N Control to replace Ocean Marketing with… Craigslist?
If you’re not already familiar with last year’s Ocean Marketing debacle, VentureBeat’s previous coverage sums it up nicely. To make a long story short, a one-man PR firm committed very public seppuku when he attacked a customer over email using a language that even unicorns can only explain as “magical,” then proceeded to argue and threaten the co-creator of Penny Arcade, who immortalized him with a single post. The whole thing ended up being the … Continue Reading
Bay Area companies: Meet with Kleiner Perkins Thursday – Last chance to apply!
If your company is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and you want to meet with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers on Thursday, this is your last chance to sign up.
We’ll be heading down to the KPCB Menlo Park offices in three days to meet with 10 local companies as part of our global DEMO tour. If you’d like to be one of those 10, fill out this form by Tuesday at noon, … Continue Reading
PitchBig launches gamified matchmaking service for startups and investors
PitchBig hopes to be a startups’ new best friend and the next greatest networking site for finding venture capital.
The service, which launched today, lets startups create a company profile free of cost to attract investors. Likewise, investors can use the site to quickly locate and vote on innovative ideas and companies. The site claims to filter out bad businesses, simplifying the time-consuming research process for both entrepreneurs and investors.
“About a year and a … Continue Reading
Startup helps employees decide when to sell their stock
Facebook employees and others who are contemplating when to sell their stock can get some help from a new startup called Wealthfront.
The company has created a financial planning tool that lets anyone who works in a tech company test their options for selling stock after an initial public offering.
Andy Rachleff, chief executive of Wealthfront and co-founder of Benchmark Capital, said in an interview that the company is targeting tech professionals in their 20s … Continue Reading
Web companies beg Congress to “step back” from IP legislation
Hoping to amplify the voice of the Internet, web companies including Mozilla, Reddit, and WordPress have banded together with public interest and human rights groups to urge Congress to stop its work on intellectual property laws.
Monday, more than 70 organizations signed an open letter addressed to the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“Now is the time for Congress to take a breath, step back, and approach the issues from a fresh perspective,” the … Continue Reading
Groupon acquires e-commerce ‘big data’ startup Adku
Group deals company Groupon has acquired e-commerce data firm Adku for an undisclosed price, the startup announced today.
Adku provides a service that attempts to “optimize” a person’s shopping experience by providing product suggestions on sites like Zappos, eBay, and Amazon. It does this by using various data about each shopper such as location and hot news trends.
The startup was founded by three former Google engineers and has remained in stealth-mode since it launched … Continue Reading
Brazil attempting to block tweets with speed trap locations
A country progressive in its stance on off-the-clock email is pushing for a far more antiquated policy when it comes to information-sharing by way of Twitter.
The Attorney General of Brazil, according to Brazilian publication O Globo (The Globe), has filed a preliminary injunction to suspend and block the Twitter profiles of users who tweet the whereabouts of speed traps, DUI checkpoints, and radar locations.
The lawsuit seeks to fine those in violation of the … Continue Reading
Verizon/Redbox video service will be subscription-based, offer a “competitive” content library
Top executives from Verizon and Redbox revealed more details about the new jointly-operated rental service announced earlier today.
The video rental service will allow people to access streaming video through Verizon, while also taking advantage of Redbox’s DVD and Blu-Ray rental Kiosks. The service will definitely operate under a subscription-based pricing model, but won’t give customers the option of choosing between a separate streaming or DVD/Blu-Ray subscription package, said Verizon SVP of consumer product management … Continue Reading
Yelp advertising is a rip-off for small advertisers
Yelp!
That word could be coming out of the mouths of small-business owners when they hear how much the online reviews site is overcharging them for advertising. At a time when much online advertising is being sold for 60 cents per thousand impressions (CPMs), Yelp is charging some local advertisers $600 per 1,000 impressions.
That’s not a typo. Yelp is charging small businesses 1,000-times the standard online CPM rates for local ads that appear on … Continue Reading
Sony renames the PlayStation Network
Sony has announced that the PlayStation Network will be rebranded the “Sony Entertainment Network” (SEN) on Tuesday.
It’s important to note that this change currently only applies to PSN “accounts,” and includes a number of Terms of Service updates. But it has caused rampant speculation: Is Sony planning to rebrand the PlayStation Network altogether? Is it hoping to distance itself from last year’s security breach and month-long network outage?
Newly appointed CEO Kaz Hirai has … Continue Reading
After a drop in profits, HTC forecasts cloudy quarter ahead
The next quarter will be tough-going for HTC as it tries to recover from its first big profit drop in two years.
HTC reported revenues of NT$101.42 billion (New Taiwanese dollars) for the fourth quarter, but the company projects revenues of up to 36 percent less in the first quarter, from NT$65 billion to NT$70 billion ($2.20-$2.37 billion U.S.).
HTC previously announced that its profits fell in the fourth quarter, so this news is basically … Continue Reading
SoCal companies, get feedback from VentureBeat & LA’s newest startup specialists, Science
VentureBeat is headed to Southern California on February 23 as part of our ongoing quest to find the most promising companies to write about and to invite to participate at our next DEMO conference in April.
If you’re working on the next big tech product, come meet me and Mike Jones and Peter Pham of Science, the new group in Los Angeles focused on building profitable new startups. We’ll be offering feedback to early-stage companies. … Continue Reading
Honeywell slaps Nest with patent infringement suit
Smart-thermostat maker Nest is being sued by Honeywell for infringing on seven different patents owned by the technology giant.
“Competition is good and we welcome it, but we will not stand by while competitors, large or small, offer products that infringe on our intellectual property,” said Honeywell environmental and combustion controls president Beth Wozniak in a statement.
The Nest thermostat has become a need-to-have product for gadget-lovers. The smart thermometer learns your heating and cooling … Continue Reading
Google+ issues a call to arms for would-be third-party developers
Google is making a bid for third-party developers’ interest with a new Google+ page for Google+ platform developers.
Google+ developer-relations team lead Chris Chabot writes on the G+ platform blog that the new page will be a source of office-hours-style hangouts and best practices for using the +Platform APIs.
“Our team will host regular hangouts to talk about the +Platform, your experiences with it, and share tips and tricks with the community,” Chabot writes, noting … Continue Reading
Join VentureBeat and Kleiner Perkins at our DEMO meetup party this week
Come party and network with VentureBeat, Kleiner Perkins, and the DEMO community this week at our DEMO meetup event.
VentureBeat and Kleiner Perkins are hosting a DEMO meetup on Thursday, February 9 at the Dutch Goose in Menlo Park. Ten companies will be selected from dozens of applications to participate in a feedback session with a Kleiner Perkins partner and VentureBeat’s own Matt Marshall, executive producer of DEMO.
During the evening, the 10 companies will … Continue Reading
Amazon may be getting physical with a new retail store
Amazon, long the king of online retail, might finally be ready to take on real-world retailers with a brick-and-mortar store.
The store, which has been confirmed by unnamed sources close to the process, is reportedly opening its doors in Seattle sometime in the next few months and most definitely before the end of the year.
The store, the sources tell Good E-Reader, would be a pilot. If successful it could lead to a chain of … Continue Reading
Online retail spending surged to $50B in Q4
Mobile shopping options and free shipping offers made buying goods online too convenient to pass up last year.
Consumers put their digital wallets to work to the tune of $161.5 billion for all of 2011, and $49.7 billion in the last three months alone.
Altogether, e-commerce spending in 2011 was up 13 percent from 2010, with online shopping surging 14 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, according to market research firm comScore.
“The fourth quarter … Continue Reading
Role reversal: Apple accused of iPad patent infringement in China
Apple is being accused of patent infringement in China.
Yep, you read that correctly. China Daily reports that Proview Shenzhen Technology, a Chinese company based in the city of Shenzhen, has pointed the finger at Apple over the name “iPad.”
“We ask the court to stop selling and marketing for Apple’s iPad in China. We also demand an apology,” Proview Technology attorney Xie Xianghui told China Daily.
Both companies claim iPad as a trademark, but … Continue Reading
Temple Run developer shares a behind the scenes look at making a runaway hit iOS game
Imangi Studios’ Natalia Luckyanova (pictured left, with husband and business partner, Keith Shepherd) was gracious enough to spend a little bit of time this past weekend answering our questions about their runaway hit, Temple Run. With a combination of a smart development cycle and an ability to take advantage of the App Store Market, they’ve created a juggernaut of a game app.
Temple Run falls into the endless runner genre, with a top down third … Continue Reading
Deleting a photo on Facebook might not be what it seems
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but there seems to be one word Facebook doesn’t understand: “delete.”
When you delete a Facebook image from your profile you’re actually sending a request to Facebook to remove that photo file from its servers. You’d expect the request to be completed in a reasonable amount of time. Ars Technica is reporting, however, that “deleted” photos dating back as far as 2008 are still floating around on … Continue Reading
