Nvidia's Tegra 2 could have a starring role in superphones and tablets debuting at CES
Nvidia is reportedly racking up design wins for its Tegra 2 chip set for smartphones and tablets, with many of the devices expected to be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show.
If the rumors are true, it’s about time. Last year, Nvidia chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang declared 2010 to be “the year of the tablet.” Only it turned out to be the year of the iPad, which did Nvidia no good because Apple used its … Continue Reading
Zipcar continues its hot streak, brings in $55M in most recent quarter
Car-sharing service Zipcar brought in $55 million in its third quarter this year, up 46 percent from the same quarter a year ago when it made about $38 million in revenue, according to the company’s most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Zipcar is essentially a streamlined car rental service that lets people rent cars by the hour. It’s available in most cities where the cars are strewn across the city in special … Continue Reading
Make a date with NASA: Agency CIO says enterprise calendars suck
Every kind of operation needs enterprise software — even ones that send people to the moon.
But it looks like NASA has its own share of problems dealing with the organization’s software needs. So much so that its chief information officer, Linda Cureton, has appealed to good old Saint Nick to come in and help out.
Here’s a list of Cureton’s requests for the jolly guy in red up at the North Pole:
A secure
Major League Gaming raising $10M for tournament gaming
For some gamers, competing in a darkened living room gets old. That’s what fuels the growth of Major League Gaming, a tournament gaming company that announced today it has raised $10 million in funding to continue staging live video-game competitions as well as online events.
New York-based MLG, which runs the world’s largest professional video game player’s league, said it has a $10 million financing commitment from Legion Enterprises, a private equity firm. The deal … Continue Reading
Photo app Instagram is (probably) raising money from Benchmark
I’m hearing that Instagram, an iPhone photo application that’s attracting a lot of buzz, is raising a new funding round led by Benchmark Capital.
To be clear, my source is well-positioned to hear about the deal, but they aren’t directly involved, so you may want to classify this as a rumor. Last month, Caroline McCarthy at Cnet reported that Instagram was looking to raise money at a $20 million valuation, with Sequoia Capital positioned as … Continue Reading
Zynga launches Mafia Wars Atlantic City for mobile phones
Zynga launched a mobile version of its Mafia Wars Atlantic City game today. The game is the social game company’s first designed for the mobile Web in the HTML5 format, and comes as it’s seeking to show potential investors that it has more tricks up its sleeve than just social games on Facebook’s website.
Using HTML5 means Mafia Wars Atlantic City runs on any smartphone with a browser, including the iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and … Continue Reading
Is MyLife the biggest social site you’ve never heard of?
When you think of hot social networking companies, MyLife probably isn’t the first one that comes to mind. Or the second. But chief executive Jeff Tinsley said Los Angeles, Calif.-based website is quickly building an audience that can challenge its more famous rivals.
Specifically, Tinsley said MyLife had 29.3 million unique visitors in November, a 91 percent increase over the past year, and also up from 26.1 million in October. That might be attributable to … Continue Reading
Nasuni nets $15M to smooth sailing into cloud storage
Nasuni, a provider of software that streamlines data transfer to cloud storage outlets, announced today that it has raised $15 million in its second round of funding led by Flybridge Capital Partners.
The company’s software serves as a link between local storage and any number of cloud storage providers, which store data in remote servers and usually charge per gigabyte of storage, like Iron Mountain and Amazon’s S3 storage service. The software behaves like a … Continue Reading
AT&T snags more bandwidth for 4G: Buys Qualcomm's FLO TV wireless spectrum for $1.9B
After shutting down its ailing FLO TV wireless video service in October, Qualcomm announced today that it will be selling the service’s precious 700 megahertz wireless spectrum to AT&T for around $1.9 billion to bolster its 4G network.
The deal, which is still pending regulatory approval, is perhaps the best possible outcome for Qualcomm, which never managed to find success with FLO TV. The company learned the hard way that consumers would rather watch video … Continue Reading
eBay looks to social shopping with $200M Brands4friends buy
eBay announced that it has acquired Berlin-based Brands4friends, a European online retailer that sells significantly discounted merchandise to its members, for $200 million.
It’s another move away from eBay’s once-iconic auction service — but eBay has been distancing itself from auctions for some time now. For the first time in more than a year, eBay has not seen any significant revenue growth from its core marketplace business. That has left PayPal, which continues to grow … Continue Reading
Tesla plans aggressive timeline for production of 2012 all-electric Model S
It’s been a while since we checked in on the car that will likely make or break Silicon Valley electric-car startup Tesla Motors: the Model S, a five-door midsize sports luxury sedan it hopes to launch somewhere toward the end of 2012.
Tesla hasn’t said much about the Model S lately, but a number of updates are contained in the 8-K update it filed Tuesday with the Securities & Exchange Commission (and soon after conveniently … Continue Reading
On the GreenBeat: Cape Wind hunts for customers, Honda eyes China for electric car sales
Here’s the latest action we’re following on the GreenBeat today:
Offshore wind farm Cape Wind needs buyers for its power — The large, expensive and controversial Massachusetts wind farm needs customers, the Associated Press writes. Half of its 468-megawatt capacity has been sold to National Grid, but the other half has been turned down by top state utility NStar, which said it could find cheaper alternative energy elsewhere. Siemens is in talks to help finance … Continue Reading
CityVille could surpass FarmVille's 56M users in a few days
After just 18 days, Zynga’s CityVille social game has soared to more than 47.9 million monthly active users. At its current growth rate, CityVille could surpass FarmVille, currently the largest social game at 56.3 million monthly users, in a matter of three days or so.
If it does that, CityVille would not only be the fastest-growing game in history. It would also be the largest game being played today, certainly on Facebook and perhaps on … Continue Reading
Last-minute green gifts for cleantech fans
This year has seen the launch of a number of cool green gadgets and gizmos — it’s also been a big year for electric car launches. If you want to put something really green under the tree, here are some ideas that may inspire you — and that also show how green has become a big business, targeting consumers’ desire for sustainability at a range of price points.
Gadgets
Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard
If you … Continue Reading
Amazon offers free one-day shipping for holiday shoppers
Procrastinators rejoice! Amazon announced today that it will offer free one-day shipping for thousands of products, including electronics, video games and jewelry, until the end of the day on Wednesday, December 22. (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pictured right.)
Clearly, Amazon is trying to continue the success online retailers saw on Free Shipping Day (December 17), which ended up being the biggest day for only retail ever.
To receive the shipping discount, you must ship your … Continue Reading
We'll say it again: Nokia's keen on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7
Now this sounds familiar. For the past month, Nokia has apparently been in discussions with Microsoft about putting its new Windows Phone 7 software on Nokia hardware, according to an editorial by Eldar Murtazin of the Russian site Mobile-Review.
Murtazin writes that Nokia’s new management — which includes Stephen Elop, former head of Microsoft’s business division and Nokia’s new CEO — has started talks with the software giant to increase their cooperation. Primarily, Nokia seems … Continue Reading
3D printing: The state of the art
We have all spent a wasted day shopping, or worse, regretting our purchases. You often can’t find a pair of jeans that fit perfectly or a lamp that matches the fuchsia stripes on your wall. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get exactly the product you want?
Mass customization, as spearheaded by companies like T-shirt makers Threadless, offers the promise of personalized products, manufactured on demand. 3D printing is one technique that could allow … Continue Reading
Foursquare unveils comments and photos with new iPhone app
Popular check in application Foursquare today unveiled the next version of its iPhone application according to the company’s blog. The most notable features include being able to comment on friend’s check ins and photo sharing. The app is available now.
Last week, the company shared an indicator of the new app through a short Tweet, which thanked “SantaJobs,” apparently a reference to Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs.
The comments feature is meant to help … Continue Reading
Book excerpt: The Crowdfunding Revolution
(Editor’s note: Kevin Lawton is the author of “The Crowdfunding Revolution”. The following is an excerpt from the book.)
My journey into crowdfunding was not exactly typical.
Originally, I began exploring a new concept for an early-stage VC firm, one that was a radical departure from the old-school model, which seems to hold a belief that the minds of a few partners and their ‘Rolodex’ can outperform the collective wisdom of the billions of people … Continue Reading
News360 delivers smarter news to your iPhone
It seems like a good time for news on mobile devices, with the popular Flipboard iPad application launching earlier this year, and News Corps’ iPad-only newspaper The Daily coming in a few months.
But where most apps either represent a single publication (like CNN or The New York Times) or are built around social aggregation (like Flipboard), a Moscow, Russia-based startup called News360 says that the key to nailing the news experience on the phone … Continue Reading
