Widetronix goes nuclear to build a 25-year battery

A company called Widetronix has developed a 25-year battery. Reminiscent of Heinlein’s micro-fission reactors that could be worn on a belt, beta voltaic battery cells last 25 years or more, using semiconductors to turn high energy electrons known as beta particles thrown off by radioactive decay into a usable current.

The technology is 50 years old, but semiconductors back in the day required more radioactive substances to achieve the same (tiny) power output. This made … Continue Reading

Nissan's wireless EV charging could leave Coulomb, Better Place in the dust

Electric vehicles have come a long way in the last two years. Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive have proven that EVs can be fast and decently ranged, even sexy. Nissan is promising to make them fairly cheap. General Motors is working on something any flag waving urban American would be proud to drive. But there’s still one hitch: battery technology — we don’t have anything better than the lithium-ion cells currently in use, and only … Continue Reading

Has ERRA just launched the future of advanced batteries?

In energy storage, fantastic claims of game-changing technologies launch, peak and fall rapidly – only rarely does an actual product result. In a press release, ERRA Incorporated of San Antonio, Tex., announced their acquisition of a set of rights and patents for a “breakthrough battery technology” to be marketed as the YESS (Your Energy Storage Solution) Battery from ERRA, Inc. The press release made no mention of the battery’s chemistry, only that it was “Simply … Continue Reading

AdMob launches interactive video ads on the iPhone

AdMob, the mobile ad network that Google plans to acquire for $750 million, announced that it’s supporting a new kind of iPhone ad — interactive video.

This is the first interactive video ad unit for iPhones, AdMob says. Mainly, the new feature allows application developers to run a video ad while the application is loading, the way video sometimes plays when you load a website. (You’re a big fan of those ads, right?) Advertisers can … Continue Reading

PG&E lawsuit spreads down Smart Grid supply chain

Last week, we reported on the lawsuit being filed against Pacific Gas & Electric for price hikes seemingly caused by installation of smart meters in the Bakersfield area of California. Now the plaintiff’s attorneys say that PG&E’s suppliers should also be sued — a who’s who of Smart Grid companies including General Electric, meter maker Landis+Gyr and communications provider Silver Spring Networks.

The original plaintiff, Bakersfield resident Pete Flores, filed the suit after his electric … Continue Reading

YouTube Direct lets news organizations publish citizen videos

Did you know that every minute, some 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube? That’s a ton of content about everything from nights out on the town, to events or even breaking news.

With that in mind, Google announced this morning the launch of YouTube Direct, a new tool that allows news organizations (but really anyone) to request the right to rebroadcast YouTube clips made by other YouTube users. It also lets the news … Continue Reading

Announcing new DiscoveryBeat speakers: Smule, Playdom and Moderati

We’re pleased to announce a trio of new speakers for our DiscoveryBeat event on how to get your apps noticed. Our newest speakers at the Dec. 8 event include Ge Wang, the co-founder, chief technology officer, and chief creative officer at iPhone app developer Smule. We’re delighted because Smule has popularized apps such as the whimsical Ocarina music app that lets you blow into an iPhone and produce sound as if it were a real … Continue Reading

Zynga raises more venture capital for social gaming expansion

Zynga has become the hottest social gaming company around, with more than 196 million users on Facebook alone. Today, the San Francisco company raised $15.18 million in an extension to its second round of funding, according to a regulatory filing.

No new investors were listed in the filing, according to VentureWire. The company previous raised about $40 million in venture capital from Kleiner Perkins, Foundry Group, Avalon Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners and Union Square Ventures. … Continue Reading

Daily Endeavor helps you figure out what kind of job to search for

There are tons of job listing sites out there, but few that try to answer a far more important question, says Matthew Mahoney, founder of a new site called Daily Endeavor: What kind of job should I actually be looking for?

Sometimes, of course, you’ve already figured that out. But people often want to change careers, plus younger job-seekers are still uncertain. And while there are books and sites that provide an overview of the … Continue Reading

Former Alienware executives launch Origin, a new gamer PC company

New hardware companies aren’t formed every day. But Origin PC, a new maker of computers for gamers, sees an opening in the market for computer gaming enthusiasts that it hopes to exploit.

It’s targeting hardcore PC game fans with machines featuring lots of custom options and airbrush paint jobs. The machines will have “overclocking” guarantees. That means they will have liquid cooling that allows the PC’s microprocessor to be run at higher than recommended speeds.… Continue Reading

Bigfoot raises $8M for fast networking for gamers

Bigfoot Networks has raised $8 million in an effort to expand its business of making network cards that speed broadband performance for online gamers.

Bigfoot makes network cards that help gamers deal with the problem of lag. Lag is the frustrating delay that happens in the middle of an online game when you’re trying to make something happen at a high speed — like shooting at a moving target — but your network performance is … Continue Reading

ARM sets up Android gadget development effort

Google’s Android mobile operating system is picking up steam. The latest evidence is a move by ARM, the low-power chip design company, to create an Android Solutions Center that will make it easier for companies to build Android-based gadgets.

The solution center consists of a bunch of tools that companies can use to create their own Android hardware, built around ARM’s chips, said James Bruce, mobile segment manager for ARM, in an interview. More than … Continue Reading

Moto creates an interactive BlackJack table for high-tech casinos

Multitouch user interfaces seem to be spreading everywhere since Apple introduced the iPhone a couple of years ago. The latest example is this prototype of a BlackJack table with an interactive display.

The table is the brainchild of the industrial designers at Moto Development Group, a product design firm that has created all sorts of designs from the Zune HD music player to the Pure Digital Flip video camcorders. It is showing off this multitouch … Continue Reading

Crowdstar comes on strong in the social gaming scene

The social game companies are fashionable now that Electronic Arts bought Playfish for as much as $400 million. One of the newest challengers enjoying attention is Crowdstar International, which last week launched its second successful Facebook game, Happy Pets.

Burligame, Calif.-based Crowdstar already has 30 million month active users on Facebook, ranking it as the sixth largest developer on Facebook. That is thanks to the success of Happy Aquarium, which has 27 million users, according … Continue Reading

Mobile-friendly versions of Adobe Flash and AIR available now, without mobile (yet)

Adobe is releasing new beta test versions of its Flash and AIR technologies today. Those new versions don’t just include much-requested features, Adobe says — they also represent a big push onto devices beyond the PC, starting with smartphones.

One big caveat, however. Although Flash 10.1, in particular, is probably most noteworthy for being in development to work on most major smartphone platforms except the iPhone. Today’s release only works on personal computers (Windows, Mac, … Continue Reading

Google Sites now offers templates for company web sites

Google is about to make it easier for businesses to get started with Google Sites, its tool for internal collaboration sites and public websites, by offering templates for creating starter sites.

Sites is intended primarily as a way for companies to share their documents, videos, and other material either internally or externally. (It’s pitched as a competitor to Microsoft SharePoint.) For example, Google’s PR team uses it as a way to share all the relevant … Continue Reading

Updated: RockYou raises $50 million for in-game advertising, growth in Asia

RockYou , one of the largest developers and ad networks built around Facebook’s platform, just raised $50 million in venture funding from Softbank. That brings RockYou’s total funding to $119 million from investors including Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Partech International and DCM. Softbank was the only participant in this round, the company says.

Venture capital firms have got to be a bit emboldened about companies built around Facebook’s platform given last week’s sale of … Continue Reading

Multimedia messaging comes to Twitter in the U.K. thanks to Orange

Is this the beginning of the end for photo-sharing services TwitPic and YFrog?

U.K. Twitter users can now send multimedia messages and photos directly to Twitter with help from mobile operator Orange. If you’re a Orange U.K. user, just text the shortcode number ’86444′ with the phrase ‘START’ to initiate the service.

Then you can take a picture with your phone, send it to that shortcode, and it will be posted on an Orange-hosted site … Continue Reading