Arab revolts: Another good week for social media, a bad week for dictators

The Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, set off by social media, have inspired protests in Bahrain, Libya, Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Jordan and even faraway China.

The protests have been spurred by extensive use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, which are seeing their moment in the sun as the tools of revolution. They’re unleashing movements for peace, democracy and freedom in a region of the world that seemed like it was content to … Continue Reading

Intel's new Itanium is the Moby Dick of microprocessors

It’s a whale of a chip. Intel is announcing today the 10th generation of its Itanium chip, which is a 64-bit microprocessor aimed at the very high end of the corporate computer market.

The chip is a modern miracle in many respects, with more than 3 billion basic components known as transistors. It is one of the highest achievements in technological design, but it’s also a relic of an age when power consumption didn’t matter. … Continue Reading

Week in review: Jobs cancer rumors spark Apple worries

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

Steve Jobs’ cancer clinic sighting sparks new Apple worries — Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is receiving treatment from the Stanford Cancer Center, according to reports in the tabloid National Enquirer and gossip website Radar Online. These aren’t terribly reliable sources, and Jobs actually showed up at a dinner with President Obama … Continue Reading

Entrepreneur Corner: Demystifying VC jargon and the birth of Twitter

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

Further demystifying the VC term sheet – “Price-based antidilution adjustment” isn’t exactly a term you hear in everyday conversation. Attorney Scott Edward Walker continues his tear-down of the often mystifying language of venture capital term sheets to better prepare and protect you should an investor offer to back your company.

How to launch at SXSW on a shoestring budget – SXSW can be an expensive, chaotic place to … Continue Reading

Libya shuts down Internet access as unrest intensifies

Libya has now started shutting down its Internet and social networking sites that could help revolutionaries organize, multiple news outlets reported late Friday.

Following the lead of dictatorships that are limiting online access after the overthrow of Egypt’s government last week, Libya appears to be targeting sites including Facebook, Twitter, and even major Arabic news network Al-Jazeera, which confirmed it was no longer accessible in the country.

After the success of organizing via the Internet in … Continue Reading

Engadget editor departs, slams the new “AOL way”

We’ve been hearing that some of AOL’s employees are unhappy with the company’s growing focus on boosting traffic above all else, but until now that has been limited to anonymous complaints and vague reports of discontent. Today, however, AOL-owned Engadget lost a longtime editor, and he didn’t leave quietly.

Paul J. Miller announced his departure from Engadget on his personal blog. Judging from his earliest post, Miller has been at Engadget since September 2005. For … Continue Reading

A channel change: Will Apple start selling televisions?

Apple has had modest success with its Apple TV set-top box for streaming movies and music into homes. But the company might be exploring getting into the business of selling televisions.

If Apple does it right, it could disrupt yet another category of consumer electronics, in addition to the smartphone and tablet categories where it has succeeded beyond its wildest hopes.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company recently posted a … Continue Reading

Adify founder raises $8M for new startup Dynamic Signal

Dynamic Signal, a new startup led by the co-founder and former chief executive of ad company Adify, has raised $8 million in funding, according to a regulatory filing first spotted by Xconomy.

The San Bruno, Calif. company isn’t commenting on the funding and its website is pretty bare for now, but I’ve been hearing a few details. (If a lot of this looks pretty similar to the details reported in Business Insider, hey, I guess … Continue Reading

Google debuts Delicious bookmark importer to tempt away users

Google today debuted a new Delicious migration tool for Google Bookmarks, as it aims squarely at fans of Yahoo’s bookmarking service who have been worried that its retiring could lose them their carefully chosen links.

Delicious, which Yahoo acquired in 2005, provides users with a way to share Web bookmarks and discover new, interesting websites.

The new Google Bookmarks importer allows a user to login with either an existing Yahoo ID or Delicious ID to … Continue Reading

The curious story of electric cars and Texas

When people think of Texas, there are always certain stereotypes that come up — cowboys, twangs, conservative politics, boots, guns, and big, gas-guzzling trucks.

While some stereotypes are rooted in truth, Texas can surprise you. Like when people actually visit a major city and realize that most Texans are neither cowboys nor all heavily accented. Or when a former Texas oilman becomes a champion for clean energy.

Even with these things in mind, I’m still … Continue Reading

Twitter tells UberMedia who’s boss: UberTwitter, Twidroyd suspended

Updated

If you’re wondering how Twitter feels about UberMedia’s efforts to roll-up many of the top Twitter apps into a single company, there was a pretty big hint today with the suspension of UberMedia’s UberTwitter, Twidroyd, and UberCurrent apps.

In a statement being sent to reporters, Twitter offers this explanation:

We ask all developers in the Twitter ecosystem to abide by a simple set of rules that are in the interests of our users, as … Continue Reading

MiaSole reportedly raises $125M for solar, IPO question hangs

Thin-film solar panel maker MiaSole has reportedly raised $125 million in sixth round of equity financing.

The round values the company at less than half it was in 2008, dropping from a $1.2 billion pre-money valuation in 2008 to a $550 million valuation today, according to a source cited by VentureWire.

The company has been said to be preparing for an IPO this year (and was last reported to be looking to raise $100 million, … Continue Reading

Intel CEO named to President's Job Council, plans $5 billion factory

Barack Obama has named Intel chief executive Paul Otellini to the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Intel also said it plans on building $5 billion chip factory and hire 4,000 employees in the U.S. this year.

While Otellini is not an Obama supporter, he has a common interesting in seeing that the U.S. remains competitive with other countries when it comes to creating manufacturing jobs. The move also shows the growing alliance between Silicon … Continue Reading

Inside the all-electric Esflow, the Nissan Leaf's sexier sister

While its official world debut isn’t pegged until the 2011  in just a few weeks, the  ESFLOW electric sports car concept has been revealed in the flesh–or should we say aluminum and carbon fiber?–at a special media event in Frankfurt, Germany this week.

The High Gear Media team was on hand to bring you these live shots of the striking concept, revealing it in the utmost detail and giving us a look at its futuristic … Continue Reading

What President Obama's Web-hipster beer hoax tells us

“Pics or it didn’t happen,” the kids like to say on Internet discussion boards when confronted with an unlikely scenario that calls for photographic verification.

How about making that “Pics and it didn’t happen”? That’s the scenario that unfolded after the founder of a popular tech news-headlines site claimed he checked into a San Francisco bar popular with young startup workers and happened upon President Obama, who was in the Bay Area yesterday to meet … Continue Reading

Photos capture Obama's moment with Zuckerberg and Jobs

Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old founder of Facebook, is rarely seen without a T-shirt or a hoodie. But Zuckerberg brought out a suit for his dinner with President Obama on Thursday. That says a lot about what happens when you combine the world of politics with Silicon Valley. It’s a very formal affair.

The president visited the Bay Area to meet with some of the country’s most innovative technology leaders before zipping off to Portland, Ore. … Continue Reading

NYT: Apple considering cheaper iPhone, not iPhone mini

Contradicting several recent reports that Apple is planning a smaller iPhone, the New York Times is now reporting that, while Apple is looking for ways to make the iPhone cheaper, it is not pursuing a smaller version of the device.

The paper’s sources say that Apple engineers are too busy finishing up the iPhone 5, which is expected to debut this summer, to be worrying about an iPhone Mini. One source says that an iPhone … Continue Reading

Mobile Baby gets babies online before birth

Great Connection, which puts medical scans like X-rays and ultrasounds into the cloud, just announced that its Mobile Baby service will be used in a pilot project in Egypt to perform remote diagnostics on pregnant women. Great Connection already has deployments in maternity clinics in Saudi Arabia and Sweden.

Most pregnancy clinics currently use CDs or other physical media to store and share images. They also need to archive images for up to 10 years, … Continue Reading

Radiohead's "The King of Limbs" digital release lands early (video)

Music group Radiohead’s second stab at a digitally released album, The King of Limbs, was released this morning, even though the band announced early this week that it would be available on Saturday.

The digital release follows 2007′s In Rainbows, Radiohead’s first album released online without studio backing, which it offered to fans digitally for whatever they felt like paying. A two-disc deluxe version of that album was also offered at a higher … Continue Reading