The best video games of 2009; Pick your favorite, too

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Sony PlayStation 3. Teen) Naughty Dog/Sony. I’m on the record as saying that this third-person shooter title is one of the best video games ever made. Uncharted 2 certainly could have been a tired sequel and a clone of Tomb Raider, but Naughty Dog got this one right. Just about everything is executed well. The story is compelling and sustains your interest over 26 chapters. Treasure hunter Nathan Drake has … Continue Reading

With Khosla's backing, Lookout aims to beef up mobile security

Updated

A new company called Lookout wants to take on the growing security threats around smartphones. To do that, it just raised $5.5 million in a first round from investors including Khosla Ventures.

San Francisco-based Lookout evolved from Flexilis, a security consulting startup, which in turn was founded by graduates of the University of Southern California. The company is privately testing Windows Mobile, Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone applications, and plans to roll those apps out … Continue Reading

MIT breaks new ground in gesture control

A group of MIT researchers claims to have made a significant leap in gesture-controlled computing, due to a new kind of LCD screen configuration they describe as a “lenseless camera.” Leveraging recent advances in LCD technology, the team’s so-called BiDirectional or BiDi Screen display is capable of both capturing and displaying images on a very thin screen, creating the possibility for highly sensitive gesture control in devices as small as smart phones.

They debuted a … Continue Reading

Rumor: 02 is buying Israel's Jajah for $200M — but we hear it's not done

Internet telephone company Jajah, one of a host of companies that allow users to make international phone calls cheaply over the Internet, will be acquired for about $200 million by the large Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica’s mobile division, O2, this week, according to a report in the Israeli financial news site TheMarker Sunday.

We reached Jajah’s chief executive Trevor Healy tonight, and he declined comment. However, a source suggested the deal, if there is one, … Continue Reading

Chinese video website Youku raises $40M more, furthering arms race

Youku.com, one of the largest and fastest growing Chinese video websites, said Sunday evening it has raised $40 million in its latest round of funding and signaled that it expects to raise up to $40 million more before the round is over.

We’ve written about the race between the big three Chinese video sites, which include front-runners Youku and Tudou, and third-place 56.com. Youku was founded three years ago, but has grown quickly to rival … Continue Reading

Intel's next-generation Atom processor will make netbooks more powerful

Intel is announcing a new generation of its Atom microprocessor that will make netbooks faster, cheaper, and more power efficient. That could help accelerate the growth of netbooks, which are low-cost machines that are smaller than laptops and are meant for cruising the web.

This N450 Atom processor is cheaper than past solutions because it eliminates a chip from the system. In the past, Intel had three chips in an Atom computer: a processor, a … Continue Reading

Avnera and Best Buy team up on wireless home audio platform

Avnera and Best Buy are announcing today they are partnering to create a new generation of high-quality wireless home audio platform under Best Buy’s Rocketfish brand name.

The product will let you take audio from any music device, such as an Apple iPod, and broadcast the sound wirelessly to any speaker in the house. The speakers and music devices simply connect to small boxes with Avnera’s wireless audio chips, thereby getting rid of unsightly wires … Continue Reading

Why is porn one of the top web searches by kids?

Sex and porn were the No. 4 and 5 search terms for kids, according to a recent survey by Symantec’s Norton OnlineFamily division.

This reminds me of a story. I was writing a story in my home office about a porn company that was buying a stake in another company. (It wound up not being published). Then my nine-year old came into my office and asked, “Daddy, what’s porn?”

Not knowing what to say, I … Continue Reading

Week in review: Professor says Square took his technology, Facebook readies Game Dashboard

Here’s our rundown of the week’s business and tech news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

Professor claims Square took his credit card reading technology — Square is a promising startup offering a small device that lets anyone make a credit card payment from their mobile phone. But an associate professor at Washington University says there’s a big hitch: He built Square’s credit card reading technology and has filed … Continue Reading

MyWebWill prepares your final tweet, Facebook update upon death

One rather morbid consequence of sharing our lives online is the digital trail we leave behind when we die.

It’s not an idea that comes readily to the Facebook generation, but managing the profiles and blog posts left behind upon death may become a growing necessity. A Swedish startup called MyWebWill is trying to address the problem by storing passwords and people’s wishes, so that their online identities can be shut down or handed over … Continue Reading

EC Roundup: Preventing executive fraud and keeping your data safe

Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner:

There’s no medal for first to market – While there’s a sense of pride in introducing a new category, there’s rarely a competitive advantage. Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson runs down the threats that come with being first – and the advantages latecomers have that can put them in a leadership position.

Three ways to prevent executive fraud – Amid the scandal at Canopy Financial, there has been a … Continue Reading

Surprise! Copenhagen falls flat and it might be America's fault

World leaders finally emerged from cloistered negotiations, only to have President Barack Obama announce a deal falling far short of even people’s low expectations for the U.N.’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Despite the U.S.’s strong presence early in the proceedings, its refusal to depart from its own carbon reduction targets might have killed chances of an aggressive treaty before debate even began.

The deal postpones an international treaty to the end of 2010 — … Continue Reading

Solyndra files for $300M public sale — kicking off cleantech IPO rally?

Beating long-standing predictions that it would be one of the first clean technology companies to go public in the next year, cylindrical solar-panel maker Solyndra has filed for an IPO that could amount to as much as $300 million.

Based in Fremont, Calif., Solyndra has been the frontrunner among venture-backed solar companies since it received a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy at the beginning of September. The news is a … Continue Reading

New supply deal keeps A123 competitor Valence afloat into 2010

The relatively minor deal just struck between Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. and Valence Technology may hold broader promise. The $1.4 million contract to supply the automaker with advanced batteries could be the shot in the arm Valence needs to survive among the likes of A123Systems, Johnson Controls-Saft and Panasonic.

Because the two companies designed their products to fit each other, Valence is a virtual lock for future orders, even if the agreement isn’t explicitly exclusive. … Continue Reading

Augmented reality app Layar keeps crashing, gets yanked from the App Store

Soon after landing $1 million in funding, Layar, one of the pioneers in the emerging augmented reality space, has withdrawn its Layar v3 application from the Apple App Store because it keeps crashing on too many users.

The app, which superimposes data on top of mobile phone browsers — like housing prices on top of street views, or restaurant menus when you point your handset at a restaurant — has had the problem since its … Continue Reading

Trackle puts a new spin on real-time search

Trackle, angling to be a souped up, personalized version of Google Alerts, added search features to its site today. Now the Sunnyvale, Calif. company doesn’t just want to help users receive real-time alerts, but also to search those alerts as they’re published.

You can think of this as a variation on the trendy idea of real-time search. But most real-time search engines are focused on Twitter, and even Google’s recently announced real-time results seem to … Continue Reading

Last minute holiday shopping? — Yep, there are mobile apps for that

In case you’re not keeping track, there’s only a week left till Christmas. Thankfully, if you’ve got a smartphone, there are 8 apps that could make this year’s last minute shopping easier than usual. These are available either on the Android or iPhone platform, although I’ve only tested out the Android apps since I own a Motorola Droid. (Pictured right is Christmas List by Developers Simplify Lives).

Countdown Clocks
Tick-tock, tick-tock. With not many shopping … Continue Reading

Dept. of Energy beefs up electricity transmission with new $60M

The U.S. Department of Energy has been generous in its support of smart grid efforts this year, granting $3.4 billion to utilities to transition to a cleaner, more efficient electrical grid, and backing companies of all sizes making components and energy management systems to change the way Americans use power. Today it is zeroing in on the transmission piece, announcing $60 million in stimulus funds for upgrading the country’s three major transmission grids.

The amount … Continue Reading