HP expects growth to return to tech in 2010

In a sign of hope for the tech economy, Hewlett-Packard said today that it expects growth to return to the information technology industry in 2010.

Speaking at the company’s analyst meeting today, HP chief executive Mark Hurd said HP plans on growing faster than the overall market rate. This confidence from the world’s largest computer maker should keep the stock market on its recovery course. But HP’s stock price is down in after-hours trading at … Continue Reading

A123 IPO charges the market as share price jumps 50 percent

Yesterday, we reported that advanced battery company A123Systems‘ initial public offering would be a bellwether for the rest of the energy storage industry, whether it soared or flopped. With all eyes fixed on its predicted $13.50 share price, the stock (AONE) proceeded to wallop the market, closing at $20.29 a share — a more than 50 percent jump in value.

Clearly this bodes well for the Watertown, Mass., company’s battery-making peers. A123Systems had never even … Continue Reading

Wowd aims to replace PageRank with Popularity

Google has conspicuously avoided adding “real-time” search results to its search engine. By real-time, we mean the sort of results offered by Twitter — or items submitted a mere second or two earlier by any of a million sources.

There’s not even a real-time project in Google Labs, so now is a good time for startups to try to run ahead, grabbing market share and, hopefully, loyal customers.

Wowd is a Palo Alto-based startup packed … Continue Reading

Google Sites now works with third-party applications

Google Sites, a tool for creating internal websites where your company can collaborate, can now work with the rest of your business software, Google says. The search giant is releasing an application programming interface (API) that lets applications move data in and out of the Sites service.

This follows other announcements by Google to make its applications, such as Gmail, compatible with outside software. In some cases, like the ability to synchronize Google Apps with … Continue Reading

DEMO: What everyone else is saying

We’ve bombarded you with our coverage of this week’s DEMOfall 09, the emerging technology conference that VentureBeat co-produces. But there were plenty of other reporters who watched the presentations and formed their own opinions. So I’ve pulled together some highlights from other publications.

First, some articles focusing on the individual companies that won the conference’s various awards, plus a cool DEMOlabs presentation:

Audio speakers get a new look and feel — “The idea behind the … Continue Reading

WebsiteSpark continues Microsoft's love of software giveaways

I guess giving software away is working out for Microsoft. The company just announced its third “Spark” program, providing free software and services: WebsiteSpark, a program for small web design companies.

WebsiteSpark looks like it’s modeled pretty closely on BizSpark, its program for startups (which sponsors VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner), and DreamSpark, its program for students. Participants must have less than 10 employees and build websites on behalf of others. If approved, they’ll receive copies of … Continue Reading

Intel invests $500K in Canada's TransGaming to build on-demand games

TransGaming has raised $500,000 in convertible notes via a private placement from an affiliate of Intel Capital. The video game company will use the money to boost development of its on-demand gaming service, GameTree.tv.

The Toronto, Canada-based company makes video games, including converting games from the PC format to run on Apple’s Mac and the Linux operating systems.

TransGaming issued $500,000 in convertible notes to MVI, an affiliate of Intel Capital. About $350,000 is due … Continue Reading

If I forgot your name, blame the Gmail outage

Well, that didn’t take long. Less than a month has passed since Gmail had its first big outage since leaving beta testing. This morning, it had its second.

The problems started sometime before 7:30am Pacific time, according to Google’s Apps Status Dashboard. Google says the problem affected a “small subset of users,” but that subset is apparently large enough to make Gmail one of the most popular topics in Twitter (where everyone goes to complain … Continue Reading

Greener Capital raises $16M for unusual cleantech investments

Greener Capital Partners, a new venture firm founded by Charles Finnie, formerly of Crosslink Capital, has brought in $16 million for an inaugural fund dedicated to backing unusual cleantech investments, reports Dow Jones Venture Wire. The fund hopes to raise more before closing the fund.

The Berkeley, Calif. fund has already made one investment in Sungevity, a company that uses satellite imagery to make it easier for homeowners and small business owners to have rooftop … Continue Reading

Report: Twitter may close $100 million round today

Twitter, the microblogging upstart, is close to raising as much as $100 million in new funding today, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The previously unreported new investor is T. Rowe Price. New York-based Insight Venture Partners is the other new player, as previously reported, while Spark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners will top up their previous investments. For comparison, this round is nearly double the $55 million Twitter has raised altogether so far.

Twitter … Continue Reading

Health care: It’s time for technology

This is part of a series of posts about cutting-edge areas of innovation. The series is sponsored by Microsoft. Microsoft authors will participate, as will VentureBeat writers and outside experts.

Here’s a sobering thought: I can walk into any local car dealership and buy a $30,000 piece of merchandise, leaving nothing behind but my signature — but if I show up that same day at the hospital, unconscious after a collision in my new … Continue Reading

Ugolog let's you keep an eye on your home while you're not there

Without requiring you to buy or install any software or hardware other than simple web cameras, Ugolog lets you keep an eye on any place you want from the comfort of your own computer. The footage captured by the cameras (and any brand or make will work) is channeled directly to Ugolog’s servers, allowing you to watch the recordings from anywhere, anytime with any browser.

This type of easy, more casual surveillance clearly has many … Continue Reading

DEMO: Rseven demonstrates "lifecaching" your life on a cell phone (video interview)

Rseven came up with software that lets you turn your cell phone into a “lifecaching” device. That is, it becomes the personal recorder of everything you do.

In a demo at this week’s DEMOfall 09, the company showed it can record your movements via the phone’s location-based technology, record your text messages, photos, and even your phone calls.

Here’s our view interview with Hisyam Halim, chief executive of the company. He talks about what you … Continue Reading

DEMO: Emo Labs founder reveals how "invisible" speakers work (video interview)

Here’s a video interview with Jason Carlson, chief executive of Emo Labs, the co-winner of the $1 million advertising prize at DEMOfall 09.

His team has been working for four years on a set of speakers made out of clear plastic. This technology astounded everyone with both its simplicity and great sound quality. It’s good to see such great unexpected innovation. Look for major speaker companies to launch the product under a license sometime next … Continue Reading

Sony and Microsoft square off on launches of next-generation game controls

Sony and Microsoft are getting ready for the next stage of the console war.

Sony announced today that it will launch the next-generation game control device in the spring of 2010, according to plans announced at the Tokyo Game Show today. This device lets you wave a wand around in front of a camera to make things happen in a game.

The control is gesture-based and looks more like a wand — not at all … Continue Reading

DEMO: Matt Marshall inherits Chris Shipley's dancing shoes (video)

We smuggled this grainy police video out of the hotel at DEMOfall 09 today. It is proof positive that our fearless leader, Matt Marshall, can dance. Sort of. At the close of the presentations at the event in San Diego today, Chris Shipley, the executive director of DEMO for 13 years, handed the reins over to Matt. As part of the deal, Matt had to learn Chris’ signature dance. As awkward as it seemed at … Continue Reading

DEMO: Up close and personal with Intelius' DateCheck app (video interview)

It didn’t win the big prize at the DEMOfall 09 event. But Intelius‘ DateCheck app for the iPhone was one of the most-talked-about at the show.

The DateCheck app runs background checks on your date in real-time so you can figure out if it’s time to make an excuse and head for the door or stick around.

John Arnold, executive vice president of Intelius, explains to us in this video what the app can do, … Continue Reading

Sony sells a million PS 3 Slim consoles in three weeks

Sony’s PlayStation 3 console is finally picking up steam. In the past three weeks, the new smaller and lighter PS 3 Slim has sold a million units worldwide.

Those are the best numbers the third-place console has had in a long time. The PS 3 has been in third place since its launch in 2006 because of its higher price. Sony has tried to argue that the Blu-ray movie player included in the console makes … Continue Reading

Nintendo finally confirms $199 price for the Wii game console

Rumors of a Nintendo Wii price cut have been swirling since Microsoft and Sony cut the prices on their game consoles in September and August.

Now Nintendo has finally confirmed that it is cutting the price of the Wii from $249 to $199. It took a while to react, but Nintendo hasn’t been under much pressure to match its rivals. The price cut is effective Sept. 27.

That’s because of the enormous popularity of the … Continue Reading