Paying GFail victims get 15 days of free service
Updated
To make up for the brief Gmail outage early this morning, businesses and governments who pay to use Google’s webmail service through the premiere edition of Google Apps will get a 15 days of free service added to their accounts, according to the Associated Press.
That seems like a lot of free email, particularly since “the great Gmail outage of February 2009” lasted only a few hours, at a time when many California residents … Continue Reading
With Good acquisition, Visto aims at mobile enterprises
Now that mobile email and synchronization company Visto has acquired competitor Good Technologies from Motorola, it plans to compete with BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion to win over large corporations as customers, chief executive Brian Bogosian told me earlier today.
The deal will bring some big changes to the Redwood City, Calif. company, doubling its size to more than 400 workers. The terms weren’t disclosed, but it’s worth noting that Motorola bought Good for more than … Continue Reading
ViddyHo gives GTalk users a case of the worms
A couple hours ago, I was pinged by a fellow blogger on Google’s GTalk instant message service, telling me to click on an abbreviated URL link that led to a site called “ViddyHo.” This blogger doesn’t normally ping me, and the message was strangely nonspecific — “hey, check out this video: http://tinyurl.com/cmy22l.” So while I clicked on the link, I felt like something was a little off. Then, almost immediately after I clicked, another non-IMing … Continue Reading
ON24 raises the profile for virtual trade shows
Virtual trade shows are catching on, according to one of the leading companies in the space.
San Francisco-based ON24 says it grew sales 40 percent in 2008 and saw its client base expand to 700 customers. (It didn’t disclose exact revenues.)
Sharat Sharan, its chief executive, said that companies trying to reduce travel costs are looking for alternatives, and that virtual shows — where attendees meet in a virtual world where the main object is … Continue Reading
San Francisco Chronicle might have to shut down within weeks
The San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Bay Area’s largest newspaper, may have to be shut down if it can’t lay off a significant number of employees within weeks, its parent company Hearst said in an announcement.
This is just the latest announcement in an industry that is reeling from a downturn in readership and advertising — where several bankruptcies have been announced over the past few days, including the Philadelphia Inquirer.
From the release:… Continue Reading
Chinese social network Qzone: The worldwide market leader?
Neither Facebook nor MySpace nor other international social networks can claim to be the single largest one in the world, if a recent press release by leading Chinese social network Qzone is to be believed. The site, part of the larger Tencent internet portal, claims to have had more than 200 million monthly active users in January, according to China Web2.0 Review (a translated version of the release is also available at the Web2Asia blog). … Continue Reading
Canesta scores its 37th U.S. patent for gesture-control technology
Maybe I’m paranoid, but I can smell a legal battle coming in gesture control for TVs, computers, game consoles and other gadgets.
Maybe it’s because Canesta is soon to announce its 37th patent. Normally, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but innovations in user-interfaces are hot right now. Also, user interfaces for smartphones have already sparked legal disputes between Apple and Palm. Basically, Palm is using multi-touch screens — which Apple says it patented — … Continue Reading
Google Analytics makes it easy to see iPhone traffic
Browsing the web from smartphones is becoming more and more popular. And of all the smartphones out there, none is more popular for that experience than Apple’s iPhone. So it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that Google has added a specific way to see iPhone traffic and data coming into your sites from Google Analytics.
Using the Advanced Segmentation beta feature of Google Analytics, there is a new option to filter your data for … Continue Reading
Chrome who? Safari 4 makes the browser hunt more interesting
I’ve had a bit of a dilemma in recent months. You see, my browser of choice, Google Chrome, is not available on my operating system of choice, Apple’s OS X. So I’ve been waiting patiently as Google makes slow progress on the Mac version. But after today, I may not be waiting anymore.
No, Chrome for Mac still isn’t available, but something which may be on par, if not better is — Safari 4. Apple … Continue Reading
Facebook, CNN reconnect for Obama State of the Union address
Facebook‘s Connect service — a service that lets other web sites integrate status updates and other features from Facebook into their own interfaces — seems to be gaining traction of late. And it should get an extra boost during President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union speech this evening. Cable news company CNN will be letting Facebook users comment on CNN’s live web video feed of the event.
Here’s how it works: Facebook users … Continue Reading
News Corp launches gossip news site Daily Fill
News Corp‘s web incubator Sligshot Labs has finally let its new gossip and entertainment news site, Daily Fill, out of the bag. And it’s hit the ground running, racking up 1.3 million unique visitors in January alone during its beta release. At this rate, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company expects to catch up with competitors TMZ and Perez Hilton sooner rather than later.
For the most part, Daily Fill is no different from the gaggle … Continue Reading
Lookery refocuses on its paid ad targeting business
Lookery has gone from selling ads on Facebook applications to selling anonymized user data so online publishers and advertisers can better target ads. Now, the company is going through a further set of changes — beginning to charge for previously-free data reporting tools, and cutting its staff from nine to six people. The story, laid out in detail by cofounder Scott Rafer on the company blog, is perhaps instructive for other web startups trying to … Continue Reading
Sony shows off line-up for PlayStation Portable
Sony announced today a bunch of new titles for its PlayStation Portable handheld game player as well as a new lilac-colored model aimed at female gamers.
The announcements of new games show that Sony is still fighting an uphill battle with the Nintendo DS, which has sold more than 90 million units compared to the PSP’s 45 million or so. The Japanese company announced the news at its annual retailer and publisher conference, Destination PlayStation, … Continue Reading
Sage Electrochemics catches $20M for green window coatings
Sage Electrochemics makes a thin-film window glaze that changes tint throughout the day to let in an optimal amount of light and selectively trap the sun’s rays to heat or cool green buildings. The Fairbault, Minn. company just brought in $20 million in a third round of funding led by Good Energies and joined by existing investors Applied Ventures and Bekaert.
It claims that its product, called SageGlass, can slash energy bills for facilities accustomed … Continue Reading
Pearl Therapeutics gathers $8M to treat breathing disorders
Pearl Therapeutics, a Redwood City, Calif.-based developer of inhaled drugs to treat respiratory diseases like COPD and asthma, just landed $8 million in venture debt from Oxford Finance and Silicon Valley Bank to expand its product line.
The company licensed particle-based technology from San Carlos, Calif.-based Nektar Therapeutics to improve inhaled drug targeting and lung distribution, cutting down on negative side effects. So far, it has not disclosed whether its products are in clinical trials … Continue Reading
InstantAction enables 3-D games in web browsers
InstantAction is announcing today the formal launch of its site that lets gamers play 3-D games in a web browser.
The site will have nine games that are available for free at the outset, with a half-dozen more games coming soon. The Eugene, Ore.-based company, which is owned by Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp, says it can convert almost any game to run in a web browser.
InstantAction was started in 2000 as GarageGames. The original company … Continue Reading
PopCap Games acquires game maker Gastronaut Studios
PopCap Games has acquired Gastronaut Studios for an undisclosed amount to expand its presence in Xbox Live and Xbox 360 markets.
Seattle-based PopCap is one of the most successful developers of casual games — lightweight games that can be played in a short amount of time, like Bejeweled, which has sold more than 25 million copies.
Gastronaut is best known for its hit title Small Arms (pictured), which is one of the top-selling titles on … Continue Reading
ImageSpan signs up more groups for its photo-licensing technology
It’s not easy to get people to pay for things like photos that are easily stolen on the internet. But ImageSpan just might have some success with a new system that allows it to collect royalties on behalf of artists and photographers.
The Sausalito, Calif.-based company is announcing today that it has signed deals to offer its services at a discount to photography groups with more than 35,000 professionals.
The company has teamed with the … Continue Reading
Where were you during the great Gmail outage of February 2009?
If you live in the United States, chances are, you were asleep. But for those in other parts of the world, and those of us who are nocturnal, Google’s email service, Gmail, was down for several hours on Tuesday morning.
While this isn’t anything new, Gmail crashed a few times last year, it is the first time it has gone down since offline support was added. That fact actually caused quite a few people not … Continue Reading
Apple launches a new iTunes Pass feature for groupies
Is there an artist you love? I mean really love, as in you’ll buy anything they do before you have any idea what it is? A lot of people probably do, and for them, Apple has a new feature on iTunes called “iTunes Pass.”
While the idea behind this new service seems a bit vague, as I understand it, you buy this pass for a certain artist or group and you’ll automatically receive anything new … Continue Reading
