Business Mobile

Voltaic Switch solar bag powers your tiny tablets with sunlight

As reported on Engadget. By Mariella Moon Voltaic’s solar bags sure can be useful, but not everyone likes lugging a laptop or a 10-inch tablet around while on a holiday. It’s a good thing the company has developed the new Switch solar bag specifically for smaller slates like the iPad mini, so you don’t pull a muscle carrying a 6-pound gadget as you navigate the jungle. The firm claims Switch’s 6-watt solar panel can charge a typical smartphone in about four hours…

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Business Education Tablet

LA officials may delay school iPad rollout after students hack them in a week

As reported on Engadget. By Matt Brian Just a week after it began the first phase of putting iPads in the hands of all 640,000 students in the state, the Los Angeles school district already has a fight on its hands. In a matter of days, 300 children at Theodore Roosevelt High School managed to work around protective measures placed on the Apple tablets, giving them complete access to features — including Facebook, Twitter and other apps —…

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Business Tablet

Amazon Announces The Kindle HDX 7- And 8.9-Inch Tablets With High-Res Screens, 2GHz Processors

As reported on TechCrunch. by JOHN BIGGS Amazon has upped the Fire tablet ante with two new HDX models in 7- and 8.9-inch sizes with brand-new, high-resolution screens and running an updated Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor at 2GHz. Both models have adaptive screens that change brightness according to the ambient light and a special reading mode that will keep the tablet alive for 17 hours of uninterrupted reading. The new models are considerably thinner than the original Fire models.…

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Business Hardware Dev

Roku’s new product line: it’s as simple as 1, 2, 3 (hands-on)

As reported on Engadget. By Daniel Cooper To say that today’s a big day for Roku is a bit of an understatement. Not only is the company revamping its entire product lineup, there’s also the small matter of the UK launch of the Roku 3 to consider. Whereas before, American users had to decide between the LT, HD, 2XD and 3, the company has now adopted a much simpler device lineup: Okay, Good, Better and Best. So, is this the move…

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Business Engineering

ZBoard launches crowdfunding campaign for its San Francisco Special, pre-orders start at $1,199

As reported on Engadget. By Sean Buckley Remember that snazzy special edition electric skateboard we saw roll out at Expand? It’s almost ready for launch: ZBoard has launched a Dragon Innovation crowdfunding campaign for its San Francisco Special. Although the limited edition ZBoard’s specs haven’t changed since earlier this year (20-mile range at 19 MPH) its facade has been given a few tweaks. In addition to wearing a brighter shade of orange, the San Francisco Special now features LED headlights,…

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Business Mobile

Bad news from BlackBerry: 4,500 jobs to be cut, expected Q2 net operating loss of over $950 million

As reported on Engadget. By Michael Gorman Things haven’t been going well at BlackBerry for awhile, what with lackluster adoption of BB10 and the hardware running it, and rumors that massive layoffs are coming before the end of the year. Today, the company confirmed the latter rumor, announcing that it will lay off around 4,500 employees as a part of a plan to reduce its operating expenditures by half over the next year. The plan’s necessitated by an…

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Business Cloud Microsoft

Microsoft’s Office 365 Consumer Edition Doubles To 2M Subscribers Since May

As reported on TechCrunch. by ALEX WILHELM Today at its analyst event, Microsoft announced a new milestone for its Office 365 Home Premium product: 2 million subscribers. That’s up 100 percent, or 1 million subscribers, since May 29. Office 365 Home Premium is the company’s cloud productivity suite for consumers that they pay for on a subscription basis. Previously, Microsoft touted that it had signed up its first 1 million consumer subscribersfor Office 365 Home Premium in…

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Business Hardware Dev

HP lays claim to the first fanless Haswell PC and the first Leap Motion laptop

As reported on Engadget. By Dana Wollman What do a fanless PC and a motion-controlled laptop have in common? Nothing, really; just that HP is going to be first to market with both of these things. Afterteasing a fanless tablet back in June, the company has formally announced the Spectre 13 x2, which isn’t actually a tablet so much as a hybrid laptop. Additionally, HP unveiled a special edition version of its Envy 17 notebook with a Leap Motioncontroller built into the…

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Business Microsoft

Inside Microsoft’s New $40 Billion Stock Repurchase Program

As reported on TechCrunch. by ALEX WILHELM Microsoft has announced a new $40 billion share repurchase authorization with no expiration date. With the move, Microsoft in effect granted itself $40 billion in latitude to buy its own shares whenever it wants to. The announcement came with a dividend increase of 22 percent to $0.28 per share. Its stock has responded by doing very little, rising just 0.39 percent in regular trading. It trails the NASDAQ’s rise of 0.76 percent during…

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Business

Wearable Baby Monitor Developer Sproutling Raises $2.6M From First Round And Others To Raise Parenting IQ

As reported on TechCrunch. by LEENA RAO Wearables aren’t just for adults anymore. There’s a new crop of startups hoping to give parents peace of mind and deliver more insights about young children and their sleeping patterns through wearable devices for babies. Sproutling, a new startup coming out of stealth today, is hoping to raise parenting IQs through a new wearable baby monitor that not only answers the question: ”Is my baby okay?” but also leverages the…

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