Archive for the 'High Tech & Media' Category

Intel Acquires New Capabilities

Published on September 1, 2010 in Global Strategy and High Tech & Media. 0 Comments Tags: .

Over the last two weeks Intel has bought the wireless business of Infineon for $1.4 billion and McAfee for $7.68 billion, as well as the cable modem business of Texas Instruments for an undisclosed price.

Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, noted that more and more devices were connecting to the Internet, and said the wireless connectivity was a sector where the company saw “growth potential.” Furthermore, Intel CEO Paul Otellini lays out the rationale for this deal in a press release:

Intel’s goal is to expand its mobile and embedded product offerings to support additional customers and market segments, including smartphones, tablets, netbooks, notebooks, and embedded computing devices. Through this effort, Intel will pair WLS’s best-in-class cellular technology with its core strengths to enable the delivery of low-power, Intel-based platforms that combine its applications processor with an expanded portfolio of wireless options—bringing together Intel’s leadership in Wi-Fi and WiMAX with WLS’s leadership in 2G and 3G, and a combined path to accelerate 4G LTE.”

Source.

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The Most Influential Women in Technology

Published on April 26, 2010 in High Tech & Media and Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Last year, Fast Company raised plenty of eyebrows by publishing a ranking on “Most Influential Women in Technology”. To compose an updated 2010 ranking it received an overwhelming number of nominees and fresh names proved that. Nonetheless, women in tech remain at a distinct disadvantage by almost any metric (average salary, top-management representation, etc). However, there is also plenty to celebrate and be inspired by. Fast Company categorised those woman into seven categories respectively:

  • The Executives
  • The Activists
  • The Media
  • The Entrepreneurs
  • The Evangelists
  • The Gamers
  • The Brainiacs

Also check out the list of “Most Influential Women in Web 2.0” published in 2008 by Fast Company.

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Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs 2010

Published on April 20, 2010 in High Tech & Media and Social Media. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

Software upstarts such as Playdom, Posterous, and Foursquare capitalize on Web users’ desire to make social networks more useful and fun.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s have surveyed the tech sector to identify a fresh crop of the most promising technology startups and the young people, age 30 and under, who are steering them. Seven of the 13 startups on this year’s list are building Web and mobile-device software that extend the capabilities of social networks, including Facebook and Twitter.

It’s not surprising that many startups want to ride the coattails of popular social networks. The rapid ascent of traffic to social networking sites can draw lots of attention for startups that offer new tools or diversions to their members. “Facebook and Twitter have become platforms in the same way Microsoft’s Windows became a platform 20 years ago. The complete special report can be found here.

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Silicon Valley Gears Up for M&A

Published on April 4, 2010 in High Tech & Media and Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Silicon Valley companies looking to put their cash to work may drive a wave of mergers this year, bankers and venture capitalists say.

Companies are eager to make acquisitions because many of them have cut research budgets. Meaning many of them are not as able to fall back on their own ingenuity to fuel growth. More businesses are relying on acquisitions to find their next new product or service [Source].

Venture capitalists had their busiest quarter (2010Q1) in recent memory, with nine venture-backed companies going public and a record-breaking 111 companies changing hands in mergers and acquisitions according to a report released Thursday by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (Source: Charts). Out of the 111 M&A deals, 81 took place in the information technology sector.

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Google Can Now Buy and Sell Electricity

Published on February 21, 2010 in Global Strategy and High Tech & Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Google’s ever-expanding empire has added another branch: subsidiary Google Energy has been granted an order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to buy and sell energy at market rates. See previous post.

Does this mean Google is set to become your power company? Not yet — instead, Google wants more control over the high energy costs of its many data centers, and also aims to become carbon neutral.

A Google spokesperson told CNET: “Right now, we can’t buy affordable, utility-scale, renewable energy in our markets. We want to buy the highest quality, most affordable renewable energy wherever we can and use the green credits.”

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Is Korea Losing its Digital Edge?

Published on February 18, 2010 in High Tech & Media. 0 Comments Tags: .

How Korea, a onetime digital trendsetter, became a laggard in an era of smartphones—and amazing apps.

Even though Korea is home to the number two and three global handset maker, respectively Samsung and LG it losing ground in setting the pace and guiding the mobile (notably smartphone) industry. As in result, the Korean government had been preparing to shift focus to software from hardware for about a year, but the iPhone sensation provided a wake-up call. Initiatives such as launching a state-funded program to nurture software start-ups. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy is budgeting some $880 million to back software companies over the next three years. It aims to double the number of Korean software engineers to 300,000 in 2013 from 2008 and triple software exports to $15 billion.

Nonetheless, despite the government’s software worries, Korea has had some notable successes. Such as in gaming (online fantasy game Lineage),social networking service Cyworld, which was launched earlier than Facebook, is dominant in Korea. After eight years of offering Korean-language search, Google has just 2% of the market, compared with 64% held by Naver [Source].

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iPad is here!

Published on January 28, 2010 in High Tech & Media. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

Even though the Apple iPad won’t be available for another 60 or 90 days (depending on the model), Apple already has its official iPad website up and running.

In addition to showing off some of the applications, features and design and technical specifications, the website also features an eight-minute video with Apple’s design and development team discussing the device and showing it off. If you love Johnny Ive and well-produced promo videos, you’ll want to check it out!

You can watch the video over at Apple.com here. Please also find a NYTimes article on how “The iPad: A Media Machine That Opens Up a New Front” here.

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iTablet coming soon?

Published on January 26, 2010 in High Tech & Media. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Tomorrow, Apple is likely to unveil its long-rumored and much anticipated tablet device.

Speculation about the Apple Tablet — its pricetag, its function, and its impact on computing — has been flying around the web for years. Mashable has gathered all the pertinent news, rumors, and discussion about the fabled device in one place.

McGraw-Hill’s CEO Terry McGraw told CNBC this afternoon that Apple will make a Tablet announcement tomorrow. He thinks the tablet will be “really terrific” for e-books in the higher education and professional markets, two industries that we’ve long suspected the Tablet would target [Source].

The daily Telegraph reports on “Five ways the Apple iTablet could change our lives” here.

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A Global Melting Pot of Ideas

Published on January 23, 2010 in High Tech & Media, International Business and Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Follow live coverage of the DLD in Munich, Germany, a gathering of 800 entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, scientists, artists and creative minds from around the world.

With global diversity in attendees and an interdisciplinary perspective of digital, media, design, art, science, brands, consumers and society, the conference is known as the European forum for the “creative class”. Follow live coverage here.

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Solar-Powered iPhones?

Published on January 19, 2010 in High Tech & Media. 0 Comments Tags: , .

In an advancement of a patent originally filed in 2008. Last week Apple filed a patent that revealed the design for a solar powered portable device (i.e. an iPod or iPhone).

Although, no word on when we might see a solar-powered iPhone in stores, but Apple’s move to update its 2 year-old patent makes us think that the company still has solar on the brain [Source].

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