**As published in digiday:DAILY**

Publisher: GetFugu Inc.
Price: Free
Platform: tested on BlackBerry and iPod Touch
Advertising: ads in the form of logos for major brands appear in search results
Functionality: C
Fun Factor: B-
Overall: C

All too often in the mobile app space, users are “getting abused by ads from AdMob,” John Basile, chief software engineer said at CTIA last week. He was demonstrating some new features coming to the GetFugu search app, and compared the company’s zip-code based approach to mobile as akin to a more refined Yellow Pages model. The direct-to-consumer marketing opportunity here is quite obvious, and if GetFugu can prove its value as a mobile search provider, it could spur a renewed interest from brands to gain preferred placement with consumers at a price.

It’s still early days for the company, and after spending the better part of an hour with the app on a BlackBerry Bold 9700 and iPod Touch, it shows. The company is not only building a vast database of searchable logos and voice tags, but it’s simultaneously trying to convince large and small businesses to make a play in the visual and voice search game for a fee. With packages ranging from $9.99 to over $99 per month, depending on how many zip codes the business wants to be associated with, GetFugu will build WAP pages, register a company’s name and logo, provide real-time analytics and more. Read the full story

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

LAS VEGAS – As the official spring-time gathering of the wireless industry came to a close, RCR Wireless News met with the No. 1 and No. 2 WiMAX chipset manufacturers to check the temperature of the space and learn more about their progressive plans for LTE.

Both Beceem and Sequans started in 2003 to make a play in the emerging WiMAX space, but one got an early and definitive lead. Now, as both continue to try to out-maneuver one another in the fast-growing WiMAX market, each is readying its war chest and industry heft in a much-more crowded and competitive landscape in LTE.

Lars Johnsson, VP of marketing and business development at Beceem, pegged the Silicon Valley-based company’s share of the WiMAX chipset space at about 65% while his counterpart at Sequans, Craig Miller, VP of marketing and business development, pegged the Paris, France-based company’s share at upwards of 25%. Read the full story

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

Depending on your locale, they may be more hidden or disguised, but make no mistake – cellular towers continue to multiple at a heavy rate. Providing the equivalent of a lifeline by which the entire wireless industry flows to and from, cell towers remain as controversial as ever.

Whether it’s a perceived blight, unmitigated environmental impacts, radiation concerns or a general opposition from local zoning boards, cell tower developers often face a tall order before they can even dream of breaking ground.

It’s not the only bottleneck in the tower development cycle, but many delays can occur at the ground level, where approval is required from local zoning authorities. In rare and the most ridiculous cases, developers and carriers have been tangled up in bureaucratic red tape for five years or even longer. Read the full story

**As published by RCR Wireless News**

On the surface, there isn’t much to suggest that this newly Democratic-led FCC will make any radical regulatory changes in the wireless industry. There is a loud camp cheering for new FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to take a more heavy-handed approach in wireless affairs, but popular opinion inside the Beltway paints a different picture.

While the President Obama appointee is digging into wireless matters such as competition, innovation and third-party application control perhaps more swiftly (and publicly) than his predecessor, the Federal Communications Commission is only asking questions at this point. Questions are cheap. Policymaking is an entirely different matter that must measure political fallout against results. And more important: the nation is still digging out of the greatest economic challenge since the Great Depression. Read the full story