Google's Eric Schmidt: Apple-Google relationship is 'stable'

During the conference call discussing Google’s earnings, chief executive Eric Schmidt covered topics including Google’s priorities and its moves in China. Near the end of the call, he touched on one more topic that’s particularly interesting: Google’s relationship with Apple.

Apple and Google could have had a particularly fruitful relationship — imagine Jobs’ sleek hardware paired with Google’s comparative strengths in the cloud. But it was not meant to be.

The relationship turned sour quickly. … Continue Reading

DEMO update: Get your applications in by Feb 5., meet more investors

We’ve extended the deadline for applications to the upcoming DEMO conference to Feb. 5.

With the next DEMO coming up soon — March 21-23 at the sunny resort town of Palm Springs, Calif. — we’ve been engulfed with applications from companies wanting to launch solid products. Several promising companies have asked us for more time, so we’ve extended the deadline.

We’ve also had an open house scheduled at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins on Feb … Continue Reading

Facebook shows off latest versions of its game and apps dashboards

Facebook showed off a new version of its dashboards that are meant to give more attention to games and other apps on its social network. Today, it will give developers access to the new design so that they can start creating apps that are well integrated with the dashboards.

Users can reach the dashboards by clicking on an icon on the left hand side of their Facebook pages. The dashboards give users a central place … Continue Reading

Google: Our focused approach paid off, 'We like the Chinese people'

While crowing about Google’s strong fourth quarter earnings during a conference call this afternoon, the search giant’s executives looked back on 2009 as a whole. While Google seemed to be elbowing its way into many new markets this year, Vice President of Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg actually emphasized that Google benefited by deciding to “double down” on its core products like search.

Sure, Google announced new, ambitious products like Chrome OS, Wave, and free turn-by-turn … Continue Reading

AMD makes first profit in 13 quarters, with help from Intel settlement

Advanced Micro Devices made a rare profit in the fourth quarter, due in no small part to a big antitrust settlement from Intel, as well as a recovering PC market. It was the first time the company posted a quarterly profit since 2006.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip maker also reported a profit, excluding the Intel payment of $1.25 billion, thanks to a resurgence in demand for personal computers in the fourth quarter. Overall, holiday PC … Continue Reading

Law site launches online legal tools for entrepreneurs

Today, Legal River and General Counsel, P.C. released a Terms of Service Generator and a Privacy Policy Generator for startups and small businesses.

Legal River’s tools are meant to keep costs low for entrepreneurs as they set up a business; typical terms of service documents can otherwise cost thousands of dollars. An entrepreneur only needs to fill in some basic information, such as the name of the company, information the company receives from a customer … Continue Reading

China-based furniture-on-demand site Myfab expands to US

Myfab, which sells furniture on-demand online, will be launching a US version of its site on February 1. The site already exists in France, where it was first launched in April 2008, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The US site will initially offer shipping only to California, with the 48 contiguous states added in the 4-6 weeks after the soft launch. In anticipation of the launch, the Shanghai, China company opened a US office in San … Continue Reading

Seesmic: Look will make Twitter more appealing to brands

Social media dashboard Seesmic launched its new social media dashboard, Look, at an event today in New York City. We already wrote about Look, but at today’s event we learned new details on partnerships with Red Bull, Kodak, and the Huffington Post partnering to create customized content channels featured in Look.

Seesmic might have found a potentially lucrative business model by selling interactive advertising space to brand marketers.

“Realtime is the new primetime,” social marketing … Continue Reading

Buoyed by strong holiday, Google earnings give tech market hope

Google posted better-than-expected results today as it continued to experience strong growth in its core search business, thanks to a stronger-than-expected holiday shopping season.

Revenues for the fourth quarter were $6.67 billion, up 17 percent from a year ago. Earnings were $1.97 billion, up from $348 million a year earlier. Earnings per share were $6.13, up from $1.21 a year earlier. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $6.79, up from $5.10 a year ago. Analysts expected … Continue Reading

Want new apps for your Android or iPhone? Here are the best directories

App discovery is a problem on smartphones. The way I find apps is from friends’ recommendations. Sometimes I’ll peruse the list of top downloads or search for something that sounds useful. But sometimes I don’t know what I want, or could never dream of my phone having a function that an app allows.

Take ShopSavvy, for example, available in the Apple AppStore and Android Market. When you’re out shopping, ShopSavvy lets you scan a barcode … Continue Reading

European Commission okays Oracle-Sun deal

The European Commission today gave its approval to the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle, ending nine months of uncertainty about the $7.4 billion deal.

In a published statement, the commission (which is the regulatory authority for the European Union) wrote that “the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition.”

The acquisition was announced in April 2009 and won approval of U.S. regulators in August, but the EC began investigating the deal in September after … Continue Reading

VoiP provider Truphone makes every call local

If you’re a frequent border-hopper, you may want to check out Truphone. The company announced a service today called “Local Anywhere” that it says can slash up to 90 percent off cell phone bills by providing local voice, data and text rates when traveling abroad.

The service is made possible by a single “smart” SIM card that offers local rates in countries where Truphone operates (don’t worry, fellow Americans — SIM card explanation coming below). … Continue Reading

Hillary Clinton wants China to crack down on Google attackers

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked China to launch an investigation into the hackers who broke into Google’s network in search of email account data on human rights activists.

The high-level request shows that Google won’t be alone as it tries to deal with its problems in China, where it has said it will no longer censor its search results to screen out matters that are sensitive to the Chinese government.

“Countries that restrict free … Continue Reading

Apple gets greener with solar device patent

Apple has been getting greener every week, it seems. First we reported on Greenpeace’s finding that Apple was moving up the ranks of the cleanest tech companies. Next, it was Apple’s home energy management device.

Now the innovation du jour is Apple’s patent on incorporating transparent solar panels into a portable media device, a.k.a. iPod. As solar panels are becoming the new eco-bling, this can only boost Apple’s credibility as a progressive and ‘green’ company. … Continue Reading

VanEdge Capital close to raising $100M to invest in games, with EA as a partner

Paul Lee is close to closing on a $100 million fund for his new venture firm, VanEdge Capital. And one of his possible limited partners is his old company, Electronic Arts.

Lee, the former head of worldwide studios at EA, confirmed in an interview that his fund is in the process of closing a round, but hasn’t yet finalized everything. If the deal closes, his firm will be the only venture firm focused solely on … Continue Reading

Facebook joins the big leagues with first data center in Oregon

Facebook is finally getting its own data center, with a facility opening up in Prineville, Oregon today. For years, the company has been leasing space shared with other businesses. There’s a high premium to lease server space, but that helped Facebook avoid the high up-front cost of setting up their own facilities when they were smaller. But now that the social network has broken 350 million active users, it’s become more economical to operate their … Continue Reading

Nokia launches free version of its mobile Ovi Maps

Nokia is fighting back against Google Maps and pulling the rug out from under anyone who hopes to charge for map services.

The world’s biggest cell phone maker is making the latest version of its Ovi Maps software available for free. It is a strategic move by Nokia, considering that it paid $8.1 billion for navigation firm Navteq in 2007 and it also acquired map-related firm gate5. This is another example of how free business … Continue Reading

Mozilla releases Firefox 3.6 with promise of more speed, stability

The latest version of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, Firefox 3.6, is now available for download. While Mozilla isn’t exactly phrasing it this way, it sounds like the two issues that could drive me crazy about version 3.5 — namely, speed and stability — continue to improve.

On the speed side, 3.6 is supposed to be 20 percent faster on the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark. In regards to stability, Mozilla’s Director of Firefox Development Mike Beltzner told … Continue Reading

Audinate captures $4M for digital networking

Audinate, provider of digital networking platforms that deliver high-quality audio and video content over basic IT networks, has brought in $4 million in new funding from Starfish Ventures and Innovation Capital. Based in Sydney, Australia, the company is working to do away with analog copper cables in favor of less expensive and bulky digital systems like Ethernet and TCP/IP. It has raised $7.7 million to date, including some financing from NIPR.… Continue Reading