Broadcom has an Android Wear platform with 3G, NFC and more, and more for Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Broadcom has an Android Wear platform with 3G, NFC and more Kevin C. Tofel Feb 25 2015, 6:38am PDT Broadcom wants to make it easier for hardware makers to build an Android Wear smartwatch, complete with features that Google’s software doesn’t even support yet, notes PhoneScoop. The chip company introduced its watch platform that pairs a power efficient quad-core processor with mobile broadband radio, Wi-Fi, […] Read More » As 4G demand balloons, here come the “super” base stations Kevin Fitchard Feb 25 2015, 6:00am PDT Mobile World Congress kicks off in a little more than a week, and while most of the tech world might be anticipating the Barcelona show for the launch of Samsung Galaxy S6, MWC is actually the place where the newest network gear makes its debut. This […] Read More » Barclays to allow mobile payments based on Twitter handles David Meyer Feb 25 2015, 5:35am PDT The British bank Barclays has announced a new twist on its Pingit mobile payments app – users will be able to transfer money to one another using their Twitter handles. Pingit, which has been around for a few years now, has so far used phone numbers […] Read More » Chrome Show: Everything we know about the Chromebook Pixel 2 Kevin C. Tofel Feb 25 2015, 5:31am PDT On our last podcast, the Chromebook Pixel 2 was just a hint and a hope based on evidence found in the Chromium bug tracker. Now, a refreshed device is a reality as has confirmed a new Pixel is coming soon. This week we discuss what we […] Read More » Apple must pay patent troll $532M, Texas jury rules Jeff John Roberts Feb 25 2015, 5:07am PDT Apple must pay a shell company $532.9 million because iTunes infringes upon three patents related to online patents, a jury in East Texas ruled on Tuesday. The company in question, named Smartflash LLC, is also based in Texas and doesn’t make or do anything besides file patent lawsuits, […] Read More » Robots vs. pop stars: Who is better at curating your music? Janko Roettgers Feb 25 2015, 5:00am PDT The Apple rumor mill is getting its groove on these days as new details appear about a revamped streaming service slated to be launched in the coming months. 9to5Mac reported last week that Apple is working on a new music service that uses some of Beats […] Read More » Silicon Valley entrant Dtex Systems lands $15M to stop insider data leaks Jonathan Vanian Feb 25 2015, 4:30am PDT It’s not everyday that a 15-year old company grabs a series A funding round. However, in the case of Dtex Systems, which plans to announce Wednesday that it took in a $15 million one, it makes sense. The company — formerly based in Australia and now […] Read More » Gemalto downplays impact of NSA and GCHQ hacks on its SIM cards David Meyer Feb 25 2015, 12:45am PDT Dutch digital security firm Gemalto, which is the world’s biggest manufacturer of SIM cards, has reported back on internal investigations triggered by last week’s revelations about the NSA and GCHQ hacking into its systems and stealing encryption keys that are supposed to protect phone users’ communications. […] Read More » Medium gets a bit more Twitter-like, and a bit more blog-like Mathew Ingram Feb 24 2015, 1:45pm PDT Medium has been known primarily for its long-form, magazine-style pieces -- but founder Evan Williams says it wants to be a home for shorter posts as well, so it has launched several new features that make it more Twitter-like and more blog-like Read More » Snapchat’s “Our Stories” are generating tens of millions of views Carmel DeAmicis Feb 24 2015, 12:01pm PDT Snapchat is telling people how many views their “Our Story” clip receives if they make one in the collective, crowdsourced section. Based on people I’ve interviewed, it appears Snapchat’s Our Stories are hitting viewing numbers that television’s most popular shows see, although it’s tough to get […] Read More » Chromecast comes to South Korea and Australia, now in 24 countries Janko Roettgers Feb 24 2015, 9:44am PDT Google’s quest to bring Chromecast everywhere continued with an expansion to Australia, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Belgium and Portugal in May of 2014. Chromecast is now available in 24 countries and territories. The company struck a few partnerships with content providers in these countries, bringing cast […] Read More » Why Apple would benefit from building electric car tech Katie Fehrenbacher Feb 24 2015, 9:08am PDT When the first report came out a little over a week ago that Apple has an internal team working on an Apple-branded electric car — that might or might not actually launch one day — it was easy to avoid weighing in. Apple no doubt has […] Read More » Screen sharing could be a future Apple FaceTime feature Kevin C. Tofel Feb 24 2015, 8:29am PDT Apple’s FaceTime service is currently just a method of two-way personal communication, but it could become much more. A patent granted to Apple shows how FaceTime would work as a collaborative productivity tool, complete with data and app sharing. AppleInsider noted the new patent grant on […] Read More » This is Pebble Time, a new smartwatch to manage your days Kevin C. Tofel Feb 24 2015, 7:12am PDT After teasing us with a week-long countdown, Pebble introduced its new Pebble Time smartwatch on Tuesday. The revamped hardware includes a color e-paper display and focuses on the past, present and future for its interface. Unlike the original Pebble, the interface is very different. The watch […] Read More » What to expect in the Chromebook Pixel 2 Kevin C. Tofel Feb 24 2015, 6:10am PDT Google confirmed what we noted two weeks ago on our Chrome Show podcast: There is a successor to the Chromebook Pixel after all. OMGChrome caught the confirmation on a YouTube video, which was subsequently marked private to mask the news. Luckily the site transcribed the part […] Read More » Snowden: “I should have leaked sooner” Barb Darrow Feb 24 2015, 5:55am PDT A day after Citizenfour, a documentary in which he stars, won an Academy Award, Edward Snowden along with director Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald sat down for a Reddit AMA. Snowden, the former NSA-hand turned whistleblower, basically blew the lid off the National Security Agency’s intelligence-gathering […] Read More » Artemis is building a 4G network in SF to prove its pCell tech works Kevin Fitchard Feb 23 2015, 9:16pm PDT For the last year WebTV creator Steve Perlman has been trying to convince a skeptical wireless industry that his most recent startup Artemis Networks has developed an LTE technology that solves the mobile data capacity crunch, and now he aims to prove it. Artemis is building […] Read More » HP reorgs cloud biz as Marten Mickos cedes key responsibilities Barb Darrow Feb 23 2015, 1:45pm PDT Marten Mickos, the former Eucalyptus CEO who became HP’s top cloud guy in September when HP bought Eucalyptus, is turning over key responsibilities to three other HP executives, according to an internal email message viewed by Gigaom. Mickos, who carried the title of senior vice president and general manager […] Read More » Autocomplete fail: Gmail is suggesting the wrong email addresses Kif Leswing Feb 23 2015, 1:20pm PDT Better check twice before firing off that email today: You could be sending it to the wrong person, thanks to a Gmail bug that is suggesting email addresses you rarely communicate with, instead of the people you correspond with most often. The bug has been widely spotted by […] Read More » My Little Pony remains on Netflix, for now Janko Roettgers Feb 23 2015, 12:38pm PDT Good news for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fans: The cult show remains on Netflix for at least another three weeks, despite the fact that the original contract between Pony franchise owner Hasbro and Netflix reportedly expired earlier this month. In January, told its viewers that […] Read More »