Apple's App Store: 15,000 apps. Google's Android Marketplace: 800 apps.

During its fourth quarter earnings call today, Google revealed that the Android Marketplace, its app store, has 800 applications now available. While that’s almost double the less than 500 apps available in early December, it’s still laughably behind Apple’s App Store, which now boasts over 15,000 apps.

Google didn’t go into download numbers for the 800 apps, but you can bet that’s only because the number would look even worse when compared to Apple’s 500 … Continue Reading

Let them eat cupcakes! No Android "Cupcake" update for G1 owners?

Google’s Android development team has been working on a new version of its software that it calls “Cupcake.” The update is packed with features that many owners of Android phones like the G1 have been asking for, such as stereo Bluetooth support, an updated web browser, a search feature for web pages, a video recording system that may actually work and of course, an on-screen keyboard.

But T-Mobile subscribers who bought the G1 apparently won’t … Continue Reading

Guys, he's still alive: Twitterers fall for Steve Jobs hoax

A hoax made the web rounds today, claiming that Steve Jobs suffered a heart attack. Though last week’s announcement that the Apple chief executive would take medical leave from the company is indeed true, what isn’t true is this article, seemingly hacked into Wired.com’s vulnerable image view–serving up the fake headline in a pseudo Wired domain.

The story flaunted the rather childish headline, “Steve Jobs in has had a Cardiac Arrest,” and offered other obvious … Continue Reading

AMD reports $1.4 billion loss as it follows Intel down

Advanced Micro Devices reported a quarterly loss of $1.4 billion as it suffered from the same economic malaise that’s hurt its chief rival Intel and other tech companies.

The loss of $2.34 a share compared to a loss of $1.77 billion, or $3.06 a share, a year ago. Revenue was down 33 percent to $1.16 billion, from $1.74 billion last year. Analysts expected $1.23 billion in revenue. After hours, AMD stock was down 8 cents … Continue Reading

Y Combinator plants permanent roots in Bay Area

Y Combinator, the incubator that’s become famous for mentoring and providing seed funding to young entrepreneurs, announced yesterday that they will only be based in Mountain View, Calif. and no longer hold alternate funding cycles in Cambridge, Mass.

According to Paul Graham, one of the four partners at the company, “the reason has nothing to do with startups” (in other words, the quality of companies around Cambridge) and is actually for personal reasons. Graham and … Continue Reading

Boxee now lets you get "Lost" in ABC content

The new season of ABC’s hit show Lost premiered last night. Some people (me, for example) were busy and missed it. I was all set to buy the season pass on iTunes — but it’s $50 (in HD). I’d rather watch it for free, streaming at ABC.com, but that leaves me chained to my desk. Or it did until today, because media-center startup Boxee just added ABC support.

The addition expands an already impressive roster … Continue Reading

Even in the rough economy, Google beats the street

Google announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2008 today, and it’s good news: The company once again beat Wall Street’s estimates. Net revenues stood at $4.22 billion, or $5.10 per share. Wall Street had been looking for something more like $4.12 billion in net revenue, or $4.96 a share.

Google’s overall revenue of $5.70 billion represents an increase of 18 percent from the year ago period, and an increase of 3 percent … Continue Reading

Plinky launches microblogging community site to help you create content

Plinky is a new microblogging service designed for people who have trouble thinking about what to blog. It helps you find and create interesting information to share and discuss. It lets you do things like create and share locations on Google maps, share songs that include album art that Plinky grabs from Amazon, share images from around the web, and more.

But Plinky’s not just about sharing and discussing your activities from around the web, … Continue Reading

Google offers employees with underwater options a new option

In its fourth quarter earnings report released today, Google announced that it would begin offering employees a one-for-one stock exchange option starting one week from today. The exchange will allow employees to trade their current stock options for options equal to the closing price per share of the stock on March 2, 2009.

The reasoning for this is simple: because Google’s stock has fallen so much over the past couple of years — from its … Continue Reading

Digg not digging the economy, cuts 10 percent

Popular news aggregator Digg is laying off 10 percent of its 75 person workforce. Chief executive Jay Adelson announced a “headcount reduction in certain areas” this morning on the company blog and gave the 10 percent estimate to Webware’s Rafe Needleman.

It seems a bit disingenuous for Adelson to call the cuts “microscopic in size,” but they certainly don’t sound catastrophic. Digg is hardly alone in feeling the effects of the economic downturn. Just today, … Continue Reading

Sun Microsystems begins laying off 6,000 today [confirmed]

Updated with this response from the company:

On November 14, 2008, Sun announced a series of changes designed to align its cost model with the global economy and accelerate the introduction of compelling open source innovations. As part of that effort Sun announced a global workforce reduction of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 employees, representing approximately 15% to 18% of the Company’s global workforce. Sun can confirm that today layoff notifications were given to approximately 1,300 … Continue Reading

IMVU raises $10 million for its virtual rooms business

IMVU, an operator of virtual rooms for teens and young adults, said today it has raised $10 million in a fourth round of funding.

The round was led by Best Buy Capital, and existing investors Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital, and Bridgescale Partners also participated. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company also said that its base of registered users has grown to 30 million, compared to 20 million in June.

Members create their own virtual characters, or … Continue Reading

Microsoft cutting 1,400 jobs today, 5,000 over 18 months

Microsoft reported that it is cutting 1,400 jobs today and will eliminate 5,000 over the next 18 months.

The announcement was scheduled ahead of the company’s earnings report for its second fiscal quarter this afternoon. The cuts are the first company-wide layoffs in Microsoft’s history, though it has had smaller layoffs in targeted divisions before.

The cuts are coming in research and development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, human resources and information technology over the next … Continue Reading

4Info gets $20M more for text message advertising

4INFO, the Silicon Valley company that serves advertisements in mobile phone text messages, has raised another $20 million in funding.

The money comes from a previous backer, Peacock Equity, a joint venture between NBC Universal and General Electric Commercial Finance, according to a report in the WSJ. VentureBeat has heard that 4INFO’s advertising rates have plummeted since the onset of the economic downturn in October, though if it’s true, 4INFO would hardly be the only … Continue Reading

FriendlyFavor: More web 2.0 clutter, or useful social networking add-on?

Favor-organizing startup FriendlyFavor officially launched its service today. The Seattle-based company wants to help you manage favors and requests across your email and social network contacts, but it’s entering a very crowded market of social network add-ons.

The site hopes to move social networking from a simple exchange of status updates and messages to a state where users actively commit to favors and requests. To this end, it includes a “favor management tool” that organizes … Continue Reading

EA doubles down on the Spore franchise with a series of new 2009 spin-offs

Electronic Arts announces today that it is working on a number of new games based on its ambitious Spore franchise.

Lucy Bradshaw, head of the EA Maxis game studio, said in an interview that the universe built around Spore, which launched in September, is going to expand in several directions. Already, the company plans to launch an expansion pack called Spore Galactic Adventure, which will supplement the original with more play options in the popular … Continue Reading

Glu Mobile reveals smartphone focus with upcoming first quarter mobile games

Glu Mobile is showing off a new series of cell phone games reflecting the company’s heavy focus on smartphone platforms like the iPhone, Google Android and Nokia Ngage.

The San Mateo, Calif.-based mobile game company is launching eight new titles in the first quarter, most of them based on familiar brands or franchises. Most are also geared to work on several different platforms. This includes the traditional BREW and J2ME (Java) platforms, in addition to … Continue Reading

Just in time for the new administration, the Washington Post launches Who Runs Gov

We all witnessed a transition of power on Tuesday as Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, taking over for George W. Bush. Yet, while everyone knows at least general facts about those two men, how much do you know about Obama’s advisors, and the others who will be running our country alongside him? Probably not a lot. That’s where Who Runs Gov, a new site built by the … Continue Reading

Roundup: Tech salary raises in '08, Supreme Court knocks down anti-porn law, and more layoffs

Here’s the latest action, depressing as half of it is:

Apple will make an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2010 (at least in spirit) — The company has already said it will stop attending the Macworld event, so rumors that it will go to CES instead, persist. Apple or no Apple, CES is doing its best to woo the third-party developers and manufacturers with what has been dubbed the iLounge Pavilion for iPod … Continue Reading

Visualizing Twitter reactions to Obama's inauguration

The guys over at data-visualizing blog Flowing Data have put together an interesting way of watching how Twitter users felt about President Barack Obama’s inauguration this week. In the video they’ve created (found here), any time the word “inauguration” appeared in a single tweet on Twitter in a positive context — starting on the morning the day before the inauguration and continuing on up until now — a blacked-out world map represented it with a … Continue Reading