“Unlimited juice” electric vehicle charging plans: Good idea or exploitation?

We often get asked by readers just how much it will cost to run an electric vehicle (EV). And while we’re able to say that an EV costs less to run once purchased than a gasoline car we’ve had to guess refer them to their local utility company for exact pricing.

So what if you could enter into a monthly service contract with an energy provider to provide electric vehicle charging equipment and power in … Continue Reading

Office? How quaint: Google announces Docs connectivity with Microsoft Office

Google announced today it is giving Microsoft Office users a way to bring their documents into Google Docs without having to leave the Office application.

While the service appears within the desktop Office application, this could be the final nail in the coffin for desktop document editing. Microsoft has already taken a strong position in the cloud with the impending launch of Office 365. The company brought all of its Office applications online in response … Continue Reading

Will trucks and buses beat cars in the electric race?

This post is brought to you by IBM. As always, VentureBeat is adamant about maintaining editorial objectivity. IBM had no involvement in the content of this or other posts. For more information on how IBM can help create a Smarter Planet, go here.

Right now, six companies are vying to win a contract that would provide 100 electric vehicles to the government’s General Administration services 214,000-strong  fleet. One of them is Ford; the other, … Continue Reading

Yardsellr raises $5 million to reinvent e-commerce (and enable my dog-sweater habit)

I just bought a dog sweater from a stranger who lives across the country from me. And I totally blame Yardsellr, a year-old startup backed by a team of eBay veterans who may well be inventing the future of social commerce.

Yardsellr CEO and founder Danny Leffel just announced his company has raised $5 million from Accel Partners, the venture-capital firm best known for investing in Facebook, and Harrison Metal Capital, the investing vehicle of … Continue Reading

Broadcom to buy home networking firm Gigle Networks for more than $75M

Consumer device chip giant Broadcom said today it plans to buy Gigle Networks for $75 million plus other considerations.

The deal will enable Irvine, Calif.-based Broadcom to expand its presence in chips for home networking over power lines. Gigle Networks makes chips that are used in home networking adapters which plug into power sockets. They convert ethernet-based broadband data into electrical signals that can be transferred from one wall socket to another in a house. … Continue Reading

On the GreenBeat: Honda looks to Google for electric car pilot, DOE awards $19 million in smart grid grants

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

Carbon emissions are on track to reach a record high in 2010, largely due to the growing demands for energy and coal-burning power plants in India and China, Reuters reports.

The Department of Energy has handed out $19 million in grants this week to five smart grid research projects, which include energy storage circuits and wireless connectivity for assets located deep underground, Earth2Tech … Continue Reading

Dating service SmartDate raises $5M from major French angels and firms

Online dating site SmartDate announced today that it has raised an additional $5 million in its first fundraising round today to help promote its French online dating site and compete with other giants like OKCupid and Match.com.

SmartDate bills itself as an international dating site. Most other dating sites do have operations internationally but aren’t localized, whereas SmartDate is localized for Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. The site started in France, … Continue Reading

Netflix combats Hulu Plus with $7.99 streaming-only plan, raises DVD plan pricing

Netflix today officially unveiled a $7.99 subscription plan that only gives you access to its streaming movies and TV episodes.

The pricing is exactly the same as Hulu Plus, the company’s premium offering, which lets users watch recent TV episodes and archived content on their TVs and portable devices.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings hinted that he was looking into such a plan back in September, and it was rumored for months before. The move makes … Continue Reading

Enterprise software provider Novell bought by Attachmate for $2.2B

Enterprise software infrastructure provider Novell agreed to be bought out by Attachmate, another enterprise software provider, for $2.2 billion — or $6.10 per share — today.

Infrastructure seems to be the sexy acquisition target in 2010. This is the second major purchase of an infrastructure provider in just a few months. Hewlett-Packard announced it would pick up 3Par, a cloud storage provider, for a cool $2.4 billion back in September.

Novell has two significant business … Continue Reading

Nlyte picks up $12 million for greener data centers

Nlyte Software has closed a $12 million third round of funding.

The Menlo Park, Calif. company makes data center management tools that can lower power consumption by 20 percent, the company said, citing analysis by Gartner Research. It can also extend data center life by up to 75 percent. Nlyte’s software and web-based tools are aimed at helping companies better manage data center assets, find under-used assets and automate processes that get the best energy … Continue Reading

VentureBeat's picks for the 10 best video games of the holiday season

We’ve unveiled VentureBeat’s picks for the 10 best video games of the holiday season. And this year’s picks really show how much the $20 million U.S. gaming market has changed in the past year. The growing influence of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and mobile gaming experiences such as the iPhone are clear to see. These games have great single-player experiences, but many of them also have excellent social sharing and multiplayer experiences too, … Continue Reading

PlaySpan expands its pay-per-view video marketplace with anime titles (exclusive)

In recent months, PlaySpan has built a video marketplace where users can browse through video samples and then pay for a complete show if they decided they like it. Today, the company is adding a fifth major source of videos for the market in a deal with Japanese anime film provider Funimation Entertainment.

By itself, the Funimation deal may not be a big one. But PlaySpan is starting to build an interesting business that targets … Continue Reading

Veritat offers web-based financial planning for everyone

If you want really good financial planning advice, the odds are good that you’ll have to be rich already and have lots of money to spend on fees for your financial advisor. Or you may find that your financial advisor is really just a broker who gets paid to push investments at you.

But Philadephia-based Veritat Advisors is unveiling its new web site today that offers financial planning for the rest of us. The company … Continue Reading

iPhone OS 4.2 lands: Brings multitasking to iPad, free Find My iPhone service

It’s time to get updating: Apple today rolled out iPhone OS (iOS) 4.2 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, bringing with it some long-awaited new features like multitasking support on the iPad, and a surprise reveal that its “Find My iPhone” device location service is now free.

While recent iPhone and iPod Touch models have featured multitasking support since the iOS 4.0 update earlier this year, this update marks the first time the feature … Continue Reading

Vudu movie streaming comes to Panasonic's Blu-ray players

Panasonic‘s latest Blu-ray players will include both the Vudu movie-streaming service and stereoscopic 3D capability.

The deal is the latest move by Vudu to expand its reach to as many consumer electronics platforms as possible. Earlier this month, Vudu announced that its movie library of 4,000 high-definition shows would be available to PlayStation 3 owners.

Now customers who buy Panasonic’s 2010 line of Viera Cast Blu-ray players will be able to access Vudu on-demand movie … Continue Reading

Venture capital investing in Silicon Valley continues downward slide

Venture capital investment in Silicon Valley continues to decrease overall even as angel investors rush into high-value investments in tech stars like Twitter and Facebook, according to a study released today of capital raised in the third quarter.

The Fenwick & West Venture Capital Barometer analyzed the valuations and terms of venture financings for 107 Silicon Valley-based technology and life science companies that reported raising capital during the third quarter.

It found that while liquidity, … Continue Reading

Malware creators target smartphones and get smarter at using the cloud

Anti-malware firm M86 Security published a report today predicting that malware creators are going to target smartphones and get a lot smarter about creating viruses that are much tougher to detect.

The M86 Security Predictions 2011 report has a lot of scary stuff in it for ordinary computer users. It makes you want to toss out your smartphone and unplug your computer from the internet. Cybercriminals are targeting smartphones because they aren’t as well protected … Continue Reading

Week in review: Call of Duty Black Ops shows games can beat movies

Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

Review: Call of Duty Black Ops shows games can beat the drama and action of movies — The continuous improvement of this game series shows something that fans have long known. Video games are as good at telling stories and conveying artistic themes as movies, books, or music.

Apple’s Wozniak calls Android the winner … Continue Reading

Entrepreneur Corner: Dissecting a VC’s no and 5 ways to ruin an exit

Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner.

5 things that can screw up your exit strategy – Most entrepreneurs don’t think too much about the end when they start their company, but that can lead to mistakes that make it even harder to be acquired down the road. Attorney Curtis Smolar lists five.

The many definitions of a VC’s no – Part One – A rejection from a venture capital firm doesn’t necessarily mean they … Continue Reading