News Byte

Not Just Toys: LittleBits Raises $11.1M to Expand Amateur Electronics Products

LittleBits, which has sold hundreds of thousands of modular electronics kits that snap together with magnets, has raised $11.1 million in Series B funding led by True Ventures and Foundry Group. The company has offered increasingly complex, powerful and robotic tools, including its latest, an audio synth kit. “It’s been very easy to put ourselves in the bucket of toys, but we set out to change the face of electronics,” said CEO and founder Ayah Bdeir.

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Sony Cuts Profit Outlook by 40 Percent After Second-Quarter Loss

Sony Corp. cut its full-year profit outlook Thursday after its fiscal second-quarter net loss widened due to a loss in its movie business.

Toshiba to Lay Off 3,000 From Troubled TV Unit

Drastic measures for a poorly performing business.

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Scientists Build First Nanotube Computer

In an advance toward a future of smaller, faster and more powerful electronics, researchers at Stanford University on Wednesday unveiled the first working computer built entirely from carbon nanotube transistors.

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Robots May Revolutionize China’s Electronics Manufacturing

Machines in the pipeline will supplant workers as pay soars and people age.

Chip Sales Grew in May at Fastest Rate in Three Years

A metric that doesn’t lie.

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FAA to Relax Rules for Gadgets in Flight

Airline passengers irritated at having to turn off their devices could soon see some reprieve, with regulators set to allow wider use of gadgets in flight.

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Sony Board to Discuss Third Point Plan

Under pressure from an activist investor to take part of its entertainment business public, Sony said it plans to discuss the proposal with its board.

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Japan’s Electronics Under Siege

Hedge-fund billionaire Daniel Loeb’s campaign to pressure Sony Corp. into spinning off its entertainment arm is the latest tremor to ripple through Japan’s electronics industry, already reeling from unprecedented losses stemming from its lost standing in the technology world.

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Sharp Loss Widens to $5.36 Billion

After posting an annual net loss of ¥545 billion ($5.4 billion), the biggest in its 100-year history, Sharp Corp. said it plans to replace both its president and chairman after just one year in an unusually public rebuke of former management that underscores the depth of the struggling electronics maker’s problems.