VentureBeat's top 10 holiday gift ideas: affordable and fun gadgets that work

The holiday selling season is about to kick off and, slow economy or not, tech gadgets are going to be high on the wish list for a lot of us. At VentureBeat, we like gifts that work, that are fun, and that are affordable.

Many of these ideas for gifts aren’t brand new. That’s because new stuff breaks and costs a lot. You won’t see web-connected 3D TVs that play apps on our list because … Continue Reading

Delicious founder raises $3M to put “the useful back in social software”

Joshua Schachter, the founder of social bookmarking startup Delicious, is working on a stealthy startup called Tasty Labs, and the company just raised $3 million in funding from two big-name firms — Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz.

Schachter left Google in June (he sold Delicious to Yahoo back in 2005), and his new company came to light earlier this month. Union Square’s Albert Wenger (formerly president at Delicious) announced today that he has invested … Continue Reading

Windows Phone 7 hits the ground running with 15,000 app developers

Microsoft announced it now has 15,000 developers creating applications for its mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, with around 3,000 applications available today.

It’s a good sign for the infant mobile operating system that had around 13,000 developers earlier this month. A 15 percent bounce in a few weeks isn’t too bad, given that it’s going up against powerhouses like Google’s Android mobile operating system and the iPhone/iPad operating system, iOS.

Windows Phone 7 finally … Continue Reading

Google Wave to ride again as open source Apache project

Open source programmers who have been working to keep Google Wave alive hit a significant milestone today by submitting their open source Wave code to the Apache Software Foundation, The Register reports.

After a rocky launch and apparent difficulties in convincing users to try it out, Google announced that ended development on its much-hyped Wave collaboration tool back in August. Google Maps and Wave creator Lars Rasmussen has since joined Facebook.

Most well-known for the … Continue Reading

As its CEO steps down, what’s happening at RockYou?

News broke late yesterday that Lance Tokuda is stepping down from his role as chief executive of social game- and app-maker RockYou. Coming barely more than a month after the company announced substantial layoffs, we started wondering where RockYou is headed. So I got on the phone with chief operating officer Lisa Marino to find out.

Marino emphasized that both Tokuda’s decision (he will remain at RockYou working on “innovation and strategic initiatives”) and the … Continue Reading

Idiocy: EPA rates 2011 Nissan Leaf 'gas mileage' at 99 MPG

So it’s come down to this, has it? The U.S. car-buying public is apparently so stupid that the Environmental Protection Agency has to rate the efficiency of an all-electric car that burns no gasoline in … miles per gallon.

[facepalm]

That’s the only possible reaction to the news earlier this week that the EPA has approved a “fuel-economy” label for the 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car showing a rating of 99 “miles per gallon equivalent … Continue Reading

Socialwise raises $3.4M to slap teen allowances on credit cards

Socialwise announced today that it has raised $3.4 million in new funding to market its pre-paid credit cards geared towards teen spenders.

Socialwise has two main products. The first, called BillMyParents, gives parents a way to let their kids shop on online retail sites. Whenever a teen tries to buy something at site like Amazon.com, the parents are notified and have to approve the purchase. Socialwise then charges the parents an extra 50 cents for … Continue Reading

Your iPhone can be charged wirelessly — how about your electric car?

Psh. Plugs. They’re, like, so 2008.

There’s been a surge of attention over the last year towards products that that can charge your smartphone wirelessly, like the devices PowerMat makes. Just set it down on the charging mat and let your phone juice up.

But according to a new report from Pike Research, the technology that makes your plug-free iPhone charging possible is also showing promise for uses in other products — other consumer electronics,  … Continue Reading

Dazzplay brings your music into Facebook

LinkoTec, a startup that synchronizes your music across your devices, is getting into the music-sharing business with a new Facebook application called Dazzplay.

Dazzplay isn’t the first app allowing users to share playlists on Facebook — competitors include MixPod. But after seeing a demo of Dazzplay and trying it out for myself, I’m impressed by its integration with Facebook and other features. And since Dazzplay isn’t hosting any music itself,and instead linking to music hosted … Continue Reading

Nokia gets a public image facelift, appoints Jerri DeVard as chief marketing officer

Nokia today announced that it’s appointing marketing veteran Jerri DeVard as its new chief marketing officer and executive vice president.

DeVard has worked in marketing for over 25 years. She served as senior vice president of marketing for Verizon from 2003 to 2007 and then started her own firm in New York, the DeVard Marketing Group, where she served clients like Microsoft. That connection probably made her a desirable choice as CMO with Nokia’s new … Continue Reading

Not satisfied with iPhone sales, Apple aims for RIM's share in enterprise

Some companies might call it a victory when they ship 14.1 million phones. Apple apparently takes it as a sign that it needs to barge into another company’s market space.

Apple could be making a move into the enterprise space after hiring five executives in the past year and a half that specialized in marketing Research in Motion’s BlackBerry phone, one of the most popular phones in the world for business professionals.

That shouldn’t come … Continue Reading

Review: Logitech's Revue with Google TV has potential, but isn't for everyone (yet)

“Potential” is the key word when discussing Google TV. It has the potential to completely reshape the way we watch TV, the potential to change the way content providers do business, and the potential to give Google the sort of dominance in the TV market that it’s already seeing in search and mobile.

But does it live up to that potential yet? Not quite.

First, a primer: Google announced its intention to take on TV … Continue Reading

On the GreenBeat: Offshore wind permits to be streamlined, spray-on solar panels may be on the way

Here are some the top stories we’re watching today in cleantech news:

The government will streamline the permitting process for offshore wind energy projects on the Atlantic Coast, Bloomberg reports.

Gamesa is leading an 11-country group to develop the world’s largest wind turbine, designed for offshore wind use, Bloomberg reports.

Toyota recently unveiled a prototype of a solid state battery and has been actively developing different types of battery technology for potential use … Continue Reading

Investors buy into social shopping service myShopanion

Zappli, the San Francisco-based maker of iPhone shopping application myShopanion, has raised a $500,000 seed round to fund its plans to take the lead against a horde of social shopping competitors.

Chief executive Philippe Suchet said one of his main goals with the round was to bring in e-commerce experts, which is why the investors include Maynard Webb, the former chief operating officer of eBay and now the CEO of LiveOps, as well as 500 … Continue Reading

You think the iPad is pricey? First-ever Apple computer sells for $210,000

It is true: People will pony up remarkable amounts of money for Apple’s products.

This is evident by the lines of pundits that snake around Apple Stores the world over whenever a new, sleek Apple product hits the shelves. But yesterday an Italian businessman and collector by the name of Marco Boglione took it to the next level by shelling out some serious cash at the famous Christie’s auction house in London for one of … Continue Reading

Bubble Motion puts smartphone users one step closer to voice SMS with new patent

Voice and text messaging provider Bubble Motion today announced it has been awarded a patent for its work creating a mobile messaging system known as “Voice SMS.”

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said the patent will now allow users to click, record and send voice-recorded messages to on or several recipients, all without placing an actual call.

The company said that like standard text messaging, voice SMS would have the added benefits of adding emotion, … Continue Reading

Deals & More: Qype gets $8.7M for European local reviews, SunPower grabs $2.5M for Austin expansion

Here’s a quick roundup of some of today’s funding announcements:

Local review site Qype gets $8.7M for mobile edition — The European user-generated review site has raised funding from Vodafone Ventures and others to expand its Yelp-like apps on Android and Blackberry. The Qype app will now come pre-loaded on many Vodafone devices throughout Europe.

SunPower grabs $2.5M to heat up business in Austin — The solar energy company plans to create 450 new jobs … Continue Reading