Tablets and e-readers Are Staring Down 50% penetration, & Walmart Girds for Amazon

A survey from Pew Internet Research shows tablet ownership in the US has hit 34% in 2013! Counting e-readers, it’s 43%! At this growth rate, 50% will be crossed soon!

Walmart has started @walmartlabs in San Bruno. It’s trying to fend off the growing threat from Amazon.com. They’re trying to recruit engineers and tech talent, but may find naming conference rooms after Justin Bieber and charging for cafeteria food won’t fly in Silicon Valley. It may take management spending some time in the Valley to really grasp the difference from Bentonville, Arkansas!

Video Way Up on Mobile, & Netflix Originals Get Extras

As I came across this story, a colleague in the next cube was watching a short video on her smartphone yesterday…underscoring that 40% of YouTube traffic is now mobile…up from 25% in 2012, and 6% in 2011! Just don’t do it walking down the street…smartphones are still a hot ticket for thieves!

GoogleGlass is getting more commands. Soon be able to have Glass call you a car tune your instrument, or translate a foreign language on the fly….how cool will THAT be for overseas travel? We’re waiting for ‘Ok, Glass, get me a raise!’

Netflix has produced a number of original shows…some with reasonable success. More are on the way, and you can also expect deleted scenes and bloopers…just like a lot of DVDs.

Pay By Email, and a Pacemaker Without Surgery

Square is introducing a super simple way to send cash through any email
account…they say it’s totally safe, too. You set up a debit card with them, and just CC cash@square.com. It could get them a chunk of the Paypal market.

An amazing pacemaker is now on sale in Europe, and may be headed here. Ieeespectrum.com says it’s the size of a triple A battery, and goes right in
the heart with a catheter…no cutting. Takes a half hour.

RBC Capital says the new Retina iPad Mini expected next week will outsell the new fifth generation full sized iPad 2 to 1 over the holidays. Even though phones seem to be growing, maybe the sweet spot for tablets is the smaller size!

Microsoft Dropping Cookies & “Showrooming is Growing!”

Microsoft may be about to do away with cookies…sounds good, doesn’t it? Well of course there’s a catch…they are planning to replace them with a new tracking system that will follow you across desktops, Windows Mobile, and X Box.

Twitter is apparently exploring personalized breaking news notifications. That is the idea behind an account called @eventparrot, tailored to you by your apps. It will direct message you with news aimed at you…naturally, it’s also another way to sell your data.

The practice of ‘showrooming,’ where people shop for items at a store, then buy them over the web, has gone mainstream in just a year. Mobile marketing firm Vibes surveyed a thousand shoppers and found a 156% jump in the practice in the last year.

Chromebook 11 & Office (Finally) for iPad?

Google has announced the HP Chromebook 11. Like all Chromebooks, everything’s in the cloud, but it’s the price of a smartphone at $279, and has a very sharp 11 inch screen. The case is very similar to the polycarbonate MacBooks of a few years ago.

A small Silicon Valley startup called Kumu Networks is working on radically reinventing wireless communications. Their system would effectively double the capacity of both cellular and wifi systems, according to the Wall St Journal.

Some very long awaited news for people who are really trying to make the iPad more of a productive device- following the introduction of a touch interface Office on Windows machines, Microsoft will release Office for iPads. It’s way past about time. Could the release of Apple’s suite on the web for free have pushed them a bit on this?

Free Shipping & A TV Remote You Can Wear

Just in time for the holidays, how about more free 2 day shipping? Online shoppers using Paypal will now get Amazon Prime-like free 2 day shipping from Levi’s, Aeropostale, Sports Authority, and other online retailers. Ho, ho, ho. Paypal may or may not continue the service after the holidays.

The Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch has gotten some lukewarm reviews, but may have a killer feature…at least for men. Some reports say it may be able to be your tv’s remote control! No more digging in the couch cushions, guys! This may be the only way some guys will wear a watch…although at 300 bucks, it’s a heck of an expensive remote!

Beyond Fingerprint IDs & Crowdsourcing Earthquake Data

The new iPhone 5S is barely in the hands of users, and some are saying fingerprint tech is dead. While it’s been used for years for high security, a company called Eye Lock has developed a consumer version of iris recognition technology. 

We’re always looking for ways to recharge our mobile devices. Scientists at the University of Tokyo have developed a gadget to recycle the energy from your microwave to charge your phone! Since we don’t run microwaves all the time, they’re working on a way to store the juice to transfer to your phone.

Earthquakes are a fact of life in places like the Bay Area. Some scientists and engineers want to harness the accelerometers in smartphones to track seismic activity. Basically, they want to crowdsource quake data. They were inspired by Stanford’s Quake Catcher Network. The next step is writing software that enhances the sensitivity of the accelerometers.

Netflix Super HD & Ford CEO to Microsoft?

Watching Netflix is going to get even better…they are making their Super HD movies available to all members. Also, if you’re so inclined, 3D titles will be available. Have your headache-inducing glasses handy!

He left Boeing and turned around Ford, and word is buzzing around financial markets that Alan Mulally has the inside track to be the next CEO of Microsoft. Can he work magic again in Redmond?

Burner, the disposable phone number app that daters using craigslist and people sneaking around in down-low relationships, has raked in over 2 million in new backing. Look for new features and an all new iOS 7 app. The numbers cost a few bucks, but protecting yourself from potential stalkers….priceless!

Google Remote Lockdown & FDA Steers Clear of Most Apps

On the heels of Apple’s beefed up security, Google has added remote lockdown to join tracking and remote wipe in Android Device Manager. It runs on version 2.2 and above.

Fully 20% of Americans can’t access Facebook at work. Their employers block the popular social network. Only a small percentage of firms do this for actual security reasons. So much for marketing on the world’s largest social network!

The FDA has issued updated rules for medical devices, finding that MOST smartphone health monitoring apps don’t need government oversight. They will focus on apps and add-ons that present a clear risk to patients if they malfunction.

Self-Driving Teslas and Chips That Run On Light

Elon Musk is hard at work on a self driving Tesla electric car. They hope to have them rolling off the assembly line in Fremont by 2016!

Morgan Stanley is expecting iPhone sales to grow 28% year over year 4th quarter. That’s a pretty substantial bump considering that Wall Street doesn’t think the iPhone 5c is ‘cheap enough.’

Shades of Star Trek or Star Wars…engineers at MIT are working on a computer chip made of high tech graphene that will run on light, not electricity, and are faster and cheaper to make than silicon! Graphene Valley just doesn’t have the same ring to it, though…another name may be in order at some point.