As competition heats up, Airbnb launches free travel credit program

First Airbnb asked us to open our doors to travelers from around the world. Then it beckoned us to stay with other members who had also opened their homes to travelers. But that wasn’t enough. Now Airbnb wants your friends and family to join in too.

In announcing a free travel credit program Tuesday, Airbnb, the fast-growing social marketplace for travel accommodations, is moving to fend off rising competition by enticing loyal member to bring … Continue Reading

Apple updates Time Capsule to 3TB, AirPort Extreme refresh likely on the way

Apple on Tuesday increased the capacity of its Time Capsule network attached storage devices, with 2 terabyte and 3TB options, replacing 1TB and 2TB drives in the previous model. Apple has not indicated the devices have been given any new features besides more storage.

The Time Capsule is one of the most niche products Apple sells, so it’s not given the sort of scrutiny that the latest iPad or iPhone refresh is given. But because … Continue Reading

Foursquare iPhone update makes check-ins faster than ever

Checking-in to your favorite lunch spot today with popular location-based app Foursquare should be faster than ever. The company has just released a faster version of the app, Foursquare 3.2 for iPhone. Foursquare lets users with GPS-enabled mobile devices “check-in” at a location to collect virtual badges, see if anyone in their network is nearby and find local deals.

Foursquare 3.2′s speed will help the app’s more than 10,000,000 users (a milestone announced yesterday) check-in faster … Continue Reading

Nintendo: Wii U not significantly more powerful than Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Nintendo’s next console, the Wii U, will not be significantly more powerful than the consoles in the current generation like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto said.

The new console will strike a balance somewhere between bringing in high-definition graphics and performance and remaining cheap and accessible for gamers, he said. The Wii was not a graphics powerhouse like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but the console was much cheaper and … Continue Reading

Japan earthquake could delay U.S. production of Nissan Leaf

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked Japan in March could delay the start of U.S. production of the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle until late 2012, according to Automotive News.

The costs of getting production back up and running in Japan after the massive earthquake and tsunami forced Nissan to take its Japanese production plant offline. The company was slated to build a production plant for the Nissan Leaf in Smyrna, Tenn., that will produce up to … Continue Reading

CleanPath opens $800M fund for solar projects

Renewable energy investment firm CleanPath announced today that it has raise an $800 million fund that will be used to invest in large-scale solar projects.

The projects will range from ones that will generate 5 megawatts worth of power to more than 100 megawatts. The firm is hoping to invest in projects that will generate around 1 gigawatt worth of power by 2016. Most of the projects the company will invest in will generate between … Continue Reading

More Duke Nukem games coming despite recent game being awful

Take-Two will likely publish more Duke Nukem games despite its most recent title, Duke Nukem Forever, being one of the most disappointing games of the year according to critics.

It’s a risky move, considering that most gamers might ignore sequels to a game that started with a bad piece of intellectual property (IP). That’s prompted many game developers to kill budding pieces of IP and stick to more reliable franchises like Call of Duty or … Continue Reading

Firefox 5 launches only months after last version

Mozilla’s new rapid release cycle for Firefox is moving along in full force. The non-profit announced the release of Firefox 5 today a mere three months after the release of Firefox 4.

Mozilla touts over 1,000 improvements in the new browser, but it’s certainly nowhere near as big a leap as Firefox 4 was over its predecessor. Firefox 5 features improved HTML5, sync and developer support, as well as new Do Not Track privacy features … Continue Reading

LulzSec denies involvement in UK Census hack, suspected member arrested

Hacking group LulzSec, which surprisingly has become a part of the daily news cycle, has denied any involvement in a reported hack on the UK 2011 Census. “That wasn’t us — don’t believe fake LulzSec releases unless we put out a tweet first,” the group wrote in its Twitter account.

Last night, an upload to the anonymous document posting site Pastebin claimed that LulzSec had acquired the UK Census records and was “keeping them under … Continue Reading

Reminder: VentureBeat and DEMO in Vancouver Thursday

Are you an entrepreneur looking to change the world?

Well, grab one of the last spots left to present at the VentureBeat/DEMO meetup with Rogers Ventures in Vancouver this Thursday, June 23.

If you’re in the area and have a new tech company or product you’re launching soon, this will be a great opportunity to get feedback from the DEMO team (I’m executive producer) and a few senior partners from Rogers.

We’ll be selecting up … Continue Reading

DoubleDutch’s HYVE app suite aims to improve enterprise-level productivity

DoubleDutch, a startup that produces enterprise mobile applications, announced the release of its new HYVE suite of enterprise apps at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference today.

The company designed the suite to improve worker productivity and make it easier to collaborate across multiple lines of business. (Check out the video embedded below for a demo.)

HYVE’s seven enterprise apps ditch the text-based notification approach and focus instead on a “check-in” logging gesture that allows users to … Continue Reading

Flight-search startup Hipmunk lands on iPad

Hipmunk, a streamlined flight-search service, has finally launched an app for the iPad.

The iPad app’s search tool is similar to the website. Visitors type in which airports they are flying from and to and then select dates for when they want to travel. Hipmunk then browses all the airline sites available and sorts them in order of “Agony” — a hodgepodge of metrics that includes price, layovers, number of stops and flight duration.

Part … Continue Reading

Cloud-based app-development startup Cloud9 raises $5.5M

Cloud9, a cloud-based app-development startup, closed a $5.5 million first round of funding from Accel Partners and Atlassian Software, the company announced today.

Cloud9 is a web-based programming environment for developers to create and run both web and mobile applications written in JavaScript and HTML5. The service is hosted in the cloud and lets developers access, build, edit, test, debug and share projects.

Previously, Mozilla’s SkyWriter online development environment merged with the Cloud9 service, which … Continue Reading

Intel beware: Tilera unveils processors to power cloud data centers

Tilera, a maker of chips with many brains, is announcing a third generation of chips today that it says will be ten times better in performance and power comparisons than the standard Intel chips that go into internet-connected data centers.

Tilera’s new generation of chips — with 36, 64, or 100 cores, or computing brains — combine both brawny computing performance with great power efficiency. The company says its new Tile-Gx 3000 series of chips … Continue Reading

Gaikai scores a whopper of a game distribution deal with Walmart.com (exclusive)

Game-streaming startup Gaikai has scored a major deal to stream high-quality video games for Walmart.com, the online division of the world’s biggest retailer, VentureBeat has learned. If the new way of selling games works out, it could mean a big step forward in digital game distribution.

The newly discovered Walmart.com Game Center web site shows that you can now play a game such as Electronic Arts’ Dead Space 2 video game simply by clicking on … Continue Reading

Goodbye unlimited data: Verizon tiered plans starting July 7

New Verizon customers will no longer have the option of choosing an unlimited data plan for their smart devices. The wireless carrier is rolling out new tiered data plans July 7, reports DroidLife.

Monthly plans for new customers start at $30 for 2GB, $50 for 5GB and a whopping $80 for 10GB, which doesn’t even include voice calling. Tethering costs an additional $20 for a measly 2GB extra added to the total data cap and … Continue Reading

Nokia finally announces its N9 MeeGo phone, but what is it trying to accomplish?

We’re still months away from Nokia’s first official Windows Phone 7 device, but the company had another phone up its sleeve to introduce tonight at its Nokia Connection event in Singapore: the N9, a long-rumored MeeGo-powered smartphone.

The mockups of the N9 are indeed gorgeous (check out the video demo below), but I’m finding it difficult to work up excitement for the device when it’s clearly a side project for Nokia. The company’s main goal … Continue Reading