Author Archives: Ajit Deshpande
New developments in the NoSQL world
Last week, the NoSQL database space saw a couple of interesting new announcements: First, Couchbase announced a new, mobile-focused database called Couchbase Lite. With Couchbase Lite, app developers can natively use the database on the mobile device to enhance user experience as well as to enable more comprehensive syncing of app-states across mobile devices (a […]
Smartwatches are here!
Last week was a busy week for the smartwatch segment. No less than three large corporate entities announced the launch of their individual smartwatches: Samsung (Galaxy Gear), Qualcomm (Toq) and Sony (Smartwatch 2, a sequel to their first version that was launched last year). The Galaxy Gear and the Toq are both priced at $300, […]
Shopify extends its reach!
Shopify, one of the leading providers of online storefronts and payment processing solutions for retailers, last week introduced its own iPad-based point-of-sale (POS) system for merchants. The company views this new POS system, complete with a card-reader, a receipt printer and a cash register, as something that will enable merchants to manage their online and […]
Mammoth Round for Uber
Uber, a three year old start-up that has created a marketplace for car-service booking, last week announced a mammoth fundraising round of $361 million, at a valuation of approx. $3.5 billion. Leading the round was Google Ventures with $258 million, the other notable new investor being TPG with $88 million. Uber is expected to bring […]
Mobile advertising: A tough market?
Another mobile advertising acquisition is in the books – last week, mobile display ad network Millennial Media acquired competitor Jumptap for approx. $225 million in an all-stock transaction. The combination of Millennial and Jumptap owned approximately 28.7% of the United States third-party mobile display advertising market and had approximately $240 million in total revenues during […]
Can FreedomPop disrupt the carriers?
Last week, Los Angeles based startup FreedomPop announced that it now has more than 100,000 users, and that it will now be using Sprint’s LTE network as its infrastructure backbone (in addition to its ongoing use of Clearwire’s WiMax infrastructure). The two-year old startup is a wireless internet provider delivering free 4G mobile broadband internet […]
MotoX and Google Now
Last week, Google announced its latest smartphone, the MotoX. The device, which was developed by the Google’s Motorola Mobility unit over the past year, offers a number of enhanced features, yet has generally been reviewed as more of an incremental step up than as a revolutionary new smartphone. Two key new features for the MotoX […]
Chromecast, from Google
So the $35 Chromecast is in the market now, having been released last week. Chromecast is a small form-factor dongle that can be directly connected to the HDMI port on a TV and which can stream content over Wi-Fi from any of our mobile devices as well as from Google Chrome browsers on PCs. Functionally […]
Withings and the Rise of Connected Health
Last week, French company Withings, a leading innovator in connected health and wellness devices, announced that it had received $30 million in venture funding from a syndicate of investors led by BpiFrance. Established in 2008, Withings has introduced a number of smart connected devices such as weighing scales, blood pressure monitors and baby monitors. Most […]
The Datastore API from Dropbox
Speaking of Dropbox, the company had its first developer conference last week, where the company announced its Dropbox Platform, consisting of a Sync API, a number of ‘Drop-ins’, and a Datastore API. The platform builds on Dropbox’s Core API, which was released in late 2011 and which enables apps that use that API to store […]