More money for TV check-ins: Philo raises funding

It looks like investors hope to take the “check-in” model popularized by Foursquare to TV viewers. A startup called Philo, which lets users share which shows they’re watching, just raised its first round of funding.

We’ve covered similar companies before, most notably Miso, which has been described as “Foursquare for TV,” and which has been backed by Google Ventures and others. (Miso investor Georges Harik also invested in VentureBeat.) TV check-ins are also part of … Continue Reading

Digital fingerprints could give away the authors of viruses and malware

Security firm HBGary said today it has an open source tool that can help identify the creators of malware spread on the internet, simply by looking at the code itself.

Greg Hoglund, chief executive of HBGary (pictured), said in an interview that the tool looks for the unique artifacts that appear in code when malware authors create it and then compile it into executable programs. Each piece of data in the code may not mean … Continue Reading

Apple unveils new, consumer-friendly battery charger

Apple has launched its own plug-in charger for AA batteries, extending its wireless device and energy efficiency strategies. In addition to making its wireless keyboards and mice more user friendly, the company’s new product will slash the amount of power that’s demanded by competing chargers.

The Apple Battery Charger includes six AA batteries in the device’s $29 price tag. This hovers around the price of many of the other chargers on the market, but Apple … Continue Reading

Researcher shows how to hack ATMs with "Dillinger" tool

Using tools dubbed Dillinger and Scrooge, a security researcher showed how to hack an automated teller machine in front of a crowd of hackers and security professionals today.

Barnaby Jack showed a live demonstration of how he hacked two different Windows CE-based ATMs on stage during a talk this afternoon at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. Jack was scheduled to give the talk a year ago, but it was canceled after an … Continue Reading

RIM's secret plan to get BlackBerry out of the smartphone jam

Jack Gold is the founder and principal analyst at IT analyst firm J.Gold Associates.

RIM has been feeling the heat in the smartphone business, along with everyone else who is not iPhone or Android powered. Indeed, Android has even been pressuring Apple’s success in the marketplace with new and attractive smartphones from HTC, Motorola, Samsung and others. And BlackBerry has fallen behind in compelling features and functions, and particularly its user experience.

So does that … Continue Reading

Energy Dept. closes $117M loan to Kahuku Wind Power

The U.S. Department of Energy announced today that it has finally closed its $117 million low-interest loan guarantee to Kahuku Wind Power, developer of a 30-megawatt wind power project slated to keep the lights on in 7,700 homes in Kahuku, Hawaii, and to create 200 jobs on the island of Oahu.

Renewable sources of energy are of particular interest in Hawaii, where gasoline prices are inflated by the need to import oil supplies. Funding wind … Continue Reading

Got a question? Facebook now provides crowdsourced answers

Facebook is making its long-awaited debut in the red-hot questions and answers space today. It’s launching a new product to about 5 million users today that lets them publicly ask and answer questions.

You can ask questions directly from the status update box on the homepage or on your profile, and you can search for answers from the search box at the top of the page. Every question and answer is completely public. Facebook is … Continue Reading

Seven security experts get the key to reboot the internet

Seven security experts have been entrusted with the key to reboot the internet in case of a global catastrophe.

The security experts have been given a key that can help them rebuild the DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) system of trust for the internet if a catastrophe takes it down. The experts would have to physically carry the root key to a secret data center in the U.S. in order to reboot the internet. … Continue Reading

Google's head of Android partnerships departs

Another day, another Android departure.

Google’s worldwide head of Android business development and operations, Tom Moss, has left the company this month. He owned relationships with the major handset manufacturers and carriers for Google and led business development for the Android operating system. He was also a recipient of a Founders Award, which are generous Google stock grants that can be worth hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars and are used to protect employees … Continue Reading

Fast-growing news site Business Insider raises $3M

Business Insider, the popular and controversial business news site founded by former Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget, announced this morning that it has raised $3 million in new funding.

(Disclosure: VentureBeat has a syndication deal with Business Insider, where each site can repost the other’s stories.)

Originally named Silicon Alley Insider (which has become a subsection within the larger Business Insider brand), the site has been around for three years, but has apparently seen a … Continue Reading

Another day, another way to take down your local cell phone network

A security researcher from Thailand demonstrated today how he could take down local cell phone networks that use the commonly used GSM global standard for cell phone radios.

The demo took place at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas. The researcher, who goes by the handle The Grugq, works for Singapore’s Coseinc security firm (he’s based in Thailand). He showed a room of about 1,000 hackers and security professionals how he could hack into … Continue Reading

RIM's touchscreen BlackBerry 9800 may be announced at joint AT&T event next week

Last week we reported that RIM’s upcoming new touchscreen Blackberry (which also sports a slide-out keyboard) will likely hit shelves on August 15, according to the BlackBerry Partners Fund’s John Albright. Now Engadget reports that RIM is planning a major joint event with AT&T next Tuesday.

It doesn’t take a prophet to read between the lines — it’s very likely that RIM is gearing up to announce the new BlackBerry iPhone competitor next week. The … Continue Reading

Don't chuckle: Homeland Security seeks to tame cyberspace's war zone

The Department of Homeland Security is well aware of the vulnerabilities of cyberspace and has made taming the Wild Wild West of the internet a high priority.

Jane Holl Lute, deputy director of Homeland Security, said in a keynote speech at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas today that it isn’t right to accept as inevitable that cyberspace will be a war zone for the foreseeable future, an ungovernable place where users have … Continue Reading

ConnectYard raises funding to connect social media and learning

ConnectYard, a New Jersey startup that provides educational institutions with a centralized social media platform, recently announced raising a $500,000 first round of funding round.

The company’s tools allow students, teachers and administrators to communicate securely through established social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and introduce game mechanics, analytics, and recommendation engines into the online learning experience.

ConnectYard was founded in 2007 and is based out of Wayne, NJ. Don Doane, chief executive … Continue Reading

PeerIndex, Klout aim to find the Web's real authorities

On the Internet, nobody knows you’re an expert. PeerIndex hopes to change that.

A decade and a half after the Web became a mass medium, people still don’t trust what they read online. Yet social media is clearly shaping consumer behavior, and companies would like to know who the real authorities are in order to better target their marketing. That’s why startups like PeerIndex have sprung up. They aim to mine publicly available data from … Continue Reading

Apple catches up to Mozilla and Google, brings extensions to its Safari web browser

Apple released Safari version 5.0.1 today, and while the version number may seem minor, it’s actually a fairly important update since it finally brings extensions to the web browser.

Apple previously showed off its extensions last month, and Safari 5 users were able to get some early extensions from other sites, but this marks the first full release for extensions on the web browser. Today also marks the unveiling of Apple’s Extensions Gallery, which is … Continue Reading

Adobe spends $240 million to fill out Web product line

With today’s acquisition of Day Software, a Swiss Web content management software company, Adobe continues to fill out its enterprise software line. The two companies reached an agreement for Adobe to acquire all of the publicly held shares of Day Software.

Founded in 1993 in Basel, Switzerland, Day Software has 146 employees. The company reported 2009 revenues of 36.6 million Swiss Francs ($35.5 million). The company’s CQ5 product suite offers large customers — such as … Continue Reading

IGN Entertainment launches its own social network for gamers

The world’s biggest video game fan site is going social. IGN Entertainment is announcing today that it has created MyIGN, a social network for game fans.

By adding a social layer on top of a web site that is visited by 12.7 million gamers per month (the larger network of IGN game sites has more than 18 million unique visitors per month), IGN hopes to adapt with the times and keep gamers engaged on its … Continue Reading

Empire Avenue broadly opens its stock exchange for trading friends

Empire Avenue is broadly opening the beta test of its stock market that measures a seemingly ethereal quality: your social influence.

The Edmonton, Canada-based startup has about 10,000 users in its limited beta test and will now open the beta up to everyone who wants to join the world’s first fantasy stock market that measures your social influence. The more active and influential you are, the higher your stock price goes.

You can buy and … Continue Reading