TechBiz

Silicon Valley's Eric Migicovsky had a vision for a watch that would seamlessly and wirelessly sync with his smartphone, alerting him to incoming calls, texts and emails. His idea, eventually dubbed Pebble, attracted the attention of business incubator Y Combinator and raised $375,000 from a few angel investors.

"Then he hit a roadblock," says Mark Milian at Bloomberg. "A big one." Pebble couldn't raise any more money, and the project screeched to a halt. So Migicovsky turned to the popular "crowd-funding" website Kickstarter, and suddenly, Pebble had scored an astonishing $10 million investment (Watch Migicovsky's video pitch at TheWeek.com).

Here, a guide to the multi-million dollar wristwatch's incredible journey.

 

By John Shinal

 

When it comes to comparing blockbuster Internet IPOs, make no mistake: The sequel produced by Facebook will be a bigger hit than the original from Google (GOOG) eight years ago.

 

At the same time, however, the very success of this week’s Facebook offering will make it harder for retail investors to make the kind of money on its shares that they did on Google, which tripled in their first year.

 

Simply put, if you don’t already own Facebook shares, you’re late to the party.

 

By David Hatch

 

Think Lowe's (LOW), and two words come to mind: home improvement. But if the nation's second-largest home renovation chain succeeds with plans to harness mobile technology to improve store sales, another word could become synonymous with Lowe's: smartphone.

 

Lowe's, named by U.S. News as one of America's Most Connected Companies for its embrace of mobile communications, has embarked on an ambitious effort to grow its business with the distribution late last year of more than 42,000 iPhones to employees nationwide at its 1,725 stores. The devices, retrofitted to serve as price scanners and powered with extra batteries, make it easy for sales reps to handle customer requests on the spot. The iPhones connect to the Internet through in-store wireless networks and are equipped with credit card readers that will eventually be activated to ring up sales. Reinforcing the emphasis on mobility, in February store managers were outfitted with iPads.

 

If you're thinking about buying a new Mac, you might want to hold off. Apple (AAPL) is reportedly giving its MacBook Pro line of performance notebooks the most drastic makeover it has had in years, according to sources cited on two prominent Apple blogs. The Cupertino-based company will supposedly unveil the new hardware at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), set to take place June 11-15.

But at least one analyst says the new laptops may be unveiled even sooner. "I don't see them waiting for WWDC," Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, tells Computerworld. "As soon as they have enough supply built up, they'll release them."

What kind of spec enhancements should we expect? Here, four rumored features that might be worth your patience.

 

By Jesse Bergman and Kayla Tausche

 

Facebook’s public offering will be the largest and perhaps most highly anticipated Internet deal in history. But faced with great expectations, Facebook is staring down some potentially unnerving obstacles when it comes to key areas of monetization and growth: public distrust and display advertising apathy.

 

According to a new AP-CNBC poll, 57% of Facebook users say they never click ads or other sponsored content when they use the site, with another 26% saying they hardly ever engage in such activity. Only 4% of users say they often click on ads – results that are only slightly better than the 2-3% clickthrough rate some experts consider the benchmark for effective banner ads.