Wednesday, June 08, 2011

CHART OF THE DAY: Apple Just Pre-Announced Its Best Ever Quarter Of iPad Sales And Nobody Cares (AAPL)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ipad-sales-2011-6

Buried in Apple's big WWDC keynote yesterday was the revelation that the company is on track to sell 8 million iPads for the 2011 June quarter.

That would be Apple's best quarter of iPad sales yet and a 74% jump over what it did just last quarter. It would also beat analyst estimates for iPad units which were around 6.5 million-7 million.

And yet, no one seems to care. Apple's stock is actually down 1% for the day. Maybe investors are spooked by seeing a rail thin Steve Jobs, or they're disappointed about the lack of a new iPhone.

chart of the day ipad sales

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Tuesday, June 07, 2011

eWise Raises $14 Million For Online Payments Technology

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/07/ewise-raises-14-million-for-online-payments-technology/

Online payments company eWise has raised $14 million in new funding led by Wellington Partners with Balderton Capital, TTV Capital,, and Patagorang participating in the round. This brings eWise’s total funding to over $26 million.

eWise develops a payments technology, called Secure Vault Payment, that allows users to automatically deduct a payment from their bank account without disclosing their personal information to online businesses. Payments are processed via a login and password to the bank’s site.

eWise expects that this payments technology could reach 400 million uses within 5 years. Clients include Citibank and First Direct (part of HSBC) in the UK, Ping An in China, Westpac in Australia and USBank in the U.S. The company plans to use the funding to expand further to the U.S. as well as for the development of a new mobile payments technology.



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Social Lending Marketplace Prosper Raises $17.2M From Eric Schmidt, DFJ, Others

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/07/social-lending-marketplace-prosper-raises-17-2m-from-eric-schmidt-dfj-others/

Prosper.com, a social lending marketplace that connects borrowers with individual and institutional investors, this morning announced that it has raised $17.2 million in funding from new investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Crosslink Capital.

Existing investors Accel Partners, CompuCredit, Omidyar Network, Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures and Volition Capital also participated in the round.

Prosper also announced that Tim Draper, founder and managing director of DFJ, and Jerome Contro, general partner and COO of Crosslink Capital, will join the company’s board of directors.

According to its website, Prosper’s peer-to-peer lending marketplace currently boasts more than 1,080,000 members and over $236,000,000 in funded loans.

Prosper has raised close to $75 million to date. Its closest competitor, Lending Club, has secured $52.7 million in venture capital.



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Juniper: NFC Payments To Reach $50 Billion Worldwide By 2014

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/07/juniper-nfc-payments-to-reach-50-billion-worldwide-by-2014/

We know Google has made a big bet on near field communications (NFC) as a payments system with the launch of Google Wallet, but does the technology have the potential to be the future of how money is transacted? Juniper Research seems to think so. The company is releasing a new report that forecasts that global NFC mobile contactless payment transactions will reach nearly $50 billion worldwide by 2014.

Juniper says that NFC is steadily gaining traction, and because of the latest rollout of the technology both in the U.S. and outside the U.S., 2011 and 2012 are expected to be “banner years for NFC service rollouts.”

For background, NFC enables people to make transactions, exchange digital content and connect electronic devices with a simple touch. As we’ve seen with Google, Android phones such as the Nexus S are being built with NFC chips, making your cell phone a mobile wallet. It’s unclear if Apple will add NFC technology to the iPhone 5.

Of course, NFC has gained traction in international markets before the U.S. Orange Mobile is using the technology, and Starbucks is set to sign on to use the technology to enable payments in the U.K.

Juniper says that in the next 18 months, we will see implementations of the technology in up to 20 countries. In fact, Juniper is forecasting that North America and Western Europe together will exceed the Far East region in under three years based on transaction value. North America and Western Europe will account for 50% of NFC payments market by value in 2014.

As we’ve written in the past, there are a number of barriers that could prevent NFC technology from becoming a mainstream technology, so it’s not a sure thing that NFC will reach the sort of scale that Juniper is forecasting.

Photo via MacRumors



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Tesla Model S is almost production-ready, does photo shoot to prove it

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/tesla-model-s-is-almost-production-ready-does-photo-shoot-to/


You're looking at an unlikely picture: two Tesla EVs on the same street. The Silicon Valley carmaker is hoping to become more mainstream, however, when it releases its Model S sedan next year to complement the exuberantly expensive Roadster 2.5. Tesla has just released photos of the latest, nearly production-ready build of the Model S to whet our appetites. The shots reveal a couple of sleek cosmetic changes to the front bumper and body panels, but mainly we're just happy to see the S rolling on schedule. Oh yes, and there's another glimpse of the 17-inch infotainment console, which Auto Evolution now reports will be accompanied by built-in 3G. Sounds dandy, but that $57,400 starting price had better include a data plan. Man, who are we kidding?

[Thanks, Lucian]

Tesla Model S is almost production-ready, does photo shoot to prove it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 06:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New and improved Droid Bionic getting a 4.5-inch display and docking connection?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/new-and-improved-droid-bionic-getting-a-4-5-inch-display-and-doc/

Since Motorola delayed the launch of the LTE-equipped Droid Bionic to carry out "several enhancements," we've debated if this might entail swapping out Tegra 2 in favor of a PowerVR GPU. But now leaked photos are starting to surface, and it would seem that Motorola went and redesigned the body, too. These pics reveal a phone with a 4.5-inch qHD display running Gingerbread -- not the 4.3-incher with Froyo that was originally slated to ship this spring. Even more intriguing, the revamped handset sports an Atrix-like docking connection, suggesting that new and improved user experience will include the option of a so-called lapdock. And, as an added flourish, Motorola smoothed out the rubberized back cover, nixing the pattern it had at CES. No further word on a launch date, but for now you can get your fill of spy shots at the source link.

New and improved Droid Bionic getting a 4.5-inch display and docking connection? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SSI's rugged Spark S9T brings triple-screen computing to power-hungry road warriors (hands-on)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/ssis-rugged-spark-s9t-brings-trial-screen-computing-to-power-hu/

A portable desktop tower with three LCDs mounted on its side, you say? Why yes, there is such a thing. At Computex, we spotted SSI's camouflaged booth demoing this eccentric Spark S9T rig: a rugged ATX case sporting a handle, a keyboard with a touchpad, plus three 17.3-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD panels. As you've probably already guessed, the keyboard and the screens can be folded up for storage convenience. Let's be clear, though: you'll still need to find a wall socket to power this beastly machine, but such all-in-one solution should still appeal to video editors, military personnel, or even gamers that are regularly on the road. Alas, we couldn't get a price for single purchases, but feel free to check out the full detail over at SSI's website -- maybe a nice postcard will get you a deal.

SSI's rugged Spark S9T brings triple-screen computing to power-hungry road warriors (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony S1 Honeycomb tablet slips through the FCC with AT&T frequencies and HSPA+ broadband module

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/sony-s1-slips-through-the-fcc-with-atandt-frequencies-and-hspa-br/

Ah Sony, your S1 and S2 tablet secrets are safe with trusty ol' Engadget. Take these new SGPT113JP/S and SGPT114JP/S tablets that just passed through the FCC. We won't tell anyone that they're actually variants of your S1 tablet, that 9.4-inch jobbie with Android 3.x Honeycomb and custom-made "Quick and Smooth" UI and "Swift" web browser. And mum's the word on the 2.4GHz 802.11n WiFi and WCDMA bands II and V radios -- the latter making an introduction on AT&T (or perhaps Rogers in Canada) highly likely. And you won't hear us making a peep about the Ericsson F5521gw HSPA+ capable modem that's mentioned, the same module spotted in the S2's FCC filing. Really, we won't say a word until this PlayStation Certified tablet hits retail later in the fall.

Sony S1 Honeycomb tablet slips through the FCC with AT&T frequencies and HSPA+ broadband module originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The First Clown In Space Shares His Photos With The World

Source: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-06/first-clown-space-shares-his-photos-world

It's pretty standard practice that when humans travel, they take photographs. And then they show them off upon return, both to remember their trip and to let others bask in their glory. But few terrestrial travelers can match the portfolio of Guy Laliberté, the billionaire founder of Cirque du Soleil and self-described "first clown in space." He took some 10,000 images out the window of the International Space Station, and he'd like to show you his jealousy-inducing photo album, starting with his new photo book, Gaia.

In 2009 Laliberté became the seventh civilian to spend a two-week vacation aboard the ISS by way of a ride on a Russian Soyuz capsule, arranged by Space Adventures. And he may be the last for some time; Space Adventures has suspended paid civilian rides now that the Space Shuttle's retirement has left the Russian Soyuz as the only way to ferry astronauts and supplies up to the ISS (though the Russians have plans to build an additional fifth Soyuz vehicle for launch in 2012, which could potentially carry a space tourist).

Laliberté is the first Space Adventures passenger to come from a primarily creative rather than scientific background, which is an intriguing first. Given that, it's only fitting that he's become the first space tourist to present his souvenir photographs as a body of artistic work for the public.

It's also interesting to remember that the stunning oeuvre of photographs taken from space over the last half century have all been the work of government employees on scientific missions. Which is certainly not to diminish their status as one of the great visual examples of human creativity, but in Laliberté's case, like all the space tourists before him, he was able to fire away from the ISS porthole with no other agenda other than his own. As a result, many of the images take a more abstract view of the Earth from orbit, a view we're not as accustomed to seeing. Many of the images are almost biological in their texture, with fields of lakes and and mountains resembling muscle cells under a microscope.

"Trust me, these are great pictures," Laliberté told me, speaking of the imagery captured by astronauts on NASA missions. "But I think as an ensemble, [my work] has its own personality, and that's what I'm proud of."

Click here to launch a gallery of Laliberté's images

Laliberté worked with the Nikon D3 and D3x DSLRs already aboard the ISS, paired with a variety of long telephoto lenses ranging from 200mm to a gigantic 800mm supertelephoto. (Recall also the work of astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who famously fired away with the same gear during his time aboard the ISS). That Nikon 800mm f/5.6 lens weighs 12 pounds here on Earth, but in microgravity, it's considerably easier to wield.

To keep track of the locations in the frames (which Laliberté left largely uncropped for the book), the photos' timestamps were synced with the ISS's mission computer, which were then placed and sorted with Google Earth. There are plans to make a much wider collection of the images available via a similar Google Earth application in the future.

As someone who enjoys travel photography myself, I'm often interested in those moments where you decide to actually put down the camera and acknowledge that for some experiences, photographs don't really suffice as an accurate representation or memory. If you enjoy it, it's important to shoot, but also important not to shoot. For Laliberté, these moments came at night, which happens to come in 30 minute bursts 16 times per every 24-hour Earth "day," as the ISS orbits at over 17,000 mph.

"These were the times where I lived more personally," Laliberté said. "I was not taking too many pictures during those times. Even if there was a full moon, I was living that for myself. I was just stunned. But then, after that, I got to work."

Click here to pre-order Guy Laliberté's amazing book from Assouline

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