WordPress will not be left out of geo-tagging frenzy
Are tweets replacing blog posts? Who cares! Now that Twitter’s turned on its location feature, WordPress doesn’t want to be left out.
So today, the blogging platform is launching a feature that will let you identify where you’re writing from. Commenters can do the same as well. And it’s opt-in — so people can choose whether or not they want to reveal where they are. The new features will pave the way for location search, … Continue Reading
Video game sales fall 19 percent in October
U.S. video game sales fell 19 percent in October to $1.07 billion as the industry’s sluggish recession-plagued year continued.
The industry saw a brief respite in September when strong sales of Halo 3: ODST on the Xbox 360, as well as hardware price cuts, helped push growth into positive territory, with sales up 1 percent.
But October is the seventh month this year in which sales have fallen short of year ago figures. Anita Frazier, … Continue Reading
Playdom acquires two developers to break into Facebook and iPhone games
Playdom is one of the red hot companies in social games, having announced a $43 million funding round this week. But its success has been mostly in making games on MySpace. Now it is announcing two acquisitions that will expand its presence in both Facebook and iPhone games.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has acquired Facebook developer Green Patch and iPhone developer Trippert Labs. The deals will bring aboard 15 full-time employees and 65 contractors. … Continue Reading
YouTube to support 1080p high-definition video; mobile video uploads up 2,000% this year
YouTube is going to roll out 1080p high-definition video later this week, as the video portal steps up its quality to compete with other sites. (That’s 1,080 lines of vertical resolution or horizontal scan lines, a notch above the current highest level at 720p.)
“For our content creators, we want it to look as good or better than the source’s quality,” said Hunter Walk, a director of product management for YouTube, at GigaOm’s NewTeeVee conference … Continue Reading
Nielsen's challenge: Signing up three-screen viewers
Nielsen’s Brian Fuhrer laid out the future of television ratings at today’s NewTeeVee Live conference in San Francisco. Nielsen’s Extended Screen program, on which Fuhrer gave an overview talk, is a project to collect Internet usage data from Nielsen’s existing TV households on both computers and mobile devices, covering what’s become known as the three-screen viewing landscape of TV, computer and mobile handset.
Fuhrer’s talk didn’t go into technical details, but he explained the biggest … Continue Reading
GreenBeat2009: Still more Super Grid speakers!
We’re rounding out the agenda for GreenBat 2009, the seminal executive conference on the Super Grid taking place NEXT WEEK on Nov. 18-19. Today, we’re delighted to announce the addition of still more policy, IT and investment experts.
Before we introduce them, remember to register for your GreenBeat ticket today. With an all-star lineup including former vice president Al Gore, Cisco’s Smart Grid guru Laura Ipsen and PG&E’s Andy Tang, tickets are going fast. You … Continue Reading
Snapfish prints your Flickr photos (but only your own)
Popular Yahoo-owned photo site Flickr announced today that through a deal with Snapfish (itself owned by HP), users around the world can now print the photos they’ve uploaded into the site, turning them into prints, books, calendars, and more.
Printing seems like it could be a big money-maker, and in fact Flickr previously had more limited partnerships with services like QOOP and TinyPrint. The company now says that Snapfish, with its locations in 22 countries, … Continue Reading
Foursquare's CEO on how to get large companies to take your startup seriously
One of the largest problems for startups everywhere is getting the attention of and closing deals with large corporations. Tuesday night’s NextNY meetup brought together a collection of startup professionals for a conversation on how to best sell nascent technologies and services to large corporations. Attendees included Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley, newly minted Surphace (formerly Sphere) CEO Josh Gutman, and First Round Capital entrepreneur in residence Charlie O’Donnell.The conversation was lively and included an admission … Continue Reading
Yidio raises $500,000 in angel funding for online TV surfing
Yidio, which lets you search for TV shows and movies on the web, just raised $500,000 in angel funding.
The site, which launched last year and is already profitable, helps you find more than 300,000 episodes of TV shows online and directs you to where to watch them. It just overhauled the site last week, adding sharing so you can send out links to your Facebook network, comment on and “like” shows, and collaborative filtering … Continue Reading
Vega unveiled as first in home Android device
For some time now Google’s been talking about having their Android operating system run on multiple devices, not just phones. In August, T-Mobile even suggested that Android would be appearing on a home phone and a tablet computer early next year, both running Android. Today unveils the first in home device to run the Android OS and it’s even kitchen-friendly.
UK and Seattle-based Innovative Converged Devices (ICD), an engineering company focusing on the mobile and … Continue Reading
GreenBeat 2009: Meet the Super Grid bankers
Investment bankers are another key group helping to give birth to the Super Grid, or the more efficient electrical grid the nation desperately needs in order to lower carbon emissions.
The ibankers are the ones who facilitate the massive financing — including initial public offerings and mergers — which in turn produce profits to investors who back the disruptive startups pushing the Smart Grid.
With investment in bouncing back from the recession and more deals … Continue Reading
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is one of the best video games ever
The attention of video game fans has fallen upon Modern Warfare 2, a modern combat game which is on its way to selling more than 10 million units during the holiday season.
But those who are fans of awesome hardcore adventure games shouldn’t miss Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which is one of the best games I’ve ever played. It is the prettiest, most entertaining, and most fun game that I’ve played on Sony’s PlayStation 3. … Continue Reading
Twitter's new digs (and old ones too)
Twitter, which recently raised a whopping $100 million round of financing, is migrating across the SOMA (or South of Market) district to new headquarters this week. It’s picking up from the 539 Bryant St. office, which has been its home for a year, to move to a new location atop 795 Folsom St.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
The micro-blogging service has agreed to sublease a 31,000-square-foot office at 795 Folsom St., now used by … Continue Reading
Wave adds 'follow' feature, promises more inbox improvements
Google Wave, the still-very-much-in-development communication tool, got a new feature today that should make it easier to navigate your inbox — the option of following public waves. And there are more changes coming, as the Wave team introduces other tweaks to how the service highlights conversations and updates.
The follow button lets users opt-in to seeing public waves. Previously, once you clicked on a wave to read or comment on it, it would automatically be … Continue Reading
Boxee box to be unveiled December 7th
Boxee, maker of free “media center software” (software that lets you hook up your computer to your TV and navigate movies, TV shows, music and other media content), has been gaining in popularity. But potential customers have one big request for the company: Give us a dedicated Boxee box, rather than requiring us to run your software on our laptops.
Today, in sync with co-founder Avner Ronen’s appearance as a speaker at the NewTeeVee conference … Continue Reading
Stream live video to the iPhone with Livestream's Procaster
Livestream, a live video startup formerly known as Mogulus, just launched a service that will let you stream video to iPhone or iPod Touch users without having to build your own app.
The iPhone can be troublesome for playing video, seeing as it doesn’t yet work with Flash web sites. (Flash powers about 75 percent of web video.) Hence, publishers have to resort to building their own apps if they want to broadcast video live.… Continue Reading
GreenBeat 2009: Meet your Innovation Competition judges
GreenBeat 2009, the seminal executive conference on the Smart Grid, is just around the corner on Nov. 18-19. And one of the key pieces of the event — perhaps the one we’re most excited about — is the Innovation Competition, a chance for startups and big companies alike to go head-to-head showcasing their boldest, most disruptive technologies and business models.
We can’t say too much about the more than 30 companies who applied to be … Continue Reading
NimbleFish swims to $950K for marketing automation
NimbleFish, maker of marketing automation software, has captured $950,000 in debt financing, according to a fling with the SEC. Based in San Francisco, it is backed by Sigma Partners, Cardinal Ventures and QuestMark Partners.… Continue Reading
Intransa raises $1.5M for Ethernet storage
Instransa, provider of storage equipment for Ethernet networks, has brought in $1.5 million of a targeted $3 million offering of promissory notes, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Cupertino, Calif., the company is backed by Entrepia Ventures, Guggenheim Partners, Menlo Ventures, Rho Capital Partners and U.S. Venture Partners.… Continue Reading
Modern Warfare 2 sells 4.7 million copies in US and UK on first day
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 had the biggest opening day of any video game, selling 4.7 million copies in North America and the United Kingdom alone in its first 24 hours. That generated an estimated $310 million in revenue at retail, according to game publisher Activision Blizzard.
The sales in the rest of the world will likely add to that opening day record, which beats out other titles such as Halo 3 and Grand … Continue Reading
