Salesforce's Summer 09 release lets companies collaborate to answer complaints
Salesforce.com has been unveiling some big additions to its customer relationship management software and related products, including a scaled-down mobile application called Mobile Lite and the Service Cloud, a tool for addressing customer service queries across the web. The details of its just-announced Summer 09 upgrade (which will go live to the San Francisco company’s 55,400 customers in June) aren’t as groundbreaking, but there are still some cool new features.
At the top of the … Continue Reading
High Density Networks nabs $1M for WiMAX and Wi-Fi access
High Density Networks, provider of WiMAX and Wi-Fi, DirecTV and digital voice service, has raised $1 million to continue building out its Los Angeles network. Certare Ventures and Barry Pier, the new chief executive of the company, provided the round.
HDN has broken from its competition by installing a mix of rooftop and in-building base stations.… Continue Reading
Microsoft raises $3.75B in debt
Microsoft has raised $3.75 billion in extra cash through its first ever sale of bonds. The software giant says it plans to spend the money on “general corporate purposes,” such as funding stock repurchase program that would increase earnings per share, and on capital expenditures — specifically, according to Bloomberg, on data centers to help Microsoft compete with Google on web search (good luck with that).
The bond offering follows a period of bad news … Continue Reading
Facebook to test payments system with developers "in a few weeks"
Developers may be making tens of millions of dollars through games and virtual goods on Facebook‘s platform, but the social network itself hasn’t had a way to get a share of that money. This may be about to change, as it plans to begin testing a payments system with developers in several weeks, according to industry sources. This product has been described to me as involving some sort of system that can use real money. … Continue Reading
Google adds more ways to keep up with the news
A quiet rollout last week added several features to Google News results. The new features are meant to give searchers more ways to quickly get up to speed on a story. The add-ons alleviate, to some extent, Google’s habit of returning a whole bunch of newspaper and TV site writeups, many of them edited from the same Associated Press or Reuters syndicated reports.
A post on the Google News Blog details the additional features:
Depending … Continue Reading
Your hidden footprint — energy per Google search?
The Official Google Blog just published a revealing post breaking down the environmental impact of every search made on the site. The verdict? About 1 kilojoule of energy is used and 0.2 grams of carbon dioxide emitted every time someone enters a query. The company provides a nifty little chart putting these figures in context:
Some of these numbers are surprising — especially considering that 200 million searches pass through the system a day. That … Continue Reading
Pirates outnumber buyers 3-1 on iPhone apps
It’s easy to sermonize that Hollywood fatcats should learn to live with the fact that 95% of online media are bootlegs, according to a Digital Hollywood panel last week, and focus on monetizing the remaining 5% of non-copyright-infringing copies. But what about standalone iPhone app developers? Should they turn the other cheek to pirates, too?
Ow My Balls is a real iPhone app. Developer Josh Michaels emailed with a shocking stat: For every copy he … Continue Reading
Edison, BP unite to deliver 90 MW of wind power
Southern California Edison is pursuing a 20-year contract to buy and distribute power generated by a BP Wind Energy-backed 90-megawatt wind farm in Idaho. The agreement is pending approval by the California Utilities Commission, the Wall Street Journal reports.
As part of the deal, the Edison International subsidiary would be able to purchase the energy for below market price (about 11.4 cents per kilowatt hour) — but transmitting it to California could raise the costs.… Continue Reading
Apple rejects one BitTorrent app, but approves another
Drivetrain, an iPhone app rejected by Apple, doesn’t download torrents itself. It’s a remote-control device for a desktop / laptop BitTorrent application called Transmission. It’s not surprising that app developer Aaron Scott, who sells under the name Maza Digital, got a rejection letter from Apple that said, “This category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights. We have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App … Continue Reading
Fisker taps EnrDel for electric car batteries
Lithium-ion battery maker EnerDel Lithium Power Systems has struck a deal of intent with Fisker Automotive to provide batteries for its swanky hybrid-electric Karma vehicle, slated to be released next year. A long-term contract will depend on in-car performance testing. With Fisker leading the race to launch the first hybrid-electric car, this development would give EnerDel a huge leg up on its competition.
Until now, it was assumed that Advanced Lithium Power (ALP) would be … Continue Reading
iPhone users eating up AT&T's network
iPhone users consume two to four times as much network data volume as other smartphone users, according to traffic measurement company Comscore.
That’s increasingly a problem for AT&T, which serves all those iPhone users in the US and must pay for the bandwidth to handle it all. AT&T starts at a loss by subsidizing customers’ iPhones. Then, it charges them only $30 per month for unlimited data download & upload — or the same it … Continue Reading
SocialMedia turns Twitter, Facebook info into web-wide social ads
If you were to see ads for things that your friends care about, you might be more inclined to pay attention — or that’s the theory behind a new set of advertising products that SocialMedia.com is announcing today.
The ad network is using Twitter, Facebook and other social data to figure out who your friends are and when they talk about a company. Then, it’s letting the company buy ads that feature what your friends … Continue Reading
San Francisco to become solar powerhouse
A plan approved by San Francisco’s board of supervisors clears the way for a 5-megawatt photovoltaic array that would triple the city’s solar productivity. The energy it generates — enough to power 1,000 homes — will largely be used in government buildings like schools and municipal facilities.
Funding, construction and maintenance for the 25,000-panel array — located in the Sunset Reservoir (the largest reservoir in the city) — will be provided by San Francisco-based Recurrent … Continue Reading
Microsoft says Windows 7 on-track for holiday season 2009
There’s been a ton of speculation about when Microsoft will release Windows 7 — early projections had the new version of the Windows operating system available to consumers sometime in 2010, while ZDNet’s Ed Bott predicted it could ship as soon as July of this year. Today, at Microsoft’s TechEd Conference, Windows Business Senior Vice President Bill Vighe said customers will be able to stuff their stockings with Windows 7 this year, because Microsoft plans … Continue Reading
Drunk Sniper: An unofficial sequel to those iPhone beer apps
In the proud tradition of iPhone applications that demonstrate the wonders of the human body, such as the popular and lucrative fart apps, a developer called Apalon Studio has released a game called Drunk Sniper (iTunes link). You can think of it as a sequel of sorts to the iBeer application — which is one of the bestselling paid apps in the App Store — because it shows you what happens after you finish several … Continue Reading
With Surface's new features, Microsoft wants to leave no touch behind
There have been unconfirmed rumors that Microsoft is developing a new version of its Surface tabletop computer, but in the meantime the software giant is rolling out improvements to the version that’s already out there. As you might expect given its newness, Microsoft is still trying to help users and developers of Surface applications wrap their heads around the multi-touch interface, and that’s what many of the features in this new Service Pack 1 try … Continue Reading
GE kicks off $6B health care campaign
Modeled after its expansive Ecomagination clean energy campaign, General Electric has launched Healthymagination a $6 billion strategy to jumpstart health care innovation in the next six years — including $3 billion that will go directly toward development of products designed to make health care more affordable and accessible.
In addition to boosting its own productivity in the sector, the company will lend $2 billion more to hospitals and medical facilities to upgrade their technology and … Continue Reading
You can play Bernie Madoff in Made Off cell phone game
With so much crazy news happening, games based on current events are becoming more common and easier to launch quickly on mobile platforms. Another one announced today is Cellufun’s Made Off, which lets users play Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
Madoff reportedly made off with $65 billion. This game lets players set up and manage their own Ponzi schemes. Aspiring Madoffs recruit their friends and other Cellufun users to invest their hard-earned CelluPoints, Cellufun’s virtual currency. … Continue Reading
Horsley Bridge closes $1.5B fund of funds
Horsley Bridge Partners, a San Francisco firm that invests in venture capital and small buyout firms, has closed a new fund of funds at $1.54 billion targeted specifically for Europe and Asia, reports VentureWire. Existing limited partners provided 95 percent of the financing, but the only one that has been disclosed so far is Kentucky Retirement Systems, which gave $50 million.
In the past, Horsley has taken funds from the California Institute of Technology, Eastman … Continue Reading
Revascular adds $3M to clear arteries
Revascular Therapeutics, maker of a device that helps doctors clear blockages in major arteries, has tacked on $3 million to a second round of funding, bringing its total to $11 million, reports VentureWire. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company hopes to add $1 million more to fully fund a study on its lead product.
Revascular’s device — which combines light and sound to guide physicians through vein-clearing procedures — is under testing in Europe expected to finish … Continue Reading
