New Technology News

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Yetu AG (not to be confused with Yeti ARGGHH!) has raised $8 million in Series A capital from Bilfinger Venture Capital and KfW. The company, which appeared at Disrupt in Berlin, aims to connect all in-home devices using the same standard, creating a sort of full-home operating system.

Founded by a Deutsche Telekom Chief Product & Innovation Officer, Christopher Schläffer, the company is beginning by creating a simple smart home platform for end users and will then move on to the commercial segment of the market.

Schläffer doesn't want to retrofit the average home. Instead, he wants to scrape the data available and use it in novel ways.

“We use web apps which work irrespective of operating system on any screen at home,” he said. “We are not using sensors or actors for smart home applications but rely on algorithms and big data in order to gather information and increase ease of use.”

Using a single piece of hardware and an open platform, Yetu can watch your Internet connection, energy usage, and heating in a single interface. It's like a dashboard for your home, allowing you to shut things down when not in use, access data about energy usage, and understand where your resources are going. It will use open APIs so embedded systems can talk directly to the Yetu system. Schläffer sees the company as taking a big chunk of the “entertainment, home automation, energy management, security or ambient assisted living” markets, bold statement for a company yet(u) so young. Hopefully the $8 million will help it along.

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German Startup Yetu Raises $8 Million To Create Open Standards For Smart Homes

10:39 AM

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Yetu AG (not to be confused with Yeti ARGGHH!) has raised $8 million in Series A capital from Bilfinger Venture Capital and KfW. The compan...

When the power goes out, it's terrible. Nothing works, and for some reason it's impossible to remember that: I always find myself doing things like “well if I can't watch TV I can at least read this book, I'll just turn on the light…” and then nada of course. With SmartCharge, a new Kickstarter project, that might actually work, since it's an LED bulb with a built-in power reserve that remains on uninterrupted when the rest of your power goes off.

The LED bulb component of SmartCharge fits standard light fixtures and cuts power usage by up to 90 percent vs. incandescents, and should last 25 years under normal usage conditions, if everything goes as predicted. When the power goes out, the SmartCharge bulb has a reserve battery built-in that's good for up to four hours of lighting, which should be enough to weather most storms and brownouts.

The key to SmartCharge's magic is that it recognizes and remembers the position of the light switch before the power outage, and then continues on again after the power returns as if nothing had ever happened. This smart switch position memory even works with two and three-stage lights, but there is a downside: It only works with one light in a series controlled by a single switch at the moment, though the founding team is sorting out a way it can work with a single switch that controls a whole bank of bulbs.

Founder Shailendra K. Suman previously started a successful propane gas tank metering company, as well as a lost item tracking gadget startup, and he has worked for Northern State Power in the past and has two degrees in engineering, so he knows a thing or two about brownouts and building things.

SmartCharge is seeking $50,000 in funding, and has already raised nearly $15,000 of that with 42 days left in the campaign. Backers qualify for a pre-order of a single SmartCharge bulb starting at $35, which is actually very reasonable when compared to the price of even basic, non-smart LED bulbs these days. Suman anticipates shipping to backers will begin in April next year.

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SmartCharge Wants You Not To Notice Power Outages – At Least Until The Milk Starts To Stink

10:09 AM

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When the power goes out, it's terrible. Nothing works, and for some reason it's impossible to remember that: I always find myself d...

Alan Rusbridger, the top editor for The Guardian, told British parliament that government agencies in Britain and the U.S. have tried to "intimidate" the newspaper since it obtained and leaked loads of secret documents from Edward Snowden. Over the course of 100-plus meetings, American and British government made it clear to The Guardian that the outlet -- which first set the NSA snowball in motion -- is damaging national security and aiding hostile governments, according to Rusbridger.

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Guardian Blasts US, UK 'Intimidation' Over Snowden Leaks

10:09 AM

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Alan Rusbridger, the top editor for The Guardian , told British parliament that government agencies in Britain and the U.S. have tried to ...

Today the European Union signed off on Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's handset business, a transaction worth more than $7 billion. Recently, the deal was approved by Nokia's shareholders, and the United States government.

Little remains in the way of Microsoft's absorbing Nokia's hardware business. The company's Windows Phone project has become essentially a one pony show, with Nokia's Lumia line of handsets comprising more than 90% of its total unit volume.

That Nokia was selling so many phones was good for the company, but at the same time Microsoft was slowly losing control of its own platform. Buying Nokia's phone assets was defensive, and offensive for Microsoft; it regains control, and can use its greater financial resources to push the line harder than Nokia could have.

According to the EU's press release, the deal does not “raise any competition concerns, in particular because there are only modest overlaps between the parties' activities and the links between Microsoft's mobile operating systems, mobile applications and enterprise mail server software with Nokia's smart mobile devices are unlikely to lead to competitors being shut out from the market.”

That the deal continues apace means that former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will land at Microsoft, a company where he is considered a contender for its CEO role.

Top Image Credit: Flickr

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The Nokia-Microsoft Deal Receives The EU Antitrust Watchdog's Blessing

10:09 AM

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Today the European Union signed off on Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's handset business, a transaction worth more than $7 billion. ...

Facial recognition may be added to fingerprint scanning in Apple's device security repertoire. Apple has been using facial recognition for some time to manage images in its iPhoto app, but a patent awarded to the company by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday combines that tech with facial detection to control a computing device. Samsung has incorporated face and eye recognition technologies in its smartphones for a while, but Apple's technology improves on what's in the market now, according to the new patent.

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Apple Patents In-Your-Face Technology

9:54 AM

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Facial recognition may be added to fingerprint scanning in Apple's device security repertoire. Apple has been using facial recognition...

Stratasys, one of the two giants in the 3D printing market (the other is 3DSystems), is on a roll. This summer it bought one of the biggest and beloved home 3D-printer makers, MakerBot, and watched its printers churn out the first 3D-printed gun. Now it's back in the news for suing printer reseller Afinia for infringing on its patents.

These patents cover some of the most basic aspects of 3D printing, from the process of creating “infill,” the cross-hatched pattern that printers use to support the inside, to the heated plate that keeps objects stuck during printing. MakerBot, in fact, has long infringed on these very same patents and, for most of its existence, has skirted lawsuits, albeit with positive results. Many smaller manufactures haven't been so lucky.

Even Formlabs, makers of the Form One stereolithographic machine, weren't immune. They went to market last December while facing down 3D Systems lawyers for daring to use a similar printing technique.

Why is Big 3D finally paying attention to little guys like Formlabs and Afinia aka Microboards Technology, LLC? It's because they're finally getting traction in the home market. While it's usually fine for B2B companies to snipe each other – nobody cares when big CRM smashes some puny competitor – this sniping is actually hurting the industry. By slowing down the adopting of home 3D printing, Stratasys and 3D Systems are cutting into their own bottom line. IBM, in the 1980s, never actively attacked the “clones” that sprung up on the market and we now have a variegated ecosystem of hardware that ranges from mobile devices to mainframes. No one stopped Linux from copying techniques and tricks used by Unix and, eventually, Windows, and the result is a deep and rich vein of open source computing prowess.

Patents served Stratasys and 3D Systems well when 3D printing was hard. To compete with them, competitors had to have deep pockets and be ready to pay licensing fees. Now that literally anyone can build an MakerBot-like FDM machine out of a few simple parts – this guy made one for $100 – the impetus for protection is far more mercenary. They are, in short, threatened.

The EFF has been trying to swat down fake patents, for better or worse, but the problem will continue to plague small makers until the patents expire. It does not benefit Stratasys to troll the small guy (unless it's to protect its MakerBot investment, which would be a delightful bit of irony) and, in the end, it hurts the industry as a whole. The more people who know how to do home 3D printing, the more people who will be interested in professional products. That said, perhaps Stratasys is concerned that the home 3D printers will supplant its professional business. If this is the case, it's a baseless fear akin to Ford being afraid of go-kart hobbyists.

Patents are fine when they truly protect the filers from predators. When the filers themselves, become the predators, however, the issue clouds the market, destroys innovation, and makes the big guys look mean. That's not good for anyone.

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Big 3D Printing Needs To Stop The Bullying

9:24 AM

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Stratasys , one of the two giants in the 3D printing market (the other is 3DSystems ), is on a roll. This summer it bought one of the bigges...

The holidays are a time when music fills the air, thanks to carolers and tinned music played through mall speakers. Both of those things sound horrible compared to the items in this gift guide, which have been chosen to delight the auditory sense, and vetted against a number of comparable items that don't quite match their musical mastery.

Phiaton Chord MS 530 ($349)

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Getting comfort, style, good noise cancelling and good sound into one package can be challenging, and adding Bluetooth to the mix is downright crazy. But Phiaton has pulled that off with the Phiaton Chord MS 530 (ironically named as they don't require a cord). The Phiatons can be used with NC turned off, unlike the similarly priced Bose QC15s, though they don't provide quiet as quite a listening environment because they're on-ear, not off-ear. Bonus: you can listen to them corded, too, if you'd rather not Bluetooth yourself.

Cambridge Audio Minx Xi ($899)

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I've reviewed this in full, but it's so impressive it bears repeating: Cambridge's all-in-one streamer and DAC is a music lover's best friend, especially when paired with a Mac in an office setup, for instance. The Mix Xi works wonderfully either wired or wirelessly, and keeps track of all your podcasts and streamed Internet radio stations easily and reliably. It's a pricey present, but if you're just getting that digital music lover one thing this year, make it this.

Blue Microphones Nessie USB Mic ($99.95)

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Music output is all well and good, but the Blue Microphones Nessie USB mic goes the other way. It's a terrific podcasting microphone, and much better than more expensive and specialized equipment like the Yeti Pro for the average user. It handles crackles with a built-in pop filter, and minimizes noise from the desk thanks to a built-in stand. The only thing I wish it did better was articulation from the somewhat lame positional arm attached to the head, but even that failing doesn't make this not a great gadget.

Sennheiser HD 598 ($187.46)

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These aren't brand new, but they are my most favourite pair of headphones. They're open back, which means they'll bleed ambient noise, so be wary if you share an office or have a significant other who'd rather not listen to the same music as you, but tiny sounding and just audible enough to be annoying. If you're after sound isolation, the QC 15 is the way to go, but these are the best for a proper soundstage and music as it's meant to be heard. Especially when paired with a proper DAC, like the Minx Xi.

Digital music gets a bad rap for sounding sub-par by real audio snobs' standards, but the items above do a lot to bridge the gap, so if you're shopping for someone picky these are a great starting point.