Redbull Amplifier an accelerator for music start-ups

Redbull Amplifier is a new type of accelerator that will plug music start-ups that might just change the face of music into Redbull's global channels.

Applications close on April 22nd 2013 and then will be screened by a panel of experts including Mercury-nominated Ghostpoet; former hip-hop mag editor and Red Bull Music Academy’s own Davide Bortot, Venturebeat’s Ciara Byrne, and SoundCloud’s Dave Haynes.

Anyone can apply (with as many ideas as they want) as long as their product is innovative, and enhances the music experience for fan or artist (or both).

Applications should entered on-line at Redbull Amplifier.

Zigbee targets Internet of Things

The Zigbee Alliance has published its latest spec allowing huge numbers of Zigbee devices to directly connect which is seen necessary for future Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

Zigbee (the path a bee flies) is an IEEE standard (IEEE 802.15.4) and the new IP Direct Internet Connection addition adds support for network and security layers and an application framework that is scalable with IPv6 connected devices. The Zigbee Alliance state it is the first IPv6 open wireless mesh standard.

The main advantages of Zigbee against other systems is that it's very low power, automatically meshes new nodes and supports a wide range of standards such as 6LoWPAN, IPv6, PANA, RPL, TCP, TLS and UDP as well as supporting end-to-end encryption. It operates in the licence exempt 2.4GHz band as well as other bands in other regions.

NVidia delays Tegra4 and revenues will be "flat"

NVidia the chipmaker famed for its high performance graphics cards and now low power Tegra smartphone chips has delayed the introduction of the Tegra4 for about 3 months so it can ensure the integrated LTE is fully ready (in the Tegra4i version). The Tegra3 is used is tablets like Google's Nexus 7.

LTE is seen as a must have for next generation tablets and integrated on to the CPU rather than a separate radio chip.

The delay will give Qualcomm who are already market leaders in the integrated CPU market with their Snapdragon series of cores - and they already have a 4 core chip on the market which will be used in high-end devices like Samsung's Galaxy S4 (in Europe at least).

Though NVidia has been reasonably successful with its Tegra3 chip, it's been a difficult journey with them having to make significant re-designs along the way to fix design issues with the chip. Getting the Tegra4i right will mean long term cost savings.