Pandora Launches App For Pebble Smartwatch

Pebble owners can now control their Pandora stations directly from their smartwatch.

The service launched its first smartwatch app for streaming music Monday in Pebble's appstore.

The app, which lets users control their Pandora playlists from their Pebble, marks the first time the music-streaming service is available on a wearable device, according to Mike Grishaver, Pandora's vice-president of product

'Using the Pebble, you can view and change stations, thumb songs up and down, skip, play and pause tracks — all from your wrist,' Grishaver said in a blog post. 'The most exciting thing about the Pebble Smartwatch is that it will allow easier interaction with Pandora in cases where it hasn’t been as easy to provide feedback while listening.'

12 gadgets we'd love to see a startup re-engineer

Smartphones? Can’t live without them. 3D printers? Why not. When it comes to bringing the extraordinary into homes and workplaces, ideas are never in short supply. Even still, it’s amazing how many devices we rely on daily that seem like they are stuck in decades past. With that in mind, I asked a panel of 12 successful entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question: What is one everyday device or gadget you’d love to see totally re-engineered by a startup and why? Their top picks are below. 1. Sunglasses I’d love to find a startup that creates form-fitting glasses that are affordable.

What Is Virtual Reality and How Does It Work?

Facebook recently acquired Oculus VR, the company behind the next generation virtual reality headset Oculus Rift, for a hefty $2 billion. Before the purchase, Oculus raised more than $91 million in venture funding after an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign put them on the radar of techies and gamers alike. With all of this attention and all of this money now being invested, it looks like virtual reality is making a huge comeback.

But what is virtual reality, and how does it work? Well, we're here to explain.

See also: What Facebook Might Look Like Using Oculus Rift

The newest video in our Mashable Explains series covers everything you need to know about the basics of VR. After you watch the video above, subscribe to Mashable on YouTube for more.

Gartner: Businesses are prioritizing growth in 2014

Businesses are making growth a priority in 2014, according to a new report by Gartner. The research suggests that we are currently in a "risk-on" period, in which CEOs are prepared to invest in longer-term growth.

The Gartner CEO and Senior Executive Survey 2014 found that CEOs believe they have greater levels of control over business matters than they have in recent years.

Coupled with an improving economy, this was the major factor in targeting growth as a priority. The survey also found that ongoing changes to regulation remained an important factor in business thinking.

Top business priority

Growth was ranked as the top business priority of the year by 33% of respondents. IT priorities, such as digital, online or modern technologies, were also highly cited priorities, with 7% of respondents mentioning them.

"In 2014 growth almost equals the sum of the next three issues on the list of top strategic business priorities," said Mark Raskino, vice president and Gartner Fellow. "The next step will be for CEOs and CIOs to work together to match the use of modern technologies to the specific kind of growth that the business is trying to win."

Raskino also offered some advice for CEOs looking to invest in technology. "Make the tough choices," he said. "Be prepared to cut back in areas that represent the old pre-digital ways of doing business. But maintain a coherent and integrated view of the investment being made. Don't allow too much fragmentation across sales, marketing, digital, IT and other budgets to obscure the view and reduce directional control."

Shibulal says he is leaving behind a stronger Infosys

Accepting that the performance of Infosys in the last two years has not been "satisfactory", its CEO S D Shibulal today said the firm has been able to put behind its issues and has emerged stronger. 

Shibulal, who has often faced criticism by investors and analysts following the laggard performance of the once IT bellwether, is set to retire next year in January, two months ahead of his superannuation. 

"When I took over there were two things that were on my mind. Number one was to leave behind a stronger Infosys than what I inherited at that period. 

"I clearly believe that we have a stronger Infosys today because we have put behind all the issues and we have a new set of leaders in place to take over the organisation towards further growth," he told reporters here. 

He further said: "Second on performance, our performance for the last two years in my mind is not satisfactory. But at the same time I believe that we have improved our performance year on year by hundred per cent and have bridged the gap...". 

The Bangalore-based firm today reported 25 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,992 crore for the fourth quarter of last fiscal from Rs 2,394 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue for the reported quarter rose 23.2 per cent to Rs 12,875 crore from Rs 10,454 crore. 

"If I look at the period, I have made number of choices and I think they were all the right choices," Shibulal, one of the seven co-founders of the IT major, said. 

Stating that he took over the role of CEO in a very challenging environment, Shibulal said Infosys was facing several external and internal challenges during that period. 

"The external environment was challenging because of the economic uncertainty in the environment as well as the specific challenges faced by our clients," he added. 

He said internal challenges were many when he took over like transformation to Infosys 3.0 and legal challenges. 

"Today we concluded all these challenges the employee retaliation cases have been concluded, the justice department probe has been concluded....I have done extensive client meetings and have articulated the new Infosys 3.0 strategy and mitigated any impact," Shibulal noted. 

In response to a question on why the decision on leaving the office comes before the term ends, Shibulal said, "My superannuation will come in March, in January there will be board meeting for that....it was more important to share a plan and announce that the transition will be effective."

"Given that the board had initiated the search, I thought that now is the best time to provide clarity and remove any uncertainty about how it will happen, so that's what I did. I will transition either in January or at the earliest point that when the nominations committee will decide the next candidate," he added. 

Shibulal also clarified that he will resign both as CEO and as the member of the board as and when it happens.

Twitter buys social data provider Gnip

Twitter Inc said it bought social data provider Gnip to provide enhanced data analytics capabilities to its business customers. 

Twitter did not disclose the price it paid for Gnip. 

"Together we plan to offer more sophisticated data sets and better data enrichments, so that even more developers and businesses big and small around the world can drive innovation using the unique content that is shared on Twitter," the microblogging company said in a blog. (http://r.reuters.com/haq58v) 

Founded in 2008, Gnip has a four-year-old partnership with Twitter and helps companies analyze data across every public tweet. 

Gnip also has partnerships with other social media companies such as Tumblr, WordPress, Foursquare, Disqus, IntenseDebate, StockTwits and GetGlue. 

Twitter's shares were little changed at $41.02 in late morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Tiny computer hard drives closer to reality

A new technique to study the interface between materials may pave way for miniature computer hard drives, better solar cells and novel superconductors, scientists say.

A team of scientists, led by Assistant Professor Andrivo Rusydi from the National University of Singapore, has successfully developed a technique to study the interface between materials.

With a better understanding of how materials interface, scientists can tweak the properties of different materials more easily, and this opens doors to the development of better solar cells, novel superconductors and smaller hard drives.

Some of the most exciting condensed matter physics problems are found at the interfaces of dissimilar materials.

"If you put two materials together, you can create completely new properties. For instance, two non-conducting, non-magnetic insulators can become conducting and in some cases ferromagnetic and superconducting at their interface," said Rusydi.

"The problem is that we do not fully understand what is happening at the interface yet," said Rusydi.

To resolve this long-standing mystery in the physics of condensed matter, the scientists investigated the interface between strontium titanate and lanthanum aluminate, two insulators that become conductors at their interface. In doing this, the team uncovered another mystery.

"For this interface, a theory predicts that the conductivity should be tenfold higher than what is observed. So, 90 per cent of the charge carriers - the electrons - are missing," said Rusydi.

To search for the missing electrons, the scientists employed high-energy reflectivity coupled with spectroscopic ellipsometry.

They utilised the bright synchrotron radiation source at the Singapore Synchrotron Light Source at NUS and Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and floodlighted the interface of the two materials with a wide energy range.

The absorption of synchrotron radiation at specific wavelengths revealed the energy state of the corresponding electrons and unveiled their hiding place in the crystal lattice, researchers said.

It was found that only about 10 per cent of the expected electrons are free to migrate to the interface of the two materials to form a conduction band.

The remaining 90 per cent are bound in the molecular lattice at higher energy states that were not visible to light sources used in earlier searches.

"This came as a surprise. But it also explains why more than just one layer is necessary to fully unfold the interface properties," said Rusydi.

The finding was published in the journal Nature Communication.

Taiwanese technology firm Asus eyes 10% share in Indian tablet market

 Taiwanese technology   firm Asus today said it aims to grow its share in the Indian tablet   market to 10 per cent by the end of this year as it expands product portfolio and enhances retail presence across the country. 

"Currently, we have single digit market share between 3-5 per cent. The Indian tablet market is estimated to be about 50 lakh units. We want to grow our share to 10 per cent this year," Asus Regional Head South Asia and India Manager System Business Group Peter Chang told PTI. 

The company, which has partnered Google for its Nexus 7 tablet, sells its own brand of tablets under the FonePad range. It sells hybrid tablets (which can be used as a netbook) under the Transformer Book range. 

"We have been introducing products relevant to the Indian market and will continue to do so. This year, we plan to launch 3-5 more products across our FonePad and Transformer Book range," he said. 

The company today launched its Fonepad 7 dual SIM tablet, priced at Rs 12,999. 

The seven-inch device allows 3G calling and has HD display, 5MP rear camera, 1.2 MP front camera and supports 64GB microSD memory chips. 

It is equipped with Intel Atom Z2520 1.2GHz dual core processor and runs on Android Jellybean operating system, which can be upgraded to the latest KitKat OS after June. 

"We are also looking at expanding our retail presence. We plan to double the number of our exclusive stores from 100 now to expand to tier II and III towns," he said. 

According to research firm IDC, tablet sales in India, one of the largest growth markets for the smart device, are expected to remain flat this year on account of mandatory BIS compliance and increasing demand for 'phablets'. 

Last year, tablet sales in India grew 56.4 per cent to 4.14 million units against 2.66 million units in 2012, according to industry estimates, primarily driven by strong demand for low-cost models from stables of Micromax and Lava, among others. 

According to analysts, Asia Pacific and China currently have the highest tablet penetration rates among emerging markets, though Brazil, India and Russia are also expected to experience significant growth.