Adobe's Flash 10 for Android: A big win for mobile web apps
On Adobe’s earnings call last week, chief executive Shantanu Naraye said his company will introduce version 10 of its Flash multimedia player for Android this October at Adobe MAX 2009. This comes on the heals of handset manufacturer Sony Ericsson’s announcement that it will release its first Android 2.0 handsets with “more multimedia capabilities” the same month.
The significance is that Android developers will build better-performing apps, that can live outside of any official “app … Continue Reading
ThisMoment seeks to preserve your life's highlights
ThisMoment is a new social networking and media-sharing site debuting today. Its aim is to preserve the most memorable moments of your life. It’s different from sites such as Twitter or Facebook that deal primarily with the present.
The site lets you bring together your own videos and pictures with those of others to create a “moment,” or a multimedia web site aimed at displaying your memorabilia in the best possible light. You fashion the … Continue Reading
The 50 most-anticipated video games
OTX GamePlan has released its list of the top 50 upcoming games, and each of the three main console platforms — Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony — has a game in one of the top three spots.
Microsoft’s Halo 3: ODST ranks first; Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. Wii ranks second; and Sony’s God of War III ranks third. The results are based on purchase intent surveys.
The data was collected from polls taken after the … Continue Reading
Engineering leader Kevin Marks leaves Google for the social web
Software engineer Kevin Marks has helped push Google’s social efforts for years, working on diverse products like the company’s Orkut social network, its user profile feature, and the OpenSocial social web standard. Now, he’s leaving to work on other projects, including opening technologies he has been helping to spearhead — and maybe a startup.
Google hasn’t always had a clear strategy for how it could partake in the popularity of social networks like Facebook and … Continue Reading
Steve Jobs reportedly spotted on campus
Do you believe Jim Goldman, the CNBC Silicon Valley Bureau Chief who once told us Steve Jobs had a cold, when the scrawny, wan Jobs was clearly in troubled health to anyone who got near him?
Today, Goldman says his deep inside sources have told him that “Steve Jobs did report to work today, as I suggested in an earlier post, at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, according to employees who have seen him on campus.” It’s … Continue Reading
Taptu app searches for "iPhone-friendly content"
Search applications for mobile phones don’t need to emulate their computer-desktop counterparts. Yahoo oneSearch deliberately returns results different from the company’s website, based on Yahoo’s research that found customers searching from a phone tended to be looking for a narrow set of items — phone numbers, directions, flight info — and that creating phone-centric results tested better than trying to build another Googlephone.
Now startup Taptu has launched a free search app for the iPhone. … Continue Reading
Twitter to wring revenue from Starbucks, Dell, Whole Foods?
Finally, Twitter is talking about how it will bring in revenue. Sort of. In an interview today, the company still came across as grasping at straws rather than having a rock-solid plan.
Co-founder Biz Stone told Bloomberg today that the still-fast-growing micro-messaging site plans to “show we’re making some money” this year by giving supersize consumer brands such as Starbucks, Dell and Whole Foods ways to to pay to better bond with their customers on … Continue Reading
Four keys to a great PR campaign
While you can’t underestimate the power of a good press release, too many businesses forget that it’s just the beginning of a process. The real trick to successful marketing is ensuring you have all the elements of your public relations campaign in place before turning the spotlight on yourself.
Consider the four “Ps” when it comes to establishing the groundwork for a successful PR campaign: photography, pitch, profile and pack. With these elements lined up, … Continue Reading
Resurrect your dead blog with Posterous
The Internet is littered with blogs that have been abandoned by their owners as they got busy, didn’t find the response they wanted, or just realized that blogging can be hard work. When blog search engine Technorati did a survey last year, it found that only 7.4 million blogs out of the 133 million online had been updated in the last three months. But simple blogging startup Posterous thinks some dead blogs may be due … Continue Reading
Cleantech may need to wait a bit longer for stimulus funds
Government-backed stimulus packages are expected to give a major boost to cleantech companies, supposedly starting in September. A total of $184.9 billion has been earmarked for green initiatives worldwide, and some 65.7 percent of that is going to energy verticals like solar and wind, says the New Energy Finance Group. But it may be a while longer before startups and their investors see any of that money.
“There’s only been a trickle of dimes and … Continue Reading
SpinVox brings voice-to-text overseas with $100M Telefonica deal
Spinvox, a voice-recognition startup based in London, has landed a deal with Spanish mobile operator Telefonica to provide the mobile giant with voice-to-text technology. The agreement cover’s Telefonica’s operations in Europe and Latin America, which total some 100 million subscribers, and is reportedly worth $100 million.
The news is a major boost to the speech-recognition industry, which has suffered from quality concerns and a lack of sustainable business models.
Spinvox has cleverly tapped into a … Continue Reading
Google still playing with image recognition
Google scientists announced a new technology today that might bring big improvements to how Google processes and understands images. For now, it’s limited to images of landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Eiffel Tower, but conceptually, at least, its promise is much broader.
Basically, a user can upload an image, then Google uses this new technology to analyze it and automatically identify if it’s a photo of a landmark, and if so which … Continue Reading
Six Apart bloggers get VideoEgg's interactive ads
Here’s another way to make money from blogging — maybe. If you’re a blogger who uses Six Apart‘s software and services, you can now start running VideoEgg‘s interactive “AdFrame” format. These ads, like the toolbar-style “Twig” that VideoEgg introduced in April, contain more interactive elements than traditional banner ads. They intend to get more attention from readers than traditional online banner ads do.
More user attention means more money that VideoEgg and its partners can … Continue Reading
Siluria Tech takes in $3.3M for nanoscale engineering
Siluria Technologies, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm specializing in engineering inorganic materials with biological nanotechnology, has brought in $3.3 million in equity and convertible preferred stock from undisclosed investors, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company, which has no prior funding history, was founded by former academic Andrea Belcher, who devised a way to manipulate DNA in viruses to synthesize new inorganic materials. One of her first projects was … Continue Reading
Airgain channels $1.9M for smart antennas
Airgain, a provider of wireless smart antennas and local area networks, has brought in $1.9 million in equity, warrants, options and rights, according to VentureWire. Based in Carlsbad, Calif., it previously raised $4.1 million in a second round of funding from Northwater Capital Management and GEN3 Capital. It has banked $10.9 million to date.
Airgain’s technology is used for Wi-Fi, multiple-input and multiple-output and router applications.… Continue Reading
Flywheel energy storage co. Pentadyne packs away $2M
Pentadyne Power, a Chatsworth, Calif.-based developer of flywheel energy storage systems, has just closed $2 million in debt financing from an undisclosed source. The company previously brought in $80 million from Rustic Canyon Ventures, DTE Energy Ventures, MVV Innovation Portfolio, Nth Power and Loudwater Investment Partners, reports VentureWire.
It most recently took $22 million last September. At the time, it planned to use the money for overseas expansion. Flywheel systems store energy kinetically, rather than … Continue Reading
OneTXT lands $2M, takes on glutted virtual goods market
Virtual goods have become one of the most popular ways for online social networks and gaming companies to turn a buck — but the space is getting awfully crowded, making it perhaps ripe for consolidation. The newest brave startup to enter the market is OneTXT, which specializes in virtual good payment systems. It just raised $2 million to get started.
Based in New York, the company says it is different from its competitors because it … Continue Reading
HP launches web-connected, touch-screen printers that don't need computers
Hewlett-Packard announced this morning that it has created a touch-screen printer that can print images off the web directly, without the need to connect to a computer.
It raises the question: what’s the peripheral, the computer or the printer? Indeed, with the right apps, you may be using this kind of device on a daily basis a lot more than you do with your actual computer.
You can look at the touch screen on the … Continue Reading
Ad network Tumri shifts course with new $15M
Tumri, an online advertising company that allows brands to fine-tune their ads for different audiences, has taken a new direction, replacing its CEO and CFO and launching a new product in the space of months. To support this shift, it has also closed its second round of funding at $15 million.
The Mountain View, Calif., company used to offer an advertising network that targeted products to online shoppers based on site context. Today, it offers … Continue Reading
ABS Capital defies downturn, beats target with new $420M fund
After more than a year spent raising money, ABS Capital Partners announced it has closed its new fund at $420 million, handily exceeding its goal of $400 million despite last fall’s downturn. The firm says that several of its limited partners, particularly college endowments, passed on the investment due to the economy, but a few new parties made up the difference.
This is ABS’ sixth fund, which it will use primarily to back later-stage startups. … Continue Reading
