Google to buy Waze for $1.3b

Google to buy Waze for $1.3b

Reports about a possible sale of Waze are not new. Last year there were reports Apple wanted to buy Waze and in late August 2012, it was reported that Facebook was in talks to acquire the company. According to some reports, Facebook representatives arrived in Israel to meet Waze executives, but no deal was reached in the negotiations, apparently because of the price tag.

Another reason was that Waze insisted that its Israeli employees should continue working in Israel, which Facebook did not accept. Google has already made two acquisitions in Israel, and it has an office here, in contrast to Facebook, which closed most of the companies it acquired, including Israeli start-ups. Both previous Israeli acquisitions by Google were modest. Google acquired personalized Website gadget developer Labpixies for $25 million and interactive video-clip developer Quiksee for $10 million. Both acquisitions were in 2010.

In the past few months, there have been numerous reports that Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) was interested in acquiring Waze. However, in an interview with "AllThingsD" at the D11 conference in late May, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple had not bid for Waze. He also stressed that use of Apple's map app was important, which was why the company was investing heavily in the product. “We screwed up," he admitted. "It’s greatly improved, but not there yet. We have more to do."

Waze was founded in 2009 and in October 2012, it announced a $30 million financing round from Horizons Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and iFund. The company has raised $67 million to date from Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Venture Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT), and the investors in its 2012 financing round.

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ET Review: BlackBerry Q10

ET Review: BlackBerry Q10

The Q10 is similar to the Bold 9900 in shape & size, but has a larger 3.1-inch super amoled touchscreen and improved keypad. The four-row keypad now has larger keys, a wider layout and feels more comfortable to type on. The display is fantastic but the 1:1 (square) aspect ratio sometimes ruins the video experience. Since most videos are 16:9, they run in a smaller frame on the phone. Performance is great — games and HD videos ran without any hitch even with multiple email and social networking accounts running in the background. It also shares the rear 8MP and front 2MP camera with the Z10. Like the Z10, the performance from the camera is fantastic — you get rich colours, sharp details and minimal noise. 

The Q10 has a 2,100mAh battery that easily lasted us over a day and half — impressive for a BlackBerry device. For those who love physical QWERTY keypads, the Q10 is the ultimate device. 

However at Rs 44,990 (850 USD), it's also insanely expensive. Because of the price, the Q10 has very stiff competition: the HTC One, Samsung's Galaxy S4 and the Apple iPhone 5.

Specifications 

3.1-inch super amoled (720 x 720 pixels) display, 1.5Ghz dual-core, 2GB RAM, 16GB + microSD, 8MP/2MP camera, BlackBerry 10, 2,100mAh, 139g 

Fantastic keyboard, stunning display, camera and audio performance, battery life 

Expensive, 1:1 aspect ratio not ideal for watching videos, not all apps compatible.

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How to make window 7 bootable

How to make window 7 bootable 

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Acer announces Orbe: a wireless storage hub for its cloud service

Acer announces Orbe: a wireless storage hub for its cloud service

On stage at Acer's press event at Computex 2013 in Taipei, wrapping up a day of new Ultrabooks, tablets and smartphones, it revealed the Orbe, a new storage hub that connects to AcerCloud. You'll be able to tap into 2TB of storage with the curiously-shaped device, which will connect to... yep, Ultrabooks, tablets and smartphones -- something that's particularly useful given the cloud service's relatively recent update allowing any Android or iOS device to connect. Unfortunately we have yet to dig up any more specs on the device.

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Sony develops Digital Paper device

Sony develops Digital Paper device 

Digital paper – does this particular term sound rather ironic to you? It does to us actually, although it is a kind of technology that we would more than welcome. Mention Sony and you would think of their Bravia TVs, the PlayStation consoles over the years, and of course, who can forget about the iconic portable music player line that kicked it all off – the Walkman? Having said that, Sony’s foray into the world of tablets has not exactly been an encouraging one to date where its track record is concerned, since their only major notable presence at this point in time would be the Sony Xperia Tablet Z. Well, perhaps they might be able to make larger strides than what they have already achieved with the aforementioned tablet if they were to incorporate some digital paper into future products. After all, Sony has successfully developed a 13.3” digital paper device, where the main aim would be to do away with paper educational materials and documents while helping improve learning effects and productivity among others.

Sony has every plan to propose new learning and working styles through the use of such a device, in addition to having it deliver, store, write and share electronic files over a network. As for the digital paper, Sony has made use of a 13.3” flexible electrophoretic display that relies on its own technology which will form TFTs on a plastic substrate with a high resolution (and that, our dear readers, would be the so-called electronic paper). This unique display can show up to 16 levels of grayscale and has a pixel count of 1,200 x 1,600.

Not only that, it is said that the thickness and mass of the digital paper are just 6.8mm if you do not take into consideration its pen holder and 358g, respectively. You can use it for up to three weeks on a single charge (and this is assuming that the Wi-Fi function is turned off, and PDF files are viewed for an hour each day), which will also include the use of the hand-writing function for five minutes per day. Anyone want to see Sony succeed?

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Samsung launches biggest Galaxy phones in India First impression

Samsung launches biggest Galaxy phones in India  First impression

Galaxy Mega 5.8 and Galaxy Mega 6.3 are big devices. But what is likely to strike a user about them is that they are still quite compact and accessible. Galaxy Mega 5.8 is especially compact when compared to most of the large screen devices from local vendors like Spice and Micromax.

In terms of size, Samsung claims that both devices are pocketable. But after checking them out we are no so sure. Both devices are too big to be carried in jeans pockets. Mega 6.3 is especially big, though it should appeal to people who have to carry a 7-inch tablet and find it too big.

The design of both devices follow the pattern set by Galaxy S4. This means, both devices are a bit squarer than Galaxy Grand or Galaxy Note II. As it is usual for a Samsung smartphone, the devices are constructed using the glossy plastic. The back covers, which have a fine-diamond pattern first seen on Galaxy S4, can be removed. However, despite plastic, the devices have been built very well and finishing appears top notch.

Mega 5.8 uses a TFT screen. It shows good and punchy colours, however, the resolution looks a tad low, especially compared to smartphones with 720P screens.

Mega 6.8 uses a super LCD screen. In terms of showing colours, the screen is good but the text and images don't look as sharp as they do on a device like Galaxy Note II.

Both devices run Android 4.2 customized with Touchwiz interface. While using the device we found the devices to have smooth and lag-free navigations. However, pinch and zoom on heavy web pages or multitasking tend to feel a little slower compared to the performance on devices like Galaxy S4 or Galaxy Note II.

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