Nextbit faced a slight shipping delay with the Robin earlier this year, but for the most part was the rare Kickstarter success story. However, they have announced that they are canceling the CDMA version of their phone. At fault is the slow and pricey carrier approval process that would have meant further delays.
According to a report from The Information, Google has made efforts in recent months to purchase the Impossible Foods startup. For those unfamiliar, Impossible Foods has been developing a cheeseburger made entirely out of plants, but that tastes and looks like one made out of ground beef.
Dr. Joseph “Joe” Cohen has been a pediatrician for 15 years, and he saw a need in the medical workplace. Current EMR (electronic medical record) solutions are ridiculously expensive, antiquated, offer little support for pediatrics, and require hours of rigorous training before doctors can use them to efficiently document and organize patient information. Seeing this, Dr. Joe (as his young patients call him) developed a pediatric solution of his own, and deployed an early version in his own practice, Cedar Park Pediatrics, with the added bonus of bringing down the average cost of processing patients from $58 to around $20 per visit.
And while the system is of course platform-agnostic for the most part, Google technologies like Chrome and Glass are a key players in the kiddoEMR product despite downfalls that Dr. Joe says make the current generation of the latter completely impractical for the workplace. The system of course will mostly be interacted with via an in-browser interface on a desktop computer, but Glass provides some robust functionality that would make it a no-brainer for pediatricians. Doctors like Joe, though, need to be able to use their hands, and the old saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words” is especially true when diagnosing patients.
Google has announced that it is creating another one of its ‘campuses’ in Spain, following successful launches in London and Tel Aviv. These spaces are targeted at entrepreneurs looking for informal office spaces to kickstart new projects and careers. Campuses include working areas, testing devices as well as teaching from experienced mentors and business leaders.
Essentially, Google makes these areas to help startups get off the ground. It is an ethically driven venture for Google as there is no charge for participation. Google claims that the campus in London created more than 570 jobs last year. It is looking to recreate similar levels of success in Spain.
Ben Barreth, owner of the Homes for Hackers house
When Google first announced Fiber, thousands of cities jockeyed to be the first test location, but to many people’s dismay, Kansas City was eventually named the winner. For the past year, internet service in the area has been booming thanks to the network, which in turn has made it a popular area for startups and entrepreneurs, according to a new report from CNET. When Google announced Fiber, web designer and Kansas City local Ben Barreth bought a house in the startup district in hopes of being one of the first people to be connected to the network. In order to pay for the house, he started it up as the “Home for Hackers,” which he says is a place for startups and entrepreneurs to rent out a space to work and be connected the incredibly fast internet service.
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Update: Google has confirmed to us that it has not acquired Behavio, but rather just picked up some talent from the company that will now be joining GOOG.
Behavio, a software company that uses sensors in mobile devices to compile data how users live and interact with one another, announced today (via TheVerge) that it has joined Google. The company will work on building its platform at Google while shutting down its current closed alpha and continuing to run its open source Funf project for Android that allows developers to take advantage of the technology. No word on whether or not Google has big plans for the technology or if the move was simply an “acquhire,” but Behavio’s statement noted it “couldn’t be happier to be able to continue building out our vision within Google.”
Behavio doesn’t just use traditional sensors in smartphones to learn more about its users, the software also utilizes data such as if a phone is turned on or off, what apps are installed on a device, or if a phone is currently charging or not.
There were no financial details disclosed in Behavio’s press release, and Google is yet to make an official announcement. Below is an interesting interview with Behavio co-founder from Nadav Aharony where he explains how the software works and the MIT project where Behavio was first developed:
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David Lawee, Google’s mergers and acquisitions chief, recently attended a GarageGeeks event at a rusty garage in a Tel Aviv Jaffa port to meet with Israeli startup owners seeking cash for ventures.
GarargeGeeks is an “Israeli based not-profit physical and virtual space for innovative and creative people to introduce, network, expose, create, brainstorm, innovate and build,” according to its website. “People that take part in the activities come from different disciplines such as electronics, software, mechanical, art, design, music, hacking and gaming.”
The organization essentially holds monthly events to promote building non-commercial projects and introduce local businesses to multinationals while located in Israel’s Holon Industrial Zone. The event’s garage is a 100-square meter space with machinery tools, electronic components, software developments and raw project materials.
“I’ve met about 100 Israeli companies in two days and that’s, like, super-efficient,” said Lawee to Bloomberg between corporate conversations at the speed-dating-style event. “When you make a connection with an entrepreneur who’s really excited, whether you do a deal with him or not, that’s kind of the juice of the job.”
Two weeks later, Google initiated a funding program for Israeli entrepreneurs as part of a recent acceleration in United States’ technology companies backing startups in late 2011.
Business Insider is reporting Google has acquired social group startup Fridge. Fridge was apart of Y-Combinator, and announced it was closing its doors last week. Last night, Fridge told BI that they have been acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount.
Specifically, Fridge was acquired for Google+. Fridge’s four man team will begin working on the product starting next week, and we assume since they are a social group startup, their primary focus will be around Circles.