Opportunities at VentureBeat: Event content director for MobileBeat, tech developer, writers and more

As VentureBeat expands into new territory, we’re looking for great people to join us on the way.

Consider working for one of the most influential business news sites — with syndication across outlets like the New York Times and Reuters — that also hosts exciting events to debate the most disruptive technologies of the day, including DEMO (the leading launchpad event for emerging technology products), MobileBeat, GreenBeat and more.

We are looking for all kinds. … Continue Reading

Killzone 3 with Move controller: a novel but not brilliant gaming experience

Sony’s newly launched Killzone 3 video game for the PlayStation 3 promised to be a big step up in first-person shooting sci-fi combat. You can play the game in stereoscopic 3D and use the PlayStation Move motion-sensing controller for more immersive realism. But while those elements make the game experience innovative, they don’t make up for shortcomings elsewhere.

That’s a pity because Killzone 3 promised to be one of Sony’s great games for 2011, with … Continue Reading

Blame the iPad: PC chip sales flattened in the fourth quarter

Worldwide personal computer microprocessor shipments were flat in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago, due in part to the popularity of the Apple iPad.

Market researcher IDC reported that PC microprocessors — the brains of computers — were down 0.04 percent from the third quarter and down 0.21 percent compared to a year ago. That shows the impact of non-PC microprocessors taking market share thanks to the popularity of Apple’s iPad, which sold … Continue Reading

Google's Don Dodge: Q&A site StackOverflow's valuation "gave me a heart attack"

StackOverflow, a question-and-answer site popular with programmers and other technical professionals, launched a new site today that helps prospective employers browse the site for talented engineers. It was a hit with most of the judges — but not with Google’s Don Dodge, at least after he saw the price tag.

StackOverflow is a lot like Quora, but is largely populated by professionals in technical careers like engineering and programming. It’s a crowd-sourced site where anyone … Continue Reading

Gamification company GreenGoose raises $100k on stage at Launch Conference

GreenGoose, which slaps accelerometers on everything to turn everyday activities into a game, impressed so many people at the Launch Conference in San Francisco today that it managed to raise $100,000 on-stage from angel investor Shervin Pishevar and early stage venture capitalist Jay Levy.

“This stuff is not easy to do,” Levy said. “This is pretty difficult, and they took on something they should be commended for.”

The company makes stickers that users put on … Continue Reading

Domo: The one Launch presentation you must watch (video)

I’m speechless. But Twitter investor George Zachary of Charles River Ventures seems to have the right idea.

“I’m not sure what it does, but I just feel really happy,” he said.

Domo, a product from Tonchidot that displays people in the same geographic area with similar interests on a user’s iPhone, announced that it is launching its app today at the Launch conference in San Francisco — with a bang.

“If I were going to … Continue Reading

Chute ensures your phone's photos get online

Chute, which keeps track of photos that are destined for the Web and other sharing photo-services, announced that it is launching today at the Launch conference in San Francisco.

Chute synchronizes photos with an online storage service after they are taken. When users launch the Chute application, each new photo appears in the application. Chute users then page through each photo, sharing it or saving it on a remote server as they see fit. The … Continue Reading

Dave McClure has a “raging boner” for phone startup Volta

Updated

A lot of companies want to help you test your websites. Now a startup called Volta wants to help companies test their phone calls.

The problem, said founder Patrick Stockwell, is that many companies aren’t calling their customers, and the companies that do don’t have a way to track which calls are paying off. Stockwell demonstrated his product on-stage today at the Launch conference in San Francisco.

Basically, Volta takes the A/B testing approach … Continue Reading

Top10 jumps into crowded list-sharing space

Israeli investor Yossi Vardi said list hosting site Top10‘s business plan might be a little complicated, but it seemed to get his attention with its first pitch: Lists have been around since the time of the Ten Commandments.

“The world’s first PowerPoint — two slides, five bullet points each,” Vardi said.

Top10 made the pitch and announced that it is launching today at the Launch conference in San Francisco.

The concept is pretty simple — … Continue Reading

MP3.com founder launches DAR.fm, a DVR for the radio

Michael Robertson, who already participated in one reinvention of the music business by founding MP3.com, is launching a new way to listen to talk radio and music.

His startup is called DAR.fm (DAR stands for “digital audio recorder”) and he demonstrated on-stage at the Launch conference in San Francisco today. Robertson compared the new service to what DVR does for television. Just as DVR lets you record many TV shows at any time, he said … Continue Reading

Twitter investor: Hipmunk one of "the most innovative” in travel

I’ve been writing about how impressed I am with travel site Hipmunk for a while now, and so have other bloggers. Now it sounds like the company has fans among venture capitalists too.

George Zachary, the Charles River Ventures partner who was an early investor in Twitter, declared today that Hipmunk and his portfolio company Wanderfly are “the most innovative thing I’ve seen in travel.”

Today’s Launch conference in San Francisco was definitely a love … Continue Reading

Daqri wants to be the augmented reality's YouTube

Daqri, which lets any user create bar codes called QR codes that display images, movies and other pieces of content as soon as they are viewed through an iPhone camera, announced today it is launching a private beta test.

The company made the announcement at the Launch Conference in San Francisco.

Users upload a piece of content and associate it with a QR code. The augmented reality piece automatically displays when anyone opens up the … Continue Reading

Judges bring out their knives for Appconomy’s group app

Well, that was rough.

Enterprise mobile startup Appconomy just announced a new app called Groupin at today’s Launch conference in San Francisco. The idea is that everyone belongs to groups on different social networking services, but they might want to collaborate across all those sites. So with Groupin, they can participate in discussions that stretch across groups and networks, and it includes email as well.

The demonstration went fine. I could imagine people using the … Continue Reading

Unleash the power of your iPhone's camera with ProCamera

The iPhone 4′s camera is one of the better mobile shooters on the market, but Apple’s basic photo application leaves much to be desired with its lack of customization and editing options. That’s where ProCamera comes in, an iPhone app which is bursting at the seams with features that will help you take better pictures and video.

ProCamera ($2.99 in the iTunes Store) certainly isn’t alone in the photo app arena, but in my testing … Continue Reading

Disconnect stops websites from tracking you

Still afraid of evil websites tracking you and stealing your information? Angel investor Dave McClure says Disconnect is the browser extension for you.

Chrome and Safari extension Disconnect, which blocks websites from tracking users and sending private information to other sites, launched today at the Launch conference in San Francisco.

The extension automatically stops pictures, icons and pixels on websites that send information to other sites from loading. Once installed, it adds a button next … Continue Reading

A cheaper, greener fridge? Phononic grabs $10M for thermoelectric cooling

Phononic Devices has raised $10 million in a second round of financing to make your refrigerator cheaper and more energy efficient.

The company plans to do this with its thermoelectric, energy-efficient module (pictured below), which could one day replace traditional refrigerator technology and has potential in other cooling and heating markets. Right now, most refrigerators use compressors, CEO Anthony Atti says are comparatively large, noisy, involve chemicals and “expensive compared to the amount of cooling … Continue Reading

SmartSynch raises $25M for smart grid via cell phone networks, aims for $33M total

Smart grid wireless communications and software player SmartSynch has raised $25.6 million out of a planned $33.4 million round.

The world is expected to see $200 billion in smart grid investment by 2015. Startups like SmartSynch and major companies like Cisco and IBM are all looking to gain a foothold in growing smart grid markets like China, as well as government and utility-funded projects in the U.S. One aspect of the smart grid is enabling … Continue Reading

KarmaKey uses phones to build better loyalty programs

A new startup called KarmaKey wants you to throw out all your loyalty cards.

You’ve probably got a few of those cards in your wallet right now, usually offering you discounts or freebies at your favorite stores if you make a certain number of purchases. Now, instead of making you carry a card around, restaurants using KarmaKey print out a special code on your receipt. You enter that code into the KarmaKey mobile application, and … Continue Reading

Docstoc takes Apple's subscription plan in stride

Whether it falls under Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ definition of a publishing company or not, online document host Docstoc isn’t taking any chances. The company will use Apple’s newest subscription policy for the premium iPad service it launched today.

The company hosts documents that are important for smaller businesses that range from applications to launch a web-based company to move-out forms for landlords and tenants. Users can access a lot of the documents for free, … Continue Reading