POSTED BY Steffen Sorrell
News has emerged today that Hutchison Whampoa is in talks with Telefónica with regards to a potential acquisition of the latter’s subsidiary, UK operator O2.
After a brief reincarnation as Softcard, it appears that the NFC provider Formerly Known As ISIS (FKAI) is on the point of being jettisoned by its carrier owners and sold to Google.
Well, not entirely but just its current generation. Instead the company will focus on next-generation Glass, with a new team working on its development at Google, under current manager Ivy Ross. However, Google announced that it remained committed to launching the consumer version of Glass.
The wearable device proliferation of 2014 continued apace at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, with several device manufacturers showcasing different aesthetics for their devices, and perhaps most tellingly saying ‘wait-and-see’ for releases at MWC (Mobile World Congress) and later this year.
The news that Intel’s MICA smart band is based on ARM-like architecture from Infineon signals a shift in the chipmaker’s thinking on wearables, something that has only been further suggested by more recent reports that Intel’s processors will now live inside the next version of Google Glass.