What We're Reading

If they need money to complete a prototype, what was used in filming?  If Cicret is a scam, it certainly is a tempting one.  Anyone have a cool million laying around?  Oh an no strings or legal agreement attached.  According to the website:

We need 300,000 euros to develop the CICRET APP on all the platforms. We need 700,000 euros to finish the first prototype of the CICRET BRACELET. So feel free to donate an amount of your choice. If everyone gives us 1 euro, we will make it and release our products!

This certainly reminds me of the hover board video which made the rounds a while back.

Protype needed.  Indeed.  Hope they find a source of funding but without any written agreement, it may take a while.  Winter 2015 may be a bit too ambitious.

Hundreds of mini satellites circling the earth.....weighing less than nine pounds a piece and they did it working out of a garage. Pure awesomeness.

As more Americans find the price of their bundling packages too expensive to bear, there also lies a race between content providers in the background to grab their share of the streaming video market. 

Last month HBO announced they too will launch its streaming service in 2015.

Adding to the mix, online retailer Amazon.com Inc will release a new ad-supported video streaming service early next year, the New York Post reported, citing sources.  The new service will compete directly with Hulu and Netflix Inc, whose charges begin at $7.99 a month for customers in the United States.

HBO CEO Richard Plepler, provides insight to the company's evolving business model, and partnership with distributors.

"I don’t think it competes at all," Plepler said. "The most important thing to remember about our Amazon decision is its three-year-old window library and what we basically decided is somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 or 70 percent of Amazon Prime subscribers do not get HBO. So we thought this

Using multi-drive fusion, the multi-jet Fusion 3D printer utilizes fused nylon, rather than a multitude of substances for a machine much smaller than one would expect (not taking up half the room).  HP feels their technology will be faster, with more detail and accuracy (down to 20 microns which is more finely honed) than other 3D printers currently on the market.  Expected to be released in Beta in 2015 and a public release in 2016, it certainly seems HP is pushing to expand beyond their comfort zone of the past. 

Defying the past 35 years of personal-computer design, HP has built a machine that invites users to input their ideas on a wide mat that rests in front of the video monitor. Anything sketched or written is captured by sensors in the mat. Anything placed atop the mat is photographed or scanned by an overhead camera — and then transformed into digital content that can be displayed and further manipulated on the monitor. This video clip shows HP’s system in action.

It's a unique machine that combines an all-in-one Windows 8 PC with a set of 3D scanning cameras, a giant tactile touchpad and a downward-facing projector (for displaying graphics on said touchpad). The design is built around a concept HP is calling "blended reality" that blends the 3D physical world with our 2D digital one. The obvious target audience is creative types. You know: advertisers, makers, tinkerers, graphic designers, etc... Rather than the traditional method of control built around mice and keyboards, Sprout focu

Last week it was amazing to witness entire expressways shut down during the Hong Kong protests.  Something which was not surprisingly given little attention by our "keep the advertisers happy at all costs" mainstream media.  *cough cough*  Thank goodness for technology with this amazing drone footage and social media for 'getting it out there'.  Afterwards I decided to take a further look into the area of investing in drone (and drone component) manufacturers.

I've thrown this together, running on battery only and no internet after having lost power due to a strong storm rolling through the region.  Hey, it's a start, right?

Face it America.  It’s only a matter of time before drone applications become commonplace and drones are buzzing past our homes like flies.  Imagine the possibilities.  Packages, mail, medical supplies, internet and wireless signals to remote or under served areas, news coverage, spraying fields with pesticides, no more lost hikers (or drivers for that matte

The 3D industry has reported grown by 21% last year alone and according to the 2014 Wholers Report, the worldwide 3D printing industry is now expected to grow from $3.07 billion in revenue in 2013 to $12.8 billion by 2018, and exceed $21 billion in worldwide revenue by 2020.

After testing 3D printing in it's San Diego stores, UPS has decided to expand it's partnership with SSYS to 100 stores nationwide.  California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas are just some of the states set to open stores with 3D-printing capabilities.

3D Systems (DDD) and Stratasys (SSYS) may be the largest 3D printing companies around, but together they only represented about one-third of worldwide 3D printing revenues in 2013. In other words, the 3D printing industry remains highly fragmented, and because no single company controls the majority of the market, there's a massive opportunity for a number of 3D printing companies to grow their revenue and market share considerably.  Other publicly trade

When EBAY was blow torched this week after AAPL unveiled Apple Pay at their investor event on September 7th, I saw the knee-jerk fear that Apple Pay would take down PayPal as one to raise an eyebrow, however considering the possible number of iphone6 and Apple watch sales (because it won't be available on current Apple products) versus worldwide usage of PayPal, this would not something that would immediately destroy the EBAY name.  On Wednesday I jumped in on EBAY calls (cheap at that point) feeling the reaction was over done.

Booyah!  Was I glad today that I did.  Dumb luck is definitely better than no luck at all.

Not only are other market participants now beginning to question the depth of impact from Apple Pay (again only available on the new iPhone6 or Apple Watch), but it's overall security in a day and age of endless hackers when it comes to one's digital wallet replacing their plastic card and cash.

Then today the news hit when EBAY announced they are set to launch an

Forgetting your wallet at home may no longer be a problem when picking up prescriptions or incidentals, as the nation’s biggest drugstore chain Walgreens and other major retailers partner with Apple and its new mobile payment system. Apple’s new mobile payment system — Apple Pay — could certainly make life for consumers much easier. But the move also makes the iPhone a virtually indispensable — and invaluable –piece of property that will be even more vulnerable to security risks if lost, stolen or hacked.

Walgreens, Target, Staples, McDonald’s, Sephora, Starbucks, and Groupon are among the 12 retailers to accept Apple Pay in October. The system was unveiled Sept. 9 along with the latest iPhone and the highly anticipated Apple Watch.

Apple Pay will allow consumers to pay for items using near field communication, a wireless technology that transmits payment information from the mobile device to a store’s checkout system. The SIM card in the mobile phone, which stores users’ personal in

Last week we posted a blip about Bardabunga; the largest volcano in Iceland experiencing an enormous increase in seismic activity of late and we recapped how the 2010 volcanic eruption in Iceland paralyzed air travel, shuttering a number of airports and stranding travelers across Europe (not to mention costing airlines billions in lost revenue). 

To bring us up to date is Dem. site DailyKos which truly makes me love science even more.  Sadly, I slept through much of it as a teen.  What a fool was I.

In any case, Bardabunga is far from calming down and indicators point to it's magma chamber not only expanding, but flowing right towards...........Askja; another volcano's magma chamber.  Estimate now are that magma intrusion she's sent forth at an average rate of hundreds of cubic meters per second (similar to the flow rate of the Hudson River at New York City, straight through solid rock) has gone over 30 kilometers from Bárðarbunga's magma chamber, its end is no longer under the glaci

Under the heading of "cool but creepy", Mobileye (MBLY), whose software and applications enable hands-free driving, debuts today on the NYSE.

Mobileye’s proprietary software algorithms and EyeQ® chip (now in its 3^rd generation) perform detailed interpretations of the visual field in order to anticipate possible collisions with other licensed vehicles, pedestrians, animals, debris and other obstacles.

They posted rapid revenue growth of late and reported a $19.9 million profit last year, reversing a year-earlier loss, according to its prospectus. Its products were installed in about 3.3 million vehicles through March 31 and obviously growing.  They have also filed 15 patents thus far on their technology including several on their collision warning systems which one would believe is where the true value lies from a buyout perspective.

With more than 15 years of research and development and data collected from millions of miles of driving experience present a significant technological lea

We hear the phrase "internet of things" (IoT) bandied about and for many Americans, there's no clue exact "what" it defines.  It probably has a lot more to do with Net Neutrality than you realize however and spending in this get-connected area, is expected to more than quadruple by 2020, according to e-Marketer.

Indeed, according to them, there is no standard definition for the “internet of things” (IoT). The term generally denotes an advanced level of networked connectivity between objects, platforms, systems and services that enables the exchange of data without human intervention. The premise behind the IoT is that any object, whether natural or manufactured, can gain the ability to transmit data over a network.

Not only can you unlock your home or your car remotely, but you can track shipments, hail a cab, easily monitor calorie intake, transmit medical records, schedule appointments............the areas of future connectivity seem endless.

Innovation continues in the advertising sector as cookies, which can be blocked or disabled, are fast being replaced with a digital "fingerprint".

This new, extremely persistent type of online tracking is shadowing visitors to thousands of top websites, from WhiteHouse.gov to YouPorn.com...and they're difficult to stop.

First documented in a forthcoming paper by researchers at Princeton University and KU Leuven University in Belgium, this type of tracking, called canvas fingerprinting, works by instructing the visitor’s Web browser to draw a hidden image. Because each computer draws the image slightly differently, the images can be used to assign each user’s device a number that uniquely identifies it.

Like other tracking tools, canvas fingerprints are used to build profiles of users based on the websites they visit — profiles that shape which ads, news articles, or other types of content are displayed to them.

But fingerprints are unusually hard to block: They can’t be prevented b

For Twitter and Facebook, the two principal combatants in the world of social media, e-commerce is emerging as the newest battleground.  One would think that Amazon's June unveiling of it's Fire phone should be pushing the transition even faster.

Twitter announced on Thursday that it had agreed to acquire CardSpring, a mobile payments infrastructure company that allows merchants to offer deals to consumers that can be loaded onto to their credit cards. When the card is used to pay at the store, the coupon is automatically applied.

CardSpring advertises itself as a company that makes it easy for developers to link digital applications to credit or debit cards.

For Twitter, the potential uses are obvious: If you see a retailer’s tweet promoting a particular product and want to get the deal, you might soon be able to click a button or send a reply to simply add the discount to a stored credit card — without leaving Twitter’s site or firing up another app. For the last couple of years, T

Like anything else, it will take more widespread usage and increased competition for pricing to drop, but I would install these in a heartbeat if/when the cost became more reasonable.  idk about anyone else but my utility bill is ridiculous at this point.

Dawn Kurry of Biz Journals writes Solar shingles system comes online in Cary North Carolina. Don Hyatt is the first person in the research triangle, and maybe in the whole state, to install the new DOW solar shingles on his home.

Don Hyatt says people have been stopping by his house to admire the shiny new roof.
"I've been waiting for them to become available in North Carolina," Hyatt says. "It's not like solar panels, which have the big blue rectangles that stick up above everything else and are obtrusive looking. These blend in nicely."

Sun Dollar Energy of Raleigh, owned by Dan Lezama, installed shingles on the roof of a home which double as solar panels. ... “It’s a building integrated PV (photo-voltaic) module,” explains Lezama

At its E3 press conference, Sony just announced that the PlayStation TV game console (known as the PlayStation Vita TV abroad) is coming to the United States and Canada this fall.

The PlayStation TV will come by itself for $99 (you’ll have to bring your own controller) or in a $139 bundle that comes with a DualShock Controller, a memory card to store downloaded games on, and a copy of the Lego Movie video game.

The console will be compatible with many of the games currently available on the PlayStation Vita, Sony’s portable game console. Those will be for available for download on the PlayStation store.

PlayStation TV owners will also be able to log in to PlayStation Now, Sony’s upcoming Netflix-like service that lets people “stream” games from the cloud. The service will have approximately 100 PlayStation 3 titles available as well as more than 20 free games made specifically for PlayStation Now.

Gamers with a PlayStation 4 in their home will also have the ability to stream games fro

3-D printers can easily be utilized to transform global recycling efforts as well as raising capital, so say some entrepreneurs.

The Plastic Bank, a Vancouver-based social enterprise I wrote about last fall, just announced it’s created, in the words of co-founder Shaun Frankson,  “the world’s first 3D printed item from entirely recycled ocean plastic.”  Specifically, they made a wrench.

Of course, this requires more explanation.

The company is the brainchild of David Katz, who previously founded Nero Global Tracking about 12 years ago. During his travels around the world, Katz was stunned by just how much plastic waste he encountered  littering beaches and waterways, especially in less-developed countries.

Then he got an idea—a pretty big one.   It combined recycling with helping impoverished people to find a way out of poverty through self-sustaining entrepreneurial micro-ventures. 

People would collect plastic refuse and take it to an exchange center; the facilities would be located

Makes it easy to see why so many are pushing for an increase in the number of H-1B Visa issuance (wink wink)

Courtesy of Bloomberg

• Better than expected China PMI over the weekend and ECB meeting on Thursday with LTRO announcement being anticipated and a (speculative) rate cut to help boost their economy.
• $GOOG is planning on extending its customer base by offering internet usage to the un-wired regions of the world via satellite and boost revenue as well as earnings. The new project's estimated price ranges from $1B-$3B, and will start with 180 small, high-capacity satellites orbiting Earth at low altitude.  180 "low altitude"?  Just how many are up there anyway?  lol
• Cost-cutting in a digital age to continue.  Imagine the possibilities.  For example one bank digitized it's mortgage-application and decision process, cutting the cost per new mortgage by 70% and slashing time to preliminary approval from several days to just one minute. A telecom created a self-serve, prepaid service where customers could order and activate phones without back-office involvement. A shoe retailer built a system to manage its in-stor

We are witnessing the maturation of an industry and the adoption of proven management practices. Successful cleantech companies are making their offerings competitive by focusing on excellence in operations, marketing, sales, and distribution. The principles that apply to any manufacturing business, such as reducing procurement costs and improving productivity through lean manufacturing, are increasingly important for clean technologies as well.

The cleantech space is diverse; it cannot be painted with a broad brush. We looked at 16 important clean technologies and found that while every single one has made progress over the past decade, some are moving much faster than others. Just over half of them—advanced building technologies, advanced agriculture, food life-cycle optimization, grid analytics, grid-scale storage, intelligent transport, next-generation vehicles, solar PVs (photovoltaics), unconventional natural gas, and water treatment—could become truly disruptive to the incumbent