Summer funk continues, video game sales topple 10 percent

In June, video game sales fell once again as the U.S. retail game industry continues to suffer from a low rate of new game releases, according to market researcher NPD Group.

The figures also show there is wide variation month-to-month in the game business. In May, sales were down 20 percent.  For April, sales were up 20 percent, thanks to the release of more hot game titles. In March, sales were down 4 percent. While … Continue Reading

Google CEO: 550K Android devices activated per day

Google CEO Larry Page said 550,000 devices running Google’s mobile operating system Android are activated daily during the company’s Q2 earnings call today.

The number of daily activations is steadily increasing. Just over two weeks ago, Senior Vice President of Android Andy Rubin revealed via Twitter that there were 500,000 Android devices activated each day. He also said that the rate of growth was increasing by 4.4 percent each week, which matches up with the … Continue Reading

Google+ reaches 10M users after just two weeks

Only two weeks after launch, Google+ boasts 10 million users, making it one of the fastest-growing social networks ever. Additionally, people are using Google+ to share content over 1 billion times a day.

These facts emerged from Google’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday. Google vice president for advertising Susan Wojcicki shared that Google’s first priority is to facilitate a “wonderful user experience,” while making its +1 button more widespread.

“Our goal with Google+ is to make … Continue Reading

In Q2, developers favored Apple’s iOS over Google’s Android

Developers are a critical battleground in the war of apps between Apple and Google. And Apple’s pulling ahead, according to Flurry’s latest stats.

In the second quarter, Apple’s iOS operating system gained support from developers while Android saw a decline, according to Flurry, a company that provides advertising and analytics services for app makers. The battle for developers is an important one as the winning platform is kind of like the feudal warlord who has … Continue Reading

Google’s record-breaking Q2: Over $9B in revenue, 32% growth

Google announced its second quarter earnings today, soundly trouncing Wall Street expectations.

The company earned $9.03 billion during the quarter (as of the end of June) — a new quarterly record — whereas the Street expected around $8.6 billion. That’s an increase of 32 percent over last year, when the search giant had revenues of $6.82 billion for the same period.

“We have substantially increased our velocity and execution this quarter, a key goal of … Continue Reading

Pentagon releases cyberspace strategy, admits 24K files were stolen by hackers in March

The Pentagon on Thursday released its formal cyberspace strategy to ward off cyber attacks. The 19-page document is not nearly as focused on offensive retaliation as previously thought but instead it mostly outlines a strong defensive approach to take on hackers.

“Treating cyberspace as a domain means that the military needs to operate and defend its networks, and to organize, train and equip is forces to perform cyber missions,” Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said … Continue Reading

Nimble Storage doesn’t need $25M, but they’ll take it anyway

Nimble Storage, a startup that provides data storage, backup and disaster recovery (DR) on one device (left), closed a fourth round of funding for $25 million today. The news comes six months after the company received $16 million in their third round. They have now raised a total of $58 million. Nimble says it doesn’t really need this new round of funding, it just “demonstrates the excitement about the market opportunity.”

As the old Silicon … Continue Reading

Want a Spotify invite? Start boosting your Klout

Invites to the U.S. launch of European music service Spotify are scarce, but if you’re an influential Klout user, you can step to the front of the line.

Klout, a site that rates a person’s influence within Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, is providing more than 100,000 coveted invites to U.S. users. Those particular people are likely to share thoughts about Spotify with communities that value their opinion.

“We just gave away 15,000 to 20,000 invites … Continue Reading

Ivy-leaguers tap into the app game with TappMob

The teenage entrepreneurs behind TappMob have an extreme approach to app design: One button and one bar of text is all you need.

Their first app is a location-sharing tool that lets you share your whereabouts with your friends using a single button tap, but they think the same interface could work for many other apps, and they want to help other college students build those apps.

“We still check in with our parents,” admitted … Continue Reading

Cloud-based video games will put pirates out of business

Ever wonder what the gaming world would be like without pirates?

That future isn’t too far away, thanks to the advent of cloud-based gaming services like Otoy, OnLive and Gaikai.

Cloud-based gaming companies run video games on very powerful remote computer servers and then stream the game like a YouTube video to a computer. If a gamer has a half-decent Internet connection, they won’t notice a difference in quality between playing on a remote cloud … Continue Reading

Spotify to give away free music with no caps for 6 months

With an invite to Spotify’s just-launched music service, people in the United States can now listen to 15 million songs on their computers for six months, for free. Now go tell your family and friends, because that’s exactly what European music service Spotify wants you to do.

“We’ve been lucky enough that 99% of our users say they’d recommend us to friends,” a Spotify spokesperson tells VentureBeat. Naturally, the company’s marketing plan capitalizes on that. … Continue Reading

Google+ speeds up launch of business account test program

Google plans to accelerate the launch of its corporate account program on Google+ after thousands of businesses signed up to try the fast-growing social network.

“To the thousands upon thousands of businesses that applied to be a part: Thank you!,” Google product manager Christian Oestlien wrote on Google+. “We won’t be able to accommodate everyone, but your interest has got us very focused on accelerating our development plans.”

Google+ has rapidly attracted individual users, racking … Continue Reading

Cloud storage provider Box.net: Build your apps on top of us

Cloud storage provider Box.net is unveiling a new set of code libraries that will let app developers quickly embed the company’s storage and collaboration tools into their apps, the company announced today.

“We have 40 developers building that back-end stack, and people want to be able to deploy that instantly into their applications,” said Aaron Levie, chief executive of Box.net. “Developers don’t want to have to manage the user management, the access controls and the … Continue Reading

Nintendo announces Netflix movie streaming on 3DS

Nintendo announced today that owners of its 3DS portable gaming system will be able to watch Netflix streaming movies and TV shows.

The app will be available as a free download from the Nintendo eShop. But Netflix users need to have a streaming membership starting at $7.99 a month and up. The new app will make the Nintendo 3DS — which can play games in stereoscopic 3D — more attractive for a wider number of … Continue Reading

Spotify launches in U.S., users can wait for an invite or pay to get inside

The much-hyped European music service Spotify is launching today in the U.S. We covered the news yesterday, but a few of the more important details, such as pricing and levels or service, weren’t available until now.

Spotify will launch with three tiers for pricing and service. First, there’s Spotify Free, which lets users listen to music from the service on their computer for nothing and pays for itself using advertising. To get access to the … Continue Reading

TouchType uses the entire internet to upgrade its Android keyboard

To upgrade its Android keyboard, TouchType Ltd. drew on the combined linguistic intelligence of the entire online universe.

“We made a copy of the internet,” chief marketing officer Joe Braidwood told VentureBeat.

SwiftKey X, the latest version of the company’s keyboard for Android handsets and tablets, is just an app. It replaces the onscreen keyboard with one that has greater predictive intelligence about what you’re going to type next, helping compensate for your sloppy typing … Continue Reading

Payment startup Dynamics reveals its A-List investors

Dynamics, the big winner in the 2010 DEMOfall conference, revealed today some of the big-name investors who helped the payments company raise more than $40 million in two funding rounds.

Dynamics has created a series of smart credit cards with electronics built into the plastic, but those cards also have traditional mag stripes that can be read by standard card readers. This clever combination allows Dynamics to make versatile cards for credit card issuers who … Continue Reading

Applifier launches mobile game-discovery service

Applifier, which helps games get discovered on Facebook, has launched a new mobile discovery bar to make it easier for social games to spread on mobile devices. The bar is part of a cross-promotion network.

Applifier chief exec Jussi Laakkonen told VentureBeat that the mobile tool will let users view a recommended game from high-profile spots such as the opening screen of a mobile game. If the user taps on the bar (pictured at the … Continue Reading