No Lines for Amazon Fire Smartphone, Lukewarm Reviews and a Disappointing Quarter for the Company

Greetings from Mobile Generated News® MoGN!

The Amazon Fire Smartphone goes on sale today and, of course, the sales figures will not be in for awhile. What is in are the reviews of the device and although most reviewers applaud some of the innovations, the phone may be a dud.

Adding to Amazon’s problems is a second-quarter loss wider than even the direst expectations, as the company suffers from ambitious introductions of new products and services.

Back to the Fire Phone… the phone gets very hot. That’s not why they called it the Fire but the name fits! These other negatives outweigh the ambitious design: High price, average performance (the processor struggles to keep up) and shorter battery life than expected. The major negative? The Fire uses a version of Android designed to block the “Google Play” App Store. Given the limited offerings from the Amazon App Store, this may turn off many potential buyers. Without having the eco system of Apple and mainstream Android, this phone may be a huge disappointment.

For many of these reasons Mobile Generated News® decided to design our App for the Apple iOS first because of Apple’s high standards, consistency and continuity.

Given it’s limitations, would you buy an Amazon Fire Smartphone?

At Mobile Generated News® we always want you to be informed of the latest technology, and want news consumers to be able to interact with local media for free. We believe that contributing to the news cycle is essential to our democracy. Most often, viewers do not get to control what they see on the news. Now, the MoGN App enables news enthusiasts to have a say in the content they see on their televisions, web sites and newspapers. We are trying to enhance the human experience when it comes to news. Download the Mobile Generated News App and become a Citizen Journalist! If you are out and about and see news, weather or sports happening, send in your Breaking News. If you have a story or opinion that’s worth sharing, record it and send it in as well!

Search for Mobile Generated News in the Apple App Store. And, you will see all of our related affiliate Apps.

The Univision-Mobile Generated News Apps were just released. In addition, you will find the Mobile Generated News App for Nationwide coverage; Entravision-Mobile Generated News App and Serestar-Mobile Generated News App.

All of the MoGN Apps are currently available in English and Spanish.

And, stay tuned for new affiliates joining the Mobile Generated News® Network team. Start contributing today!

Remember, if it is newsworthy, we will post it nationwide and you will see it on the MoGN "Newsfeed" distributed to Broadcast Stations, Newspapers, Web Sites and news organizations across the United States and soon around the World.

Mobile Generated News®. Empowering the NEXT generation.

─Jeff Wald, Mobile Generated News®, Los Angeles

Full Privacy Smartphone Now Available

Greetings from Mobile Generated News® MoGN!

The first Smartphone to promise Privacy and Data Protection is shipping now. The Blackphone, as it is called, will be pricey with no discounts available from any carrier.

The cost is $629. The Blackphone is a joint venture of SilentCircles and Geeksphone. They hope to sell to government agencies, companies and individuals. The Blackphone runs on a modified version of the Android Operating System called. PrivateOS.

Users of the Blackphone can control what information can and can’t be accessed by Apps and turn off the camera and other features. The data can also be erased from a remote secure computer similar to what the “Find My iPhone” App does for Apple devices.

Would you pay the price for the Blackphone to keep you data secure?

Mobile Generated News® will keep you informed on the latest developments in news and technology and we welcome your comments and, more importantly, your content.

At Mobile Generated News®, we want news consumers to be able to interact with local media for free. We believe that contributing to the news cycle is essential to our democracy. Most often, viewers do not get to control what they see on the news. Now, the MoGN App enables news enthusiasts to have a say in the content they see on their televisions, web sites and newspapers. We are trying to enhance the human experience when it comes to news. Download the Mobile Generated News App and become a Citizen Journalist! If you are out and about and see news, weather or sports happening send in your Breaking News. If you have a story or opinion that’s worth sharing, record it and send it in as well!

Search for Mobile Generated News in the Apple App Store. And, you will see all of our related affiliate Apps.

The Univision-Mobile Generated News Apps were just released. In addition, you will find the Mobile Generated News App for Nationwide coverage; Entravision-Mobile Generated News App and Serestar-Mobile Generated News App.

All of the MoGN Apps are currently available in English and Spanish with French language coming soon!

And, stay tuned for new affiliates joining the Mobile Generated News® Network team in 2014. Start contributing today!

Remember, if it is newsworthy, we will post it nationwide and you will see it on the MoGN "Newsfeed" distributed to Broadcast Stations, Newspapers, Web Sites and news organizations across the United States and soon around the World.

Mobile Generated News®. Empowering the NEXT generation.

─Jeff Wald, Mobile Generated News®, Los Angeles

Hello Amazon? Why a New Smartphone?

Greetings from Mobile Generated News® MoGN!

So Amazon has joined the Smartphone wars.  Introduced today in Seattle, The fire PHONE.  It has a 4.7 inch screen, LCD HD display, claims to have a brighter screen that is better outdoors and a Quad-core 2.2GHz processor. Amazon also says it has a 13MP camera with image stabilization.

It also has a feature called Firefly.  Firefly uses the camera to recognize books, DVDs, phone numbers, QR Codes, CDs, URLs, games and bar codes.  It recognizes over a hundred million items and finds them in its database. 

So what’s the big deal that could make this phone a stand out game changer? 

Dynamic Perspective.  It gives the display a 3-D look, so as you move the phone, the picture on the display moves with you much like the moving animated backgrounds work on the iPhone 5s.  Dynamic Perspective works on photos, maps, the web browser and e-books.  The fire PHONE uses 4 additional cameras with infrared capability to guide the Dynamic Perspective screen orientation.

But even with all of these creative new features, will consumers find practical uses for them? And, can Amazon compete in the App arena given Apple’s huge inventory of available Apps?

The fire PHONE looks very cool.  Now we’ll need to hear from the tech geeks as to whether they are impressed to make this new Amazon product a contender.

Is it an iPhone killer?

Let us know what you think.  If you have an opinion worth sharing, you can do so through the Mobile Generated News App.

At Mobile Generated News®, we want news consumers to be able to interact with local media for free. We believe that contributing to the news cycle is essential to our democracy. Most often, viewers do not get to control what they see on the news. Now, the MoGN App enables news enthusiasts to have a say in the content they see on their televisions, web sites and newspapers. We are trying to enhance the human experience when it comes to news. Download the Mobile Generated News App and become a Citizen Journalist!  If you are out and about and see news, weather or sports happening, send in your Breaking News. If you have a story or opinion that’s worth sharing, record it and send it in as well!

Search for Mobile Generated News in the Apple App Store. And, you will see all of our related affiliate Apps.

The Univision-Mobile Generated News Apps were just released.  In addition, you will find the Mobile Generated News App for Nationwide coverage; Entravision-Mobile Generated News App and Serestar-Mobile Generated News App.

All of the MoGN Apps are currently available in English and Spanish with French language coming soon!

And, stay tuned for new affiliates joining the Mobile Generated News® Network team in 2014. Start contributing today!

Remember, if it is newsworthy, we will post it nationwide and you will see it on the MoGN "Newsfeed" distributed to Broadcast Stations, Newspapers, Web Sites and news organizations across the United States and soon around the World.

Mobile Generated News®. Empowering the NEXT generation.

─Jeff Wald, Mobile Generated News®, Los Angeles

Malware is increasingly invading our Computers: Are Smartphones Next?

Greetings from Mobile Generated News® MoGN!

My office computer was immobilized recently because of a Malware attack.  I couldn’t open Microsoft Outlook and had difficulty opening other programs.  I had to call our IT Specialist to figure out what was going on. He added an anti-Malware program, scanned the hard drive and found that Malware was impeding the path and stopping me from signing in properly.  Although I was able to use my iPhone for email and calendar functions during the time my computer was down, it made me think whether my iOS devices could be similarly infected and separate me from the outside world completely ‒ at least temporarily.

So I began my research and found that we should always be vigilant by running anti-virus AND anti-Malware scans on our computers and whether you have an Apple, Android, Windows Phone or a Blackberry you can be vulnerable on your mobile devices as well.

Because Android has about 80% market share, there is more Malware in cyberspace in search of your Smartphone or Tablet.  It’s a very good idea to install an anti-Malware App on your Android device.  Many Android enthusiasts boast about the open architecture, however, the downside is that this same open framework makes it more open to Malware as well.  Google just blocked a files sharing website because of Malware.

Windows Phones have not had very much impact with a little over 2% market share.  This translates to being fairly safe because the malicious people that write the Malware won’t bother – at least for the time being – because they will not want to waste their time.

Although Blackberry is experiencing diminishing sales, they run Java which has been vulnerable to Malware attacks.  If you are a Blackberry diehard, be careful opening emails particularly with attachments.

Last but not least are Apple’s iPhones, iPads and iMac Computers.  Over the last decade they have a very good track record.  We chose to debut all of our Mobile Generated News® Apps on the Apple iOS because we felt more confident, in our development phase, that the controls that Apple has in place, and frequently criticized for, makes them less vulnerable to viruses and Malware.

At Mobile Generated News®, we want news consumers to be able to interact with local and national media for free and without worry about viruses and Malware.

We believe that contributing to the news cycle is essential to our democracy.  When newsworthy material is submitted to us, we vet it for authenticity and then upload it to our newsfeed.  Most often, viewers do not get to control what they see on the news. Now, the MoGN App enables news enthusiasts to have a say in the content they see on their televisions, web sites and newspapers. We are trying to enhance the human experience when it comes to news. Download the Mobile Generated News App and become a Citizen Journalist!

If you are out and about and see news, weather or sports happening, send in your Breaking News. If you have a story or opinion that’s worth sharing, record it and send it in as well!

Search for Mobile Generated News in the Apple App Store. And, you will see all of our related affiliate Apps.

The Univision-Mobile Generated News Apps were just released.  In addition, you will find the Mobile Generated News App for Nationwide coverage; Entravision-Mobile Generated News App and Serestar-Mobile Generated News App.

All of the MoGN Apps are currently available in English and Spanish with French language coming soon!

And, stay tuned for new affiliates joining the Mobile Generated News® Network team in 2014. Start contributing today!

Remember, if it is newsworthy, we will post it nationwide and you will see it on the MoGN "Newsfeed" distributed to Broadcast Stations, Newspapers, Web Sites and news organizations across the United States and soon around the World.

Mobile Generated News®.  Empowering the Next Generation.

─Jeff Wald, Mobile Generated News®, Los Angeles

“Freemium Model” works in App World

Greetings from Mobile Generated News® MoGN!

The Top 10 most downloaded apps on both Apple and Android devices are games.

Let that sink in.

Developers spend years trying to figure out solutions to increase a user’s productivity or ease some aspect of a person’s day, yet games are what users are most frequently downloading.

The apps that bring in the most revenue are games as well.

The “Freemium Model” explains how this phenomenon occurs. Users download a free game onto their devices, get hooked on the game, and pay to unlock new levels, powers, virtual items or eliminate the annoying ads.

Users like the idea of free because they believe they have nothing to lose for the enjoyment of the free app. That is, in Economics 101 terms, the utility gained for playing the game far outweighs the cost of downloading the apps.

The “freemium model” makes sense for some Apps, but we like the “free model” even better. At Mobile Generated News®, we want news viewers to be able to interact with local media for free. We believe that contributing to the news cycle is essential to our democracy. Most often, viewers do not get to control what they see on the news. Now, the MoGN App enables news enthusiasts to have a say in the content they see on their televisions, web sites and newspapers. We are trying to enhance the human experience when it comes to news. Download the Mobile Generated News App and become a Citizen Journalist! If you are out and about and see news happening, send in your Breaking News. If you have a story or opinion that’s worth sharing, record it and send it in as well!

Search for Mobile Generated News in the Apple App Store. And, you will see all of our related affiliate Apps.

The Univision-Mobile Generated News Apps were just released this past Super Bowl weekend. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Austin, Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Raleigh, Arizona (Phoenix), San Antonio, Fresno and Puerto Rico.

In addition, you will find the Mobile Generated News App for Nationwide coverage; Entravision-Mobile Generated News App and Serestar-Mobile Generated News App.

The family of MoGN Apps is currently available in English and Spanish with French language coming soon!

Content submitted by you, as a Citizen Journalist, will be seen on the Entravision-Mobile Generated News Network of Broadcast Stations in Albuquerque, Boston, Denver, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Hartford, Laredo, Las Vegas, Monterey/Salinas, Odessa/Midland, Orlando, Palm Springs, Reno, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Tampa, Valle de Rio Grande, Washington, DC and Yuma/El Centro.

The Serestar-Mobile Generated News® Broadcast station covers the Sacramento, Stockton and Modesto market.

And, stay tuned for new affiliates joining the Mobile Generated News® Network team in 2014. Start contributing today!

Remember, if it is newsworthy, we will post it nationwide and you will see it on the MoGN "Newsfeed" distributed to Broadcast Stations, Newspapers, Web Sites and news organizations across the United States and soon around the World.

Mobile Generated News®. Mobile News. Global Views.

─Andrew Kallick, Mobile Generated News®, Los Angeles

New Apple iPhones and iOS 7

Greetings from Mobile Generated News®  MoGN!

If you haven’t heard by now, Apple has announced two new iPhones, the iPhone 5-C and the iPhone 5-S that will both be available in Apple Stores and other Apple outlets this Friday, September 20^th.  The iPhone 5-C also is available for pre-sale with Free Shipping directly from Apple effective last Friday the 13^th.

Many in the media and the public are condemning these two new products without having the opportunity to see or test them.  Admittedly, I am a Gadget Geek and I own several Apple products.  I have an iPhone 5, iPad 4^th Generation, iPad Mini and an iMac at home.  I have always been amazed by the intuitive nature of Apple Products without the need of having to call Tech Support or consult an online manual.

I am not an Apple snob, Some of my best friends have Android phones and tablets!

Chief competitor, Samsung makes decent products.  However, I am not impressed with the fit and finish of the Samsung Galaxy or the various tablets that are out there that are not iPads.  I find them clunky and need to study the owner’s manual to figure them out.

So why are people so quick to judge?

What Apple started, with the late, great Steve Jobs, was a company committed to making computers and peripherals that are stylishly simple and intuitive to operate.  Certainly his shoes are difficult to fill but before you condemn Apple and Tim Cook, at least let’s evaluate the two new iPhones and the products to come.

I will also be very surprised if iOS-7 is not a huge hit.  From what I have been reading about it, it should be quite a leap forward from the current operating system.

What do you think?  I look forward to your comments.

 ─Jeff Wald, Executive Director, Mobile Generated News®, Los Angeles.

Get connected your to local news organizations and contribute original news material by downloading the Mobile Generated News® App from the Apple App store.  Just search for Mobile Generated News.  Remember, if it is newsworthy, we will post it nationwide and you will see it on the MoGN “Newsfeed” distributed to Broadcast stations, Newspapers, Web Sites and news organizations across the United States and soon around the World.  Mobile Generated News® MoGN, Mobile News…Global Views.