Russians plow $245M into MRAM chip memory technology. Better than DRAM and Flash.

The Russian government is investing $245 million into a Silicon Valley company called Crocus that is building MRAM, a chip memory technology that supporters say will soon blow away the two existing technologies, DRAM and Flash.

The technology is being closely watched because it is expected to replace the memory in everything from smartphones to PCs and industrial robotics.

MRAM, which stands for Magnetoresistive random-access memory, stores data in layers of magnetic material and has … Continue Reading

Volvo pushing for wireless electric car charging

Volvo will start testing inductive charging, which transfers power over the air to charge electric devices without requiring any wires, on its next series of electric cars in Europe later this year.

A report from Pike Research suggested wireless charging for electric vehicles will be a $272 million business by 2015. That could include creating long strips of inductive charging plates on roads and highways that charge vehicles as they drive over them, or placing … Continue Reading

SolarReserve snags $737M loan guarantee for solar power tower

Solar power energy startup SolarReserve is now the second major solar power company to secure a high-profile investment and move forward on a large solar power plant.

The company uses a huge array of mirrors to focus heat on a point on a large tower. The heat from the focused sunlight is used to boil water, creating steam that moves conventional turbines to generate electricity. It’s an alternative to traditional solar power projects that use … Continue Reading

Explosion hits Chinese Apple manufacturer Foxconn

According to multiple sources, an explosion occurred earlier today at the Foxconn factory in Chengdu, China. The factory is one of Apple’s leading manufacturing plants.

Two people were killed in the explosion and 16 injured, all of whom were Foxconn employees. More than ten fire engines, ambulances, and police cars were at the scene. It took place in the A5 building of the factory, which supposedly operates as a “polishing plant” for the production of … Continue Reading

Crowdsourced testing company uTest fleshes out expansion plans

Software testing company uTest uses the power of the crowds to test mobile apps. Today it’s launching a new product called uTest Express for Web that could expand its scope beyond mobile apps into web apps, websites and further still in the future.

In a nutshell, uTest’s idea is to outsource the time-consuming business that is software testing to testers around the world, effectively crowdsourcing the effort and thus providing early-stage start-ups with a chance … Continue Reading

Blippy discovers the limits of oversharing

Social data may be the next big frontier for startups, but there are limits to what people are actually willing to share. Specifically, product review site Blippy recently revealed that it has moved on from its initial vision of allowing people to share information about what they’re buying.

Blippy’s “pivot” (to use the popular Silicon Valley term for “Well, that idea didn’t work,”) is outlined in detail in a post on TechCrunch, and the company’s … Continue Reading

AT&T's LTE 4G speeds could blow away Verizon

The battle for 4G dominance is ramping up this year, and it looks like AT&T may have a heck of a contender with its LTE 4G network.

AT&T showed off its LTE 4G network performing wicked fast with 28.87 megabits per second downloads and 10.4 Mbps uploads in a supposed “real world” scenario, reports GigaOm, which got an exclusive look at the network this week at AT&T’s Foundry innovation space in Texas.

In comparison, Verizon … Continue Reading

Sony hacked again, but this time not the PlayStation Network

Just after Sony suffered a long and embarrassing outage for its 77-million member PlayStation Network, a Sony site has been hacked again.

This time, hackers compromised a Sony website for users in Thailand. F-Secure, a web security company, found the live phishing site at the Sony Thailand address. That means hackers had broken into the site’s security and were redirecting users to a fake website where it could steal their credit card numbers.

While it’s … Continue Reading

New Dish CEO promises more acquisitions, shakes fist at Netflix

New Dish Network CEO Joe Clayton isn’t planning to sit still. After being named CEO on Monday, Clayton says Dish will continue with its somewhat unusual acquisition strategy as it pieces together a “new video model” to combat Netflix and cable/satellite competitors, the AP reports.

If this were any other company, I’d already have a headache from rolling my eyes. But after purchasing the ailing Blockbuster Video in April for $228 million, Dish is definitely … Continue Reading

Apple reaches cloud music deals with Sony, EMI, Warner — Universal in the works

After months of rumor and speculation, it looks like Apple has finally succeeded in bringing music labels on board with its upcoming cloud music service. So far, Apple has struck deals with Warner Music Group, EMI and Sony, and it is also finalizing negotiations with Universal, according to a Bloomberg report.

Industry support could allow Apple to offer a much richer cloud music service than Amazon and Google are able to, as we argued yesterday.… Continue Reading

Answers are easy. Finding problems is hard.

Most entrepreneurs think they know what problem they’re trying to solve when they decide to launch a company – but that certainty fades quickly as they begin digging into the situation. Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, in this Entrepreneur Thought Leader Lecture given at Stanford University, says it’s not the answers that are hard, but finding the right problem to solve. Systrom tells how he and co-founder Mike Krieger went about the process and lessons they … Continue Reading

Is Barnes & Noble worth $1 billion? Liberty Media thinks so

Liberty Media proposed a deal late Thursday to buy the largest U.S. book retailer Barnes & Noble for $1.02 billion through the purchase of the company’s stock at $17 per share, according to Reuters.

The offer may seem high for an ailing fleet of retail stores that are seeing declines in print book sales, but Barnes & Noble’s Nook tablet and online marketplace could be very valuable to the right buyer.

Barnes & Noble announced … Continue Reading

LinkedIn competitor Viadeo: No regrets about IPO delay

After watching LinkedIn’s stock climb to impressive heights following its IPO today, not to mention all the subsequent talk that we’re in a new bubble that will eventually pop, you might think that the executives at professional networking company Viadeo are regretting their recent decision to postpone their own IPO. But Viadeo chief executive Dan Serfaty told me today that he’s feeling just fine.

“I really think we need to stay focused on growth,” Serfaty … Continue Reading

Lawsuit: AT&T overcharging iPhone users by up to 300%

A class action lawsuit filed against AT&T is alleging that the company is routinely overcharging its 20 million iPhone and iPad users for data usage. The cost? According to the lawsuit, up to $10 to $15 a month in additional charges – but sometimes as high as 300%.

The lawyers involved in the lawsuit said they spent $80,000 in employing a firm to conduct independent tests. The tests involved buying new iPhones, disabling any applications … Continue Reading

Saygent raises $1M to analyze customer emotions

Saygent, a company the uses voice response and analysis to figure out customers emotions, today announced it has secured a first round of funding for $1 million. The funding will be used to hire engineers and secure new customers.

The company targets Fortune 500 companies, like Comcast and the Royal Bank of Canada. It offers the ability to reach a large set of customers via telephone and analyze voice responses through crowdsourcing techniques. The results … Continue Reading

Quattro co-founder launches mobile-app tool startup Session M

Lars Albright, the entrepreneur whose technology now powers Apple’s iAds, has a new startup, and it just raised a $6.5 million round led by famed venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The Session M website is pretty bare right now, featuring a brief note from Albright that only hints at what the Boston-headquartered company will be up to:

Our team at session M loves how mobile apps are changing the way people interact … Continue Reading

Work hard, play hard: Students get a free Xbox 360 with Windows 7 PCs

Great news for college students (and perhaps not so great news for parents): Microsoft announced today that it will offer a free Xbox 360 with 4 gigabytes of storage (a $199 value) to any student who purchases a Windows 7 computer for $699 or more.

It’s a smooth move for Microsoft, since it gets Xbox 360s into even more dorm rooms, gives students one more reason to go with a Windows PC instead of a … Continue Reading

CNBC's Jim Cramer: "Overpriced" LinkedIn IPO will "destroy everybody" (video)

Financial pundit Jim Cramer, host of the CNBC TV show Mad Money, went ballistic today when discussing LinkedIn’s initial public offering, saying that it marked the beginning of a new dot-com bubble that will end as badly as the one 10 years ago.

“This is the most outrageously overvalued, ridiculous thing that I’ve seen since CBS Marketwatch or TheGlobe,” he said.

Cramer also compared the IPO to TheStreet.com, the site that he cofounded. Like LinkedIn, … Continue Reading