Google Groups Gets Great

Today, Google announces the retirement of Google Groups and will launch a new version of the service in its place. The enhanced version enables the use of new management features, moderation tools, and even a mobile feature.

One of the biggest additions to the revamped Groups is the ability to share, distribute and track the responsibilities of multiple people, giving users a single point of contact, without having to create a separate shared email account. All members of the group can manage emails, assign items to each other and mark items as resolved.

Thanks to the new mobile site, individual users can even browse and moderate multiple groups on the go. The new Google Groups is live now and available to all users.

Ultra-New & from Sony

Sony is looking to blur the line between smartphone and tablet with the latest addition to their Xperia Z series, the Xperia Z Ultra.

The Phablet features a six-point-four inch display that runs at full HD resolutions, and driving the screen is Qualcomm’s latest and greatest mobile processor, the 2.2GHz, quad-core Snapdragon 800.

Other features of the smart-hybrid include a 4G LTE connection, and a water-proof case, which boasts even more water resistance than the previous model. The Ultra also adds a handwriting recognition tool that can use a standard stylus or work with standard writing utensils like a graphite pencil or metal pen.

Those who are interested in getting their hands on the Xperia Z Ultra can buy it in either white, black or purple, when Sony launches them globally in the third quarter of this year.

Giga-Whaaaa?

Telecom provider, Gigabit Squared just announced pricing for their first ultrafast broadband service available in Seattle.

The service, which will be offered this fall, is priced at $80/month. This is $10 more per month than Google Fiber, but a full $25 less than the fastest Comcast service available in the area.

After nearly a decade of studying ways to bring ultra fast broadband to citizens, the city of Seattle opted to use the city-owned network as a foundation, but the plan was abandoned last year by Mayor Mike McGinn. Instead, he decided to sell portions of the city network to private companies.

Though such a move spelled the end for any chance of a citywide, municipal broadband network, the new direction has allowed companies like Gigabit Squared to come in and offer download speeds of up to a gigabit per second.  To complete their offering, Gigabit Squared will also provide two less expensive tiers with reduced speeds.

I Demand Media!

Demand Media, the owners of content websites eHow, Livestrong and Cracked, announced on Monday the acquisition of the e-commerce marketplace Society6 for a sum of $94 million in cash and stock.

The buyout marks Demand’s first real foray into e-commerce, signaling that the company is looking to diversify its business model. Instead of providing content to promote ad sales, like their other sites, Society6 is in the business of helping their community of three-hundred-thousand members sell goods such as iPhone cases, t-shirts and prints directly to customers.

Since the site’s formation in Los Angeles four years ago, the company has grown to report an annual return of fifteen-million in revenue and four million in operating income. The buyout comes with the hope that Demand Media will lessen their reliance on advertising, particularly from Google.

The acquisition piggybacks Demand’s other recent developments, including their purchase of Creativebug, and the new “find an expert in real time” feature on eHow. Demand hopes the new property will win approval from investors. Its stock price has lost nearly 20% of its value over the past year.

Imgur Goes Mobile

Imager, one of the web’s most popular image-sharing apps, has finally launched its first official Android app, with news that an iPhone version is just around the corner.

The San Francisco based company is most notable for its use on the news aggregator site Reddit, where its users often share links to viral photos that Imager hosts. Since last October, the site has transformed from a simple image hosting site to a destination of its own, attracting four-billion page views and eighty-million unique visitors a month.

Due to its desktop browser based origins, the service never had a massive mobile presence, even though many of the pictures shared to the site were taken with smartphones.

The new app mimics the main site’s simplistic layout, a design feature the company doesn’t seem to want to part ways with any time soon.

When discussing the new app, Imager Founder and CEO Alan Schaaf commented, “We’ve been working on this six months and collecting feedback and we wanted the app to work just like the main site.”

E-La-Bouttomakealotofmoney

E la Carte, the cleverly named tableside-tablet company, recently raised thirteen and a half million dollars in series B funding.

Presto, E la Carte’s seven-inch tablet, debuted last year, bringing digital menus and detailed descriptions to a touch-screen interface. Presto provides entertainment in addition to utility, allowing customers to order their selections, and then play games while they wait for their food. Restaurants who use Presto are said to achieve sales boosts of around ten percent, table turns a full seven minutes faster, and show a nine-fold increase in the number of loyalty program sign-ups.

Currently, the tablets are processing over six million dollars in orders, with chain partners including Genghis Grill, HMS Host, and the Evergreen Restaurant Group. With new investments pouring in, it’s likely restaurant-goers will see E la Carte popping up in more locations in the near future.

iPhone 5s Leak

Recently leaked pictures may have uncovered the new chip used for the rumored iPhone 5-S, as well as a few additional details.

The images show a larger-capacity battery and a new dual-LED rear-camera flash. Some of the leaked photos show the device in great detail, with particular emphasis on the main chip.

The model number shown suggests that the chip will likely be branded as a next-generation A7 chip rather than a modified A6 chip, which is used on the current model iPhone 5.

Ouya – no?

It’s a great day for gamers who are looking for a new way to get their fix! The much anticipated android-based gaming console Ouya has finally hit shelves today.

Priced at only a hundred dollars, the console brings you hundreds of games from popular developers that are all free to try. The hype is not surprising, as demand was obvious after Ouya demolished it’s Kickstarter funding goal and raised over eight and a half million dollars. It has been hailed as a device that will truly shake up the traditional gaming market.

With the rapid shift of gaming into the mobile market, fans love the fact that Ouya is a hackable, open-sourced device. Ouya has already sold out on Amazon, but fans can still try to snag the device at Best Buy, Gamestop and Target retailers.

For more in tech be sure to watch us every day on NewsDesk with Kristin Feledy.

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writing credit: Andrew E. Lowe