Google: Are app stores going the way of the dinosaur? Maybe

Google executives are pushing developers to create applications for the web, saying the Web has won, and suggesting that building applications for the desktop may no longer necessary. Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra,  speaking at Google’s  “I/O conference” in San Francisco declared, “The web has won.” Developing “native” applications that run on computer desktops or other devices will eventually be superseded by more lighter and dynamic apps that run in the web browser, he … Continue Reading

Ubisoft closes a year of expansion and profits for game business

Ubisoft reported fiscal year results with good sales growth and a decent profit despite the recession. For the year ended March 31, the French game publisher reported sales of $1.47 billion, up 18.4 percent from $1.3 billion a year earlier.

Net income was $95.6 million, down 37 percent from $152 million a year earlier. The Paris-based company reported the strong growth in the face of economic headwinds and its own aggressive expansion. One of the … Continue Reading

How the web was won: Google's five features to build killer web apps

At Wednesday’s opening of the Google I/O conference for web developers at San Francisco’s Moscone West venue, Vic Gundotra presented five big improvements he said Google is most excited about in in HTML 5, the latest, still-being-revised version of the core language of the Web. Gundotra is one of the company’s many Vice Presidents of Engineering, but many remember him as Microsoft’s successful developer evangelist. This guy convinced geeks to code for Windows.

“The Web … Continue Reading

Osprey picks up $3.8M more for immune disease treatments

Osprey Pharmaceuticals, a drug maker focusing on inflammatory and immune disease medications, added $3.8 million to its first round of funding, bringing its total to $14.8 million, according to VentureWire. The San Francisco company says the new money was needed to see its lead drug candidate through clinical trials. It did not disclose its recent investors.

Osprey has focused its resources on a drug that could treat inflammatory kidney disease. Results from its clinical trials … Continue Reading

Zensify for iPhone visualizes your personal trending topics

Lifestreaming apps, which combine and track multiple social network accounts, are popping up like spring flowers in my inbox. The best, like RoamBi, rethink the way information is presented on an iPhone rather than a desktop, laptop, or BlackBerry.

Zensify, an iPhone app available as a free preview in the App Store, stands out for the personal tag cloud it creates from Facebook, Twitter and other social sites.

The cloud, shown in the screenshot above, … Continue Reading

Curt Schilling's 38 Studios buys game developer Big Huge Games

[updated with Schilling interview]

Throwing a curve ball, Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios acquired game developer Big Huge Games today for an undisclosed price from game publisher THQ.

That’s a bit of a shift for 38 Studios, which was founded by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Schilling. Maynard, Mass.-based 38 Studios is making a massively multiplayer online fantasy game in a bid to beat out Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. The code-named Copernicus MMO game isn’t … Continue Reading

Website-builder Weebly adds online stores

Weebly says that its easy-to-use website-building tools have helped create nearly 2 million websites (including my own). Now users can add customizable stores to those sites for free.

Basically, that just means Weebly has added integration with e-commerce services Google Checkout and PayPal, but judging from the demo that co-founder and chief executive David Rusenko gave me, the integration of those services with Weebly’s existing tools makes for a pretty powerful store-builder. All you do … Continue Reading

The free price is working out nice for Sony's Free Realms as registrants top 2 million

Free is a pretty good price. That’s an obvious lesson from Sony Online Entertainment ‘s Free Realms massively multiplayer online game, which the company announced today has now crossed 2 million registrants.

That’s a huge swelling of players since the game launched on April 28, less than a month ago. It shows that recession-hit North American gamers are finally coming out in droves in favor of the free-to-play business model pioneered in Asia, where players … Continue Reading

Rich mobile browser Skyfire launches faster version 1.0

Skyfire, a mobile browser that wants to bring the full desktop web experience to mobile phones, is taking its product out of beta testing today and launching version 1.0. Sometimes, that’s a signal that a service is ready for mass usage, but it looks like Skyfire is pretty big already, with more than a million users.

That one million user mark was one of the milestones that made chief executive Nitin Bhandari comfortable with taking … Continue Reading

DeepDyve launches tools for more powerful web site search

Research engine DeepDyve announced today that it is launching three new tools that web sites can integrate to give their users even deeper and more comprehensive search results. The release comes on the heels of its new toolbox for publishers that makes their content more easily discoverable on any search engine.

The features rolled out today should come in handy especially for bloggers and news sites that aggregate large amounts of text every day, the … Continue Reading

InvenSense improves gyroscope chips for motion-sensing game controllers

InvenSense is announcing today that it’s improved its gyroscope chips so they can be used in much more accurate motion-sensing game controllers.

The development means that this ultra-small gryoscope will be a contender in shaping next-generation consumer electronics appliances such as game consoles, TV remotes, and other motion-sensing applications.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company already makes the gyroscope chips used in the new Wii MotionPlus accessory for the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo is launching the accessory, which … Continue Reading

Argentine president gambles on tech taxes, faces tough crowd

A new proposal from Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has the country’s tech community scratching their heads. Her pitch: to effectively double taxes on technology products that are not manufactured or assembled in the province of Tierra del Fuego, including notebooks, cell phones and digital cameras.

Oddly, few of these devices are actually made there. In fact, Argentina imports the vast majority of them. So the tax would affect a majority of Argentines, not … Continue Reading

Roundup: Twitter's ready for its close-up, Apple says yes to the Kama Sutra, and more

Here’s the latest action:

Twitter on the tube – More producers are turning to the micro-blogging service for television-based projects, and the site is only too happy to go Hollywood.

Auctions on the way down for eBay — The site is frantically trying to reinvent as its core business starts to decline in earnest. The Wall Street Journal has the details.

The Apple of North Carolina’s eye? — The state may be changing its tax … Continue Reading

Acrobat.com challenges PowerPoint with collaborative presentations

Acrobat.com, Adobe’s website of free office software, is unveiling a new tool today that marks the early steps towards competing with PowerPoint, the ubiquitous presentation-making software in Microsoft Office. As a part of Acrobat.com Labs, Presentations is still in early testing mode, with many features still to come. But judging from the demonstration that Adobe’s Erik Larson gave me last week (including a presentation made in Acrobat.com Presentations, naturally), there’s a solid core for Adobe … Continue Reading

Microsoft to launch Zune HD handheld and offer Zune videos within Xbox Live

Microsoft has announced that it will launch a new Zune HD portable media player this fall. It is also expanding its Zune Entertainment Service to new platforms such as the Xbox Live online gaming service for the Xbox 360 game console. The new device, combined with a unique service, might just add a little pressure on rival Apple.

Zune’s video service will now be available internationally on Xbox Live, bringing the Zune brand to the … Continue Reading

Fat Spaniel and Meteotest bring some sunlight to solar plant data

Fat Spaniel, provider of web-based software to help companies monitor the output of renewable energy projects, is adding an important data set to its system: Sunlight. To do this, it has announced a partnership that will allow users of Fat Spaniel’s software to view Swiss company Meteotest‘s solar radiation satellite data.

This ties into San Jose, Calif.-based Fat Spaniel’s broader goal to help customers understand how their solar plants and other renewable energy projects are … Continue Reading

MokaFive snags $5M for virtualization software

MokaFive, maker of computer virtualization software, says it brought in $5 million of an expected $7.5 million round of debt financing. Based in Redwood City, Calif., the company has not disclosed its recent investors. However, it previously raised a $15 million second round of funding in 2007 from Khosla Ventures and Highland Capital Partners.… Continue Reading

Digg dumps Shouts for Facebook, Twitter and email

Not only have Twitter and Facebook stolen Digg’s media buzz, they’ve now invaded founder Kevin Rose’s home turf. The Digg company blog has verified that the site no longer supports its Shout social-networking feature. Instead, Digg will let members use Facebook, Twitter and email to share stories posted to Digg’s website.

The little-used but often-exploited Shout was meant to encourage Digg users to interact with one another directly, rather than posting public comments. But for … Continue Reading

Nokia's Ovi Store fails its first-day stress test

As soon as Nokia’s IT teams — surely they have more than one — began rolling out the company’s answer to Apple’s iTunes store last night, Ovi began spewing error messages. Terence Eden posted screenshots such as this one.

Nokia’s official Ovi Blog posted a sort-of explanation that apologized for the problems, and claimed that some had been solved by adding more servers. Isn’t that the IT department’s answer to everything?

Nokia was smart to … Continue Reading

Can eBay rebrand itself as the Web's Wal-Mart?

Ebay has a problem: It’s viewed as a quirky second-hand bazaar. That has stunted the company’s growth, as shoppers in search of instant bargains bypass eBay in favor of Amazon or Google.

eBay’s Buy It Now button, in theory, lets shoppers instantly consummate a purchase. In practice, the Buy It Now button often looks like Click Here to Pay Too Much.

That’s important, because CEO John Donahoe aims to revive the pioneer auction firm’s stalled … Continue Reading