What’s happened this week:
- Google made its official play for the connected car market by launching the Open Automotive Alliance with Audi, Honda, GM, Hyundai, and chipmaker Nvidia
- Zynga, the social and mobile gaming company, has started trialing Bitcoin currency as a method of in-game payment, boosting its volatile price over $1k (a refresher of what Bitcoin is here)
- Polaroid are entering the 4k TV market, announcing the most affordable set to date at $999.99
What we have learned:
- Tablets continued to be a festive favourite for gift-givers this year, driven by smaller screens and cheaper hardware
- Christmas day is still number one for downloading apps globally, although the spike is becoming less frenzied as users download more apps, more often – a sign of the app market maturing
- Amazon sold 37 million products on Cyber Monday, whilst mobile and tablet generated an estimated $20m of their total holiday sales
Cool stuff:
- Samsung gives us a glimpse into the future of the display centric world
- The Dustcloud – location-based, mobile gaming, seeking crowd-funding, supported by micro-transactions, that taps into the ‘Internet of Things’, wearable tech and augmented reality… or more simply, laser tag in the street
- The next wave of the Internet of Things – the Internet of Sharks
Where to find more:
- Here’s what to expect from The Consumer Electronics Show 2014 which began in Vegas this week
- Will issues around online privacy and the NSA set up Google Glass to fail before it’s even begun?
- What to expect from Apple in 2014
Get involved in TWiD by tweeting anything cool or interesting you find from the world of digital and tech with #TWIDTER in your tweet – we’ll be sure to check it out.
