China’s Silicon Valley sparking 49 tech startups a day

China’s answer to Silicon Valley is experiencing a surge in new technology companies as the world’s most populous nation reduces its reliance on manufacturing.

Beijing’s Zhongguancun district birthed 49 startups daily last year as innovation takes root in the country, Wan Gang, the nation’s minister of science and technology, said Wednesday at a briefing for the National People’s Congress in Beijing. China now has more than 1,600 technology incubators, Wan said.

Apple Introduces A Reinvented MacBook, Starting At $1299

At its event in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center, Apple today confirmed a long-running rumor that resurfaced back in January: The next major iteration of the MacBook will be a 12-inch Retina laptop that’s thinner and lighter than Apple’s previous trend-setting design.

The laptop Apple revealed on-stage today mostly lines up with the rumors reported earlier this year. The laptop has a smaller bezel around its screen and its keyboard reaches both edges of the base. The trackpad doesn’t click in the traditional sense — instead, the Taptic engine that provides touch feedback on the Apple Watch simulates the sensation of clicking. You can also now use the push harder than the usual tap and have it count as a separate gesture, just like the Watch.

The Apple Watch Battery Is Replaceable

The Apple Watch got its grand unveiling yesterday. You can read our round-up of details from Apple’s event here. But as tech watchers chewed over the price-tag for the latest luxury gizmo to be born in Cupertino talk turned to obsolescence.

The Apple Watch starts at $349 for the sports watch and rises to a cool $17,000 for top-of-the-luxury-line 18-karat gold Edition. But who wants to shell out thousands for an add-on electronic device that’s likely going to be obsolete in two years?

Obama Vows Response to North Korea Hack

President Obama also stated that Sony "made a mistake" in shelving the film.

President Barack Obama declared Friday that Sony "made a mistake" in shelving a satirical film about a plot to assassinate North Korea's leader and pledged the U.S. would respond "in a place and manner and time that we choose" to the hack attack on Sony that the FBI blamed on the communist government.

How Clear Is The Future Of Google Glass?

Some ideas are ahead of their time.

There is no question that the wearables market is taking off with the proliferation of health monitors, pedometers and activity trackers like Fitbit, Jawbone, Nike Fuelband, etc. And next year the Apple Watch will likely make the wearable watch the next big thing. Gartner boldly predicted that companies using Glass and similar wearable gadgets could save up to $1 billion a year within the next three to five years.

News Corp Buys India-Based Financial Planning Service BigDecisions.com

Fresh from making its first investment in India last month, News Corp has now completed its first acquisition in the country, buying financial planning service BigDecisions.com as Next Big What first reported.

YouTube Now Tells You How Copyrighted Music Will Affect Your Video Before You Upload It

Google today launched a new feature in the YouTube Audio Library that allows uploaders who use copyrighted music to see exactly what will happen to their videos before they upload them.
When you upload a video to YouTube today, the service’s Content ID system will automatically try to figure out if you’re using any copyrighted music in it.