The Pebble Smartwatch has received over $10 million in funding since it began its Kickstarter campaign, easily passing the previous funding record on the popular site.
“Pebble, a smartwatch that wirelessly connects with your smartphone to alert you of incoming calls and messages, blew past the previous Kickstarter record of $3.3 million only five days after launching its crowdsourced funding effort,” reports Wired. “It’s an amazing feat when you consider just how many big-name smartphone and tablet brands are fighting for the same attention.”
Pebble’s ability to connect with the iPhone has helped it capture a mainstream audience, with 85,000 orders from Kickstarter alone.
The Pebble watch will allow users to access notifications for calls, texts, weather, e-mails, and tweets on a 1.26 inch reflective display intended to operate well in direct sunlight.
Pebble has also begun creating partnerships with app developers, including Runkeeper and Twine.
“Pebble has already made Kickstarter history, but it will be even more exciting to see what becomes of the watch once it begins shipping this September. Will it be everything that the 67,000-plus Kickstarter backers are expecting? We won’t know until we get our hands on the finished product,” comments Wired. “It’s clear, at least, that the Pebble team is already working hard to make the best possible device for its initial supporters.”
“The first wave of Intel-based Windows 8 tablets are expected to land in retail stores in November,” reports CNET, and more than a dozen of the products will be hybrids, according to a source. The hybrid or convertible models will incorporate aspects of both tablets and traditional computers.
“The schedule is tight,” said the source. “Looking at what Windows is trying to achieve not only with a new OS, but a new OS that needs to run four to five architectures — three ARM, Intel, and AMD.”
The Windows 8 devices will use Intel’s new Clover Trail Atom chip. The dual-core chip is designed using Intel’s 32-nanometer process technology.
There’s also a Bay Trail chip in development. “It is a gigantic performer, with similar battery life to Clover Trail,” said the source. “It will also have a lot of security features built in and Infineon [3G/4G] silicon inside.”
Researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology have broken the record for wireless data transmission in a proof of concept experiment, reports Gizmodo.
The scientists achieved data speeds in the terahertz range that were 20 times higher than current Wi-Fi speeds.
The team achieved this success by utilizing the “T-ray” band, part of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwave and infrared — a currently unregulated segment of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The impressive data speeds were made possible by using “a 1 millimeter-square device known as a resonant tunneling diode, which produces smaller voltages with increasing current,” explains Gizmodo. “By tuning the current, the team are able to make the tiny device resonate, and spit out signals in the terahertz band.”
Microsoft hopes to enhance the Xbox 360 experience by providing users with Web browsing capability. Microsoft is currently testing a modified version of Internet Explorer 9 that would allow users to browse from their Xbox 360.
Geek.com reports the modified version includes Kinect integration, which would allow users to surf the Web “using voice and gesture controls on your console in the very near future.”
The announcement comes soon after the success of PS3’s Webkit browser, which suggests users may now be embracing console-based Web browsing more than they had in the past.
In addition to Internet Explorer 9 integration, Xbox 360 is also working on a Skype app, and Microsoft is rumored to be releasing the “Woodstock” music service at E3. Geek.com believes these changes signal Xbox 360’s shift from “a connected gaming console into a more full-featured living room entertainment hub.”
Research firm BIA/Kelsey predicts that social media spending will grow at a compound annual rate of 21 percent.
The firm predicts that by 2016, advertisers will spend $9.8 billion in social media advertising. Last year, $3.8 billion was spent in social media advertising.
“BIA/Kelsey (which advises companies in the local media space) further forecasts the local segment of U.S. social media ad revenues to grow from $840 million in 2011 to $3.1 billion in 2016, driven by better performance and richer ad formats like videos,” reports The Next Web.
“The firm says Twitter and Facebook will be a boon for local businesses and ‘democratize social ads’ by offering self-service ad creation, distribution and analytics tools,” adds the post.
A new Nielsen report suggests people are more likely to shop with their smartphones when buying expensive consumer goods.
TechCrunch reports: “mobile coupons are most popular at grocery stores, (41 percent of mobile shoppers said they used coupons there), department stores (41 percent), and clothing stores (39 percent). At electronics stores, the majority (73 percent) read reviews, compare prices (71 percent), and scan QR codes (57 percent).”
People do not frequently use smartphones when at convenience or dollar stores, but occasionally use smartphones at mass merchandisers such as Walmart and Costco. Although these stores are known for their low prices, 34 percent of customers read reviews and 31 percent scan QR codes, according to the Nielsen study.
“Given the right pricing on the right products, it seems department stores, electronics retailers and online shops can woo customers from the Walmart-sized chains, when it comes to higher priced goods,” adds TechCrunch. “With brick-and-mortar stores turning into Amazon’s showroom, it’s more important than ever that merchants offer in-store shoppers some other advantage besides low prices. Expect the new crop of customer loyalty startups to have a big role in framing what that advantage might be.”
Anthony Mutua, a 24-year-old Kenyan man, has developed a new twist on green technology with his system that charges a phone with power generated by walking.
Mutua joins “other inventors in making mobile technology greener and more independent of traditional infrastructure,” reports Mobiledia.
For $46 dollars, consumers receive a thin crystal chip and extension cord. Users place the device inside their shoe as they walk and the pressure of each step helps to generate electricity and charge the user’s phone.
Other recent green technologies include a solar charging backpack from Ralph Lauren and a pedal-driven bike charger from Silverback.
These types of solutions are especially valuable in developing nations such as Kenya and India where traditional power sources can be costly. Exercise or solar driven devices allow consumers to circumvent government and control their own power usage.
Social video network Twitvid has acquired Cull TV, a music video sharing site that includes a selection of about 2 to 3 million videos.
Customization and Facebook integration allow Cull TV users a personalized experience. Cull TV uses Facebook likes and posts “to determine what bands you like and turn those into continuous video playlists,” explains John Hurliman, CTO of Cull TV.
“We’re going to use a lot of the know-how and knowledge the [Cull TV] team has acquired to integrate those learnings into Twitvid,” added Twitvid CEO Mo Al Adham.
“According to Al Adham, Twitvid has more than doubled the number of video views it serves over the past five to six months, now in the range of 70 million+ views,” reports TechCrunch. “The last time they talked to press, the Twitvid network was seeing 10 million unique visitors. Today, that’s over 15 million.”
Twitvid plans to make a new product announcement in June, and then will begin working on their Cull TV integration.
The International Telecommunication Union reports that social media use has reached a global audience of one billion. With a reported 901 million monthly active users, Facebook leads the social media world, capturing about 90 percent of global social media users.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn capture upwards of 900, 200, and 120 million users respectively, but most other social media sites have failed to globalize and instead remain localized within only a few nations.
The ITU confirms Facebook’s reports that most use now comes from mobile platforms rather than from fixed broadband networks. Analysts partially attribute this to broadband penetration as low as 4.8 percent in developing countries. Industrial countries average about 26 percent penetration.
Low broadband availability suggests Facebook and other social media providers may shift towards low-end feature phone versions aimed to provide less sophisticated usage, possibly using the USSD technology available on nearly all phones.