QR Codes used By 14 Million In June Alone While different augmented reality technologies are gaining ground, All things Digital on Thursday reported that in June 2011 alone, some 6% of U.S. phone owners, or a whopping 14 million people, used their mobile devices to scan a QR code.
Nintendo Games on iPhones? Nintendo has famously said it’ll defend its gaming market by only developing software for its own hardware, but now its investors are pressuring Nintendo to build games for the iPhone. the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and App Store’s explosion in new games has already helped cap the launch success of the 3DS. and in order to secure revenues, Nintendo’s investors are saying the firm should diversify. –KE
HTC buys some Beats. HTC is already battling for smartphone maker market share, mostly with Samsung in the Android market, so now it’s spending $300 million in a strategic deal with Beats Electronics, buying a majority stake so it can put the tech behind the Beats By Dre headphones in its smartphones. It’s all about improving the sound coming from mobile phones, which are replacing MP3 players, and also about grabbing some street cred. –KE
Intel’s $300 Million Anti-Tablet Gamble. Sour grape-sounding words from Acer’s founder aside, tens of millions of iPad sales signal a move away from the laptop and desktop market Intel dominates to a mobile landscape that’s largely powered by ARM silicon. so Intel is forking over $300 million to create the Ultrabook Fund. this cash pile will improve better UIs, better battery life, and slim tech to power its answer to tablets–the ultralight laptop. which is basically the MacBook Air, cloned. the tech could power, via Intel CPUs, some tablets too. –KE
–Updated 04:00 a.m. EST
Yesterday’s Fast Feed: Vudu’s iPad App, Groupon Revises S-1, Walmart Shuts MP3 Store, Bing’s Market Share…and more…