Social trading targets savvy retail investors

June 22, 2013 12:15 am

Social trading targets savvy retail investors

By Vanessa Kortekaas

Imagine if Twitter was used only by the world’s most successful stock market and currency traders – and they posted all of their trading ideas for online followers to see.

That, in a few more than 140 characters, is what “social trading” is attempting to achieve: adapting the social media phenomenon to create a connected community of savvier private investors. Read more of this post

Facebook is aiming to become a newspaper for mobile devices

June 23, 2013, 8:26 p.m. ET

Facebook, With a Focus on Mobile, Works on Project for News Via Users

By EVELYN M. RUSLI

Facebook Inc. is aiming to become a newspaper for mobile devices.

The social network has been quietly working on a service, internally called Reader, that displays content from Facebook users and publishers in a new visual format tailored for mobile devices, people with knowledge of the matter said. Read more of this post

Why Mobile Payments Are Poised For Takeoff

Why Mobile Payments Are Poised For Takeoff

JOSH LUGER JUN. 23, 2013, 4:21 PM 8,402 5

Mobile devices are edging closer to fulfilling their long-delayed promise as digital wallets. Consumers are beginning to see the advantage of channeling offline payments through their mobile devices, rather than carrying around clunky coins and cash — even debit and credit cards. Consumers are primed to go wallet-free and begin paying for goods and services via their mobile devices, and as a result, mobile payments are set to explode.

Read more of this post

Lenovo Playing Games in China to Challenge Samsung Phones

Lenovo Playing Games in China to Challenge Samsung Phones

To offset falling PC sales and reduce its reliance on ThinkPad notebooks, Lenovo Group Ltd. (992) is adding a gaming service that the computer maker says can help it overtake Samsung Electronics Co. in smartphones in China.

Lenovo Game World will include social-networking features, software reviews and gameplay tips when it starts in the third quarter, offering popular titles like “Fruit Ninja” for devices such as the computer maker’s Ideaphone K900 that run Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android operating system. Read more of this post

Media empires are becoming more focused, and shareholders like it

Media empires are becoming more focused, and shareholders like it

Jun 22nd 2013 | NEW YORK |From the print edition

RUPERT MURDOCH, the billionaire founder of News Corporation, recently filed for divorce from his third wife, Wendi Deng. This is not the only break-up he is going through. On June 28th his company will split in two—shares in both parts began trading this week—with most of its lucrative film and television assets being hived off into a new group, called 21st Century Fox. The rump News Corp will be left with newspapers and other lower-growth businesses (see article). Read more of this post

Streaming music: Apple follows others into the booming bit of the music industry

Streaming music: Apple follows others into the booming bit of the music industry

Jun 15th 2013 |From the print edition

“CAN’T innovate anymore, my ass,” growled Phil Schiller, an Apple executive, as he helped unveil the firm’s new offerings at its annual conference on June 10th. He was addressing the growing ranks of doubters who say Apple has peaked since the death in 2011 of its former boss, Steve Jobs (its share price has fallen by 20% so far this year). The sceptics were not swayed. Among Apple’s modest innovations were a new operating system, iOS 7, and a music-streaming service that resembles what rivals already offer. Read more of this post

Coming Soon: Intel’s Must-See TV; The chip giant readies a TV subscription service powered by a set-top box unlike any other

SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2013

Coming Soon: Intel’s Must-See TV

By TIERNAN RAY | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

The chip giant readies a TV subscription service powered by a set-top box unlike any other.

Full disclosure, dear readers—I’m not a TV viewer. I chucked the set years ago and mainly watch things on computers.

But then, television hasn’t changed much in decades, so I feel I’m still qualified to opine on the boob tube’s future. And two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to glimpse a possible part of that future at the Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters of Intel (ticker: INTC), where I saw a TV service that is novel, elegant, and highly desirable, even to a television Luddite like me. The service faces a number of hurdles, including potential obstruction by the cable and telephone industries, but what I witnessed could take Intel in a thrilling new direction. Read more of this post

How Cree Perfected The 20-Year Lightbulb; How a North Carolina LED maker built a better mousetrap—and doubled its market cap to $7 billion in just one year

How Cree Perfected The 20-Year Lightbulb

by Christopher Helman | Jun 22, 2013

Cree’s CEO Chuck Swoboda wants to change the way America is lit. Investors are basking in the glow

How a North Carolina LED maker built a better mousetrap—and doubled its market cap to $7 billion in just one year

In the ad for Cree lightbulbs, snow whips across a desolate field as a bagpipe creaks out ‘Amazing Grace’. An announcer holds up a lightbulb and speaks into the camera. “Mr Edison, today we lay to rest your creation, the incandescent lightbulb. I know you’re not shocked, sir. You knew that it needed an unreasonable amount of energy to do its job and that it had the life span of a lucky bug.” Read more of this post

Profiting from the Cloud: How to Master Software as a Service

Profiting from the Cloud: How to Master Software as a Service

by John Pineda and Jean-Manuel Izaret

JUNE 18, 2013

Cloud software is no longer a fringe market. The $15 billion global software as a service (SaaS) business is growing at about three times the rate of traditional, on-premises software. SaaS represents 12 percent of global spending on enterprise applications, and cloud-based applications are already firmly entrenched in a handful of corporate IT categories. For example, customer relationship management (CRM) and collaboration software are expected to achieve 30 and 50 percent penetration rates, respectively, in those categories by 2015. Read more of this post

Why Instagram wants to rule video; Instagram + video = Less than Instagram

Why Instagram wants to rule video

By JP Mangalindan, Writer June 20, 2013: 2:54 PM ET

The popular photo-sharing mobile app now lets users capture video and apply filters.

FORTUNE — Instagram isn’t content with dominating the photo sharing space. At Facebook’s (FB) Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters this week, CEO and co-founder Kevin Systrom announced the ability to capture video in an iOS and Android update available for download. Read more of this post

In Tel Aviv, Nasty Traffic and Navigation Apps Go Hand in Hand

In Tel Aviv, Nasty Traffic and Navigation Apps Go Hand in Hand

By David Wainer on June 20, 2013

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-20/in-tel-aviv-nasty-traffic-and-navigation-apps-go-hand-in-hand

Tomer Neuner conceived of the Parko app when he was hunting for a parking space in Tel Aviv, circling his neighborhood on a sweltering summer day. “I thought to myself, there’s got to be a way to make the search more efficient for everyone,” says Neuner, 30, who quit his job as a product manager at financial-technology company SuperDerivatives to develop the app. Parko learns users’ habits by tracking their phones and predicts when they’re about to vacate a spot, alerting other drivers in the area. Neuner launched the app in Israel earlier this year and is planning to expand overseas, including to San Francisco and Paris. Read more of this post

Oracle’s sales miss magnifies fears about cloud missteps; “You can get as many tummy tucks and face lifts as you as want, but it doesn’t make your heart and liver and kidneys any younger.”

Analysis: Oracle’s sales miss magnifies fears about cloud missteps

8:06am EDT

By Jim Finkle

BOSTON (Reuters) – “What the hell is cloud computing?” Oracle Corp (ORCL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Larry Ellison said during a diatribe against the whole concept at an investor Q&A in 2008.

Asked to describe his strategy for expanding into a then-small but rapidly expanding sphere, the software giant’s head said he had no idea what people were talking about when they referred to cloud computing, describing it as “nonsensical” and those writing about it as “insane”. Read more of this post

Now Chinese Users Can Pay for McDonald’s Purchases within WeChat

Now Chinese Users Can Pay for McDonald’s Purchases within WeChat

By Tracey Xiang on June 18, 2013

Chinese users now can pay for purchases at McDonald’s directly within WeChat. Any user that follows the official WeChat account of McDonald’s China now can find an e-coupon for an afternoon tea deal. You can make payments with Tenpay or other online payments services offered by Chinese banks without leaving WeChat. Then you’ll receive a WeChat message with a QR code for redemption at a McDonald’s store. Clicking on the green button, you’ll be led to a page to pay with Tenpay or other online banks. Meifuhui, an online cosmetic retailer founded by a former Tencent’s exec, was one of the earliest that supported Tenpay within WeChat. It is reported that a few more merchants have had the WeChat payments capability (in Chinese). Tenpay once said they’d support payments within WeChat by the end of last year. We don’t know what took it so much longer. But still, Tenpay isn’t the prevailing online payments method with Chinese — Alipay is. Also it’s not very likely users would like to make payments with banks on mobile as it takes several more steps and security must be a concern with consumers. Yixun, the online retailer Tencent acquired, started supporting Alipay from November 2012. So it’s not impossible WeChat would introduce Alipay later.

A price war has flared up again among Chinese e-commerce websites, despite government officials accusing them of “fooling consumers with promotional activities” just nine months ago

Price war between e-commerce firms hotter

Updated: 2013-06-19 02:54

By SHEN JINGTING ( China Daily)

A price war has flared up again among Chinese e-commerce websites, despite governmentofficials accusing them of “fooling consumers with promotional activities” just nine months ago. JD.com, also known as Jingdong, offered heavy discounts on millions of products, includingsome best sellers, to celebrate its 10th anniversary on Tuesday.

Read more of this post

Asia’s Fashion E-Commerce is Huge, and Americans Don’t Understand the Market (INFOGRAPHIC)

Asia’s Fashion E-Commerce is Huge, and Americans Don’t Understand the Market (INFOGRAPHIC)

June 21, 2013

by Enricko Lukman

SP eCommerce recently released an interesting infographic about Asia’s fashion e-commerce industry. Regular readers should know that this vertical e-commerce is definitely on the rise in Asia, topped by the recent boost of confidence from Zalora’s $100 million funding round and Reebonz’s recent $40 million investment. The infographic tells us Asia is the biggest offline retail market in the world. When it comes to e-retail, Asia’s market is going to grow so big that Alibaba’s transaction volume this year alone will eclipse the transaction volume of all US’ e-commerce companies combined. The fashion industry is the fastest growing segment in Asia’s e-commerce industry, and we’re seeing a lot of US brand retailers eyeing the Asian market with mostly online presence. But according to surveys conducted by the SP eCommerce team, consumers don’t think US brands really understand how to win over the local online Asian market. One such case is not catering to cash on delivery, a popular local payment method.

Sizing Up Big Data, Broadening Beyond the Internet; Virtually every field, from science to sports to public health, is being transformed by data-driven discovery and decision-making

JUNE 19, 2013, 11:09 PM

Sizing Up Big Data, Broadening Beyond the Internet

By STEVE LOHR

In his young career, Jeffrey Hammerbacher has been a scout on the frontiers of the data economy.

In 2005, Mr. Hammerbacher, then a freshly minted Harvard graduate, did what many math and computing whizzes did. He went to Wall Street as a “quant,” building math models for complex financial products. Read more of this post

How Mobile Coupons Are Driving An Explosion In Mobile Commerce

How Mobile Coupons Are Driving An Explosion In Mobile Commerce

JOSH LUGER JUN. 19, 2013, 4:06 PM 4,943 2

As recently as late 2010, mobile commerce was only 3% of e-commerce. By the end of last year’s holiday shopping season, that number had risen to 11%, according to comScore. That’s approximately $18.6 billion in consumer spending – and that doesn’t even include travel-related purchases, which comScore counts separately. New mobile merchandising trends — merchandising being the art of selling people products they didn’t know they wanted — like mobile catalogs and coupons are helping to drive this explosion. Thanks in part to this new ecosystem of retail and shopping apps, mobile-generated retail spend could rise to 15% of retail e-commerce by the end of this year.   Read more of this post

Startup CipherCloud claims that by using its software, companies can legally upload sensitive defense-technology data to public online services

June 21, 2013, 6:38 p.m. ET

Startup Pushes Encryption, but Doubts Arise

By JOEL SCHECTMAN

Startup CipherCloud is making an impressive claim. The San Jose, Calif.-based vendor says that by using its software, companies can legally upload sensitive defense-technology data to public online services such as Google Inc.’sGOOG -0.43% cloud-based email servers.

CipherCloud has gained significant traction in the burgeoning market for helping companies keep online data secure, and while its defense-related business is small, it says it has more than 1.2 million corporate end users across 10 industries. Read more of this post

China Is Investing in Automated Car Technology

June 21, 2013, 3:54 PM ET

China Is Investing in Automated Car Technology

Steve Rosenbush, Deputy Editor

One California startup says it is providing key driverless car technology to an increasing number of customers around the world, including in China, where the state-controlled economy could help companies in the race against U.S. rivals such as Google Inc.

David Hall, founder and CEO of Velodyne Acoustics Inc., makes the high-definition laser sensors that have turned out to be a critical enabling technology in the development of automated vehicles. The question now is how quickly the market for that technology will mature. It could be as soon as five years, depending upon whom you ask. Read more of this post

How HTC Lost Its Way With Smartphones

Updated June 21, 2013, 7:58 a.m. ET

How HTC Lost Its Way With Smartphones

By EVA DOU and ARIES POON

TAIPEI—After product fumbles and two years of share price declines, HTC Corp.2498.TW -0.60% Chief Executive Peter Chou knows the inevitable question is coming.

“I know you guys want to ask, will I quit,” Mr. Chou says in an interview at the Taiwanese smartphone maker’s headquarters on the outskirts of Taipei. “There are a lot of rumors that say I would quit, but I never said that. I’m not going to find another job.” Read more of this post

Twitter’s Vine, a smartphone app that makes it simple to record and share snippets of video, Start Creeping Up on Facebook

June 20, 2013, 4:27 p.m. ET

Vines Start Creeping Up on Facebook

By ROLFE WINKLER

Lately, Facebook FB +1.67% is having trouble inventing social services of its own. That is a risk for investors who take comfort in the network’s sheer ubiquity.

As Internet usage shifts from desktop computers to mobile devices, rival social services are the ones offering innovative ways to share photos and videos as well as to communicate with friends. Given the huge advertising business Facebook has grafted onto such activities—generating $1.2 billion of revenue in the first quarter alone—it is problematic if users migrate elsewhere. The latest hot social service is Vine, a smartphone app that makes it simple to record and share snippets of video. Owned by Twitter, Vine’s app is ranked among the top 10 for the iPhone and has gathered more than 13 million registered users since launching in January. Read more of this post

Mobile device boom no threat to movie theatre growth: Imax CEO

Mobile device boom no threat to movie theatre growth: Imax CEO

8:39am EDT

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – People will always want to watch movies in theatres despite the growing trend of watching videos at home and on mobile devices, the head of giant movie system maker Imax said. “People are social animals and I don’t think they want to be chained to their couches, mobile devices and tablets. They want to go out,” Richard Gelfond, chief executive of Canada-based Imax, told the annual President’s Conference in Israel on Thursday.

Read more of this post

Internet dating site Cupid Plc said a number of potential suitors have expressed interest in its casual dating sites, such as benaughty.com and flirt.com

Interest hots up for Cupid’s casual dating sites

10:29am EDT

(Reuters) – Internet dating site Cupid Plc said a number of potential suitors have expressed interest in its casual dating sites, such as benaughty.com and flirt.com.

Cupid said last month that it had been approached to sell its casual dating websites and was considering a range of approaches.

Earlier this month, a media report said co-founder Max Polyako was on the verge of bidding 40 million pounds ($61.86 million) for Cupid’s casual dating business. Read more of this post

MIT Researcher Says Holographic TV Could Debut in Next 10 Years

MIT Researcher Says Holographic TV Could Debut in Next 10 Years

Holographic televisions could be in living rooms in the next 10 years at the price of today’s two-dimensional sets because of technology being developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, said Michael Bove, head of the lab’s Object-Based Media Group.

The lab, known for inventing the technology behind electronic ink, has created a holographic chip that can support the display of more than 50 gigapixels per second and simulate real-life objects by bending projected light in a continuous range of directions, eliminating the need for three-dimensional glasses. The development of the chip, or spatial light modulator, will be reported in the journal Nature. Read more of this post