ETV Motors powers up with $12M for longer-range hybrid engines
ETV Motors, an Israeli company developing alternative powertrains for hybrid-electric vehicles, has raised $12 million in a first round of funding to fuel further research. If successfully launched, its “micro-turbine” technology could be disruptive, causing plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle (PHEV) makers to abandon the internal combustion engines they have long relied upon.
Basically, the company has miniaturized airplane turbines, which produce both heat and electricity, yet are lighter and more compact than normal gas-powered engines. It … Continue Reading
Google's new gadget shows "What's Popular" on the web
Google has quietly released a gadget called “What’s Popular” that closely models crowd-sourced aggregator sites like Digg, Mixx and Reddit. The widget appears on your iGoogle homepage as a stream of headlines and links culled from across the web that you can vote up or down. The major difference is that your stream is customized based not only on other users’ rankings (upvotes are called “pops”), but also on their behavior on sites like Google … Continue Reading
Verizon flirts with Apple, but Android is already girlfriend material
There’s been lots of speculation that Verizon, the largest U.S. phone network, is flirting with Apple, with the idea of introducing an iPhone on Verizon’s network next year.
Verizon is building out a new fourth-generation network, based on Long Term Evolution (LTE), which is why interest in this is high.
There are plenty of reasons why Verizon would court Apple, which has so far signed an exclusive deal with AT&T within the U.S. market. Foremost … Continue Reading
Graphics chips make a comeback in first quarter sales
In a sign that the recession in the PC market may be subsiding, graphics chip sales bounced back somewhat in the first quarter.
Graphics chip sales were up 3.3 percent in the first quarter from fourth-quarter levels.
Graphics chips are one leading indicator of PC sales, since graphics chips are purchased ahead of actual PC shipments to customers, so a recovery in graphics chip sales is a good sign for the overall market, according to … Continue Reading
Marin Software raises $13M to help brands manage paid search campaigns
Marin Software, which offers software to advertisers and agencies to manage ad campaigns across search engines, has raised $13 million in a third round of funding.
The software, delivered online (SaaS), manages these paid search ad campaigns across sites such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. VentureWire reported the news this morning.
DAG Ventures led the round, with includes participation from new investor Focus Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Amicus Capital. Chris Lien, chief … Continue Reading
Zoho's productivity apps reach the major smartphone platforms
Zoho, a company that provides a wide range of free web applications for productivity and business, is making an aggressive move into the mobile arena with the launch of Zoho Mobile, a mobile site where users can access six Zoho apps on the major smartphone platforms: iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian.
The move comes as Google has been rapidly improving the mobile experience for its competing applications, particularly on the iPhone and Android. … Continue Reading
Jigsaw launches Data Fusion to clean up sales contact lists
Jigsaw today is launching its cloud-based Data Fusion software for acquiring and managing sales prospect records so that companies can use them to reel in clients more easily.
The San Mateo, Calif.-based Jigsaw said that Data Fusion can automate the collection and management of sales prospects, integrating the data into customer relationship management (CRM) databases from vendors such as Salesforce.com.
What Jigsaw tries to fix is an age-old problem: most contacts in sales databases are … Continue Reading
New report reveals hottest apps, best traffic times
Surprise. People use Facebook all day long, whether they’re working or not.
That’s one of the findings of a survey by Wakoopa, a company that lets users find new software and applications online.
The interesting results include these facts: Peak usage for social networks is 9 pm to 10 pm, but Facebook usage happens consistently throughout the day. Across all web apps, the peak time is 4 pm to 5 pm.
The company’s users are … Continue Reading
NEA breaks $2B for its latest venture capital fund
New Enterprise Associates, Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firm, has raised another $1 billion for its newest fund — its 13th — bumping the fund’s total size so far to $2.15 billion. That’s an impressive feat in today’s economic climate. The target for the fund is $2.5 billion, lowered from the $3 billion initially posed to the firm’s limited partners last year, reports VentureWire.
Based in Menlo Park, Calif., NEA raised its last fund, which … Continue Reading
Satoris closes $1.1M for Alzheimer's diagnostics
Satoris, a Redwood City, Calif. company that makes bloodstream-based diagnostic tests for Alzheimer’s disease, says it has raised $1.12 million toward an anticipated $1.5 million bridge round, which will be used to commercialize its lead product, reports VentureWire.
The plan is to market the tests to researchers and pharmaceutical companies as a precise way to track the progression of the disease. Eventually, the company says it will follow up with a clinical test — contingent … Continue Reading
Bosch enters remote healthcare electronics market with Health Buddy
Following similar moves by Intel and General Electric, auto parts and appliance maker Bosch said it will launch a new division today that will focus on remote healthcare monitoring and other “telehealth” technologies.
The division is built around Health Buddy, a monitoring device made by Health Hero Network, which was acquired by Bosch and will now be known as Robert Bosch Healthcare.
There are already tens of thousands of patients in the U.S. using the … Continue Reading
Coming soon: A new, smarter Google News?
Google may be working on a new, intelligent news distribution system, according to Sharon Waxman, a reporter for Hollywood newsblog TheWrap. She approached chief executive Eric Schmidt at a soiree thrown by Arianna Huffington last week, during which she says Schmidt confirmed the development of a platform “that will bring high-quality news content to users without them actively looking for it.” The news feature would launch in about six months.
The details of the feature … Continue Reading
Rebel Monkey's cooperative CampFu game world hits 100,000 users
Rebel Monkey’s CampFu casual game world has drawn more than 100,000 registered players since its launch in late February.
The New York-based company says those players come from 110 countries and spend an average of more than 60 minutes playing and socializing on the site.
The cartoony virtual world is a casual one, where players can play games for short snippets of time. And it targets mostly a teen demographic. One of the unique aspects … Continue Reading
Microsoft announces Vine, a location-based service for emergencies
Microsoft plans to release the test version next month of a new product called Microsoft Vine that will allow users to share reports and updates tied to real-world locations, a tool that could be particularly useful for communication during a disaster.
At least, that’s what it sounds like from the relatively scant details released so far by the Redmond, Wash. company. I haven’t had a chance to see the product in action, but Microsoft says … Continue Reading
CPower snags $10.7M to reduce corporate energy use
Energy management firm CPower, which helps businesses optimize their operations while reducing their energy use (and glean financial rewards for doing so), has raised $10.68 million in a second round of capital from Mayfield Fund (in its first energy investment), among others. The New York-based company will use the fresh financing to develop its technology offerings and expand to other regions.
CPower specializes in turn-key energy solutions, meaning that businesses can adopt its systems and … Continue Reading
Does Hulu have a user attention problem?
Hulu has released yet another peek at its monthly performance from comScore’s Video Metrix report. Long story short, the premium video hub is still growing in terms of unique visitors, while the amount of time spent on the site seems to be dropping.
For March, Hulu claimed the number three spot in terms of popularity, beating out other online video contenders like Yahoo, Microsoft, and CBS. In terms of traffic, this came out to 41.6 … Continue Reading
Blogging community BlogCritics gets a face lift
BlogCritics, a community of some 3,300 writers of personal blogs, has had a major redesign to boost traffic.
The new site goes live at 1 am Tuesday with more images and improved navigation. Other aspects of the redesign include a different logo, more color, and features such as the “ObamaNation,” which monitors the connection between pop culture and the President. The site also has its professional side, with 15 editors combing through the posts to … Continue Reading
Clickfree raises $10 million for storage backup service
Clickfree has raised $10 million in a second round of funding to expand its automatic storage backup service business.
The Toronto, Canada-based software company strives to fully automate the backup process. The products are aimed at those who regularly fail to backup content on their PCs because they do not have the time, desire or skill to install, set up and use confusing or complex software and hardware products.
Coincidentally, we wrote about a competitor, … Continue Reading
Report shows iPhone and iPod Touch dominate usage in April
The iPhone continues to dominate the landscape for mobile applications, according to a report on mobile phone usage in April by analytics firm Flurry.
The data shows the iPhone dominates the landscape for mobile apps usage at 56 percent. It is followed by the iPod Touch at 28 percent and Google Android at 16 percent.
That represents a slight slip for Apple and a gain for Android. In March, the iPhone and iPod Touch accounted … Continue Reading
Roundup: Pleo is dead, Twitter spreads swine flu, Google Earth solves plane crash and more
Here’s all the latest action:
Verizon iPhone in the works — Apple and Verizon have been talking about launching an iPhone for the Verizon network as early as next year. USA Today has the story.
Tragedy strikes as Pleo, the magic dinosaur, is liquidated — Ugobe, maker of robotic dino Pleo, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will liquidate its intellectual property.
Cleantech funding not so miserable — Investor Rob Day questions the reported … Continue Reading
