Source: LegalZoom in early stages of preparing to go public

Online legal document host LegalZoom is in the early stages of preparing to file for an initial public offering, a source told VentureBeat today.

The company hasn’t filed any documents that indicate it will go public with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The process begins when a company files a Form S-1, which includes its most recent financial details and how much money the company is looking to raise. So the actual initial public offering … Continue Reading

Cooliris shows off its cool 3D ads for the iPad (video)

Media browsing startup Cooliris’ business plan has always revolved around high-quality, good-looking ads, and even though it recently refocused on its mobile photo app LiveShare, chief executive Soujanya Bhumkar said he’s still pushing forward on slick new ad products.

Specifically, Cooliris has created new “immersive 3D ads” for the iPad. You tap on the banner ad, which then opens into a 3D product demo that you can rotate using the iPad or iPhone, or into … Continue Reading

Ning launches Mogwee, a mobile social app of its very own

Build-your-own social network company Ning has seen some big changes in the last year. And here’s another one — in addition to providing the technology for everyone else’s social network, it’s launching a mobile social app of its own, called Mogwee.

Ning describes the app as “the best of mobile, all in one place.” Basically, it seems to combine a number of lightweight social networking features for interacting with your existing friends and family. You … Continue Reading

Bump cofounder doesn’t want his sharing app to be "a tool for evil"

Jake Mintz, cofounder of Bump, could make his social-sharing application send out annoying push notifications to remind users to update it and use it — but he’d rather focus on the user experience, he said.

Mintz made the comments in a quick-fire interview on stage with VentureBeat’s Anthony Ha at the DEMO Spring 2011 conference in Palm Desert, Calif., today.

“We all know apps like that, they can also be used as a tool for … Continue Reading

MyLikes raises $5.6 million for social endorsements

MyLikes, an advertising platform based on spreading personal product endorsements through social networks, announced today that it raised a $5.55 million round led by Khosla Ventures.

Started in January last year, the service enables anyone to sign up and spread endorsements of products they like. Users select desirable products and “Like” them on MyLikes, which then spreads them as endorsements on their social networks — Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and others — and pays out a … Continue Reading

Phocabulary helps improve your vocabulary with powerful images

If you’re preparing for a major test like the SAT or GRE, or simply want to improve your everyday vocabulary, Phocabulary for the iPhone and Android is a must-have tool.

The app features 500 handpicked words and combines them with memorable imagery that will help you recall them. Other apps feature a higher count of words, but Phocabulary’s focus on word retention makes it stand out from the crowd. That’s why we’re selecting Phocabulary for … Continue Reading

DEMO: V3 Systems launches solution that makes virtual machines faster than local desktops

V3 Systems is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week in Palm Desert, Calif. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.

According to a study by research firm Gartner, growth in the worldwide hosted virtual desktop market will accelerate through 2013, when it will reach 65 million units, up from some 500,000 units in … Continue Reading

DEMO: Nimble Contact joins social customer relationship management race

Nimble Contact is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week. These companies do pay a fee to present, but our coverage of them remains objective.

For small businesses who may be feeling overwhelmed by large amounts of traditional and social contacts and communications, Nimble Contact may have a solution. The company is launching today at DEMO Spring 2011.

Nimble Contact dubs itself a … Continue Reading

DEMO: Kuggaa’s Global Mobile Ecosystem lets you share files across any device

Kuggaa Mobile is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week in Palm Desert, Calif. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.

New startup Kuggaa Mobile, which is launching at today’s DEMO conference, is aiming to solve the problem of accessing documents across the multitude of web-enabled devices in our lives, including smartphones, computers, and … Continue Reading

DEMO: EyePredict uses neuroscience to improve product catalogs

EyePredict is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week. These companies do pay a fee to present, but our coverage of them remains objective.

If you’re selling something online, you probably don’t spend much time thinking about the actual layout of your catalog — and that’s a mistake, said Ran Carmi, founder and chief executive of a company called EyePredict.

There’s actually a … Continue Reading

DEMO: Websense protects company Facebook fan pages from malware

Websense is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week in Palm Desert, Calif. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.

Facebook is a place where people trust each other because it’s a friend network. But that trust can make people easy victims of malware, which can be easily embedded in messages or company fan … Continue Reading

DEMO: Design and run JavaScript programs online with Cloud9

Ajax is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week in Palm Desert, Calif. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.

Ajax announced that it is launching Cloud9, an online service for developing software, at the Demo 2011 Spring conference today.

Cloud9 is a website where developers using JavaScript and HTML5 — the modern lingua … Continue Reading

DEMO: ApSynth aims to democratize Web app development

ApSynth is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week in Palm Desert, Calif. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.

Mobile apps are a hot topic at the moment, but ApSynth believes there’s still plenty of opportunity available in Web apps meant for desktop Web browsers.

Today, the company is launching a Web-app editor … Continue Reading

Watch DEMO Spring 2011 now (live feed)

Missing the action in Palm Desert, Calif., where the best startups and smartest companies out there are presenting their products? One way to listen in is on Twitter, where I’m providing real-time commentary on the #democon hashtag. But you can also watch the show as it happens on a live feed provided by our partner, Fora.tv. It’s not the same as being in the thick of things and getting the full social experience. But it … Continue Reading

WeatherBill nabs $42M from Khosla, Google to help farmers cope with climate change

Weather-based insurance startup WeatherBill said today it had raised $42 million and signed on new investors Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures for its second round of financing.

The company, which was founded by two ex-Google employees in 2006, offers what it calls “disruptive” technology that delivers personalized weather insurance products for the $3 trillion global agriculture industry. In a statement, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla said WeatherBill has the potential to “fundamentally change the risk profile” … Continue Reading

Unofficial: Verizon iPhone surpassed 1M sold at launch

It’s not an official announcement, but with some creative math it appears that Verizon’s iPhone 4 surpassed 1 million units sold in its first weekend, The Street reports.

Based on statements from Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead, who said this weekend that 60 percent of its iPhone sales came from preorders, combined with analyst estimates that Verizon’s preorders totaled around 600,000 units, The Street figures that Verizon most likely sold 1 million iPhones during the … Continue Reading

On the GreenBeat: Solyndra raises $75M credit facility, Reno's wind experiment

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

Solyndra raises $75 million in credit facility – The solar manufacturer’s latest round of financing to shore up its capital needs come in the form of a secured credit facility underwritten by existing investors. The company makes cylindrical solar rooftop systems and is a now-controversial recipient of a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. The company’s president and CEO Brian Harrison released … Continue Reading

Motorola bringing Atrix-like Webtop docks to all high-end smartphones

Motorola will be bringing its Webtop apps and their corresponding docks to all of its high-end smartphones in the second half of this year, CEO Sanjay Jha told investors today.

That means Motorola’s Atrix, one of our favorite gadgets from the Consumer Electronics Show in January, won’t be the only Motorola phone that can plug into a dock and turn into an ultraportable laptop using its Webtop app. It makes sense, because the Atrix’s high-end … Continue Reading

Think's electric car faces third recall after three months in the U.S.

Dozens, even hundreds, of different models get recalled each year by their makers to address defects or potential problems.

Most pass unnoticed, except to the owners who get letters in the mail asking them to bring their vehicle back to the dealer.

But three recalls in as many months isn’t a particularly stellar way to start selling electric vehicles in the U.S.

Small Norwegian carmaker Think, whose City two-seat electric car is now being assembled … Continue Reading

Is Salesforce getting too big for its shoes?

Web-based software is supposed to make things easy. It’s supposed to just work — that’s what the cloud is all about.

But all that work that happens behind the scenes has kept Salesforce from being as nimble as it should be, said Salesforce.com’s executive vice president of marketing George Hu. He made the comments at the DEMO Spring 2011 conference in Palm Desert, Calif., today.

It’s a problem that keeps Hu up at night — … Continue Reading