Among the expected rows of new televisions, computers, phones and tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show is a growing number of health gadgets. These vary in form and function, but nearly all of them share some common elements: connectivity, mobile applications and social aspects. Read more »
Facebook on Thursday debuted a new “listen with” feature that lets groups of people listen to the same song at the same time. The new feature is most directly comparable to turntable.fm, which lets people create music listening rooms and share DJ duties with their friends. Read more »
Group chat startup Convore had pretty good traction after launching out of Y Combinator last year. But in the competitive world of consumer social apps, “pretty good” isn’t enough. So Convore’s founder Leah Culver built a new, business-focused iteration of the group chat service, called Grove.io. Read more »
Innergie just launched its PocketCell portable battery, and sent me a review unit for use at CES. The portable battery and cable system has already saved my hide here at the show and I’ll be buying my own as soon as I get back home. Read more »
Microsoft may have finally accomplished something it has failed to do at the last six Consumer Electronics Show events I’ve attended: It has people talking about its phones. Even with few product launches announced at CES, there’s good reason for the Windows Phone buzz. Read more »
Affine Systems, which makes software to scan and sort the content in online video, has raised nearly $5 million in a new funding round, according to a regulatory filing. Affine’s software gives advertisers the tools to analyze online video in a way that’s similar to television. Read more »
The Indian government is reportedly looking to back around eight smart grid pilot projects in the country worth close to $100 million. The country will need an updated grid if it’s going to add 20 GW of utility-scale solar by 2020. Read more »
Apple got an early start on outfitting its Mac computers with Intel’s Thunderbolt technology. Now, almost a year later, a rush of accessories at CES indicate this might be the year average users start to get some real benefit from having Thunderbolt on board. 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 »
The wave of M&A activity swelling the cloud services sector won’t stop with in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) arena. Internap’s $30 million purchase of Voxel, announced early this week, signals a land rush for cloud services, with many smaller, capable cloud providers now in play. Read more »
Apple’s mobile devices tend to have much higher profit margins than the competition, as well as having a strong reputation in terms of build and component quality. A big part of that is due to its unique approach to using NAND flash memory. Read more »
Piazza, the social network that lets college students and instructors discuss material online, has closed on $6 million in a new Series A funding round. Piazza’s service is meant to counteract study group snobbery and eliminate students’ fear of asking “dumb” questions. 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 has an immensely successful self-run retail arm, but it wasn’t always that way. Once, it depended heavily on the kindess of strangers, and some of those same strangers (namely third-party resellers) are now bristling at what they see as unfair business practices. Read more »
Oil giant BP has invested in biofuel startup CoolPlanet BioFuels, according to an announcement on Thursday. CoolPlanet BioFuels is the biofuel startup you have never heard of but that has unusually famous investors like GE, Google, NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips. Read more »
Tablets are set to be a hit with small- and medium-sized businesses in 2012, according to a new NPD survey, and Apple is set to take full advantage. The iPad has the advantage of being synonymous with “tablet” in enterprise, which is great news for Apple. Read more »
2011 has been all about personalized mobile apps, and Evernote has benefited handsomely: In the past 12 months, the personal note-taking software company grew its user base from 6 million to 20 million. GigaOM talked to CEO Phil Libin about the growth and Evernote’s 2012 outlook. Read more »
Out of all of Google’s close to $1 billion in clean power projects, turning biomass into energy seems like the least relevant technology to Google’s core business. But Google has made a few small investments into biomass projects, including a hog waste to energy project. Read more »
As 2011 comes to a close, I’m thinking ahead to what mobile technology trends I expect to see in 2012. While I formulate those thoughts for a post later this week, now is a good time to see how I did with my 2011 predictions. Read more »
Some games just have a knack for getting your heart racing. Fast-paced, simple action games where success is measured by hand-eye coordination are a perfect example. That’s certainly an apt description of Stay Alive, a universal game available now for iPhone and iPad. Read more »
f people are buying through online retail sites on mobile, they’re most likely doing so on Apple devices, according to a new report. iPads and iPhones accounted for over 92 percent of online retail not originating from a desktop device in December, according to the study. Read more »
As the market for Bluetooth 4.0 health monitoring gadgets is about to kick off next year, some companies are wasting no time, announcing products now. Wahoo’s new BlueHR heart monitor will debut for $79.99 and uses the low-powered wireless protocol with several existing iPhone 4S apps. Read more »
Every day, it seems like there’s another bland press release about startup seed funding. So when Buffer closed on $400,000, it wanted to announce it differently — by explaining exactly how the process happened. It’s a fun read, and a good lesson for other startup founders. 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 »
News of a rumored smaller iPad made the rounds on Friday as Asian supply channels indicate a 7.85-inch model will arrive in late 2012. With iPhone sales rising, there’s less of a need for the iPod touch line, paving the way for less expensive Apple tablets. Read more »
