PETA nails the Super Bowl ad formula: grab the attention, don't pay $3 million

Another Super Bowl, another banned PETA ad. NBC banned the latest ad, dubbed Veggie Love, from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for being too racy.

Everybody’s attention will be focused on the gridiron this afternoon. And that raises the perennial question: are Super Bowl ads worth the high price tags? Various sources suggest that the cost of a 30 second ad is now $3 million, up 10 percent from a year ago. By … Continue Reading

For 40 minutes this morning, the Internet was all spam

We’ve known for a while that there are a lot of bad websites out there that could damage your computer or wish to stealing your personal information. But this morning, it was revealed that 100 percent of all websites wished to do you harm — or at least, according to a little search site called Google that is.

Yes, between 6:30 AM PST and 7:35 AM PST, every single listing for every single search done … Continue Reading

Credit problem takes down the iTunes store

I just opened the iTunes store to attempt to buy last night’s episode of Battlestar Galactica and was greeted with a message telling me that my store credit balance is currently unavailable. I found that odd because I don’t currently have any credits in the store, but it turns out that all of the credit processing in the iTunes store — including credit cards — may be down right now.

A quick scan of Twitter … Continue Reading

Yoomba latest in wave of VoIP closures

Yoomba, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based company that let users send and receive phone calls and instant messages through their email programs, has shut its doors, reports VentureWire — continuing the trend of VoIP consolidations and failures that has emptied a once crowded space (including still afloat Jajah and Broadsoft).

There was a fairly salient flaw in Yoomba’s business model — users could only call others who had downloaded the program, and its market share just … Continue Reading

Roundup: Ma.gnolia, Red Herring, Microsoft spy and Japan have a bad week, and more

Here’s the latest action:

Google Toolbar gives Firefox a taste of Chrome — Toolbar now offers personalized “new tab” pages with linked thumbnails of favorite and bookmarked sites (just like Google’s Chrome browser, only in Firefox).

Bill Gates, Debbie Downer of Davos — The Microsoft founder predicts the economic downturn will last four years and says the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has lost a fifth of its value.

Ma.gnolia crashes and burns (and not … Continue Reading

Raptr signs up Razer to distribute a gamer social network with a mouse

Raptr and Razer have struck an interesting co-marketing deal. Razer makes high-precision computer mice for gamers, while Raptr has started a social network for gamers.

At first blush, it’s a little weird that you will get a social network with your mouse. But it’s a clever bundle. In the past, Razer distributed its mice with disks that contained the drivers, or control software, for the mouse. Now the mice plug into a universal serial bus … Continue Reading

Mixm8 developing a virtual world for music lovers

Outso is developing a new virtual world dubbed Mixm8 for music lovers. In the world, you can meet friends, organize and attend music gigs, and create a virtual apartment for sharing your musical passions. You can pick the furniture, art and other decor.

The world will include online shops such as Xpressbeats, Ninja Tune
and War Child as well as independent, alternative artists such as Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. Outso will launch a … Continue Reading

Meet the new Midas List, same as the old list

Forbes has released the latest edition of its Midas List ranking of the top investors, and it’s full of familiar faces. The top four spots are literally identical to last year’s list, with Google backers John Doerr (of Kleiner Perkins), Michael Moritz (of Sequoia Capital), Ram Shiram (of Sherpalo), and Stanford Prof. David Cheriton holding on to their titles as the titans of venture capital. The lack of movement isn’t too surprising, since VCs didn’t … Continue Reading

THQ lays off 100, focuses wireless games on smart phones only

THQ has laid off 100 employees as a result of a decision to focus its wireless division on making games for smart phones.

The company previously made games for all sorts of cell phones. But as a result of this move, the company is closing its San Diego, Calif., U.K., and German wireless game development offices. The Universomo studio in Finland will continue to be the center of the company’s wireless game business.

This means … Continue Reading

OpenTable files for first venture-backed IPO of 2009

OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation company has filed to go public, making it the first technology company initial public offering in many months. It comes, counterintuitively, at a when people are cutting back on expenses — and eating out less.

The company works with more than 10,000 restaurants, using a combination of software and hardware to allow people to make online and mobile reservations. It made $41.3 million in revenue through September 30 of last … Continue Reading

42 Entertainment creates alternate reality game for new film, The International

42 Entertainment pioneered the alternate-reality game. Mixing real-life with a fictional story, these games are viral marketing campaigns for a variety of media. Now 42 has created a new alternate-reality game for The International, a new film starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts.

You can play the Stop The International game by visiting a web site. Players have to put a stop to the International Bank’s corruption by searching through the site for clues. The … Continue Reading

Source: Intel prepping for mass roll-out of Android netbooks

As netbook sales continue to pick up in a struggling world economy, Intel, which makes the processors found in many of those netbooks, is mulling over how best to profit from that market.

Intel is now preparing for the mass production of Google Android-based netbooks, a reliable source tells us, though for now we have few other details.

Such an effort could yield Android netbooks as early as this year, but 2010 remains a more … Continue Reading

Mint shows recession's impact on individual spending

Personal finance site Mint says its average user has cut expenses by $400 a month starting last summer, with a further $200 drop in November and only a slight subsequent rise due to holiday spending. The average user has also seen their savings drop and their debt rise — but due to loans not credit cards. Given that the site has 900,000 total users — many of whom are presumably relatively well-off early adopter types … Continue Reading

Google's Jonathan Rochelle: Docs will get more integrated, social

It must be a busy time at Google Docs. As companies look to shrink their budgets, free-to-inexpensive software like Docs becomes a lot more tempting. And the search giant keeps rolling out cool features for all its applications, most recently offline support for Gmail. Meanwhile, the other big tech players are eyeing this market, with Microsoft and Apple both announcing online collaborative versions of their office software in the last few months.

That’s why … Continue Reading

ABC dreams up the way to halt growth in online streaming: Double the ads

I was just as surprised as anyone to find that Hulu, the online video streaming site backed by NBC and Fox, is actually really good. It works because it lets you watch your favorite TV shows when you want to watch them, with commercials that aren’t too intrusive — all for free. The other TV networks have their own systems for online streaming, which, while not as good as Hulu, also work to varying degrees. … Continue Reading

What will Nathan Myhrvold do with microprocessor patents?

Intellectual Ventures, the patent-licensing firm created by technologist Nathan Myhrvold, has purchased the patent portfolio of microprocessor maker Transmeta, according to an announcement yesterday.

Intellectual Venture Funding — owned by Seattle-based Intellectual Ventures — acquired 140 U.S. patents and more patent applications owned by Transmeta, a Santa Clara, Calif. maker of low-power microprocessors. Novafora just finalized its purchase of Transmeta initiated last November, since Transmeta had largely lost its war with Intel in the battle … Continue Reading

Dreamworks and Intel pull out the glasses for a wacky 3-D Super Bowl

Perhaps the craziest marketing stunt planned for this year’s Super Bowl will be an unlikely joint promotion of the film “Monsters vs. Aliens” using 3-D glasses.

By their own admission, Intel, DreamWorks Animation and NBC are spending a bazillion dollars on this one. They want you to watch the trailer of the film in three dimensions, using 3-D glasses that are allegedly far better than what our grandparents had in the 1950s when the 3-D … Continue Reading

Diagnosoft attracts $4M for MRI analysis software

Diagnosoft, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company that makes software to analyze cardiovascular MRI images, brought in $4 million in second-round financing to increase visibility of several of its products. Some of the money will also be used to design productivity tools for physicians to increase accuracy.

Technology Development Fund, based in Cairo, Egypt, led the investment round.… Continue Reading

Sittercity raises $7.5M to connect caregivers, clients

In its seventh year, Sittercity, the web site that connects clients with available caregivers, has raised a $7.5 million first round of funding to build brand recognition. Before now, the Chicago-based company has relied on seed money and revenue to grow.

The service doesn’t just help parents find babysitters. It also helps users find caregivers for pets and senior citizens — as well as tutors for kids. Sittercity also works with businesses to offer human … Continue Reading