Should the tech hubs of Europe — or anywhere else desperate to become a center of innovation, for that matter — ignore Silicon Valley or mimic it? There are good reasons to try and start over, but don’t throw everything that we’ve learned away, says Dan Crow. Read more »
You can’t beat Silicon Valley by trying to be Silicon Valley — so why does Europe spend so much time trying? If the continent’s entrepreneurs want to become true leaders, they need to shake off the past and stop playing a game that’s stacked against them. Read more »
Our computer networks and broadband connections are reliant on both light and electronics, but a breakthrough at the University of Minnesota might help take the electrons out of the equation. A new device can use light to switch states, which could enable faster, more efficient broadband. Read more »
Huge technology trade shows like IFA are meant to parade the biggest products around. But what if the biggest isn’t the best? What if intimacy, personalization and customization are the things we crave? That’s what I argued at a fringe event in Berlin last week. Read more »
LittleBits, a New York-based startup that developed a system of electronic modules that snap together to make simple electronics projects, announced Wednesday that it has raised $3.65 million in new funding and forged a critical partnership with supply chain management company PCH International. Read more »
Struggling British chipmaker CSR is selling its mobile business to Samsung in a deal worth $310 million, in what appears to be the latest episode in the ongoing global patent war. Read more »
When a trio of engineers led by Bill Shockley built the first solid-state transistor at Bell Labs in 1947, they thought they had consigned the vacuum tube to oblivion. But vacuum tubes – or at least their underlying principles – may be set to make a resurgence. Read more »
Cisco said it would buy Lightwire, a company that makes optics chips using traditional chip manufacturing in a deal valued at $271 million. This is a significant acquisition for Cisco because it stays true to its core networking business and advances it with deep technology. Read more »
Embattled Nokia is hoping it can become faster and more competitive by shifting the heart of its manufacturing operations to Asia, a move which will see 4,000 jobs cut in Finland, Hungary and Mexico but will be seen as long overdue. Read more »
The Wallee is an iPad accessory that’s almost as old as the iPad. The new headrest mount that works with existing Wallee cases is a good example of smart accessory design that can grow with the iPad, rather than be left behind by Apple’s regular redesigns. Read more »
Apple’s huge iPhone sales numbers from its latest quarterly results helped it grow its mobile phone business by 128.4 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a new report. That makes it the third-largest mobile phone maker by volume. Read more »
From 1990s through 2011, DSL, a broadband technology, had a strong run at large phone companies in America. Now it is falling behind cable broadband and fiber. The latest data from Verizon, AT&T and Time Warner Cable points to its declining fortunes. Read more »
Following Apple’s announcement of record revenue and profit for its first financial quarter of 2012, its stock is surging in after hours trading. Share value has climbed to around $452, or 32 points above closing, which translates to a market cap of roughly $421 billion. Read more »
Virgin Mobile will begin to reduce the mobile broadband speeds of smartphone users on March 23, following a similar path as T-Mobile, AT&T and others who have offered unlimited plans. Facing huge demand for mobile data, the days of truly unlimited plans appear numbered. Read more »
It’s time to start placing bets as to how many iPads Apple will sell in 2012. Sterne Agee’s Shaw Wu is starting things off with an estimate of 48 million, he said Wednesday morning. Wu says that number could end up being “conservative,” and I agree. Read more »
In a new research note to clients, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White noted December was a record month for his “Apple Barometer”: an index of sales at Apple’s Asian suppliers. It’s an unusual bump in a month when orders at Apple’s suppliers typically fall off. Read more »
Is the PC “dead”? Of course not, but if you don’t see the trend moving away from local / desktop computing and towards mobile / cloud computing, you’re missing the sales figures for each market: Nearly 50 percent of recent device sales are mobile. Read more »
The coming era of the “Internet of Things” has many implications for the tech industry. But the shift toward total connectivity could also have lasting impacts on the broader world, making it harder to commit crimes such as theft, and raising awareness about consumer waste. Read more »
Apple might not have as impressive a year in 2012 in terms of iPad growth as it did in 2011, according to some early predictions. Numbers from DisplaySearch on Friday indicate 9.7-inch flat panel shipments for iPads are expected to hit around 65 million in 2012. Read more »
Apple’s drive to put out greener products will cost suppliers cash in the short term but will result in big long-term environmental advantages. Volex, which makes power and USB cables for the Mac maker’s mobile devices, will switch to halogen-free designs during the coming year. Read more »
Target will soon offer store-within-a-store-type setups in 25 of its locations, the company revealed during a presentation on Thursday. The move backs up a report from last week that suggested Apple may be extending its partnership with the U.S. retail chain. Read more »
As we approach the one-year anniversary of the iPad 2′s introduction, rumors are heating up around its successor. The iPad 3 is reportedly now in production in preparation for an early March launch, when it will ship with new Sharp displays and a relatively unchanged body. Read more »
Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs shared his mobile vision at CES Tuesday, with much of the focus on emerging markets. With half of all smartphones expected to be sold in emerging markets by 2015, it’s no wonder the chipmaker is looking to innovate beyond traditional borders. Read more »
Prior to Huawei’s CES scheduled press event on Monday, the company took a shot at high-end handset makers with the Ascend P1 S. Just 6.68 millimeters thin, the phone runs Android 4.0 on a Texas Instruments dual-core OMAP chip and 4.3-inch high-resolution Super AMOLED display. Read more »
Losing weight is on a lot of people’s minds post-New Year, so this is a perfect time to revisit tips and tricks about how to use Apple technologies to help you get healthier in 2012. Attitude, food and activity monitoring can contribute to a healthier you. Read more »
Apple might be looking to expand its live sports offerings through a deal with the English Premier League, a new report says. It’s an interesting proposition but not a cheap one: Sky paid £1.6 billion (around $2.5 billion) for its current broadcast rights. Read more »
Apple will be launching 32- and 37-inch versions of a dedicated Apple television set in the second or third quarter of 2012, according to supply chain sources speaking to DigiTimes on Tuesday. Apple will be focusing on those two sizes initially, the sources claim. Read more »
We already knew that mobile advertisements perform better on larger screened devices and now there’s evidence of when the best time of the year is for a these ad spots in apps. If you guessed the year-end holiday season, you’d be right according to this infographic. Read more »
Which stories dominated the green GigaOM clicks in 2011? This year was filled with smart thermostats, a dream of Apple getting into solar, the bankruptcy of Solyndra, the efficiency of cloud computing, Google’s green data centers and Tesla’s Model S. Read more »
According to a preliminary assessment from the Dusseldorf regional court in Germany on Thursday, Apple isn’t very likely to succeed in its attempts to get the redesigned Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N tablet barred from sale in that country via injunction. Read more »
Archos announced on Tuesday an updated 7-inch slate, called the Archos 70b, calling it the first Google Android Honeycomb for under $200. That may not be enough to sway consumers from the $199 Kindle Fire with its custom user interface and broad media ecosystem. Read more »
It is becoming abundantly apparent that, while there is still focus on install rates of physical smart meters, what will matter in the future is how well the data from these smart meters can be secured by utilities and how well utilities can use that data ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Connected consumer electronics are poised to surpass PC sales by 2013 as tablets, televisions, game consoles and Blu-ray players all latch on to the web, says iSuppli. All of these devices will add strain to wired and wireless networks for years to come as a result. Read more »
You might be lucky enough to find a new iPod, iPad or even MacBook under the tree this holiday. All that new gear is bound to displace some old. Some of it you can probably continue to use, but here are some other options to consider. Read more »
Once per quarter, international environmental advocacy agency Greenpeace releases its Guide to Greener Electronics, which ranks gadget and computer makers on their efforts to be more ecologically minded. Last time around, Apple had managed only a ninth place finish in October of last year. For this […] Read more »
Slick, efficient and wireless — that’s the focus of an upcoming generation of greener gadget designs on display at this year’s CEATEC, the consumer electronics show in Japan. As Pedro Hernandez notes this morning over on GigaOM Pro (our subscription-only research service), exhibitors in the event’s […] Read more »
Policy makers, entrepreneurs, investors, automakers and others are paying increasing attention to long-overlooked energy storage technology, and they’re pouring billions of dollars into the sector in hopes of snagging a piece of the market as it develops. But for startups looking to break into energy storage ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
