Intel makes new bid to get inside consumer electronics

TVs have been dumb for a long time, but now they’re getting more advanced as they become portals to the Internet. Sharp’s newest TV, for instance, has the same Cell supercomputing brain that powers the PlayStation 3.

To date, computer chip maker Intel has had a lot of abortive attempts at launching consumer technology, rivals say. But at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company launched a series of chips and initiatives aimed at moving deeper … Continue Reading

Russian online shopping club raises $20M to sell discounted designer clothes

Russian electronic commerce site KupiVIP.ru has raised $20 million in a funding round led by Accel Partners.

The Moscow-based company has been operating for a year and it has more than a million members in its online shopping club. KupiVIP.ru sells discounted fashion goods from 500 different brands. Oskar Hartmann, chief executive, said that the round was the largest investment to date in a Russian e-commerce vendor.

Other investors are Mangrove Capital Partners, ARLAN, Direct … Continue Reading

Aliph launches latest Jawbone wireless headset for broader market

Aliph knows how to do good design. Its hot-selling Jawbone Bluetooth headset has won awards and seen great sales. Now the company is launching a new model of Bluetooth headset, dubbed Jawbone Icon, with an emphasis on intelligent audio processing.

This fourth-generation model will feature jewelry-like styles for women and cool gear for men. It also has more intelligence built into it, such as whispering into your ear when you have four hours of battery … Continue Reading

SocialGO finds $800K to create custom social networks

SocialGO, a company that creates internal social networks for companies and other organizations, has brought in $800,000 in fresh capital, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Redwood City, Calif., the company is backed by Veddis Ventures.… Continue Reading

Week in review: China and Google, Facebook and privacy

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

Chinese entrepreneurs, investors on Google: ‘Just quit. We don’t care.‘ — What does the Chinese tech community think of Google’s controversial plan to uncensor search and possibly leave the country? We talked to several Chinese entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who were part of a delegation that coincidentally visited the Googleplex this week.

Google’s … Continue Reading

Don't like online ads? Microsoft will let you generate your own

Microsoft has filed for a patent related to how users can generate their own ads on social networks, according to a published report.

In the patent, the company notes that ads in social networks aren’t that effective because of the low relevance to the users. With the patented technique, an original, less-effective ad can be supplemented with user reviews, both positive and negative.

Inventors say that subsequent visitors to the web site are shown reviews … Continue Reading

EC roundup: Quitting your day job and understanding securities laws

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

Ask the attorney: Securities laws - When friends or family want to invest in your start-up, do you need to comply with sercurities laws? Scott Edward Walker, founder and CEO of Walker Corporate Law Group, looks at what steps you need to take to protect yourself and your wannabe investors.

Snatching victory from adversity – Sometimes, bad news can actually turn out to be the best thing you … Continue Reading

Zynga and Haitian relief: How social games can make you more charitable

I experimented with a couple of ways of making donations for Haitian relief today. First, I visited the Red Cross web site and made a donation with a few clicks. It asked me for my credit card number and I entered it. Then it presented me with a thank-you note and a receipt, which I printed. It felt good, but it wasn’t necessarily a rewarding experience.

Then I visited my FarmVille game on Facebook. I’ve … Continue Reading

Will Apple become the next home energy management giant?

With the Smart Grid predicted to become a $200 billion industry over the next five years, it’s not surprising that many IT companies — Google, Microsoft, Intel and others — have reached for their own piece of the pie. But all of them are going to have to make room for a new giant: Apple. The iconic maker of the iPod, iPhone and now iSlate has just patented its own home power management panel.

You … Continue Reading

5 O'Clock Roundup: Google attack explained, Verizon-AT&T slug it out

Here’s the latest action:

Rockstar Games San Diego wives revolt — The spouses of Rockstar Game developers say the company is overworking employees.

Attack method against Google now public — McAfee says that Operation Aurora, the means by which Chinese hackers attacked Google, has now been exposed.

Barely getting by — Snappy Touch developer lays bare how much money he manages to make on the iPhone.

Apple tablet in full production? — AVI Securities analyst … Continue Reading

Yelp takes on Foursquare with new iPhone check-ins

It looks like local search and review site Yelp is entering the location-based fray. In the latest version of its iPhone app, Yelp has added the ability for users to “check-in” and share their location with friends, similar to what you can do on services like Foursquare and Gowalla.

Judging from the description on the company blog, Yelp Check-ins will have the features I’d expect: Your friends can see a list of all of your … Continue Reading

Apptizr's Pandora for apps comes to your iPhone

Apptizr launched a website last month to help you find applications for the iPhones and iPod Touch based on which apps you like and which you hate. Now it has taken the obvious next step — it’s available in the App Store itself, where you can download the Apptizr app for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

The iPhone app looks pretty similar to the website. You enter the kinds of apps you’re interested in, such … Continue Reading

Intel makes progress with Classmate PC for the world's kids

Intel’s effort to get computers in the hands of the world’s school kids is making good progress, based on the latest information from the chip maker.

In 2006, the world’s biggest chip maker started the program of creating low-cost laptops that could be used in classrooms, and Intel has outlasted some of its rivals in pushing the program forward. Now it has shipped more than 2 million units through local distributors in more than 30 … Continue Reading

Chinese authorities fingered in Google, Yahoo attacks

Someone finally said it.

A security consulting firm that Google brought in to investigate an attack last month — the one that compromised the Gmail accounts of two Chinese political activists — told Computerworld today that they “believe the attack code was designed and launched with support from Chinese authorities.”

Yahoo was also a target of the same attack, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday afternoon.

This explains the involvement of the U.S. State … Continue Reading

Google (and many others) weigh in on net neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission just closed its first round of comments on proposed regulations governing net neutrality, the principle that Internet providers must treat all their traffic equally. Important organizations on both sides of the debate have sent in their thoughts, and while I’ve only read a few of the comments myself (there are supposedly more than 10,000 on each side), I’m going to quote them anyway since they provide a sense of the larger … Continue Reading

Lithium goes mobile, brings customer service back to customers

Sales software company Lithium Technologies was on a roll through the second half of 2009. With accounts like Playstation, Dell, AT&T and PayPal, Lithium is clearly a big league player less than three years after its first round of funding. On December 31 we announced that Lithium had taken an $18 million third round of financing. Now, Lithium has another component set to help it tear up social CRM: Lithium Mobile.

The company operates in … Continue Reading

Sparkplay Media catches $2.8M to roll out more popular MMO games

Sparkplay Media, maker of Earth Eternal, a popular massively multiplayer online game that takes place in a virtual world, has just raised $2.8 million in equity, options, warrants and securities, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in San Francisco, the company is backed by Redpoint Ventures and Prism VentureWorks. The Sparkplay team says it has several other gaming projects in the works, but Earth Eternal is the only one that has been publicly … Continue Reading

Would Apple dump Google for Bing?

This week’s BusinessWeek cover story is about the increasingly competitive relationship between once-cozy Apple and Google. It contains a bold forecast by Jonathan Yarmis, a research fellow at consulting firm Ovum:

Yarmis thinks Apple may soon decide to dump Google as the default search engine on its devices, primarily to cut Google off from mobile data that could be used to improve its advertising and Android technology. [Apple CEO] Jobs might cut a deal with—gasp!—Microsoft … Continue Reading

Climate Bill heating up again — maybe in time for a spring vote

Emerging from a media firestorm over racially-charged comments he made during the Obama campaign, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate majority leader, has turned the spotlight back onto passing an effective climate bill. The move comes after nearly a month of post-Copenhagen malaise.

The failure to produce a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions seems to have left Congress deflated. On top of that, health care reform still isn’t in the bag, and passing … Continue Reading