Five uses for an invisibility material (other than dumb Harry Potter references)

Haven’t you heard? Scientists have finally invented the perfect tool for porn shopping, shoplifting and general mayhem: A material that can redirect wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum, effectively vanishing from sight.

In 2006, Duke University researchers created a metamaterial that channeled microwaves around itself, allowing them to reform on the other side. Now the same team has found a way to speed up development, potentially making the technology useful for smaller wavelengths like visible light … Continue Reading

Jobs or no Jobs, Apple's pipeline of products is intact (for now)

Apple’s stock was down today, but not as much as you might expect on the day following an announcement that its chief executive Steve Jobs will be taking a five month medical leave of absence. Why? Maybe it’s because Apple’s investors (and bargain hunters) realized that with or without Steve Jobs, Apple is likely set for at least the next few years.

Why do I say that? Because product development cycles are long. You can … Continue Reading

Will Nintendo shoot down Duck Hunt for the iPhone?

I vividly remember my first video game system, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and the games that came with it: Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. Now I can recapture my youth on my iPhone because some developers have made a port of Duck Hunt for the device.

I’ll brush aside the questionable legality for a second and say that the game is a pretty good port of the original. It’s a bit odd because … Continue Reading

Ashton Kutcher pushes technology at Sundance, with Yours Truly

updated
I need your help.

Actor Ashton Kutcher has invited me down to the Sundance Film Festival this weekend in Park City, Utah to partake in an experimental show he’s doing there.

It’s called “24 Hours @ Sundance,” is co-hosted by Kutcher, and will feature myself and three competitors running around the festival with Nokia phones taking live video as we complete various tasks in a reality-survivor setting. Tasks, we’re told, like using a sock … Continue Reading

Sales intelligence company InsideView raises $6.5M

InsideView, a company that analyzes web sites, social-networking sites and subscription-based sources for potential sales leads, has raised $6.5 million in a second round of venture funding. The San Francisco startup says it’s still doing well despite the economy, with 410 percent year-over-year sales growth, and 60 percent growth between the third and fourth quarters of the last year.

The new round comes from InsideView’s existing investors Emergence Capital Partners and  Rembrandt Venture Partners. The … Continue Reading

Stimulus plan: $32B for smart grid, $6B for broadband

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have revealed their plan to revive the American economy using around $550 billion in new spending and $275 billion in tax cuts. In its current form, the plan includes substantial tech spending, including $32 billion to transform the nation’s energy system, “allowing for a smarter and better grid and focusing investment in renewable technology,” as well as $6 billion to bring broadband and wireless service — but of … Continue Reading

Could the Wii be Blockbuster's savior?

If the future of movie rentals involved trekking long distances to brick and mortar stores to overpay for a movie, Blockbuster would be all set. Unfortunately for Blockbuster, the future of the business lies online. Even worse, all of their competitors realized this before them. And so we have a company that was once the powerhouse in movie rentals in a position of extreme weakness going forward, and scrambling to make deals to catch up. … Continue Reading

How big could MySpace email be?

While Yahoo and other established email service providers are working to make their services more social, some social networks are trying on making their user messaging features more like email. The latest is MySpace — the largest social network in the U.S. — according to TechCrunch. MySpace has already moved some employees to company accounts, changing employee@myspace.com to employee@myspace-inc.com addresses in order to make room for the company’s tens of millions of users. Given the … Continue Reading

Sony Electronics holds a virtual trade show

Sony Electronics staged a virtual trade show today for fans of professional broadcasting equipment. The company said thousands of people registered for the event, which was staged by InXpo in Chicago.

The event marks the first time that Sony Electronics has endorsed the virtual trade show concept, which has been pushed by a variety of startups in the past couple of years as a way to cut travel and hotel expenses.

Alec Shapiro, senior vice … Continue Reading

Move over, Celine Dion: Custom themes for your iGoogle homepage!

So maybe Google’s trying to cheer everyone up after it had a tough week with the confirmation of Google layoffs and the discontinuation or “indefinite hiatus” of six of its products. Here’s a bright and shiny new offering, according to the official Google blog: You can now personalize your iGoogle homepage by creating custom themes, an ability previously bestowed only upon artists like glass sculptor Dale Chihuly (a favorite of Google VP Marissa Mayer), Jeff … Continue Reading

Video game business grows 9 percent in December, up 19 percent for 2008

Video game sales grew nine percent in the U.S. in December. That’s relatively weak because of the slow economic environment, but growth earlier in the year was so strong that annual sales were up 19 percent at $21.3 billion, according to market researcher NPD Group.

Nintendo shattered records by selling 2.15 million Wii consoles during the peak selling month, which accounts for a quarter of the year’s revenue. It also sold 3.04 million Nintendo DS … Continue Reading

Intel sees steep decline in revenues and net income

The gloomiest of earnings seasons kicked off today. Intel‘s revenues and profits cratered in the fourth quarter because of the global economic meltdown.

Sales for the quarter were $8.2 billion, down 23 percent from a year earlier and down 19 percent from the third quarter. The drop in sales from the third to fourth quarter was only the second time in 20 years that such a drop occurred — the last time was at the … Continue Reading

The Aussies come to Silicon Valley: Six companies compete for best start-up

Six Australian companies competed today for the best start-up at The Australian Innovation Shoot Out event this morning in Menlo Park, Calif. I was on hand to moderate and was impressed with the quality of the six finalists.

The event, sponsored by the Australian government, was the culmination of a filtering process by Australia’s six states, each of which offered the best start-up in tech from its region.

Impedimed, headed by chief executive Greg Brown … Continue Reading

iFart Mobile is back with the "iFartmercial" contest

iFart Mobile, the iPhone farting application that took the world by storm over the holidays, has launched a competition for users to create the best commercial for the app. The winner will get $5,000 for creating the best 30 to 60 second “iFartmercial.” This could get interesting.

Developer Joel Comm, the guy behind iFart Mobile, clearly has the cash to launch such a contest. His application first made headlines after he published that it was … Continue Reading

Twitter and the iPhone on the scene of the US Airways Hudson River crash

A US Airways plane crashed into the Hudson River this afternoon shortly after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. As of right now a rescue mission is underway, but early reports indicate that everyone on the plane might be okay. While the mainstream media was quick to jump on the story, so too, as is the case these days, was Twitter.

Even more amazing though may be the picture that Janis Krums, a man on … Continue Reading

Will the Wiimote finally bring a good YouTube living room experience?

YouTube is one of the largest success stories of the “web 2.0″ era (at least in terms of viewers, not in terms of making money). But to be considered fully mainstream, the service needs to get into the living room, where people still do most of their content viewing. And YouTube is taking another step in that direction today by launching a beta version of the service for the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3 … Continue Reading

FAS 157 is stupid

There. I said it. Now this venture capitalist can be the punching bag of auditors everywhere. As I type these words today, an accounting rule called FAS 157 is going into effect — to the delight of no one. Well, that’s not entirely true. The accountants are happy, because they’ve once again found a way to charge their clients even more fees. And one day the lawyers might be happy as well, because I believe … Continue Reading

Sharpcast raises $10M for sync service SugarSync

Sharpcast, the maker of the SugarSync service for synchronizing your files across multiple devices, has raised a $10 million addition to its first round of funding.

I was super impressed when I tried SugarSync last March, because it was the the simplest and most usable sync service I’d seen. You just select the folders you want synchronized, and SugarSync takes care of the rest. But the product didn’t make as big a splash as I’d … Continue Reading

Schoolwires raises $12 million for school web site management

Schoolwires has raised $12 million in venture funding for its business of managing web sites for schools.

The State College, Penn.-based company provides web-based infrastructure to help schools provide online services. It gives kids a way to manage their homework online and has other features for managing the parent-teacher-student relationship via the web. Among the goals are ensuring student safety, including parents in education, and managing budget shortfalls.

The company’s core product is Centricity, a … Continue Reading

Google's new year's revolution: Six products slashed or maimed

Well, Google picked a good day to announce layoffs and kill a bunch of products. While everyone is busy reading about Apple chief executive Steve Jobs’ leave of absence for health related issues, Google has more or less killed six of its products. Let’s survey the damage, shall we?

Dodgeball

First up, Dodgeball, a service close to the hearts of many of San Francisco’s tech elites (but few others) is being shut down. Dodgeball is … Continue Reading