Brightcove unveils deeper support for mobile video, Flash 10.1

Brightcove, a professional video delivery platform for publishers and marketers, unveiled deeper support for mobile video with Adobe’s latest version of Flash today on Android, Symbian, Palm, Windows Mobile and Blackberry phones.

With Adobe Systems’ Flash 10.1 coming to mobile phones during the first half of the year, Brightcove’s video player will bring better analytics and audience profiling. Publishers can learn how far people get into a video before dropping off or where they’re viewing … Continue Reading

27 mobile companies line up against Apple

The Wholesale Applications Community, announced this morning at the Mobile World Congress convention in Barcelona, Spain, is basically an attempt by wireless carriers — “operators” in Euro-speak — to turn mobile app developers against Apple’s insanely successful app store, currently being stuffed with tens of thousands of e-books ahead of the arrival of Apple’s iPad tablet on which to read them.

WAC promises to “establish a simple route to market for developers and provide them … Continue Reading

Audi builds Qualcomm wireless, Google Earth into new A8 car

VentureBeat got a wave of announcements from the Barcelona Mobile World Congress this morning. Our mobile expert Matthäus Krzykowski is onsite and can be reached on Twitter at @matthausk.

Audi announced at Barcelona that they’ll offer an in-car computer system called Mobile Media Interface Plus on selected A8 models this year. They’ve confused conference attendees a bit by demonstrating MMI Plus at the show in a cheaper, more mass-market A5 car on the show floor. … Continue Reading

Nokia and Intel launch open-source mobile OS, MeeGo

Intel and Nokia today announced MeeGo, an open-source mobile OS designed to lure iPhone and Android app developers to a host of other devices. MeeGo is a Linux-based merger of Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo mobile platforms. The announcement was timed to the start of the Mobile World Congress wireless industry conference in Barcelona, Spain.

MeeGo is meant to work not only on phones, but on netbooks, entry-level desktop computers, in-vehicle systems for automobiles, and … Continue Reading

Verizon's crazy $29 netbook giveaway

Verizon is offering its HP Mini 110 netbook for $29 while supplies last. It’s no MacBook Air, but it’s an easy-to-carry downsized Windows laptop. The promotional price is available throughout the United States, a Verizon spokesperson told me.

It’s a classic give-away-the-razor-to-sell-the-blades tactic. What Verizon is really doing is signing up $59 monthly 3G wireless plans for its netbooks. The $29 price for the hardware is only the entry point. You’ll need to pay $177.49 … Continue Reading

Official details emerge on Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft aims big

In one fell swoop, Microsoft has reclaimed its relevance in the mobile market. This morning, the company unveiled the Windows Phone 7 Series, its slick and modern upgrade to the aging Windows Mobile platform, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We’ve speculated that whatever Microsoft revealed at MWC would be the company’s last chance to make an impact in the mobile space — and from the looks of it, Microsoft is not wasting the … Continue Reading

Incredible shrinking pico projectors will infiltrate more cell phones and gadgets

Texas Instruments is announcing a new chip set that will allow pico projectors to be built into smaller devices across a wider range of products.

To date, these small projectors have been built into more expensive cell phones and chunky projectors. But with the nHD chip set from TI, the devices can be built into small phones and handheld gadgets. Using the first generation of pico projectors, you can project images on conference walls for … Continue Reading

Qualcomm launches next-generation mobile TV technology

Amid a bunch of Qualcomm announcements at the Mobile World Congress event today, the wireless chip company announced today an upgrade in the technology behind its FLO TV mobile broadcast network.

Qualcomm said it has developed FLO-EV, an evolution of the existing MediaFLO technology which allows it to air its FLO TV wireless digital television broadcasts in scores of U.S. cities. The new technology will allow Qualcomm to launch mobile TV service in international markets.… Continue Reading

Handmark to build cross-platform apps for London newspaper

The semi-tabloidy London Evening Standard will soon be available as an app on iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Nokia S60 phones thanks to a partnership with Kansas City-based Handmark.

The newspaper’s apps will be on display at the Mobile World Congress conference that kicks off Monday morning in Barcelona, Spain.

“Unlike other enhanced mobile websites,” Handmark said in a prepared statement emailed to me, “content within the London Evening Standard mobile application will be … Continue Reading

Google Buzz's privacy breach is sign of things to come

Google’s Buzz is facing some pretty strong headwinds. After being hit by significant backlash over the cursory way it treated privacy settings for the new service, the company has tweaked the settings yet again. Per google’s product manager Todd Jackson,

Starting this week, instead of an auto-follow model in which Buzz automatically sets you up to follow the people you email and chat with most, we’re moving to an auto-suggest model. You won’t be set … Continue Reading

Adobe readies next mobile push with AIR and Flash

Adobe will be going on-stage today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, with some announcements aimed at keeping the company’s Flash and AIR platform technologies relevant in an increasingly mobile and application-centric world.

Specifically, Adobe said it will demonstrate the use of Adobe AIR on mobile phones, starting with a device running Google’s Android operating system. Previously, Adobe offered AIR as a platform for apps that are installed on users’ laptop or desktop … Continue Reading

Starved for resources, Electronic Arts skips March Madness basketball game

The evidence of the severity of cutbacks at Electronic Arts‘ game studios is starting to show.

This year, EA isn’t making a version of its NCAA Basketball video game series in time for the March Madness college basketball tournament. That’s truly unheard of for EA Sports, which has released a game every year since 2003. The last game in the franchise, NCAA Basketball 10, debuted in November. EA confirmed that it is “reviewing the future … Continue Reading

Week in review: Google's Super Bowl ad and its new social application Buzz

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

Ad expert: Google’s Super Bowl spot was a live traffic test — Google CEO Eric Schmidt wants you to believe that Google’s 52-second “Parisian Love” ad that ran in the third quarter of this week’s Super Bowl was a spontaneous decision to take a popular YouTube video and “share it with a wider … Continue Reading

Macworld iPad panelists defy Steve Jobs' snub of the show

Corrected: Dan Moren, not Dan Warren. Thanks, @MikeTRose.

This year’s annual Macworld conference is missing a key component: Apple. The company — very likely Steve Jobs himself — decided last year that they weren’t getting enough out of Macworld.

This year, Macworld bravely carried on without an Apple booth or a Steve Jobs “One more thing …” keynote. With Apple nowhere to be found at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, there’s a new-Apple-gadget buzz missing from … Continue Reading

Vancouver Winter Olympics tweets can direct you to malware

Beware of tweets bearing promises of Olympics footage. You may be getting malware instead.

As the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics kicked off yesterday, Twitter messages bearing short links to Olympics news started appearing from an account called gamesvancouver, according to security firm Zscaler Research.

The tweets have a shortened URL that promises footage of the opening ceremonies but instead directs users to a page that presents a false mirror of the official page. The domain … Continue Reading

EC update: Money, money, money – it’s a VC world

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

Ask the attorney: What sort of stock should I give my angel investor? – Getting pressure to sell your angel investor preferred stock? Attorney Scott Edward Walker runs down some alternatives and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Five compensation-related mistakes startups make (and should avoid) – Are you deferring your salary until your start up starts to take off? Bad idea, says corporate and securities attorney Caine … Continue Reading

Windows Mobile 7 is Microsoft's last chance to challenge iPhone

Apple has gained incredible market share in phones over the past couple of years, but is its progress unstoppable? Google has been putting up a good fight with its Android phones. But Microsoft has been sitting this one out.

Compared to Apple and Google, software giant Microsoft looks like it’s been moving in slow motion. But on Monday, at the big Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain, the company will try to make some … Continue Reading