LG Corp. is bringing LINE Corp.’s popular messaging platform to your smart fridge, oven and even air conditioner in 2015 with an update to its HomeChat virtual assistant service. The functionality will allow users to communicate, control, monitor and share content through text and voice messages from the LINE messenger app on their mobile devices. LG notes ...

Hail Mary some may say with news that The Interview has grossed over $15 million via VOD, but what others will miss is that the figure should actually have been far higher. Here’s the word of the day to describe why Sony is even more stupid than you think: georetardation, noun: artificially crippling the distribution of a digital ...

Grocery delivery startup Instacart Inc. has raised $210 million Series C in a round led by Kleiner Perkins. The round, first reported by Re/code but confirmed via regulatory filings by the Wall Street Journal follows rumors of a $100 million round we reported on December 5th. There are some reports that the round was on a company valuation of ...

Ehang Inc., the maker of the Ghost Drone, has raised $10 million Series A in a round led by GGV Capital that included PreAngel Partners, Xu Xiaoping and Nick Yang. The first round for the China-based company follows the successful raising of $645,000 on Indiegogo, a campaign that at the time of writing is still ...

The Internet of Things is slowly creeping its way through every aspect of our lives, so why not your wallet as well? Meet the Aviador wallet from Aviador Co., a minimalist smart wallet with a number of interesting features. The minimalist wallet trend has seen a push away from a standard sized wallet into more slender and ...

A hacker in Germany has demonstrated how to obtain a fingerprint from a photograph to overcome biometric security. In a presentation made at the Chaos Computer Club, biometrics specialist Jan Krisller explained how he’d taken a variety of photographs of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen at a press briefing in October, then used commercial fingerprint software ...

Is Microsoft finally dumping its long maligned and unloved Internet Explorer (IE) browser? A report today suggests that Microsoft is planning on doing just that. Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet claims sources at Microsoft are saying that the tech giant is building a new lightweight browser, codenamed Spartan, that will abandon the legacy supporting IE and deliver ...

There was a rush of smart watches released in 2014, but what if you’re not quite ready to give up your existing watch? Meet the Kairos T-band. The Kairos T-band from Korean company Kairso Industries Co. Ltd. is a smart watch band that allows you to retrofit most any watch into a smart watch. The company offers ...

Xiaomi Inc. has raised $1.1 billion on a $45 billion valuation in a round that included All-Stars Investment, DST, GIC, Hopu Fund, and Yunfeng Capital. The news confirms speculation last week that the company was about to close a new round, and makes the Chinese tech giant the world’s highest valued technology startup. “This is an affirmation ...

New Zealand-based entrepreneur and occasional provocateur of the United States Government Kim Dotcom is getting into the video chat market with an announcement that he is launching a new encrypted service as part of his growing Mega Ltd. company. “Mega will soon release a fully encrypted and browser based video call & chat service including ...