Nintendo's Wii Sports Resort could be gaming's summer blockbuster

No game has been more influential in recent history than Wii Sports. But Nintendo gave it away for free. That’s how it got consumers to pony up $249 for its Wii console with the newfangled remote-like Wii controller. It was perhaps one of the smartest ways to launch a new product, ever.

Nintendo sold more than 50 million consoles since the fall of 2006, dethroning Sony from the No. 1 console spot in the process. … Continue Reading

Symantec puts its own intelligence officers into your business

Symantec is launching a novel subscription business today where it’s renting out its security expertise to corporations that need constant vigilance in the war against cybercrime. If you subscribe, you get your very own Symantec employee.

And this isn’t just an ordinary employee. It’s one of Symantec’s finest, a trained expert who can look at your security infrastructure and tell you what you need to know from Symantec’s own worldwide trove of security intelligence. It … Continue Reading

Roundup: Apple tablet haters, do NOT text while driving, Verizon cutting another 8,000 jobs

Why the rumored Apple tablet could be a flop — Apple products get more than their share of pre-release hype from … well, from just about everyone but Bill Gates. PC World writer Michael Scalisi explains why he thinks the rumored device, best described as an oversize iPod Touch, isn’t something that will sell. Specifically, he thinks the iPhone’s touch-to-type interface won’t work comfortably on a larger device, and that Mac fans will feel thwarted … Continue Reading

Google sells AOL stake after writing down more than $700 million

Google sold its 5 percent stake in AOL to Time Warner Inc. for $283 million, down from the $1 billion it paid in 2005. This puts AOL’s overall value at about $5.7 billion, less than 30 percent of the company’s $20 billion valuation based on what Google paid four years ago, according to Bloomberg News.

AOL’s slump isn’t new, however: Google already wrote down its investment last year by more than 70 percent as global … Continue Reading

Any port in a storm: Social network Friendster up for sale

Popular-in-Asia social networking site Friendster is up for sale, according to banker documents obtained by TechCrunch. One of the earliest social networks, the company has been haunted by younger rivals, starting with MySpace, which became more popular in the US earlier this decade.

It’s not MySpace, though, that has followed Friendster across the Pacific to countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, where it was until recently most popular. It’s Facebook that’s been gaining ground.

In … Continue Reading

TechCrunch hires Web 2.0's gonzo journalist

Paul Carr pushed his own bad reputation as a sass-mouth, hard-drinking columnist for the freewheeling British news and commentary site guardian.co.uk. Carr’s column, Not Safe For Work, lampooned Web 2.0′s self-styled thought leaders and personal brands, most notoriously shredding the insidery Le Web conference as “freezing cold, no Internet, boring.”

In early 2009, Carr moved from London to San Francisco, hoping to drive his poison pen into the heart of the tech industry. Instead, the … Continue Reading

Wal-Mart to sell Blackberry Curve 8520 for $48.88

BlackBerry’s new Curve 8520 will be available at Wal-Mart stores in early August for the iPhone-undermining price of $48.88 with a two-year T-Mobile service contract. (T-Mobile stores will sell the phone for $129.99.) The phone, aimed at young social networkers rather than business people, trades off 3G speed for Wi-Fi and digital media support.

The 8520 comes with two gimmicks. One is an optical trackpad in place of the BlackBerry trackball found on the Curve … Continue Reading

Zivity CEO explains her new, less-profitable strategy

Cyan Banister, co-founder of adult photography community site Zivity — a place where photographers and models post cheesecakey photo shoots in hopes of attracting fans — has been wrestling with the site’s slower-than-hoped-for growth rate since Zivity launched in 2007.

Last week, Zivity’s board approved an unusual restructuring: Most of the company’s resources have been split off into Top Fans, based around a celebrity-fandom site Zivity had launched in April as a separate revenue-chasing strategy. … Continue Reading

Suniva scores $75M for silicon solar cells

Suniva, maker of crystalline silicon solar cells, has raised $75 million in a third round of funding — its third large chunk of capital in the last year and a half. The Georgia-based company says it will use the money to put the finishing touches on its newest assembly line.

Suniva has been busy these last two years. It just completed its first production line, capable of putting out 32 megawatts a year in October. … Continue Reading

Best Buy accidentally sells Palm Pre for half-price $99

An unknown number of shoppers over the weekend were able to purchase Palm’s hot new Pre smartphone for half its current price. A “human error” listed the Pre for $99 instead of $199 in a printed advertisement. A Best Buy store in San Francisco sold 10 of the 30 Pres in stock at the misquoted price, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The episode highlights a mobile industry truism: Handset prices are pretty much … Continue Reading

On eve of security show, vendors say they're mending Internet security flaws

The Black Hat and Defcon security conferences both kick off in Las Vegas this week, and cyberthreats and security leaks seem as pervasive as ever. But security-minded corporations contend they’re making progress on dealing with multifaceted computer crime threats.

Microsoft said today that it has a trio of new programs and tools aimed at helping the security community to better protect against online threats. We’ll see how well the security community greets these and other … Continue Reading

Retweet.com removes offending code after Tweetmeme plagiarism accusations

A small tiff erupted over the weekend between two competitors seeking control over the retweeting space. Retweeting, a way of sharing content on Twitter, provides valuable data for surfacing the most popular content over a certain time.

Tweetmeme, an aggregator that finds popular content on Twitter, accused a still-unlaunched competitor called Retweet.com of copying its code verbatim. Although Retweet.com hasn’t yet opened to the public, Tweetmeme’s founder Nick Halstead discovered some code through a commenter, … Continue Reading

Who types Obama's tweets?

“Twitter is blocked on White House computers,” press secretary Robert Gibbs told C-SPAN on Friday. Mediaite editor Rachel Sklar asked White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton to clarify Gibb’s statement and also to explain a bit of who’s who behind the President’s Twitter feeds.

Yes, Burton confirmed, Twitter is blocked on White House computers for legal reasons. The Obama administration is looking for a way to get around that restriction. But some specific people … Continue Reading

Twitter brings back full SMS capabilities to U.K. on O2 network

O2 is becoming the second mobile operator to revive full SMS text messaging capabilities in the United Kingdom after Twitter cut the service last fall because of costs. (Users can send updates viatext message to Twitter but, unlike in the U.S., can’t receive updates). Co-founder Biz Stone said there are no extra charges for this beyond standard texting rates. Users can activate the service in their account settings and the shortcode for texting in the … Continue Reading

Joule Biotech squeezes liquid fuel out of sunlight

Joule Biotechnologies burst out of stealth today with a recipe for a new alternative fuel source — a recipe calling for greenhouse gases and sunlight. Dubbed “helioculture,” the process actually centers on microorganisms. It turns out that adding CO2 and sun causes its special photosynthetic creatures to secrete a chemical almost identical to ethanol — perfect for powering cars, the company says.

Based in Cambridge, Mass., Joule has plans to cultivate this reaction in large … Continue Reading

Blekko raises $11.5M to take a run at Google search

Arguing that Google’s search product is becoming more and more antiquated, stealthy new entry Blekko announced that it raised $11.5 million in capital from U.S. Venture Partners and CMEA Capital to make a splash with its launch — though when that will be remains a mystery. Some at the company say three months from now, others say there is no set date yet, reports paidContent.

So far, the company has said only that it diverges … Continue Reading

Rayspan raises $12.5 million to filter out noise in cell phones

Rayspan has raised $12.5 million to further its technology for filtering out antenna interference so that cell phones can get better reception.

The second round in funding comes from Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital. To date, the company has raised $25 million. It’s a sizable round and it’s good to see money going into a company that’s built on science and technology research — a rarity in our web-focused venture world today.

San Diego-based Rayspan … Continue Reading

Is Apple's entertainment tablet the next iPhone, or the next Apple TV?

Apple’s perennially-rumored tablet device may be in stores in September, says a new report from the Financial Times. The device will focus on music, movies, TV shows, games and Web access through a Wi-Fi connection. It’s designed to be carried around the house or used at any location with a Wi-Fi network.

It sounds like fun. But it’s important to remember that not every Apple product is a hit. Apple TV, a $229 set-top box … Continue Reading

10 Things Business Schools Won't Teach You

There’s no doubt that you can learn a lot at business school, but oftentimes, the most important lessons are mysteriously absent – especially for entrepreneurs.

Now that three years have passed since I got my graduate degree (and since the founding of my current startup), I think I can make fun of my alma mater a bit.   Please note: Only a moderate amount of harm was inflicted on MBAs – and investment bankers, in the … Continue Reading