Egnyte raises $6M more to bring small businesses into the cloud
Egnyte, a startup that allows small and medium businesses to store and collaborate on their files online, has raised $6 million in new funding.
Amid the many web-based storage and collaboration options out there, Egnyte has a clear focus — it’s trying to replace the traditional file server for relatively small companies with a solution that takes advantage of the web. Features include automatically saving multiple versions of a file, a system that lets administrators … Continue Reading
Booyah's iPhone app lets you record and share life's achievements
Booyah is launching a free iPhone app today that lets you create an “achievement system for your life.” Built by former game developers, the app lets you categorize and share your achievements in life with you friends. It’s a unique and creative title, and it comes from one of the few iPhone companies backed by serious venture money.
If you go to the gym, you can declare your action under a fitness category and win … Continue Reading
First glimpse at Spotify’s iPhone app: easy mobile streaming to rival iTunes?
Spotify, the Swedish streaming music startup which has racked up more than 6 million users in Europe, has released a first glimpse at its much-awaited iPhone application. Spotify’s mobile efforts have been talked about as a potential iTunes killer, or even a rival to piracy, because of the application’s ease-of-use and comprehensive library of more than 6 million tracks. It resembles iTunes, although users stream the songs instead of owning them.
”We want to be … Continue Reading
New investor to help Quantenna beam wireless video around the home
Quantenna Communications is making chips for home networks that let consumers send high-definition video from one appliance in the home to another wirelessly.
Today, it is announcing that it is adding a new investor, telco provider Swisscom, to its previously announced third round of funding. The investment shows there is still life in the wireless digital living room, even with the recession’s slowing effect on new technology adoption.
Quantenna didn’t announce the exact amount being … Continue Reading
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Here are a few of the most recent stories that you might have missed:
Expanding abroad? Avoid translation travesties – Even big companies can get it wrong when they fail to do their homework before launching in new markets. Localization is key – and … Continue Reading
MySpace is a big gaming platform but it hopes to be more of one
Many of MySpace‘s nearly 125 million monthly active users are already playing social games made by companies like Playdom and Zynga. But the News Corp.-owned social network is hoping for more, chief digital officer Jonathan Miller said today at the Fortune Brainstorm: Tech conference happening in Pasadena, Calif.
“MySpace is and will be more in the future a gaming platform, a space for people to meet and play games,” he said, adding that the site … Continue Reading
Sony Ericsson takes cues from Apple, RIM app store pricing
Sony Ericsson opened its PlayNow Arena app store to developers, taking elements from both Apple and Blackberry maker Research In Motion’s pricing models.
The company is sharing 70 percent of revenues after taxes and service charges, mirroring Apple. However, it’s setting a minimum price for paid apps of about 3 euros across euro-zone countries and 3 pounds in the U.K. Following in Research in Motion’s footsteps, the price floor is conceivably a protection against shoddy … Continue Reading
Arrington on Twittergate: "I wouldn’t do things any differently"
As a reporter who blogs — and who has been competing against Michael Arrington for the past couple of years — I’ve been helplessly fascinated by the Twittergate debate of the last couple of weeks. It is a perfect storm of technology news and journalism ethics in the digital age, pitting widely popular microblog service Twitter versus hated, envied, and also popular Arrington and his TechCrunch publication.
And today, I got to enjoy another round … Continue Reading
Cooliris' revenue chief: Ad market tanking? Not for us
I’ve spent a lot of time writing about how a startup called Cooliris continues to build a fun experience for exploring video and other media with its 3D wall, but I’ve heard a lot less about the business side. Recently Shashi Seth, the Palo Alto, Calif., company’s chief revenue officer (formerly head of monetization at YouTube), told me that despite the broader downturn in online ads, Cooliris’ advertising remains very much in-demand, with inventory completely … Continue Reading
Microsoft Store designs leaked
Gizmodo’s editors got their sweaty, shaking hands on design and branding firm Lippicott’s plans for Microsoft’s retail stores that the company plans to plunk down right next to Apple Stores. Lippicott’s 54-page presentation shows an impressive combination of Apple Store ripoff with a brightly colorful environment wrapped in wall-size video screens. A character named Emily is used for narrative texts that accompany the illustrations of, for example, the laughably familiar Answers Bar.
Microsoft’s Surface touch-screen … Continue Reading
Roundup: Video funding dries up, iPhone encryption fails the test, augmented reality apps delayed until September
Video funding has tanked in 2009 — Venture funding for video-based companies in the U.S. so far this year has dropped more than 60 percent from the same period last year. Only 24 funding events have been logged so far, compared with 52 last year. NewTeeVee reports that total investments are down from last year’s $348 million to $135 million this year. Yet there are bright spots, such as 5min’s $7.5 million second round this … Continue Reading
Greenwing taps SolFocus for utility-scale solar projects
GreenWing Energy Management, builder of large renewable energy developments, has chosen SolFocus to provide its concentrating photovoltaic systems for utility-scale use in the western U.S. The news comes only two weeks after SolFocus raised an additional $30.6 million in venture capital.
It’s the second victory for four-year-old SolFocus, which is still battling to make a name for itself among larger competitors like Audra, First Solar and high-flying SunPower. Based in Mountain View, Calif., the startup … Continue Reading
Twitter is blocked on White House computers
That’s an actual quote from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs caught by LA Times writer Andrew Malcolm, who posted the C-SPAN video clip below. “For some reason, Twitter is blocked on White House computers, so … I have to say, I’m on camera enough that people have a decent sense of what I’m doing, minus Twittering,” Gibbs said.… Continue Reading
SunPower stock shines after earnings report bolsters solar
SunPower, acknowledged to be the second-largest solar module maker in the U.S., saw its stock price jump 28 percent today following its announcement of expectation-beating second quarter earnings. This success has not only fortified the company but is being cited by many analysts as evidence that solar will rebound and grow in the next year.
The increase in stock price sent a ripple through the solar global industry, pushing up share prices for companies like … Continue Reading
ONStor sells for $25M, taking $105M in capital down with it
ONStor, the ill-fated maker of data storage equipment for enterprises, has sold to software provider LSI Corporation for about $25 million, a paltry sum compared to the $130 million in venture capital it raised since its founding in 2001.
The big losers in the deal are ONStor’s fairly prestigious investors, including Foundation Capital, Velocity Interactive Group, Mayfield Fund and Worldview Technology Partners, among others.
Signs of trouble arose in April 2008 when the Campbell, Calif., … Continue Reading
Video: Wired editor Chris Anderson on The Colbert Report
Stephen Colbert brought Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson onto the show last night to talk about his new book, Free, the Future of a Radical Price. In the book, Anderson explains how digital distribution enables many products, such as music and movies, to be given away for next to nothing. Rather than try to force customers to pay up, Anderson posits that companies should give away their most popular products for free, and make money by … Continue Reading
Palm's brazen Pre hack back into iTunes
Palm’s latest Pre software deliberately identifies the device as manufactured by Apple, in order to let the Pre connect to iTunes on PCs and Macs.
The back story: Palm and Apple have been battling over the new Pre smartphone’s access to Apple’s iTunes music management application. Palm shipped the Pre a few weeks ago with a trick ID field set on its USB port. The setting fooled iTunes into thinking it was talking to an … Continue Reading
Video: Kevin Spacey talks about Facebook movie
“The Social Network” is Hollywood’s adaptation of Ben Mezrich’s book about the founding of Facebook, The Accidental Billionaires. The film has turned into a pile-on of Tinseltown power players. West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin wrote the script. Spacey will produce. The film’s director hasn’t been named yet, but Fight Club director David Fincher is said to have dibs on the gig.
Mezrich’s book, however, is a disappointment. I trashed it on VentureBeat and also in … Continue Reading
Apple tablet rumor is now credible for early 2010
The rumor that Apple has a tablet computer in the works is one of the oldest running tales told by gossips who claim to have secret knowledge of the hypothetical gadget. But AppleInsider now claims that “people well-respected by AppleInsider for their striking accuracy in Apple’s internal affairs” are sure that a tablet product is being readied for launch in the first quarter of 2010. In a post this morning, AppleInsider writer Kasper Jade explained … Continue Reading
Digsby passes 1 million users, pays you $1 to add more
Digsby, which ties your social networking, instant messaging and e-mail accounts into one interface, just passed 1 million users and started an affiliate program yesterday that pays fans $1 for every new user they sign up. Digsby says its average revenue per user exceeds the cost of finding new ones through the program, so the program generates cash flow. Users sign up on Digsby’s site and then use banners, links and buttons to promote the … Continue Reading
