Make way for the first wireless eBike ever! Known as the Shadow (being lime yellow in color, it should have been called the Lime instead), this bike is the brainchild of Canadian based Daymak Inc. It uses lithium batteries in its belly that keeps the bike in motion with 1000W of power. That’s not all. The bikes batteries can also charge up your portable devices! Here’s what makes this electric bike unique. Unlike others of its type, this bike uses cutting edge technology like a wireless breaking system, a wireless throttle and also a wireless pedal assist system!

Global production of this eco-friendly bike is expected to reach 27 million units and will grow up to 40 million units by the year 2011. For a price of $1499, you can buy the technology packed awesome Shadow ebike.

[USA Hang Out]

You know how you pay a fixed monthly fee for your phone, and can check email and Twitter, surf the web and the Yelp app anytime you like without counting minutes or megabytes? Yeah, well that’s all gonna end. More »

Dundee Securities has initiated coverage of Redknee Solutions Inc. with a Buy rating and $2.20 price target. Analyst Dushan Batrovic told clients that the company is well positioned as a technology leader in an emerging sweet spot around wireless data monetization.

“The explosion of wireless data traffic has forced telecom operators to look for new ways to sell data applications while simplifying their underlying cost structure. Legacy billing/policy management platforms are ill-equipped to respond, which opens the door to next gen vendors like Redknee.”

Mr. Batrovic believes the worst of the telecom spending downturn has passed, while the company's management aggressively cut operating expenses in response to the economic crisis. He noted that Redknee’s year-over-year EBITDA rose last quarter, despite sales falling nearly 20% during the same period. The analyst also said the company is lean just as pipeline activity begins to accelerate.

As a result, he anticipates strong operating leverage for the rest of 2010 as sales return to pre-recession levels. Mr. Batrovic also pointed out that Redknee has almost $24-million in cash and no debt. It is trading at an attractive valuation of 6x EBITDA, 11x earnings and with 30% of its market cap in cash.

Jonathan Ratner

Shares of Ottawa-based DragonWave Inc. have seen some turbulence in the past few weeks, recently dipping below US$10 on the Nasdaq (its IPO price). Speculation that the next-generation data solutions provider for wireless networks may have lost the AT&T Mobilty award may be to blame. Kris Thompson at National Bank Financial suggested that there short selling in the United States could also be a factor.

U.S. cable companies are also highlighting a strong interest in participating in DragonWave’s area of expertise (mobile backhaul), which could also be scaring some investors away from the stock, the analyst noted.

However, with or without AT&T Mobility as a customer, he recommends buying DragonWave. Mr. Thompson rates the stock at Outperform with a $17 price target – upside of more than 60%.

“Our top-down tower forecast does not heavily rely on AT&T Mobility as a customer,” he said. The analyst believes that his fiscal 2011 revenue estimates would still be achievable if DragonWave deploys at Verizon Wireless at a level above his conservative expectations.

If DragonWave does not win at AT&T, the stock could sell off further, which Mr. Thompson would consider a buying opportunity. He said much of the roughly 20% short interest on the stock would likely need to be covered on that news, which could prompt a rally on renewed buying volume.

His target price does reflect expectations that Clearwire will deploy microwave backhaul more aggressively as it expands its footprint beyond the initial 120 million population.

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Denise Gellene wrote:

Things were hopping over the past week in San Diego. Get into the rhythm here.

—San Diego’s West Wireless Health Institute named Donald Casey chief executive officer. Casey was formerly worldwide chairman of Johnson & Johnson’s comprehensive care group. The Institute was founded last year with a $45 million gift from telemarketing and communications entrepreneurs Gary and Mary West.

—Tocagen raised nearly $7.8 million in a Series D round that began Feb. 2 and another $3 million from the sale of preferred shares. The San Diego biotech is working on gene therapies for cancer.

—Sapphire Energy scientists were part of research team that demonstrated the feasibility of using algae to produce commercial levels of therapeutic proteins. Sapphire cofounder Stephen Mayfield of UC San Diego believes algae will reduce the cost of producing certain biotech drugs.

—San Diego-based Trius Therapeutics, which is working on an antibiotic for MRSA infections, postponed its plan to go public. The company said it needed time to get clarity on new FDA guidelines that will affect clinical trials for its experimental drug.

—Medical device startup ImThera Medical is testing an implanted electronic device for sleep apnea. The device transmits a steady electric current that causes the tongue muscle to tighten and pull away from the upper airway. Trials are taking place in Europe.

—Isis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ISIS), a Carlsbad, CA-based biotech earned a $6 million payment from Bristol-Myers Squibb for getting clearance from regulators to begin clinical trials of a new cholesterol-lowering drug.

—Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE) the Carlsbad, CA-based maker of …Next Page »

Nokia was rumored to be building it, but according to the WSJ Verizon Wireless‘ first 4G handset will debut mid-2011, running on the LTE network that’s launching end of this year after Boston and Seattle guinea pigged the service. More »

Wireless charging has been around—even for the iPhone—for years, but it wasn’t until the last 12 months that it’s been refined to be as good as standard wired charging. Case-mate’s Hug is our favorite iPhone charging pad. More »

Wires. Lame, right? Always getting tangled up, keeping you tethered to your desk. But! We’ve hit the age of wireless USB. Now Macbook and PC alike can connect cordlessly to any desktop setting through products like the Warpia Easy Dock.

We had some concerns over the InFocus wireless set-up that popped up last month, but Source R&D’s Warpia Easy Dock seems to be a cleaner solution. Both products are built on Wisair’s wireless USB technology, as will at least a few more similar offerings coming later this year.

Also appealing: the Easy Dock has plug-and-play functionality, and works across both PC and Macbook lines. Whether it’s worth the $150 price tag depends on how much use you’ll get out of it; I can certainly see the advantages in a professional setting, or for those with netbook regret who want a larger display to work with.

Source R&D Debuts Wireless Laptop Docking Station for Mac & PC Users

Easy Dock brings your laptop content to your desktop computing environment for convenient use of speakers, mouse, keyboard & external monitor

SAN JOSE, California, Mar. 9 – Source R&D announced today the availability of the Warpia Easy Dock, which will allow users to wirelessly connect their notebook/netbook/Macbook to any traditional desktop setting. With the Easy Dock’s straightforward plug-and-play interface, consumers can have both the convenience and portability of a laptop, as well as the comfort of a desktop computer. Easier on the eyes, ears and hands, users will no longer have to squint at a miniature screen, deal with a below average sound quality, or fumble with a tiny keyboard.

Based on wireless technology from Wisair, a leading provider of single-chip based Wireless USB solutions, the Easy Dock consists of a USB dongle that connects to your laptop and a receiver that connects to your monitor, mouse, keyboard, and speakers. Your laptop will instantly recognize the dongle and begin submitting a wireless signal to the receiver, transmitting the image with a resolution of up to1400x1050 to your monitor’s screen.

“Perfect for professionals working from home, students on-the-go, or families with both MacBook and PC laptops, the Easy Dock gives customers ultimate portability and comfort,” says Marc Levaggi, VP of Marketing for Source R&D. “They can take their compact notebook to business meetings, while still having the option to do more intensive work at home with a full-size keyboard and monitor. It’s also a great solution for those who want to play media on high quality speakers.”

Compared to other laptop docks on the market, Easy Dock stands out for its wireless quality; adding capability without contributing to cable clutter. Priced affordably at $149.99, the Easy Dock and works with Windows 7, Vista, XP, Mac OS X Leopard, and Snow Leopard. For more information, please visit http://warpia.com/Product_Guide-Easy_Dock.pdf.

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

MaxLinear, a wireless chip design company that filed for an IPO in November, will offer 5.43 million shares of its stock at between $11 and $13 a share, according to Renaissance Capital. The Carlsbad, CA-based company, which will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MXL, was founded in 2003. The IPO’s lead underwriters are Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank Securities. MaxLinear raised about $35 million from VCs and other investors. San Diego’s Mission Ventures holds about 13 percent, Menlo Park, CA-based U.S. Venture Partners has nearly 22 percent, Battery Ventures holds almost 14 percent and Sunnyvale, CA-based UMC Capital has 7 percent.

Here’s the story: I’m in love with the Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless tablet. Free from cables, it’s the best graphics tablet experience I’ve ever had.

Smoother Than the Smoothest Thing

The Wacom Intuos 4 was quite a leap from the Intuos 3. It doubled the pressure sensitive levels, and it added multifunction Touch Ring trackpad, on-screen radial menus, and eight user-definable buttons with OLED tags—called ExpressKeys—in a thin, ultralight 2.2-pound package. The Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless has all those characteristics, and they work equally as well over the Bluetooth connection.

With a sightly smaller working surface than the Medium model—8 x 5 inches versus the 8.8 x 5.5 inches of the cable-bound model—the wireless tablet is a pure joy to use. The 2048 levels of pressure sensitiveness, requiring only 1 gram of pressure to start painting vs the 10 grams of the previous version, offer the best real drawing simulation of any of the tablets I’ve ever tried. It feels like the real thing, with the slightest touch transferred to the screen as if it was real media. The brushstrokes are as smooth and precise as the real thing, and the tablet never misses a single beat, no matter how fast I try to move its very comfortable stylus—which comes with different tips for different surface feedback.

This performance is not only good for digital painting. It is perfect to retouch in Photoshop, allowing you to mask or clone with absolute precision, down to the last pixel, without having to vary the size of the brush. It makes everyday brush tasks so easy it makes me giddy when I’m using it.

Screw the Keyboard

But plenty of other tablet features also help dramatically in the daily workflow, allowing you to circumvent the keyboard almost completely.

Take the multifunction Touch Ring, a circular trackpad that allows you to perform four different, user-definable functions, like zoom: Circling my finger in one direction would zoom in. Doing so in the opposite direction will zoom out. The second function will cycle through layers, the third will change the brush size—although sadly this doesn’t work in Photoshop—and the fourth rotates the canvas to face the physical orientation of your tablet. To switch to the next function, you click in the middle button. An LED will change and your monitor will display an elegant transparent dialog that fades in and out briefly, but long enough to identify the new trackpad function.

The eight user-definable ExpressKeys are located in a perfect position: Four above and four below the Touch Ring. Each is labeled with a completely customizable OLED display, much like the Optimus Maximum keyboard, but presented in a starkly contrasting black and white. (The display looks so good that, at first glance, you’re sure the buttons are permanent, backlit cutouts.) Like the Touch Ring, you can define the functions for these buttons using the Wacom control panel. The labels will change according to your preference.

Another favorite feature of mine—which I’ve been jonesing for since I stopped using Alias PowerAnimator and Maya—are the radial menus. These are just software-based and can also be found on the Cintiq line, but they are great timesavers. Pop-up radial menus are easier to use than regular pop-up list menus (both for mouse and tablet operation). They are also user-defined, and give you eight functions at a time, which can also be sub-menus.

However, the best thing is that all these features can be application dependent, something that was possible with previous Wacom tablets, but not with this level of detail and finesse. In Photoshop, for example, my radial menus are tailored to fit my most used program features. The result is that I touch the keyboard very rarely, if at all.

Perfect Wireless Performance

All these cool features and exceptional performance, however, are shared with the existing, cheaper, cabled Intuos 4. The question here is: How good is the performance of the Intuos 4 Wireless over the Bluetooth connection? And what about the battery life?

Response is just as fast and just as good. The Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless works just like the USB-based Intuos 4.

As for the lithium ion battery, it charges quickly via USB. The tablet puts itself to sleep when it detects no signal and, as a result, you can use the tablet for a day, heavily, without recharging it at all. (Or just keep it around without worrying about losing power.) The advantage of USB recharging is that you can be using it while connected to the computer, with the cable itself as the connection (the Bluetooth goes off when the tablet is connected physically).

My only little gripe with the wireless component of the tablet is that, on occasion, it will take a few seconds to reconnect when you turn it on. This happened when the computer wakes up first, so I suspect is an issue with Bluetooth getting silly after the Mac wakes up. 99% of the times is instantaneous, however.

A Joy to Use

If you have a Wacom Intuos 4 you can probably skip this upgrade. That is, unless you are itching to have the freedom of movement of the Bluetooth connection. That’s the joy of this tablet: You can move around freely with it. It adapts to your position, not the other way around. You don’t depend on your table. You can lay back on your chair, and lose yourself in hours of photo retouching or illustration.

Given the nature of its custom menus, any user can take advantage of the Intuos 4 for every program. You can be using it constantly, instead of a mouse. If you just want to use it for graphic applications, however, another advantage is that you can put it away easily, without having to disconnect it or struggle with cables.

This tablet could only be bettered if they made it into a wireless display. Like the iPad, but connected to the computer so I can use Photoshop on my bed, the sofa or outside on the terrace (the Bluetooth signal gets there, I tried). Like the Cintiq 12 I tried, but with the same response, weight, and form factor.

If you have an Intuos 3 or any other display-less Wacom tablet, get the Intuos 4 Wireless. Even though it doesn’t come with a mouse—like the regular Intuos 4 Medium—it’s absolutely worth its $399 price tag (just $30 more than the USB-based Intuos 4’s list price).

Amazing performance with 2048 levels of pressure and only 1 gram of minimum pressure


Touch Ring and ExpressKeys customizable controls avoids touching the keyboard


Slightly pricier than Intuos 4 Medium, and it doesn’t come with the mouse


A couple of times it took the Intuos 4 a few seconds to reconnect after being asleep, although this is probably related to the computer coming out of sleep as well

Call me a cynic, but I’m not sure this is ever going to happen: the FCC wants to dedicate a chunk of the wireless spectrum to providing free internet service.

The FCC plans to make its recommendation under the National Broadband Plan set for release next week, which has the goal of making broadband more affordable for everyone in America.

Of course, they didn’t, you know, say how they were going to do such a thing. And they’re going to have to claw that spectrum out of the cold, dead hands of telecom lobbyists. But you know what? Good for them for actually worrying about what people would benefit from instead of what gigantic telecoms want.

But still. We’ll see. [Reuters]