Gravity Bear aims to raise the quality of social games

The social game companies are coming out of the woodworks. Gravity Bear is entering the fray today with a plan to create high-quality social games across a variety of platforms.

The Emeryville, Calif.-based company was founded by Phil Shenk, one of the many game veterans who came from the diaspora of Flagship Studios, a San Jose, Calif.-based game studio which imploded a year ago. Veterans from Flagship went on to form Runic Games, which we … Continue Reading

Wikia, site for user-generated topic pages, sees "explosion of growth"

Wikia, a site that its founders liken to a Web version of a library — offering user-generated “books” of content about specific issues — is seeing explosive growth after some recent software changes.

Jimmy Wales, founder of the popular site Wikipedia, and later cofounder of Wikia, a for-profit version of Wikipedia that goes into more detail about specific topics than Wikipedia does, said the site now ranks as the No. 78th most popular site in … Continue Reading

DeepDyve launches rental service for scientific research

A company called DeepDyve has already unveiled a search engine that it says beats Google’s for finding research information. But its plans go beyond search — chief executive Bill Park says the company also wants to reach a new audience for academic research, today launching what he calls “an iTunes or Netflix for research.”

The business model for a scientific, medical, or technical journal is all about selling to a big academic institution, like Harvard … Continue Reading

Pugpharm readies launch of Snoget, a next-generation social networking game

Pugpharm hopes to take social networking games to the next level with Snoget, an online game that requires you to find people with interests similar to your own. The site has a closed beta test going on with a limited number of players now and will slowly add users and features in the coming weeks.

In Snoget, you can only win the game by collaborating and communicating with people of like interests. The aim of … Continue Reading

Blinkx launches not-quite-ready music jukebox

Blinkx Music, a newly launched website at www.music.blinkx.com, supposedly has 33,000 hours of music videos from 10,000-plus artists. The search tool, which is indexed by artist, album, song and genre, makes it easy to dig up old U2 videos … no, actually it doesn’t. Type in “U2 Boy” and you get “Sorry, there are no results matching your query.” On YouTube, by contrast the band’s impossibly naive-and-innocent-not-yet-superstars video for “I Will Follow” arrives at the … Continue Reading

Trilliant firms up European perch with British Gas deal

Trilliant, one of the most buzzed about names in the emerging Smart Grid space, has firmed up its toehold in Europe, announcing a new contract with British Gas, one of the most formidable utilities in the world. The power company, now owned by Centrica, will be deploying Trilliant’s software, called UnitySuite, to allow its smart electrical and gas meters communicate seamlessly with the utility, home energy displays, appliances like thermostats, and any other energy management … Continue Reading

Runic launches fantasy role-playing game Torchlight

Max Schaefer and his brother Erich have been toiling away in the fantasy role-playing video game business for 15 years. After a spate of bad luck, the Schaefers have managed to hang on to a seasoned team and now, with their startup Runic Games, they’re releasing their first game, Torchlight, on Wednesday.

The self-published fast-action downloadable game is a major release in the fantasy role-playing genre that has been dominated in the past by the … Continue Reading

Vivante's graphics used in Marvell's cell phone processors

Vivante said today that its graphics components are being used in the latest cell phone processors being created by chip maker Marvell.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Marvell will use Vivante’s 3-D graphics components in the newly announced Armada family of applications processors, which handle the non-radio computing functions in a cell phone. Marvell licensed Vivante’s designs for low-power but powerful 3-D graphics and used the technology as a subcomponent within its larger Armada chips.

Wei-Jin Dai, … Continue Reading

Now you can use Google Voice without switching phone numbers

Google Voice is one of the coolest new technologies to emerge in the last year or so, but it has one big drawback — you need to switch to a new phone number, which always involves annoyance and confusion. Except now you can skip all that, by enabling Google Voice with a phone number you already use.

So does that mean all those early Voice adopters who switched numbers are chumps? Maybe not. Vincent Paquet, … Continue Reading

Facebook tinkering with big changes that may weaken app virality

Facebook is having one-on-one meetings with some of its larger developers detailing a series of changes that could significantly affect the way applications are spread through the social network. They may go through some of the proposals at this Wednesday’s Facebook Developer Garage in Palo Alto, Calif.

From what we hear, Facebook is reshuffling all the traditional channels like notifications and requests that developers use to reach new users and tucking them away in harder-to-reach … Continue Reading

Livedrive launches unlimited backup service in the U.S.

Online storage service Livedrive has entered the U.S. market for backing up data and sharing files with others.

The service is offered by Lifeboat Distribution, a software distribution company with a network of resellers. Livedrive, based in the United Kingdom, also plans to open an office in the U.S.

Livedrive provides unlimited online storage, cross network synchronization, one-click backup, and the ability to easily share and access files from any device. Users can store their … Continue Reading

Netpulse grabs $3.1M Series A round for in-gym displays (Updated)

[Update: This article previously stated incorrectly that it would be more than a year before Netpulse equipment arrived in gyms.  They're shipping already. I misheard over the phone.]

Advertisers fight to get a few seconds of consumers’ time. What about the 25 minutes they spend on a treadmill at the gym? Netpulse has built a 15-inch display that delivers live HDTV, on-demand videos and music, news feeds, and social media. And yes, you can plug … Continue Reading

ZooLoo's own-your-own-domain tools get Facebook-savvy

Scottsdale, Arizona-based ZooLoo is an early-stage startup that launched in July. The company’s premise is simple: You can own your own domain, for example paulboutin.com, without having an IT guy figure it out for you. ZooLoo is heavy on customized, selective privacy and privileges so you don’t have to share your vacation photos with the entire Internet.

You also get your own blog, with a custom theme and — don’t underestimate the value of this … Continue Reading

A movement toward locally grown… electricity?

As new research delves into the viability of renewable power, two trends are taking shape. First, it is increasingly clear that renewable energy potential in the U.S. far exceeds current energy consumption. Second, in many parts of the country, energy self-sufficiency is possible, and where its not, power needs could be met by local renewable generation.

About 36 states with renewable energy mandates could meet their needs with in-state power, and about 23 states could … Continue Reading

Prices fall, capacity rises: A sneak peak for solar in 2010

As the solar industry readies itself for this week’s Solar Power International conference in Anaheim, Calif., we thought we’d take a look at the roller-coaster financials many of the companies have seen in the past year. First, there is one overriding trend: Over the last decade, the cost of solar generation hardware has dropped by nearly a third.

In large part, this change can be attributed to cheaper labor costs as more contractors learned faster, … Continue Reading

PG&E warms to solar, signs contracts for 500 MW

Pacific Gas & Electric has signed contracts to buy 500 megawatts-worth of power from two solar companies, NextEra Energy Resources and Abengoa Solar. The former will depend on huge parabolic mirrors to concentrate sunlight on fluids that produce steam to turn turbines, while the latter will turn to concentrating photovoltaics, using mirrors to saturate electricity-producing solar modules.

Neither of the projects has been built yet. Florida Power and Light-owned NextEra is pitching its 250-megawatt Genesis … Continue Reading

Dept. of Energy to announce $3.4B in Smart Grid grants tomorrow

[Update: The initial article misstated that the CEO of Ice Energy threatened to file a lawsuit against the Department of Energy if denied a grant, when he only speculated that some executives might choose to go this route.]

The Department of Energy is getting ready to announce the recipients of $3.4 billion in stimulus package grants to utilities looking to adopt smarter, more efficient electrical grid technology, as early as tomorrow. The department … Continue Reading

Fisker to cannibalize GM plant for plug-in hybrids

There’s no greater sign that the automotive old guard is on the decline than one of the hottest new green car companies buying up its old factories. Irvine, Calif.-based Fisker Automotive is expected to announce plans tomorrow to overhaul a 52-year-old General Motors plant in Wilmington, Del. into a facility to churn out hundreds of plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles, starting in 2012.

Vice president Joe Biden is slated to make the announcement — apt considering the … Continue Reading

5 O'Clock Roundup: Raytheon buys BBN, Verizon hot … and not, things built on Twitter

Raytheon completes acquisition of BBN for $350M — Both companies do defense R&D and are packed with MIT grads. Raytheon works on military projects such as the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment. R&D company BBN makes cheery Internet publishing tool suite EveryZing, but the company also developed the sniper detection system Boomerang, used by American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

U.S. Army troops in their MRAP vehicles are currently equipped with 6,000 Boomerang systems over there. … Continue Reading