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Kno Inc., the company behind the 14-inch dual-touchscreen tablet unveiled at D8 earlier this year, announced it has closed a $46 million debt-and-equity round led by Andreessen Horowitz.The leading venture capital firm, which has also financed prominent startups such as... FoursquareFoursquare, Zynga and SkypeSkype, was joined by Silicon Valley Bank and TriplePoint Capital. Andreessen had previously led a $7.5 million Series B, which Kno closed in December 2009.The digital textbook company plans to use the funds to continue developing its e-reader tablet and accompanying platform, which includes digital textbooks, educational apps and other related media.“We plan to use the infusion of capital to get the Kno into the hands of students for beta testing this fall and ultimately for the first customer ship later this year," Kno Co-founder and CTO Babur Habib said in a statement.Room for digital innovation in the education sector is certainly there. A recent study from Simba Information e...

The battle to power the Internet connection on your next flight is kicking into high gear with a $37 million round of funding for Row 44, the company that powers in-flight Wi-Fi for Southwest Airlines.Today's funding comes eight months after rival Aircell, the company r...esponsible for GoGo Inflight Internet, closed a massive $176 million round of funding.Row 44 intends to use its newly replenished bank account to lease more satellite transponders, according to the L.A. Times. Row 44 leases telecommunication satellites from Hughes Network Systems to power its in-flight Wi-Fi connection, while most of its competitors rely on ground-based antennas. The company says this gives it a unqiue advantage because it can provide Wi-Fi access globally, even over oceans.The popularity of in-flight Wi-Fi has never been higher; it's projected to be a $100 million business this year. Aircell is the current leader of the space due to deals with American Airlines, Virgin America, Delta Airlines and ...