Verizon shows strong subscriber growth and profit — but revenue disappoints analysts

Verizon this morning announced its fourth quarter earnings for 2010 and, for the most part, it looks like the company fared well, with strong wireless subscriber growth and profits doubling those of last year.

But despite the good news, a slight revenue dip disappointed analysts.

Verizon Wireless, the company’s mobile arm, scored 872,000 customers under contract in the quarter. That’s well above the 646,000 analysts projected, according to Reuters. The number is impressive given that … Continue Reading

NileGuide acquires 10Best to dominate travel recommendations

Travel startup NileGuide just announced that it has acquired a site called 10Best, a move that chief executive Josh Steinitz says makes the San Francisco startup “one of, if not the, largest travel content publishers” online.

NileGuide started out as a “travel agent, tour guide, and concierge wrapped into one” but has since become focused on providing travel recommendations. That’s accomplished on the main NileGuide site with content from partners like Frommer’s, from the company’s … Continue Reading

Hollywood and tech leaders invest in GeekChicDaily

Email newsletter GeekChicDaily is announcing today that Hollywood movie executive Joe Roth and Seattle internet investor Mike Slade have led an unspecified round of investment in the publication. GeekChicDaily has an audience of people with an interest in both tech and entertainment, so it’s no surprise the company has recruited new investors from both of those realms.

GeekChicDaily calls itself a “shot-in-the-arm for all things popular culture,” covering comics, video games, film, TV, toys, collectibles … Continue Reading

Dave McClure’s super angel fund backs digital comics startup Graphicly

Movies based on Green Lantern, Thor, Captain America, and the X-Men are all due out this year, but it looks like Hollywood executives aren’t the only investors taking a close look at comic books. Graphicly, a startup behind an application for buying and reading digital comics, just announced that it has raised $3 million in its first round of institutional funding.

2010 was a big year for digital comics launches, with startup ComiXology probably attracting … Continue Reading

Eric Schmidt sees next decade as age of "augmented humanity"

Eric Schmidt may not be chief executive of Google for long (he turns that title over to Larry Page on April 4). But he isn’t going to stop sharing his vision for the future.

The chairman of Google talked about the next decade and how it will be a time when we are the masters of technology, and not visa versa. You could think of it, he said, as the era of “augmented humanity.” If … Continue Reading

Former Skype president brings cable TV model to newspaper content

What will it take to make readers pay for online news content? Ongo, creator of a subscription-based news service launching today, thinks a handsome interface for viewing hand-picked articles will do the trick. The New York Times Company, The Washington Post Company and Gannett Company, all early investors, are hoping the startup is right.

Founded by former Skype president Alex Kazim, Ongo is launching its web and iPad apps today amid uncertain times for print … Continue Reading

TeaSpiller takes on TurboTax and H&R Block for your accounting needs

With just 80 days till Tax Day (April 15), TeaSpiller, a service for finding and working with accountants, today announced its public launch, which provides access to over 20,000 certified accountants around the U.S.

Users looking for an accountant, whether for taxes or other services, can visit the site and search by geographic area. Users can choose to contact one of the listed accountants by email or phone.

After both parties agree to work with … Continue Reading

Cirtas raises $22.5M for cloud storage hardware and gets new CEO

Cirtas Systems, a cloud storage hardware company, is announcing today it has raised $22.5 million in a second round of funding and has named tech veteran Gary Messiana as its chief executive.

Small and medium businesses will care about this because it can help them cut costs. Storage systems are getting so complex that they require the architectural expertise of highly specialized people to solve. The amount of data in corporations is exploding so fast … Continue Reading

HP remakes corporate philanthropy by donating its expertise to nonprofits

Hewlett-Packard is reshaping its policies on giving away money to nonprofit causes. Now the company will not just give away money. It will also donate the expertise of its employees to build solutions for nonprofits.

The change in policy makes sense, as the value of HP’s technology expertise could be far more useful, in conjunction with a donation, than just writing checks to charities, said Paul Ellingstad, a director in the office of global social … Continue Reading

Meet HighNote, the high-powered chat app

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a race among a handful of apps competing to become the coolest, most efficient chat app.

HighNote is the latest mobile application seeking to make text chat more fun. It provides a cornucopia of new ways to communicate creatively with your friends. It lets you send a basic text message to your friends, but you can customize your text in different ways, including with different color, fonts and sizes … Continue Reading

Former Facebook exec backs BlipSnips social video service

Despite the hoopla about how everything on the Web is becoming increasingly social, BlipSnips chief executive John Bliss said that online video remains a remarkably un-social experience — and that’s a problem BlipSnips is trying to solve.

This will probably resonate if you’ve ever been sent a link to a video that you or a friend appears in, or if you’ve been tagged in a video on Facebook. In fact, Bliss said the idea for … Continue Reading

Eric Schmidt doesn't want to be a YouTube star

He’s barely dipped his toes in the TV waters. But already, outgoing Google CEO Eric Schmidt is getting laughed off the airwaves.

The rumor, courtesy of the New York Post, is that Schmidt is pursuing a post-Google career as a TV talk-show host. (He announced last week that he was stepping down as CEO effective April 4.) Google and Schmidt wouldn’t comment for the story, but the Post has collected convincing details — namely, that … Continue Reading

Hit the deck! 2011 enterprise sales may be in trouble, says VMware

Virtualization software provider VMware posted strong fourth quarter and yearly results, but a trimmed outlook from the company indicates that enterprise spending could be weaker in 2011 now that pent-up demand for software and hardware that grew during the economic recession is mostly sated.

VMware saw a record fourth quarter, making $131 million off $836 million in revenue. Its fourth-quarter revenue was up 37 percent from $608 million in the fourth quarter last year, and … Continue Reading

Light some CIGS: Intel leads $25M round for Sulfurcell's solar modules

Looks like SpectraWatt’s struggles haven’t deterred Intel from investing in solar.

SpectraWatt, an Intel spinoff which has raised about $50 million in venture capital to develop its solar cells, recently said it would close a plant and lay off 100 workers. But Intel’s investment arm is bouncing right back, this time with a bet on a promising solar-manufacturing technology that has gathered increasing steam lately. Intel Capital announced today it led a $25 million equity … Continue Reading

LED headlights give your electric car an extra six miles

Your electric car can go six miles further on its battery if you use LED headlights.

That’s the conclusion drawn by an automotive engineer with Osram Sylvania, according to Autoblog Green. Electric and electric-hybrid car ranges are impacted by external factors like temperature, whether you’re running the air conditioning or heater and how often you brake.

Alleviating range concerns of electric car owners and prospective buyers is a big issue in spurring electric vehicle adoptions. … Continue Reading

RIM's BlackBerry Balance software to help users manage work and personal data

Research In Motion has a fix to the problem of juggling your work and personal life on a single mobile device, and it’s called BlackBerry Balance.

The software, which is expected to be available in two months, will let RIM’s devices separate user’s personal data — including social network apps, photos and the Web browser — from traditional BlackBerry work applications, like email sent from a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), Reuters reports. For RIM, which … Continue Reading

Qwiki's Wall-E style narrated online encyclopedia goes live for everyone

Much-lauded startup Qwiki — an online Wikipedia-esque service that throws displays information with computer-generated voices, images and video — is coming out of private alpha and opening up to everyone today.

The service basically feels like it’s from the future. Actors asking like questions to a computer and getting large swaths of information back is basically a sci-fi trope in movies like Wall-E at this point, and that’s exactly what Qwiki does — though sans … Continue Reading

On the GreenBeat: Mazda to launch electric car, BYD and Daimler finalize China electric car design

Here’s the latest action we’re following this morning on the GreenBeat:

Jatropha draws biofuels skeptics – The biofuels-producing plant (pictured), once thought to have great potential, is now being criticized for being undependable, Reuters reports. While it can be grown on marginal land, the plant yields less unless cultivated in fertile conditions.

Mazda to launch electric vehicle — The car would be priced under $36,350 after subsidies and become available for leasing in Japan in … Continue Reading

Facebook confirms plans to make Credits the mandatory “universal currency”

Updated with analyst comments.

Facebook is announcing the next phase in the rollout of its virtual currency, Facebook Credits, which is leaving beta testing today. That means all Facebook game developers will be able to use Credits as their payment system for virtual goods — in fact, Facebook is requiring them to make the switch by July 1.

Facebook Credits are a system of points, managed by the social network, that can be purchased or … Continue Reading