Google's Bite into Apple

Big news on the mobile front, as Google's Andy Rubin tweeted yesterday that 500,000 new Android-powered phones and tablets are being activated every day across the globe. In case you're wondering, those activations are growing by 4% per week. Chew on that, Apple.

Last quarter, Apple sold around 19 million iPhones with a daily activation rate of about 210,000. And, according to numbers crunched at Business Insider, if you count iPads and iPod touch activations in the mix, you still only reach about 325,000.

So why should you care? Because mobility is now a multiplatform industry. Market share is critical now that companies are developing applications to make mobile devices increasingly valuable to consumers. The idea being that if Android steals a healthy share of the market, the value of Apple's iOS platform becomes suspect. Not surprisingly, Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore noted this week that Apple will begin selling a cheaper iPhone to compete with the Android threat.

NetFlix Testing App that HELPS Theaters?

Maybe our editorial deptartment is more intrigued by this development than others, but it seems Netflix will be testing a mobile app that will actually put people back into the theater as opposed to staying at home streaming movies.

The company is planning private beta tests of a new service dubbed MoviePass: a $50/month app that gives subscribers unlimited access to movies in theaters. The service turns a user's phone into the actual ticket, sans tearing the stub. Subscribers can find whatever movie they want, at any screening time, and check in at the (participating) theater. The service allows customers to bypass the ticket line completely and go straight to the ticket taker to present their phone-as-ticket.

Details include: IMAX and 3D screenings are available for an additional $3 fee, and for those less-ardent moviegoers, there's also a four-pack of tickets option on sale for $30. Interesting, no? Check out the website, here.

In other Netflix news, the company unveiled a new, aptly named "Manage Video Quality" feature enabling mobile users to change their video quality as a means to manage bandwidth usage on their mobile data plans.

ETC: FCC Updates - Twitter for Newsrooms - FOX News Not "Factual"

From the Portals: The American Cable Association (ACA) is urging the FCC to "protect the television viewing public" from "rampant price fixing by broadcasters" before the group's members start new retrans negotiations in October. --- The FCC also set a target date of August for eliminating the Fairness Doctrine and what Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are calling "outdated" regulations from the books.

Distribution: Verizon FiOS launched Music Choice's SWRV interactive music video network on the FiOS TV Extreme HD and Ultimate HD tiers in all of the company's fiber markets.

Online: Twitter launched a new site called Twitter for Newsrooms to help reporters get stories out to the public with embedded tweets.

On-Air: The season 4 premiere of HBO's True Blood enjoyed 5.4 million viewers, a 6% increase from last year's season debut, says Nielsen data.

Folks: The SCTE promoted three employees to newly created positions: Derek DiGiacomo, senior dir. of information systems and energy management; Steve Harris, senior dir. of advanced network tech.; and Tom Russell, senior dir. of standards.

Duh: Former News Corp. Pres Peter Chernin said in a TV special on Rupert Murdoch that "no one pretends" Fox News' shows are "news and factual."