Nokia VP reveals more details on Windows Phone handsets

Since February’s announcement that Nokia would partner with Microsoft on Windows Phone 7 smartphones, the mobile community has been eager for more details. Jo Harlow, Nokia’s Executive Vice President of Smart Devices, dished a few more tidbits to Forbes Tuesday, including the targeted release window, some design particulars, and the possibility of a China-only phone.

Predictably, Harlow wouldn’t confirm that a WP7 handset would be out by the end of the year but she seemed … Continue Reading

Russians crack Apple's iOS encryption

As any security expert will tell you, all security systems can be cracked. The issue is more whether the value of the information revealed justifies the effort required to do so.

Russian security company Elcomsoft just demonstrated that it can decrypt the information stored on iOS devices, including devices using the 256-bit hardware encryption used in iOS 4′s data protection feature. That means iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS,  iPod touch (3rd generation or later) and all … Continue Reading

Our next set of speakers for GamesBeat 2011

Today we’re revealing the second set of speakers for our third annual GamesBeat 2011 conference. Our slate of speakers will include David Ko, senior vice president of mobile games at Zynga, the world’s largest social game company; Si Shen, chief executive of mobile social platform company PapayaMobile; and Peter Relan, founder of YouWeb, the incubator that has created such social/mobile gaming companies as OpenFeint, CrowdStar, iSwifter and Sibblingz.

This GamesBeat 2011 conference … Continue Reading

Final Xbox founder leaves Microsoft

Otto Berkes, one of the primary founders of the original Xbox, has left Microsoft after 18 years at the company.

His departure marks the end of an era at Microsoft. The company continues to struggle to create new businesses that were as successful as the Xbox, which is now generating billions of dollars in revenue for Microsoft.

Berkes resigned yesterday. He started in 1993 at Microsoft as the lead programmer on the Windows graphics team. … Continue Reading

Apple admits Macs get malware, update coming to remove MacDefender

Apple plans to release a software update for OS X that will remove pesky MacDefender malware, the company said late Tuesday.

“In the coming days, Apple will deliver a Mac OS X software update that will automatically find and remove Mac Defender malware and its known variants,” Apple said in a release. “The update will also help protect users by providing an explicit warning if they download this malware.”

The software is commonly known as … Continue Reading

AT&T launching LTE 4G in just five cities this summer (Verizon: LOL)

AT&T has a lot of catching up to do with its LTE 4G network, especially since Verizon has a major head start after launching its LTE network last December. But the first official details about AT&T’s LTE launch don’t inspire much hope.

The company announced today that it will be launching its LTE 4G network in just five cities sometime “this summer.” Launch markets include Dallas, Houston (AT&T is based in Dallas), Chicago, Atlanta and … Continue Reading

Peak Games raises $5M for social gaming

Turkish game publisher Peak Games has raised $5 million to make social games for emerging markets.

The deal shows that investors are looking beyond established markets to emerging countries where social games are still catching on. Peak Games, which has more than 10 million monthly active users on Facebook, is targeting its games at Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa.

The investment comes from Earlybird Venture Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm based in … Continue Reading

Finland's Supercell raises $12M for hardcore real-time social games

Finnish game developer Supercell has raised $12 million in funding for its hardcore real-time social gaming business.

The investment shows the increasing appetite for investments in social games, especially those that hope to one-up dominant social game companies such as Zynga by providing a next-generation style of game play on platforms such as Facebook.

Accel Partners, which led the $42 million investment in Angry Birds developer Rovio, led the round. Klaas Kersting, founder of Gameforge … Continue Reading

ImagePulse "sees" how you feel about brands

Is a picture really worth a thousand words? ImagePulse measures how consumers feel about brands based on photos in which the brand is included. It uses a mixture of text, sentiment and image analysis to measure if the image is positive or negative and the emotions involved. What does it mean to the brand when people take pictures of themselves at a Nike store or having coffee in Starbucks?

The more photos people take, the … Continue Reading

Updated: How many ways can THQ's Space Marine game rip off Gears of War?

The second I looked at THQ‘s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine video game, I figured I had seen it before. The sci-fi game may be set in the fabled Warhammer universe, but the style and game play look so much like Gears of War that it’s embarrassing.

Sure, I understand this kind of homage happens all the time in video games. The grunts in Gears of War (pictured right, whose third installment comes out this fall) … Continue Reading

Avado turns health care into continuous care

In ancient China, doctors were paid to keep their patients well. If a patient fell ill, the doctor didn’t get paid until they got better. We have gotten used to being continuously connected, so why does healthcare still revolve around an occasional face to face meeting with your doctor when something has already gone wrong?

Avado, which just launched at TechCrunch Disrupt, aims to turn patients from passive health care receivers into active health care … Continue Reading

YouTube hits 3 billion daily views on its sixth birthday

Proving yet again that it’s an unstoppable video juggernaut, YouTube announced today that it surpassed 3 billion daily page views this past weekend — a 50 percent increase over last year.

That’s a pretty good birthday present for the company, which launched six years ago in May 2005. On its fifth birthday last year, the company announced that it had hit 2 billion daily views, which was just six months after it hit 1 billion … Continue Reading

Sony takes a swing at Apple with new Vaio laptops

Sony is taking a swing at Apple by launching some sleek new laptops based on the newest chips from Intel.

The Sony Vaio F series laptop is the Windows-based equivalent of Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops. The machines are targeted at multimedia enthusiasts who want to watch movies, listen to music or play games while on the run.

The F series (pictured right) features a Blu-ray movie player that can play full high-definition movies in the … Continue Reading

GigaOm doubles down on research, raises another $6M

GigaOm already stands out as one of the most heavily-funded sites in the tech news world — and today it nearly doubled that funding, announcing that it has raised another $6 million.

Back when the San Francisco-based company had “only” raised around $8 million, I already found the funding “kind of remarkable”. The new total, $14 million, isn’t a huge amount for a tech startup, but it certainly dwarfs the amount raised by most competing … Continue Reading

TinyCo spreads the wealth with $5M fund for mobile game developers

TinyCo raised $18 million in February to expand its mobile game business on the iPhone. Now it is spreading the wealth around by launching a $5 million fund to bankroll mobile game developers.

The idea behind the TinyFund is to invest money in developers who can make games that San Francisco-based TinyCo, one of the most successful new mobile game startups, can publish.

Within the past year, TinyCo has launched five top-grossing iOS (iPhone, iPod … Continue Reading

Buzzlogic lands $7.8M more for socially targeted ads

Buzzlogic, a company that helps brands place socially targeted ads, today announced it has raised $7.8 million in a third round of funding. The company will use the funding for product development and to double its sales and account management teams.

The company offers an ad targeting tool that indexes millions of pieces of online content on partner blogs as well as the conversations around them to help advertisers place ads. By identifying what consumers … Continue Reading

Google finally to lift the curtain on its mobile payment plans

After countless rumors and reports, Google is apparently gearing up to unveil its mobile payments platform on Thursday at a New York City event, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The service would let consumers pay for purchases with their phones, but it could also be used to redeem coupons and stack up loyalty points, assuming their phones are equipped with NFC (near-field communications) chips like Google’s recent Nexus S smartphone.

According to the WSJ, Google … Continue Reading

Apple's App Store surpasses the 500,000 mark

Apple’s App Store, the store in which iPod, iPhone, and iPad users buy and download applications, has surpassed 500,000 approved applications according to a combined estimate by Chomp, 148apps, and Chillingo.

Since its debut in 2008, a year after the company launched the first version of the iPhone, the store has witnessed considerable success amongst developers — paying out nearly $1.4 billion in revenue — and users, who have downloaded a total of more than … Continue Reading

Social game leader Zynga poised to file for an IPO?

Zynga, the dominant maker of social games on Facebook, is reportedly poised to file for its initial public offering, according to AllThingsD.

Citing unnamed sources, the publication said that the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission could come as early as this week or next week.

The move will give Zynga the option of raising money by going public or continuing negotiations with well-heeled investors who could make private investments in the company.

San … Continue Reading