Skout: Mobile daters not only single, but ready to mingle

More than half of members using mobile and location-based dating service Skout have met up with someone they have contacted via the iPhone app in real life. And even more would be interested in doing so, according to a new report released by the San Francisco-based company.

The idea behind Skout is to turn people’s phones into tools for meeting other singles in their local areas. What was unclear before was whether these virtual connections … Continue Reading

Qik, Ustream compete for iPhone live video streams

Video livecasting service Qik’s long-awaited iPhone app has reportedly been approved by Apple and will appear in the iTunes App Store today.

It’s getting late in the business day here in Apple’s time zone, and the app hasn’t appeared yet, but maybe the App Store staff work IT hours and will put it up tonight.

TechCrunch reports that the app will be named Qik Live when it appears, not to be confused with the current … Continue Reading

Steve Jobs may demo Apple tablet in January

We may soon see Apple’s long-rumored, yet-to-be-announced tablet computer. It looks like chief executive Steve Jobs has plans to demonstrate the product on-stage in January.

A source told The Business Insider that Apple has asked application makers to create apps for a demonstration next month. Those apps need to support full-screen resolution, suggesting an iPhone- or iPod Touch-style device with a larger screen — i.e, a tablet. At the same time, the Financial Times reports … Continue Reading

Mobile Q-and-A service ChaCha adds $7M funding to $69M total

Updated

Indiana-based question-and-answer startup ChaCha announced today that it’s received $7 million in new funding. The company was founded in 2006 as a cross between Ask.com and the Mechanical Turk: Users would ask a question, and they’d be connected to another human being who would provide an answer in a real-time chat session. In short, it didn’t work out.

In early 2008, ChaCha ditched that business and reinvented itself as a question-and-answer service for mobile … Continue Reading

Twitter acquires Mixer Labs to become more location savvy

It looks like Twitter and the applications built around it are going to get smarter about where you’re tweeting from. The company just announced that it has purchased Mixer Labs, a startup that created the TownMe activity guide as well as GeoAPI, a set of developer tools for accessing  TownMe’s location data.

The San Mateo, Calif. team was trying to build a Yelp competitor of sorts. It went beyond business listings and user reviews by … Continue Reading

Bad drivers beware? CarPong launches driver social networking

Ever been cut off by a bad driver and wished you could have given them a piece of your mind? Well, now you can. Virginia startup CarPong recently launched and is letting users write short messages to other drivers.

The site is simple and like most other social networking sites you must be registered to use it. Users can either send a message to a particular license plate or receive notifications on messages for up … Continue Reading

The future of mobile: Q&A with GetJar CEO Ilja Laurs

Ilja Laurs is the founder and CEO of GetJar, the multi-platform app retailer with strong claims to being second only to Apple in number of downloads. Laurs runs GetJar from offices in the UK, Silicon Valley, and his native Lithuania. I spoke to him recently about where he sees the next opportunities in mobile apps.

VentureBeat: Earlier this year in an interview with the BBC, you stated that mobile apps would become “as big … Continue Reading

Yoolink shares your bookmarks across the social web

We’ve got Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, Delicious accounts, Flickr accounts and more, all vying for our constant attention and maintenance. All that means learning new systems for different applications with different purposes, remembering to use each service, and generally spending quite a bit of time keeping everything going.

That’s where Yoolink, a great new service, comes in. It’s a mix of tools like AddThis and ShareThis, bookmarking tools like Diigo and Delicious, and social news … Continue Reading

Crunchies tickets now on sale

Update: This set of tickets is sold out.

The first set of tickets are now on sale for the third annual Crunchies, the tech awards co-hosted by TechCrunch, GigaOm, and VentureBeat.

This is the first wave of tickets, with 150 available now. Orchestra seats are going for $75 and balcony seats for $45. We only have 450 general admission tickets in all, so if you plan to come, buy your tickets as soon as you … Continue Reading

O2: Yes, we're acquiring Internet phone company Jajah

O2, the mobile division of Spanish telecommunication company Telefónica, confirmed today that it’s acquiring Israel-based Internet phone company Jajah for 145 million euros (that’s $207 million).

The move reflects the growing interest in VoIP technology on the part of the big telecom and tech companies. In November, TechCrunch and Israeli financial news site TheMarker reported that O2 was bidding for Jajah against Cisco and Microsoft, and it reported this weekend that O2 had won the … Continue Reading

WePay helps groups manage money, lands $1.65M of its own

WePay, a startup that says it will help groups of people collaboratively manage financial accounts, has just gotten some much-needed validation in the form of a $1.65 million first round of venture funding from August Capital and several angels.

The WePay platform can be used by any group of people to create accounts, produce invoices, collect money, manage transactions and make easily-monitored payments. It can work for your fantasy football league or high school French … Continue Reading

Fixing solar's intermittency: Do SolarReserve and PG&E have the answer?

Pacific Gas & Electric has signed a contract with SolarReserve to buy power from its 150-megawatt plant. Power purchase agreements like this are pretty commonplace at this point — so what makes this one special? SolarReserve claims its technology can supply solar-generated power even when the sun’s not shining — revolutionizing the way we look at solar.

SolarReserve relies on solar thermal systems to make this possible. Using a field of reflective mirrors, it concentrates … Continue Reading

Our favorite viral videos of 2009

If we’re to judge viral videos by page views alone, then 2009′s clear winner is the music video for Beyonce Knowles’ Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), a movement that has spawned a massive subculture of professional and amateur performers who have/are trying to learn the choreography. Our picks for the best viral videos that whipped around the web in ’09 are based on a highly-refined algorithm that considers influence, gravitas, bravado, and page … Continue Reading

5 o'clock roundup: Nothing says Christmas like LEDs, Facebook ups divorces and more

Here’s the latest action:

Rich Wong looks ahead to 2010 — Rich Wong, partner at Accel Partners, sat down with Robert Scoble to provide a venture-eye view of 2010, covering trends in social media, real-time search, clean energy and who will come out on top between the iPhone and Android.

LEDs take over Christmas light market — Apparently, business is good for makers of holiday-themed light-emitting diode strings. Even the country’s most iconic tree at … Continue Reading

New report: Is First Solar all hat, no cattle?

First Solar seems to be on a roll. The largest solar company in the world, it recently projected 2010 revenue far exceeding analyst expectations, backing it up with the grand opening of a major plant and plans to expand its manufacturing operations. But, today, there’s evidence that the Arizona company may not be as hot as it looks.

First Solar has dropped four large-scale solar plant projects in California alone, according to a report from … Continue Reading

Microsoft: Courtroom loss won't affect Word sales

Microsoft took another blow today in its legal battle over Microsoft Word. A federal appeals court upheld a ruling against the software giant, stating that Word violates a patent owned by Toronto-based company i4i. The court ordered Microsoft to stop selling versions of Word containing the offending feature by Jan. 11.

That’s about three weeks away, but Microsoft says it has been preparing for this possibility since the initial ruling in August. That means consumers … Continue Reading

Mobile video startup Thwapr doesn't bother with iPhone app, shoots for 400 million users

Mobile picture and video sharing network Thwapr launched its beta program last week. Their product, which lets mobile phone users share photos and videos with one, two or thirty friends by texting one another, works pretty well.

Yet the company made a startling decision: Despite having two Apple Quicktime veterans in its CTO and COO slots, Thwapr deliberately chose not to start out with an iPhone app.

Why not? Because it opens up Thwapr to … Continue Reading

Mojave Desert may be off-limits for solar projects

California’s Mojave Desert, some of the most coveted land for companies looking to build solar arrays capable of powering thousands if not millions of homes, may now be off-limits. Senator Dianne Feinstein has proposed the creation of two monuments on the land that would protect the natural environment and wildlife. It’s an interesting reminder that not all green technology is necessarily eco-friendly — but one that might be costly for the state.

Feinstein’s legislation has … Continue Reading