GameStop and Kongregate explain their digital game strategy

GameStop made its online gaming move yesterday by purchasing Kongregate, a fast-growing web site for indie Flash games. The world’s biggest game retailer, with more than 6,000 stores, knows that digital distribution is coming to games just like it did for music and movies. Will GameStop wind up like the now defunct Tower Records and Hollywood Video store chains, or will it navigate the transition to digital game distribution through deals like the Kongregate purchase?… Continue Reading

Roundup: Chevy Volt gets $41K price tag, Old Spice sales skyrocket and more

Here’s the latest action:

Chevy Volt priced at $41K – General Motors announced today that the base level sticker price for the Chevrolet Volt will be $41,000 before a $7,500 federal tax credit is applied. This makes it price competitive, but not as affordable as the all-electric Nissan Leaf, also due out by the end of the year.

You can store music in Google Docs — A new iPhone application called Cloud Music that debuted … Continue Reading

Will Facebook acquire and catch location-startup Hot Potato?

Facebook is rumored to be closing in on a deal to acquire the location-based app Hot Potato, according to TechCrunch.

The app, which is centered around events and things to do, lets you share photos and status updates around concerts, stories or TV shows. The problem is, since it launched at TechCrunch’s real-time CrunchUp last November, it hasn’t quite taken off in the same way that other location services has.

The team is talented and … Continue Reading

Details surface about Google's rumored social network

A few details of Google‘s planned social network and its alliances with social game publishers are starting to emerge as the search giant prepares to take Facebook head on.

The Wall Street Journal reported tonight that Google is in talks with several makers of popular online games, including Playdom (which agreed to be acquired by Disney today), Electronic Arts’ Playfish, and Zynga. The Zynga relationship has already been reported since we and others have confirmed … Continue Reading

Data storage provider BlueArc raises $20M

BlueArc, a company that provides network storage systems, has brought in $20 million in equity, according to a filing with the SEC. Investor Growth Capital led the round. Based in San Jose, BlueArc offers storage hardware and software products to help companies consolidate file servers, transfer data and quickly access materials.

The company works with clients in internet services, higher education, oil  and entertainment. BlueArc announced today that it recently signed 13 new media and … Continue Reading

Anybots launches "telepresence robots" to handle your business travel

Silicon Valley startup Anybots is entering the increasingly competitive field “telepresence robot” market today with the release of its first robot. Telepresence robots work as stand-ins for people who operate them remotely.

A telepresence robot can, for example, tour a plant in China while the person controlling it follows along from their office in California. The tour guide could talk to the robot like they’re talking to the person on the other end and can … Continue Reading

Green building company Soladigm gets $6M to make smart windows

Energy efficient window maker Soladigm has raised $6 million of an expected $7.5 million in debt financing, according to a filing with the SEC. Existing investors Khosla Ventures and Sigma Partners participated in the round. The company develops low-cost windows that can dynamically change tint, helping to cut energy costs by potentially keeping heat out on warm days and in on cold days.

Milpitas, Calif.-based Soladigm has previously raised more than $35 million in funding, … Continue Reading

Why the Facebook-Amazon.com integration is bigger than you think

Facebook and Amazon.com partnered Tuesday in what could be one of the social network’s most important integrations yet. Amazon.com now offers a personalized page, where consumers can see product recommendations influenced by friends and their own tastes. They get notifications on when friend’s birthdays are coming up and suggestions on what to buy for them.

It’s a big deal for a number of reasons.

A deep Amazon.com-Facebook partnership could help corner Google in the e-commerce … Continue Reading

Mapping startup CloudMade raises $12.3M

CloudMade, a mapping data startup that hopes to fuel the current explosion of location-based application, has raised $12.3 million in a second round of funding.

Steve Coast, a cofounder of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company founded the OpenStreetMap community mapping project in 2004, and CloudMade draws its data from OpenStreetMap. Through application programming interfaces and other tools, CloudMade helps developers take advantage of OpenStreetMap’s geographical data to power their own location apps, then takes a … Continue Reading

Facebook puts on the full court press to win over media publishers

Facebook is aggressively courting publishers to get more news media sites to adopt its social tools and log-ins.

Media is the one area where the social network, which recently passed 500 million monthly active users, lags behind competitors as an identity provider. While Facebook dominates third-party logins across the web, more users choose Twitter to connect, comment and log-in on news media sites than the social network, according to a study by social media metrics … Continue Reading

Augen brings its $150 Gentouch78 Android tablet to Kmart

Little-known device manufacturer Augen unveiled its 7-inch Gentouch78 Android tablet in the unlikeliest of places this weekend: Kmart’s Sunday flyer.

The tablet will retail for $149.99 (that’s a special sale price; it will eventually move to a standard $169.99), and will feature Android 2.1, WiFi, 256 MB of RAM, and 2GB of storage. The device will also have access to the Android app marketplace. It may not be much of an iPad competitor when it … Continue Reading

NYC Seed Start Demo Day shows New York knows how to build startups

At today’s NYC Seed Start Demo Day, companies pitched a crowd of over a hundred of New York City’s early-stage investors. Five fledgling startups presented to a packed house, hoping to catch the attention of investors willing to write them a big check.

NYC Seed Start is an incubator program in the mold of Y-Combinator and Techstars funded by a syndicate of venture firms including RRE Ventures, Polaris Ventures, Contour Ventures, and IA Ventures.

In … Continue Reading

Disney buys social game firm Playdom for up to $763.2M

In a big validation of the fast-growing social game business, Disney has agreed to buy social gaming firm Playdom for up to $763.2 million.

The purchase price includes a $200 million earn-out if Playdom hits its targets. Mickey Mouse came out on top of a bidding war to buy Playdom, which has become the third-largest social game company on Facebook and the largest on MySpace.

Word of the acquisition surfaced last week. We happened to … Continue Reading

Dogpatch Labs incubates 10 new startups

Dogpatch Labs, the startup space run by Polaris Ventures, is welcoming a new group of companies to its San Francisco office on August 1.

Dogpatch describes itself as a “frathouse for geeks” and is basically a cross between an incubator and a coworking space. It’s a large office where entrepreneurs can use the desks, Internet, and phones, and hopefully bond with other startups. Unlike most incubators, Polaris doesn’t take equity in its companies — at … Continue Reading

Is that a gay in your pocket, or just apps to see them?

The Big Gay Sketch Show, a popular variety series on Viacom’s gay-themed logo channel, debuted in 2007 with a sketch about “Your Pocket Gay Friend.” Now, two gay social networks are making the notion of the gay-world-in-your-pocket a reality with iPhone apps.

The founders of Fabulis and GayCities, as we’ve reported, are both aiming to build social networks that help gay people find friends both at home and on trips. Fabulis has just launched its … Continue Reading

Apple upgrades iMac and Mac Pro, unveils Magic Trackpad for multitouch

After months of speculation, Apple today has finally unveiled the latest updates to its iMac and Mac Pro computer line. The company also revealed its long-rumored Magic TrackPad — a USB accessory that resembles a larger version of the MacBook Pro’s trackpad and brings increased multitouch functionality to the desktop.

New to the iMac line is the addition of Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processors, higher quality IPS display panels (for wider viewing angles … Continue Reading

Intel demos chips that can transfer an HD movie in 1 second

Intel announced today that it has created a breakthrough data-transfer technology in its labs, using a combination of silicon chips and lasers to transfer data over a fiber optic cable at a speed of 50 gigabits per second.

That is far faster than the maximum possible today with copper wires, which hit their peak around 10 gigabits per second. The new Intel Silicon Photonics Link is fast enough to transfer a high definition movie from … Continue Reading

FarmVille maker Zynga could unveil SoftBank deal in Japan this week

Talk about big in Japan! Zynga, the maker of FarmVille and other popular social games, is nearing an announcement of its alliance with Japan’s SoftBank, which plans to invest around $147 million into Zynga and its Japanese subsidiary.

The deal could be announced as early as this week. SoftBank’s quarterly earnings call is Thursday, with an analyst meeting following on Friday. But the timing depends on whether Zynga and SoftBank hammer out the last details … Continue Reading

Trusted Opinion "gamifies" its restaurant recommendation community

Social recommendation firm Trusted Opinion is adding a social game platform to get its community of a million restaurant fans to engage in the network and spend more money.

In doing so, the company is taking part in a trend dubbed “gamification,” or the use of game mechanics to enhance the interest in non-game applications. The topic was the subject of a panel last week at the Casual Connect game conference in Seattle.

There are … Continue Reading