Five and Fifty brings the Groupon approach to instant deals

A new startup called Five and Fifty wants to tackle one of the main complaints about group-buying supersite Groupon, which has a huge waiting list for businesses. It says it will allow merchants to send deals instantly to a much more targeted audience.

As an example, Five and Fifty founders Chris Routh and Ben Tyson talked about a cupcake shop in San Francisco’s South of Market district. (The two were on-stage at today’s Launch conference … Continue Reading

Fix your golf swing with Zepp's motion capture iPhone app

Sports app startup Zepp has a mobile app that can finally fix your golf swing golf swing.

The company showcased a motion-capture application that can be used with sports like golf and tennis. It ran through a demo of the app on stage at today’s Launch conference in San Francisco. Its first application, Golfsense, is in Apple’s App Store application approval process and will come out soon, the company announced today.

The company manufactures a … Continue Reading

Toyota to launch home electric car charger, jumping into a crowded market

Toyota, maker of the hybrid Prius and the upcoming plug-in version of the Prius, will launch its own home electric car charger, jumping into what is shaping up to be a crowded market.

Major companies and startups alike have surged into the electric car charging segment. GE launched the WattStation last year, and building energy management giant Schneider Electric launched its own residential charger last week as part of an overall move to expand its … Continue Reading

Backed by Google, Transphorm unstealths with plan to tackle billion-dollar energy losses

Transphorm came out of stealth today with the high-profile backing of Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, and power-conversion technology it says can tackle billion-dollar energy losses.

With its power switching technology, Transphorm is taking aim at a billion-dollar inefficiency issue in energy: losses that inherently happen in energy conversion. When you juice up your cell phone, the charger converts the grid’s alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), but some of the power is lost … Continue Reading

Google's investment in Transphorm could be good news for electric cars

Google said today it had invested in a startup called Transphorm, whose power-conversion efficiency technology could some day help create more efficient electric cars.

The company’s technology can reduce by up to 90 percent the power lost when one form of energy is converted to the other (say, from AC — alternating current — to DC, direct current). Hybrid and electric car drives also convert electricity from AC to DC, so the Transphorm’s technology could … Continue Reading

Overstat: The easiest way to test your website?

Testing, testing, testing — it’s one of the mantras among startups, but it can be tough to find the resources to make that happen when you’re a startup with relatively little capital and a tiny tech team. So a new company called Overstat is hoping to win itself a customer base by simplifying the testing process.

Overstat demonstrated its product on-stage this morning at the Launch conference in San Francisco. Optimizely has made headway in … Continue Reading

Spin out an iPhone app prototype ASAP with Cabana

Cabana, an online service that lets developers quickly create a mobile application for the iPhone or other mobile devices, announced today that it is coming out of beta at the Launch conference in San Francisco.

The application lets developers drag buttons and other simple functions onto a test screen for a mobile application. They can then dive into a flow-chart style interface that basically lets them program the app with some simple functions. They can … Continue Reading

Apple shareholders fail to force management to talk about succession plan

Apple shareholders challenged the company’s leadership to reveal its succession plan today at the company’s stockholders meeting. But the majority of investors voted down the proposal.

Preliminary votes show that the proposal urging Apple to clarify its succession plan in light of CEO Steve Jobs’ illness did not get enough votes.

Tim Cook, who is standing in for Jobs as CEO while Apple’s founder is on medical leave, said at the company’s annual meeting that … Continue Reading

The Daily may leap from iPad to Android in spring

Rupert Murdoch’s ambitious tablet newspaper The Daily may not be an iPad-only affair for too long. The paper is apparently prepping for a jump to Android tablets in the second quarter of this year, sources tell All Things Digital.

During The Daily’s launch event earlier this month, Murdoch said that the paper would look at expanding to other tablet platforms as they get developed. But he also said that “we think last year, this year, … Continue Reading

Apple sends out invites for next week's iPad 2 event

It’s official, Apple has sent out invitations to a March 2 press event in San Francisco that unambiguously hints that it will unveil the iPad 2.

The event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, like pretty much all of Apple’s San Francisco events. VentureBeat will be there covering it live.

News of the event was first reported yesterday, following rumors that the iPad 2 may be delayed. Apple’s stock took … Continue Reading

YouTube wants to stream live NHL and NBA games

After a successful experiment with broadcasting cricket’s Indian Premier League last year, Google-owned YouTube wants to stream more sports events online.

The company is in negotiations with both the National Basketball Association and National Hockey Leage to start broadcasting live pro-basketball and ice hockey games, according to a Bloomberg report.

YouTube, the de facto website for user-generated video content, has viewers spending 15 minutes on the site daily, on average. While that figure isn’t unimpressive … Continue Reading

Apple's new high-speed interface may be called Thunderbolt

Apple is expected to show off new Macbook Pro laptops on Thursday, and among their new features is a high-speed interface using Intel’s Light Peak technology. But it seems Apple won’t stick with the technical-sounding Light Peak name — instead, its new ports will be called Thunderbolt, Engadget reports.

The site points to some leaked specification lists and screenshots that list the Thunderbolt port. Instead of finding space for an entirely new port location on … Continue Reading

Former Microsoft executive steps up to run Mac virtualization company Parallels

Parallels has made a big splash over the years with its desktop virtualization software that allows Mac computers to run Windows software. Today, the company’s founder is stepping down as chief executive and appointing his No. 2 executive (a former Microsoft executive) as his replacement.

The change marks a new stage of maturity for the upstart company, which generates more than $100 million a year in revenues and creates strategically important software for Apple. Parallels … Continue Reading

Microsoft fumbles Windows Phone 7 update

An update released on Monday for Windows Phone 7 devices has caused issues for many users, including trouble with its installation, and some phones have been left completely nonfunctional, or “bricked.”

Now Microsoft says it has found an issue with the update process, and it’s temporarily disabling the update for Samsung phones, WinRumors reports.

Ironically, the update was meant to improve the updating process for Windows Phone 7 devices. It was to pave the way … Continue Reading

BookRenter raises $40M for textbook rentals

Looks like investors don’t think Chegg has the textbook rental market locked up. BookRenter, a company largely seen as the number two to Chegg, just announced that it has raised $40 million in a third round of funding.

Chief executive Mehdi Maghsoodnia told me last year that BookRenter isn’t just copying the competition. The San Mateo, Calif. startup keeps costs down by not buying and warehousing the books itself, and instead connecting renters with partner … Continue Reading

Deals & More: Sprout Social gets $10M for social media management

Today’s funding announcements include tools to help businesses oversee social media and spending:

Sprout Social brings in $10M to consolidate a business’ social presence: The Chicago-based startup has raised a second round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates to help small and local businesses manage customer relationships on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn through a single online dashboard. Founded in 2009, the company last raised funding from Lightbank, the investment firm led by … Continue Reading

Nancy Drew iPad app kicks off new "game book" genre

The Nancy Drew series has been around for 80 years. But game maker Her Interactive is trying to make it relevant for the age of the iPad with a new app launching today called Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch.

The app includes text inspired by the original Nancy Drew book. But the company calls Shadow Ranch a “game book,” the first in a series that will up the ante for publishers cranking out eBooks … Continue Reading

HP's new business laptops offer up to 32 hours of battery

Hewlett-Packard is announcing today a new family of laptops for business users with new industrial designs and one very interesting feature: a battery life of up to 32 hours.

The battery life number is getting interesting because most laptops range in battery life from four to eight hours. The higher battery life is a big milestone because it’s very hard to balance great performance with power consumption. The more powerful a device is, the more … Continue Reading