Impact Dialing raises funding for its cloud-based auto-dialer

Startup Impact Dialing has found that it pays to go lean. As the winner of the Lean Startup Challenge run by AppSumo, the company has now received an undisclosed amount of angel funding from the Band of Angels group, and it has also been accepted as a member of incubator Pivotal Labs.

To win the contest, Impact Dialing founder and chief executive Michael Kaiser-Nyman wrote a blog post outlining how his company follows the “lean … Continue Reading

Toyota bets big on hybrids, no pure electric car in sight

Toyota has unveiled a new line-up of hybrid electric Prius cars designed to attract more mainstream buyers to the fuel-efficient cars. The new models include a hatchback Prius v and a cheaper compact hybrid-electric car called the Prius c.

But nowhere in that line-up is an electric car that is only powered by a battery. Other car companies like Tesla Motors and Nissan have made bets that environmentally conscious car buyers will want to abandon … Continue Reading

Toyota electric cars will tweet, friend you

Car manufacturer Toyota is working with Salesforce.com, a provider of web-based software for large companies, to create a private social network for electric car drivers that will connect them with Toyota officials and local dealerships.

The “Toyota Friend” service will let electric car and plug-in hybrid electric car drivers communicate with Toyota and other maintenance officials to exchange diagnostic information about their cars. That can include driving habits, various information about the car’s performance and … Continue Reading

Textingly launches live chat tool for text campaigns

Textingly, a company that let’s businesses manage text messages to customers, today announced it has launched a live chat tool for businesses to engage with customers via text in real-time from the web.

The company officially launched last year around this time and is now claiming to help more than 6,000 local  businesses manage their text message, or SMS, campaigns. Textingly, which described itself as the “MailChimp for SMS”, provides a series of features that … Continue Reading

Huffington Post wanted to buy TechCrunch pre-AOL

AOL content head Arianna Huffington turned the tables a bit on TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington today, revealing that the Huffington Post and TechCrunch were in talks to merge long before AOL bought both companies.

Arrington had initially tried to put Huffington in the hot seat today at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, but her reference to their merger talks came as a bit of a curveball to him. “I didn’t really want to talk about this part,” … Continue Reading

How EA's John Riccitiello sees the past few years of struggle

Like many seasoned executives, Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello believes that learning from failure is essential to success. He said so in a recent commencement speech at the Haas business school at the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated in 1981.

Riccitiello’s speech revealed a few tidbits about how he has dealt with the past few years of struggle at EA. It also shows why he has stayed the course on a … Continue Reading

Sony's PlayStation Network outage costs $171M

Sony said that the cost of the PlayStation Network’s almost month-long outage after being attacked by hackers will be around 14 billion yen, or $171 million.

The company announced the news as part of its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011. The estimate is based on current information and will be incurred in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. The outage was one of the worst in the history of … Continue Reading

Latest rumor on iPhone 5: it will have a curved glass cover

Apple’s unannounced iPhone 5 smartphone has been the subject of much speculation, including a rumor today that Apple will adopt a curved glass cover for its next generation model.

DigiTimes reported that Apple has purchased 200 to 300 glass-cutting machines that can be used by glass makers to build the covers. The machines have a high capital cost and so Apple had to finance the purchase in order to ensure an adequate supply. The glass-slicing … Continue Reading

Fred Wilson wants to invest in the Internet-driven cultural revolution

Union Square Ventures‘ Fred Wilson believes the Internet will serve as a greater force for societal change in the future, and somehow, he wants to make money off the chaos that causes.

In a conversation today at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City, Wilson, an early investor in Twitter, Foursquare and Zynga, said he’s still trying to figure out how exactly to invest in the Internet-driven cultural revolution.

While societal upheaval hasn’t made … Continue Reading

Foursquare will power location data for Inq Cloud Touch "Facebook phone"

Foursquare will be invading the Inq Cloud Touch, an Android phone that so far has been mostly known for its extensive Facebook integration.

On stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City today, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley announced that Foursquare will be the default location view for the phone, allowing users to take advantage of the service without ever installing an app.

Using the Foursquare API, the Cloud Touch phone will have most … Continue Reading

Sony Music Greece site hacked — likely won't be the last

Hackers just can’t seem to leave Sony alone. Following the month-long PlayStation Network attack and more recent attacks on Sony’s Thailand and Japan sites, the company’s Greece music site has been attacked, reports security firm Sophos.

The site was apparently the victim of a simple SQL injection attack, which gave the hackers access to user data including usernames, passwords, real names, and email addresses. Evidence of the hack was uploaded to Pastebin.com by the blog … Continue Reading

Apple launches Apple Store 2.0 experience to make shopping easier

On the tenth anniversary of opening its first retail store, Apple has quietly launched a revised Apple Store experience for consumers.

A report from Australia shows that the company has launched its Apple Store 2.0 experience, which includes iPads that are used to display product information and prices. The iPads compare features between different products and show how to ask for a specialist’s help. In effect, Apple is using one of its best-selling new products … Continue Reading

IBM's Watson supercomputer to help diagnose hospital patients

IBM’s Watson supercomputer — and champion of trivia game Jeopardy! — is headed to hospitals to help doctors quickly register a patient’s complaints and symptoms and diagnose problems.

That means a patient could walk into a hospital and tell the computer about what is bothering them — whether it’s leg pain or a cough or a sore throat — and Watson can quickly process that information and spit out a diagnosis that has the highest … Continue Reading

The shutdown of Microsoft's Pioneer Studios is an example of failed innovation

Three years ago, Microsoft opened its Pioneer Studios skunkworks operation to create cool new consumer technology experiences. The group was headed by J Allard, the executive who co-led the development of the Xbox and Xbox 360 game consoles. Now the company has shut down the division.

The shutdown says a lot about Microsoft’s failed attempts to match Apple’s prowess in design innovation. While Apple teams led by Jonathan Ive have designed marvels such as the … Continue Reading

Google Voice integration renders Sprint family plans useless

Sprint subscribers who chose to integrate their service with a Google Voice phone number may discover a higher bill this month caused by overage fees.

The overage is due to a glitch in the integration process treats the Google Voice phone number as if it’s from an outside carrier, according to Google Voice Senior Product Manager Vincent Paquet, who posted the information on the official support forum.

Sprint customers who rely on free mobile-to-mobile minutes, … Continue Reading

Is Viacom pulling content from Netflix?

The bulk of Viacom content currently available on curated Netflix streaming website Instant Watcher, Xbox Live and Google TV lists May 22 as its expiration date. However, those expiration notices are absent when you access Netflix from a web browser.

If Viacom content does expire, it would mean shows produced by Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and a few others will no longer be available online for Netflix subscribers.

The only consistent expiration notice seems to … Continue Reading

Week in review: Sony's PlayStation Network back online

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

And we’re back: Sony’s PlayStation Network is now online in U.S. and Europe — Parts of Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN) finally came back online last weekend in certain areas around the world — including the U.S. and Europe — after hackers were able to break into the network, forcing the company to bring it … Continue Reading

Entrepreneur Corner: Seeking questions and why #1 isn't always best

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

Legal danger zone: ‘Friending’ your boss – or your employee – In start-ups, employers and employees often have a friendship beyond the workplace, but that doesn’t mean it’s a smart idea to add each other to your social network. Attorney Curtis Smolar runs down the advantages and disadvantages – and details what sort of posts can get you fired.

Book excerpt: “I.D.E.A. To Exit: An Entrepreneurial Journey” – … Continue Reading

LinkedIn shares still high in second day of trading

If LinkedIn represents a tech bubble, that bubble remained unpopped during the professional networking company’s second day of public trading. The company’s stock closed at $93.09 a share, just slightly below its close of $94.25 yesterday and more than double the price of between $42 and $45 set in its initial public offering.

Not that today was the big test of the bubble theory. The real worry seems to be whether or not LinkedIn’s IPO … Continue Reading