Hasta La Gadget!

This trip around the sun has been a monumental one for crowdfunding, marked by big projects and astronomical numbers. Take Kickstarter wunderkind OUYA, for example, which raised more than $8.5 million in funding from 63,416 backers. Kickstarter itself has even grown and matured, expanding to the UK and putting its foot down when it comes to pitching hardware by requiring working prototypes and assessments of risks and challenges. Out of the 60 crowdfunding efforts that crossed our desks as Insert Coins in 2012, 47 were successfully funded, four still have time to rake in funds and nine fell short of their goals or were otherwise stymied. We’ve handpicked and placed the top 10 projects that won our hearts and, on occasion, our hard-earned scratch after the break.

Continue reading Insert Coin: 2012’s top 10 crowd-funded projects

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Gaming, Wearables, Storage, Software

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Technology is about making and using cool new things that enrich our lives. But technology is also about using idiotic, tired words that mean next to nothing, designed to confuse us into wasting money. Here are the year’s stupidest offenders. More »

T-Mobile USA just announced its Q3 2012 financials, and its balance sheet is sagging over last year: the company collected $4.9 billion, 6.4 percent less than Q3 2011, and earned $1.2 billion, a decline of 15.2 percent. The mobile operator said while it earned more from equipment sales, it wasn’t enough to offset an 8.7 percent drop in service revenue caused by a loss of 492,000 lucrative postpaid clients. Despite the gloomy tidings, the telecom said it added 160,000 new users (net) over last quarter thanks in part to the iPhone 5 launch, including 365k branded prepaid customers — and improved “churn” (clients switching carriers) by 30 basis points to 2.3 percent. The company also feels its MetroPCS merger will also start to pay off soon, figuring it’ll soon have “LTE deployment in 90 percent of the top 25 US markets.” Whether the cheery talk will assuage investors remains to be seen — check the PR after the break to see for yourself.

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Continue reading T-Mobile USA Q3 2012 earnings: Revenue drops 6 percent to $4.9 billion, profit down 15 percent

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, T-Mobile

T-Mobile USA Q3 2012 earnings: Revenue drops 6 percent to $4.9 billion, profit down 15 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 01:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba has managed to pick itself up this quarter, recording $17.8 billion in sales, making for an operating profit of $722 million over the past three months. The “social infrastructure” segments recorded a healthy profit ($518 million), while income from digital products, home appliances and electronic devices fell due lower than expected demand. Forecasts for the year have been cut for the full year by approximately $500 million to $3.26 billion, as Toshiba expects lowers sales and operating profits due to the uncertain global economic situation. Individual segments are expected to continue their distinct trends, with the social infrastructure business pulling in more while its other arms bear the brunt of the economic slowdown.

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Toshiba Q2 results: profit of $722 million, whole-year forecast cut by $500 million originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Oct 2012 04:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IDC’s third quarter figures are in, complete with a few unexpected shake-ups. The entire cellphone market grew 2.4% over the same time last year, but smartphones drove the majority of that, showing growth of 45.3% and beating the analysts’ expectations. Of the 179.7 million smartphones shipped, Samsung and Apple devices accounted for almost half of them, with the companies retaining their number one and two positions in the market, respectively. IDC notes that iPhone shipments didn’t increase, but this is somewhat expected given the latest iteration was released only a short time before the end of the quarter. What we find particularly interesting is that Nokia was ousted from the top five smartphone players and replaced by RIM. Whether Nokia’s upcoming Windows Phone 8 devices will put it back in contention remains to be seen, as does the effect BB10 and RIM’s new handsets will have on the market. ZTE finished fourth in the list thanks to increased sales in North America, with HTC rounding up the top five vendors with continued uptake of its power devices. With a bunch of new handsets coming to the table and the holiday season fast approaching, look out for even more surprises in the fourth quarter numbers, due early next year.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, RIM

IDC: Samsung and Apple still kings of the smartphone market, Nokia loses top five spot to RIM originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Oct 2012 03:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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