Chinese Company Already Shows Microsoft Natal Like Controller at Gamescom

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Chinese electronics makers turn up the heat on the current market leaders in the West and in Asia. The times are over where the big guys can delay releases or mess up a product launch. Take Chinese company Digiwinner. According to German magazine Heise the Chinese game accessory maker showed a low-cost 3D camera that can track 15 objects in a distance of 5 meters.
The Digiwinner Eagle Eyes (Eagleyes) camera is supposed to be able to retail for around $60. Read more

Posted on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:00:40 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor Ships for PC

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THQ has announced that the latest title in the Company of Heroes franchise is now shipping for PC gamers. The game is called Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor and it allows players to take part in some of the most historic battles from WWII.

Three different single-player campaigns are offered with three new multiplayer modes and new direct-fire feature. Direct-fire allows advanced tactical control over the battlefield. THQ says that the game is now available in retail locations. Read more

Posted on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Realty Company Set to Sell Off Circuit City Property

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We have been following Circuit City for a while as it first started to circle the drain with selective store closings only to come back and announce it was closing all of its stores. A realty company has stepped up and announced that it will be shedding the property Circuit City leased or owned for its stores across the country.

The firm will be trying to move the 567 locations that the electronics giant has in 153 markets around the US. DJM says that its participation is still pending approval by the courts. The 578 leases that the company will be selling are in AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV AND WY. Read more

Posted on Fri, 6 Feb 2009 10:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Fujitsu buys out Siemens in Fujitsu-Siemens PC Company

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Fujitsu buys the 50% stake of Siemens in the Fujitsu-Siemens PC Joint-venture making in a wholly owned Fujitsu company.
Fujitsu pays $566.5 million for the Siemens ownership in the PC maker.
Fujitsu said in a statement that it expects to the deal to close on April 1, 2009, making Fujitsu Siemens Computers a wholly owned subsidiary. Read more

Posted on Tue, 4 Nov 2008 01:59:48 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

The Foundry Company is officially launched by AMD and ATIC

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AMD and Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) officially announce the intention to create a new global enterprise, The Foundry Company. As reported earlier AMD is going fabless to cut costs.
The Foundry Company is said to begin with key strengths needed to build a successful leading-edge manufacturing company: a history of manufacturing excellence through AMD, committed capital, talented workforce and intellectual capital, and a strong, long-term technology partnership with IBM. Read more

Posted on Tue, 7 Oct 2008 06:46:32 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Walt Mossberg’s Reviews Can Make a Company Gain or Lose Millions in Profits

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Joseph Johnson, an assistant professor at the University of Miami School of Business Administration has conducted a study that looks at the effect a good or bad review of an electronic item or gadget from Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal has on a company.

According to the study there is a direct correlation between a company’s stock gains or losses and reviews of its products by Mossberg. According to the study is Mossberg gives an item a good review the company stock sees average gains of $500 million. If Mossberg gives an item a bad review the company stock loses an average of $200 million. Read more

Posted on Thu, 3 Jul 2008 11:29:23 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Battlefield: Bad Company Ships

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EA announced this week that Battlefield: Bad Company has shipped to retail stores. The game is set to sell starting June 25th in America and June 27th in Europe. The game centers on “B” company who are more interested in financial gain than following the rules.

EA sys the game centers on a deep single player campaign with dark humor, intense combat, and deafening destruction. Players take on the role of Preston Marlowe who gets stuck in the company with the highest mortality rate. Players search for treasure with different vehicles and using different weapons. The popular conquest mode will be available as a free download later this summer. The title will ship for PS3 and Xbox with no word on a PC version. Read more

Posted on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:12:23 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

EA Announces Battlefield: Bad Company Demos

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The Battlefield franchise from EA are some of the most popular shooters to ever grace a console or the PC. EA announced today that a single and multi player demo of its upcoming Battlefield Bad Company video game is available.

The demo availability also marks the end of the closed demo of the game and the demo servers are now closed. Two multiplayer maps are available in the demo—gold rush and oasis. The single player demo starts players at the beginning of their Battlefield career. Read more

Posted on Fri, 9 May 2008 09:05:27 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Google invests $500m in the Clearwire WiMax Network Company

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Google is one of the investors in the newly formed Clearwire WiMAX business with Sprint. Google invested 500 million of the 3.2 billion that the new Clearwire company is getting injected.

Google will provide search and applications to the network's users, and will work with Clearwire to offer additional services and applications. Read more

Posted on Wed, 7 May 2008 13:01:14 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Multiplayer Beta Announced for Battlefield: Bad Company

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EA Dice announced today that a multiplayer beta test for the upcoming console game Battlefield: Bad Company on the Xbox 360 would be available in limited numbers. Beta keys will be offered in limited quantities for members of IGN Founders’ Club and IGN Insider.

Some keys will also be offered to the public. "We're really excited about this beta since it gives us a chance to let a wider audience play our new multiplayer game, 'Gold Rush'. The feedback coming back from something like this is crucial for us as developers and will help us with the final changes and polish in the game," stated Karl-Magnus Troedsson, Senior Producer for Battlefield: Bad Company. "Battlefield and FPS fans get their first glimpse into how tactical destruction can be applied in multiplayer gameplay. We think offering two of the multiplayer maps will give gamers a fantastic experience and some great insight into the game." Read more

Posted on Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:32:23 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

AOL buys Widget Company Goowy

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AOL today announced that it has acquired Goowy Media, Inc., a widget development and analytics tools company based in San Diego, Calif. Goowy will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL as part of the company's Products division.

Founded in 2004, Goowy offers a technology platform and related analytics tools that facilitate widget creation, syndication and reporting. Read more

Posted on Mon, 4 Feb 2008 01:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Microsoft buys Ad company aQuantive for $6 billion

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Microsoft did not get Doubleclick (Google did now the drop top dollar on aQuantive Inc.

Microsoft Corp. today announced it will acquire aQuantive, Inc., for $66.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $6 billion.
"The advertising industry is evolving and growing at an incredible pace, moving increasingly toward online and IP-served platforms, which dramatically increases the importance of software for this industry," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft. Read more

Posted on Fri, 18 May 2007 07:23:42 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Slim Devices is now a Logitech Company

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Slim Devices, maker of audio streaming gadgets, announces that Logitech aquired them.

Slim Devices offers the Squeezebox we reviewed a while back and the recently announced Transporter.

Logitech pays $20 million in cash for the Mountain View based company. There are some performance target bonuses set to increase that amount. Tip: Just do not waste your time on starting any new hardware companies, rather enable sharing of some videos online. The difference is $1,63 billion (YouTube got $1.65 Billion) - Business is crazy, is it not? Read more

Posted on Thu, 19 Oct 2006 06:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Facebook to be Aquired by Big Company for Big Money

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Social networking start-up Facebook is apparently in talks with Yahoo!, Microsoft and Viacom to sell-out for big cash reports the WSJ (Subscription).

Facebook was in the news recently because of its users rioting against a new feature. What will the Facebook users do when Yahoo! owns them?
mySpace survived the buy-out by Murdoch, and I guess so will Facebook.

Facebook's founder is 22 year old Mark Zuckerberg. As the WSJ article reveals he likes to sleep in and work late.
Apparently Yahoo! already made an offer valued at $1 billion for Facebook. Read more

Posted on Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:22:22 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Nokia Buys German Mobile Navigation Software Company Gate5

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Mobile phone giant Nokia buys German navigation software company Gate5.

Navigation will become a standard feature in mobile phone in the next few years. Nokia is bringing that know-how now in-house with the purchase of Gate5.
Gate5 offers navigation, routing and mapping products as well as Smart2Go a location-based services platform. Read more

Posted on Fri, 1 Sep 2006 12:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

THQ Spawns New Company For Next-Gen

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THQ, the well-known video game publisher, famous for games like the Spongebob Squarepants series, announced today that they've created a brand new development team that's going to work exclusively on titles for the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Called Incinerator Games, the first title they're working on is Cars for the Wii and 360, based on the Disney/Pixar movie. THQ isn't exactly a blockbuster company, so it's good to see that they're willing to really invest in the next generation with its higher level of entry costs. Of course, Incinerator has no announced PS3 titles in the work yet. Read more

Posted on Wed, 19 Jul 2006 16:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

PS3 Development Costs Cause Company To Bail on Game

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We've heard Nintendo say that their consoles are the "developer's consoles" because of the friendly (read: low) development costs for new games. Microsoft and Sony have yet to make similar self praises. In fact, a recent move from a low-capital company brings to light a frightening potential for game development in the next generation.

Track7Games, who announced work on the multi-platform next-gen game Theseis a while ago, is now apparently abandoning operations on the PlayStation 3 version of the game because of excessively high development costs for the platform. Read more

Posted on Thu, 29 Jun 2006 05:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Loremo News: Malaysian Kosmo Motors Invests in the 157MPG Car Company

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The German based Loremo AG just announced that Malaysian Kosmo Motors takes a 26% stake in the Loremo AG.

When I published the initial story about the 157MPG lightweight diesel powered passenger car, I got tons of emails from US consumers asking to let them by a Loremo now, they want one really badly.

It is kind of surprising that a Malaysian investor sees the potential of this innovative efficient car and not a European or American one.

CEO of Loremo AG Gerhard Heilmaier says about the deal: "we appreciate the engagement of Kosmo Motor in the Loremo AG. It will be a fruitful cooperation for both sides. We win a competent and strong partner in the Southeast-Asian market and Kosmo Motor’s R&D benefits from the technology exchange." Read more

Posted on Fri, 26 May 2006 08:46:32 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Wireless Location Company Wherify Scores $35 Mio. Investment

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Wherify secured a package of equity financing where the Company can access up to $35 million of common stock equity over a two-year period, subject to effective stock registration and other terms of the agreement, from Dutchess Private Equities LP.

We reported about the Wherify Kids locator Wristwatch the first time way back in 2002. It is good to see that they well stick around.
Wherify will use the funds for marketing efforts and expanding global operations toward the upcoming launch of its Wherifone GPS Locator Phone, assisted-GPS technology platforms, and continued product development.
The Wherifone G550 (photo) is the world’s smallest GSM/Enhanced-GPS Locator Phone. Read more

Posted on Fri, 10 Feb 2006 02:52:25 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Vonage Goes IPO as First VOIP Company

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VOIP service provider Vonage filed for IPO to raise about $250 million.

Vonage is supposed to have 1.4 million subscriber lines. The issue is that cost per subscriber is raising and Vonage is making losses. I am not sure if the IPO market is ready to take on loss making companies already again. Additionally as recent news about Skype loosing 50% market share within 12 month in Europe indicates the VOIP market is still highly voilatile.

Vonage hired Mike Snyder former President of ADT, part of Tyco Fire and Security. He replaced Founder Jeffrey A. Citron, who will assume the role of Chairman and Chief Strategist. I guess he has his work cut out: get profitable. Read more

Posted on Thu, 9 Feb 2006 05:06:20 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Coffee Company Tchibo Sells Low-Cost Floor Cleaning Robot

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Updated 08/16/05
German coffee chain Tchibo is selling beginning tomorrow a floor cleaning robot for a low 89,90 Euros (~$110USD).

Update:
Review of Tchibo Robot available now.

Tchibo is a very big chain in Germany that besides selling coffee has every week a new theme store selling anything from clothes to gadgets. This week it will be a low-cost floor cleaning robot similar to the iRobot Roomba. Only difference, which I did not realize when I wrote the story first, is that this robot is only brushing and is in fact no vacuum cleaner. The iRobot Roomba is brushing as well, but also has a vacuum feature.

Tchibo robot features push sensors to avoid obstacles. It features 3 modes to handle rooms int he size of 10 to 30 m2. The batteries hold for 90 mins. This robot has sensors to detect stairs. Interesting is also a rotating brush on the border to get close to walls.
The red colored robot measures 37x10x33cm.

The low price on this robot and the feature-set are worth enough for me to go and pick one up for testing it this week. So stay tuned to see if this cheapo floorvac is any good. Read more

Posted on Mon, 15 Aug 2005 12:54:15 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr