SPOT Global Phone Brings Affordable, Superior Voice Quality to the Outdoor Recreation Market

Portable, easy-to-use and affordable, the new SPOT Global Phone keeps users connected to family, friends and emergency services when their adventures take them off the grid

Covington, LA (May 14, 2013) - SPOT LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc. and leader in satellite messaging and emergency notification technologies, today announced the new SPOT Global Phone, a portable, easy-to-use and data-enabled satellite phone. Hunters, hikers, boaters, off-road travelers and all outdoor enthusiasts will find that SPOT Global Phone provides industry-leading, crystal clear voice quality where cell service won't work.

Wacom Offers Bamboo Loop - A Digital Card App To Make You Smile

Launched by Wacom ́s app software group, Bamboo Loop is making mobile messaging highly visual, beautiful and fun

Vancouver, Wash. - May 20, 2013 - Wacom® today announces BambooTM Loop, a new app for iPhone and iPod Touch. It combines principles of photo sharing and messaging in a unique and fun way: digital, paper-like photo cards are sent ("looped") to friends, family members and close colleagues.

The last few years have been a tumultuous time for LightSquared, with the company's LTE plans facing one hurdle after another that eventually led to a bankruptcy filing. It looks like at least one company is now looking to buy its most valuable asset, though, with Bloomberg reporting that Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen has put a $2 billion offer on the table for the company's wireless spectrum. That's yet to be confirmed by either party, and Bloomberg reports that the offer is a so-called stalking horse bid, which could still let others put in a higher offer of their own. As Bloomberg also notes, this all comes at the same time that Dish is looking to buy Sprint for over $25 billion, both deals of which would require regulatory approval.

First of all: that name. Google Play Music All Access. Perhaps Google's presenters realized, as they were driving to the I/O keynote, that they had forgotten to name the new music-streaming service, and came up with that clunker backstage.

Unique? Magical? It's easy to dismiss those claims within minutes of signing up.

Starting to get bored of the ThinkPad's classic look but not keen on the Edge series? Then we have good news for you! Earlier today we received a couple of photos that show off two upcoming Lenovo Ultrabooks: the 13-inch ThinkPad S3 (codename "Labatt") and the 15-inch ThinkPad S5 ("Guinness"). As you can see above and after the break, both aluminum laptops feature a new "floating design" that might have taken a page out of Samsung and Vizio's book: shaving off the front outer edges of the bottom side to create that slim and floating illusion. Also, these will apparently come with either a black or silver lid.

Some folks on Sina Weibo have received other teaser photos of the ThinkPad S5, with one confirming the presence of JBL stereo speakers. The funny thing is Chinese website Yesky reported on a charity auction that actually sold limited editions of the S3 and S5 earlier this month, but those unannounced Ultrabooks went under everyone else's radar. If you're curious, Yesky speculates that a launch is due in China at the end of this month, but you'll have to stay tuned for the prices and specs.

The valley has a bit of a thing for drones lately — have you noticed? Airware, which builds brains for commercial unmanned aircrafts, just raised $10.7M. Longtime Wired Magazine editor Chris Anderson left his position to go fulltime on his DIY drone company, having raised $5M. Even Union Square Venture’s Fred Wilson has been brainstorming what he’d do with a drone of his own.

Later this week at the AngelPad demo day, another drone-centric company will make its debut: DroneDeploy. Unlike the rest of the lot, DroneDeploy doesn’t want to build drones, or even the parts that go inside. They want to make the software that companies use to control their drones.

Now, remember: we’re talking about commercial drones, here, not military drones. The drones that the valley has a budding interest in are the type that might, say, scan our gas infrastructure for leaks, deliver your lunch, or search for stranded skiers in the Alps — not the kind that shoot you from 1,000 feet above. DroneDeploy, for example, is already working with teams scanning for pirates off the coast of Sierra Leone, and delivering medical supplies in West Africa. As we’ve discussed in-depth before, drones are not inherently evil.

Square's been venturing beyond those tiny credit card swipers as of late. Last week, the company introduced its nifty $299 Stand POS system for iOS, and now it appears to be branching out to individuals, with a to-be-announced service called Square Cash. There's not much info to share at this point -- TechCrunch recently discovered a dedicated landing page for the new service, which looks to be invite only at this point. There does seem to be an option to request an invitation, but the button isn't properly linked, so we weren't able to make our way to the proper form in order to take a closer look.

A handful of help articles do shed some light on the service, though. To send money, you'll simply send an email to your recipient with the dollar amount in the subject line and " This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. " in the cc field. Once your friend or associate receives the email, they'll type in the debit card account number of their choosing and Square will fund the associated checking account within 48 hours. Each payment costs just 50 cents to send, and there's no cost to receive -- it's not quite clear whether or not you can use a credit card to fund the transfer, but with fees of less than $1, we imagine you'll need to use a checking account. Square has yet to formally introduce the service, but we're guessing an announcement will be coming soon.

Today's definitely a big day for Tumblr: there's a refreshed iOS app in the iTunes Store! And, well, a bit of other news, too. But you'll hear plenty more about that later -- for now, it's all about mobile. The blogging platform just updated its application for iPad and iPhone, adding that "fancy new post type chooser" that recently made its debut on Android. The design tweak enables one-click access to a variety of post tools, letting you submit video, chats, links, quotes, photos and text, with colorful icons to match. It's yours for the downloading at the source link below.