Apixio gets $1.5M to provide access to medical information

Apixio, a maker of software for viewing medical records, has brought in $1.5 million of an expected $2.5 million in equity, options, warrants and other securities, according to a filing with the SEC. Based in Menlo Park, Calif., the startup allows patients and healthcare providers to search and analyze medical data from multiple clinics and hospitals. Apixio was founded in 2009 and raised $500,000 from undisclosed investors that year.… Continue Reading

TurnHere reels in $3M for online video ads

Online video production site TurnHere has raised $3 million in a second round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC. The Emeryville, Calif.-based startup shoots and edits editorial and advertising videos for businesses ranging from small merchants to global companies like Disney and Audi. In June, Yelp announced that TurnHere would begin producing videos for advertisers on its site.

Founded in 2005, TurnHere previously raised $8.6 million from Venrock, Ron Conway, Hearst Interactive … Continue Reading

Senate Democrats kill climate bill with division, indecision

The wide-ranging climate legislation that would have put a price on carbon and establish an emissions cap-and-trade system came to an inglorious end today as Senate Democrats conceded that they simply don’t have enough votes to pass such a bill. This is a big loss for President Barack Obama, who campaigned on the issue.

The bill’s supporters were aiming for a 17 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. But these figures never gained … Continue Reading

Microsoft's Xbox division posts $172M loss even as slim models start selling

Microsoft‘s Xbox business has been smooth sailing of late, and the lowered cost of production has enabled the company to introduce its new slim model recently. That said, in the most recent quarter ended June 30, the Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD), which houses Xbox, PC consumer and Zune, saw its operating loss  increase 22 percent year-over-year to $172 million. Sales, however, jumped 27 percent to $1.6 billion.

It’s worth noting that on a 12-month … Continue Reading

Amazon stock drops after profits disappoint

Amazon.com released a disappointing earnings report today — revenue and profit climbed, but not as much as analysts expected. As a result, the company’s stock has fallen sharply in after-hours trading, dropping more than 11 percent as of 4:40pm Pacific Time.

The company said it brought in $6.57 billion in net sales, up 41 percent compared to the second quarter of 2009. Net income increased 45 percent year-over-year, to $207 million and 45 cents per … Continue Reading

RPI raises $5M for custom photo products

RPI, a company that prints custom photo products, today announced it secured a $5 million round of funding from Huntington Capital. The funding will be used to introduce new services like merchandising programs and brand owner opportunities according to the company’s announcement.

RPI prints photo books as well as greeting cards, invitations, calendars, notebooks, posters, and pretty much anything else you can think up. All products can be customized and mass-manufactured based on a 14 … Continue Reading

Energy Dept. pours $122M into turning sunlight into fuel

The U.S. Department of Energy announced today that it has awarded $122 million to a team of scientists in California to establish an Energy Innovation Hub focused on converting sunlight into different types of liquid fuel.

An interdisciplinary effort spanning the California Institute of Technology and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Hub will work on artificially simulating photosynthetic processes, which can be harnessed to produce innovative sources of energy, the Department says. The ultimate … Continue Reading

Microsoft revenue climbs, 175M Windows 7 licenses sold

Microsoft today announced revenues that topped analyst predictions and set a new record for fourth-quarter earnings.

The company said it made $16.04 billion in revenue during the three months ending June 30 (the fourth quarter of its fiscal year), a 22 percent increase over the same period last year. The company earned 51 cents per share. That’s much higher than the 36 cents per share on revenue of $13.1 billion that analysts predicted.

Microsoft said … Continue Reading

Has Apple answered antenna complaints? CollegeHumor says no (video)

Apple attempted to address the iPhone 4′s reported antenna problems at a press conference last week, where it promised to give a free rubber case to every iPhone 4 owner in order to improve reception. But it looks like the controversy isn’t going away.

For one thing, competing phone makers have criticized Apple chief executive Steve Jobs’ claim that other smartphones have similar antenna problems. And popular satire site CollegeHumor (owned by Internet conglomerate IAC) … Continue Reading

Mixpanel brings its analytics tools to the iPhone

Mixpanel, a startup promising detailed data about what users are doing on your website, is now bringing its capabilities to the iPhone.

With its Web product, the Mountain View, Calif. startup contrasted itself with Google Analytics, saying that its own service provides a much more detailed, real-time look at user behavior. On the iPhone, it compares itself to mobile analytics company Flurry. It says Flurry, like Google, only provides high-level data.

Mixpanel, meanwhile, seems to … Continue Reading

RockYou signs five-year deal to support Facebook Credits (exclusive)

Social game company RockYou and Facebook have signed a five-year agreement in which RockYou will exclusively support the social network’s virtual currency.

That means that when you purchase a virtual good in a RockYou game, such as food in Zoo World, you will do the transaction with Facebook Credits, which you can purchase with real money from inside the games or apps.

Facebook hopes to generate major revenues through Facebook Credits by taking a 30 … Continue Reading

Cognito and Tall Chair team-up for iPad-centric graphic novels

It has been a big year for digital comics, with publishers like DC and Marvel jumping onto the iPad and other devices. Still, most of the news involves transferring existing comics to new devices. Now, two San Francisco startups, Cognito Comics and gaming company Tall Chair, are creating an experience designed specifically for the iPad.

Cognito Executive Producer Daniel Burwen gave me a demonstration of the first few pages of his graphic novel Operation Ajax… Continue Reading

Plum District gets $2.1M to bring daily deals to busy moms

Social shopping site Plum District has raised $2.1 million in a first round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC. Like shopping sites Gilt, RueLaLa and Groupon, Plum District offers daily deals, but the site differentiates itself by catering its local deals–including day camps, groceries and spa treatments–to busy mothers. Backed by Vigran Ventures, the site launched in May and is currently available in the San Francisco Bay Area but has plans to … Continue Reading

Reddit hopes to impress users with faster search engine

Just days after the announcement of a premium membership service, social news site Reddit has launched a new search feature. Hosted by white-label search technology provider IndexTank, Reddit’s updated search engine lets users search for posts in real-time and, according to the Reddit blog, “is pretty bloody fast.”

The update comes in response to complaints about the site’s search accuracy and speed. A quick search on Reddit’s site for “Reddit search engine” reveals common problems … Continue Reading

Live-blog: Zuckerberg and David Kirkpatrick on the Facebook Effect

Mark Zuckerberg and “The Facebook Effect” author David Kirkpatrick met for an on-stage conversation this evening at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

Zuckerberg was much more relaxed, less sweaty and nervous than the last time he was on a public stage in the U.S. at the d8 conference in June. He said that to get to Facebook’s next 500 million users, the company is focused on a handful of markets including South Korea, … Continue Reading

Roundup: Revision3 unboxes porn, Skype multitasks, and more

Here’s the latest action:

Revision3 adds Unboxing Porn — The internet television channel has added Unboxing Porn to its programming. The show centers around the excitement of receiving new gadgets, despite its misleading title.

http://revision3.com/player-v6566

iPhone coming to T-Mobile this quarter? — Cult of Mac reports, based on a source close to the matter, that T-Mobile subscribers will soon be able to use the iPhone — with an 80 percent chance that this will happen … Continue Reading

Applied Materials axes thin-film solar biz, lays off 500

Applied Materials, one of several major corporations to jump into the solar energy business four years ago, announced today that it is scrapping its line of equipment used to make thin-film solar panels and laying off an estimated 500 employees in this division.

The semiconductor company was hoping to become a major force in the rapidly growing solar market, making several key acquisitions and building major manufacturing facilities, to give it a leading edge.

It … Continue Reading

Twitter building its own data center to improve reliability

After a period of reliability, Twitter has been struggling with uptime for the last couple of months, thanks in part to a surge of World Cup-related traffic. Now the company just announced that it will open a data center in the Salt Lake City area to provide a long-term fix to these issues.

Twitter has strained against the capacity of its hosting providers in the past. For example it ditched Joyent for NTT at the … Continue Reading