Apple to make "exciting" announcement tomorrow — could it be cloud-based iTunes? (Updated)
Update: Apple ended up announcing that it is finally adding The Beatles to iTunes. Original post below.
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Apple has an unforgettable iTunes announcement planned for tomorrow morning, according to a cryptic update on the company’s website today.
Given that Apple rarely updates its home page for announcements like this, it definitely seems like something to pay attention to. The company could potentially be announcing its long-rumored cloud-based iTunes service, which could let users stream … Continue Reading
Nvidia makes big gains in supercomputing in deal with Amazon Web Services
Graphics chip maker Nvidia announced today that users of Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud-computing arm, which hosts web computing infrastructure for lots of companies, will now be able to tap the power of graphics chips on demand for cloud applications.
That’s an important endorsement for Nvidia, which is trying to spread the popularity of GPU computing (GPU stands for graphics processing unit). In the past, most servers and supercomputers have used microprocessors from Intel and … Continue Reading
Path launches photo-sharing social network focused on quality connections, not quantity
Path, a photo-sharing startup by former Facebook executive Dave Morin that launched today, is one of those companies that carries with it a tremendous amount of hype — due both to its pedigree and its secrecy.
We’ve been speculating for some time on what Path, which is also co-founded by Shawn Fanning and Dustin Mierau of Napster fame, is actually about. Now we know: It’s a photo-sharing social network (the company calls it “The Personal … Continue Reading
On the GreenBeat: Tesla sees Japan as growth market, Nissan Leaf sees delivery delays
Here are the top cleantech stories we’re following on the GreenBeat:
Tesla expects Japan to eventually become its No. 2 market for sales after the U.S., Elon Musk told the WSJ.
EMeter has announced it will team up with relationship management company Convergys to create better billing and customer management for utility companies that are rolling out smart meters.
An LG Chem executive told Reuters he expects to nail down more battery orders from … Continue Reading
RIM shuts out red-hot mobile chat application Kik — without explanation
Kik, the hot mobile chat application we wrote about two weeks ago that was seeing explosive growth, has been pulled from the Blackberry app market App World.
RIM, the maker of Blackberry phones, told Kik on Friday afternoon that no new downloads could be made of the app, citing concerns that it “could not elaborate on at the time.” Kik has now been closed for new registrants on Blackberry devices all weekend. The application continues … Continue Reading
Microsoft moves into social games, allies with CrowdStar
Hoping to become a bigger player in social games, Microsoft announced today it revamped its MSN Games casual online games web site and that it will team up with social game publisher CrowdStar, which has more than 50 million users on Facebook.
The move is an attempt to make the bridge from the era of casual games — defined by paid downloads of games that were mostly single-player online games — to social games in … Continue Reading
Review: Call of Duty Black Ops shows games can beat the drama and action of movies
One of the best things about the Call of Duty Black Ops video game — this year’s phenomenal blockbuster that pulled in $350 million in its first day of sales last week — is that it has a great story. Much of the plot has twists and turns taken from brainwashing movies such as The Bourne Identity. But there are enough original elements to make the game more than a knock-off.
The continuous improvement of … Continue Reading
5 things that can screw up your exit strategy
(Editor’s note: Curtis Smolar is a partner at Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley. He submitted this column to VentureBeat.)
When you are starting up your own company, you’re generally not thinking about acquisition. Any stock you give for services (or sweat equity) is likely done out of necessity and expediency.
For the successful and the lucky, those distant dreams of acquisition can become reality. But there are a number of hurdles you can inadvertently set … Continue Reading
Spansion banks its future on memory chips for 3D mobile game devices
Memory chip maker Spansion may not be a sexy company, but the sexy devices that consumers lust after wouldn’t be possible without it. A free fall in prices and high debt drove the company into bankruptcy during the recession, but it reemerged from bankruptcy earlier this year in a market recovery. Now its betting its future on memory chips designed specifically for certain kinds of demanding applications.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company is introducing its first … Continue Reading
Meebo's MiniBar offers a new take on website check ins
Do we really need another way to share what we’re doing on the Web? Meebo co-founder and chief executive Seth Sternberg says yes –and his company is launching a browser extension called the Meebo MiniBar on Tuesday to allow a new kind of online sharing.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Meebo, which started out as an instant messaging service, already offers a feature for websites called the Meebo Bar, which allows readers to chat with friends and … Continue Reading
TokBox raises $12M to jam Skype into your web browser
TokBox, a provider of streaming video conferencing over the web, announced today that it has raised $12 million in a third round of funding and is launching a new set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to embed video conferencing in any web site.
The new APIs kill the need to launch a standalone application like Skype or a web application to host a video conference. Any developer can now embed up to 20 participants in … Continue Reading
Week in review: Apple's daylight saving bug
Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:
Apple fails to fix iPhone Daylight Saving Time alarm bug for US — If you live in the US, we hope you didn’t rely on your iPhone’s alarm clock to wake you up on Monday morning.
Microsoft’s Kinect gaming control hacked already — Just a few days after the launch of Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing … Continue Reading
How Facebook’s partnership with Bing will change SEO
Joe Devine is the chief executive officer of The Search Engine Guys, a full-service search engine optimization and website design firm based in Austin, Texas.
There’s a new trend in search engines: Searches tailored to the individual and his or her social network. Most recently, Bing and Facebook announced a partnership that would allow Microsoft’s search engine to return results based on the Facebook “likes” of a user’s friends.
Unsurprisingly, many in the search engine … Continue Reading
Entrepreneur Corner: Finding mentors and the new golden age of startups
Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner.
4 tips for buying a bankrupt competitor – The economy is still struggling, which is causing plenty of companies to call it quits. For some entrepreneurs, that presents an opportunity to buy valuable assets, but Attorney Scott Edward Walker notes that it’s a complicated process. Here are four things to keep in mind as you consider buying failed IP and assets.
6 tips on finding the right mentor… Continue Reading
Kineto Wireless gets $3M to improve mobile phone coverage
Kineto Wireless, developer of software that leverages Wi-Fi technology for mobile phones, has raised $3 million in equity and debt funding, according to a filing with the SEC.
Based in Milpitas, Calif., Kineto allows mobile phones to work on both cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Last month, T-Mobile announced plans to preload its Android phones with Kineto’s app for Wi-Fi calling.
The company last raised $9 million in funding in March. Investors include Venrock Associates, Sutter … Continue Reading
Zetta brings in $11.5M for enterprise cloud storage
Zetta, a company that provides cloud storage to businesses, has raised $11.5 million in a second round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC. Existing investors Foundation Capital and Sigma Partners contributed to the round.
Founded in 2007, Zetta provides instant data recovery to enterprises in the healthcare, technology, energy and education sectors. The company is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., and has raised $22.5 million to date.… Continue Reading
Google offering live hockey stats as it enters melee for real-time data
Google will now begin offering real-time sport scores for the National Hockey League, the company said in its weekly search “round up” blog post, as the search behemoth continues to tempt everyone from stock markets to other social media sites like Twitter into offering information instantly.
Google said the scores would be available via simple search terms such as “hockey” or specific team names.
Dubbed the NHL Live Result, the new partnership between the NHL … Continue Reading
You've Got Mail! How Facebook can avoid becoming the new AOL
What’s the difference between Facebook and the AOL of old? On Monday, Facebook is expected to announce that they are adding true email functionality, and users will be able to send emails to @facebook.com addresses, as well as use software clients like Outlook and Thunderbird to read and send emails. With the introduction of email, Facebook has now completely replicated the features of AOL’s 1990s-era desktop client. Both offer messaging, profiles, profile names, chat, pictures, … Continue Reading
Free-to-play games creep closer to killing monthly subscriptions
The free-to-play model has all but taken over the online game industry. Next stop: everything else.
Free online games, which make money through upgrades and other digital bonuses which help speed play along, continues to grow in popularity. Nearly one in five gamers now pay for virtual goods, up from 15 percent in 2008, according to a report by international research firm Parks Associates.
The freemium model, which lets users download applications for free and … Continue Reading
Are enterprise sales headed for a free-fall this holiday season?
Somewhere in the stock market’s noise today, there’s a very clear signal: enterprise hardware sales are in trouble. Despite upbeat forecasts from Intel and Nvidia for the fourth quarter this year, a forecast from enterprise giant Cisco for this holiday season paints a terrifying picture that could signal the end of the business-tech comeback.
Cisco announced yesterday that it was lowering its outlook for the fourth quarter this year as sales of computer networking and … Continue Reading
