market up considerably.
As we’ve seen in our visit with Bossa Nova Robotics, devices like the Mobi ball bot can move through crowded spaces and help out in unique situations. While it’s still no Rosie the Robot, I could imagine a cleaning bot that could also help move heavy objects as a team effort and robots that can inspect chimneys and drains. Interestingly, the problem of safety begins to crop up when talking about consumer robotics.
“What happens if a robot falls down the stairs while someone is walking up, or gets caught on a lamp power cord and pulls the lamp down and starts a fire?” added Solis. “This is a gating factor to take-up of more complex personal robots – solvable but with additional cost.”
Obviously the question remains: did the robots start the fire on purpose?
See more here: Researchers Expect To See A $6.5 Billion Market For Home Robotics By 2017
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