Walmart’s Silicon Valley division @WalmartLabs has announced that they have acquired two startup companies, OneOps and Tasty Labs. OneOps is a cloud computing company and Tasty Labs is a software development company. Tasty Labs was co-founded by Delicious founder Joshua Schachter. Tasty Labs’ two flagship services are Jig.com and Human.io, which are now being redirected to Walmart’s website. The terms of the deal are undisclosed.
Wal-Mart is tripling the number of U.S. stores that will support the Scan & Go program. Scan & Go lets shoppers scan items with their iPhones and pay at self-checkout counters. Scan & Go will be in over 200 stores, which is up from 70. The pilot began at a store near their headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas in late 2012. From there, the program expanded to Atlanta.
Wal-Mart has started selling the 16GB iPhone 5 for $127 with a contract. The discounted price is valid with a two-year contract form Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T. Wal-Mart is also selling the 16GB iPhone 4S and the 16GB iPad with Retina Display at a large discount also. The offer is valid across 3,000 Wal-Mart stores and will be available for around 30 days. The discounted iPhones are not available online either.
Brick-and-mortar retail juggernaut Walmart has reported that they have had the best Black Friday ever. Around 22 million customers came into their stores on Thursday. During Black Friday from 8PM-midnight, Walmart processed nearly 10 million register transactions (5,000 items per second) according to TNW. Walmart said that they have seen an “amazing turnout” for the iPad 2, LG Blu-ray players, and LCD TVs.
The Boxee TV will start selling on Walmart shelves starting tomorrow. The Boxee TV lets you stream content from Netflix or YouTube. Walmart will put the device in 3,000 of their U.S. locations starting tomorrow. The Boxee TV sells at a price of $98 just in time for the holiday season.
Wal-Mart is no longer selling Amazon Kindle products. This means that it is the second major retail chain to stop selling Amazon products as they join Target Corporation. ”We have recently made the business decision to not carry Amazon tablets and eReaders beyond our existing inventory and purchase commitments,” said Wal-Mart in a memo sent to store managers. “This includes all Amazon Kindle models current and recently announced.”
The Regents of the University of California and their patent licensee Eolas Technologies has filed lawsuits against Facebook, Disney, and Wal-Mart over 4 technology patents that they believe the companies are infringing. The four patents used in the lawsuit are listed below:
If you prefer to buy phones that are unlocked and you are an Android fanboy, you may want to consider picking up the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II from Wal-Mart. The Galaxy S II will be selling for $299 unlocked at Wal-Mart. This is a great deal considering that the Galaxy S II is selling at Boost Mobile for $360 and $550 at T-Mobile itself. However the Galaxy S II has to sell with a no-contract plan of at least $30, but it can be cancelled shortly after. Below is the press release:
