Business users rely too much on keyboards for them to start using media slates, but hardware companies and PC vendors can still get pretty close to the idea of multitouch slate PC-using professionals by offering them convertible tablets instead. Among the latest devices in this category is HP's EliteBook 2740p, an ultra-thin device with multi... (read more)
MOG, a music blogging network that recently launched an all-you-can-eat streaming service, raised $9.5 million in a round led by Menlo Ventures and Balderton Capital.
The new funds will help the company develop mobile apps that let users stream music on the go, cut deals with hardware companies to have MOG come pre-installed on a host of devices from TVs to music players in cars and launch in Europe where it will go head-to-head with Sweden’s Spotify. Unlike rival Spotify, MOG doesn’t offer free, advertising-supported streaming. It gives prospective subscribers a free trial, then they have to pay $5 a month for the service.
“We built this with the original goal of being ad-supported but we realized you can’t make the numbers work,” said David Hyman, MOG’s chief executive, who is skeptical that Spotify can secure the contracts to make a free U.S. debut. “We know that music is already free, so for $5 we want to give you a better value.”
Hence, MOG has built the Swiss army knife of music streaming services; it accommodates all kinds of ways of listening to music. You can use it to search through 7 million songs or listen to it Pandora-style where it will suggest songs that are similar to one of your choice. It also has some Last.fm-like features where you can follow what other friends have been listening to. On top of that, MOG supports a blogging network that posts 7,000 articles a week about bands.
The round adds to $12.5 million in earlier fundraising from Menlo Ventures and Simon Equity Partners. With this round, Dharmash Mistry, a partner at Balderton Capital, joins MOG’s board.
Tags: balderton capital, Menlo Ventures, mog, music streaming
People: David Hyman
You may not need a briefcase to carry your laptop in the near feature. Just roll the computer and wear it like a shoulder handbag.
Orkin Design, a design firm in Germany, has created a amazing concept computer that can be used both as a laptop and a tablet (slate). It features a large multitouch screen, USB ports, webcam, stylus and everything that you probably look for in a computer.
The sad part, you can only experience this flexible laptop in a video and we don’t know if any of the hardware companies are actually working on such a design. As one commenter points out:
Its an interesting concept, but It is probably a long ways from any sort of actual prototype. Forget DVD drives, what about Circuit boards! They would need to find a new material instead of the current silicon, as circuit boards today cant withstand much flexibility.
I know simple circuit boards are flexible (hence rollup keyboards), but I have yet to see a flexible motherboard that supports the required watts/current of a modern chipset and processor.
Thanks Joe Hicks from Tokyo for sharing this video.
How Laptops May Look Like in the Future?
Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.
Microsoft today announced a new member of the Windows Server team called Windows MultiPoint Server 2010. Aimed at educational institutions, MultiPoint appears to be, in many ways, a successor to Windows SteadyState, which won't be made available in a Windows 7 version. Here's the news.
Microsoft today announced the release of Windows MultiPoint Server 2010, a new Windows product that increases access to affordable computing in educational scenarios such as classrooms, labs and libraries by allowing multiple users to simultaneously share one computer using multiple screens. Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 is now globally available to OEMs and will be rolling out to Microsoft academic volume licensing customers on March 1. In addition, Microsoft is announcing new partnerships that create a strong global ecosystem of hardware companies that give customers a breadth of choices to buy and use Windows MultiPoint Server solutions.
"We heard clearly from our customers in education that to help fulfill the amazing promise of technology in the classroom, they needed access to affordable computing that was easy to manage and use," said Anthony Salcito, vice president of worldwide education at Microsoft. "That's why we developed Windows MultiPoint Server — a solution that meets these needs and delivers an up-to-date, trusted Windows experience."
Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 is an operating system that enables multiple people to connect to a single host computer with their own monitor, keyboard and mouse through USB or a video card. Each person individually controls his or her own station with an independent and familiar Windows computing experience. Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 is the flagship product in a family of shared resource computing technologies, the MultiPoint solutions, which provide teachers and students with greater access to educational technology. Shared resource computing is an emerging category that allows a customer to tap into more of a computer’s capability to enable a single host computer to support multiple users simultaneously.
More information on how to buy Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 and the Windows MultiPoint family of solutions is available at the Microsoft web site.
