Mozilla buys ‘read-it-later’ service Pocket

Mozilla, the team behind the Firefox web browser, has made its first acquisition. The company has bought Pocket, a read-it-later service, for an undisclosed amount. Pocket will operate as an independent subsidiary of Mozilla and is said to help bring the company to more mobile devices. It’s not exactly clear how that will help but Pocket does bring with it 10 million monthly active users and new potential businesses for Mozilla, such as advertising, analytics for publishers, and premium subscription service. The acquisition is like a homecoming for Pocket as it started out as a Firefox add-on.

Pocket previously rejected an offer from Evernote after it became apparent to them that their service would just be a feature inside the bigger company’s app. But it seems with Mozilla, they can remain a standalone service. According to Mozilla, over time Pocket can help them with its “content graph” initiative, which is the company’s effort to create a recommendation engine for the web and baked into the browser.

Source: Pocket + The Verge

Porsche Design outs Surface Book competitor

Looking for a stylish, premium Surface Book competitor? Porsche Design outs a new 2-in-1 at Mobile World Congress that bears a lot of similarities to Microsoft’s own 2-in-1. It comes with its own digital stylus that you can stick to the right side of the device magnetically. It’s detachable like the Surface Book. But unlike it, the screen on the Porsche Design Book One can rotate 360 degrees.

This device has a 13.3-inch touch QHD display and runs on an Intel Core i7 processor, Windows 10 Pro, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD storage. It comes with a 5-megapixel camera with an infrared sensor to support Windows Hello login. It has two USB-C ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 support. The Book One also comes with a precision touchpad and backlit keyboard. It’ll set you back a hefty US$2,495 (around CA$3,300) and is expected  come to the US in April.

Source: The Verge

Sony unveils new Xperia X handsets at MWC 2017, including a 4K model

Sony today announced four new additions to the Xperia X portfolio. The Xperia XZ Premium combines the world’s first super slow motion camera system in a smartphone with Sony’s triple image sensing (predictive hybrid autofocus, laser autofocus, RGB-IR) technology to capture amazing details beyond the human eye and enables advanced features and excellence in picture quality. Also for the first time in a smartphone, Xperia XZ Premium features a 4K HDR display for astonishing brightness, colour, clarity and contrast of users’ images, videos, games and other entertainment.  

Click to read more ...

Mastercard and Canada Post launches Cash Passport

Globetrotters have a new way to travel with less worry about how much cash they have in their pockets. Mastercard and Canada Post recently launched Cash Passport, a simplified and secured way to help pay for purchases abroad. This latest tap card offers more control of travel budget by locking in foreign currency exchange rates in advance so travellers don't have to worry about currency fluctuations.

In addition, the pre-loaded Cash Passport card can hold up to seven currencies at one time giving travellers the flexibility to travel through various countries without having to think about exchange rates throughout the trip. The card will also automatically select the next available currency if you have insufficient funds of the currency you need. The card also holds fixed ATM fees and no transaction fees on international purchases.

Click to read more ...