MySQL and MariaDB services company SkySQL has brought Monty Widenius and other MariaDB players on board. The result, says CEO Patrik Sallner, will be “a new form of database platform that ties together other databases.” Read more »
The shareholder vote was the last step in a long chain of approvals necessary to cement the deal. On May 1 — just seven months after the companies announced their intentions — T-Mobile and MetroPCS will officially combine. Read more »
The Berlin-based Txtr is now selling its barebones e-reader, the Beagle, for €59 in Europe. The plan was to offer it for under €10 through subsidies from mobile carriers, but those deals haven’t surfaced yet — though the company says it’s close. Read more »
Ubuntu Server is all about virtualization and OpenStack these days, and the new version reflects that. It’s not a long-term support release, but rather a good opportunity to test out new integrations. Read more »
Nokia’s latest Series 40 handset represents a welcome boost for WhatsApp in emerging markets, and a useful reminder of how Nokia continues to eke relevance out of its ageing platform. Read more »
The service, which is being pitched as “Mint.com meets IFTTT”, is targeted at startups that lack a CFO but that want to stay on top of the accounts they have with myriad services. Read more »
Last week, Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, alluded to the company’s next hero move, which appears to be a flagship Lumia phone for Verizon. Watch for the Lumia 928 at a price that undercuts the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4. Read more »
The mobile market has been good to ARM Holdings, which designs the chips that power most smartphones and tablets. The company is growing revenues and nearing 1,000 licensees. Read more »
Produced by the obscure Spanish outfit Geeksphone, the Keon and Peak are the first devices to ship bearing Mozilla’s HTML5-centric operating system. Prices start at $119 before taxes. Read more »
The fine relates to Google’s accidental scraping of personal data, using the company’s Street View cars, from people’s open Wi-Fi access points back in 2010. Read more »
CDNify, which is based on OnApp’s CDN-in-a-box and the federation that underpins it, is targeting startups that might need to scale up content delivery quickly, with the focus being on price and ease of use. Read more »
Presenting a clear comparison of multiple local and long-distance transport options by price and duration is no mean feat. But Waymate has even greater ambitions, allowing trip booking from within its service. Read more »
It may be the most amazing substance known to humanity – potentially – but pioneers in the graphene scene are still scratching their heads as to the material’s killer app. Read more »
From smart fabrics to sensors that are powered by the very vibrations they measure, researchers and companies are hard at work figuring out how to make the most of the energy around us. Read more »
OpenSignal is expanding its mobile networking crowdsourcing project from Android to the iPhone. Though OpenSignal uses that crowdsourced data to generate its own detailed metrics, there’s plenty in the app for consumers as well. Read more »
Nokia sold 5.6 million Lumia smartphones in the first quarter of this year, up from 4.4 million in the previous quarter. Its shareholders are still losing money – but less than expected. Read more »
Despite the shuttering of its only announced customer, ST-Ericsson, the German AR firm Metaio says it expects its dedicated processors to be in mobile devices by the end of the year. Read more »
Power grid operators and utilities are increasingly turning to big data analytics and tools. This week European power giant E.ON said it plans to work with Ericsson for a smart meter data project in Sweden. Read more »
Sherpa is trying to build a more flexible virtual assistant technology that can easily adapted for new tasks. To that end it has developed its own conceptual meta-language which it uses to process all voice commands. Read more »
Mercedes-Benz, Bosch and the industrial insurance firm HDI have partnered up with European accelerator network Startupbootcamp. With names like that on the roster, it’s a fair bet that connected car technology will be a focus. Read more »
Microsoft Windows Azure GM Bill Hilf calls Amazon a competitor, a partner and a neighbor: But that won’t stop Microsoft from launching an IaaS price war against Amazon Web Services. Read more »
Flattr’s Twitter micropayments venture, where people could leave tips for ‘favorited’ tweets, is over. But as that tie-in got shut down, Flattr enabled tips for YouTube videos. The system also works on Instagram and SoundCloud. Read more »
Boland founded a wireless chipmaker in 2002 and sold it to Nvidia in 2011 for $367 million. Now he’s taking his expertise to white spaces startup Neul. Read more »
Orange’s Skype-and-WhatsApp rival is gaining functionality and reach for users around the world, with particular benefits for customers of certain Orange carriers. Read more »
The audit office will investigate the auction, which took more than £1 billion less than the government had predicted. However, the rationale for the government’s forecast remains highly questionable. Read more »
The details of a long-awaited deal between Google and the EU are finally out. The agreement requires Google to list three competitors in certain types of search listings, and to agree to other, wide-ranging conditions. Read more »
It’s easy to be sniffy about the concept of sending odors through the internet, but researchers are nonetheless hard at work on folding the sense of smell into the digital repertoire. Read more »
Although it claims the move “isn’t about subsidies”, O2 is effectively moving away from the traditional model where carriers subsidize the phones they sell up-front, then bury the real cost in a combined monthly tariff. Read more »
France’s minister of digital economy is speaking up for Paris-based AppGratis, which was kicked out of the iOS App Store for recent rule violations. She called Apple’s decision “brutal” and implied Apple was behaving unethically, according to accounts of her comments. Read more »
The Hungarian firm is trying to set itself apart from rivals by inviting hackers to do their worst on its cryptography. GigaOM readers can also get a free 50GB account for life. Read more »
MetroPCS has delayed the final shareholder vote necessarily to finalize its merger with T-Mobile USA. Fearing rejection, T-Mo owner DT is offering up a new deal with better terms. Read more »
The financial technology firm will use the funding to push on into Europe, which – by happy coincidence – has just decided to adopt governmental open data policies across the board. Read more »
The IT industry is undergoing a cataclysm of innovation that is disrupting big businesses, offering opportunities for entrepreneurs and redefining the role of IT in the corporation. GigaOM’s Structure event helps you understand what’s next. Read more »
Enevo’s services, which involve putting sensors into trash bins to optimize collection times and routes, provide a useful reminder of the potential of the internet of things. Read more »
Read Petite, an e-singles subscription site, will launch in the U.K. this fall. Waterstones founder Tim Waterstone is chairman. The site was founded by literary agent Peter Cox and consultant Martyn Daniels. Read more at paidContent »
Just a few months old, Wandera has attracted a sizable Series A round with Bessemer Venture Partners as the sole investor. Wandera’s technology, mobile data optimization, is nothing new, but its enterprise focus is. Read more »
Good news for startups hoping to draw on public road traffic and weather data, among other types: changes agreed on Wednesday should allow the use of such data for free or at very low cost. Read more »
The beta release of Viber for BlackBerry 2.4 is the first to include Skype-rivalling VoIP functionality. However, this only applies to older versions of the BlackBerry platform, not the freshly-launched BB10. Read more »
Scrappy London startup Server Density is adding AWS and Rackspace provisioning capabilities to its existing monitoring service, says co-founder and CEO David Mytton. Read more »
BoxCryptor 2, available now in technical preview form, makes it far easier to securely share access permissions for files stored in services such as DropBox and SkyDrive. It also offers master keys for bosses. Read more »
