Sony's Home virtual world hits 10M users, debuts cool 3-D game and embraces virtual goods

Sony’s PlayStation Home virtual world on the PlayStation 3′s online network has built an audience of 10 million gamers in the past year, largely by providing a social world where players can meet each other via 3-D avatars. They can play light casual games and visit promotional places in the world such as Red Bull’s 3-D spaces.

But the online-connected world of Home, accessible via a PS 3, is about to get a lot more … Continue Reading

CEO language misleads analysts' ratings, study confirms

Business analysts, who are paid to dryly evaluate and forecast the financial performance of the companies they cover, turn out to be vulnerable to what one research group has dubbed “charismatic” language in the CEOs’ vision statements.

Certain words and imagery seems to push analysts’ emotional buttons. These analysts then skew their forecasts, misleading investors to believe a company’s earnings potential will be higher than it actually is.

The end result: Carefully wording a CEO’s … Continue Reading

RepairPal gets $4M to estimate the cost of fixing your car

RepairPal, a site for auto repair estimates and advice, has raised $4 million in a first round of funding.

When car owners go to the Emeryville, Calif. startup’s web site, they can enter basic information like the manufacturer, model, and year of their cars, as well as the repairs needed, and the site will give them price ranges for how much they can expect to pay for parts and labor. (The estimate is customized to … Continue Reading

Jinni raises $1.6M for online movie "taste engine"

Updated.

Israeli startup Jinni, which calls itself a “Pandora for movies” in reference to popular music-recommendation service Pandora, has raised $1.6M from DFJ Tamir Fishman in a first round of institutional funding. Where Pandora uses subject experts for its music recommendations, Jinni’s technology crawls the web and picks up movie reviews and metadata and uses natural language processing tools to tag films and tv shows according to what’s being said about them.

Users click on … Continue Reading

Obama announces $5.4B in tax credits to stimulate green job market

With climate policy grinding to a halt in Copenhagen, president Barack Obama turned his attention to the domestic growth of green today, announcing that $5.4 billion in tax credits will be granted to spur the creation of tens of thousands of new green collar jobs in the next three years, predominantly in the manufacturing sector.

The idea behind the tax credits is to prod private investors to sink up to $15 billion into clean energy … Continue Reading

Gadget advice site Measy will tell you which smartphone to buy

Gadget-recommendation service Measy launched a smartphone tool this week to help users find the perfect smartphone based on their needs. The engine asks users their ideal price as well as the importance of several factors including carrier, functionality (business, texting, apps and software, video/camera), customer service, and speed. It then recommends one of over 60 smartphones in the engine.

Measy’s technology pulls quotes about specific characteristics from review sources their editor-in-chief deems trustworthy, scores each … Continue Reading

Deadlock persists as bigwigs fly in for climate summit's last days

After a week and a half of back-and-forth negotiations, presentations and protests, the next three days will be the most critical for the COP15 United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen. But even as top leaders fly in to hammer out a deal, the chances of producing an effective treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are dwindling.

Whatever minimal progress was achieved last week came to a halt when delegates from 130 developing nations staged a … Continue Reading

iFart launches first farting social network for the iPhone

There’s nothing that brings together family and friends around the holidays like a good iPhone fart application. While there are many, there’s one that is dubbed king — iFart from InfoMedia. When we wrote about iFart Mobile last Christmas, developer Joel Comm said he was pulling in over $10,000 a day. The app sells for $.99.

If you thought iFart mobile would stop there, you’re wrong. Today, it has announced the launch of iFart Mobile … Continue Reading

Social site Grouply gives Yahoo & Google discussion groups a Web 2.0 makeover

Internet discussion groups have been around for decades. Startup Grouply offers a wrapper for Yahoo Groups and Google Groups that makes them more comparable to Facebook and Twitter, while not changing the underlying technical architecture. (See these before-and-after screenshots of a Yahoo Group processed through Grouply.)

Grouply also makes it easy for group administrators to make a small amount of money from a group, by optionally serving ads to group users and/or collecting payments from … Continue Reading

Google Fast Flip adds 55 titles, including VentureBeat

Google just added 55 publications from around two dozen publishers to Fast Flip, its experimental application that lets you flip through online news stories. The company blog post doesn’t include a full list of new partners, but they include the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, Reuters, and, yes, VentureBeat.

The idea behind Fast Flip, which launched in September, is to combine the speed and smoothness of magazine reading with the breadth of sources found … Continue Reading

U.S. smart grid market poised to double by 2014

The race to build a cleaner, more efficient electrical grid has sparked a diverse, rapidly-growing industry, including traditional utilities, titans of the internet boom like Cisco Systems and Intel, and a crop of startups hoping to hit it big. Now a new report from research firm Zpryme says that if this  market stays on track, it will double in just four years.

The finding is significant for two reasons. First, it suggests that demand for … Continue Reading

Smule, creator of hit iPhone music apps, raises $8M more

Smule, the company behind popular, music-based iPhone apps like Ocarina and I am T-Pain, has raised $8 million in a third round of funding.

The Menlo Park, Calif. company’s apps usually take advantage of the iPhone’s capabilities in cool, innovative ways that revolve around music. (Co-founder and chief technology officer Ge Wang is a music professor at Stanford.) I am T-Pain, developed with the popular hip hop star, overlays your singing with Auto-Tune technology, and … Continue Reading

Microsoft is most-mentioned brand online in 2009, Google ranks second

According to a study just released by online marketing agency Zeta Interactive, Microsoft was the most-mentioned brand in an analysis of online posts on Facebook, Twitter and blogs in 2009, with 4% more post volume than #2 Google.

Microsoft’s wide array of industry-leading software, hardware, development tools and online products, along with two major product releases — Windows 7 and Bing — gave it a bigger online buzz footprint than Google, whose many product forays … Continue Reading

The future of the music album? Check out RjDj's Little Boots app

In an age when tracks can be copied or streamed at virtually no cost, what extras can musicians add to make a living?

A London- and New York-based startup called RjDj is experimenting with one answer. RjDj is taking albums from electronic artists like Little Boots and Air and creating reactive music experiences from them through iPhone apps. RjDj launched one this week with Little Boots, a British electropop artist who made her name by … Continue Reading

Thumbplay sees executive shuffle as it prepares to launch music app

Thumbplay, a provider of mobile content like wallpapers and ringtones, announced some changes at the top today — chief executive Are Traasdahl (pictured) has been appointed chairman, while chief marketing officer Evan Schwartz has been promoted to CEO.

This doesn’t look like too much of a shake-up, since Traasdahl and Schwartz founded New York-based Thumbplay together. Traasdahl says the change was made with the company’s increased focus on music in mind, particularly with the launch … Continue Reading

Zynga and DST talk about their big funding deal in social games

Mark Pincus is at the center of the social gaming explosion. The chief executive of Zynga has the most popular games on Facebook, and he just raised $180 million from Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies. Since early 2007, Zynga has ridden Facebook’s success and created the most popular games on the social network, from FarmVille to Cafe World.

Yuri Milner is chief executive of DST, which has invested in Facebook and a number of … Continue Reading

PurseSense brings in $5.3M for agricultural software

PureSense Environmental, maker of software that monitors water and air quality for agricultural purposes, has just raised $5.3 million in equity, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Oakland, Calif., the company previously raised $500,000 from unnamed angel investors three years ago.… Continue Reading

Posit takes in $500K to improve mental sharpness

Posit Science, maker of technology and software tools to keep people’s brain’s fit as they age, has raised $500,000 in new equity, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in San Francisco, the company is backed by Cooley Godward Kronish, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, VSP Capital and Aberdare Ventures.… Continue Reading

Asetek lands $8M to cool computers

Asetek, maker of systems that use liquids to cool computing systems, has brought in $8 million in a new round of financing. Based in San Jose, Calif., the company is backed by D.E. Shaw Ventures, KT Venture Group, Northzone Ventures and Sunstone Capital. It has now raised about $30 million to date.… Continue Reading

Afferent takes in $23M for pain medication

Afferent Pharmaceuticals, maker of treatments for chronic pain, has brought in $23 million in a first round of funding. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., the company is backed by Third Rock Ventures, Pappas Ventures, Domain Associates and New Leaf Venture Partners. It doesn’t have a web site.… Continue Reading