American retailers have long made a habit of holding big “Black Friday” sales on the day after thanksgiving, although in recent years we’ve seen many of the best deals start a bit early. Black Friday 2016 falls on November 25th, and here are some of the best deals on mobile devices (and other stuff Liliputing […]
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Facebook plans to show ads even if you’re using an ad blocker
There’s a lot of free, ad-supported content on the internet. You can search the web, read the news, and watch cat videos for free. And even though Hulu is moving to a subscription-only service, you can still (legally) watch plenty of TV shows and movies without paying a penny. But according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, […]
Opera’s ad-blocker goes live in desktop, mobile web browsers
About two months after releasing the first developer channel build of the Opera web browser to feature a built-in ad blocker, Opera is bringing its ad blocker to everyone. And by everyone, I mean everyone using the company’s desktop web browser or the Opera Mini browser for Android. Opera already supported ad blocking thanks to its […]
Coming soon: Search for an Android game, try it without installing
Want to try out a new Android game, but not sure if you want to download and install it first? Soon you might not have to: Google is rolling out a bunch of new features for Android game developers, and one is a new service that lets users tap a “try now” button from a search […]
Google Play Store will let you know if apps have ads in 2016
Starting in 2016 it’ll be easy to know if Android apps include ads before you download them. Google is requiring all developers that distribute apps through the Google Play Store to declare by January 11th whether or not those apps include ads. Early next year, users will see an “ad-supported” notice on apps in the Play […]
Report: Some mobile carriers could block ads
A number of wireless carriers are reportedly planning to block online advertising on their networks. Don’t like ads? Then that might sound like a good thing. But it poses a few interesting questions. According to a report from the Financial Times, more than one mobile operator is considering flipping the switch on technology that would […]
Android app ads coming to the Google Play Store
You may think of Google as a company behind a search engine, mobile operating system, web browser, and self-driving cars. But Google makes most of its money through advertising… so it’s no surprise that the company is often looking for new ways to deliver ads. This week we learned that Google may be working on […]
Would you pay a subscription for ad-free YouTube?
The head of YouTube says Google is considering offering a subscription-based version of the online video service. Speaking at the Code/Mobile conference this week, Susan Wojcicki suggested that one way to do that would be to offer subscribers an ad-free experience. What do you think? Would you pay a monthly fee to get rid of the […]
Mozilla to sell ad space in Firefox new tab page
Mozilla is getting ready start offering sponsored content on the new tab page of its Firefox web browser. That might seem like an odd move from a company leading the charge against third-party tracking cookies. But it’s probably not as bad as it sounds. Here’s how it’ll work. When you launch a new tab in […]
Lilbits (11-01-2013): Rockstar patent suit
Google and some of the top makers of Android smartphones are now facing lawsuits over the technology used in their devices. A few years ago a coalition of companies including Microsoft, Apple, and RIM (now known as BlackBerry) spend $4.5 billion to acquire patents from Nortel, a company that had gone out of business. Then […]