FairSpin looks for media bias on Twitter
A new site called FairSpin wants to help users visualize and weigh-in on the biases of political news and commentary — and today it unveiled a new feature that takes the same approach to messages on microblogging site Twitter.
FairSpin pulls its articles from political news aggregator memeorandum. The site makes an “educated guess” about the article’s bias (liberal, neutral, or conservative) based on the history of the publication and author, and it lays the … Continue Reading
Velocity starts fund with Best Buy, gets new name
Velocity Interactive Group has already invested in a wide range of digital media companies, and it’s going to be doing more of that with the help of retailer Best Buy. The two are starting a fund together, targeting the same mobile, gaming, video, and other media-related startups as Velocity has been. Best Buy is going to be using its brick-and-mortar clout to help with the investment.
Separately, Velocity is changing its name to Fuse Capital … Continue Reading
New version of HDMI cables brings Internet into consumer electronics
An industry alliance is announcing today a new version of the popular HDMI cables that connect high-definition video appliances to TVs and other appliances. It’s just a simple cable upgrade, but it will mean far easier set-up of Internet-connected devices in the your living room.
And that means that web-connected devices are going to multiply in homes. Call it cable simplification. Instead of a rat’s nest of cables behind your entertainment center, you can now … Continue Reading
Google Web Elements brings Google's greatest hits to your site
Google launched a new feature called Google Web Elements today at its Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco. The new tool, available starting today, allows web publishers to easily add Google content, from news feeds to calendars to maps, with a simple cut and paste. While the search giant has made these APIs available in the past, Elements makes them understandable and accesible for non-developers and other layman users.
For example, if a web … Continue Reading
Philippe Kahn's Fullpower demos motion-sensing ear-piece
Philippe Kahn showed off a motion-sensing ear piece at the AllThingsD conference today. For the past five years, Kahn’s startup Fullpower Technologies has been developing a system that can track your motion. They’ve now built the accelerometer-based technology into a ear piece that serves as a cell phone headset.
Much like the Nintendo Wii’s motion-sensing controller, the ear piece can detect where you move. You tap it to get started and then start jogging. Then … Continue Reading
AT&T begs customers to stick around for faster network
The cruelest, truest moment in iPhone: The Music Video is when New York Times gadget guru David Pogue sings, “So what if it’s AT&T?” A bit of audio doctoring mangled Pogue’s “AT&T” in sputtering mimicry of a bad connection. My own AT&T iPhone fails to connect in many areas where my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry never hiccups.
AT&T needs to change that reputation. That’s one reason the company has pre-announced its rollout of a faster wireless … Continue Reading
Good Technology buys Intercasting to strengthen mobile email
Good Technology, provider of mobile email services, has bought Intercasting, maker of cell phone software that aggregates and serves social networking data, to strengthen its offerings and challenge Research in Motion, the leader in the space. In particular, the company hopes to become more competitive in the mobile email space.
Good originally broke off from Motorola, and joined forces with similar RIM rival Visto Corp. Together, they have a formidable amount of capital — with … Continue Reading
Time-warp to 2004, pay $4,500 and get Twitter.com
For the entrepreneur out there building a time machine, here’s a way to put your device to profitable use. Go back to 2004 and buy the domain Twitter.com for $4,500.
A reader recently pointed me to the Internet Archive entries for the site — here’s the domain for sale in all its latent glory.
Twitter, of course, didn’t even start with its current name. It launched with the more Web 2.0-y and much harder-to pronounce … Continue Reading
American Idol results: Adam Lambert was robbed!
OK, just because I live in California doesn’t mean that I’m a fan of the eye-liner-wearing Adam Lambert, who lost out last week to Kris Allen of Arkansas in the American Idol finale.
But you have to love a good conspiracy theory. Lambert was the favorite going into the show, in spite of his ambiguous sexuality compared to the homespun, folksy and much more mainstream Allen. Allen himself was flabbergasted when Ryan Seacrest announced the … Continue Reading
Can the iPhone save Sirius XM?
Here’s a first look at Sirius XM’s forthcoming iPhone app, culled from a PowerPoint stack published in SEC documents today. CEO Mel Karmazin presented the slides to investors at Wednesday’s shareholder meeting.
Can this app help Sirius XM repay its half-billion-dollar loan from Liberty Media?
The app doesn’t look much different from iTunes at first glance. That’s good. It’s not weird or ugly.
The bad news is the app requires users to sign up for … Continue Reading
EA pulls out the stops for launch of Sims 3 iPhone game
Electronic Arts is launching its Sims 3 game across as many platforms as it can next week. But one of the most interesting to watch will be the game’s debut on the iPhone. That’s because the game represents a big effort inside EA to get the game right on the fast-growing platform.
While most iPhone games are built by tiny teams in a few months, EA has had its team working on the title since … Continue Reading
ImageShack gains early lead in mobile Twitter video hosting
There are already a few services that make it easy for you to share links to videos on Twitter, including TwitVid.com and TwitVid.io, but they’re getting a serious new competitor today: ImageShack.
You can either upload videos and tweet them directly from ImageShack’s media hosting service, yfrog, share videos from within another company that uses yfrog. Those include Tweetie, a popular third-party application for the iPhone and Mac computers, and a current yfrog customer.
Importantly, … Continue Reading
Carol Bartz fires some zingers from the hot seat, still awaits boat loads of Microsoft money
Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz sat on the hot seat in an interview with Kara Swisher at the AllThingsD conference. Bartz managed to deflect and disarm tough questions with her sense of humor.
She said that she was open to talking to Microsoft about an acquisition if the deal came with “boatloads of money,” “good data” and “good technology.”
Right off the bat, Swisher asked Bartz what Yahoo was about. It was easy to say … Continue Reading
Woz stonewalls on Steve Jobs' health worries
While yakking it up with reporters at this week’s All Things D technology business conference, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said the other Steve from Apple “doesn’t sound like he’s sick.” But Woz also claimed that he has never directly asked Jobs about his health.
If Woz weren’t such a notorious wonk and a bad liar, I wouldn’t believe him. I do, but most people won’t.
It doesn’t help at all that Jobs has delegated his … Continue Reading
Heyzap raises seed round for casual game widgets
Showing there is still investor interest in games, startup Heyzap is announcing today it has raised a round of in seed funding from Union Square Ventures. The amount was $500,000 to $1 million.
Heyzap creates widgets that allow any web site operators to embed casual games on their sites. The San Francisco company launched the widgets in January and the widgets are now embedded on more than 20,000 sites. There are more than 12,000 free … Continue Reading
DC meetup for entrepreneurs, hosted by DEMO, VentureBeat and Social Times
Nick O’Neil of Social Times and I are throwing a cocktail networking event tomorrow evening (Thurs, May 28) for local entrepreneurs at the Hudson Restaurant and Lounge in Washington D.C. Register here.
We’re starting at 5:30 sharp and going until 8pm. The first 30 in the door get a free drink, so be there early. Some of us will then head over to TwinTech, another event which starts a bit later, and focuses on linking … Continue Reading
Ultracell raises $3.8M for portable fuel cells
UltraCell, provider of fuel cells for mobile applications, has brought in $3.8 million in capital, according to VentureWire. BASF Venture Capital, OnPoint Technologies, Espirito Santo Ventures and Miami Valley Venture Fund led the round. Based in Livermore, Calif. the company has raised $30 million in venture backing to date.
Ultracell says the new financing will be used to grow its manufacturing facility in Ohio and expand field testing of its leading fuel cell. Its products … Continue Reading
iPoop developers dare Apple to flush their app
Yes, of course iPoop is a marketing ploy for its creators, the small Portland, Oregon design and marketing firm Quango. But I’m sure the 99-cent app will get plenty of downloads from iPhone users more poop-oriented than me.
A press release from Quanto says they “developed the application to test the boundaries of acceptability in the App Store.” iPoop probably won’t tweak the noses of iPhone users who’ve seen it all on the Internet. But … Continue Reading
MIT busts genome reader Navigenics on patents
Navigenics, a Foster City, Calif. company that checks consumers’ genomes for indications of disease, is being sued by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for allegedly infringing on a patent that the university licensed exclusively to E8 Pharmaceuticals.
If MIT wins the suit, Navigenics will have to pay damages to both the school and E8. It will also have to pay to officially acquire the patent or pay royalties. This patent has been a sticking point … Continue Reading
Zeebo ships game consoles to stores in Brazil
Readying its launch of a new game console, Zeebo said today that it has shipped game machines to retailers in Brazil. That’s the beginning of a test as to whether there is room for a bargain console in emerging countries.
The Zeebo console will be available in 200 stores throughout Rio de Janeiro this week and then will reach the rest of the country later this year. It comes with three pre-installed games and lets … Continue Reading
