The TMI Holding Corporation from Taiwan has recently announced that they are investing in software-based startups that are also located at the island. The TMI was jointly founded by ITRI, Kaifu Lee, former head of Google China, and the WI Harper Group as the three startups are Citesocial, Driving Curve, and PeerIdea. Citesocial is an online mall focused on design and fine foods. Brands such as Lavie and Braun are some of the higher profile folks on board for the startup. It is also known for promoting the “ostrich pillow” in recent months, which has been… Read More

A Massachusetts company is eyeing the early 2020’s to start selling a flying car to the public.  The car is more of a plane that can be driven with wings that can fold up on the ground.

The company is Terrafugia and the futuristic flying car is called the TF-X. The flying car is also like a helicopter in that it can take off vertically from your driveway, using electric-powered rotor blades mounted on each side.  The vehicle will be made of carbon-fiber.

Like the US Marines’ V-22 Osprey airplane, the rotor blades… Read More

Android run smartphones continue to increase their market share, according to Gartner, which has just released its Q1 figures for mobile handset sales. Android now accounts for 75% of all handset sales, a jump of almost 20 percent from a year ago.  That means in this quarter, 156 million Android devices were sold out of a total of 210 million units.  Overall the 210 million smartphones are half of all mobile phones, about 425 million total. But clearly it is smartphone sales that are the driver of all mobile phones, with 63 million more… Read More

Any product or business that has anything to do with print is considered a dying business.  Business cards to some people is one of them.  But a Chinese company doesn’t seem to believe in that idea of business cards becoming a dinosaur soon and instead its business is growing because of it.

A company that specializes in business cards, CamCard of Shanghai, boasts 10 million monthly active users, with 50 million registered in total. And half of its sales are outside of China.  This compares to LinkedIn’s Cardmunch, which does about 2 million… Read More

This month in “Tech Picks from Kickstarter” features two gadgets that you don’t expect at first, but have the potential to be revolutionary for their respective areas in the world of tech. From a smartwatch with an Android OS and bluetooth capabilities to a lamp with easy LED lighting, everyday tools we use on a regular basis just got even better. Let’s a closer look at this month’s tech picks from the premier crowdfunding website below.

The VACHEN Smartwatch is just the beginning of the age of the “smartwatch” according to its creator Won Rhee from San… Read More

Visualead, an Isreali startup that focuses on making QR codes that are barely visible, has recently won an award to start off their launch in China. They were able to win the Growth Stage Competition at the Global Mobile Internet Conference. It only launched earlier this year and winning a big award this quickly means a lot especially at one of the bigger startup competitions in China. Visualead is all about letting anyone making their own QR code. It can be simply done by just uploading a photo to its website and then a code gets merged… Read More

Chute, a Y-Combinator startup that helps publishers and brands incorporate photos and other media onto their own websites, has raised $7 million in Series A Funding.

Chute previously raised a $2.7 million seed.  For this round, it was led by Foundry Group.

Chute is also looking into other photo collection methods, like allowing news reporters to post photos directly from a Chute mobile reporting app.

Chute co-founder Ranvir Gujral, however, said the company wants to build “a complete visual platform.” Basically anytime a company publishes visual content, Chute should… Read More

According to Animoca, one of Asia’s largest mobile app developers, software quality assurance testing on Android devices is now far easier than it was just a year ago.

Animoca says last year, the number of Android devices as part of the testing process was 400 Android devices. Today, it is about a quarter of that thanks to standardization in the Android handset industry.

Yat Siu, CEO of Animoca’s parent company Outblaze, said most Android phones have become standardized on Samsung’s base hardware, due to the company’s dominance of the component market.

Neptune, a Montreal, Quebec-based startup, has a smartphone the size of a watch and that can be worn as a watch. The startup says the smartwatch will be powered by Google’s Android software that straps onto your wrist.

The Neptune watch is called the Pine.  Some of the features of Pine include the world's first fully independent smartwatch that can make and receive phone calls,  take pictures, check email, browse the web, and much more; all independently without the presence of a smartphone.

As you may expect, the Neptune smartwatch will be large… Read More

Evernote, the US-based startup, is starting to focus more on mobile messaging and the social arena by announcing a new partnership with Korea’s Kakao. The Korean company behind Kakao Talk has more than 90 million registered users and now add another two million from Evernote’s userbase for an increased presence at Korea. Kakao Talk is also installed in the majority of Koreans’ smartphones, but there are no details yet on how the Evernote stuff will be integrated. However, the Evernote additions will be accessed by the in-chat window in Kakao Talk just by sideswiping when talking… Read More