This is what Google divorce is like: Apple bought its own mapping company in July
Apple bought its own mapping company, Placebase, in July, according to an article in Computer World. Apparently that’s part of Apple’s plan to put some distance between it and its one-time buddy, Google.
The deal wasn’t announced, evidently because the purchase price was so small that it wasn’t a financially material event for Apple. Writer Seth Weintraub figured it out because he saw that chief executive of Placebase, Jaron Waldman, is now head of the … Continue Reading
BumpTop adds multitouch interface for Windows 7 computers (get free codes)
Windows 7 will come with a cool multitouch user interface, allowing you to touch the screen of your computer and perform actions with simple gestures.
But it looks like BumpTop is going to make that multitouch functionality really useful. We’ve noted before how BumpTop brings a 3-D view to your Windows desktop, making it easier to manage a big pile of files and other tasks in your inbox. Now you can use BumpTop as a … Continue Reading
GetJar launches easy-branding mobile app installer
For a brand manager, fussing over the features of a bunch of mobile apps is a distraction from the much larger mission of getting consumers to install the brand on their phones.
Building a custom app to stand out in Apple’s 85,000-app store, or the growing app collections for every other phone, is too hard. And what about all the other not-a-huge-hit phones? Are you going to support them, too?
GetJar, the cross-platform mobile app … Continue Reading
Study: Venture liquidity still a trickle
It has been a rough three months for startups hoping to get acquired. Well, it’s been more like a rough year, but there’s new data from Dow Jones VentureSource focusing on the third quarter of 2009.
Overall, venture-backed liquidity (the combination of mergers, acquisitions, and initial public offerings) added up to $2.7 billion, down 49 percent from the same period last year, VentureSource says. It’s even a drop from the $3 billion of venture liquidity … Continue Reading
Nvidia's iRay shows lifelike graphics, streamed from the cloud
Nvidia showed off a way for graphics aficionados to tap the resources of cloud computing to render highly realistic graphics images.
The Berlin, Germany-based Mental Images division of Nvidia showed off its iRay technology, which can tap a cluster of graphics-focused computer servers in a data center to render a lifelike 3-D image on a display that is far away. The technology can speed the creative process for product designers, engineers, and artists by accurately … Continue Reading
Google Local Search for Mobile — now with less typing
Google announced an improved interface for its Local Search site for mobile phones today that should help reduce time spent futzing around with your phone’s keyboard. Both of the changes are basically tweaks, but they’re cool examples of connecting your normal web and mobile environments, and of how to design an easy-to-use mobile experience.
The first change integrates Local Search for Mobile with the desktop web interface of Google Maps — starred items from Maps … Continue Reading
5 O'Clock Roundup: Kleiner expands $100M iFund, Intel kills Classmate, AOL prepares for fire sale
Kleiner Perkins to add money to its iFund for apps — Matt Murphy, who manages the $100 million fund, told Bloomberg reporter Connie Guglielmo, “It’s pretty clear we’ll go beyond” the $100M mark. There are 85,000-plus applications in Apple’s store created by companies of all sizes. App development projects range in size from solo students to BMW.
Be warned: Murphy isn’t poking through the App Store for people to fund. “I’m looking to find companies … Continue Reading
Augmented reality could help with ordering your Ferrari's wheels
A German researcher from RTT wowed the audience at Nvidia’s GPU Technology conference by staging a visual illusion. In a demonstration of “augmented reality,” the researchers showed how they could point a video camera at a car wheel and then show that wheel in a video.
In the video, the wheel can be enhanced with computer graphics. You could, for instance, show in the video what different types of car wheels would look like on … Continue Reading
Preparis snags $4.6M for disaster preparedness software
Preparis, a company that offers a subscription-based software platform to help other companies prepare their workplaces for disasters, just brought in $4.6 million led by Fulcrum Ventures. Based in Atlanta, Preparis provides comprehensive information to help its clients weather terrorist attacks, natural disasters, disease pandemics (H1N1 “swine flu” is actually included already), workplace violence, and more. For example, it supplies applications and software tools to call up standard response protocols and checklists, host training sessions … Continue Reading
Nvidia's graphics chips to be used in national lab's supercomputer
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory said today it will use Nvidia‘s next-generation graphics chips in a supercomputer that is 10 times more powerful than the lab’s fastest current machine.
Jeff Nichols, associate lab director (pictured, right), said that Oak Ridge will use the Nvidia chip, code-namemd Fermi, which is evidently shipping in a matter of months. The announcement is a validation of an important part of Nvidia’s strategy. Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, said … Continue Reading
Twitter will let users create, share lists of people to follow
Twitter just absorbed another useful feature generated from its community — it’s letting users curate and share lists of Twitter accounts to follow.
The lists will be linked from a user’s profile and they’ll be public by default. People can subscribe to the lists as they change and evolve. Twitter’s doing limited testing on the function for now, then will expand it out to the entire site later.
One plus of the new feature is … Continue Reading
Real-time search engine OneRiot turns ads on when Twitter won't
Someone on the real-time web has a business model. And it’s not Twitter.
Real-time search engine OneRiot is launching RiotWise on Monday, a service that will pair its results with sponsored links to relevant content. The layout of the ads resemble the text links that appear in Google’s search results. However, there are a few key differences. These are content ads, i.e. ones that link to related stories and media, not e-commerce ads that hawk … Continue Reading
Booyah rakes in $5M for online social game based on real life
Booyah makes a web and iPhone-based game that lets you earn points by achieving things in real life — like going to the gym, learning how to cook more recipes, etc. — and then share this information with your friends and others to keep motivation running high. Today, the Palo Alto company announced that it raised $5 million in a second round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC.
While Booyah did not … Continue Reading
Nvidia shows off next-generation graphics chip — it's a little late
Nvidia announced today that it has created a next-generation graphics chip, code-named Fermi, that is crucial to the future of the company and its crusade to spread graphics computing beyond graphics.
Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, introduced the chip at the company’s GPU Technology conference in San Jose, Calif., this afternoon. He said the chip has more than 3 billion transistors and has 512 parallel processors, or more than twice the number from last … Continue Reading
Fujifilm launches a 3-D photo digital camera
Fujifilm said today it has launched a digital camera that can take 3-D videos and photos. You can view these images without special 3-D glasses.
Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive of graphics chip maker Nvidia, announced the development and showed off the camera at his company’s GPU Technology conference in San Jose, Calif.
The Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1 camera will be introduced in the U.S. soon and it has already been introduced in overseas markets. … Continue Reading
Firetide raises $8.6M to provide wireless mesh networks
Firetide, provider of wireless mesh networks designed to operate in unlikely locations — like on public transportation — has raised $8.59 million in a fifth round of venture funding, according to a filing with the SEC. The Los Gatos, Calif. company has now raised about $53 million to date from Coral Capital Management and Menlo Ventures, among others.… Continue Reading
Delivery Agent snags $24.8M to supply entertainment e-commerce tools
Delivery Agent, a San Francisco-based provider of technology used to set up online stores — only geared toward the entertainment market and web publishers — has raised $24.85 million in a fourth round of funding, according to PE Hub. The company is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Cardinal Venture Capital and Worldview Technology Partners. Coral Capital Management joined this group in the latest round — boosting Delivery Agent’s total capital to about $60 million.
The … Continue Reading
Barracuda gobbles up majority stake in Phion to beef up enterprise security
Barracuda Networks, a Campbell, Calif.-based maker of appliances to block spam and viruses transmitted over the web and email, announced that it bought a controlling interest in Austria-based Phion, a publicly-traded company that installs firewalls for enterprises, for about $18.7 million. Barracuda has been backed by Sequoia Capital and Francisco Partners, having raised $40 million in a 2006 first round of funding.… Continue Reading
DFJ, Claremont invest $6.5M in out-of-home ad network
TargetCast Networks isn’t a company that gets talked about in the same breath as Twitter. TargetCast makes the technology for televisions in bars and nightclubs, the tech that puts even more ads on TV screens in Applebee’s, Chili’s and Hooters. I haven’t confirmed yet where you can see TCN in action in San Francisco, where engineers more commonly build gadgets to turn bar TV sets off.
In the past few days, though, TargetCast has announced … Continue Reading
Satiety fills up on $25.3M for obesity treatments
Satiety, maker of a minimally-invasive medical device that reduces obesity, has raised $25.3 million of an anticipated $33 million round of equity and rights, according to a filing with the SEC. The Palo Alto, Calif. company was previously backed by HLM Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures, Skyline Ventures, Thomas Fogarty, Three Arch Partners and Venrock. It has raised four rounds of funding to date, not including a $7.5 million bridge loan from its investors … Continue Reading
