Sony's PlayStation Phone strategy takes shape as prototype picture leaks out

Back in August, rumors of a PlayStation Phone leaked out. Now the Engadget tech blog has a photo of the device and some of its specifications.

If Sony is really going to build the device, it will mean an all-out war between Apple, Microsoft, and Sony in the category of the gaming smartphone. Others will join battle too, but the PlayStation Phone seems to be a reaction to the very real threat that Apple is … Continue Reading

KingsIsle launches a new world for Wizard 101 and a $39 gift card

Online game companies have to be crafty about getting new users while hanging on to the ones they already have. So KingsIsle Entertainment is launching a new world today as part of an expansion aimed at hanging on to the fans who have participated in its previous Wizard 101 online virtual fantasy world. The company is also launching a $39 gift card on Nov. 1 that will be available in GameStop stores and can be … Continue Reading

T-Mobile to offer cheapest tethering yet for $14.99 on Nov. 3

T-Mobile is gearing up to introduce the cheapest tethering option yet in the U.S. with a $14.99 a month plan on November 3, according to the mobile site Boy Genius Report.

Not surprisingly, the carrier will require customers to be subscribed to its $19.99-per-month unlimited data plan to receive tethering — a feature which allows subscribers to use their phones as wireless hotspots — and they must have a 3G or HSPA+ (its faster network … Continue Reading

Yahoo Mail gets a face lift and a speed boost

Tonight, Yahoo Mail is unveiling a test version of the big upgrade it has been promising users.

That should be big news for the 273 million users that Yahoo Mail claims worldwide, but it’s also an important move for the struggling company. Mail makes accounts for more than half the pageviews that Yahoo receives in the United States, and traffic has fallen an average of 11 percent compared to last year, according to comScore data … Continue Reading

Chevy's Volt drives well, but will people change their habits for it?

I took a short test drive yesterday in the Chevrolet Volt, GM’s range-extended vehicle that can go 25 to 50 miles on battery power before switching over to gas. (Note: we’ll have videos up soon, so check back in this space.)

The Volt will go into production in mid-November and hit dealerships a few weeks later, just in time to compete with the all-electric Nissan Leaf and, to a lesser extent, the all-electric sedan offered … Continue Reading

Liz Claman's outsider view of Silicon Valley

Every year, Fox Business Network anchor Liz Claman (top, right) parachutes into Silicon Valley and does a whirlwind three days of interviews with chief executives at the biggest Silicon Valley companies. This year, she interviewed everyone from Intel’s Paul Otellini to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz (top left) for her show 3 Days in the Valley. We caught up with her to get a view of Silicon Valley, from the outside looking in. Here’s some thoughts … Continue Reading

With 300 employees, where will Twitter's flock nest?

White-hot microblogging startup Twitter is growing at a booming pace, gleefully tweeting today that it just hired its 300th full-time employee as it continues a hiring spree that began last spring.

“We just hired our 300th employee. Wowza!,” tweeted Twitter’s recruiting arm, JoinTheFlock around noon Pacific time.

Since it began its meteoric growth, Twitter has nearly tripled in size, adding 400 people since June. It’s a massive rate of addition, considering Twitter had only 110 … Continue Reading

Why are travel sites like Expedia desperate to keep Google grounded?

Expedia.com and a number of other travel websites are attempting to block Google’s acquisition of ITA Software, a buyout that would give Google access to real-time flight data.

Google is looking to acquire the flight data provider for around $700 million to fix its flight search engine. The deal seems innocuous enough — Google said it had no plans to sell plane tickets and would direct Google search users to other sites to purchase tickets. … Continue Reading

TxVia reels in $27.5M as it expands payment processing tech globally

TxVia, which develops payment-processing technology, announced today it has raised $27.5 million in fourth-round funding as it seeks to expand its resources and take the company further into the global marketplace.

The New York-based company processes a broad range of prepaid cards, including general purpose reloadable cards, gift cards, incentive payments, government disbursements, payroll and expense managements. Its clients currently include worldwide gift card distributors Blackhawk Network, Spanish-language broadcast media empire Univision Communications and InteliSpend, … Continue Reading

Angel investors flee as seed and startup bubble begins to deflate

New data released today by the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research found that angel investors put much less money into startup deals during the first half of 2010 than they did in 2009, a direct refutation of the widely held notion in Silicon Valley that seed valuations have been rising.

The report saw both deal size and overall number of seed investments drop to levels not seen since the beginning of … Continue Reading

Intel opens $2.5B chip factory in China

In another sign that China is moving up the food chain in manufacturing, Intel said today it has opened its first-ever chip manufacturing plant in Dalian, China.

The $2.5 billion factory, which is the size of bout 23 football fields, will be the first to fabricate microprocessors from raw silicon. Intel has relatively low-tech assembly factories in China (in Chengdu), where automated machines assemble chips into packages and test the final product, but this new … Continue Reading

Tablet or e-book reader? Barnes and Noble announces the Nook Color

Only a few days after we declared certain doom for the Nook e-book reader, Barnes and Noble announced a color entry with the Nook Color — a device that sits somewhere between an e-reader and a tablet, but thankfully sticks closer to ereader pricing at $250.

The Nook Color is pretty much a 7-inch Android tablet, but don’t expect it to be as unrestricted a device as something like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Instead, Barnes … Continue Reading

Uber(Cab) CEO: No plans to shut down despite legal spat

Uber (formerly UberCab), an iPhone application that helps users find rides from limos and town cars, got into some legal trouble this week — city and state agencies from both San Francisco and California sent the company cease-and-desist letters. But when I talked to chief executive Ryan Graves last night, he sounded optimistic that the issues can be resolved.

“Uber’s doors are open, and we plan to keep it that way,” he said, adding that … Continue Reading

Appcelerator raises $9M to build app for PayPal merchants

Appcelerator, which makes software that translates web-developed applications into Objective-C and other languages used in mobile operating systems, announced today that it has raised $9 million in its second round of funding from eBay and Sierra Ventures.

Software translation services have real potential to expand because of the growing number of mobile operating systems. Instead of having to rewrite an application to fit multiple operating systems, companies like Appcelerator give developers a way to write … Continue Reading

For aging Champions Online game, free-to-play business model proves alluring

Lots of  massively multiplayer online games were started with the dream of becoming as big as World of Warcraft, which has 12 million paying subscribers.

For those that have fallen short of their expectations, going free-to-play may be the fallback plan. Atari announced today that Cryptic Studios’ Champions Online MMO will be offered as a free-to-play game beginning in the first quarter of 2011.

With free-to-play games, users play for free and pay only small … Continue Reading

PayPal to launch micropayment option for Facebook and other sites

Online payment company PayPal announced today that it is introducing support for micro transactions on Facebook and several other online media websites.

The new payment system allows users to quickly pay for low-cost items like a story on a website or a virtual good without ever actually leaving the site. PayPal will charge 5 percent of the cost of the good plus an additional five cents as a transaction fee for any purchase under $12.… Continue Reading

Taking the fog out of the business cloud: Join me for a special webinar Nov. 17

The cloud is transforming our lives and our work. It’s one of the top trends I identified at our recent DEMO Fall conference as powering new products and startups. But what is it, exactly?

My executive editor, Owen Thomas, likes to crack that the cloud is “just a fancy name for the Internet.” And he’s right — but it’s more than just getting hooked up with an Internet connection. It means retooling every aspect of … Continue Reading

Mertado brings shopping deals to games and websites

Mertado, a startup incubated by Y Combinator, has been working on bringing a fun, deal-based social shopping experience to Facebook. Today, it’s offering game developers and website publishers a way to make money from its deals too.

Basically, the Palo Alto, Calif. company offers a service where users can find deals and share them with friends. But it seems to have two advantages over other social shopping startups, like “Foursquare for Products” Snapdragon, or deal … Continue Reading

Is Zynga worth more than Electronic Arts?

Is social gaming upstart Zynga really worth more than traditional video game giant Electronic Arts?

Zynga is currently valued at $5.27 billion on SharesPost, a secondary market, where Zynga employees can sell shares that they own in the private company. Redwood City, Calif.-based EA is worth $5.24 billion in public trading on the Nasdaq stock market. The SharesPost listings are thinly traded compared to EA’s stock, but it is perhaps the only real measure of … Continue Reading