Yahoo, Facebook, eBay circle the wagons in Viacom lawsuit

A group of prominent Internet companies filed a “friend of the court” brief yesterday in media conglomerate Viacom’s lawsuit against Google-owned YouTube. An attorney writing on behalf of eBay, Facebook, Yahoo, and IAC (whose websites includes Citysearch, CollegeHumor, and Vimeo) urged the judge to dismiss Viacom’s suit, saying it threatens the companies’ protections under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Viacom, which owns MTV and Paramount Pictures, sued Google in 2007, alleging that YouTube illegally hosted … Continue Reading

Standalone e-readers doomed after 2013, report says

Even as Amazon battles with publishers over e-books for its Kindle reader, and Sony prepares to sell its Reader in Japan, China and Australia, research from a telecommunication and media analyst firm says the market for mobile broadband e-readers such as these will peak in 2014, when consumers worldwide will buy 14 million of them.

After that, the firm’s report says, sales will begin falling as multi-purpose devices like Apple’s iPad, plus improved smartphones and … Continue Reading

Tesla paid $42M for NUMMI but doesn't have deal to build cars with Toyota

Tesla Motors released a revised S-1 filing for its IPO today — the first revision since it announced it is buying the NUMMI automotive plant in Fremont, Calif. and working with Toyota to build new electric cars. The new draft contains two key nuggets of information: Tesla is buying the plant for the bargain price of $42 million, but doesn’t yet have any formal deal with Toyota to build a new electric vehicle there.

For … Continue Reading

Will Ballmer appear at Steve Jobs keynote? No.

Update: Microsoft PR has tweeted that Ballmer will not appear at WWDC.

Apple rumor spin control: In just over a week, Steve Jobs will take the stage at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference for software engineers who develop applications and extensions for Apple’s computers.

A lone industry analyst has claimed to have inside info that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will make an appearance during a seven-minute segment of Jobs’ June 7 WWDC keynote that he … Continue Reading

Boku's new sugar daddies are Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz

In a vote of confidence for mobile payments, Boku has raised a new round of funding from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Silicon Valley tech veterans Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz studied the fast-growing mobile payments market and decided to put their money behind San Francisco-based Boku. The amount wasn’t disclosed. Ron Hirson, senior vice president of product and marketing, said in an interview that the new round of funding was strategic and the company … Continue Reading

Symantec invests in internet gadget protector Mocana

Mocana has raised a round of strategic funding from Symantec to protect the “Internet of things.” Mocana’s technology protects all of the tiny portable gadgets that are becoming Web-connected, from watches to home healthcare monitors.

The amount of the investment was not disclosed. Other investors include Southern Cross Ventures and Shasta Ventures. San Francisco-based Mocana plans to use the money to expand its product lines, increase marketing, and build its overseas business. Mocana and Symantec … Continue Reading

Podly.tv wants to be your one-stop shop for Web video

There’s a ton of great video on the Web, but unless you know exactly what you’re looking for, it’s difficult to find new and interesting content to watch. It’s also tough to recreate a TV-like experience of getting good content delivered to you without much effort. Podly.tv aims to change all of that.

The Austin-based startup has developed a site that aggregates some of the best video (and audio) content across the Web, and offers … Continue Reading

Marvell to kickstart education tablets with One Laptop Per Child

One Laptop per Child and Marvell have joined forces to create a tablet computer that delivers a a better educational experience for schoolchildren in developing countries. This partnership may go a long way toward the nonprofit’s group of getting $100 computers in the hands of every child.

OLPC, a Cambridge, Mass.-based nonprofit started by former MIT MediaLab director Nicholas Negroponte, has a mission of providing a laptop to every child in the world. It has … Continue Reading

Korean online game firm Nexon acquires stake in GameHi for $59M (exclusive)

Fast-growing online game firm Nexon has bought a controlling stake in Korean game development firm GameHi for $59.8 million.

Nexon is buying 29.3 percent of the company’s shares as well as management rights for control of GameHi from Gun-Il Kim, the largest shareholder in GameHi. GameHi is known for its online games Sudden Attack and Dekaron (pictured), while Nexon has had big hits such as Maplestroy and Dungeon Fighter Online.

Nexon pioneered the free-to-play business … Continue Reading

Soluto wins TechCrunch Disrupt with software that targets and fixes computer issues

Twenty startups presented on-stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York this week, and Wednesday night only five remained. Out of those finalists, the impressive music-making site UJAM, took the runner-up spot, and Soluto, a startup that has developed software to make computers perform better, was announced as the winner.

In addition to being one of the few startups at Disrupt to build desktop software, Soluto was also one of the most compelling and … Continue Reading

Teranetics raises $7.8 million for 10-gigabit Ethernet chips

Teranetics, a mixed-signal integrated circuits company, has raised $7.8 million of an expected $10 million in equity, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., the company is backed by U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock Associates, Columbia Capital, Granite Global Ventures and Global Catalyst Partners. The maker of chips for the 10-gigabit Ethernet copper channel market previously received $45 million from the same backers.… Continue Reading

Roundup: Chrome creeping up on Firefox, Fox Mobile unveils video app, and more

Here’s the latest action:

Chrome gobbling up Firefox market share — Chrome is slowly catching up with Firefox, capturing 6.73 percent of the browser market, compared to Firefox’s 24.59 percent. IE still dominates with 59.95 percent of the market.

iPhone soon to get Firefox Home — Mozilla is working on an application that will provide a sort of dashboard aggregating FireFox search histories, bookmarks and the browser’s famous “Awesome Bar” for the iPhone.

Soluto wins … Continue Reading

How Facebook worked out its new privacy changes

Facebook unveiled a new basic dashboard for managing privacy today and provided a way for users to turn off all third-party applications. It came after nearly a month of criticism from privacy advocacy groups, the media and lawmakers who were concerned that the company had made people’s likes and interests public and automatically shared data about them with special third parties in a new instant personalization program.

So how did Facebook’s privacy changes come about … Continue Reading

Mozilla building a stripped-down iPhone app for Firefox fans

Apple may be keeping most of the best-known Web browsers off its mobile devices, but that isn’t stopping Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser, from developing an iPhone application. Mozilla described its “Firefox Home” app in a blog post. It won’t be a full Web browser, but it will let users do things like view their bookmarks, Internet history, and open tabs.

To be honest, it sounds pretty underpowered — sure, the app offers some … Continue Reading

Amazon and Penguin resolve e-book pricing, but details are secret

Penguin Books, one of the largest publishers, has agreed to terms with Amazon.com over the price of new Penguin e-books for Amazon’s Kindle reader. The move will return about 150 Penguin titles to Amazon’s electronic shelf. Amazon had removed them in April in retaliation for Penguin’s refusal to sign onto a new pricing plan.

But take note: As Reuters reports, neither Amazon nor Penguin will officially disclose the terms of the deal yet.

“A few … Continue Reading

How Jinni's "movie genome" will personalize Google TV

Jinni, a content discovery system for movies and TV shows, was recently named one of the first partners for Google TV. To find out more about the features that will come out of that partnership, we contacted the Israeli startup for details.

The objective of Google TV is to integrate access to online and TV content, but this greatly expands the viewing options available, making discovery important. Jinni on Google TV will be a browser-based … Continue Reading

Sean Parker predicts Facebook Credits to make up a third of its income in the next year

This afternoon “The Facebook Effect” author David Kirkpatrick, and Napster co-founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker, joined TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington on stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference to discuss the book, and Facebook in general.

The discussion hit many topics, but one of the more interesting tidbits came late in the session in response to an audience question about Facebook’s next big revenue source. In response, Parker said that he thinks Facebook’s new Credits … Continue Reading

ComScore site tracking now free, offers discounts for startups

ComScore’s Chief Product Officer Eric Bosco made two announcements today that will help it to better serve startups. It’s making site tagging free for all websites and offering free access to its dashboard for some startups.

The tagging news, which Bosco announced at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York, means that any website can now be tracked with its particular special sauce of traffic analysis. Bosco boasted that comScore’s site tagging was much faster … Continue Reading