Novelty USB devices may be fun but sometimes you just need power, and lots of it. For times like that you could do worse than this 49-way, yes – 49-way, USB hub.
It’s been developed by UK-based company Cambrionix who specialise in “Niche-market products”. No kidding that this is niche, there can’t be many people who require 49 USB devices to be plugged in at the same time. Priced at £399 (645 USD) plus tax it’s hardly in impulse buy territory either.
The hub is intended for test and development use by people building their own USB devices and it probably won’t find a home with many end users. Still, if you’re a sucker for USB robots, fish tanks or even prosthetic fingers then this might be the perfect way to get them all connected at once.
Twitter plans to introduce premium tools and services to help businesses serve their current and potential customers by the end of this year..
Business Products
Although there have been rumors and discussion about potential business products on the horizon, it was Twitter co-founder Biz Stone who officially confirmed the news at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York.
Stone said that Twitter’s plan focused on two core phases:
Phase one has and is being spent collecting intelligence on how people use the service.
The second phase will see Twitter launching tools and services on top of free micro-blogging, these premium tools will be aimed at companies that wish to use Twitter to stay in touch with customers.
Regarding the type of products, although there was no definite answer, Stone says it will be “simple stuff” such as lightweight analytics.
“If there is a way we can go above and beyond, and they (companies) can improve bottom line by offering services we can offer for a fee, (we) will do that.”
He made it clear that a Twitter advertising revenue model was not on the cards and that at no point would they charge users for using the current product offering.
Growth
Another fascinating nugget from the interview was in regard to Twitter’s growth rate. Stone pointed out that the Twitter team are fully aware that their current growth rate is unsustainable. According to their statistics, if they continue to grow at this rate – they will run out of people on planet Earth by the end of the year.
It’s that time of the year again, when rumours begin to fly about a possible Mac tablet. This time round, there is a little more excitement and wonder in the air, particularly due to the rise in popularity of netbooks in the marketplace and whether Apple is likely to respond.
The discovery that triggered the latest round of rumours is MacRumors report on a Digitimes story that says a Taiwan-based supplier:
Wintek revealed that it is currently working with Apple to develop some new products, but it said it does not know what applications the new products are for.
Apple has denied interest in producing both a tablet and a netbook in the past, which is what they do both when they really have no interest, however they seem to also do the same when they’re about the release something. With all the rumours flying however, it is unanimously agreed, if they were to release one – it would be towards the end of this year.
As with most Apple products, the fan boy designers have got their tools out and put their dream to paper. Below are a few from the past and more recent:
Every week we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views. Well, actually six questions, since we also ask the start-up to who he or she is passing the mic to.
This week we’re interviewing Josh Tabin, founder of PrismaStar. That’s a Czech software company that uses a patent-pending consumer-profiling technology to help consumers find products and services, personalized to their own individual needs. Basically they want to save you the hassle of navigating through sea of mass market advertising and mega stores. Their site is rather overwhelming, due to truck loads of information. So I’m glad Josh took the time to participate in our weekly series to explain what his company is about and how he developed it.
How did you come up with the idea of Prismastar?
“It’s really simple; I couldn’t find the products I wanted and searching for product information online was more frustrating and time-consuming than helpful. No results found, too many results, non-relevant results, too much scrolling, too many pages, bad data etcetera etcetera. And I wasn’t the only one having these problems. So, for more than three years we researched how people really make decisions and created AnswerOil™. Now people everywhere can make better and faster decisions when AnswerOil is deployed on their Websites, in-store kiosks, and even mobile applications.” (more…)
Novelty USB devices may be fun but sometimes you just need power, and lots of it. For times like that you could do worse than this 49-way, yes – 49-way, USB hub.
Twitter plans to introduce premium tools and services to help businesses serve their current and potential customers by the end of this year..
“It’s really simple; I couldn’t find the products I wanted and searching for product information online was more frustrating and time-consuming than helpful. No results found, too many results, non-relevant results, too much scrolling, too many pages, bad data etcetera etcetera. And I wasn’t the only one having these problems. So, for more than three years we researched how people really make decisions and created 
