Liam Boogar
Connected Conference announces Indiegogo, Nest & France's #1 hardware design studio as speakers!
As Mobile’s biggest week wraps up in Barcelona (check our daily recaps here & here), Connected Conference, taking place May 28th-30th in Paris, is only just getting started. We’re excited to add 10 new speakers & partners to our line-up. Worldclass leaders in the Internet-Enabled Hardware space are coming to Connected Conference, and today we’re excited […]
Cisco to invest $100 Million & train 200K employees in France
Cisco will invest $100 Million in French businesses as well as commit to training 200,000 professionals in France, the French Government announced in a statement this week. The news will likely become more concrete in the coming months – the announcement made on behalf of Prime Minister Manuel Valls contained no deadline or start date for said action. […]
Winter Drones, Anti-Drone Drones: France has got Drone Fever
There’s no doubt about it: France has got drone fever. This past week Al Jazeera journalist Tristan Redman was fined 1000€ for flying a drone in Paris, which is illegal. While this incident, in isolation, may seem a bit extreme, it is only the latest in a series a drone-related incidents. Earlier this month no less than […]
AXA launched €200 Million fund dedicated to customer experience
AXA is launching AXA Strategic Ventures, a €200 Million investment fund dedicated to customer experience, the company announced today. AXA has already made a slew of investments – some of which we reported, like Flyr – some of which we haven’t – Fundshop, Particeep, Widmee, & Climate Secure. Investments will be made in San Francisco, New York, London, […]
Well, we called it: Aldebaran is dead, all hail the Softbank Pepper
On the same week that Softbank announced that it would ship the first 350 units of its robot Pepper to developers, the CEO of the French subsidiary that developed Pepper, Aldebaran, has announced that he is selling his remaining Aldebaran shares and stepping down as CEO. Bruno Maisonnier will stay on as an advisor to Softbank’s CEO; […]
Softbank to ship first Pepper robots to developers this Friday at $1,660
The humanoid robot Pepper will start shipping this Friday, the CEO of product-owner Softbank announced this week, according to the Wall Street Journal. The news confirms what CEO Masayoshi Son told reporters earlier this month, namely that Pepper won’t be hitting shelves until this Summer. The company said it will ship 300 units to developers, having received much more than […]
Gemalto responds to The Great SIM Heist, "this truly emphasizes how serious cyber security is"
Information revealed earlier this week in documents leaked by Edward Snowden to The Intercept suggest that the US & UK governments cooperated in a cyberattack that gave them access to the Keys which encrypt SIM cards, allowing them access to any and all data & calls from mobile phones. The news, which is the latest in a series of […]
Europe's War against US Tech Giants is seeing increasing Friendly Fire incidents
It’s not news that France is in a hot war against digital US companies – even Barack Obama is in the loop. The two-fold motivation of foregone tax revenue for the government by digital goods being sold from tax havens, as well as the foregone revenue by incumbent local leaders who are seeing their very way […]
Axel Springer-owned AuFeminin Group acquires US media Livingly
Axel Springer subsidiary AuFeminin Group has acquired Livingly Media, the latter reported today. Livingly, which operates websites popular with women in the US – Zimbio.com, Stylebistro.com, and Lonny.com – represents a big opportunity for AuFeminin group, which sees 33 Million visitors across 17 markets, including the United States, with themes ranging from health & fitness to […]
French hardware campaigns aren't waiting for Kickstarter to launch in France
Rumors circled this week that Kickstarter would be launching in France, meaning that crowdfunding projects based in France can now… well, come from France. Kickstarter has since denied these rumors. Previously, European companies were encouraged to use the British website, requiring the currency to be in pound sterlin(£) – alternatively, many French companies opted to open up a […]