If you’re an Android and a PC, you should check out BlueStacks — before hackers catch on or Chrome sneaks in this functionality, take advantage. The startup’s software has been going like hotcakes over the last few months, as it’s offering a much-needed service for Android and PC users, having developed software that allows Android users to run their apps on all Windows PCs, tablets, and laptops — without any modifications. Thanks to this appealing concept, BlueStacks lured $7.6 million in venture funding pre-launch, $6.4 million more a few months later, and now it seems the yet another investor is on board.
The startup finally released its public beta on March 27th, and so far users have been eating it up. In the first 10 days after its release, BlueStacks’ App Player racked up more than 1 million downloads, with over 12 million apps collectively being run by its users. It’s on the heels of this early traction that the company is today announcing that global telecom giant Qualcomm has joined as an investor. → Read More
Qualcomm subsidiary Snaptracs was on hand at Pepcom’s Digital Experience event to demo their Tagg pet tracker, and really — what better way to do it than with a large stuffed dog? → Read More
Blippar, the UK startup behind an eponymous mobile image recognition and augmented reality platform, has landed seed funding – the size of the investment was not disclosed – from Qualcomm Ventures.
The startup, which is based in London, says the seed funding serves as a springboard for a bigger Series A funding round it expects to close in early 2012. → Read More
Blippar, the UK startup behind an eponymous mobile image recognition and augmented reality platform, has landed seed funding – the size of the investment was not disclosed – from Qualcomm Ventures.
The startup, which is based in London, says the seed funding serves as a springboard for a bigger Series A funding round it expects to close in early 2012. → Read More
Blippar, the UK startup behind an eponymous mobile image recognition and augmented reality platform, has landed seed funding – the size of the investment was not disclosed – from Qualcomm Ventures.
The startup, which is based in London, says the seed funding serves as a springboard for a bigger Series A funding round it expects to close in early 2012.
Read more over at TechCrunch Europe. → Read More
PowerCloud Systems, a spin-out of Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) that offers a ‘networking-as-a-service’ platform for OEMs and service providers, has raised $6 million in Series B funding in a round led by Qualcomm Ventures, with prior backers Walden Venture Capital, Javelin Venture Partners and PARC participating.
The capital will be used to enhance the company’s online software platform, CloudCommand. → Read More
We are entering into a new era, ladies and gentlemen. Well, “era” may not be the right word considering how quickly things change in these here mobile parts, but the fact remains the same: Quad-core mobile processors are here. And the ones that aren’t quite here yet are coming.
While many of our brilliantly geeky readers need no tutorial on the advantages of four processing cores, some of you may be thinking “Uh… OK, why do I care?” So I took it upon myself to place a few calls and get some of the big guns — Qualcomm, Nvidia, and TI — to explain why exactly you should care (or shouldn’t), and what kind of differences technology like this can make in the average user’s daily phone usage. → Read More
What little word there was about Qualcomm’s S4 class of chipsets has been keeping spec nerds on the edge of their collective seats, and now the company is ready to announce a handful of new additions to their vaunted S4 lineup.
Here’s a quick recap for those of you who don’t have a degree in Qualcommology: the company recently revamped the Snapdragon brand to include performance tiers, and the S4 tier is where they keep all the really good stuff. → Read More
Qualcomm has acquired substantially all of the technology and other assets of HaloIPT, a provider of wireless charging technology for electric road vehicles.
The move is meant to strengthen Qualcomm’s technology and patent portfolio. → Read More
Finally! Astute readers may recall that when Samsung officially unveiled their three Galaxy S II variants at a New York event, the T-Mobile model was trapped in an acrylic prison. While Samsung’s reps remained quiet, word among the attendees was that T-Mobile’s Galaxy S II was running with a different processor than its brethren. A tweet from Samsung’s GalaxySsupport account has broken their official silence today, as it reveals that T-Mobile’s variant has a Qualcomm chipset running the show. → Read More
Qualcomm is one of biggest players (if not the biggest) in the mobile chipset space, and their dominance of the market is forcing other manufacturers to seek alternative strategies. While Qualcomm’s huge presence has helped shape the market, a group of Asian companies are looking to form an alliance that will reduce their reliance on Qualcomm’s products and instead develop and rely on their own.
NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, Fujitsu, NEC, and Panasonic Mobile Communications are currently negotiating the possibility of a joint venture that could start operations as early as next year, Reuters reports. → Read More
Qualcomm. You’ve probably heard of them. Hell, chances are pretty solid that you’ve got a bit of Qualcomm in your pocket right now — if you’ve got any recent, popular Android phone in there, at least. More-likely-than-not, it’s running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset.
Qualcomm has been up to all sorts of fun stuff lately: they’ve got an SDK that makes it feasible for just about any developer to build otherwise insurmountable augmented reality projects, they’re doing all sorts of work around location-based peer-to-peer technology, and now they’re… uh.. building rechargeable GPS collars that help you track down your lost dog. → Read More
The FCC has just informed good ol’ big blue that its proposed acquisitions of T-Mobile and Qualcomm’s 700MHz spectrum will be informally reviewed together, rather than as separate transactions.
This wouldn’t really be a big deal except for the fact that AT&T may be biting off more than it can chew. By reviewing the two proposed acquisitions together, the FCC is forcing AT&T to justify such massive purchases of spectrum. → Read More
If you’ve got any smartphone made in the last year or so that isn’t made by Apple or Samsung, chances are preeeetty good that it’s powered by one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets. Now, as for the chances that you could actually name which Snapdragon chipset it has… yeah, pretty much zilch.
The problem: outside of the overarching “Snapdragon” brand, Qualcomm hasn’t done the best job in differentiating which chipset is which. MSM8260? MSM855T? MSM8930? OMGWTFBBQ? I do this for my job, and I still wouldn’t be able to tell you which one is which without a cheat sheet.
This morning, Qualcomm is announcing a bit of an overhaul involving the Snapdragon brand. It should make things a bit less confusing. → Read More
Back around July of last year, Qualcomm launched a software development kit for building Augmented Reality apps on Android. The idea was to allow Android developers to build all sorts of crazy AR stuff without having to reinvent the wheel by coding up their own visual-recognition system. It is, for lack of a better word, awesome.
And now it’s available for iOS. → Read More
Qualcomm has bought certain technology assets from GestureTek, a well-known developer of gesture recognition technology. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
According to a release, Qualcomm is buying IP assets related specifically to gesture recognition technology, as well as “engineering resources.” GestureTek is retaining other assets in that relate to its gesture-controlled public display and digital signage business. → Read More
We7, the UK-headquartered music streaming service, has closed a new undisclosed round of funding.
The new investment comes from existing investors Peter Gabriel and Eden Ventures, along with Qualcomm Incorporated (via its venture capital function) and Pentech Ventures, and will be used primarily for further European expansion (“multiple countries”) and to consolidate its position in the UK. → Read More
We’re all aware that smartphones could potentially replace a lot of the technology we depend on today, but that can’t happen until someone develops some better processors, which is exactly what Qualcomm is claiming to have done. In fact, the chipset maker promises that in the next two years, your smartphone could act as a 3D set-top box, a game console, and a cloud-based computer with way longer battery life than any of us imagined. Sound good? We think so, too. → Read More
Adobe Flash is to the smartphone as an unwanted cousin is to your wedding: necessary, yet painstaking. Apple CEO Steve Jobs seems to hate the software, neglecting to support it on all four models of the iPhone. Google’s done a better job of incorporating Flash support into the Android operating system, but still, most of the time Flash ends up being a battery killer, a security risk, not to mention a total bandwidth hog. That could change very soon though, as Qualcomm and Adobe have announced the development of optimizations for better Flash Player support in mid-level to high-end Android smartphones powered by the Snapdragon family of processors. → Read More
Thanks to the influence of owner and tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks season ticket holders will be able to enjoy a touch of the technological when claiming their 2011 playoff tickets. The Mavericks have teamed with Qualcomm to add augmented reality to this year’s playoff tickets.
Augmented Reality — or “AR” for those “in the know” — refers to a display in which simulated imagery or graphics are superimposed onto a view of the real world. In the case of these basketball tickets from the future, viewing on your Android will allow you to play an interactive game. → Read More
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