Collen Kriel

Collen Kriel is a beat writer for SiliconANGLE covering consumer technology with a focus on mobile. He has a passion for words, the Internet, the Web and all things tech. He endures a minor fascination with people who define themselves by the brand of smartphone they own. Prior to writing for SiliconANGLE he worked as an account executive in the IT industry, directly for, or in association with companies like Mimecast, IBM, VMware and Micros. He is an avid traveller currently making his way around South East Asia

Latest from Collen Kriel

Report: Boots U.K. rolls out iPads to store employees, takes advantage of IBM-Apple partnership

Almost nine months after Apple Inc. and IBM announced their partnership, U.K. pharmacy chain Boots has announced that it will issue store employees with iPads running customer service apps to attend to shoppers on the pharmacy floor. The company, which forms part of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., hopes that customers will pre-order cosmetics and toiletries ...

IBM acquires technology from curated search engine Blekko to bolster Watson

Blekko Inc., the curated search engine, has been quiet over the last two years. Until Friday, the company hadn’t tweeted since December 2013 and there hasn’t been much more activity on its Facebook page over that time either. On Friday, the company updated its website to state that “The blekko technology and team have joined ...

Pebble Time Kickstarter raised more than $20M with more than 95K watches pre-sold

On February 24, Pebble Technology Corp. again took to Kickstarter to crowdfund its latest product, the Pebble Time smartwatch. The Kickstarter campaign came to an end on February 27 and over the course of the month-long campaign Pebble raised more than $20 million in funding from 78,463 backers – smashing its initial goal to raise ...

One cloud storage provider to rule them all? Amazon Cloud Drive now offers unlimited storage

On Thursday, Amazon.com announced that it will now offer unlimited cloud storage on its Amazon Cloud Drive platform. As of the announcement, unlimited cloud storage is available on two new storage plans that cater for a range of content and media, including photos, videos, movies, music and other files. Customers can pick between the Unlimited ...

Apple to launch popular iPhone trade-in program in China

Following the U.S. success of its iPhone trade-in program, Apple Inc. intends to expand the program to China. Sources familiar with the iPhone maker’s plans told Bloomberg that the program is set to launch in China as soon as March 31. Apple won’t be buying and re-selling used iPhone itself, but will rather rely on ...

Throng of iPhone app makers roll out support for Apple Watch ahead of April launch

          The Apple Watch goes on sale April 24, but that’s not stopping app developers from rolling out support for the new wearable. On Thursday, a number of app makers – such as Evernote Corp., Dark Sky, The New York Times Co., Target Corp., Twitter, Inc. and many more – rolled ...

Filters, a new photo editor for iPhone, offers 800 ways to transform photos

Released yesterday, Filters is a brand new photo editing app for iPhone that touts more than 800 ways to enhance photos through a range of filters such as authentic vintage film recreations, hand-painted textures, vibrant colored gel overlays, special multi-effect adjustments as well as standard image adjustment tools like brightness, contrast, color temperature and exposure. ...

Burner, the app that lets users create disposable phone numbers, arrives in Australia

  Burner, the app from California-based Ad Hoc Labs, In. that lets mobile users create disposable U.S. phone numbers, is now available in Australia. Burner, available for iOS and Android, lets users create as many U.S. phone numbers as they need for calls, SMS and also MMS communication. The company touts its app as “fast, ...

E-commerce app builder 91APP takes $9M Series A, plans international expansion

91APP, a Taiwan-based startup that builds customized apps for brands and retailers, yesterday announced a $9 million Series A funding round led by AppWorks. Other investors participating included CID Group, NineYi, and two Taiwanese E-commerce players – Jan Hung-Tze, founder of PCHome, a Taiwanese E-commerce marketplace, and Paul Lin, chairman of Sennao. (via Tech in ...

Apple’s new streaming music service won’t cost less than rival offerings

Apple, rumored to be readying itself to announce its new streaming music service in June, has apparently failed to win favor with record labels in a bid to secure lower licensing costs. Lower licensing costs would have enabled Apple to charge as little as $7.99 a month for its streaming service – undercutting rivals Spotify ...