BodyTrace's bathroom scale lets you broadcast your weight to the web
The web is infiltrating everything. Alarm clocks, phones, and now bathroom scales. Yes, the BodyTrace eScale bathroom scale has built-in Internet connectivity so you can step on the scale and automatically broadcast your weight to the web site.
You can monitor your weight patterns by looking at the web site or look at a chart on your phone. But you can also share it with people you know. How’s that for “too much information?”
It … Continue Reading
Heyzap introduces virtual goods system for Flash web games
Flash games supported by advertising have been hit hard by the recession. But Heyzap hopes to help the masses of Flash game developers with a new virtual-good system that allows the games to be monetized through micro-transactions.
While such systems are becoming common at game portals and social games, they’re new to Flash games and represent a big opportunity for developers to find new ways of making money, says Jude Gomila, co-founder of the San … Continue Reading
Microsoft: We're so excited about Windows 7 that we cut the price
Updated.
Microsoft just released its prices for Windows 7, the latest version of its operating system, and not surprisingly the software giant is dropping the cost for home users.
For example, an upgrade to the “home premium” version Windows 7 will cost $119.99, while a similar Vista upgrade currently costs around $129.99, and was initially priced at $159.99. (Ars Technica has a more thorough breakdown of how the new pricing compares to the old.) Also, … Continue Reading
High Gear Media drives $5.5M for automotive portal
High Gear Media, creator of an online portal to information on cars and the automotive industry, has raised $5.5 million in equity from undisclosed sources. In the past, the Palo Alto, Calif., startup raised a round of venture capital from Accel Partners and Greylock Partners.… Continue Reading
Cyan Optics sees $8.8M for optical communications systems
Cyan Optics, developer of optical packet communication systems, brought in $8.8 million of an anticipated $12 million in preferred stock, warrants and underlying shares. The Petaluma, Calif., company has previously been backed by Azure Capital Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Telecommunications Development Fund.… Continue Reading
Spiracur takes $20.3M for effective wound healing
Spiracur, developer of a device used to heal small wounds effectively, has brought in $20.3 million in a second round of funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, New Leaf Venture Partners and De Novo Ventures, reports VentureWire. Not much is known about the Redwood City, Calif., company’s technology.
Spiracur has raised $24.3 million since its inception in 2007. It is based on technology developed in a bio-design program at Stanford University.… Continue Reading
ICANN has Rod Beckstrom as new president and CEO?
[Update: Beckstrom has been confirmed as the new ICANN president and CEO.]
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — the governing body for the rules regarding domain names, among other things — is about to announce a new president and chief executive. An AP report yesterday and another today in The Australian both point to Rod Beckstrom, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and author, who most recently served as the first … Continue Reading
Posterous gobbles up fellow Y Combinator alum Slinkset
Posterous, the blogging service that lets you submit entries via email or text message, has acquired Slinkset, a platform for enabling users to vote web content and comments up or down — like on popular social news like Reddit. The deal is interesting because both startups were born out of seed-stage incubator Y Combinator last year.
The buy will allow Posterous to expand into social news aggregation, the company says. But instead of simply presenting … Continue Reading
Grou.ps comes together with funding, business models
There are a wide variety of create-your-own social networking companies out there, with the most prominent one being Ning. But a relatively young — and very scrappy — new competitor called Grou.ps is one the rise. It is seeing 25 percent growth in unique visitors per month; some one million registered users have created 40,000 groups. And, the San Francisco-Istanbul company has finished raising its first round of funding, adding $1 million from Golden Horn … Continue Reading
Yahoo's new CEO fields tough shareholder questions at her first annual meeting
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz took the stage today at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, her first live brush with shareholders since she took the chief executive job at the company six months ago. She gave her best sales pitch, but she also sparred with shareholders during a question-and-answer period.
The first shareholder questions were tough, among them: why does the average Yahoo employee generate half as much revenue as the average Google employee. She said … Continue Reading
Yapta lands $2M to track airfare and hotel prices
Yapta.com, a site that monitors airfare and hotel prices to get users bargains, has raised $2 million in a second round of funding to further product development and expand its marketing strategy. The company says it’s not enough anymore to use sites that find only the cheapest fares at the time, since these prices fluctuate so widely.
Based in Seattle, Yapta allows its users to select specific flights and hotel bookings, and the service will … Continue Reading
"Hottest Girls" gone from iTunes store
“This is the first app to have nudity,” Hottest Girls developer Allen Leung told Macenstein editor Dr Macenstein Wednesday, after adding photos of topless models to his app. Hottest Girls had previously displayed photos of models in lingerie.
It’s generally believed that Leung presumed Apple might ignore him, because parental controls built into the new iPhone 3.0 software would enable parents to block Leung’s app automatically.
Instead, Hottest Girls is no longer available in the … Continue Reading
Mig33 is most downloaded mobile app — have you heard of it?
Mig33, a company that lets millions of users communicate on mobile phones via IM, chat rooms, and photo sharing, says it’s the most popular downloaded mobile application ever.
You’d hardly know it, though. Chances are, if you live in the US, even if you’re tech-savvy, you’ve never heard of Mig33.
Sounds like the Russian fighter jet, right?
Most of its users are on the hundreds of millions of low-end phones sold by Nokia and other … Continue Reading
iPhone app report: A few top hits dominate the rest
AdMob, probably the largest server of ads to iPhone screens, has released its May Mobile Metrics Report, which you can download as a PDF file. The report breaks down the mobile ad market in several countries, showing which handsets are the most popular.
But the one set of stats in the report that everyone should memorize are those that measure the spread of popularity among apps. Here’s what AdMob found for the 2,300 apps that … Continue Reading
World of Warcraft faces rocky transition to new operator in China
If you take away the drug of the people, you should expect dire consequences. In China, World of Warcraft has been inoperative since June 7. That means that WoW addicts haven’t had their fix for 18 days.
Activision Blizzard announced that it was transitioning WoW to a new operator in China, moving from The9 to Netease. The American game company needs a partner in China because of government regulations that require some kind of locally-based … Continue Reading
Glubble raises $1 M for Family Timeline service
Glubble has raised $1 million in a second round of funding and launched a new photo gallery timeline for its family-friendly web browser.
The new round of funding will help the company launch what it calls its Family Timeline service, which lets families upload photos that are organized along a chronological timeline. You can share the photos and quickly navigate through them to find the ones you want. The service is part of the Glubble … Continue Reading
Starting Up 101 – Harnessing the power of analytics
[Editor's note: This is the third in a series of practical advice for entrepreneurs -- things you're probably aware of but are likely to forget in the rush of launching a business.]
You’d be surprised how many startups don’t see the value in their Web traffic data.
All too often when I meet with a startup, the only statistics the owner has on hand is a basic set of website logs from their web hosting … Continue Reading
Why legendary game developer John Carmack shelved his ego and sold id to ZeniMax
Here’s an interview with John Carmack (right), the last remaining founder of id Software, the legendary video game developer which agreed to be acquired yesterday by another video maker ZeniMax Media.
Texas-based id was one of the last of the major indie developers that made mega-hit titles such as Wolfenstein and Doom. I talked with Carmack, ZeniMax chief executive Robert Altman, and id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead about why they did the deal and what … Continue Reading
Twitter co-founder, others back Small Batch's web typography
Small Batch Inc., which is developing a service for web designers called Typekit, said today it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from some big names in the tech world: Twitter chief executive and co-founder Evan Williams, Flickr and Hunch founder Caterina Fake, Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg, well-known angel investors Ron Conway and Chris Sacca, plus True Ventures (which led the funding) and Freestyle Capital.
So what’s the big, world-changing idea that would draw … Continue Reading
Roundup: Zune HD specs, Google mobile ads, the most obscure Apple upgrade ever
Google AdSense Mobile – Yes, Google ads on your phone is a big deal. But Greg Yardley, CEO of mobile analytics startup Pinch Media, warns against dreams of Google megabucks for iPhone apps: “The bulk of applications either have a limited shelf life (just like a console game) or are used rarely, like a reference or utility app, and therefore are better candidates for paid sales – they just don’t generate enough impressions.” Yardley thinks … Continue Reading
