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Li Ka-shing Invests In HzO, Which Protects Your Gadgets From Water Damage
Video: Android 4.0 Hacked Onto The Kindle Fire
Microsoft Is Way Overdue In Leaving CES Keynote – More Room For Companies That Ship
55 Inches: LG To Showcase World’s Largest OLED TV AT CES 2012

Li Ka-shing Invests In HzO, Which Protects Your Gadgets From Water Damage

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 03:30 AM PST

Horizons Ventures, the Hong Kong-based firm that manages the private, early-stage investments in the technology sector for billionaire entrepreneur, philanthropist, business magnate and Facebook and Spotify investor Li Ka-shing, has acquired a $3 million stake in water damage protection technology company HzO as part of a preferred equity investment. HzO was originally acquired by ZAGG in 2009 but since spun off as an independent company to improve and commercialize its ‘WaterBlock’ technology.

This technology protects consumer electronics like phones, media players, laptops and whatnot from water and other liquids (for starters), “on the molecular scale”. From the company’s website:

A nano-scale film with special water- repelling properties is applied to the entirety of the electronic device, seeping into the crevices, and rendering it highly water resistant. Take it in the rain or spill your drink on it — it will still run. It could even survive a drop in the toilet, but we hope you never have to find out.

Utah-based HzO says it intends to integrate its technology not only in consumer electronics but also automotive devices, military devices and vehicles, solar energy, and industrial applications.

Jason Wong, CFO of Horizons Ventures, will take a seat on HzO’s board of directors as part of the investment agreement.

Video: Android 4.0 Hacked Onto The Kindle Fire

Posted: 26 Dec 2011 06:36 PM PST

You wanted an Android tablet for Christmas… and you got one! Alas, it’s a Kindle Fire. Whoops! While the Fire is technically well within the realm of “Android tablet” (and a mighty fine tablet, for the price), it’s not quite the tried-and-true vanilla Android experience you were looking for.

Wait! Don’t go requesting that return label just yet: if a gang of goodhearted hackers have their way, Amazon’s wonderfully wallet-friendly tablet will be running the latest builds of straight-up Android (as in Ice Cream Sandwich) before too long. In fact, they’ve (sort of) already got it working.

Check out the video below, as shot by the fine folks at Lilliputing:

The guys behind this hack (the XDA dev thread can be found here) call it “pre-alpha”, and for good reason. While it technically works, it’s probably not something you want to dabble with just yet. It’s got all sorts of nasty bugs, with the biggest drawbacks being that audio/video playback are pretty much 100% broken.

With that said, few communities can hobble together rock-solid hacks as fast as the Android crowd can. Now that the concept is proven, expect this one to come together quick.

Microsoft Is Way Overdue In Leaving CES Keynote – More Room For Companies That Ship

Posted: 26 Dec 2011 11:16 AM PST

The topic around the olives and cheese plate last week at an extended family Christmas gathering was, interestingly enough, Microsoft distancing itself from CES. My family, not ordinarily given to tech gossip, was alarmed, thinking that perhaps there was a grand re-ordering of things that they should know about. It’s a remarkably straightforward move, far from the conspiracy theories the last few days have spawned, but when you’re dealing with bruisers like Microsoft and CES, everything is swathed in diplomacy as would be ostensibly amicable divorce proceedings. But Microsoft’s grievances are legitimate and the move is a smart one.

“Our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing.” How true that is, and as others have pointed out, their product news generally didn’t align with products, either. And they’re aware that their news is propagating in a completely different way than it used to.

Technologizer had a handy round-up of the keynotes, which generally have highlighted products that never shipped, or didn’t work well on stage. It’s a bit embarrassing to go back and watch some of these, knowing as we do how these products turned out. Why did Microsoft ever participate in this?

Part of it was Bill Gates, who was much more of a keynote kind of guy. If you’ve seen him speak, you know that despite his natural nerdiness, he’s an endearing presence on stage and his enthusiasm for the broader mission of technology is infectious. Ballmer is certainly bombastic, but for years we’ve heard over and over the growth stats on Windows, heard from a few partners mumbling carefully-rehearsed platitudes, then seen a few features of the next version or a prototype (last year’s ARM surprise, to be fair, was the best thing they’ve had in years). It’s become rote, and rote is what Microsoft fears most now.

The company is desperate for a reinvention of how it presents itself, and these doddering CES keynotes are exhibit A in the Case of the Dull Microsoft PR. Their booth, too, is filled with old devices and people halfheartedly selling services that anyone in the market is already well aware of.

Meanwhile, year-round on the internet, we see astonishing things being done in Microsoft Research and Labs, beautiful and powerful demonstrations of advanced technology. And the Building Windows 8 blog is the surprise Microsoft hit of the year, with nearly every single post (detailed, revealing, and technical) creating a storm of discussion on the web. The new Explorer interface, for instance, spawned thousands of articles (not necessarily positive) and others have done nearly as much. The way Microsoft gets word out of its innovations, its products, its business performance, has been changing for years, but they and CES have clung together out of habit. I’m pleased to see Microsoft doing what it does worst: breaking a bad habit.

CES is a show for product builders, people who ship devices, where you need to be there in real life to see how it works, how it feels, and most importantly, how it compares to the guys in the next booth. Microsoft simply isn’t a part of that world, and the show hasn’t been about them for years. They’ll still have a booth, and I expect them to stay around for a while. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they stopped using CES as a focal point for announcements, and use it instead (as many other large companies do) to present a snapshot of the company through and through, prototypes, research projects, traditional devices, servers, and all. They’ve made more room on the stage for companies that truly want to show off impressive things and talk about where the tech world is heading. I look forward to attending the keynotes of whoever steps up.

55 Inches: LG To Showcase World’s Largest OLED TV AT CES 2012

Posted: 26 Dec 2011 05:14 AM PST

We’ve been waiting for large-sized OLED TVs at least since Sony rolled out the cool (but too small) XEL-1 in 2007. Various bigger OLEDs and “breakthroughs” have made the news in the years after that, and now LG says it’s ready to showcase the world’s biggest OLED TV at CES 2012 (which kicks off on January 10).

Sized at 55 inches, the panel has a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and has been developed by using the Oxide TFT technology, according to LG. The company has been working on bigger OLED devices for quite a while now, for example a super-thin 31-inch model (which was shown last year).

So far, so good, but unfortunately LG says they see the device as a step forward in popularizing the concept of large-sized OLED TVs. In other words, the TV is just a prototype at this point with neither a price tag nor a release date, and we might have to wait years before being able to actually buy one.

Via Engadget

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