If you’re thinking of launching a data-driven start-up, the time is right: Accel Partners just launched a $100 million V.C fund aimed at the space. READ MORE
Just when you thought that you had a handle on Facebook and Twitter for your company, Google+ enters the scene. Google officially began allowing companies to start their own Google+ accounts Monday. READ MORE
Barnes and Noble unveiled its new Nook Monday morning, a 7-inch, $249 device. Building on its previous success, Barnes and Noble hopes the tablet can become Amazon’s Fire and Apple’s iPad’s worst nightmare. 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
It used to be that mobile adoption was considered the purview of the very young and hip. But a recent Nielsen report shows that adults in the 25-44 age range have the highest adoption rates of any user demographic. And while this might be interesting news, there’s more: despite the high adoption rates, mobile penetration in the U.S. is at 77 percent, lower than it is in many other developed countries. READ MORE
Now that Microsoft’s Kinect has become part of the gaming experience, what’s next? If a recent Sony patent application is any indication, we could have biometric controllers in the next three to five years, says TG Daily’s Trent Nouveau. READ MORE
Where does a 900-lb. gorilla sleep? Anywhere it wants, goes the old joke, and Apple seems to be taking that general approach to the tablet market in Europe. It’s successfully blocked Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 from Germany and some phones from the Netherlands. It’s also gone after many smaller tablet makers, including the tiny Nuevas Tecnologías y Energías Catalá, headquartered in a small town in Valencia. READ MORE
If you need to do some market research but don’t have the resources to pull off an expensive study, there’s a new tool called SurveyBuilder created by California-based uSamp that might be able to help you create a statistically valid survey and get meaningful responses to it, maybe even for free. READ MORE
