Roundup: Realtime animation, CNN sources Twitter, Joost ousts CEO
StudioGPU replaces computer animation render farms with $5,000 PC — I’ve seen the demo with my own unbelieving eyes. A single graphics accelerator card on a standard Intel-powered PC can now render in seconds what used to take a roomful of servers all day. Hollywood-based StudioGPU, a privately-funded startup, has released MachStudio Pro, a software tool that lets computer animators design and render scenes nearly in real-time. StudioGPU’s demo setup fits on a restaurant table … Continue Reading
Apple-exec-turned-VC sees big opportunity in mobile infrastructure
Bob Borchers, who led Apple‘s marketing efforts for the iPod and then the iPhone over the past five years (and even appeared in iPhone videos), recently made the leap to venture capital, becoming a general partner at Opus Capital. Yesterday, I had a chance to talk to Borchers and hear more about the startups he wants to invest in.
Of course, I had to ask him about the move to Opus, since the shift from … Continue Reading
Cleantech bounces back in Q2 with $1.2B
The big story a couple of months ago was that cleantech investing had fallen off a cliff in the first quarter — signaling what many feared would be a prolonged negative trend in the sector. But it looks like things have started to turn around, with new data showing that $1.2 billion has already been sunk into green technology across 85 deals since the beginning of the second quarter.
To give you some context, the … Continue Reading
China's crackdown on virtual goods transactions could ripple through the game economy
China’s new crackdown on the fast-growing virtual goods industry has many possible outcomes, both good and bad for game publishers.
Those publishers make most of their money through virtual goods transactions. China has more than 298 million Internet users and its online games industry is one of the fastest growing parts of the worldwide game business.
Yesterday, China’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Commerce issued new rules that prohibit virtual currency from being spent … Continue Reading
California gets green light for strict greenhouse gas requirements
The White House today approved California’s move to institute tough greenhouse gas emissions regulations for automakers well ahead of similar federal legislation. The waiver, officially granted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is said to be a first major step for the country to follow California’s lead in cutting emissions across the board.
Following close on the waiver’s heels, the Climate Bill approved last week by the House of Representatives would codify many of the … Continue Reading
PlaySpan expands into new countries with prepaid game cards
PlaySpan said today it has expanded into Brazil, Turkey and other countries with its Ultimate Game Card, a prepaid card sold in stores that gives gamers credits to spend in online games.
These cards are popular among kids too young to have credit cards and in places where credit cards aren’t used.
The expansion means the card will now be available in thousands of new stores. Gamers can use the card as currency in more … Continue Reading
Meebo launches toolbar ads today, ramping up revenue
Meebo is taking another big step towards making its instant messaging service profitable. It’s officially launching a new product that runs interactive pop-out ads within its IM toolbar available on partner sites. You might be on a racing site, for example, chatting with friends about car models, and you’ll see an ad for Toyota’s Prius — with AT&T, it’s one of the two marquee advertisers now using the service.
The toolbar ads were first announced … Continue Reading
Spain's Fotowatio plans $500M solar foothold in the U.S.
Fotowatio, one of Spain’s largest solar developers is soon to be one of the United States’ as well. Its American subsidiary, Renewable Ventures, is close to closing a new fund to back solar projects to the tune of $100 million this year alone. In the next two years, it plans to invest upwards of $500 million.
The fund is yet another sign of Spain’s rising solar dominance, second only to that of Germany, where government … Continue Reading
Video: How to surf faster with Internet Explorer
A few enterprising Microsoft employees have produced a low-cost video that shows how accelerators, a feature of the Internet Explorer 8 browser, reduce the number of steps to perform common tasks.
What Microsoft’s doing is attempting to beat Google by changing the game. Instead of trying to lure Googler users away with higher relevance, more pages in a search index, or faster search response, Microsoft is focusing on saving the Internet user’s time by keeping … Continue Reading
Themes: Another way that FriendFeed is getting more like Gmail
Lifestreaming service FriendFeed is getting more and more like Gmail, the popular email service that the startup’s founders built back when they were at Google. Today, FriendFeed is getting themes so users can personalize the site interface — like what Gmail introduced last year. Last week, it introduced file-sharing, so you don’t need to upload and share files through email or other services.
The themes themselves aren’t a huge news item (unless you’re a FriendFeed … Continue Reading
Does Google Apps break Microsoft Outlook? Not anymore
Those of you who get uncomfortable around confrontations and arguments may be able to breathe a little easier now — it looks like Google has resolved a recent spat between the search giant and Microsoft peaceably, with a bug fix.
The trouble started when Google announced it was allowing users of its Google Apps bundle of online tools to synchronize those services with Microsoft’s email/contacts/calendar program Outlook. It seemed like a good way to encourage … Continue Reading
Flickr adds direct-to-Twitter publishing
What took them so long? Flickr now has a built-in feature that lets members tweet their photos. “You can upload directly to Flickr and Twitter simultaneously, or tweet a photo already on Flickr, using a special short Flic.kr URL,” says the company’s FAQ. It also explains how to post photos from your phone, and how to tweet from Flickr.
From an email sent to us by Twitter’s PR firm (we’ve added links to the relevant … Continue Reading
ParAccel brings in $22M for analytical databases
ParAccel, maker of database technology that allows users to see broader patterns in massive data sets, has raised $22 million in a third round of funding from Menlo Ventures, Bay Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Tao Venture Partners and Walden International. The money will be used to expand its marketing efforts, VentureWire reports.
Based in Cupertino, Calif., ParAccel says it will reach profitability in 2011. In allowing companies to slice their data many different ways, the … Continue Reading
Touchscreen netbooks on the way
Digitimes reports a rumor that some netbook makers will produce low-cost computers with touchscreens that replace the mouse and trackpad. The move will free up space for a bigger keyboard.
At least some netbook makers, Digitimes reports, believe that a netbook with a touchscreen and bigger keys will sell better than one with a trackpad plunked down in the middle of a keyboard whose keys have been shrunk to make room.
It’s important to note, … Continue Reading
Firefox 3.5 takes you back to a time before browser add-ons
Updated
There’s been a lot of activity in the web browser market during the year since Mozilla released Firefox 3 — we’ve seen the release of Safari 4 and Internet Exporer 8, and Google has entered the competition with Chrome. Now Mozilla has a new release of its own, Firefox 3.5, with a bunch of new features. The most noticeable changes? One, it’s much faster. But two, it’s missing some key add-ons, which is like … Continue Reading
Adobe shuts down for a week
The San Jose Mercury News reports that Adobe Systems, maker of the Flash player used for most Web video clips, has shut down its North American operations for the week as a cost-cutting move.
The move is striking because Adobe is, by most metrics, successful. In addition to Flash, Adobe now develops and sells many of the most popular software tools used by graphic designers and website builders: Acrobat, Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and several others. … Continue Reading
Latest speakers at MobileBeat: Steve Boom and Sam Altman
I’m delighted to announce the latest speakers we’ve recruited for MobileBeat 2009, our conference on July 16 in SF:
–Steve Boom, chief executive of mobile social networking company Mig33, arguably the most downloaded mobile application of all time; and
–Sam Altman, chief executive of another mobile social networking company Loopt, which tracks your location through GPS.
(By the way, we’re pretty jazzed right now about our lineup for MobileBeat. We’ve got just about everyone who’s … Continue Reading
Cashing in on non-English search engines
It’s sometimes easy to forget just how global the World Wide Web really is.
Hundreds of millions of people are surfing at any given time. We in the U.S. (and other English speaking countries) have a tendency to think everyone speaks our language.
While many do, that’s not as big an advantage as it seems. Global consumers are over five times more likely to buy from a website with content in their native language.
The … Continue Reading
AMD stirs up hype with limited-edition processors
Advanced Micro Devices’ latest microprocessor is so rare you can’t even buy one.
The AMD Phenom II X4 42 Black Edition TWKR processor is available today. But not for you. AMD is making only 100 of these chips for super geeks known as “extreme overclockers.” That is, they’re made for people who’ll run the chips as fast as possible, using supercooling method to keep them from melting down. AMD has been doing this for months … Continue Reading
F.A.S.T. brings cool 3-D aerial dogfights to the iPhone
The 3-D air combat game F.A.S.T. debuted a couple of weeks ago on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
It’s a very difficult game to play, but it’s been growing on me. That’s because I’d ordinarily think it would be impossible to do this kind of high-quality 3-D graphics game on a mere mobile platform such as the iPhone. This is the beginning of the next generation of iPhone games, and so we’re taking the rare … Continue Reading
