Yahoo Goes All-In On Mobile Video With New "Channel Surfing" App And Viacom Partnership

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Yahoo Partners With Viacom For Yahoo Screen Mobile Video Viewing App (Yahoo)
Yahoo announced the launch of a new mobile video app Yahoo Screen. The app will act as a hub for smartphone and tablet users to watch Yahoo content as well as view third-party partner content. Yahoo recently partnered with Viacom for over 1,000 hours of content. The app will feature easy swipe functionality with the goal to recreate the sensation of TV channel surfing for mobile video. The app will also feature a navigation area where users can flip between other Yahoo mobile apps like Fantasy Sports, Flickr, and Mail. It's a bold attempt to keep users engaged in the broad Yahoo mobile ecosystem. Read >

Sony Tackles Set-Top Box Market With PS Vita TV (Engadget)
Sony announced its new PS Vita TV set-top box. It will connect to HD monitors and already includes apps that other set-top boxes utilize such as Hulu and Twitter. Sony may have an edge with its PS Vita gaming console, though. The Vita TV will allow users to connect PlayStation controllers and play Vita games. The box is competitively priced at around $150 but will only be available in Japan at its November launch date. Read >

Apple Is Tweaking Its App Store Rankings Algorithm (Juniper)
It's still difficult for consumers to find what they want in the app stores. But Apple seems to be trying to tweak its rankings algorithm in order to reward quality and help users find good apps. Juniper draws on reports from several app analytics firms and concludes that two major changes have been made: 1) A four-star ranking now seems to be virtually a requirement to break into the top 1,000, meaning that ratings are now weighed and 2) Apple now updates its rankings every three hours, far less frequently than it once did, in order to punish apps that try to climb in the rankings by using bots to drive download surges. Read >

PayPal Revamps Its Mobile Commerce App (Mobile Commerce Daily)
PayPal recently updated its mobile commerce app to include features like shopping offers, instant credit, financing options, and buy-ahead capabilities. PayPal understands the prevalence of the growing m-commerce market and it is looking to court more mobile-centric shoppers to its app. Read >

Apple Patent Brings NFC Back To Life (NFC World)
Apple recently filed a patent that combines the fingerprint technology of Authentec, a recently acquired company, and a variation on NFC. Authentec is famous for its deep integration with NFC technology. NFC World speculates on how the two technologies may be put to use on an iPhone. Read >

Considering The Price Of The 5C (Stratechery)
Stratechery takes an economics-focused look at how smartphone prices are determined, what Apple's pricing strategy has been up until this point, and what a suitable price is for their potential low-cost model. Read >

App 100 Graphic_03 How Facebook Can Become The Top Mobile Platform (VentureBeat)
VentureBeat sat down with Facebook VP of Platform Mike Vernal to discuss the recent acquisition of Parse, a backend-as-a-service mobile development company, and how Facebook wants to become a significant platform for mobile developers. Read >

Alibaba Braces For Mobile Revolution (Wall Street Journal)
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is set to release one of the Internets largest IPOs, but its mobile business is lacking. Nearly 90% of transactions originate from desktops. Adapting to mobile will be crucial to its next phase of growth. Read >

The App 100: The World's Greatest Apps (Business Insider)
Kevin Smith of SAI runs down the 100 best apps currently available in the market. Read >