Hasta La Gadget!

Toronto-based startup Slyce has raised a new round of $10.75 million in funding, led by Beacon Securities, and including PI Financial, Salman Partners, Harrington Global and more. The company builds image recognition tech, and wants to be the Amazon Flow for every other retailer on the planet, enabling point and shoot shopping with smartphone cameras. If you’re not familiar with Amazon Flow,… Read More

Apple has a new patent published by the USPTO today (via AppleInsider), and this one is a result of its deal to acquire Nortel’s considerable trove of intellectual property with the Rockstar consortium of tech companies. The patent describes a method for letting user listen in on, as well as interrupt and answer remotely hosted voicemail recordings. Essentially, this is what old landline… Read More

Intel has won the Basis auction, we’re hearing, at a price of around $100 million, according to one source. A second source pegs the deal at closer to $150 million. Basis makes wristwatch health trackers, capturing 7% of the market versus competitor Jawbone’s 21%. As Intel was all about the wearables this year at CES, we’re assuming that this buy is an attempt to further its foothold… Read More

When we first broke the news about the 3Doodler I was pretty excited. It was supposed to bring 3D printing to kids in a way that was easy-to-use and fun. Created by a pair of veteran toy makers, it was bound to be a hit – and it was. The product hit $2.3 million on Kickstarter and was a sleeper hit of the holiday. Now that it’s for sale at retail – and now that I’ve gotten more time to play with… Read More

Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant is coming to its mobile devices in Windows Phone 8.1, and a new set of leaked screens from The Verge shows a bit of what you can expect from the Siri clone. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft decided against using a holographic female avatar (i.e., the Cortana from Halo) as the visual representation of the software, and instead stuck with a small animated circle.… Read More