Shorthand brings (some of) the Internet to phones, no data plan required

Smartphone applications are perhaps the hottest area for startups nowadays, but what about people who don’t a mobile data plan? San Diego startup Shorthand says that in India, for example, smartphones still have low penetration, so the best way to reach its population is on lower-end feature phones — that’s why the company is announcing what it calls an “SMS-based mobile browser”.

Shorthand’s browser won’t allow users to navigate the entire mobile Web, but it … Continue Reading

Facebook denies phone rumors, hints at heavy integration with HTC

Not surprisingly, Facebook has flatly denied yesterday’s rumor about a potential phone unveiling next month, Reuters reports.

Instead, it looks as if the rumor was really about new Facebook integration in upcoming phones built by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC. “This is really just another example of a manufacturer who has taken our public APIs (application programming interfaces) and integrated them into their device in an interesting way,” said Facebook’s head of business development Dan Rose at … Continue Reading

Giving clean energy an American makeover

In American politics, energy and the environment are rocky issues. So when President Obama called this week for the U.S. to run on 80 percent clean energy by 2035, he couched it in terms that this capitalistic, economically anxious nation know best: Money and jobs.

In a press call yesterday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu reiterated Obama’s message, giving sign of how the administration will position the president’s clean energy plans politically.

“This is wealth creation,” … Continue Reading

Tesla to recycle electric car batteries in Belgium

Electric carmaker Tesla will recycle its battery packs in Europe by refining its innards to cobalt, nickel and other metals.

Tesla joins a long list of electric car manufacturers that are trying to figure out what to do with batteries at the end of their lives — which, per automaker warranties, are guaranteed to last seven to 10 years. While electric car demand is strong, batteries remain the most expensive and unwieldy component and raise … Continue Reading

Hulu's owners at odds over future of television

Here’s a shock: the three main corporate owners of Hulu are at odds with each other and with Hulu management over the online TV service’s basic strategy. Who could have guessed?

The Wall Street Journal reports that News Corp. (owner of Fox) and Disney (owner of ABC) want to pull some of the ad-supported shows they make available free via Hulu. They complain that the streamed shows are biting into their other, more lucrative (for … Continue Reading

Eric Schmidt's talk on age of "augmented humanity" at DLD (video)

Google’s Eric Schmidt gave a talk about his vision for the next decade at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich, where he predicted an age of “augmented humanity.” He sees computers finally getting smart enough to start helping us out on everything from translating speech to driving cars.

As we noted before, his view of the next decade is interesting because he has spent the past decade as CEO of one of the few … Continue Reading

Layar Player lets others embed augmented reality in iPhone apps

Augmented reality company Layar said today that it has launched a new augmented reality player that can be embedded for free in iPhone applications.

The new Layar Player from the Amsterdam-based company came out of beta testing today and is available for agencies, brands and developers to embed into their own iPhone apps. Those apps can be used by the 1.4 million active users on the Layar platform. That’s in addition to iPhone users who … Continue Reading

DreamIt chooses Mark Wachen to lead New York accelerator

Philadelphia-based startup accelerator DreamIt Ventures recently announced plans to open an office in New York City. Now it’s revealed who’s going to be running it — entrepreneur and investor Mark Wachen.

Managing partner Kerry Rupp said that DreamIt’s four Philadelphia partners will all be involved in choosing the NYC companies and hope to be in New York at least once a week, but they also knew they needed a full-time presence in the city. Wachen, … Continue Reading

Boku and Zong let Verizon customers pay via their phone bill

Boku, which lets users make purchases with their mobile phones the same way they would with a credit card, just announced a partnership with the BilltoMobile payment service, which is directly connected to the Verizon Wireless billing system. Rival payment service Zong has established the same partnership.

This means that Verizon customers can purchase virtual goods, apps and other items and bill them directly to their cell phone bill. BilltoMobile, which has been pursuing an … Continue Reading

Nokia loses smartphone market share and operating profit, hints at OS switch

Despite increased smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter of 2010, Nokia still lost ground to the iPhone and Android in market share — something that hurt the phone manufacturer when it came to operating profit, according to the company’s fourth quarter 2010 earnings report.

But new CEO Stephen Elop has some ideas on how he can turn around Nokia’s fortune. In particular, he hinted in a call with investors that the company may consider adopting … Continue Reading

Umair Haque on the tech industry's "thin value problem"

Umair Haque thinks that Silicon Valley is in a competency trap. “The things that made it successful yesterday are exactly the things that prevent it from becoming successful tomorrow”.

Haque is the Director of the Havas Media Lab, blogs in the Harvard Business Review and just published a book called the “The New Capitalist Manifesto: Driving a Disruptively Better Business” (Harvard Business Press, 2011). In the book, he sets out his ideas on how capitalism, … Continue Reading

AT&T tops off 2010 with 2.8M new wireless subscribers, 4.1M iPhones sold

AT&T made a strong showing in its last quarter of 2010. The carrier announced its earnings today (PDF link) and revealed that it added 2.8 new wireless customers in the last quarter and sold 4.1 million iPhones.

AT&T saw revenues of $31.4 billion (up $653 million from last year) with 9.9 percent growth in wireless revenues and a 9.6 percent increase in wireless service revenues. Last quarter marked the first time ever that AT&T’s wireless … Continue Reading

Deals & More: Plum District grabs $8.5M to save moms money, Korrio scores $3.3M to help sports leagues

Today’s funding announcements include two startups geared toward parents:

Plum District brings in $8.5M for family-focused offers: The provider of daily deals for mothers has raised a first round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to expand the site to Portland, Dallas and Raleigh-Durham this year. A sales force of moms source the deals for the San Francisco-based startup, which has grown to more than 20 cities since launching in May.

Korrio … Continue Reading

Nintendo reports so-so results and forecasts mixed unit sales ahead

Nintendo reported that its nine-month results today were respectable, despite the negative impact of a sharply rising yen which makes dollar-based sales look weaker. The sales include the all-important holiday selling season, where Nintendo fared reasonably well but couldn’t beat last year’s numbers.

The report shows that Nintendo has to start raising its game as it faces new competition from Apple and Sony. The latter announced it has a new portable game system coming this … Continue Reading

Sony announces next-gen portable entertainment system, as powerful as PS 3

Take that, Apple and Nintendo! Sony announced that it will launch a next-generation portable entertainment system. Sony claims the new portable system will be as powerful as its PlayStation 3 game console.

At an event in Tokyo, the Japanese electronics giant showed off the NGP, a code name for what Sony calls the “ultimate portable entertainment experience.” The replacement for the PlayStation Portable, first launched in 2004, will debut at the end of the year. … Continue Reading

Groupon in China — why it could succeed where others have failed

A lot of articles have been swirling around over the past week about Groupon’s entrance into China and a possible partnership with China’s biggest internet service portal, Tencent. They’ve all said things like “China is a tough nut to crack”, “foreign companies come to China to die”, and “Groupon will be no different”, but few offered insights into why Groupon may or may not be different.

Let’s be clear on one thing, China doesn’t kill … Continue Reading

Nielsen kicks off IPO season with $1.6B raised and 8% jump in trading

Who says the IPO market is anemic?

Television-and-Internet audience measurer Nielsen Holdings raised $1.6 billion Tuesday during its initial public offering, close to 10 percent more than analysts had a projected, and boosting the company’s shares nearly 8 percent to $23 in Wednesday trading, a hefty leap from all prior predictions.

Nielsen said it would use the money from its IPO to pay down debt. Its private-equity shareholders, who bought the firm in 2006 for … Continue Reading

Report: Skype says new CEO, shaky market will delay its IPO until at least July

Concerns about the readiness of its CEO and a shaky market have Skype, the iconic Internet voice-chat service, saying it won’t hold its much-awaited initial public offering until the second half of the year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal today. Skype’s IPO has been hotly anticipated since before it filed to sell $100 million shares to the public last August.

A Skype spokesperson did not respond to requests for additional comment.… Continue Reading