Rumors abound regarding Spotify's future plans and workings as the music streaming service continues to grow in popularity. Now, with a major press conference scheduled for later in the day, news emerges that Spotify has inked advertising deals with AT&T, McDonalds, Intel, and Reebok, as well as a worldwide ad deal with Coca-Cola.
McDonald's in Europe has been trying a pair of promos leaning on phone technology to lure customers to its stores. One in Stockholm, Pick 'n Play, lets those with at least iPhones control a game of Pong on a giant LCD billboard. The system goes app-free and just uses an optimized web page with HTML5-based location finding to only allow play from those physically close to the ad.
Facebook during its special mobile event today changed some of the fundamental structure of its mobile platform to bolster third-party apps and add Foursquare-style deals. Android and iPhone apps will now have access to the write and search components of the Places location interface. The update allows apps to not only check into Places themselves but to search and take advantage of the new mobile feature set.
Newsweek has released its own green rankings of companies for the second straight year, with little changes from year to year. Most significantly Dell has moved up from its number two spot, knocking HP out of the top spot, with a perfect score of 100. IBM, Johnson & Johnson and Intel rounded off the top five, with Apple unusually not listed [in one of the top spots in their category].
AT&T tried to allay fears of mobile data price changes late Wednesday in a brief discussion of the company's plans (subscription required). Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega is adamant that the carrier has "not made any decision" about introducing tiered pricing that would charge customers for more bandwidth. Critics had raised concern that the company would use monthly transfer caps to either delay or help pay for network upgrades.
