iPad cannibalizes laptop market, Best Buy notebook sales plummet

Updated

Apple’s iPad is so wildly successful that it seems to be stealing sales from laptops. A Morgan Stanley report shows that notebook sales growth has gone negative in August, and it appears to be because of the iPad, Fortune reports.

Further evidence came from Best Buy CEO Bryan Dunn, who said yesterday in a Wall Street Journal interview that the iPad had cannibalized its laptop sales by as much as 50 percent.

The Morgan … Continue Reading

Rocky Mountain Ventures shows off portable scanners (video)

Rocky Mountain Ventures was one of the few companies at DEMO Fall 2010 that had some hardware to show off. Lisa Milner, marketing manager at the company, gave us an up-close demo of how the new Flip-Pal and Capture-ID scanners work. The portable scanners are designed to work while you’re on the run, capturing everything from family photos to legal documents.

The Flip-Pal is a consumer-focused device that you can use to scan pictures that … Continue Reading

On the GreenBeat: Elster files for IPO, NRG to buy Green Mountain for $350 million

Smart meter systems company Elster has filed for an IPO, offering 16.2 million initial shares that will be priced between $16 and $18. It is expected to net $152 million from the offering. As Green Tech Media notes, the company’s main business is in gas, and it hasn’t made significant headway into the advanced metering infrastructure business. The IPO would presumably to go pay off some of its debt.

Wholesale power company NRG Energy … Continue Reading

iSuppli: Global wireless subscriptions to reach 5B this month

The number of worldwide wireless subscriptions is quickly approaching 75 percent of the Earth’s total population. It’s expected to hit 5 billion this month, according to the market research firm iSuppli.

By the end of the year, global wireless subscriptions are expected to grow by another 100 million to hit 5.1 billion. In addition, the global amount of installed wireless devices will total 4.9 billion by the end of the year, iSuppli says. The difference … Continue Reading

Sony PlayStation Move's creator wants motion control to be as accurate as possible (video)

Richard Marks, co-creator of the PlayStation Move, likes to be right on target. He has worked at Sony Computer Entertainment America in Foster City, Calif., for the past 11 years, always working to perfect Sony’s recognition and control technology so that it can be as precise as possible. Marks’ latest effort, the wand-like Move controller, debuts on Sept. 19, with some 20 games available at the launch.

Marks began working on a natural user interface … Continue Reading

GameTree TV will bring casual games to your TV (video)

Blake Lewin, the president of Transgaming Digital Home, showed off a new TV-based GameTree TV game platform at the Intel Developer Forum this week in San Francisco. Transgaming has teamed up with Intel to create a smarter TV. Intel makes the code-named Sodaville chips — which are highly integrated consumer electronics processors — for set-top boxes. Those set-tops can link to the internet and download applications to the set-top box.

And GameTree TV runs on … Continue Reading

HP may be close to picking an insider as its next CEO (report)

Hewlett-Packard’s board is close to making a selection for a successor to Mark Hurd as chief executive. Bloomberg reported that a source said the company is close to picking an internal candidate.

The shortlist includes executives who run HP’s largest divisions now. Top candidates include Vyomesh Joshi, head of the printer business; Todd Bradley, head of the PC division; Dave Donatelli, who heads the storage and server business; Tom Hogan, executive vice president of enterprise … Continue Reading

Research in Motion is alive and kicking, but still needs a boost

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion continued to grow in the second quarter of 2010 with an additional 12.1 million BlackBerry devices shipped, but wasn’t able to meet its expectations for 4.9 – 5.2 million new subscribers reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The BlackBerry maker added 4.5 million new subscribers in its second quarter of 2010, down from the 4.9 million it added a quarter earlier.

BlackBerry most recently unveiled its proposed iPhone killer, the … Continue Reading

Bloomspot gets $9M to grow its high-end daily deals site

Daily deals site Bloomspot has closed a $9 million round of funding, the company announced today. The round was led by Menlo Ventures with participation from True Ventures and Harrison Metal.

Like popular site Groupon, Bloomspot offers group bargains each day, but Bloomspot focuses on deals from high-end merchants like hotels, restaurants and spas. The startup targets affluent yet bargain-conscious women between the ages of 30 and 50, and the average deal is more than … Continue Reading

Foursquare extends location-based check-ins to college campuses

In an effort to extend its reach to college students, burgeoning location check-in service Foursquare announced its “Foursquare for Universities” program today. The program looks to help students and staff connect with each other and explore their campus by offering its popular site-wide check-in, tips, and badges offering in a centralized, targeted way.

The startup has partnered with 20 universities for its launch, out of which it is launching pages for Harvard, Stanford, and Syracuse … Continue Reading

Microsoft turns bullish on sales of its Kinect game controller

Microsoft’s XBox 360 finally claimed the top sales spot for August, and now the company has high hopes for its Kinect motion-sensing controller for the console. It’s estimating it will sell 3 million Kinect controllers by the end of this year.

Microsoft’s top video game executive Don Mattrick said he expects Kinect to provide Microsoft with one of the “biggest holidays ever” for sales, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Motion gaming is the flavor … Continue Reading

Windows Phone 7 delayed for Verizon, Sprint, other CDMA networks until 2011

In what will certainly be looked at as a blow for Microsoft, the company revealed today that its upcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system won’t support CDMA networks like Verizon and Sprint until the first half of 2011, CNET reports.

So if you want to snag a Windows Phone 7 device this year in the US, you’ll have to opt for AT&T or T-Mobile’s GSM (a competing cellular standard) networks. Microsoft prioritized development of … Continue Reading

Samsung's Galaxy Tab Android tablet headed to all major US carriers with Media Hub movie/TV service

Repeating the multi-carrier approach of its Galaxy S Android smartphones, Samsung announced its upcoming Galaxy Tab tablet will be headed to AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

The company also announced its Media Hub service for Galaxy S and Tab devices, which would offer movies and television shows for rent and purchase. The announcements were made tonight at a media event in New York.

That Samsung has landed its Android tablet across all major carriers isn’t … Continue Reading

Better productivity through spreadsheets: SmartSheet raises $1.5M

Smartsheet, a company offering spreadsheet-style applications for tasks like project management and billing, has raised $1.5 million in a third round of funding.

The Bellevue, Wash. company offers a long list of spreadsheets (it calls them “smartsheets”, naturally) to its customers, with additions last year such as sales and outsourcing. According to a company blog post from July, the most-used sheet is for project management, but “a good percentage of our customers begin using Smartsheet … Continue Reading

DEMO Fall wraps in Silicon Valley — set your course for Palm Desert for DEMO Spring!

Okay, I admit it: I let loose and danced a little last night. After a year of planning, globetrotting, meeting entrepreneurs, and looking for the best new technologies in the world, it was finally time to celebrate. DEMO, the conference for which I’m the executive producer, celebrated its 20th anniversary as the tech world’s ultimate launchpad for new products this week in a new home — Silicon Valley, the pulsing heart of the tech ecosystem.… Continue Reading

Sony bullish on PS 3 outlook, announces game console will get 3D Blu-ray movies

Sony announced at the Tokyo Game Show this week that it plans to hit its target of selling 15 million PlayStation 3 consoles during the fiscal year that ends March 31, 2011. It also said today that the PS 3 will be able to play 3D Blu-ray movies and music videos after a software update becomes available on Sept. 21.

Kaz Hirai, head of Sony’s game business, said that the company is selling more hardware … Continue Reading

Realtime Worlds to shut All Points Bulletin in one of gaming's greatest flops

Game makers almost never turn the lights off on a massively multiplayer online game because they’re a license to print money, thanks to all of the subscription revenue.

But Realtime Worlds unfortunately never got off the ground in the first place. The online Grand Theft Auto-style crime MMO is shutting down today after less than three months on the market. It officially qualifies as one of the greatest disasters in video game history, as the … Continue Reading

A quick tour of the new Yahoo Mail (video)

Yahoo executives previewed several new products today as part of what they described as a three-year strategy for quicker, more unified product development. It looks like the most significant changes are coming to Yahoo Mail this fall — it’s supposed to be faster, with an improved interface, as well as stronger integration with social networks and other Web services.

Senior Product Manager Stephanie Shum gave me a short demo of the new service, which you … Continue Reading

70 companies in two days: a DEMO Fall 2010 photo gallery

More than 70 companies hit the big stage at DEMO Fall 2010, co-produced by IDG and VentureBeat. Pictured above are this year’s DEMOgods, with representatives from Veebeam, VoiceBase, Particle Code, Delphix, and Alpha company winner Ether 2. Dynamics (CEO Jeff Mullen pictured with check) won the $1 million People’s Choice DEMO prize. [Photo above by Stephen Brashear/New Media Synergy]. More photo highlights from the event follow below. And you can find the full set of … Continue Reading