Michael de Waal-Montgomery
VentureBeat
Singapore
Contact Michael
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Past articles by Michael:
Google now has a boss for its virtual reality business
Google confirmed to VentureBeat late Tuesday that Clay Bavor, VP for product management and one of the execs behind Google Cardboard, will head up the company’s virtual reality team. → Read More
Grindr bootstrapped for 7 years before landing today’s $93 million investment
In a period when venture capital investment seems to be flowing like champagne at an oil tycoon's yacht party (though perhaps not for much longer), Grindr is a refreshing exception -- and, arguably, a beacon of hope for tomorrow's startups. → Read More
Grindr bootstrapped for 7 years before landing today’s $93 million investment
In a period where venture capital investment seems to be flowing like champaign at an oil tycoon's latest yacht party (though perhaps not for much longer), Grindr is a refreshing exception -- and, arguably, a beacon of hope to tomorrow's startups. → Read More
LG bets big on solar amid ‘unclear’ future as mobile and TV growth slows
LG told VentureBeat today that its newly-announced $435 million investment to ramp up its solar cell/panel manufacturing output represents a hedging of its bets as smartphones and TVs enter a “mature period of commoditization.” → Read More
Uber’s China rival Didi Kuaidi now allows ridehailing within any third-party app
China's top ridehailing service, Didi Kuaidi, today rolled out its public SDK (software development kit) enabling third-party apps in the country to bake in the ability to hail a Didi ride from within their own apps. → Read More
HTC Vive’s year of uncertainty
HTC's Vive VR, Facebook-owned Oculus Rift, and Playstation VR are the three big virtual reality headsets from major tech companies getting ready to disrupt your living room this year. But for one of the three -- *cough*HTC*cough* -- the push into VR is arguably much more about short-term survival as its smartphone business continues to decline than it is for the other two. → Read More
Hulu shares Valve’s sentiments on VR: ‘We just want to learn’
Hulu executive Ben Smith said that the video-streaming service “just wants to learn” as it ramps up its virtual reality push, during comments given at CES 2016 last week. → Read More
Xiaomi’s Redmi 3 again reminds us of the iPhone
Xiaomi today announced the Redmi 3, an all-metal, 5-inch Android smartphone retailing at about $107 (initially available only in China) that continues the company's legacy of selling impressive devices at disruptive prices. It comes just six months after the launch of the plastic Redmi 2, and sees the battery nearly doubled from 2,200mAh to 4,100mAh. Its larger cousin, the 5.5-inch Redmi Note 3… → Read More
David Bowie dead at 69: star’s official social media accounts confirm lost battle with cancer
David Bowie has died at the age of 69 after losing an 18-month battle with cancer, his official Facebook and Twitter accounts confirmed on Monday. → Read More
Xiaomi’s Redmi 3 is the perfect example of why Apple will sue them if they enter the U.S.
Xiaomi today announced the Redmi 3, an all-metal, 5-inch Android smartphone retailing at about $107 (initially available only in China) that continues its legacy of selling impressive devices at disruptive prices. It comes just six months after the plastic Redmi 2 launched, and sees the battery nearly doubled from 2,200mAh to 4,100mAh. Its larger cousin, the 5.5-inch Redmi Note 3 ($140), was… → Read More
Huawei Mate 8 review
If you think Huawei is still relatively unknown in the U.S., you'd probably be right. At least, it's still not a household name among the general non-techie population. But you may be surprised to learn that it's not exactly well known in Asia outside its home turf of China, either. Not yet. → Read More
Alibaba’s 2015 year in review — and its plan for 2016
Alibaba’s CEO Daniel Zhang — not to be confused with its better-known founder and executive chairman Jack Ma — this week vaguely laid out the Chinese ecommerce titan’s expansion strategy for 2016 during a speech to employees at its Hangzhou headquarters. → Read More
Tim Cook is sitting on $310M of unvested Apple stock at today’s market value
A regulatory filing from Apple on Wednesday revealed that CEO Tim Cook earned just $10.3 million in 2015, versus about $25 million for Apple’s other executives. Meanwhile, as of September 26, Cook is sitting on about $310 million of unvested Apple stock, based on today’s trading price of about $100 per share. → Read More
Xiaomi Mi 5 confirmed for February launch running on a Snapdragon 820
Xiaomi's delayed Mi 5 flagship smartphone will launch some time after the Chinese New Year in February, according to a social media posting by the company's cofounder Liwan Jiang on Wednesday (link in Chinese). Jiang also confirmed the Mi 5 will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, as expected. → Read More
Uber’s China rival Didi Kuaidi sees 1.4M requests on its new test-drive service in first 90 days
Didi Kuaidi, Uber’s market-dominant leader in China, says it received 1.4 million test drive requests since launching the service in October. That’s based on 1.8 million user sign ups, and is by all accounts a staggering number for the first 90 days. We’ve reached out to Didi to clarify how many of those test drive requests were actually delivered. → Read More
Yahoo reportedly will lay off more than 1,000 employees
It's been a doom-and-gloom week for Yahoo. → Read More
In direct challenge to Skype, WeChat now lets users call mobile phones and landlines
Following Line's move back in August to redesign its mobile chat app with a focus on low-cost calling, Tencent has now added the ability to call mobile phones and landlines from within the WeChat app. Its new calling service is being branded WeChat Out -- Line calls its service Line Out. Hmmm. → Read More
Sugr Cube is a wireless speaker from China designed as a homage to Steve Jobs and iOS
The founder of Sugr, the wireless speaker from China that hit a $60,000 Kickstarter goal in January 2015, has told VentureBeat that the product was designed as a homage to the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, as well as iOS. The comments come as Sugr launches for sale globally at $229 after successfully shipping units to Kickstarter backers in June and July. → Read More
Acer launches its first Windows 10 Mobile phone, unveils more products
Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show kicking off in Las Vegas this week, Acer has taken the wraps off some new gadgets — including the Liquid Jade Primo, its first smartphone running Windows 10 Mobile, which it teased at IFA a few months ago. → Read More
Coconuts is a local news startup fast becoming the Patch of Southeast Asia
Coconuts Media’s founder describes the four-year-old news media startup as “a network of local city websites” that is now in eight cities across Asia — mostly in Southeast Asia, specifically — including Bangkok, Manila, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Bali, and Yangon. All of these are available in English, with two of the eight available in local languages (Thai and Bahasa). → Read More