Sproxil takes on Africa's drug counterfeiters

Not many tech startups save lives. Sproxil may be one of them.

The company tags pharmaceutical products in emerging markets with a scratch-off code which is verified by sending a text message to Sproxil’s product authentication service. Sproxil was one of two companies to receive an honourable mention from the judges in the recent IBM smartcamp global finals (having previously won the Boston competition) and was one of the most talked-about startups in the competition.… Continue Reading

Oracle wins a whopping $1.3B verdict against SAP

Piracy doesn’t pay. That’s a lesson for SAP. Oracle has won a $1.3 billion jury verdict against SAP, the world’s largest maker of business software, in a copyright infringement lawsuit.

The jury awarded the damages because the evidence showed that SAP’s U.S.-based business unit made hundreds of thousands of illegal downloads and several thousand copies of Oracle’s software with the goal of avoiding license fees and stealing customers. SAP essentially admitted that the allegations were … Continue Reading

Why check in to TV shows? Miso’s new answer: For the deals

Whenever I talk about apps that allow users to share what they’re watching with friends by “checking in” to a TV show, the first question anyone asks me is, ‘Why the heck would I want to do that?” Social TV startup Miso has been exploring different answers to that question, such as special content, and it unveiled a new one today — a promotional deal with home shopping company QVC.

As a marketing effort for … Continue Reading

Acer announces its answer to iTunes: Alive

Taiwanese computer-maker Acer announced a wave of new devices today, including two Android tablets and a dual-screen tablet, but it wasn’t just focused on hardware. It also announced Alive, which sounds like a media and application store for owners of Acer devices.

In its press release (reproduced on Engadget), Acer says it sees five main uses for Alive — listening to music and other audio content, watching movies and TV shows, reading e-books and periodicals, … Continue Reading

Teen virtual world Gaia Online lays off 15 to 20 staffers

Gaia Online, which has created a virtual world for millions of teens and young adults,  has laid off 15 to 20 of its employees in the past few days, VentureBeat has learned.

It doesn’t bode well for the virtual world category, which has had a number of high-profile failures this year.

While it isn’t a large number of layoffs, it’s a sizable percentage of the company’s employee base, which was at 110 employees in June … Continue Reading

Acer's on a roll: Launches Android tablets, 4.8-inch smartphone, crazy dual-screen laptop

As promised, computer maker Acer launched a slew of new devices at its press event in New York today — including two Android tablets, a dual-screen laptop/tablet hybrid and a huge 4.8-inch Android smartphone.

Acer’s two Android tablets come in at 10.1 and 7 inches, and still don’t have official names. Both tablets appear to be power houses: They sport a dual-core 1 gigahertz processor, HDMI video output (capable of displaying 1080p video) and a … Continue Reading

Sequoia Capital is "at your service" for ambitious startups

Sequoia Capital is one of Silicon Valley’s great venture capital firms (it has backed the founders of Apple, Oracle, Cisco, Network Appliance, NVIDIA, Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Admob and many others).

Having them as a partner can provide a turbo boost to any ambitious startup.

So we’ve joined with Sequoia Capital to be at your beck and call. Together with their partners, we’ll answer questions and provide feedback to a select group of driven early-stage entrepreneurs … Continue Reading

Want motion control? Better move fast. Spot shortages already hitting Microsoft's Kinect and Sony PlayStation Move

The newest motion-control systems from Microsoft and Sony are starting to be in short supply as the busy holiday shopping season approaches.

Microsoft said today that some stores are selling out of its Kinect motion-control system, which launched on Nov. 4 and sold 1 million units in its first 10 days. David Dennis, a spokesman, said the company is working hard to keep up with demand and has increased manufacturing of the systems, which sell … Continue Reading

Here come the sales: Fans buy 2M Beatles songs on iTunes

The music of the Beatles saw strong if not world-changing sales during its first week of availability on iTunes, according to sales numbers that Apple provided to Billboard.

The Beatles were the final big holdout from iTunes and from digital sales in general. (The very last CD that I purchased, and will probably ever purchase, was The Beatles’ White Album — which I promptly copied onto my hard drive.) The band’s arrival on iTunes last … Continue Reading

Did Björk (yes, Björk) get it right on geothermal energy?

This week, quirky Icelandic singer Björk made headlines, but not for wearing another swan dress to the Oscars — rather, the songstress was caught up in an imbroglio about geothermal energy.

Geothermal energy is the rather less-sexy cleantech sister to solar and wind. Geothermal harnesses energy from deep within the earth — in essence, the volcanic energy created below the earth’s surface. There are two main ways to harness geothermal: either by drilling for “dry … Continue Reading

Is RIM flexing its muscles by kicking out popular chat app Kik?

[Updated: RIM has responded with a vague statement, below]

In an odd move of aggression, RIM has yanked the popular chat application Kik off its Blackberry phones, and has wiped its hands of anything to do with the young company.

All with no reasonable explanation, according to Kik.

The apparent aggressive move against a developer is strange, because RIM is trying to recover from the blow to its lead in the smartphone race — and … Continue Reading

Will Microsoft lead the charge to bring apps to video game consoles?

Welcome to the app economy. Next stop, video game consoles.

A new advertisement by Microsoft suggests that applications running on its proprietary Silverlight framework are headed to the XBox 360 — a feature that’s certainly been a long time coming.

Video game consoles are becoming increasingly popular as media centers, rather than just being used to play video games. Pretty much every console already carries Netflix’s streaming video service. Most offer Facebook and Twitter connectivity. … Continue Reading

Zynga and Playdom settle trade-secret lawsuit

Zynga and Playdom, two of the biggest social game companies, said today that they have settled a year-old lawsuit over alleged trade-secret theft.

Terms were not disclosed. Zynga sued its rival in social games in September of last year, alleging that four former Zynga employees stole the company’s trade secrets when they left the company to join Playdom. Playdom has since been acquired by Disney for as much as $760 million.

In a joint statement, … Continue Reading

Verizon pushes for rewrite of "antiquated and anti-competitive" US telecom law

Tell us what you really think, Verizon. The company yesterday issued a press release titled “Congress Needs to Update the Nation’s Antiquated and Anti-Competitive Telecom Rules” — which, as you can guess, isn’t exactly a love letter to the FCC.

Verizon executive vice president of public affairs Tom Tauke is quoted as saying in the release: “The grinding you hear are the gears churning as policymakers try to fit fast-changing technologies and competitive markets into … Continue Reading

Social media tracker Tynt gives developers content in real-time data streams

Social media tracker startup Tynt has launched a new application program interface (API) that allows developers to access their content through real-time data streams, as the rush to put more information in the hands of smartphone users heats up.

Tynt works with online publishers and websites to track and analyze data about the sharing activity of their users.

The new API is the first initiative of Tynt Labs, as the company debuts new data tracking … Continue Reading

Skyfire launches first mobile browser for "the social networking generation"

Mobile browser maker Skyfire today announced the launch of the first mobile browser geared specifically for “the social networking generation,” the company said.

Dubbed the Skyfire 3.0, the new app will now work across a suite of platforms including Facebook Connect for Android 2.0 and higher devices. Skyfire for Android has seen rapid growth since its debut and now boasts close to two million users.

It had been operating off a cloud-powered toolbar that let … Continue Reading

On the GreenBeat: Boeing makes first solar push; 58 million smart meters to be deployed in U.S.

Here are the top cleantech stories we’re following today on the GreenBeat:

Boeing announced it will deliver its first high-efficiency solar cells for commercial sale in January. The cells, originally developed for outer space use, have an efficiency rate of 39.2 percent.

Chinese solar leader Yingli Green Energy has released another strong earnings report, reporting a 33.3 percent gross margin that approaches the 40.2 percent reported by industry leader First Solar. Yingli’s success … Continue Reading

myThings raises another $6M for better targeted advertising

myThings, a provider of targeted advertising services, announced today that it has raised $6 million in its most recent round of funding led by Deutsche Telecom investing arm T-Venture to expand its research and development in Europe.

The company, which has offices in London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, specializes in ad “retargeting”. That means it provides advertisers with a learning algorithm that keeps track of which advertisements don’t work. Users are tagged with a “smart” … Continue Reading

Svpply bags $500K for minimalist social shopping

Svpply (pronounced “supply”), a social shopping service that helps users discover new products, announced today that it has raised a $550,000 seed round.

The service takes an innovative new approach to shopping: Instead of working out of a pre-existing catalog, it relies on users’ use of its bookmarklet to tag neat and interesting products they see online. These are then seen by the users’ followers, and curated through the site’s pages for editor’s picks, gift … Continue Reading