Tesla Motors to stop taking Roadster orders in two months
Electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors will stop taking orders for its high-end electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, in two months, according to a report by CNNMoney. Instead, Tesla will concentrate on newer models.
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said the company was on track to run out of Roadsters at the end of the year. The electric car maker is still working on its second car, the Model S sedan, which will be geared … Continue Reading
Meet our next set of MobileBeat 2011 speakers
Preparations for our fourth annual MobileBeat conference are speeding along. Today, we’re announcing our second round of speakers for the event: Jeremy Stopppelman, CEO and co-founder of Yelp; Stephanie Tilenius, VP of payments and commerce at Google; David Temkin, head of mobile at AOL; and Aaron Levie, CEO and co-founder of Box.net. You can find all of our current speakers here.
MobileBeat 2011 is taking place on July 12 – 13 … Continue Reading
Wyoming moves state workers to the cloud with Google Apps
Wyoming likes to pride itself on being a state of firsts. So it’s only fitting that Wyoming has become the first state to fully implement Google Apps for Government, a move the state expects will save more than $1 million per year.
Using Google Apps on a state level for 10,000 state workers will act as sandbox experiment of sorts for other governments considering cloud services.
“For the first time ever, Wyoming’s entire state government … Continue Reading
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings joins Facebook’s board
Is this the beginning of a new power trio for the web? Facebook announced Thursday that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has joined its board of directors.
Hastings is also a board member for Microsoft. And Microsoft, which bought a 1.6% stake in Facebook in 2007, has a search partnership with the social network. Facebook and Netflix, meanwhile, have been talking about a partnership that would integrate Netflix with the site. These three companies were already … Continue Reading
Take that scammers! FBI makes two arrests in massive scareware ring
Just inserting the image to the right into this story gives me the heebie jeebies.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made two arrests in one of the most widespread cyber scams in history. One of the scams had more than one million victims and incurred over $74 million in losses. The identities of the suspects have not been released. Today law enforcement agencies around the world are continuing to investigate the scams.
More than … Continue Reading
Analyst: Four reasons an Apple TV set could happen in 2012
Piper Jafray analyst Gene Munster has long speculated that an Apple-branded television set — not to be confused with the Apple TV streaming box — is likely headed to market by the end of 2012.
In a recent report covered by Business Insider, Munster outlined four general reasons for his logic: the debut of Apple’s iCloud service, the general direction of the App Store across multiple devices running iOS, some TV-related patents Apple filed recently, … Continue Reading
Encore Career Institute raises $15M to educate Baby Boomers
A new online education startup for Baby Boomers, The Encore Career Institute in Los Gatos, announced today that it has landed $15 million in first round financing co-led by VC firms Granite Ventures and InterWest Partners.
Founder and CEO Steve Poizner (pictured), a Republican politician with roots in Silicon Valley as an entrepreneur, was previously elected California’s Insurance Commissioner. He was also a candidate for the California gubernatorial election in 2010 but lost the June … Continue Reading
Nintendo: No Smash Bros. for Wii U any time soon
A sequel to Nintendo’s hit fighting game, Super Smash Bros., won’t come out on its next console any time soon, according to a column written in Famitsu by the game’s creative lead Masahiro Sakurai.
That could end up being a big bummer for Nintendo when the Wii U launches. Smash Bros. Brawl was a huge hit on the Nintendo Wii. It’s partially responsible for the Wii becoming a huge success with casual gamers and a … Continue Reading
Harry Potter e-books no longer a fantasy with Pottermore website
Get your wands and robes ready. In a much-anticipated move, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling announced Thursday a new website called Pottermore that will let Potter fans interact with each other and provide an online spot to purchase Harry Potter e-books.
The Potter franchise’s move online is no surprise. The Harry Potter book series is one of the best-selling in history, with hundreds of millions of copies sold. The books have already been made into … Continue Reading
Cheap Uncharted bundle coming ahead of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception release
Naughty Dog will release a video game package that includes two blockbusters, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves The bundle is due July 22, ahead of the release of its highly-anticipated third Uncharted game, according to ComputerandVideoGames.com.
The bundle will cost $40 and include some goodies for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. It’s a good way to introduce new gamers to the series. BioWare recently began giving away free copies of Mass Effect 2, … Continue Reading
Social gaming company MindJolt’s recent buy churns out its first social game
MindJolt, a social game company headed by MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, has launched its first its first social gaming project built by a company it acquired in April.
The company has released “Mini Café,” a social game built for the iPhone, iPad and iPhone Touch. The game basically revolves around running a restaurant and keeping customers satisfied to increase the restaurant’s reputation. Mini Café players can invite their Facebook friends to their restaurants and “treat … Continue Reading
Rumor factory churns on: EA now potential buyer for casual game maker PopCap
Game publisher Electronic Arts is the latest rumored suitor looking to buy casual games maker PopCap for more than $1 billion, according to sources talking to TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid.
As usual, the sources are remaining anonymous, so take the rumors with a grain of salt. The purchase price is also somewhere between 10 and 20 times PopCap’s yearly revenue, which is a pretty steep price even for bold suitors. The company recently acquired the San … Continue Reading
Apple will “probably” lose its App Store case
A ruling on Apple’s exclusive rights to the term “App Store” is due soon, and the outcome isn’t looking favorable for the Cupertino-based company.
Presiding U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton told the court that she will “probably” deny Apple’s motion, according to a Bloomberg report.
The conflict started in March shortly after web retailer Amazon announced it was launching an app store of its own, imaginatively dubbed “Amazon Appstore for Android.” Shortly thereafter, a chagrined … Continue Reading
Foursquare partners with American Express for deal check-ins
Just after announcing that it passed 10 million users, location-based check-in service Foursquare has said it is partnering with American Express to give members even better deals when they check in at merchants’ stores across the country.
This partnership and any similar future offerings will act as Foursquare’s chance to elevate itself over other location-based services like Facebook Places and Gowalla.
The first two notable deals Foursquare is offering from the AmEx partnership are from … Continue Reading
U.S. DOE commits $1.4B partial loan guarantee to rooftop solar panel project
The U.S. Department of Energy announced Wednesday that it will offer a $1.4 billion partial loan guarantee to Prologis and NRG Energy to install rooftop solar panels on company warehouses.
The AMP Project will install around 733 megawatts worth of solar panels on the rooftops of warehouses owned by Prologis. The electricity generated by the solar panels will then be sold to utility companies and distributed across the grid. It’s one of the U.S. Department … Continue Reading
FTC gearing up for wide-scale Google antitrust probe
Watch out Google, the Federal Trade Commission is on your tail. The FTC is set to serve Google with civil subpoenas as part of a large-scale antitrust investigation, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Unlike previous Google antitrust investigations, which were limited in scope to mergers and acquisitions, the new one will “examine fundamental issues relating to Google’s core search advertising business.” The FTC is preparing to send Google its demands for information within the next … Continue Reading
Android finally gets Hulu Plus, but only on six devices
Buyout or not, it’s still business as usual for Hulu. Today the online television hub debuted its Hulu Plus service on six Android phones.
Like its iOS and desktop brethren, the Android app lets users stream Hulu’s huge catalog of television and movies on compatible devices. However, the service currently only supports a smattering of Android handsets.
Google’s Nexus One and Nexus S made the cut, along with HTC’s Inspire 4G, and Motorola’s Droid II, … Continue Reading
iPhone 5 may get upgraded flash, T-Mobile says it has 1M unlocked iPhones
Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5 could get a revamped dual-LED camera flash, according to Taiwanese news site Digitimes. And in other iPhone news, T-Mobile revealed that it has over 1 million unlocked iPhones running on its network, according to 9 to 5 Mac.
The camera upgrade is seemingly minor, but if true, it will help the iPhone 5 better compete against other phones sporting brighter flash capabilities.
Digitimes says that Taiwanese LED firms Everlight Electronics, Lite-On … Continue Reading
Winklevoss twins finally finish row with Facebook
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins whose story was prominently told alongside Mark Zuckerberg’s in the movie The Social Network, have decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court concerning their $65 million cash-and-stock settlement with Facebook and Zuckerberg.
The move likely means the “Winklevi” are finally done with their long-running dispute with the world’s largest social network. Zuckerberg and the twins reached a settlement in 2008 over whether Zuckerberg stole their idea for … Continue Reading
Nokia’s first Windows Phone leaked, codenamed “Sea Ray” (video)
Sure, Nokia’s new N9 MeeGo phone is pretty, but what I’m really looking forward to is the company’s first Windows Phone 7 device. Now thanks to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (and the company’s lax security), it appears we have our first glimpse.
Nokia showed off the Windows Phone 7 prototype, codenamed “Sea Ray,” to an industry crowd earlier this week. He asked attendees not to take pictures or video of the device, but judging from … Continue Reading
