Join us for a wrap up of the mobile news from this week as well as a look ahead: The most surprising gadget at CES and the big BlackBerry 10 launch upcoming; we’ll be there! Read more »
It’s a color sensor, a weather station, a gas leak detector, a thermometer for everything around you, and so much more: Check out Node, the ultimate sensor device. Read more »
Technicolor CEO Frederic Rose is confident that his company’s video streaming service M-GO can compete with iTunes and other VOD vendors, in part because his company isn’t distracted by any related hardware products. Read more »
Android was everywhere at the 2013 International CES, but the bigger names didn’t offer much this time. Instead, companies like Huawei, ZTE and Vizio showed off new phones. Meanwhile, Dropbox gets a nice upgrade on Android and I share my favorite new Android device from CES. Read more »
Design trends for 2013, dementia, mobile photography boom, the rise of Tide as the currency for drugs, Lena Dunham is back, and a look back at time when CES was actually cool — those are some of the topics in this week’s newsletter. Read more »
Can your current smartphone be any smarter? Sure it can, if the device knows how to better understand its surroundings with the help of internal sensors. Qualcomm’s Project Gimbal does just that for app developers. Here’s a peek at how Paramount is using the technology. Read more »
The internet of things will be big… eventually. But first companies will have to navigate rapidly changing technology ecosystems and perhaps fight for access to the data to make their devices worth with others. What we need are open ecosystems akin to Android. Read more »
This is cool: Haier showed off vision control for TVs at CES, allowing viewers to adjust the volume or even access smart TV functionality with subtle eye movements. Read more »
U.S. consumers have one less Windows RT tablet to choose: Samsung has decided not to sell its Ativ Tab, citing weak demand for Windows RT and a lack of product understanding by consumers. That’s OK, the Ativ with full Windows 8 and Intel’s Atom is $599. Read more »
Touring Verizon’s booth wasn’t quite what I expected, but that’s not a bad thing. Instead of focusing on new consumer devices, the company is using the venue to show off partner products from its Innovations Center, illustrating the benefits of connectivity where you’d least expect. Read more »
Rhapsody is taking the fight for music subscribers to Spotify’s home turf: The U.S.-based service is going to launch in 16 European countries this spring. Read more »
By multicasting popular content over cellular networks, carriers figure they can conserve valuable 4G capacity. But as consumers use their smartphones and tablets to personalize their multimedia consumption, the ship may have already sailed on multicast’s potential. Read more »
Streaming music from your iPad to your connected TV just got a whole lot easier: Skifta, a popular DLNA media shifting app for Android, released an iOS version on Wednesday. Read more »
Looking for a Windows 8 slate on the cheap? Dell removed the active digitizer and swappable battery from its Latitude 10 tablet for an Essentials model that starts at $499. Aimed at educators and students, the tablet is much less than Microsoft’s $899 Surface Pro. Read more »
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski is opening a proceeding to clear 195 MHz of new 5 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi use. The allocation would be the biggest bonanza of new unlicensed airwaves since 2003 and would help bring about new gigabit wireless technologies. Read more »
It was a long time coming, but the Pebble e-paper watch is finally shipping after a few months of delays. The e-paper watch works with phones running iOS and Android, lasting a week per charge. Two new sensors are inside the Pebble to provide extra functions. Read more »
Don’t count out DVDs just yet: That was one of the key messages that Redbox Instant by Verizon CEO Shawn Strickland had for a select group of reporters Wednesday. Strickland said that Netflix’s decision to sideline DVDs was a mistake. Read more »
Dual-core applications processors are old hat by now, but as the industry moves on to quad-core processors Samsung has decided to turn the dial up to eight cores with its Exynos 5 Octa. Read more »
T-Mobile CEO John Legere says a magenta-branded iPhone will be on the carrier’s shelves in three to four months. Given T-Mo’s accelerated network rollout that will put the phones launch right in sync with its LTE launch. Read more »
Broadcom is generally known for its wireless technology prowess, but don’t be surprised to see the company be the chip that puts the smarts in your smartphone or tablet. It signed a licensing agreement with ARM to design and build powerful application processors on Tuesday. Read more »
Plex is going to the cloud by hooking up with Dropbox: The media center app maker will soon enable its users to sync their personal media collection with their Dropbox account, and then stream everything straight from Dropbox on iPads, phones and connected devices. Read more »
Verizon revealed some impressive 4G stats at CES 2013. It’s LTE network is now in 473 markets, covering 273 million people. It will complete its 4G network in mid-2013, just two-and-a-half years after it started. Read more »
T-Mobile is getting aggressive to lure new customers. The carrier is offering its 4G Unlimited Data without a contract. New laptops and tablets also come with T-Mobile service: Users get a taste with 200 MB of free monthly data and options to add more. Read more »
Google TV may be getting ready to take the fight to Apple and Roku by allowing CE manufacturers to build pure streaming boxes without any cable TV integration. Vizio CTO Matt McRae told us that he expects these devices to surface later this year. Read more »
It was a very merry Christmas for Verizon and AT&T. In the fourth quarter, Verizon reported record net subscriber additions of 2.1 million due to LTE gadget sales while AT&T activated a record 10 million smartphones. Read more »
Swedish DJ and producer Avicii has agreed to work with network builder Ericsson to experiment with a crowdsourced music composition on. Starting on Wednesday, the public will be able to submit audio tracks that could wind up in Avicii’s new single. Read more »
While Qualcomm’s opening keynote at CES contained an electric-power Rolls Royce, a Star Trek actress and Maroon 5 it also unveiled some cool new technology — namely two families of faster mobile chips that put a lot more compute power in your hands. Read more »
FreedomPop and textPlus have matching philosophies: Give a baseline service away for free and upsell additional megabytes and minutes. Later this quarter FreedomPop will incorporate textPlus’s IP messaging and VoIP services into its mobile broadband service. Read more »
Ford is fully embracing the connected car movement it began years ago with its Ford Sync program. The company has opened up the Sync platform with more tools for developers to create mobile apps. Amazon Cloud Player and Glympse are two of the newest. Read more »
AT&T is using the big CES pulpit to talk up its work in services and applications, rather than just unveil its latest handsets. It’s exploring a new universal phone number APIs, expanding its smart home program and launching a new video streaming service. Read more »
Netflix is currently testing personalized profiles for its subscribers, and we’ve got some first photos of how they look like. If successful, these profiles could finally rid your recommendations of your kid’s questionable movie choices. Read more »
Like the concept of the fitbit activity tracker, but worried you might drop it in the washing machine or easily misplace it? The fibit Flex could be a good option to consider, the company’s new wristband that looks more like the Nike Fuelband or the Jawbone Up. Read more »
Samsung has put a lot of work into improving its Smart TV experience, and it wants to share it with consumers who bought last year’s model. Which sounds great – except for that hefty price tag. Read more »
Intel has a packed room for its major press event at the International Consumer Electronics Show and I squeezed in with a few thousand of my closest friends to experience it. Follow along as I live blog the event and hear the news. Read more »
BlueStacks gained a big new partner at CES: Lenovo will be installing the BlueStacks software on Idea-branded PCs. The app player runs Android software within Windows 8, but it’s not just about apps: BlueStacks can sync SMS messages from phone to computer. Read more »
Nuance plans to integrate its growing number of speech command platforms into a universal assistant for the internet of things. It’s also trying to make its speech technology more dynamic, using crowdsourcing to capture the language zeitgeist. Read more »
One look at the new Asus VivoTab Smart Tablet and you’ll swear you saw it before. It looks just like Microsoft’s Surface products. It blends some of the best features of Surface RT and Surface Pro, however; priced right, it could be a big seller. Read more »
Tablets keep getting thinner, but how thin can they realistically get? Perhaps no thicker than a few pieces of paper. Plastic Logic is demonstrating its PaperTab project, which is powered by an Intel Core i5 and uses a bendable e-ink display. Read more »
Can $50 and a contract get you a decent smartphone these days? AT&T thinks so. At CES, the company announced It’s selling the Pantech Discover with Android 4.0, a fast processor, 4G LTE radio, 12.6 megapixel camera and high definition touchscreen for $49. Read more »
Connected home junkies should pay attention to a deal signed between Belkin and consumer appliance brand manager Jarden Corp. The move connects appliances like slow cookers and space heaters to the WeMo, and positions the WeMo as Belkin’s gateway for the internet of things. Read more »
