Whrrl revamps its iPhone app just in time for SXSW

When you think of location-based social network apps on the iPhone, you probably think of Loopt or Brightkite. But it was actually Pelago’s Whrrl that was the first app to get funding from Kleiner Perkins’ iFund, to develop a location-based network for the iPhone.

While it had some success, it, like the other location apps, has been hampered by the iPhone’s inability to run third-party apps in the background. So now, Pelago is relaunching Whrrl … Continue Reading

Tim O'Reilly prescription for the ailing economy: Work on stuff that matters

When publisher, tech guru and part-time social entrepreneur Tim O’Reilly prescribes a new business model to heal the shattered global economy and its equally-bruised ecosystem, should tech execs listen up? Only if they want to be in business five years from now.

O’Reilly’s Emerging Technology Conference (ETech) has become an epicenter for many of the memes and movements that are molding the high-tech sector today. Still, it came as a surprise to many of this … Continue Reading

Greystripe raises $5.5M for mobile ads

Greystripe, maker of a software platform for developing ad-supported games for mobile phones, announced that it brought in $5.5 million in third-round funding from Incubic Venture Capital, Steamboat Ventures and Monitor Ventures.

The San Francisco, Calif. company has formed partnerships with several game developers in order to insert ads into their video games. Consumers can download these games for free, because ads provide the revenue, which is then split between Greystripe and its developers. It … Continue Reading

In move to target behavior, Google warns publishers to update privacy policies

Google reached out this evening to Web publishers using its advertising, warning them to review their privacy policies now that Google is about to track their users more closely.

The notification comes a day after Google announced it is starting to track users’ Web surfing preferences in order to target them with advertising that closely matches their tastes. Google reaches about 74 percent of U.S. Web users, according to Comscore, and so is collecting an … Continue Reading

Lexulous avenges Scrabulous, faces down official Scrabble competitors on Facebook

Making an online social game a hit is about more than owning the intellectual property for the concept, as game-makers Hasbro and Mattel have found out over the last year or so. They shut down a popular Facebook application called Scrabulous last summer because it too closely resembled Scrabble, the word-forming board game they shared the worldwide rights to. But Scrabulous’ creators — two brothers in India — came back with a new version of … Continue Reading

Electronic Arts shows off fitness, iPhone games in its EA Sports line-up

Electronic Arts showed off its latest sports games today, with a heavy emphasis on new kinds of games that could appeal to wider audiences.

Among the big titles coming soon is EA Sports Active, a fitness title for the Nintendo Wii that resembles the Nintendo Wii Fit title (which topped 10 million unit sales last year). But EA Sports Active isn’t just a knock-off of the popular balance-board game.

The game has a deep fitness … Continue Reading

Can't make SXSW? Visualize it in tweets

Me and my fellow VentureBeatnik Eric Eldon are here on the ground in Austin, Texas for this year’s SXSW conference. Right now, nothing too exciting is going on, as we’re sitting alone in a cafe writing, but tomorrow the conference starts. For those not at the conference, there’s an interesting, visual way to follow along.

Pepsi has teamed up with the teams behind two great Twitter apps, Twistori and Twennis, to bring us PepsiCoZeitgeist, a … Continue Reading

Roundup: Brin backs Parkinson's study, iPhone gets shakable ads, and more

Google co-founder backs major Parkinson’s study –  Sergey Brin says he plans to contribute money and DNA to a study run by his wife Anne Wojcicki’s startup 23andMe.

Dockers introduces shakable iPhone ad — Users can shake their iPhones to make urban street dancer Dufon perform his moves. The ad was created by mobile ad company Medialets.

Twofish launches analytics platform for social games — The company’s Elements platform will help social game and virtual … Continue Reading

Will the Wii jump into the TV set-top box game?

In an interview with Variety magazine, Lionsgate president Curt Marvis let slip that the Wii presents a major opportunity for Hollywood studios to distribute movies and television shows — and that this might be a reality before the year is out. While it isn’t written in stone, someone of Marvis’ stature probably isn’t just blowing smoke.

There are other indications a Hollywood-Wii deal might be in the works: Nintendo has already started developing a video-on-demand … Continue Reading

Mark Zuckerberg, top VCs drop off Forbes' billionaire list

Financially, it’s been a tough year for almost everyone, even the absurdly rich. Some of the tech world’s richest men are billionaires no more, according to Forbes’ new list of the world’s billionaires. Among the most notable dropoffs (for VentureBeat readers) are Facebook‘s Mark Zuckerberg, Sequoia Capital‘s Michael Moritz and venture capital pioneer Arthur Rock.

Last year, Zuckerberg (then 23) was estimated to be worth $1.5 billion, making him the world’s youngest billionaire. Now he’s … Continue Reading

IForem nabs $1M for permanent digital storage

IForem, provider of permanent storage for digital information, announced that it brought in $1 million in a first round of funding, reports VentureWire. The Redwood Shores, Calif. company says the service is ideal for irreplaceable files like wills, family photos, corporate agreements and software code.

Charging a variable one-time fee dependent on the size of the file in question, iForem puts the money into a trust account to perpetually pay fees to a third-party vendor … Continue Reading

AOL snags Google's sales chief for CEO slot

AOL announced today that it has hired away Tim Armstrong, the head of Google’s sales organization, to become the company’s next chairman and chief executive. Armstrong, whose official title at Google was senior vice president of sales in North America and Latin America, has been credited by many with building the search giant’s Goliath online advertising business — and will now try to work the same magic at its faltering peer.

Armstrong will replace chief … Continue Reading

Diagnostics firm Chronix busts out of stealth, looks for cash

Chronix Biomedical, a diagnostic test development company that has operated mostly in secret since its 2000 inception, has finally come out of its shell — publishing information on its product in three academic journals and announcing its push for commercialization. To fuel the latter, it has already secured $845,000 in a third round of venture funding but hopes to rack up at least $2 or $3 million before the close of the round, VentureWire reports.… Continue Reading

Android G1 set for April facelift, drops in price

T-Mobile confirmed that it will release its firmware “Cupcake” update to revamp the G1 Android phone in April. The new software will add a virtual keyboard (in addition to its hardware QWERTY version), video and voice recording, the ability to save MMS attachments and stereo Bluetooth support — as well as a refresh of its Linux kernel that should zap most reported bugs.

When it comes to web browsing, the souped-up G1 will offer the … Continue Reading

Hulu jumps on the social bandwagon with Hulu Friends

To celebrate its one-year anniversary, Hulu launched its brand new social networking feature Hulu Friends today, allowing users to connect the video site to their Facebook and MySpace profiles. The service will record users’ Hulu activities on their newsfeeds, allowing them to discover new videos watched, recommended and shared by their friends and other Hulu users. They can even tie in their Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo address books for broader reach across their entire social … Continue Reading

The Energy Detective investigates home energy use

A new device called the Energy Detective gives users a window into their home energy consumption and the appliances that suck the most power. Manufactured by Energy Inc., the system includes a transmission unit that connects directly into a building’s circuit breakers and a compact screen display that plugs into any electrical outlet. It retails for $145.

For maximum impact, the device not only tells you how many kilowatts you’re using but also how much … Continue Reading

Yahoo's SearchMonkey results get awesomer with embedded content

Yahoo announced today that that it’s improving its search results by allowing sites to deliver embedded content such as videos or games in their results.

This is a very cool feature using SearchMonkey, Yahoo’s platform for delivering richer search results. And it makes sense as a next step, given SearchMonkey’s general mission to provide search results that are more useful than just a few lines of text. In the past, that has included improvements like … Continue Reading

Warner Bros. snatches Lord of the Rings game license

Electronic Arts held the Lord of the Rings license throughout the triumphant years of the Peter Jackson films. But apparently it has surrendered the rights back to Tolkien Enterprises, which in turn has given the license to Warner Bros., which has a game division.

The companies haven’t confirmed this account, which Variety reported. If true, then it would explain some things. EA recently released The Lord of the Rings: Conquest game to generally lousy reviews. … Continue Reading

Apple previewing iPhone OS 3.0 at an event March 17

Well, Apple is having an event in March, but it won’t be showing off any hardware. Instead, March 17 will mark a special event to show off a preview of the new iPhone 3.0 software.

This likely means we can expect the software relatively soon, probably this summer around the normal iPhone refresh time (June or July). And now the speculation can officially begin on whether we’re going to see new iPhone hardware as well … Continue Reading

DriverSide raises $5.3 million for car advice site

DriverSide has raised $5.3 million in a second round of funding for its site that gives advice to car owners.

The idea behind the site is to help drivers get the most out of their cars — a message that the company says works well in a recession. The site also helps owners buy or sell cars. Unlike other sites, the company says it focuses on the entire lifecycle of car ownership, from purchase to … Continue Reading