Every year, the Consumer Electronics Show brings us the coolest new gadgets, the must-haves, and the almost-theres. It’s one of the most exciting times for developers and buyers alike, and everyone has their favorites. We’ve detailed what we thought was the coolest gear to come out of this year’s show: Laptops Most gamers, geeks and […]
A sizable funding round is poised to heat up a race to automate China’s logistics infrastructure. Beijing-based fleet management company G7 announced on Monday that it has banked $320 million to drive technological development, bringing its total capital raised to around $500 million. G7, which runs a proprietary connected platform for trucks, shippers, fleet manager and drivers, received the proceeds from lead investor HOPU Investments, one of the most high-profile private equity firms in China. Other participants included new investors China Broadband Capital, Intelligent Fund of Funds, Mount Morning Capital, Total Energy Ventures and TH Capital, who are joined by existing investors GLP, Bank of China Investment and Tencent. G7 claims that its latest funding round marks the highest among Internet of Things startups worldwide. The eight-year-old company declined to disclose its post-money valuation but says the fresh injection makes it one of the most valuable IoT companies in the world. “Artificial intelligence in IoT is reinventing transportation and logistics equipment. Intelligent equipment and asset-as-a-service are the next big waves,” says G7 president Julian Ma, who formerly served as a vice president at Tencent overlooking location-based services, search, and autonomous driving for five years. G7 has worked closely with its partners to build out connected networks serving everything from logistics, commercial vehicles, energy to payments. For instance, it’s joined hands with strategic investor NIO, a Chinese electric carmaker, on a trucking network. It’s also leveraging the global network of Total Energy Ventures, a French venture capital firm focused on the renewable energy sector. Together, G7 claims to reach 60,000 customers and 800,000 commercial vehicles worldwide while 85 percent of China’s biggest logistics providers are its clients. In recent years, China’s internet behemoths have upped the ante in how goods move around as they look offline for growth. In May, ecommerce giant Alibaba and a fold of other investors poured $1.38 billion into express delivery company ZTO. In February, the logistics arm of JD.com, Alibaba’s close rival backed by Tencent, got a huge boost after raising $2.5 billion. ... Read More
Alibaba Group announced today that it will increase its stake in Alibaba Pictures from 49% to 50.92%, making it the loss-making movie production company’s controlling shareholder. Under the agreement, Alibaba Pictures will issue one billion new shares, priced at HKD $1.25 each share for a total of HKD $1.25 billion (about $160 million), to Alibaba Group. The announcement of Alibaba Group’s new share purchases comes the week after Alibaba Pictures chairman and chief executive officer Fan Luyuan took charge of Youku, Alibaba Group’s video streaming unit, after its former president Yang Weidong stepped down. Yang is currently under investigation as part of a police anti-corruption probe. Now that it has majority control over the movie company, Alibaba Group said there will be more integration between Alibaba Pictures and its services, including Youku. In a press release, Fan said “Alibaba Pictures is excited to become a subsidiary of Alibaba Group. As an internet film and TV company, we can leverage the Group’s edge in big data technology and e-commerce and enhance cooperation with other Alibaba’s digital media and entertainment businesses such as Youku, Damai and Alibaba Literature.” In his statement about the deal, Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said “the proposed share purchases is a vote of confidence in Alibaba Pictures, and we will continue to invest resources and take full advantage of our ecosystem to help Alibaba Pictures tap into the promising growth prospects of China’s film industry.” Founded in 2014 to capitalize on China’s burgeoning movie market, expected to be the largest in the world soon, Alibaba Pictures has turned out to be a costly, money-burning venture. Despite doubling its revenue and posting its first profit in 2017, Alibaba Pictures’ losses also grew to $165 million in the same period. It’s misfortunes continued this year when its big-budget fantasy picture “Asura” became “the most expensive flop in Chinese history,” according to Variety. ... Read More
Soulja Boy is stepping back from “cranking it,” and pivoting to an entirely new field this week: selling his own video game consoles and refurbished tech accessories. Soulja has been a gamer his entire life, so it’s only natural for him to want to launch his own systems, and this week, he’s done just that. He now sells two different consoles on his website SouljaWatch.com, both of which bear his namesake: the SouljaGame Console and the SouljaGame Handheld. Soulja Boy claims that the console is capable of running PlayStation, NeoGeo, PC, Sega, Game Boy Advance, and NES games, as well as “SouljaGames.” The website states that the console comes with 800 games preinstalled onto the console. According to the site, the handheld runs Switch,... Continue reading… ... Read More
Google and Levi’s Jacquard smart jacket has introduced a new function designed to stop you from mistakenly leaving your phone behind, as spotted by Android Police. The feature, called Always Together, is an automatic alert that will go off if the jacket moves too far away from your phone. When triggered, notifications happen on both ends. So, your phone will get a notification, and the jacket’s signature sleeve tag will also blink and vibrate. Previously, Android Police notes, there was a manual “find your phone” option where an assigned gesture on the jacket could prompt your phone to ring at full volume. It’s a neat addition for the smart jacket, which can already use touch inputs to control things on your smartphone like music... Continue reading… ... Read More
Just Cause 4 debuts at No.6... Read More
Typhoon Studios co-founders Alex Hutchinson and Reid Schneider describe the vision for their indie game, and how it will stand alongside AAA titles... Read More
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