Boku to move from virtual-goods billing to real-goods billing in Germany
Boku has built a nice business handling direct mobile billing for online virtual goods. If you buy fuel for a tractor in a social game, you can use Boku to pay for it by typing in your mobile phone number; the charge shows up on your monthly cell phone bill.
Now that simple way of paying for goods will be used to handle online purchases of physical goods in Germany. That opens up a much … Continue Reading
Yahoo shows signs of life with Search Direct
Maybe it really is too early to count Yahoo out when it comes to search.
Today, the company held a press event where it announced a new product called Search Direct, which is supposed to bring searchers the answers they’re looking for as they type. I didn’t go, mainly because I had to meet with the team behind the cool (and well-funded) mobile photo app Color — but also because, well, I’ve been to these … Continue Reading
Sony says PS 3 hacker Geohot has fled to South America (or not!)
Sony says that 21-year-old George Hotz, the hacker who reverse-engineered the security system for the PlayStation 3, has fled the country to South America rather than face a court over charges that he destroyed evidence.
Sony said in a court filing that Hotz, known as GeoHot, lied about having a PlayStation Network account and destroyed his computer hard disks rather than hand them over to Sony’s lawyers. Hotz allegedly wrote code capable of circumventing the … Continue Reading
With massive funding, Color aims to reinvent mobile photos
After the South by Southwest Interactive conference last week, you’d think the world would have its fill of mobile social networking apps. But here comes another big launch, this time of a free iPhone and Android app called Color.
If, like me, you’re starting to feel a bit of a mobile social overload, here’s a different reason to pay attention to Color: It has raised $41 million in funding. That’s an extraordinary amount for a … Continue Reading
Flurry joins the war for mobile developers with an interesting new hire
In the mobile gaming Gold Rush, everyone wants to get developers on their side. Now it’s Flurry‘s chance to show how it can recruit developers to support its own platform.
We are seeing the war for developer talent playing out in the battles between Apple, Google, and other platform makers. That battle is playing out as well among the mid-tier companies that provide developers with tools for analyzing, marketing, monetizing and distributing games and apps … Continue Reading
How retailers and brands will evolve through social e-commerce
One of the big shifts in online shopping last year was the emergence of social e-commerce. Brands and retailers started to realize that social networks aren’t just a means to extend their visibility but also a way to pull in more revenue.
The infrastructure of the Internet now enables the sharing of information among networks at a velocity and scale that has been impossible in the offline world. Consider the following statistics:
90 percent of
Oracle and Intel get into spat over Itanium chip's future
Oracle and Intel are in a high-stakes spat over the future of Intel’s Itanium chip. Oracle announced last night that it had stopped all development on Intel’s Itanium, a 64-bit heavy-duty computing microprocessor, because Intel expressed weak support for it. Intel’s chief executive shot back that Intel fully supports Itanium.
In a press statement, Oracle said, “Intel management made it clear that their strategic focus is on their x86 microprocessor and that Itanium was nearing … Continue Reading
Japan's nuclear crisis: policy implications for clean energy
Japan’s nuclear crisis is an environmental, financial, and humanitarian disaster, and it has far-reaching implications for energy policy here in the US and abroad.
Many are calling for the dismantling of the nuclear industry, but doing so could drive us even further away from clean energy. As with all strategy you have levers, not switches – confusing the two can cost you. For now at least, nuclear is the most viable energy lever cleantech has.… Continue Reading
Windows Phone 7 finally has cut and paste, who's impressed?
Microsoft is starting slowly with the Windows Phone 7 operating system, which launched in November. The company released yesterday the first major update to the operating system with features that should have been there from the start.
The update, called “NoDo”, includes cut and paste capabilities, and enables Windows Phone 7 to run on CDMA networks like Verizon’s. But many crucial features are still missing. Lacking behind in features doesn’t help Microsoft in stealing away … Continue Reading
How to be a better VC to your entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur for the last two years, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what makes the ideal venture capitalist.
Until two years ago, I worked as a VC in a boutique fund in Israel, working with a range of emerging Internet technology companies. During that period, I thought I was providing my deal flow and portfolio companies with sound management, marketing, and finance advice. Though I didn’t do anything catastrophic that … Continue Reading
Can tablets replace laptops and desktops in enterprise?
Tablet computers will one day completely replace laptops as the standard-issue workplace computer — at least, if some of the top tablet and phone manufacturers in the world have their way.
A panel of executives at top phone manufacturers came to agreement on this forecast at the CTIA Wireless 2011 conference in Orlando, Fla.
It’s a logical transition for a lot of companies. Most major enterprise companies like Salesforce offer a tablet-friendly mobile-app version of … Continue Reading
What's HTC's secret? It's fashion fabulous
Phone manufacturers can’t just focus on cramming the most powerful chips in their devices nowadays — they have to have a certain glamour, too, according to a panel of top phone manufacturing executives.
Phone manufacturer HTC’s success has a lot to do with the design of each phone, which has made its customers conscious about the brand and support it as a fashion statement, said HTC President Jason Mackenzie. The same goes for Apple, which … Continue Reading
Notable’s relaunch aims for simplicity in Web design collaboration
Zurb, interaction design and strategy firm that specializes in online and mobile applications, has gone back to the drawing board for its Web-design collaboration tool Notable. By stripping away unnecessary features, lowering its pricing, and removing storage and user limits, the company is aiming to shine a new light on Notable.
Zurb marketing head Dmitry Dragilev admits that Notable’s previous iteration “got a bit clunky and unfocused” in a blog post today. So the company … Continue Reading
Cleantech's sausagefest: 25 companies with all-male boards
Who’s in a position to make some green while taking care of Mother Nature? Not many women, it turns out.
Dozens of top global brands — including some leading cleantech companies — have no female board directors. A recent article in The Atlantic asked why that’s the case, when many of these companies market aggressively to women and rely on women for large portions of their business. As well, women make up the majority of … Continue Reading
How friend clusters could make Facebook intimate again
[Peter Yared is the vice president of apps at Webtrends, which acquired Transpond, a social-apps developer he founded. He submitted this column to VentureBeat.]
For a so-called social utility, Facebook has been getting more and more useless.
At first, Facebook friend overload was an early-adopter problem for overnetworked Silicon Valley insiders. But now, friend overload is hitting the mainstream consciousness. Many people who have been using Facebook for a few years find themselves inundated with … Continue Reading
Airport seating charges your phone with PowerKiss
Finnish startup PowerKiss builds wireless chargers into furniture. The company just announced a partnership with airport seating supplier Zoeftig that should result in mobile users being able to charge their phones while they wait to board a plane or train. Zoeftig already makes some seating with mains power built into the armrest.
PowerKiss makes a small receiver (the Ring), which plugs into mobile phones, and an electrical transmitter, which is built into a piece of … Continue Reading
Rob Solomon: Too rich for Groupon?
The No. 2 executive at daily-deals purveyor Groupon, Rob Solomon, has taken advantage of the company’s unlimited-paid-days-off policy — for good.
In an email to Groupon staff that was forwarded to VentureBeat, CEO Andrew Mason announced that Solomon (pictured), who joined Groupon just a year ago, is leaving the Chicago-based company to move back to northern California. (It’s not clear how settled Solomon ever was in Chicago: He never changed the location in his LinkedIn … Continue Reading
How LightSquared's Best Buy deal could kick off wireless-broadband mayhem
Best Buy, the electronics retailers, will begin offering mobile broadband to their customers in a service called Best Buy Connect. The service will use part of the spectrum from LightSquared’s LTE network, LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja announced during his keynote speech at CTIA Wireless 2011.
Ahuja did not reveal many details of the Best Buy Connect partnership, but did outline similar agreements with other companies, including providing 4G connectivity to Leap Wireless’s Cricket service and … Continue Reading
How the Internet of things could save the environment
By 2020, there will be around 50 billion devices connected to a wireless network — and a huge chunk of those devices will be able to drastically reduce carbon emissions and environmental impact by virtue of being connected to the Internet, said telecom giant Ericsson’s chief executive Hans Vestberg.
That’s because having all those devices connected to a network will make it easier to run any number of aspects of life that have an impact … Continue Reading
Gemvara lands $15M more for custom online jewelry
Gemvara, the online tool for customizing and buying jewelry, today announced it has secured a third round of funding for $15 million led by European venture capital firm Balderton Capital. The funding will be used to expand merchandise, hire around 30 more employees and continue to work on the company’s online customization tool.
The company, which originally allowed shoppers to customize their own jewelry through touch-screen computers in jewelry stores, has since cut out the … Continue Reading
