RIP: Sequoia Capital's hedge fund?

Sequoia Capital partner Eric Upin has left the storied Silicon Valley venture capital firm to work at investment management firm Makena Capital Management, according to Forbes.

This news follows a report earlier this week that another Sequoia partner, Michael Beckwith, has also left the firm. Upin and Beckwith had joined Sequoia last year to help the respected firm (backer of Apple, Cisco, Google, YouTube and many others) create a hedge fund for investing  in publicly … Continue Reading

Roundup: Xbox defects rise, Windows Live Messenger comes to websites, and more

Here’s the latest action:

Joystiq reports rising Xbox 360 defects — Errors with the E74 code have been rising since the New Xbox Experience update on Xbox Live, according to a survey.

Windows Live Messenger adds chat to websites – In the words of TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld, “AIM, the ball is in your court.”

MySpace brings in Fotoflexer to allow photo customization — Up until this point, those features have only been available through third-party … Continue Reading

Lights, iPhone camera, action?

There’s been a ton of rumors surrounding the next-generation iPhone hardware following Apple’s preview of its 3.0 software for the device. The one I keep harping on is the possibility that the device will be able to record video with its camera. Now, there may be some further evidence of that.

At least one of the new iPhone models (yes, rumor has it there’s more than one) will include video recording capabilities, an “extrememly reliable” … Continue Reading

March Madness iPhone apps to help hard workers hardly work

If you’re like me, you’re trying to follow this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (aka March Madness) while working — or the other way around. Either way, a lot of you probably don’t have the same luxury that I do of being able to work from home, near my TV, some days, so you’ll need to follow the action remotely. And if you have an iPhone or iPod touch, there’s a huge number of applications … Continue Reading

Semantic search engine Evri cuts staff by 25 percent

Evri, the search engine that lets you track keyword results across the web, confirmed today that it has cut its staff by 25 percent to better weather the economic downturn. Chief executive Neil Roseman says the Seattle-based company is doing well, having recently landed two major partnerships, but that it’s necessary to trim costs in case the market slumps further.

“We’re in a tough market, and we want to be prudent for our investors,” he … Continue Reading

Google Ventures, ready to roll?

Google Inc. may be launching its widely-rumored venture capital branch sooner than previously thought. Of course, this prediction is pinned on the fact that a Reuters reporter spotted a name tag for Google wireless chief Rich Miner listing his affiliation as Google Ventures at a recent Silicon Valley startup event. This isn’t exactly iron clad, but evidence is mounting. Google has yet to make an official announcement.

When asked about the name tag, a Google … Continue Reading

iTweet: Apple joins the Twitter revolution — sort of

To the delight of some readers and the absolute dismay of others, the two companies I write about most are Apple and Twitter. So now, I’m happy to report that the two are finally overlapping. Apple has opened a Twitter account — or at least one small part of Apple has.

You see, Apple’s Twitter account is just for the movie trailers section of its site. This area, which has been around a long time, … Continue Reading

AOptix nabs $12.9M for eye-recognition

AOptix Technologies, developer of iris-recognition technology and the wireless communication systems it requires, has brought in $12.9 million in a fourth round of funding to build new products. The Campbell, Calif. company says it is in the middle of commercializing its first product, called the InSight 2 Meter Iris Recognition System. It has also benefited from recent defense contracts for its long-distance and high-bandwidth wireless systems.

Northgate Capital led the round, joined by Kleiner Perkins … Continue Reading

August Capital may get a bigger chunk of profits on $650M fund

August Capital‘s announcement that it raised a $650 million fifth fund may be even more impressive than it initially appeared. PEHub reports that the fund is August’s first to include a 30 percent carried interest structure (the percentage of profits used to pay general partners at firms).

Even normally, 30 percent would be on the high side — VentureBeat Editor Matt Marshall tells me the industry standard is closer to 25 percent — but the … Continue Reading

Recovery.gov: Where's the data?

Using the Recovery.gov website to reveal how the $787 billion federal stimulus package gets spent may turn out to be tougher than expected, according to a recent article in Federal Computer Week.

The article points to a statement from Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, voicing his worries about the data available for the site: “I am concerned about data quality. The federal government’s data systems have never been fully successful … Continue Reading

GameStop’s Bob McKenzie sees little recession impact on gamers

Bob McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at specialty videogame retailer GameStop, was on hand for the official launch last week of Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 game that turned San Francisco’s Union Square into a biohazard event. McKenzie took some time away from the party to talk about the Nintendo DSi launch, what impact the recession is having on used game sales, and why it’s good for the industry to see big games launching throughout … Continue Reading

iPhone game developers rejoice at Apple's latest update plans

There were a lot of happy game developers among the 200 or so people who attended Thursday’s iGames Summit in San Francisco, which was devoted to iPhone games.

Speakers at the summit, including game developers such as Tapulous, ngmoco, Booyah, Demiforce, Zynga and Social Gaming Network, were excited about Apple‘s announcement that its iPhone 3.0 update, coming this summer, would have a number of game-friendly features: a virtual goods platform, Bluetooth multiplayer, and peer-to-peer connectivity.… Continue Reading

Path 101: Matching you to a new career by way of data

Right now is an especially tricky time to be looking for a job. And with more layoffs in just about every industry being announced daily, it can be terrifying to even think about. So it’s an opportune time for Path 101, a career guidance service, to be launching.

Let’s be clear: This is not another job posting service. Instead, Path 101 takes an analytical approach to provide users with guidance for a career path. It … Continue Reading

OtherInbox opens up and attempts to simplify Gmail sorting

Gmail is by far the most-used web application in my life, and OtherInbox has just announced a new way to help me manage the flood of emails coming through it every day.

The service, which launched last year to cheers at the TechCrunch50 conference, helped users to better organize their email by letting them easily make multiple email addresses from a single domain. They could save their primary email address for important contacts and give … Continue Reading

TheFunded reveals blacklisted VCs

TheFunded, the site that allows entrepreneurs to anonymously review and rate venture capitalists, has released a list of venture firms that are banned from the site’s leaderboards.

What did these firms do to get on TheFunded’s blacklist? Founder Adeo Ressi says there are three possible reasons: Suspicious activity suggesting the firms pressured chief executives in their portfolio to write or review them favorably, threatening a member of TheFunded with legal action, and failing to make … Continue Reading

February U.S. game sales slow to 10 percent, but growth rate still up

The game industry is humming along. The U.S. video game industry grew 10 percent in February, slower than a month before but still enviable considering the weakness in the rest of the economy.

The sales of console games and hardware grew 10 percent to $1.47 billion in February from $1.34 billion a year earlier  according to NPD Group, a market researcher. In all of 2008, the industry grew 19 percent.

Sales in January were up … Continue Reading

Immediately regret that decision? Unsend it in Gmail.

One thing I miss about the old AOL dial-up days is that the closed email system had an “unsend” feature. This allowed you to take back a message you sent to another AOL user if they hadn’t yet read it. This came in handy when I was a moody teenager. Now, Gmail has the feature in Labs — kind of.

I say “kind of,” because it’s not really an “unsend” feature as much as it’s … Continue Reading

Hulu's new documentary hub wants indie revenue

While Hulu works on its hate/love relationship with the big studios, it’s attempting to generate revenue from indie circles as well. The online video portal has announced the launch of a dedicated documentary hub within the site, hoping to attract fans, content creators, and distributors.

On a basic level, the new section functions as sort of a corral. Hulu users in search of over 100 documentaries like “Super Size Me ” and “Confessions of a … Continue Reading

iTunes finally gets the HD picture. DVDs to exit my life.

Ever since Apple launched HD movies over a year ago, I’ve always thought it was kind of odd that it was restricted to only movie rentals, and only ones made on the Apple TV device. Today, that limitation has been lifted.

HD movies are now available to rent and buy in the iTunes store. This means that anyone who has the software, running on either the OS X or Windows platforms can get HD movies … Continue Reading