Posts Tagged ‘brand’
NVIDIA Tegra 4i shows up in mysterious ‘brand’ phone, promises Q1 2014 debut
Author: Margo Tipton
While we’re yet to see NIVIDIA’s Tegra 4i show up in any commercially available hardware, it’s still keen to remind us it’s on the way. This time, the 28nm Cortex-A9 chip is making an appearance inside what appears to be a new, revised reference design or white-label phone. Spotted over on AnandTech, the mysterious device sports “brand,” er, branding (we’re guessing to be replaced by operator markings), along with a 4.8-inch 720p display, a 13-megapixel shooter and LTE / HSPA+ that would cover multiple (yet unspecified) regions. This does appear to be a little more than just a demo unit though, with NVIDIA telling AnandTech that the device will come to market sometime in Q1 2014, costing $ 300 – $ 400 sans contract in 8, 16, or 32GB varieties. Other Tegra 4i handsets are also said to be in the works, starting as low as $ 200 commitment free.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, NVIDIA
Source: Anandtech
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XBOX 360 KINECT SENSOR CALIBRATION CARD – BRAND NEW! FREE SHIPPING
Author: Angela Stephens
Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures Game (Xbox 360,)
 | $55.99 End Date: Friday Jun-21-2013 16:25:53 PDT Buy It Now for only: $55.99 Buy It Now | Add to watch list |
OEM Microsoft Kinect Sensor Calibration Card
 | $2.75 End Date: Thursday Jul-11-2013 7:01:29 PDT Buy It Now for only: $2.75 Buy It Now | Add to watch list |
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On A Mission To Build The Next Big Pet Brand, Whistle Launches A $99 Fitbit (And Health Monitor) For Pooches
Author: Matthew Wilson
“The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.”
— Andy Rooney
Yes, it’s become exceedingly clear that the Internet has entered into a prodigious, lascivious (and hilarious) relationship with cats. But, at the end of the day, when it comes to the title of “Man/Woman/Child’s Best Friend,” it’s the friendly neighborhood pooch that takes the cake. In my own experience, even when The World thinks you’re an idiot, life gets you down and you’ve forgotten to feed them, their tales are still going to wag — just at the sight of you. Sure, they may have questionable taste, but there’s probably no better representation of unconditional love than your local canine.
If what Rooney says is true, then it probably helps explain why some dogs have it better than some actual humans. (Exhibit A.) Lately, humans, at least humans in Silicon Valley, have become enthralled with wearable health tracking devices. So, considering there’s already a Birchbox for Dogs, it was only a matter of time before dogs got their own Fitbit. Enter: Whistle, a new startup launching today that wants to be the go-to activity tracker for dogs (and dog lovers).
Now, diligent readers of TechCrunch may say, “but, Rip, there’s already a Fitbit for dogs!” I’d advise them to go outside once and a while, but they’d also be correct. Last month, Jay Donovan wrote about a startup called FitBark (!) that is embarking (!) down a similar path. If nothing else, entrepreneurs take note: The emergence of a Facebook for dogs, a Birchbox for dogs, an Airbnb for dogs (times two), a “Find my iPhone for dogs,” and an Uber for dog walking proves we have an over-active dog startup market on our hands.
Next: DogCrunch? BarkMeme? (Yes, we’re hiring.)
Now, let’s just get this out of the way, since it’s one of the obstacles that a startup like Whistle is going to face: The idea of a Fitbit or a Nike+ FuelBand for dogs is ridiculous. Crying “Bubble!” or rolling your eyes for 10 minutes over the idea of a dog startup market almost goes without saying. No doubt there are plenty of people who will see this as a perfect example of Silicon Valley going too far. (Here’s Will Ferrell putting a fine point on the matter.)
And, yes, when one looks at Whistle, it’s easy to imagine a bunch of former VCs and private equity types sitting around a table, doing some market analysis and applying every successful tech company formula to the dog market in the hopes of raising a few million bucks. However, no offense to FitBark, but the Whistle founders want to go beyond just being a “Reasonable Device for Pet Owners” to build the next big tech-savvy pet brand around a killer line of devices and products — starting with an activity tracker.
As evidence of just how serious the company is (or, for naysayers, the growing “blubble”), alongside its launch, the company announced today that it has raised $ 6 million in Series A financing led by DCM Ventures, with contributions from a long list of investors, including Red Swan Ventures, Humane Society Silicon Valley President and former VP and GM of Intuit Carol Novello, Pinnacle Foods CEO and former Mars President Bob Gamgort and Rapleaf co-founder Dayo Esho, among others. Guitar Hero co-founder and Throttle Games CEO Charles Huang and former VP of Operations at Nest Labs, Sling Media and Virgin John Gilmore have both joined the company as advisors, along with several other prominent local dogs, and DCM partner and Sling Media co-founder Jason Krikorian joined Whistle’s board of directors as a result of the round.
Again, the real interest in Whistle (and in this space) can be found here and in one of Saturday Night Live’s best re-occurring sketches: Dog Show, which parodies the overzealous and obsessive dog owner. Not only does everyone have a dog, but people love to spoil their dogs. There are more dogs in the U.S. than there are children, Krikorian explains, and Americans spend over $ 50 billion on their pets every year.
Whistle is going after this audience by branding itself as a company that’s dedicated to helping pets live longer and healthier lives — a mission that’s easy to get behind — beginning with its first (flagship) product, a wearable activity tracker that connects to your dog’s collar. Similar to other Quantified Self devices, Whistle’s circular, metallic gadget contains a three-axis accelerometer designed to measure a wide range of motion, and rest, which the startup believes can act as key indicators of canine health.
The gadget also includes both WiFi and Bluetooth capability, allowing it not only to record location-based activity data, but transmit that information to Whistle’s dashboard, which owners can access via the startup’s smartphone apps or via the Web. The device’s location sensing capability is fairly broad, but Whistle co-founder Steve Eidelman (Disclosure at the end of the post) tells us that it can pick up on whether your dog is at home, or, say, riding in the car with you, based on which network it’s accessing (Bluetooth or WiFi). And, by the way, health and activity tracking entrepreneurs, if a pet company can do auto, remote Bluetooth-powered data sync, so can you. Don’t launch without it, you’re insulting your users.
Like the better examples among the Fitbits, Basis(es), FuelBands and Ups of the world, the real key to Whistle’s concept is not its device or apps, but its cloud platform and the data crunching it’s doing behind the scenes. Eidelman tells me that the company has been working with a lot of the biggest pet companies, veterinary clinics and so on to aggregate dog health data and break it down into categories. The more data it collects, the more the startup can build an accurate picture of health patterns and where your dog should ideally fall on that map based on its age, breed, weight and activity.
As it pulls in activity data in realtime, Whistle then weighs those indicators against its dataset (and “doggie demographic information,” as I’m calling it) to see just how well Fido is, or isn’t doing. And, really, dogs could care less about how many miles they log each day chasing cars, it’s really about the owner. If we assume the average dog owner wants to treat their pet well, then Whistle provides them with the benchmarks from which they can glean their success rate. Activity levels looking pretty low? That’s on you, pal, not your dog.
Plus, dogs generally have to be in a lot of pain if they’re going to outwardly show it. Generally, they’re going to suffer silently. (See? You just unconsciously bought into Whistle at the thought of a sad, whimpering dog, didn’t you?) With the ability to track your dog’s general activity and health levels in realtime, there’s a better chance that you will be able to identify problems before they get out of hand — or so the thinking goes.
And, if you’re willing to go with it, the real genius here is that, because Whistle is really playing into the motivations of the dog owner (not Fido himself), if they can convince you to buy their health tracker, they can then up-sell you on a string of other dog-focused products and services. Since Whistle is just launching today, they haven’t gotten there yet, but plans are in the works. Eidelman wouldn’t say what they’re working on next, but it is clear that the startup intends to become a brand (with a line of products), rather than simply holding fast to the “Fitbit for pooches” space.
Unlike, say, Amazon which sells hardware at a loss to get you using its other services, at the outset, Whistle is giving its apps, analytics and cloud service for free to get you to buy its hardware. The gadget will run you $ 99, which although it may seem like a lot, really isn’t for avid pet owners who will spend ten times that in a couple of weeks. Whistle is taking the same approach as RunKeeper (or Runtastic) in that it wants to build a platform and eventually stake a claim to the “pet graph.” Though my eyes just involuntarily rolled, this means that as more of these devices pop up, if Whistle can be the data platform which they all connect to, it would potentially be holding the keys to the kingdom.
But that’s getting a little ahead of the tail. While companies can always generate a little revenue from selling to really passionate, committed audience on their own site, the real key for companies like Whistle is retail. More specifically, retail partnerships. Considering people spend $ 50 billion on pets every year, somewhat surprisingly, a small handful of chain pet stores own most of the marketshare. For Whistle to become a viable company, getting its products into PetSmart or the equivalent is critical. If they can do that, and even perhaps capture an entire aisle, they’ll be rolling in dog treats.
For more, find Whistle at home here.
[Disclaimer: Though all of my posts should be taken with a grain of salt, for sake of full disclosure, I should say that I have known Steve Eidelman for several years and consider him a friend. While I have no personal financial stake in Whistle, I do admit a bias insofar as I hope they achieve fame and glory, alhough, admittedly, this can be said for the majority of startups I cover.
Disclaimer #2: I like. DOGs.]
Image credit: Cleanme.us / Alan Lomax
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Intel may phase out the Atom brand to shed the specter of netbooks
Author: Brian McKinnell
Intel’s new Haswell Core processors may currently be in the spotlight, but its well-worn Pentium and Celeron brands may also be getting a boost — at Atom’s expense. According to a report from CNET, some versions of Intel’s new Silvermont Atom processors, low-power ARM competitors destined for Windows PCs and Android systems, will ditch the Atom alias for Pentium and Celeron branding. CNET says the Atom chips headed to tablets will probably not be switched to Pentium or Celeron, but the move indicates that Intel could be interested in shedding the Atom name after the chips have suffered a bad association with underpowered netbooks.
It wouldn’t be the first time Intel has used a name swap to disassociate its chips with underwhelming…
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Samsung Confirms 4.3″ Dual-Core Galaxy S4 Mini To Widen Access To Its Flagship S4 Brand
Author: Markus Smith
Samsung has officially confirmed the Galaxy S4 Mini, following a brief leak earlier this month. The new handset takes the name of its current flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, but couples it with more mid-range specs to extend the reach of the flagship brand to a larger pool of consumers. It’s a strategy Samsung also deployed with its prior flagship, the Galaxy S3, taking the wraps off a Galaxy S3 Mini last year.
Indeed, Samsung’s overall smartphone strategy is about producing scores of iterations at various price points and screen sizes in order to saturate the market with as much of its hardware as possible. A strategy that, coupled with its massive marketing budget, continues to be extremely successful for the Korean electronics giant, making it far harder for other Android OEMs such as HTC to compete with their far more modest device portfolios.
As with the majority of Samsung’s devices, design wise you’d be hard pressed to distinguish the Galaxy S4 Mini from any other recent Samsung device. Its smaller size being the most distinguishing feature vs the flagship S4. The Mini has a 4.3″ qHD Super AMOLED display vs the 5″ pane on the flagship S4. At 4.3″ the Mini is not actually that small, certainly not compared to some of Samsung’s budget devices, but the target here is users who might not be comfortable with the phablet-sized screen of Samsung’s current flagship but still want something flashy enough to look like a flagship.
Under the hood, the S4 Mini has a 1.7 GHz dual-core chip, rather than the quad-/octa-core of its big brother. There’s 8GB of internal memory and 1.5GB of RAM. The rear camera is 8MP and the front-facing lens is 1.9MP. Samsung says it will be offering a 4G version of the device, as well as a 3G and dual-SIM version — based on what makes sense for each market.
Features wise, Samsung says the S4 Mini supports “many” of the same features as found on the flagship S4 — including Sound&Shot, Panorama Shot and Story Album, on the camera software side. Other confirmed apps include Group Play, ChatON, S Translator and WatchON. The Mini clearly lacks the full gamut of software services poured onto Samsung’s flagship but most smartphone buyers aren’t going to be fussed about a few lacking apps, especially as the Mini’s price-tag should also be a bit more modest.
There’s no official word on pricing or a full list of confirmed market availability — but expect the S4 Mini to land wherever the S4 has, and certainly to head to the U.S. and the U.K.
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NINTENDO WII GAME DEBLOB DE BLOB **BRAND NEW & SEALED**
Author: Stefanie Jenkins
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 2007) *Mint Condition*
 | $9.07 (6 Bids) End Date: Wednesday Jun-19-2013 20:59:59 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
Nintendo Wii Black Holiday System Console w New Super Mario Bros and Music CD
 | $103.99 End Date: Friday Jul-19-2013 11:56:39 PDT Buy It Now for only: $103.99 Buy It Now | Add to watch list |
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2010) *Mint Condition*
 | $33.42 (12 Bids) End Date: Wednesday Jun-19-2013 21:01:22 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
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Brand New HTC 8S Blue -WINDOWS 8 Factory Unlocked
Author: Gabe Hall
Brand New HTC 8S Blue -WINDOWS 8 Factory Unlocked
- NEW HTC 8S 850 3G -WINDOWS 8 UNLOCKED
- 3G bands are 850/1700/1900/2100 MHz or 900/2100 MHz, depending on the cellphone version. Check the description in Condition note.
2G Network
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network
HSDPA 900 / 2100
SIM
Micro-SIM
Announced
2012, September
Status
Available. Released 2012, November
Body
Dimensions
120.5 x 63 x 10.3 mm (4.74 x 2.48 x 0.41 in)
Weight
113 g (3.99 oz)
Display
Type
S-LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size
480 x 800 pixels, 4.0 inches (~233 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch
Yes
Protection
Corning Gorilla Glass
Sound
Alert types
Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker
Yes
3.5mm jack
Yes
- Beats Audio sound enhancement
Memory
Card slot
microSD, up to 32 GB
Internal
4 GB, 512 MB RAM
Data
GPRS
Yes
EDGE
Yes
Speed
HSDPA, HSUPA
WLAN
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth
Yes, v3.1 with A2DP, EDR
USB
Yes, microUSB v2.0
Camera
Primary
5 MP, 2592?1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, check quality
Features
Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection
Video
Yes, 720p@30fps, check quality
Secondary
No
Features
OS
Microsoft Windows Phone 8
Chipset
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4
CPU
Dual-core 1 GHz Krait
GPU
Adreno 305
Sensors
Accelerometer, proximity
Messaging
SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email
Browser
HTML5
Radio
No
GPS
Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
Java
No
Colors
Domino, Fiesta Red, Atlantic Blue, High-Rise Gray
3G bands are 850/1700/1900/2100 MHz or 900/2100 MHz, depending on the cellphone version. Check the description in Condition Note
91229071
List Price: $ 289.99
Price: $ 289.99
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Brand New HTC Windows Phone 8S- 4 GB – Blue (Unlocked) A620E smartphone
Author:
NEW! HTC 8X Windows Smartphone Phone 16GB GSM unlocked Blue T-mobile Good IMEI
 | $327.90 End Date: Tuesday Jul-9-2013 14:53:40 PDT Buy It Now for only: $327.90 Buy It Now | Add to watch list |
HTC Windows Phone 8X - 16GB - Blue (T-Mobile) Smartphone MINT 10/10 CONDITION!!
 | $138.00 (2 Bids) End Date: Thursday Jun-20-2013 13:26:56 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
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BRAND NEW XBOX 360 Kinect Sensor *game Not Included*
Author: Stefanie Jenkins
Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect Sensor - 100% Working
 | $51.99 End Date: Wednesday Jun-26-2013 7:33:00 PDT Buy It Now for only: $51.99 Buy It Now | Add to watch list |
Refurbished Microsoft Xbox 360 Slim 4GB with Kinect Sensor and Two Video Games
 | $1.04 (2 Bids) End Date: Thursday Jun-20-2013 17:40:25 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
XBOX 360 Kinect Sensor w/ POWER ADAPTOR And TV Mount!
 | $54.99 End Date: Thursday Jul-11-2013 20:36:48 PDT Buy It Now for only: $54.99 Buy It Now | Add to watch list |
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XBOX 360 VIRTUAL PET GAME KINECTIMALS KINECT GAME *BRAND NEW & SEALED*
Author: Randy Miller
Kinect Disneyland Adventures (Xbox 360, 2011)
 | $7.61 (11 Bids) End Date: Thursday Jun-20-2013 3:27:27 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
Xbox Kinect Sensor! Sensor Only! Tested and Working!
 | $47.99 End Date: Thursday Jul-18-2013 15:02:28 PDT Buy It Now for only: $47.99 Buy It Now | Add to watch list |
XBOX 360 KINECT MICHAEL JACKSON THE EXPERIENCE BRAND NEW VIDEO GAME
 | $15.99 End Date: Thursday Jul-18-2013 19:38:01 PDT Buy It Now for only: $15.99 Buy It Now | Add to watch list |
