Mobile add-ons are getting serious. Though still in its testing phase, some engineers have created a “dongle” that -- when plugged in to an iPhone -- can diagnose HIV and syphilis in 15 minutes flat. “Researchers from Columbia University developed the dongle to make it easier for healthcare workers in remote areas to identify people with life-threatening sexually transmitted diseases,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “The HIV and syphilis tests that are currently available cost as much as $8.50 combined and can take more than 2.5 hours.” 

Apple is now promoting gaming apps that don't have any In-App Purchases right on the front page of its App Store. The games are housed in a new section dubbed, “Pay Once & Play.” Putting the move into context, Mac Stories notes: “Apple has dealt with numerous complaints and investigations over the nature of freemium games and how they were advertised as free downloads, while effectively hiding major gameplay features behind In-App Purchases.”

Though it isn’t scheduled to launch until this spring, ecommerce startup Jet.com just raised $140 million at a valuation of $600 million, The Wall Street Joural reports. “Very few e-commerce startups, if any, have ever been valued at such heights ahead of a launch,” it marvels. Investors, it appears, “are banking on the pedigree of Jet founder and CEO Marc Lore, who sold his former company, Diapers.com parent Quidsi, to Amazon.com for about $550 million in 2010.” 

Microsoft is reportedly ready to drop $200 million on N-trig -- an Israeli company that makes digital pens and touch screen chips. “Most of N-trig's 190 workers will be integrated into Microsoft Israel and will be part of a new research and development center,” writes Reuters, citing a report in Calcalist. “N-trig was valued at $75 million when it raised money privately last February.” 

Flipboard finally launched a fleshed out Web site, this week. As GigaOm notes, it’s a “full-featured site that not only reproduces what the [company’s long-running mobile] app offers, but builds on top of it.” According to co-founder and CEO Mike McCue, the mobile-first startup has been missing a fleshier Web presence. Regarding to new site, GigaOm writes: “It allows users to not only read but to create curated magazines and add to them, to dive into specific topics based on items others have shared.” 

Tim Cook doesn’t buy the idea that Apple has grown too large to maintain its strong growth rate -- or what some on Wall Street refer to as the law of large numbers. “We don't believe in such laws as laws of large numbers,” Cook said this week at a Goldman Sachs conference. “It’s just sort of an old dogma.” As Bloomberg Business week notes: “Concern about Apple’s earnings growth hitting the runner’s wall has dogged the company for years.” 

Talk of a Vevo sale has recently quieted, but it’s posting user metrics that should pique the interest of potential buyers. In January alone, the music video streamer recorded 10 billion monthly video views, according to internal figures. “That’s up 86% year-on-year, with 49.5% of Vevo’s monthly views now happening on mobile devices and connected TVs, compared to 38.8% a year ago,” Music Ally notes. “Vevo also said that 2 [billion] of its January views came from the US, meaning that 80% of its views are coming from elsewhere in the world.” 

Part obituary, part autopsy, Business Insider considers how ecommerce startup Fab.com went from a nearly a $900 million valuation to the bargain bin. This month, “PCH Innovations will buy the wreckage of Fab, insiders say, in a deal valued at $15-$50 million based on PCH's stock,” BI reports. What went wrong? Some place the blame squarely on the shoulders of founder and CEO Jason Goldberg. “He is so talented at getting an idea off the ground,” a former colleague of tells BI. “But he can't operate a company.” 

Google has acquired photo backup and sharing mobile app Odysee. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Officially, Odysee’s team is expected to join Google+, though Google’s social unit has reportedly been planning to spin off its photo-sharing features as a separate service. Odysee is best known for its cross-platform camera roll service, which lets users automatically back up photos and videos taken on their smartphones to their personal computers. 

In the wake of its outrageous Glass debacle, Google is going back to the drawing board and tackling wearable technology as if for the first time. Still named Glass -- at least for the moment -- the reboot is being led by jewelry designer Ivy Ross, and Tony Fadell, who is best know as the creator of Nest. “Several people with knowledge of Mr. Fadell’s plans for Glass said he was going to redesign the product from scratch and would not release it until it was complete,” The New York Times reports.