What’s happened this week:
- Yahoo acquired predictive computing startup Aviate for $80m, and their intelligent home-screen technology
- Twitter founder launched a new question-answering social search app, Jelly
- Pinterest acquired visual-recognition start-up Visual Graph, to help build technology to understand what people are pinning
- Snapchat-for-messages service Confide launched in the UK and US, targeted at business workers looking to send destructible HR-unfriendly messages.
What we have learned:
- Pizza Hut sold $1m of pizza through Xbox Live within 4 months of launch
- Apple’s App Stores sales topped $10m in 2013 globally, with December alone accounting for $1bn
- 50% of smartphone users use mobile games to relieve stress
Cool stuff:
- Virtual reality gets real with Oculus Rift ‘Crystal Cove’, removing barriers and opening up potential beyond gaming
- Nikon and xxArray 3D scans people into to become a real life video game character
- Lots of interesting launches at CES, including Playstation Now, Sony Smartband, Samsung’s bendable TV, and 3D printers for the home
Where to find more:
- Forrester’s Top 10 technology trends for 2014
- CNET summarizes the big developments within the Connected Home sector from CES
