Roughly half a dozen new mobile operating systems will come to market over the next 6 to 12 months. Many of these look to be more sophisticated than the older ones controlled by Apple and Google, for whom serious competition could be just around the corner. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The deal – the financial terms of which remain a mystery – is important for both the connected industry and the Berlin start-up scene, which has long been holding out for a big exit. Read more »
A battery accelerator program and San Jose State University will start offering classes on battery technology and business starting this Summer. California has emerged as a leader in battery innovation. Read more »
The demand for lithium-ion batteries hasn’t grown as quickly as many battery developers have anticipated, and that leaves a rather bleak near-term outlook for startups who had counted on the rise of electric car, grid storage and even laptops as lucrative markets. Read more »
Cleantech companies with effective business models still have excellent prospects, while those who don’t have a viable product to sell in the marketplace won’t be rising from anywhere. Read more »
The third quarter saw many parts of the traditional media business in flux. Other developments included the rollout of new device-based content ecosystems, red flags and red ink for traditional consumer electronics makers, and a resurgence of consumer purchases of movies. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The vast majority of solar cells today generate electricity by facing the sun, but what if you could engineer their backside to make use of reflected light as well? That’s the idea underlying the technology of bSolar, an Israeli startup who recently launched the so-called bifacial solar cells. Read more »
The adoption of tablets, social media and new interfaces and the changing nature of the TV itself mean the digital living room will continue on its path of rapid change, thanks to new ways of creating, viewing, bundling, distributing and selling content. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Last week, Virgin Atlantic said that you could use your phone to make calls and get/send text messages if you fly using its Upper Class service between New York and London. What I really want is the ability to connect to the Internet. Read more »
Tesla has decked out its Model X, an SUV-minivan hybrid, with innovative design features that, along with a relatively affordable price tag, could attract a mainstream audience. This research note examines why Tesla will be the brand to watch in the electric vehicle market. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The solar industry has begun 2012 with some trepidation, with many on the warpath to cut costs and reduce output. These moves give the market a chance to reduce inventories and get production more in sync with demand. But recovery will likely come slowly. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
This year’s CES was the biggest in the show’s 44-year history. It boasted 15 miles of exhibit hall aisles, 3,100 booths and 153,000 attendees. It is easy to be jaded by the endlessly repetitive products, but the thousands of innovations point toward a future of connectivity. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Time Warner Cable is developing an app for Panasonic’s Viera Cast Smart TV platform to access its on demand video library. This makes the company the first cable operator to develop an app for Panasonic’s platform. The app is supposed to launch some time this year. Read more »
There are a ton of development frameworks for creating apps on various connected TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, set-top boxes, tablets, smartphones and the like, which is more than most publishers can reasonably be expected to develop for. Enter SyncTV, which hopes to solve that issue. Read more »
TV gaming startup PlayJam has raised a $5 million Series A funding round from GameStop Digital Ventures, Adobe Ventures, Endeavour Ventures, London Venture Partners and others. The financing comes as PlayJam sees a massive opportunity to bring new games to connected TV platforms. Read more »
Electric car maker Tesla announced on Tuesday that it will buy battery cells from Panasonic to build at least 80,000 cars over a four-year period, including supplying battery cells for of its second electric car the Model S. Read more »
The number of connected devices is steadily on the rise, but it’s not smartphones or computers that will lead us to the 50 billion connected devices expected by the year 2020. Rather, the Internet of Things — numerous smart objects that speak to the web and ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The market for enterprise tablets shows enormous promise as end users take their own devices to work and IT departments begin to deploy the new gadgets. But a small army of manufacturers is vying for a slice of the market, and competition will be fierce. Read more »
The NBA’s effort to increase the amount of video available to fans in the latest season, with the league reporting more website visitors and video streams watched over the course of the 2010/2011 season and postseason than ever before. Read more »
Comcast has partnered with Skype to bring its video chat service to subscriber living rooms. With an adapter box and HD video camera, Comcast subscribers will soon be able to video chat with any other Skype users from the comfort of their living rooms. Read more »
Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Skype is the largest the company has ever made, and it’s raised many questions in the process. This research note examines Skype’s overall value and where it fits strategically into the world of Microsoft. From Office 365 and Bing to Xbox Kinect and Windows Phone, there are numerous ways in which Microsoft can leverage the functionality of its newest addition — and numerous risks it could incur in the process. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Cisco, Panasonic and Google. For a full list of companies and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Philips has unveiled a 17-watt energy-efficient LED bulb that can replace a 75-watt incandescent bulb, the standard widely used today. However, the bulb will still be expensive, at around $40 to $45 a pop. Read more »
Is the greentech industry headed for a breakout year or is it retrenching for hard times to come? The first three months of 2011 provided evidence that could support both assertions, with a big rise in venture capital investment and a big drop-off in global energy financing. Solar power remained the largest green technology sector in terms of venture capital investment, while in the world of electric vehicles, GM’s Chevy Volt hybrid and Nissan’s all-electric Leaf — the first two mainstream plug-in vehicles — hit the showroom floors in significant numbers. Meanwhile the smart grid sector’s relative dearth of VC investment was more than made up for by the massive round of acquisitions. Companies mentioned in this report include NRG Energy, Microsoft, Silver Spring Networks, Tesla and BrightSource Energy. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Online video distribution firm Ooyala is beefing up its TV Everywhere capabilities, adding new DRM and authentication features, and expanding distribution to new connected device platforms. The new capabilities will give more flexibility to content providers who want to provide authenticated access to their content. Read more »
Japan’s massive earthquake, tsunami, and now nuclear disaster, is starting to shine a spotlight on just how important the country is in terms of clean energy technology, from solar to electric cars. Read more »
Greentech marked its best year ever in 2010, and part of that is thanks to the wealth of activity across sectors during the fourth quarter. Global investment in clean energy surged, and while wind power remained the biggest greentech area, solar power saw the fastest growth. The energy efficiency sector appears to have more room for smaller players to make their mark amidst a rapidly maturing market. Meanwhile, China’s stance as a growing greentech giant continued to complicate its relationship with the United States. Companies mentioned in this report include General Electric, Intel, ZigBee, iControl, People Power and EnerNOC. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
It seemed just months ago our newfound love affair with connected TVs was in full swing. That was before two pieces of news gave us cause to question whether our new living room mates are who we thought they were. With concerns about security and half-baked ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Tesla and Panasonic cozied up this week, with the Japanese electronics giant investing $30 million in the upstart electric vehicle maker and agreeing to jointly develop battery modules. The move deepens one of a growing number of alliances being formed among car companies and battery makers. Read more »
Tesla Motors has just picked up a $30 million investment from Japanese electronics giant Panasonic. The two companies announced on Wednesday that Panasonic — a preferred battery cell supplier for Tesla’s electric vehicles — has bought a $30 million stake in the Palo Alto, Calif. car maker. Read more »
If 3-D is ever going to become more than a way for Hollywood to inflate box office returns, the technology for creating content has to become more accessible. In this interview, Panasonic’s Jan Crittenden Livingston demonstrates the AG-3DA1, the world’s first integrated twin-lens 3-D camcorder. Read more »
Panasonic Corp. plans to spend up to about $9.5 billion buying out two of its subsidiaries in an effort to go greener, faster. The company announced today that it aims to take total control of Sanyo and Panasonic Electric Works. Read more »
In the second quarter of 2010, greentech startups scored record venture capital and increased spending despite a weak economy. Solar power retained its lead in greentech venture financing, while global investment for clean energy asset financing fell. China, meanwhile, underscored its rising might in the greentech industry, raising billions of dollars in green energy financing. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Today on the Net: Panasonic is adding online video-on-demand services to its connected HDTVs, Cisco wants to strike a deal with NBC to distribute Flip cameras to Olympic athletes again and Sony wants to be tops in 3-D TV sales, despite a slow start. Read more »
At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in January, the home electronics industry was all abuzz about 3DTV. While this was certainly an important topic, most of the press and analysts in attendance missed the much bigger story about television: video chat. As two-way, real-time video comes to a broad range of devices from TVs to mobile phones, video chat will account for 11 billion calls worldwide by 2015. This report is a comprehensive analysis of the video communications and chat market across the TV, mobile and computer markets. It examines key market players, such as Skype, Google, Cisco, Apple and others, and includes comprehensive subscriber, usage and revenue forecasts through 2015. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
In a few years, we’ll look back at 2010 and remember it as the year that LEDs (light emitting diodes) turned a corner and went from a pricey niche lighting technology to a mainstream contender. Read more »
Samsung may join Sony in building out televisions based on Google’s Android operating system, according to a report in the Korea Herald. An executive at the company, which is the largest manufacturer of TVs worldwide, said that Samsung is “examining the business feasibility of Google TVs” […] Read more »
Interested in finding out what information Facebook is sharing about you through its new open-graph API? Developer Ka-Ping Yee has come up with a simple tool that shows you everything the social network is sending to anyone whose app or service uses the new feature. Read more »
Warner Bros. Acquires Turbine, Developer of Lord of the Rings Online; Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the video game division of the Burbank movie studio, said it has acquired Turbine Inc., a Massachusetts developer of massively multiplayer online games. (LA Times blog) Kit Digital to Power Tribeca […] Read more »
How about this for an eyebrow-rasier: Panasonic decided against using Android on its connected TV sets because of its costs, according to a Bloomberg report. Now, mind you, Google is giving its Android OS for mobile devices away for free, and there are no signs that […] Read more »
RealNetworks Offers New Way To Mass Produce Mobile Video Apps; the company is rolling out a new mobile video service that will help entertainment and wireless companies tap into consumers’ increasing demand for watching video on the go. (paidContent) mSpot’s Mobile Movie Streaming Service Expands to […] Read more »
