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National Strategy for the Arctic Region Announced

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:41:49 -0400

The Arctic is rapidly changing. While the Arctic region has experienced warming and cooling cycles over millennia, the current warming trend is unlike anything previously recorded. As sea ice diminishes, ocean resources are more readily accessible. This accessibility, along with recent scientific estimates indicating the presence of significant energy and other resources, have inspired strong interest for new commercial initiatives in the region, including energy production, increased shipping, scientific research, tourism, and related infrastructure development. As an Arctic nation, the United States must be proactive and disciplined in addressing changing regional conditions and in developing adaptive strategies to protect its interests. An undisciplined approach to exploring new opportunities in this frontier could result in significant harm to the region, to our national security interests, and to the global good.

Today, we are releasing the National Strategy for the Artic Region. Through this strategy, we are setting the United States Government’s strategic priorities for the Arctic region. These priorities are intended to position the United States to respond effectively to emerging opportunities – while simultaneously pursuing efforts to protect and conserve this unique environment.

Sweden and the Euro: Logos-driven People vs. Pathos-driven Establishment

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:50:22 -0400

When the common European currency was launched, Milton Friedman predicted with eerie foresight: “Sooner or later, when the global economy hits a real bump, Europe’s internal contradictions will tear it apart.” In 2003, Sweden held a referendum on the issue of joining the EMU. The Swedish elite on both the left and the right virtually [...]

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Ericsson trials HetNet-friendly ‘City Site’: Would you like ads with your base station?

Fri, 03 May 2013 05:20:45 -0400

The Swedish networking firm and China Mobile have launched a commercial trial of Ericsson's City Site package. It provides a good hint of the sort of street furniture 'network densification' may require.

These Awesome Charts Highlight Just How Diversified (or Homogeneous) Some Nations' Exports Are

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:36:10 -0400

Ever wondered what the leading exports of Antarctica or North Korea or the Solomon Islands are? Well you've come to the right place. Courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons and the Observatory of Economic Complexity, Benzinga has compiled an array of export tree maps from countries and regions around the globe,

United States Ranks as 19th Best Country for Retirees

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 01:00:00 -0400

DailyFinance.com: (Alamy) By MANDI WOODRUFF For retirees hoping to live long and prosper in their golden years, the U.S. is only the 19th best place to be, according to a new index by the NGAM Durable Portfolio Research Center. The humbling report, called the ... Read more

Magine Is The Best Internet-Based Cable TV Service You Can't Use (Unless You Live In Sweden)

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 11:00:58 -0400

Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime offer compelling alternatives to cable TV for those who don’t want to subscribe to regular cable. But what if you could subscribe to an Internet-based cable TV service that doesn’t need a set-top box, has a DVR-like catch-up TV feature and great search and still lets you watch live TV right on your regular smart TV at home (or stream shows from your iOS device to your Apple TV using AirPlay)? That’s what Magine has built and is launching in Sweden on Monday. There, users in this “First Edition,” as Magine calls it, will be able to pay about ten euro per month to get about 30 channels after their 30-day trial period ends. Those 30 channels including many local channels, as well as CNN International, BBC World News, National Geographic, Cartoon Network and others. The company plans to add more channels as it secures the rights to them. Magine is essentially a cable TV startup – a cable operator in the cloud – and thanks to the deals it has with its local broadcasters and the payment structure for compensating broadcasters that is in place in Europe, the company only pays a per-user fee to the broadcasters that are currently in its line-up. Because it runs as a cloud service, it doesn’t have any of the capital expenses the legacy cable systems face (there’s no need to lay cables and maintain them, after all). I first saw a demo of Magine at DLD in Munich earlier this year and have been a happy beta user ever since. Sadly, the way the U.S. broadcasting and cable system is set up, it’s unlikely that we’ll see Magine here anytime soon, but as the Magine team told me, the company has big plans to expand across Europe and is talking with a number local and pan-European broadcasters to make this possible. Indeed, as Magine stressed when I talked to them earlier this week, it’s important to remember that this is not some rogue outfit but it’s moving ahead with the blessing of the broadcasting industry. The broadcasters are happy to work with Magine, after all, given that the company adds money into the value chain and is basically just another distributor. All of that is pretty cool, but the team also build a great user experience that shows what cable TV in the 21st century should look like (and

After 20 Years, Sweden’s Labor Market Still Hasn’t Recovered

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 09:28:38 -0500

By many accounts, Sweden did a great job managing its financial and fiscal crises in the early 1990s. But more than 20 years onward, its unemployment rate is still higher than before the crisis, as noted in a recent commentary by the Cleveland Fed’s O. Emre Ergungor (ht: Torsten Slok): And its labor force participation [...]

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It's International Women's Day: How Do We Compare on Fiscal Equality?

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 09:50:00 -0500

DailyFinance.com: When it comes to best places in the world to be a woman, it's not surprising that the U.S. falls behind nations like Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Scandinavian countries, after all, are famed for their impressive social contracts, with the ... Read more

How Currency Movements Impact International ETFs

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:01:27 -0500

Exchange traded funds that focus on foreign countries can affected by currency movements as well as the direction of stock markets. Currency fluctuations against the U.S. dollar are one factor that can have a big impact on the overall investment return. With ETFs, investors can get exposure to...

Big in India, Swedish phone directory service Truecaller hits 10M user milestone

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:00:32 -0500

Do phone directories still have a place in the age of the smartphone? It appears they might do when you're trying to combat phone spam.

Volvo signs with Ericsson for cloud-based in-car apps, probably including Spotify

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:42:34 -0500

The deal is Ericsson's first for its Connected Vehicle Cloud platform, which will provide Volvo drivers with infotainment apps and aftermarket services. It looks like Volvo will be keeping its platform mostly closed, though.

Minecraft creations meet the real world through augmented reality iOS app

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 09:00:35 -0500

Minecraft Reality, co-developed by 'computer vision' firm 13th Lab and Mojang, lets fans of the hugely successful game upload their creations into the real world for others to see. And this isn't some floaty gimmick - we're talking positioning with sub-centimeter accuracy.

New App Allows Riddles of the Ancients to be Solved on the Phone

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 15:55:31 -0500

App for turning iPhone pics into cash adds 10% commission

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 08:40:47 -0500

iPhones with 5- and 8-megapixel cameras are turning a lot of people into better and more prolific photographers. The Swedish company behind Foap, which lets anyone sell iPhone pictures through their app, has changed its quality standards and is offering a better incentive for users.

Magine aims to be a cloud pay TV service without the box

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:55:33 -0500

Tomorrow's pay-TV box could be a handheld device or an in-TV app, if Magine, a new Swedish service using existing consumer gadgets and cloud distribution, gets its way.

HowDo offers intriguing take on instructional storyboards

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 20:01:47 -0400

The startup, which has just announced seed funding from some impressive backers, combines photos with short sound clips to create a fresh take on the 'how to' video. It feels like a mechanism with many uses.

Life-logging for the masses? Memoto smashes Kickstarter goal on launch day

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:29:19 -0400

Would you record your life in a series of geotagged photos? Swedish startup Memoto is betting enough people will want digital memory assistance, and their first-day performance on Kickstarter backs them up.

TeliaSonera cuts 2,000 jobs as mobile market stagnates

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:53:01 -0400

TeliaSonera's revenues and subscriber base aren't budging, but the Nordic carrier claims its costs are skyrocketing. In an effort to realign its business with new mobile data realities, the carrier said it will lay off 7 percent of its workforce over two years.

Facebook has 220 billion of your photos to put on ice

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:47:07 -0400

Facebook users love sharing photos, and the demands of that appetite are gargantuan. Infrastructure engineering VP Jay Parikh lifted the lid on Facebook's seven-petabytes-per-day photo upload task, during GigaOM's Structure:Europe conference.

Instagram search engine Worldcam proves peril of platform dependence

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:12:47 -0400

The service, which lets users search for Instagram photos by location, had a great start - for a day or so. With sudden popularity hitting the ceiling of API limits, it's just as well Worldcam is a side-project.

Anyfi raises $1.5M to build virtual hotspot networks

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 11:15:04 -0400

Sweden's Anyfi wants to turn any Wi-Fi access point into a virtual extension of mobile networks. By breaking the bond between physical radio and the Wi-Fi network, the startup will make it easier for carriers to build expansive hybrid Wi-Fi grids to offload their data traffic.

Cantemo launches a MediaBox App, integrating the turnkey DAM with Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 Software

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 16:11:02 -0400

Pirate Bay Co-Founder Arrested in Cambodia

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 21:10:00 -0400

DailyFinance.com: PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Cambodian police have arrested a co-founder of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay and are preparing his extradition to Sweden, where he was convicted of violating copyright laws. Police said Monday that Gottfrid Svartholm ... Read more

Netflix chasing down Amazon’s Lovefilm to Scandinavia

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 06:51:17 -0400

Buoyed by better results than expected from its first European foray, Netflix will head north this winter - a move which means it now competes with Lovefilm in a majority of the Amazon brand's markets.

Nordic ETF Plays for European Exposure, Minus the EU

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 07:01:04 -0400

For investors who would like exposure to Europe without taking on direct exposure to the Eurozone debt, the Global X FTSE Nordic Region ETF (NYSEArca: GXF) targets four countries from this region. Exchange traded funds tracking countries from this corner of Europe have seen renewed interest, marked...

iZettle says it’s ‘confused’ by Visa blockade

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:30:14 -0400

Europe's equivalent of Square has been going gangbusters in recent months, but after falling foul of Visa Europe, the company can no longer accept Visa cards in Denmark, Norway and Finland. What nobody is prepared to say is precisely why it's happening now.

Huawei knocks off Ericsson as world’s biggest telecom vendor

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:54:52 -0400

Huawei reported 2012 half-year revenues today that make it the largest telecom infrastructure maker in the world -- a title formerly belonging to Ericsson. The two, however, are neck and neck and a new contract or fluctuation in currency could see the two changing places once again.

Sweden’s Anyfi turns any Wi-Fi network into a small cell

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:07:27 -0400

Anyfi's has developed a tunneling technology that allows ordinary access points and residential gateways to spawn virtual Wi-Fi networks anyone can log into. The Swedish startup is betting this is the answer operators are looking for to build huge ubiquitous Wi-Fi offload networks.

13th Lab raises $700,000 to build its ‘UI for reality’

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 06:18:14 -0400

Swedish startup 13th Lab has just raised $700,000 from Nordic investors Creandum to help build its augmented reality browser and developer tools for iOS. But forget about tacky versions of AR: this team is trying to build a real interface between the digital and the physical.

Wanna get paid $5 for iPhone photos? Foap makes it easy

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 10:00:07 -0400

Foap is a Swedish company started by travel industry veterans disappointed in the availability of stock photo art. Their elegant and easy app lets anyone upload and sell iPhone photos. It also lets stock art shoppers request specific photos through a concept called "missions."

The Pirate Bay co-founders file appeal with EU court

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:48:10 -0400

The Pirate Bay's co-founders Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij mounted a last-ditch effort to overturn a prison sentence against them Wednesday, appealing to the European Court of Human Rights. The step comes after the duo exhausted all legal remedies within Sweden.

Now Wrapp goes head to head with Samwers in Germany

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 10:59:11 -0400

After the CEO of social gifting company Wrapp said he wanted to take on Germany's notorious Samwer brothers, the business is finally delivering by launching in Germany and taking on the copycat kings on their home territory.

Groupon shareholder Kinnevik heads for the door

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 04:11:19 -0400

Swedish investment group Kinnevik has cut its ties with Groupon, selling up its remaining stake in the daily deals company for $81.5 million -- a shareholding that was valued at almost $200 million when the company went public in November.

One Hundred Years of Innovation Brings Olympic Timekeeping to Everyone

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 06:47:48 -0400

iZettle banks $31m to become the global Square

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 02:46:32 -0400

Since coming out of beta last year, Swedish payments service iZettle has been very careful about how it has grown. The company — which, like Square, lets people take card payments through their iPhone — first launched in its home market, then the rest of the [...]

Meet the Q&A site where people pay $150 for answers

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 08:47:20 -0400

Forget Quora: Swedish startup Mancx is trying to put a twist on question and answer sites by getting people to pay real money for the information they receive -- and it's just raised another $1.65m to expand.

Meet the Q&A site where people pay $150 for answers

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 08:00:47 -0400

How big data predicted Eurovision — and offended Malta

Mon, 28 May 2012 07:02:44 -0400

When a data scientist crunched enough numbers to predict that Sweden would win this weekend's Eurovision Song Contest, he felt fairly confident. But he didn't expect that the biggest noise would be the inaccurate prediction that Malta would do well -- something he's now apologized for.

The 10 Happiest Countries in the World

Thu, 24 May 2012 06:00:00 -0400

DailyFinance.com: By Michael B. Sauter For the second year in a row, 24/7 Wall St. examined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's report on life satisfaction in the developed world. Economic prosperity, health and a strong social support ... Read more

iZettle, Europe’s rival to Square, hits the UK

Wed, 16 May 2012 03:00:03 -0400

Swedish payments startup iZettle is making its most significant since coming out of beta last year, with a pilot program to enter the potentially huge British market. Until now the company, billed as Europe’s equivalent to Square, has so far only made its product — a [...]

Apple drops iPad ’4G’ marketing — but not everywhere

Mon, 14 May 2012 05:24:00 -0400

Under pressure because the new iPad's 4G connectivity does not work outside North America, the company has started dropping its claims in some international markets -- like the UK and Australia -- but not in others.

Thinglink buys Pixboom for ‘tricky’ fashion play

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:08:37 -0400

The acq-hire gives image tagging startup ThingLink a solid foothold in the lucrative fashion blogging sector, but the Finnish firm also has another defensive move up its sleeve, according to CEO Ulla Engeström.

How Germany’s Pirate Party is hacking politics

Tue, 01 May 2012 08:00:31 -0400

Founded on an agenda of copyfighting and radical transparency, Pirate parties are making political ground across Europe. Now its possible that the German offshoot could become the third party in the nation's politics. So what do the pirates really want?

Ericsson CEO: Don’t look now but HetNet is sneaking up on us

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:41:58 -0400

The heterogeneous network, or HetNet, will turn today's big-tower cellular systems into dense, multi-layered and tremendously high capacity networks. Given the complexity of such systems, it’s easy to imagine HetNet as a technology of the future, but Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg says you would be wrong.

Scandinavia’s hottest digital startups: payments firms

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:51:54 -0400

Payments are big up north. A Square competitor and an online payments facilitator are named the Nordic region's most promising digital outfits.

Sweden Buckles Under Russian Pressure on Arbitration

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:22:36 -0400

A few weeks ago we published a story on the controversial move by a Swedish judge, whose husband acts as a lawyer on behalf of the Russian Federation, who intervened with a telephone call to the court bailiff in an attempt to freeze the auction of a Ru...

Spotify dips a toe in web waters, but isn’t yet swimming

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:39:31 -0400

Spotify has moved a step toward embracing the web by introducing a new embeddable widget - but the launch highlights perhaps one of the biggest anomalies of the music service.

Currency ETFs Look to Fed for Clues

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:00:04 -0400

Exchange traded funds pegged to the U.S. dollar and other currencies are taking their cues from central banks. In particular, dollar ETFs are sensitive to the prospect of further easing from the Federal Reserve. PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (NYSEArca: UUP) is down slightly year to date....

Wrapp races to outpace DropGifts with German launch

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 03:32:11 -0400

In what is starting to look like an e-commerce version of Risk, Wrapp is retaliating against clone-artists Rocket Internet by launching on their home turf and detailing ambitious expansion plans

Tripbirds is gorgeous, but can social travel fly?

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:23:02 -0400

Swedish startup Tripbirds wants to bring its stylish approach to bear on the social travel market. But with so many services around, and so few obvious winners, is there even a market worth competing for?