Hot or Not finally brings its superficiality to the iPhone
The iPhone has a huge, beautiful screen that is touch sensitive. Has there ever been a more perfect device for looking at pictures of beautiful people and rating them with one click?
The answer is no — welcome to the newest iPhone addiction: Hot or Not.
If you’ve used the site Hot or Not before — which I know you all have whether you admit it or not — you’ll know how to use the … Continue Reading
YouTube still hunting for money with affiliate ad expansion
Google is expanding its YouTube eCommerce Program beyond the U.S. and the U.K. to allow viewers in Germany, Spain and the Netherlands to “click-to-buy” products (such as songs or DVDs) related to the videos they watch on YouTube.
This is an effort to boost YouTube’s affiliate ads program, with ads that allow you to buy products through sites like iTunes and Amazon. Links to purchase songs and DVDs will now appear as semi-transparent ads within … Continue Reading
Intel closing or halting production at older factories, affecting 6,000 workers
Intel said it will close five older factories and lay off between 5,000 and 6,000 workers.
The world’s largest chip maker will close two assembly and test facilities in Penang, Malaysia and one in Cavite, Philippines. It will also halt production at Fab 20, an older eight-inch wafer manufacturing plant in Hillsboro, Ore. and at the D2 factory in Santa Clara, Calif.
“The actions at the four sites, when combined with associated support functions, are … Continue Reading
Apple on its cash, netbooks, Apple TV, iPhone nano and the Palm Pre
Apple’s quarterly earnings call was full of new information about the company. Below are five areas in particular that caught my ear, based on comments from executives. Chief operating officer Tim Cook (Apple’s acting leader with chief executive Steve Jobs out on medical leave) answered many analyst questions himself, while chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer also fielded some of the questions.
Cash On Hand
One question asked what Apple might do with its $26 billion … Continue Reading
EBay: PayPal and Skype can't save declining marketplace
E-commerce giant eBay just announced its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2008. Revenue is down, but the San Jose, Calif. company did manage to beat analysts’ earnings expectations. It reported revenue of $2.04 billion, down $145 million from the same period in 2007, earning 41 cents per share (non-GAAP). That’s 2 cents higher than analysts expected.
The source of eBay’s decline is its core product, the online marketplaces, including eBay.com, Shopping.com, StubHub.com, and others. … Continue Reading
Seagate reports a big loss due to restructuring and downturn
Seagate Technology reported today that it had a net loss of $496 million, or $1.02 a share, for the second fiscal quarter ending January 2.
Revenue for the quarter was $2.3 billion, which matched the low end of revised expectations for the quarter from Seagate itself. But analysts had expected a loss of just 5 cents a share and revenues of $2.46 billion. A year ago, Seagate’s revenues were $3.42 billion.
Seagate’s loss includes $18 … Continue Reading
Record revenue and earnings for Apple on huge iPod sales — but iPhone sales miss expectations
Apple’s first quarter earnings came in today. Once again, Apple set a new quarterly revenue and earnings record for the company. Sales of the iPod also reached record levels for the quarter ending December 27, 2008. One number that didn’t beat many analysts’ expectations however: iPhone sales.
Specifically, Apple posted revenue of $10.17 billion GAAP and $11.8 billion Non-GAAP (for more on what that means, see this post). Quarterly profit was $1.61 billion or $1.78 … Continue Reading
Filing in the GAAP — an Apple earnings primer
Apple is set to announce its first quarter earnings shortly. Expectations are mixed, but there’s something that should probably be brought up once again for those who don’t follow Apple’s financial details closely: the difference between GAAP and Non-GAAP financial measures.
GAAP or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, are the guidelines for financial accounting in the United States. In the fiscal year 2007, Apple started selling the iPhone and the Apple TV, two products it wanted … Continue Reading
OneSeason puts a market spin on fantasy sports
Hoping to attract stock market refugees benched by the downturn, web site OneSeason lets users buy and sell virtual shares in their favorite athletes — from SHAQ (at $15.69 a share) to AROD ($5.08). The concept, which combines fantasy sports with virtual goods sales, just earned the San Francisco company $3.5 million in first-round funding led by Charles River Ventures.
After joining the site, users pay real dollars for what the company calls Synthetic Ownsership … Continue Reading
Updated: Game and virtual world fundings top $885 million in 2008
See our updated post on this data.
We’ve updated to include data from Virtual World Management’s list, so the number is much bigger than we reported earlier]. In 2008, VentureBeat chronicled lots of game and virtual world fundings. Our updated list shows 93 game companies that raised more than $885.6 million worth of venture capital and angel funds. That’s nothing compared to the $4.1 billion that went into U.S. deals for clean tech, according to … Continue Reading
Zimbra founder and investor Satish Dharmaraj leaves Yahoo
Satish Dharmaraj, the co-founder of Zimbra and an active angel investor, is leaving Yahoo, Boomtown reports. He’s not saying why — I interrupted him in a meeting when I called to ask — but in the last half a year he’s already put angel funding into simplified blogging service Posterous as well as open-source web meeting company Dimdim.
He and his cofounders sold e-mail software company Zimbra to Yahoo for $350 million some 15 months … Continue Reading
Virtual worlds raised $594 million in 2008
Investors poured $594 million into 63 virtual world companies in 2008, according to trade media firm Virtual Worlds Management.
The company noted a slowdown in the fourth quarter, with 13 companies raising $101 million, compared with bigger numbers in the three previous quarters. (The company didn’t provide a figure for 2007.) Chris Sherman, executive director of Virtual Worlds Management, said that 19 youth-oriented properties raised over $70.47 million over the course of the year. But … Continue Reading
Bigfoot Networks names tech marketing veteran Michael Howse as chief executive
Hoping to steer its way into the hearts of gamers, Bigfoot Networks named a seasoned marketing executive Michael Howse as its president and chief executive.
Bigfoot makes a line of network interface cards for game computers. The cards are designed to eliminate lag so that gamers never have to worry that their machines will freeze up just as they’re about to deliver a death blow to a fellow online gamer.
Howse said the company has … Continue Reading
Return Path seals $6M for email management
Return Path, a company that manages marketing emails, announced that it brought in $6 million in a fifth round of financing, reports peHUB. Its investors include Union Square Ventures, Mobius Venture Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures and Western Technology Investments.
Based in New York, the company offers an array of services, including whitelisting of secure or trusted email transfers (much like Goodmail’s blue-ribbon service ). Actually, Return Path seems to be profiting from a candle burning … Continue Reading
Ardian nabs $30M to treat heart failure
Ardian, maker of a device used to treat symptoms of congestive heart failure, just brought in $30 million of an anticipated $60 million third round of capital, according to peHUB. Backers of the Menlo Park, Calif. company include Advanced Technology Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures and St. Paul Venture Capital. It previously raised $18 million.
Founded in 2003, the tiny, web site-less firm was initially incubated at the Foundry.… Continue Reading
Supposed leaked Android G2 shots reveal no keyboard
After the launch of T-Mobile’s G1, the first phone running Google’s Android mobile platform, I trashed its keyboard, calling it a failed lesson in ergonomics. But the bigger picture is that physical keyboards, as much as some hate to admit it, are going to be a thing of the past in the not too distant future. Don’t believe me? Look at the newly leaked shots of the G2, HTC’s follow-up to the G1, which Gizmodo … Continue Reading
Google's inauguration search queries show a rapidly evolving Internet
In 2001, there were no Google search queries for streaming video of George W. Bush’s inaugural address. In fact, there were very few even for video of the event. By 2005, Bush’s second inaugural address, that had changed as inauguration-related searches rose by a factor of 10. Yesterday, during Barack Obama’s inauguration, that factor grew even more, according to a post on the Google Blog.
We already knew that sites like Twitter, Facebook and CNN … Continue Reading
The SEC won't let Steve Jobs be, opens investigation on his health disclosures
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is sick, that’s been made abundantly clear over the past few weeks. But the Securities and Exchange Commission is now looking into whether or not Apple’s disclosure (or lack thereof) of Jobs’ illness misled investors, Bloomberg reports.
To be clear: This doesn’t mean that Jobs and Apple did anything wrong necessarily, just that the SEC is looking into it. This is predictable considering rampant talk of investor lawsuits following Jobs’ … Continue Reading
Skout brings location-based dating to the iPhone
There are some who view any kind of location-based social networking as creepy. But there are others who see it as the key ingredient to move online social networks into the real world. And one type of network in particular could lead the way: Dating sites. At least, that’s what Skout is hoping for with its new iPhone application.
Set to be unveiled this week at the iDate conference in Miami, Skout claims to be … Continue Reading
Roundup: IBM's good fourth quarter, more inauguration coverage, possible trouble for Intel
IBM had a good fourth quarter — The now-diversified hardware maker posted net income of $4.4 billion for last quarter, up 12 percent from Q4 of 2007. Revenue decreased just 1 percent after adjusting for currency changes. The company expects its software, services and finance businesses to fair well in the coming year. More on CNET.
President Barack Obama’s inauguration causes web traffic spike — Web infrastructure company Akamai reported millions going online looking for … Continue Reading
