MingleBird wants to make event networking less awkward
If you’ve ever attended a tech event in the hopes of networking but ended up spending most of your time in the corner, startup MingleBird is launching an iPhone application to make the process a little easier.
MingleBird is looking to partner with large events like conferences initially. Event organizers create a code for the event. Then when users download the app and enter the code, they enter into a game where they earn points … Continue Reading
Savings.com mashes every daily deal onto one site
What’s better than one daily deals site? Every daily deals site — on the same page.
That’s what Savings.com is hoping to capitalize on by bringing deals from every daily deals site — including the likes of Yelp, Groupon and LivingSocial — onto a single landing page. The company announced that it is launching a closed beta at the Launch conference in San Francisco.
Users can sign up with a Gmail, Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo … Continue Reading
StorkBrokers wants to be a personalized eBay for child's goods
StorkBrokers, an online marketplace for child-oriented goods like toys and car seats, announced that it is launching today at the Launch conference in San Francisco.
The site is like a carved out version of the children’s goods sections on eBay. StorkBrokers also has an iPhone app that’s supposed to be easier to sell old children’s goods online. Users snap a photo and set a price and shipping cost for whatever they want to sell, and … Continue Reading
FTW syncs your saved games across devices
If you’ve ever played a game like Angry Birds on the iPhone and the iPad, you’ve probably been frustrated by the fact that you have to start over each time — your saved games don’t transfer. A new startup called FTW (which stands for “For the Win”, a popular phrase among Intenet users for expressing enthusiasm) wants to change that.
Founder Mark Burstiner, who was demonstrating the service on-stage this morning at the Launch conference … Continue Reading
Find friends to go squirrel fishing with Stomp.io
Stomp.io, an online service that brings together people looking to meet up at “kooky” events, announced that it is launching today at the Launch conference in San Francisco.
“It’s like Jackass, but for nerds,” said All Things D’s Kara Swisher, referring to MTV’s offbeat stunt show.
The service is like Meetup meets Groupon. Anyone can post a crazy event — like squirrel fishing, where a bunch of people will meet, attach nuts to strings and … Continue Reading
Screener.co gives stock trader tools to Joe Blow
Screener.co, a service that features advanced stock trading tools, announced that it is entering a closed beta today at the Launch Conference in San Francisco.
The service is similar to the stock trading tools offered online by Google and Yahoo, but features a some extra technical tools. The software keeps track of around 48,000 companies’ financial information, which range from net income to the number of employees they have. The idea is to match the … Continue Reading
Motorola's Xoom the most iPad-like Android tablet yet, reviewers say
Motorola’s Xoom Android tablet is now available at Best Buy and Verizon stores, and reviewers have weighed in with mostly positive impressions.
Overall, the Xoom appears to be the most iPad-like Android tablet on the market, thanks to its impressive hardware and slick Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” operating system. But it’s much more expensive than the iPad ($599 with a two-year Verizon contract, $799 off contract), there aren’t many tablet-specific Android apps available, and certain hardware … Continue Reading
Lockify locks up information in a secure link
Lockify, a service that encrypts text and creates a link to send the information safely across the Internet, launched today at the Launch Conference in San Francisco.
The service is like a secure version of link shortener Bit.ly. Lockify users can enter some information into a text box and then create a link to access that information. The URL to the information is a bunch of nonsense, so it’s tough to guess. But if there … Continue Reading
LinkedIn blocked in China, a happy day for Chinese clones
As of 10pm Shanghai time, reports are pouring in that LinkedIn too has now succumbed to the Great Firewall. I can’t access it from Shanghai without using circumvention technology like a virtual private network. Sometimes such blockages are temporary, but I’m guessing this one has permanent implications.
LinkedIn allows users to connect their accounts with Twitter, so that they can both tweet from LinkedIn and share their tweets on LinkedIn. Until now, LinkedIn was the … Continue Reading
Room 77 helps you avoid bad hotel rooms
There’s no shortage of ways to book hotel rooms online, but most services have only the most basic information about one of the most important factors — the quality of the room itself.
A new Sunnyvale, Calif. startup called Room 77 says that it has built a database of more than 425,000 hotel rooms at 2,500 properties with information like room category, square footage, bed type, and and elevator proximity. It also taps into Google … Continue Reading
Silver Lake launches new cleantech fund with George Soros's firm
Private equity firm Silver Lake is teaming up with billionaire George Soros’s fund to invest in “the energy and resource sectors.”
The new fund is called Silver Lake Kraftwerk (the press release refers to it as “SLKW”) and will be led by Adam Grosser, who spent a decade as general partner at Foundation Capital, where he worked on major cleantech investments like Silver Spring Networks and Enernoc. He also previously worked at Apple, Sony and … Continue Reading
Ask the accountant: How much time do I have left?
This series is brought to you by TurboTax Home & Business Edition – Guides You to Your Biggest Tax Refund. As always, VentureBeat is adamant about maintaining editorial objectivity. TurboTax had no involvement in the content of this post.
This week’s tax question:
How am I supposed to keep track of all these tax deadlines? What’s due when?
We passed the question on to Betty Kayton, who assists startup firms and entrepreneurs with financial, human … Continue Reading
Quest Venture Partners: Current VC investing not "irrational"
The hand-wringing continues over whether or not there is a venture capital bubble forming around hot new Silicon Valley startups. But the increased VC investing in tech is more likely the consequence of investors burned by the stock market getting into alternative investments, Marcus Ogawa, managing partner at venture capital firm Quest Venture Partners, told me today.
“Is there more capital flowing into investments? Yes. Are valuations increasing as a consequence? Yes. Would I call … Continue Reading
Crikey! Cloud storage provider Box.net raises $48M
Box.net, a provider of enterprise online storage, announced today that it has raised a whopping $48 million in its fourth — and potentially final — round of funding led by Meritech Capital.
Talk about a huge vote of confidence for an enterprise-class version of online backup and file-sync service Dropbox. Box.net is one of a number of very bright stars in what could be called the “enterprise 2.0″ space that has attracted funding from venture … Continue Reading
Thunderbolt: Intel's Light Peak high-speed interface gets a new name
With the announcement of new MacBook Pros this morning came the news that Intel’s Light Peak technology is now known as Thunderbolt.
News hit yesterday that Apple would likely be the first company to adopt the new I/O technology, which is capable of incredible speeds of 10 gigabits per second in both directions. Thunderbolt ports will look like the existing Mini DisplayPort connection on older generation MacBook Pros and will sport a lightning bolt icon.… Continue Reading
Latin American virtual goods business to hit $517M in 2012
Latin America’s virtual goods market is expected to grow to $517 million in revenues by 2012, according to a market study by SuperData Research and PlaySpan.
The fastest-growing market in the region is Brazil, which had $165 million in virtual goods revenues in 2010. That’s why the market has drawn the interest of social game companies such as Zynga and venture capitalists looking to cash in on an emerging market that is hitting its stride.… Continue Reading
Apple debuts Developer Preview of Mac OS X Lion via App Store
Following recent rumors, Apple has officially announced a developer preview of Mac OS X Lion, the latest version of its operating system. Developers part of the Mac Developer Program can obtain the preview today through its App Store on the Mac.
The release includes a set of highly anticipated features such as Mission Control, a centralized dashboard to overview all of your activity, and Launchpad, an easy way to store and launch applications, in addition … Continue Reading
FaceTime for Mac hits the App Store for $0.99
Along with the launch of new MacBook Pro laptops, Apple is also bringing its video chat application FaceTime for Mac computers today, with a price tag of $0.99 in the Mac App Store.
The Mac app has been available as a public beta since October, which is quite some time to wait for the official release, considering that FaceTime was originally announced in June for the iPhone 4 and was one of the device’s most … Continue Reading
Media Chaperone raises $1M for app that manages kids' online game usage
Trust, but verify. That old Ronald Reagan policy toward Russian nuclear arms treaties is similar to the policy many parents would prefer when it comes to monitoring their kids’ use of online games. Chicago-based Media Chaperone has raised $1 million to finance its Facebook app that will help parents do just that.
If the company can provide useful information about kids’ activities to parents, those parents are probably willing to pay for it. And that … Continue Reading
Apple updates MacBook Pros with Sandy Bridge CPUs, Thunderbolt ports
Just as we expected, Apple this morning announced the latest refresh of its Macbook Pro laptop family. Among the changes are the inclusion of Intel’s new Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 processors, high-speed Thunderbolt ports, and FaceTime HD cameras.
The updates once again cement the MacBook Pros as titans in the laptop arena. Unfortunately for those looking for a new look, there aren’t any major design changes to be seen. Instead, we get the … Continue Reading
