Web pioneer Andreessen raises $300M for new venture capital firm

Featured Post: July 5, 2009 | Matt Marshall

Web pioneer Andreessen raises $300M for new venture capital firm

Marc Andreessen, the entrepreneur who co-founded the first significant Web browser Netscape at 22, is moving on to his next profession: Venture Capitalism.
Andreessen (pictured left) with his long-time business partner, Ben Horowitz (right), have raised $300 million in fresh capital to form a firm… Continue Reading

Teen hacker releases Windows and Mac jailbreaking programs for iPhone 3G S

Featured Post: July 5, 2009 | Dean Takahashi

Teen hacker releases Windows and Mac jailbreaking programs for iPhone 3G S

The teen hacker who unlocked the original iPhone is at it again. George Hotz, 19, claims to have created an app that can “jailbreak” the iPhone 3G S.
That means the program, dubbed purplera1n, can install third-party software on an iPhone 3G S, even if… Continue Reading

Contact service Yes.tel wants to bury the business card

Contact service Yes.tel wants to bury the business card

Yes.tel, a new service created by a startup called Digitrad, offers an easy way to store and share all your contact info. In doing so, it wants to help our society get past one of the more obnoxious holdovers from the pre-Internet age — the… Continue Reading

Entrepreneurs: Cash in on non-English search engines and more

Entrepreneurs: Cash in on non-English search engines and more

In case you’ve missed any of our recent advice for startups over at VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner, here’s a wrap up:
Market research vs. gut instinct — Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm Computing and inventor of the Palm Pilot, discusses how to balance market research with… Continue Reading

Roundup: Cyberdefense SNAFU, Twitter ad scarcity, what’s a jailbreak?

Roundup: Cyberdefense SNAFU, Twitter ad scarcity, what’s a jailbreak?

The flagship defense system for U.S. government computer networks is stalled — Einstein, as it’s called, began rollout seven years ago. A Wall Street Journal report says Homeland Security officials are saying Einstein won’t be fully installed for at least another 18 months.
iPhone “jailbreak”… Continue Reading

New version of Foursquare reminds you where your friends are — constantly

New version of Foursquare reminds you where your friends are — constantly

Foursquare just released a new version of its mobile application for sharing your location with friends — including a new feature that should make the app a much bigger presence in users’ lives. Taking advantage of new options in the iPhone’s operating system, Foursquare 1.3… Continue Reading

Augmented reality startups petition Apple for live video interface

Augmented reality startups petition Apple for live video interface

Augmented reality startups, which superimpose graphics and information on live camera feeds, say they are having difficulty releasing applications on the iPhone and may turn to Google’s Android platform instead. More than a dozen companies and research institutes have signed a petition asking Apple to… Continue Reading

Startups looking to make money by enhancing reality

Startups looking to make money by enhancing reality

Augmented reality (AR) technology, which overlays 3-D graphics or information over a live camera feed, isn’t a brand-new idea. But now that smartphones are penetrating the mass market, AR may be on the cusp of wide adoption.
Imagine traveling to a foreign country, pointing your… Continue Reading

Recordnet.com tries to save Stockton’s Fourth of July

Recordnet.com tries to save Stockton’s Fourth of July

Who says newspapers aren’t embracing the Internet? Stockton, a city in California’s San Joaquin Valley, had to cancel its July 4 fireworks celebration due to a tight budget. Don’t worry, though — the town’s paper is using the web to bring a a little light… Continue Reading

DigitalBeat

As turnaround continues, June chip sales point to tech economy recovery

As turnaround continues, June chip sales point to tech economy recovery

While the U.S. unemployment dashed stock market hopes of a recovery in the national economy, the bellwether semiconductor industry seems like it’s on its way to a recovery.
Chips are a leading indicator for sales of things such as computers, consumer electronics and cell phones…. Continue Reading

New Twine interface lets users visualize shared bookmarks

New Twine interface lets users visualize shared bookmarks

Social bookmarking service Twine attracted a lot of attention as an early poster boy for semantic technology, which it uses to help serve you links customized to your interests. But in addition to delivering smarter bookmarks, Twine just unveiled a better interface for exploring that… Continue Reading

GreenBeat

Future car: A magnet-powered hamster wheel?

Future car: A magnet-powered hamster wheel?

Magnets very rarely come up in serious renewable energy discussions. But why? It doesn’t get more zero-emission than that! At least that’s the thought behind car designer Harsha Vardhan’s new Transporter TW: an electric vehicle propelled by magnetic fields.
The single-passenger car is technically electric… Continue Reading

DOE taps DuPont for $9M solar research project

DOE taps DuPont for $9M solar research project

Science-oriented conglomerate DuPont has landed a $9 million partnership with the Department of Energy to conduct research into consumer-facing solar goods and components. The focus of the three-year program will be to market a protective film for plastic and glass thin-film photovoltaics, the company says…. Continue Reading

GamesBeat

Doom Resurrection brings hardcore gaming to the iPhone

Doom Resurrection brings hardcore gaming to the iPhone

For hardcore gamers, the iPhone hasn’t had much to offer. The games are mostly light-hearted, casual games that you play when you need a short distraction. They’re also a big compromise compared to what you can play on traditional game platforms.
But Doom Resurrection is… Continue Reading

BringIt lets gamers put their money where their mouths are

BringIt lets gamers put their money where their mouths are

Gamers like to brag. That’s why a lot of social networks have risen to serve their need to shout about their achievements. BringIt is going a step further by letting them place bets on their duels.
The Chicago-based company has created a portal where gamers… Continue Reading

Deals & More

Real estate site Trulia says traffic is still growing

Real estate site Trulia says traffic is still growing

Trulia, the real estate website backed by prominent venture firms Sequoia Capital and Accel, published some numbers today showing that despite continued problems in the housing market and the general economy, the San Francisco startup has been having a strong 2009.
That continues a pattern… Continue Reading

Exit market warms with five IPOs in Q2

Exit market warms with five IPOs in Q2

With five venture-backed public offerings, the second quarter was a significant improvement over the first quarter’s zero IPOs. In fact, this is the best the market has performed since the first quarter of 2008. That said, the number still comes in well under historical norms,… Continue Reading