Mobile advertising firm Millennial Media this morning released its ‘Mobile Mix’ report covering its findings for the first quarter of this year. The report looks at trends in ad impressions across mobile devices and operating systems.

The mobile advertising company found that tablets – or ‘non-phone mobile devices’ – accounted for 20 percent of all 45 billion monthly ad impressions on its platform during Q1 2012, up from 15 percent in the same period last year.

The report also found that Android remained the top overall OS on the platform in the first quarter of this year, with a 49 percent share of impressions.

Furthermore, Millennial says Android made up 14 of the ‘top 20′ mobile phones.

Apple remained king of the hill when looking at individual mobile device makers thanks to its iPhone, however, with Samsung in second place with 4 of the top 20 mobile phones. Surprise: the BlackBerry Curve is ranked in second place.

Millenial says Apple represented 28 percent of the top manufacturers’ impression share, with the iPhone accounting for 15 percent of mobile ad impressions.

The Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Amazon Kindle Fire were the top tablets in Q1 2012, and all three were among the top 20 mobile devices.

Also read: New iPad overtakes original iPad in the US after only 2 months: Report

There are a few players in the business collaboration space, but up-and-comer Convo continues to broaden its offerings, making it a service worth looking at before making a big decision of what your team is going to select.

We’re big fans of the service previously known as Convofy, and it’s something we use every day here. Today, Convo announced an Android app to go along with its previously release iOS version and it’s pretty sweet, along with an upcoming Group Chat feature that looks fantastic.

Android and Group Chat

Being able to connect with your team from wherever you are is dependent upon how accessible a service is. By adding an Android version to sit alongside its previous desktop and iOS offerings, Convo is now becoming a complete service.

By being able to share files, status updates, as well as participate in chats with members of your team from all over the world, Convo is the “headquarters” that every company needs. Its features surely beat using GChat or IM alone, and can serve as the hub for an entire business, no matter how large or small it is.

Convo is also releasing group chat functionality, saying its the first in the private social networking space to offer it. Up until now, you could only start a direct chat with one person at a time, causing you to pile up on tabs within the app.

Now, you’ll be able to invite as many people as you like into a chat, which I can already tell will be a huge plus.

In a space that has players like Yammer and Chatter, a company like Convo is going to have to iterate often and add features that its customers are asking for. It appears as if those two things are happening and it has been fun to watch. The service costs $5 per person within an organization and is well worth a try.

➤ Convo

Google has denied comments from AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson suggesting that it gives preferential treatment and access to new Android platforms to some operators, as 9to5Google reports.

In an effort to clarify Stephenson’s suggestion that it has its favorites, the firm has said that it doesn’t discriminate and makes the latest versions of its Android platform available to all.

A spokesperson told 9to5Google [via Business Insider]:

Mr. Stephenson’s carefully worded quote caught our attention and frankly we don’t understand what he is referring to. Google does not have any agreements in place that require a negotiation before a handset launches. Google has always made the latest release of Android available as open source at source.android.com as soon as the first device based on it has launched. This way, we know the software runs error-free on hardware that has been accepted and approved by manufacturers, operators and regulatory agencies such as the FCC. We then release it to the world.

It remains to be seen if Stephenson will provide any further comment. His suggestion that the firm wasn’t playing nicely with its partners is a controversial one and he should clear the air and clarify exactly what he meant.

The controversy flared up when a question asking why Android updates took time to get out to AT&T users drew this response from Stephenson:

So yeah it’s an issue. Google kind of determines what platform gets the newest releases and when. Often times that’s a negotiated arrangement.

Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility, which is still to be ratified in China, has raised concerns that it could dish out preferential to the handset maker, and Stephenson’s comment feeds into the fear that it has preferred partners.

Android remains a fragmented operating system. Google’s most recent data shows that adoption of its latest built — Android 4.0 (known as Ice Cream Sandwich) — grew significantly in April, but it remains installed on less than 5 percent of all active Android devices.

We told you about an interesting startup called StartApp a few months ago, as it had just raised $4.3M to help Android developers make some money from their apps.

Advertising embedded in apps don’t tend to do well, plus it can hurt the experience for end users. StartApp came up with a solution that allows Android developers to bundle a search app with their own and make some money each time a user performs a search using it.

In addition to its funding, the company tells me that it hit a major milestone today, by serving up its 100 millionth download. That means 100M apps using its advertising SDK has been downloaded by consumers. That’s super impressive.

At first it sounded a little spammy to me, but I had a chance to sit down with the company founder while I was visiting Israel and it seems like everyone involved has been happy with the service’s performance thus far.

One of the questions I had for the team was how users were responding to another app being installed on their device in addition to the one that they chose to download in the first place, and it seemed like there had been little, if any, pushback. While StartApp can’t track how many users delete the embedded monetizable search app, it says that the traffic it generates is astounding and is making a fair amount of money for the company as well as Android Developers.

In response to some of my concerns regarding the “spammy” aspects of the program, the company said that it would introduce a new EULA which alerted users to the fact that they would also be getting the search app through StartApp. That has been introduced today:

If you’re an Android developer and haven’t found the write solution to make some money from your app, other than charging for it of course, then StartApp is definitely worth taking a look at and perhaps giving a trial run. You can always remove it later and resubmit your app, since Android’s review process, or lack thereof, allows for quick updates.

➤ StartApp

Want beer? Now there’s the KegDroid beer dispensing system thanks to a Googler named Paul Carff. His touch screen kegerator is so genius that we had to show it to you. Google should really think about turning this into a real product, I’d buy one.

The droid’s name is “Betsy”, and she’s a bartender:

Here’s a full introduction to the KegDroid, complete with her history. The thing has “flow sensors”, that’s some geeky stuff right there:

The KegDroid was a fork of a project called KegBot, and you can go make your own!

Photo apps are the hottest thing out there right now. Ever since Instagram was purchased by Facebook, people have been wondering if it the door is now closed for other players in the space to emerge. Similarly, video apps are also getting attention as the next space that’s ripe for big acquisition things, with Viddy in the driver’s seat.

One up-and-coming app does both photo and video and is seeing some impressive growth that is about to explode thanks to Facebook’s Open Graph and Timeline integration. That app is Israel-based Mobli, which has been available for about seven months.

When I met with the company, it told me that it just hit 2 million monthly active users, and has just launched its new Facebook features, so that number should go through the roof as we’ve seen with other apps that have done the same.

The company has some interesting investors and advisors, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Lance Armstrong. Mobli has raised 4M to date, and is set to expand its functionality for its iOS, Android, and BlackBerry app that lets you share and discover photos and videos based on topics that interest you.

Set to take on both video and photo apps

The thing that stands out to me about Mobli the most is that it is already on iOS, Android, BlackBerry mobile platforms with a plan to expand to Windows Phone soon. In addition, it has a really nice web version that’s fully functional. I truly believe that even mobile app networks need a Web destination, something that I always thought would have gotten Instagram even more traction.

The app itself is set up to let you follow people and discover content based on subject channels such as sports, pets, or music. This is a bit different from other apps too, which are entirely relying upon the fact that you’re following your friends or are interested in the most popular content. You can definitely lose yourself in Mobli for a few hours.

When you’re shooting a video or photo, you’ll be thrown into a feature called the “darkroom” which is Mobli’s editing suite. Much like you can alter photos with other popular apps, Mobli lets you do the same. The secret sauce the company tells me is that all of their filters are server-side, meaning they can add new filters on the fly without having to update any of its apps, which is brilliant.

You can also import photos from Facebook and Instagram and share it on the network as well. Adding those photos into channels is great way to repurpose content that you’ve already taken and shared on other networks.

By “watching” both channels as well as people on the Mobli network, you can pretty much guarantee that you’ll never run out of things to check out. I personally enjoy spending extra cycles looking at my Instagram feed, waiting for someone to post something.

While sometimes it’s ridiculous to call something “the next big thing” for the sake of doing so, Mobli has the functionality, features, backing, and user growth that will only make great things happen for the company. The people that use the service absolutely love it and enjoy sharing photos on Facebook and Twitter using it. That’s the magic that a lot of popular apps have seen, and I bet that even Instagram would attribute most of its success to its community.

If you’re looking to place bets on what the next popular video or photo app may be, it might be all wrapped up into one with Mobli.

➤ Mobli

It should come as no surprise that 500px is quickly becoming the popular alternative to photo sharing and hosting site Flickr, as it recently announced a $20 yearly plan that takes aim directly at Yahoo’s prized service.

To build out its community even more, the company has launched its first Android app today, and a seriously updated version of its iPad app.

The service tells us that its iPad app users spend more than 40 minutes in the app every session, checking out, interacting with, and sharing photos. The Android version, without a doubt, is set to see the same type of traction.

Not only is 500px popular for sharing photos, it’s also become a marketplace for photographers to sell prints of their work, which is something that Flickr never even attempted.

Here’s what 500px CEO and co-founder Oleg Gutsol had to say about the 500px mobile success:

We’re in the midst of a movement to reinvent the experience of photography and culture on mobile devices. The way we take photos, and what we use to take them, is evolving. The way we showcase and consume photos must follow. With our site and applications, everyone can be an artist or a curator or both, through any medium.

500px for Android, which is optimized for viewing photos on a tablet, is absolutely gorgeous:

Its iPad app has gotten a once over with Retina Display support as well as in-app purchases, so that people can buy as they browse. According to 500px, the iPad version has seen 300M pages of photos flipped through since its launch. In addition, users can now download HD versions of their favorite photos using the app.

The service itself hosts over 6M photos, which is an impressive accomplishment given that there are multiple players in the photography space.

➤ 500px for Android | iPad

If you remember the 90′s, you’ll no doubt remember the gold-rush felt by businesses to get on the Web. Consultants were making serious bank by telling every mom and pop store in the world that they “needed a website”. It turned out to be true, because when someone tells me about a new restaurant the first place I turn to is Google to find their website.

The call to “get on the web” has evolved into the “you need an app” trend. Yes, if you’re a serious publisher or business, being on Apple’s App Store could be a way to reach a new audience. While it’s not critical for businesses to rush to the several app markets right this moment, it’s definitely worth thinking about.

A company called Uppsite wants to be the “one stop shop” for turning your site into a multi-platform app. Sure, there are a few sites out there that will turn your blog into a web app, but Uppsite differentiates itself by handling the creation process all the way to submission and hosting.

When I sat down with the team behind Uppsite, CEO and founder Gal Brill told me that the company was getting prominent placement in WordPress’ VIP “Future Partner Program”, which means that all customers will have the option to turn their site into an app using Uppsite’s technology.

An app in two minutes or less?

Uppsite promises to make the creation and customization of your app dead simple, and they’ve done a pretty good job at that. The product currently works with WordPress, Blogger, and soon Tumblr sites, and all you have to do is enter your URL to get started.

After you’ve gone through the customization process, a mobile, iOS, and Android version of your site will be generated. The company promises the addition of a Windows Mobile version in the next few months. Uppsite handles the submission process, and will keep you updated on its progress.

For those who aren’t savvy enough to build their own apps, or are worried about the costs of hiring someone to create yours, a product like Uppsite is worth taking a look at. It’s free to get started, and if you want to really customize your app, Uppsite will be more than happy to work with you on that for a fee.

While it’s not for everyone, the service is perfect for a small publisher or business to wet their whistle with having a mobile app.

➤ Uppsite

April 9^th, 2012 will go down in shopping history as the day the software gods emptied the coffers to preserve mobile market share with two very disparate strategies. While both companies were acting in large part to block competitors, their moves couldn’t have been further apart when it comes to valuing ideas over users. Facebook paid $1 billion for Instagram, a photo app with zero intellectual property, while Microsoft paid $1 billion for a portfolio of 800 patents related to email and IM. Why are these valuations so high and what do patents have to do with it? The answer, as so many answers do, begins with Google.

 goo·gle·pho·bi·a  noun \ˈgü-gəlˈfōbēə\

pathological fear or loathing of Google

Protection Money

Googlephobia reached a fevered pitch last week as both Microsoft and Facebook took desperate actions to slow the ascent of the Android empire. Weeks earlier at SXSW, Facebook took notice as Instagram innocently announced its Android version. Hm, Facebook must’ve thought, an extra 30 million users might be somewhat appealing to a lonely social network like Google Plus. In reaction to this, Instagram casually doubled its valuation a week before the Android release.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is in a hardware war with the Android manufacturing universe and pundits agreed that AOL’s legal cache might have given Google some protection from Seattle’s best lawyers. Google didn’t bid in the open auction, but chairs around the world probably slept better anyways knowing that Ballmer’s purchase may have calmed some nerves. Still, are these protective powers worth $1 billion?

Same Price – Very Different IP

Both Facebook and Microsoft were looking to spend their billion to increase their mobile market share, but the difference in approaches to intellectual capital couldn’t be more stark. In order to look at the comparative value, we’ll need to look at some recent developments in the fascinating world of software IP that shed some, if dim, light on the magnitude of last Tuesday’s spending spree.

A Nano-Primer On Software Patents: Machine, Transformation, and Half-Toning

Machine or Transformation

How do you know if your software process, say, for filtering a picture, is patentable? According to the 19th century definition still on the books today, your clever idea requires either a specified machine, or it must change something physically. This terminology was famously used in 1972 to prevent software algorithms from being patented (legal eaglets see Gottschalk v Benston). It was further invoked by the supreme court in 2010 when they famously denied a patent for a process (Bilski vs Kappos), while at the same time admitting that maybe some software algorithms (that didn’t refer to a specific machine or to change the state of physical objects) deserved some sort of patent.

Half the Tone, All of the IP

The latest chapter in software patents happened in 2010 as the Federal Circuit weighed in against our shopper Microsoft and found that software processes, even those without unique machines or state changes, were patentable if they were specific and provided “functional and palpable applications in the field of computer technology”.

In that instance the beautifully named “Research Corporation Technologies, Inc.” was able to successfully defend its patent for half-toning — using dot gradients to mimic colors — from Microsoft. A victory for the protection of ideas and a patent for an algorithm! Confusion resolved? Hardly. Since 1972 through last week every software and hardware player with half a million to spare has been gathering up patent after patent to try to bluff each other into not suing for ubiquitous processes like half-toning or email or instant messaging. Half-toning seems especially resonant here, isn’t Instagram built around a process for manipulating images?

A menu from 1972′s SuperPaint, an Instagram Precursor

Facebook’s Purchase (No Sales, No Patents, No Problem)

Instagram has no real protectable intellectual property at all. It uses a hodgepodge of open source to deliver its services and its filters have been around since Superpaint. What Facebook gets instead of IP is users, 30 million of them. How much are users worth? For a company with a valuation of over $100 per user, Instagrammers are a bargain at $30 each. With a turf war out there, Instagram doesn’t need sales, as its investors realized from the get go, nor does it need any protected IP. Despite Zuckerberg’s claim that Facebook doesn’t “plan on many more of” these deals for users, the deal’s magnitude exposes a Facebook strategy: will pay for users, no patents necessary.

SuperPaint ran on the Nova800 (16 Bit!)

Microsoft’s Purchase (No Product, No Problem)

Conversely, Microsoft, a company once known for its software prowess, wants patent weaponry to continue its assault on Apple, Google and the smartphone manufacturers. In August, Google purchased Motorola Mobility for its 17,000 patents in a deal that likely pushed Microsoft into its bidding for AOL’s stash of IP.  As the Wall Street Journal’s Gordon Crovitz put it, “The value of patents in software and hardware such as smartphones has everything to do with litigation risk. It has almost nothing to do with technology.”

Mobile Users – The Patent Alternative

What’s wonderful about these two surprising uses of $1 billion, is that they auger a world of mobile tech that is still a wide-open playing field. Once the meal-ticket of the startup, patents have become arrows stockpiled by the thousands by the mega-corporations of the Internet to protect shares of the mobile market.  The top dollar paid  for these patent troves shows that the mobile world is still anyone’s game.  Meanwhile, Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram unveils a vision of the future where users, not patents or products, are the best way to protect and expand mobile marketshare. We’ve already seen startups following the lead of Instagram’s precursor “Burbn” by shedding their product-oriented approaches in favor of a clean, simple, viral quest for users.

The Winner

Facebook wins this billion dollar bargain hunt by acquiring 30 million users and announcing a new strategy in one surprising move. Instagram’s users might not ultimately bring revenues of $30 each, but with the high public valuation for Facebook, the immediate value of maintaining the top social destination for mobility is arguably priceless. Microsoft’s patent grab helps it accelerate its strategy of demanding rents from every mobile manufacturer but their bargain is less sweet as this legal battle can’t last forever. Either way, the new holy grail for startups looking to get noticed is clear: get mobile users.

This article is dedicated to U.S. patent 6360693 which celebrated its ten year anniversary last week.  

U.S. Patent 6360693: The patent for a stick.

Dollar bills by Brian P Gielczyk via shutterstock

I’ll be the first one to tell you that my iPhone and Android devices are glorified, and over-priced, note-taking devices. I use the iOS version of Notes more than any other application on my phone. I know that without even having to think twice about it.

I constantly take notes, be it during a meeting or while I’m sitting on a plane. Whenever I have an idea, or need to remember specific details like a confirmation number, I jump right into the notes app. That’s why Fetchnotes was interesting to me, because the company has a solution for the Web and both Android and iOS mobile devices.

We’ve written about Fetchnotes before, well kind of. You might remember them as the crew who accidentally cursed at its users when it was testing a new email system, which actually spiked usage amongst its beta users.

Just for fun sakes, here’s that email:

If you’re a note-taker, you’re going to love what the team has cooked up for you. I’ve stayed in contact with the Fetchnotes CEO and co-founder Alex Schiff since that hilarious email test, and the company has delivered on its promise for seamless note-taking and sharing over multiple devices.

Mobile, Web, and Desktop

When you use Fetchnotes on the web you’ll notice and extremely simple interface that allows you to add notes quickly. By slapping in a hashtag anywhere in your note, it will be turned into a tag that will group those notes together:

The services saves your note as you type, so you don’t have to worry about clicking save every few minutes. With the web version of Fetchnotes you can also search your entire log of notes, as you see on services like iOS notes and Evernote. I’ve never really been a fan of using Evernote, only because all of the things I jot down are text-only, and I don’t have a need for most of its features.

The mobile versions of Fetchnotes are slick and act exactly like you’d expect as well. When you log in from your device, all of your notes will come up and you’ll be able to tap your way through them based on tag or by searching for them.

Fetchnotes also has a desktop widget for Mac users which is nothing more than an open box that’s connected to your account and ready to receive your braindumps:

While Notes is a great iOS service, especially since its been rolled into the desktop version of OS X in Mountain Lion, your notes aren’t available when you’re using your browser on the web.

Fetchnotes makes your important content available no matter where you are and no matter what device you’re using and that’s why it’s something that I can see myself using daily. The fact that I can annotate notes that I took on my iPhone with my Android tablet is a pretty awesome thing.

Protip: If you don’t have the app installed, you can register your cell and retrieve your notes by texting the service. For example, you could text “fetch #groceries”, and all of your notes about groceries will be texted to you. Neat, huh?

➤ Fetchnotes for Web, iOS, and Android