To summarize: after the deal, Apple will immediately become a giant payments company, with an installation base that is expected to encompass half of all mobile devices sold. The company will have the best local search abilities, far exceeding any existing recommendation engine. And due to its enormous reach, it will possess a payment system that merchants will line up to support.

Apple dominates mobile sales. Mobile apps. Music. Why not electronic payment and local search as well. Makes sense to me.

It only takes half a second for Google to return a search based on keywords you type in, but there’s a whole lot more happening behind the scenes to give you the results you need. Google on Monday launched a video that explains the science behind how the massive search engine actually works.

This infographic provides a snapshot of how the number of connected devices has exploded since the birth of the Internet and the PC, as well as a glimpse forward to 2020. The Internet may be huge, but it’s going to get alot bigger. According to infographic below, there will be 31 billion devices and 4 billion people will be connected to the internet by 2020. Read more: http://www.smashingapps.com/2011/09/11/the-internet-of-things-infographic.html#ixzz1YIJtVn00

[Found via SmashingApps]

Groupon has filed its S-1 and hopes to raise $750M in its initial public offering. Given they’re currently losing a staggering $117M per quarter, despite revenues of $644M, they’ll be burning through that cash almost as soon as it hits their account.

At the moment, it’s costing them $1.43 to make $1, and it doesn’t look like it’s getting any cheaper. They’re already projected to make close to three billion dollars in revenues this year. If you can’t figure out how to make money on three billion in revenue, when exactly will the profit magic be found? Ten billion? Fifty billion?

Now clearly the IPO is as much about future performance as anything. But it still makes you wonder doesn’t it.

First models are due in June and will retail for $99. My Sony Vaio laptop and my smart phone do everything I need (and a lot more) when I am on the move. Therefore, I don’t need an iPad or other more expensive tablet. But I am an avid notetaker. Rarely are my mechanical pencil and legal pad more then a few feet from me. So something like this might be just what I need.