CollabNet acquires Danube for worldwide Scrum development

Updated
CollabNet is expanding its cloud-based software development tools today with the acquisition of Danube, a company that sells software for Scrum project management.

Scrum is a method for managing development that breaks a project down into multi-week sprints. It’s particularly suited to projects where the customer’s needs are changing or uncertain, but CollabNet chief executive Bill Portelli said it has become “the de facto method of managing software projects.” CollabNet, meanwhile, allows development teams … Continue Reading

Heatwave revives canceled online game with Gods & Heroes deal

Heatwave Interactive is announcing today that it has acquired the rights and assets to Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising, a massively multiplayer online game that had previously been canceled.

In doing so, Austin, Texas-based Heatwave is trying to make itself into a player in the MMO game market where there are both spectacular successes (World of Warcraft) and horrible failures (Tabula Rasa). Gods & Heroes had a lot of potential when its previous owner, Perpetual … Continue Reading

From outer space to gaming's red carpet: Richard Garriott talks Facebook games (video)

Until recently, Richard Garriott, was in outer space. But as we noted in our story this week, Garriott has come down to earth and is now the co-founder of Facebook game company Portalarium.

The new startup says a lot about the direction of the video game industry, as Garriott joins an exodus of game veterans pursuing the Gold Rush of social games. We caught up with Garriott at the Dice Summit’s Interactive Achievement Awards.

In … Continue Reading

Apple bans 5,000 apps for sexual content. Here are the new rules

Blogger Jon Atherton at iPhone app developer Chillifresh has become the de facto spokesman for those who think Apple’s new anti-smut rules for iPhone apps are too puritanical. Chillifresh’s arguably sexist — or maybe just kind of dumb — Wobble app was one of those hit by Apple’s cleanup campaign this past week.

On Saturday, Atherton claimed Apple had banned 5,000 apps, and quoted these restrictions said to be straight from an Apple representative:

I … Continue Reading

Twitter phishing attack in progress — don't click on "lol, is this you??"

If you receive a direct message on Twitter that says, “lol, is this you,” don’t click it. The link will put up a fake Twitter login page, potentially tricking you into giving the phisher your Twitter login and password.

The phishing messages look like this:

“Lol. this you?? http://divinelink.net/?rid=http://twitter.verify.bzpharma.net/login”

Warnings of the attack began circulating on Twitter in the U.S. on Saturday afternoon. “The attack appears to be utilizing the SmartName domain parking service, which … Continue Reading

Game industry elite gathered at the Dice Summit (photo gallery)

The elite executives and creative professionals of the video game industry gathered at the Dice Summit in Las Vegas this week to talk about the art and business of video games. We posted videos and stories during the week about the various talks. Here’s the story in pictures from the summit and the Interactive Achievement Awards, which are the Oscars of the game industry.

For the fifth year in a row, comedian Jay Mohr hosted … Continue Reading

Week in review: Nokia faces US challenges, plane crash kills three Tesla employees

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

Why can’t Nokia sell phones to Americans? — Nokia is the biggest mobile gadget maker in the world. But none of the company’s best models are available in phone stores in the rich-geek neighborhoods of downtown San Francisco. Paul Boutin investigates why that is.

Macworld iPad panelists defy Steve Jobs’ snub of show … Continue Reading

EC Roundup: ‘Finder’ keepers and 9 tips to raise venture capital

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

Ask the attorney: ‘Finder’ keepers could be losers, weepers – Have a consultant who says he can help you raise capital for a cut of the funds? You might want to think twice says attorney Scott Edward Walker. While there are some legitimate broker-dealers out there, the securities laws tied with this are complex and could hurt you.

9 Quick Tips for raising venture capital – Dharmesh Shah, … Continue Reading

Facebook makes another talent acquisition: Octazen Solutions

Facebook has acquired Malaysian startup Octazen Solutions, which specializes in contact importing, GigaOm reports.

Facebook spokesperson Larry Yu called this a “talent acquisition,” as Octazen’s two employees will work as engineers for the company out of Malaysia. Facebook has made a series of design tweaks encouraging users to enlarge their social networks on the site by highlighting its automatic friend finder.

Yu told GigaOm:

“We’ve admired the engineering team’s efforts for some time now and … Continue Reading

Roundup: Shatner to star in tweet-inspired TV show, Hulu charges on the iPad, and more

Here’s the latest action:

@Shitmydadsays comes to TV, starring Shatner — Twitter user @shitmydadsays, who tweets gems uttered by his curmudgeonly father, has racked up 1,170,507 followers and now a deal for a TV pilot on CBS reportedly starring none other than William Shatner in the title role.

MacBook Pro gets a graphics upgrade — Apple’s next generation of MacBook Pros will contain new and improved dual graphics chips, according to Apple Insider.

What do … Continue Reading

A laptop app for students who can't stop typing

Knowledge Notebook is a $39 Windows application (free 30 day trial) designed to enable copious note-taking, organizing, and review for students.

Colleges are worrying that students spend too much time on the Internet in the middle of lectures. They’re hitting Facebook instead of taking notes.

One proposed solution is to turn off wireless connections in the classroom.

Bentley College allows profs to choose one of five settings from fully-off to email-enabled to full access. Or … Continue Reading

With $2.5M, Vook tries to reinvent the book

With the upcoming launch of Apple’s iPad and iBookstore, interest in e-books continues to rise. But while companies like Inkling are experimenting with adding interactive and social features, your basic e-book is still just a book in electronic format.

Now a startup called Vook has created a new kind of book that combines video and text, as well as images and social networking tools. For example, one of the vooks featured on its website is … Continue Reading

Apple's App Store puritanism resurfaces

Apple has stirred up yet another controversy over its often arbitrary App Store app rejection process. To all appearances, it has started purging all applications with “overtly sexual content” from the App Store.

The news first appeared when app developer Chillifresh discovered that its Wobble iBoobs application had been removed from the store. It reportedly received an email from Apple stating, “We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which … Continue Reading

Yelp CEO says no IPO for "several years"

Jeremy Stoppelman, chief executive and co-founder of popular review site Yelp, let investors know on Thursday that the company won’t be  looking for an IPO for several years. 

Yelp “will definitely not go public this year,” he said. “2011, who knows? But why rush out the door if I can avoid it?”, according to an article in the WSJ.

Over the last couple of months there have been a whirlwind of activity involving Yelp. In … Continue Reading

Microsoft unveils browser choice screen for Europe

In December, Microsoft and the European Commission finally arrived at a resolution regarding charges of anti-competitive behavior with Internet Explorer. Microsoft agreed to implement a “browser choice” screen that would pop up for Windows (XP, Vista, and 7) users in Europe, and would make them aware of alternative browser options like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

Today we finally have a glimpse at the choice screen from Microsoft, as well as an explanation of how … Continue Reading

Fuel-cell maker Bloom Energy finally sheds cloak of mystery this Sunday

Bloom Energy is finally ready to debut its Bloom Box, a fuel-cell capable of running up to 100 homes — carrying the potential to fundamentally change how utilities and companies alike generate and distribute energy. The Sunnyvale, Calif. company plans to unveil the massive device this upcoming Sunday on 60 Minutes.

According to a preview of the episode on CBS News’ web site, Bloom has already recruited a prestigious roster of 20 early customers, including … Continue Reading

Loggly raises $500K to search your log files

Updated
Loggly, a startup that helps developers manage web applications by aggregating and searching server logs, has raised a $500,000 first round of funding from True Ventures.

The San Francisco company is still building a prototype, but it describes its service as a simple, intuitive web-based user interface that allows developers to search through large numbers of log files from multiple applications. The idea is to provide greater transparency into how your applications are performing, … Continue Reading

Ad serving startup Rubicon takes aim at Doubleclick

The volume of web content has exploded over the last decade, producing a glut of ad inventory and dramatically reducing the ad rates publishers can charge. At the PaidContent 2010 conference today in New York, ad serving startup the Rubicon Project released a full frontal assault on the ad serving community in a manifesto declaring, “The ad server is dead, and there is a better choice.”

The Los Angeles based company took aim at existing … Continue Reading

SoloPower takes a run at Solyndra with new $45M, and more on the way

SoloPower, maker of thin-film solar modules for rooftop installations, has just raised $44.9 million in debt financing, according to a filing with the SEC. But this bridge round is only a harbinger of much more to come as the San Jose, Calif., company sprints to raise $100 million more in private financing to match a big loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy for two manufacturing plants.

While it competes with the likes of … Continue Reading