Verizon may follow AT&T by ending unlimited data plans

AT&T may not be the only U.S. mobile carrier to move towards caps on data usage. Verizon, the nation’s largest carrier, is considering eliminating its unlimited data plans as well, according to Bloomberg.

Verizon jumped into the high-end smartphone market last fall with the release of the Motorola Droid, an Android-powered superphone, which the carrier backed with a $100 million marketing campaign. It followed up that device with the Droid Incredible last month.

Verizon smartphone … Continue Reading

Facebook's 2009 revenues may have been $100M more than estimated, Reuters says

Facebook brought in as much as $800 million in revenue last year, higher than the $550 to $700 million range previously estimated, according to sources who spoke to the Reuters newswire. The social network also earned a solid profit in the tens of millions of dollars, according to the report.

Last year’s revenues were buoyed by self-serve ads, which are those tiny text and photo ads that anyone can buy and target specific demographic groups … Continue Reading

Chris Sacca's Lowercase Capital launches, declaring VC broken

Chris Sacca, the former Googler turned high-profile angel investor, announced today that his new investment firm Lowercase Capital has raised an $8.5 million fund and is now open for business.

Lowercase already has a long list of portfolio companies, since it includes the startups Sacca backed as an angel, most notably Twitter.

Prior to his private investing, Sacca served as head of special initiatives at Google. He has also become a well-known figure in the … Continue Reading

Funding Roundup: Affirmed Networks, Ace Metrix raise VC while HiSoft and Motricity IPO

According to Reuters, Affirmed Networks Inc., a Waltham, Mass. stealth telecom startup, has secured $10.89 million of an $11.52 million funding round. Backers include Charles River Ventures, at whose office the company is being incubated, and Matrix Partners. The company was founded by Sonus Networks vets Harris Fishman and Hassan Ahmed. It does not yet have a public website.

Reuters also reports that Ace Metrix, a New York-based provider of real-time television advertising … Continue Reading

Report: Apple biggest loser in May mobile ad requests, Android gaining steadily

Mobile advertising firm Millennial Media released its May analysis for mobile devices on its network today. Among the many statistics was one consistent theme: Apple, while still the leader in all categories, was the biggest loser, with month-to-month decreases in market share of ad impressions. Meanwhile, Google’s Android operating system, along with some of its partners and devices, saw the biggest gains.

Apple remained the top device manufacturer for Millennial in May with 25 percent … Continue Reading

MobileBeat 2010: Samsung to keynote on the future of superphones

We are delighted to announce that Samsung chief strategy officer Omar Khan will be delivering a keynote at VentureBeat’s MobileBeat 2010 conference next month, entitled “the Year of the Superphones.”

Khan is just the latest in a string of high-profile speakers we’ve announced recently; we’ll have more to announce over the next few days. Let’s just say, leaders of the entire mobile spectrum are converging on SF next month at MobileBeat, and it’s going to … Continue Reading

Does money motivate workers?

Financial bonuses may not be as effective as you think when it comes to convincing your team to work harder. Dan Pink, the author of “The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” makes the case for this seemingly counter-intuitive argument in this 11-minute lecture, which uses the RSA Animate format to illustrate his point. While jobs that require mechanical skills respond to the more money carrot, it fails with tasks that require cognitive skills. Autonomy … Continue Reading

Solyndra nixes its IPO, but brings in $175M to keep the ball rolling

Solyndra, the maker of cylindrical solar cells that filed to go public late last December, has withdrawn that filing from the SEC, choosing instead to raise $175 million by selling convertible promissory notes to some of its existing investors. The news spells trouble for the rapidly growing company, and its thin-film solar peers.

While this amount should be enough to keep the company’s plans on track for now, it’s still falling far short of the … Continue Reading

Roundup: Facebook goes 'Places,' S.F. blocks smart meter roll outs, and more

Here’s the latest action:

Google Docs gets more social — In the wake of the new Microsoft Office launch, Google has revamped its documents application, making it easier for users to share their documents and spreadsheets with others, while simultaneously beefing up privacy to make information sharing safer.

S.F. says no to smart meters — The City by the Bay’s attorney has thrown up road blocks to the Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s smart-meter rollouts … Continue Reading

AT&T launches an Android phone that really competes with Apple, the Samsung Captivate

Only a few days after AT&T announced it would sell the HTC Aria Android phone, the carrier revealed today that it will soon be launching its own version of Samsung’s Galaxy S Android superphone — the Samsung Captivate.

While the Aria was a decent mid-range Android entry, the Captivate is something that will compete directly with AT&T’s darling device, Apple’s iPhone 4. For the past few years, it has seemed as if the carrier deliberately … Continue Reading

Cellixis gets $1M for personalized recommendations

Cellixis, a personalized recommendation engine, has raised $1 million of an expected $1.5 million in a first round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC. Farzad Naimi of the NAIMIgroup is an investor in the company. Based in Mountain View, Calif., the company offers real time recommendations on mobile phones.… Continue Reading

IncellDx raises $3 million to detect diseases

Molecular diagnostics company IncellDx has raised $3 million in a first round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Menlo Park, Calif., the company’s products detect and monitor diseases including breast cancer, ovarian cancer, HIV/AIDS, HPV/cervical cancer, and hepatitis. In May, IncellDx announced that it will work with Accuri Cytometers on a cervical cancer screening tool.… Continue Reading

Mobile ad provider Apptera brings in $10 million more

Apptera, provider of voice and visual mobile advertising, has closed a $10 million fifth round of equity. According to a filing with the SEC, investors in the Sunnyvale, Calif. company include Walden International Group, New World Ventures, Alloy Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Capital. In February, the company announced a multi-year agreement with movie ticketing company Fandango. Apptera now operates 1-800-FANDANGO, Fandango’s show time and ticketing phone service. AT&T is another Apptera publisher. The company last … Continue Reading

From Cirque to booth babes: Our photo gallery of game marketing at E3

The E3 video game trade show ended today after five days of events that drew more than 45,000 attendees. The show blends the traditional marketing of “booth babes” and “booth dudes” targeting young gamers as well as the nouveau style of marketing that Microsoft used with its Cirque du Soleil performance in introducing its Kinect motion control system. The result is a visual feast and a cacaphony of sounds on the show floor. Check out … Continue Reading

SafetyWeb adds $8M more to keep your kid safe

Here’s a little peace of mind for parents worrying about what their kids are doing online. SafetyWeb, a service that lets parents track their child’s activity on the Web, announced today that it has secured a second round of funding for $8 million. The funding will be used to expand the company’s marketing and partnership efforts.

The company provides parents with a way to monitor their child’s activity on social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter … Continue Reading

Prepare your final status update for when you die with MyWebWill

Don’t let yourself be immortalized by a beer pong Facebook profile photo.

A quirky, little startup that lets you prepare your social media presence for when you die is now out of beta testing and open to the public.

MyWebWill stores people’s passwords and wishes, so that their online identities can be shut down or handed over to friends and family when they pass away. It creates a central hub, where you can plan what … Continue Reading

Smart Drive app for iPhone: who needs COMAND or iDrive?

Forget the pricey color screen and COMAND interface of Smart’s upmarket cousin, Mercedes-Benz. For the upcoming 2011 Smart Electric Drive, which we drove at The Car Connection last week, the brand has rolled out a new app that essentially turns your iPhone into that.

While anyone can download the app from iTunes ($9.99) and install it on their iPhone, the app was designed for a special Smart Drive kit, which includes a cradle and special … Continue Reading

Early Mint, Facebook employee launches AppSumo, a Groupon for software

Group-buying site Groupon’s model of offering a unique deal a day for local businesses brought it a valuation of more than $1 billion in 18 months. But can the group buying model work for something even more intangible like software?

AppSumo, a startup from an early Facebook and Mint employee, is testing that out. It’s a site that packages software subscriptions and gives a group discount on them for a short time.

“The problem I … Continue Reading

MySpace confirms departure of co-president Jason Hirschhorn

MySpace just confirmed that Jason Hirschhorn is leaving his position as the site’s co-president.

Hirschhorn (pictured left) joined MySpace in April 2009 as its chief product officer, and he has been running the social network with co-president Mike Jones (right) since chief executive Owen Van Natta stepped down in February. At the time, the company said the unwieldy arrangement was its management structure going forward.

Now it looks like Jones has solo responsibility for turning … Continue Reading