Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has invested $590 million in a little known Chinese phone maker Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. Based in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, Meizu is said to be one of the top ten smartphone manufacturers in China and sold 1.5 million smartphones in January 2015. Although primarily focused on its local market in China, the company ...

Google has acquired private and offline photo sharing app Odysee (Nimbuz Inc.) for an undisclosed amount. The app, available for iOS and Android, allows users to back up photos from their phone to their desktop, among other features. As part of the deal the Obysee photo saving and sharing service will shut down February 23rd, and the Odysee team ...

Katy Perry’s “Left Shark,” the costumed character who accompanied her half time performance at the Super Bowl earlier this week has become an international phenomenon, but where there’s popularity there’s lawyers, as one small 3D printing firm found out the hard way. New York based startup Shapeways, a 3D printing company that offers a 3D printed ...

Swiss watch maker Swatch Group Ltd. has announced that it plans to take on Apple in the smart watch space with its own smart watch. The details of the offering are vague at best, with the company telling Bloomberg that the device will offer Near Field Communications (NFC) support, will allow users to make mobile payments, ...

Twitter Inc. posted record high revenue numbers in the fourth quarter of 2014 of the back off increasing ad sales, however user number growth not only slowed, but contracted. For Q4 Twitter posted revenue of $479 million, up 97 percent of the same quarter in 2013, however it saw a net loss of $125 million and non-GAAP ...

Microsoft is said to have acquired Sunrise Atelier Inc., the maker of the Sunrise calendar application for around $100 million. Sunrise offers a suite of calendar products for both mobile and desktop users that connects with and syncs to calendars from Google, iCloud, and Microsoft Exchange, offering an all-in-one hub solution on top of its core calendar offering. The ...

Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht is facing life in prison after being found guilty on all seven charges relating to his establishment, and running of the notorious darknet marketplace. Known online as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” Ulbricht was arrested in October 2013 on charges including conspiring to commit narcotics trafficking, conspiring to commit computer hacking and conspiring to ...

Uber Inc. has upped the ante in the ridesharing space by offering its Uber Kittens service in Australia for the first time. Uber Kittens, as the name may suggest, allows Uber users to have kittens delivered to their home or workplace for 15 minutes of play time for AU$40 ($31.14.) Available between 12pm to 4pm Thursday ...

When some think of Bitcoin the first things that may come to mind are Silk Road and the illegal trade of drugs on the darknet. Sure, readers of SiliconANGLE will know that the perception doesn’t fit reality, but what if you could legally buy drugs using Bitcoin from a vending machine? Meet the ZaZZZ marijuana vending machine from ...

Cryptocurrency startup NeuCoin has raised a $2.25 million seed round from 20 individual investors including King Digital Entertainment plc co-founder Patrik Stymne, Uber Inc. SVP Emil Michael and Hotwire Inc. president Henrik Kjellberg. Set to launch in March, NeuCoin is offering an micropayment focused altcoin that that will be “easy to use and well marketed,” which the ...