Natural disasters in far-flung places such as Thailand and Japan would seem to have little connection to our digital lives. But in addition to the tragic loss of lives, the severe weather is threatening to bring about a crisis in tech: According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard, the industry could run out of hard drives by the end of this month. READ MORE
Despite a recent hiccup, Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant, is helping to open up a whole new world in mobile payments. Social payments start-up Venmo is taking full advantage of Siri’s capabilities with say-to-pay functionality. READ MORE
Did you buy a tablet in 2011? If you didn’t, I’m pretty sure you wanted to. Or at least read some reviews and compared some specs. Though the year’s not quite over, TechRepublic‘s Jason Hiner has picked the best ten tablets to be introduced this year, and though the market-dominating iPad 2 isn’t much of a surprise at the top spot, some of the others may astonish. For instance, the HP TouchPad, even though its operating system may be shelved, and the device itself is only available on eBay. And BlackBerry PlayBook, another casualty in the battle for platform dominance, though as Hiner points out, it may be highly useful for people or companies who live by their BlackBerry smartphones. READ MORE
The Irresistible Force meets the Immovable Object. That’s how negotiations between Apple and China Mobile appear to be going over whether the iPhone will be introduced in China. Negotiations between these two have been underway for at least three years and have gone nowhere. READ MORE
Here’s a simple marketing tip: If you’re going to create a new MP3 player, don’t call it something that sounds outlandishly racist. The German company TrekStor learned that lesson the hard way after launching the spectularly badly named iBeat Blaxx. It also earned the top spot on TechRepublic’s list of the 20 worst-named technology products of all time. READ MORE
Here’s an impressive statistic: More than 62 percent of mobile browsing worldwide happens on an Apple device. To Web developers, this means that 62 percent of mobile users can’t properly see your site if you use Flash. And those 62 percent tend to be the ones with money to spend. On Wednesday, Adobe gave up hoping for Android to overtake iOS, and announced it would cease development of Flash for the mobile market. READ MORE
If you thought the Apple iPad was pricey, get a load of Panasonic’s “Toughpad” line. Scheduled for an early 2012 release, the 10-inch Toughpad A1 will sell for $1,299. A seven-inch B1 will be released shortly thereafter. READ MORE
Look out world, here comes the next generation. And in case you’re wondering what they care about, Cisco’s just-released Connected World Technology Report offers some clues. The company surveyed 2,800 college students and recently employed grads to find that a third of them “consider the Internet to be as important as air, water, food, and shelter,” according to the report. READ MORE
HP’s on-again, off-again relationship with the PC market might be a lot like a bad celebrity marriage. But when it comes to tablets, the company is making a commitment, launching the Windows 7-based Slate 2. But the launch likely won’t make a big splash in the market. The 8.9-inch capacitive multi-touch screen device features a 3-megapixel camera, a front-facing VGA camera for video calls, and Swype technology; but it is just a “slight upgrade” of the Slate 500, which launched in October 2010, says Mashable’s Stan Schroeder. Pricing on the Slate 2 begins at $699 and will be available this month. Read more at Mashable.
IBM in India has developed a special solar power system for data centers that can reduce their (often enormous) power usage by 10 percent. The system increases efficiency by reducing losses that usually result from converting alternating current on the grid to direct current for servers, explains Kota Murali, who normally works in nanotechnology at IBM India, but created this pilot on the side. READ MORE
