VentureBeat

Comcast to dam and damn the Internet with usage caps

You just knew it was too good to last. Starting on October 1 of this year, Internet service provider Comcast will begin placing a cap on the amount of data its customers can access a month, DSLreports has learned.

The 250 gigabyte cap, now confirmed by… Continue Reading

Picateers raises new round for Web 2.0 school portraits

Picateers has raised $6.6 million in a second round of funding to expand its effort to replace school portrait vendors with volunteer-based programs run by parents.

The San Mateo, Calif., company is disrupting the school portrait business by using a web-based approach. It recruits parents to… Continue Reading

Apple’s major multi-touch plans continue to come into focus

A lot of companies file patents for products they are never going to make. Apple is no exception. But given how many it has filed the past few years for advanced multi-touch technology and devices, it’d be very surprising if a multi-touch-enabled tablet device isn’t… Continue Reading

Video dating site SpeedDate says its growing 50 percent a month, raises $6 million

Remember the awkward video from last December that featured various bloggers and video bloggers in video speed-dating situations? Well, the company that offered the dating service behind it, SpeedDate.com, claims to be on a bit of a tear. It’s growing 50 percent a month and… Continue Reading

Sync service SugarSync sweetens the deal with an iPhone app

SugarSync, the service from startup Sharpcast that allows users to synchronize files across multiple computers and mobile devices, just became even more useful with the release of an iPhone application.

There are a lot of other sync services out there, including Syncplicity and Dropbox, but I… Continue Reading

Android Market, Google’s response to Apple’s App Store for third party developers

Mobile software operating system Android is coming soon, at least on one device — and that device will have a way for third-party applications to get access to users. The Google-led software initiative will offer a service called Android Market, a way to find, maybe… Continue Reading

Humungous banner ads coming to YouTube?

Google-owned video site YouTube is experimenting with another way to make some extra cash — placing a giant banner ad on its homepage, according to Silicon Alley Insider.

People love to speculate and complain about YouTube’s struggle to make money from its huge audience. Yesterday, Google… Continue Reading

BuzzCity grows in the low-end mobile ad market with new funding

BuzzCity, a Singapore-based mobile advertising company, has picked up an additional $10 million for its combination approach of an ad network and social site, myGamma.com

The company is aiming to expand in the United States, but chances are, you’re not in its target market. Its… Continue Reading

Another massive funding for thin film solar, with $104M to AVA Solar, a challenger to First Solar

It may not be as much as the colossal $300 million financing that Nanosolar finally disclosed yesterday — the biggest ever for a solar company — but another thin-film manufacturer, AVA Solar, has broken into the nine-figure funding range today, with a challenge to industry… Continue Reading

Roundup: Veoh wins copyright case, Microsoft launches IE8 beta 2, how the iPhone 2.0.2 update fixes connection issues and more

Here’s the latest action:

Veoh wins in court, YouTube claps — A federal judge ruled that Veoh was not infringing on copyrights by letting its users upload videos to the site. This is an important ruling because it sets a precedent for the similar, but much larger… Continue Reading

Jaiku comes back with a new TOS and unlimited invites

The life-streaming site Jaiku has come back online after being down the entire weekend and the first part of this week while it moved to Google datacenters. While the look and feel of the service are exactly the same as before it went down, users… Continue Reading

Top Hollywood writer to create Facebook movie, admits “I honestly don’t know how this works” [Updated]

Aaron Sorkin has created gripping movies like A Few Good Men, and television shows like The West Wing. Now, he’s going to write a story about the creation of Facebook. Sony’s bankrolling the feature film, with Scott Rudin producing it.

Here’s the thing. I’m worried that… Continue Reading

YouTube’s video revolution will be monetized (if the numbers hold)

The online video sharing site YouTube is a great product with a rich community. To say it has a stranglehold on the online video space would be putting it lightly. Yet, as with most things in the tech world, all anyone seems to ever want… Continue Reading

FriendFeed adds new widget features; get ready for FriendFeed-powered live blogging on VentureBeat

I’ve already been enjoying the new version of “lifestreaming” site FriendFeed, launched on Monday, as it lets me easily follow select people and conversation rooms. But that wasn’t the only release this week. Today, the Mountain View, Calif. company is making its service more useful,… Continue Reading

The iPhone 2.0.2 security flaw — and its temporary fix

A security flaw in the new iPhone 2.0.2 software was uncovered last night by a MacRumors forum user. To expose the flaw you must have your iPhone password protected. When you turn on the phone and get to the “Enter Passcode” screen, hit the “Emergency… Continue Reading

Mozilla Labs’ Aza Raskin talks about the big picture for Ubiquity

Mozilla, the company behind the popular Firefox browser, just announced a very cool project that’s in the early stages of development — Ubiquity, a tool that allows users to access services like mapping, translation and search on any website. Earlier today, I had a chance… Continue Reading

Sports site The Active Network raises $80 million, for more acquisitions

The Active Network, a company that offers sports community sites like Active.com, has raised an $80 million fifth round of funding, led by existing investor and strategic partner ESPN, with additional funding from venture firms.

The San Diego-based company offers a range of events, marketing and… Continue Reading

FriendFeed working on a new RSS supplement to speed up data retrieval

It looks like the rapid fire site updates are about to start again for the social content conversation site FriendFeed. Just a few days after the launch of its new “beta” area, FriendFeed is finalizing a new technology that could help pull content into the… Continue Reading

Europe’s largest onshore wind farm is coming to Romania

Taking a page from T. Boone Pickens, who made waves when he announced that he was building the world’s largest wind farm in Texas, Continental Wind Partners and CEZ Group have concluded a deal to create Europe’s largest onshore farm, with a total capacity of… Continue Reading