Etsy founder and CEO Rob Kalin steps down (again), CTO Dickerson takes reins

Handmade items marketplace Etsy announced Thursday that CEO and founder Rob Kalin is stepping down and CTO Chad Dickerson (pictured left) will be taking his place.

“With engineering well in hand and a strong partner in Adam Freed (our COO), it’s time for me to focus my attention on other aspects of the business,” Dickerson wrote on the company blog Thursday. “I’m stepping into the role of CEO at Etsy, and I’m looking forward to … Continue Reading

Apple declares war on Adobe, as Lion disables Flash, Photoshop features (updated)

Steve Jobs’ crusade to rid Apple products of all traces of Flash continues with word that Lion, the new Mac OS X, has many issues with Adobe programs, including disabled Flash Player hardware acceleration.

In the past, Jobs has publicly derided Flash and suggested that the platform is in decline. iOS has not supported Flash since its inception, so it’s not surprising that Lion — which pushes the Mac OS closer to iOS — offers … Continue Reading

Unity Technologies raises $12M to push game development tools in Asia

Unity Technologies said it has raised $12 million in a second round of funding so that it can expand into the Asian market and accelerate its technology development.

The San Francisco company’s Unity game development platform helps developers make cool 3D games on a wide variety of platforms. The funding shows that gaming is still hot sector and its momentum seems to be growing for companies that can help fuel the expansion of games on … Continue Reading

Paypal strong in eBay second quarter earnings, new product on the way

eBay‘s goal is to bring in $15 billion in yearly revenue by 2013, eBay chief executive John Donahoe said today. PayPal and a new unannounced product that will bring eBay offline might take them there, according to the company’s second quarter earnings report.

Revenue grew 25 percent from $2.3 billion in the second quarter last year to $2.8 billion in the second quarter this year ending June 30. Net income fell 19% after eBay acquired … Continue Reading

Intel plans hybrid chip-based security solution

Intel is planning a hybrid security technology that will combine software with chip-based defenses.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini made the announcement today during Intel’s Q2 earnings call.

The hybrid technology will be the first product co-developed Intel has codeveloped with McAfee, which Intel acquired for $7.68 billion early in 2011, Otellini said. He said it will combine security software from McAfee with instructions coded into Intel’s chip hardware.

Otellini provided no details on the hybrid … Continue Reading

Intel notches record revenues amid rise in cloud services, netbook decline

Intel announced its fifth straight quarter of record-setting revenues today, with $13 billion in revenue and $3.2 billion net income, or 59 cents per share, for the second quarter 2011.

That’s a 2 percent increase in revenue over Q1 and a 22 percent increase over Q2 2010, a bit above the $12.8 billion anticipated by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters. Income for the period is up 10% versus the same quarter last year.

The quarter … Continue Reading

Advertisers could push live streaming into its golden age

You’re about to witness a sharp increase in the number of advertisements and marketing campaigns that use live, interactive broadcast platforms.

For example, look no further than the hidden webcams Honest Tea pointed at bottles of tea it left out in the open in various cities, a marketing stunt disguised as test of citizens’ honesty.

Once reserved for “live from the red carpet!” entertainment events like the Oscars and sporting events like the Tour de … Continue Reading

Apple’s new Thunderbolt Display has me wishing for Christmas in July

I’ve said “I want that” to every single new product Apple announced today. I am an iSheep, and I need them. Besides a new MacBook Air, a new MacMini, a new white iPhone 4 and an iPad 2 (also in white, if you’re shopping for me), I really, really want an Apple Thunderbolt Display.

Named after the imaginary pony I had in Pre-K, the Thunderbolt Display is probably a result of Apple selling more laptops … Continue Reading

Why Apple killed off the white MacBook

When Apple refreshed its line of MacBook Airs and Mac minis today, the company also quietly removed its $999 13-inch white MacBook from its store. Now the least expensive MacBook that Apple offers is the updated $999 11.6-inch MacBook Air.

Unfortunately, the two items are not as alike as you might think. Not only do you get less screen real estate with the Air, you also get a lot less hard drive space with only … Continue Reading

Former DoubleClick team raises $6M for comparison-shopping engine

DoubleClick cofounder Kevin O’Connor has a new startup, FindTheBest, aimed at helping you compare everything from air purifiers to venture capitalists.

Now, with a $6 million funding round from Kleiner Perkins that closed Tuesday, FindTheBest should be in a good position to build out its “data driven content platform,” which combines computer-driven semantic analysis with human-powered tagging to build data sets quickly and efficiently.

“‘Human’ is dirty — it’s not scalable,” O’Conner (above, left) said … Continue Reading

Google’s Google+ for iPhone is top free app in iTunes

The top free app in iTunes today is Google+ for iPhone. Not bad considering the app has only been up for 24 hours and the Google+ social network is still invitation-only with 18 million users.

Compare that with Facebook’s mobile app, which is currently the 15th most popular free app — and that social network has 750 million users.

There’s been some speculation that Google+ isn’t going after Facebook and that, instead, Google+ could be … Continue Reading

DIY data centers: Backblaze reveals secrets of cloud storage

If Hollywood ever needs a cloud storage facility for a movie scene, they need to call the folks at online storage and backup company Backblaze. You can just picture Tom Cruise, playing a secret agent dressed in black, sneaking around the rows of shiny red pods in the white storage facility (half a city block long). This is what cloud storage should look like, and the company is now sharing their secrets.

You too can … Continue Reading

Heyzap launches free personalized game recommendations on Android

Heyzap is expanding its offerings as a mobile platform provider. At first, it enabled users to “check in” to their mobile games to tell their friends what they’re playing. Now the company is analyzing the check-in data to offer free recommendations of Android games.

If Heyzap helps game developers find users and helps users find new games amid the masses of offerings in mobile app stores, there could be some serious money in it for … Continue Reading

Zillow share price doubles, then quickly falls during IPO

Real estate listings site Zillow opened on the NASDAQ stock exchange this morning with a whopping $60 share price after its IPO was priced last night at $20 per share. But the $60 per share price fell quickly after the first trade and shares are currently trading around a more reasonable $34.

Zillow follows other tech websites to go public this year, such as LinkedIn, Pandora and HomeAway. All three of those also saw a … Continue Reading

Angry Birds ready to catapult into China in quest for a billion fans

The Angry Birds game is one of the three most-pirated brands in China, behind Disney and Hello Kitty. But Angry Birds maker Rovio is charging into the Chinese market with a multi-product strategy in order to capitalize on its brand awareness.

Peter Vesterbacka (pictured, right), the head of Helsinki-based Rovio, said the company is heading into the Chinese market in its quest to get more than a billion fans for its global entertainment brand, which … Continue Reading

Samsung’s Galaxy S II invades the US in August

U.S. gadget hounds will soon be able to get their hands on Samsung’s massively successful Galaxy S II, Yonhap News reports.

“We expect to release the Galaxy S2 in the U.S. market sometime in August,” Samsung mobile president JK Shin told reporters in a briefing. Judging from his language, it doesn’t appear as if the company has locked down a specific launch date yet. We’ve sent a note to Samsung to see if it can … Continue Reading

Tesla Motors inks $100M deal with Toyota

Electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors has made a deal to supply Toyota with electric powertrains.

The powertrains, which Tesla uses in its Model S and Tesla Roadster cars will now ship in Toyota’s RAV4 car in a deal that will net the company $100 million, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The powertrain system includes a battery, charging system, inverter, motor, gearbox and associated software that are deployed in Tesla’s … Continue Reading

Video-calling app Tango raises $42M

Video-calling app developer Tango announced today that it has raised $42 million in its second round of funding.

The Tango app lets tablet and smartphone users make video calls to other Tango users, much like Apple’s FaceTime app for the iPhone 4. The service works over 3G and 4G networks.

The company also announced that it is releasing a desktop version of the application. That will let individuals start video calls between multiple devices like … Continue Reading

Meet Roku 2: a video streaming box with motion-controlled gaming (video)

Roku, a company that produces boxes that stream web content to televisions, announced today that it is unveiling a new lineup of devices that feature games and motion controllers.

The company’s flagship title at launch is Angry Birds, a game that has already collected tens of millions of users. The controller is similar to the Wii MotionPlus controller from Nintendo. Instead of using infrared light to track a motion controller, it uses an internal set … Continue Reading