Nintendo 3DS redesign could come next month

Nintendo, the manufacturer behind home consoles like the Wii and handheld consoles like the Nintendo DS, could unveil a redesign of its latest Nintendo 3DS handheld console at a trade show next month, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Nintendo has issued invitations for a trade show centered around the Nintendo 3DS on September 13. The company slashed the price of its newest handheld console by around 40 percent to $170, from around $250, after … Continue Reading

Look out, Square! Erply releases credit card reader for iPhone, iPad

Retail management software company Erply is planning a new mobile credit card reader for iOS devices, the company announced today.

Much like competitors Square and Intuit, Erply’s mobile card reader attachment will connect to iPads and iPhones and transmit a person’s credit card data to its own point of sale software for processing payments. It also connects to Erply’s inventory management software, which should cut down on record keeping for any of the company’s 20,000 … Continue Reading

Apple phasing out iOS UDID access to solve privacy woes

With the launch of the most recent iOS 5 beta release, Apple is now instructing third-party developers to stop using the unique device identifier (UDID) in iOS devices, which is often used to track user behavior.

The change will disrupt business for many app developers, especially for mobile ad networks and companies like Tapjoy that rely upon UDID access heavily, but it could mean the end of major privacy concerns for Apple.

It’s also a … Continue Reading

Claritics expands into mobile analytics for Android apps

Social analytics firm Claritics said today it has launched a new analytics platform for games and apps on Android mobile devices.

Back in May, Claritics raised a $1.5 million round as it talked about helping social game and app developers analyze their data and reap more money from their efforts. Now the company is extending that effort to mobile apps on Google’s mobile operating system.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Claritics calls its work “social intelligence.” Claritics … Continue Reading

Fuel cell manufacturer ClearEdge raises $73.5M

ClearEdge Power, a manufacturer of fuel cells that run on natural gas, announced today that it has raised $73.5 million in its fifth round of funding.

The company manufactures fuel cells that run on natural gas, which is broken down into a hydrogen-rich gas. The natural gas mixes with oxygen in the fuel cell, inducing a chemical reaction and generating electricity within the cell. The reaction also produces heat, which can be used in commercial … Continue Reading

Engine Yard acquires Orchestra for added PHP power

Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) Engine Yard has just inked a deal to buy Orchestra, a platform for deploying, scaling and managing applications in the PHP programming language.

Engine Yard is a leading PaaS for Ruby on Rails applications. The company supports thousands of customers, including such big names as Groupon, BuyWithMe, the Criterion Collection and more. All those apps on Engine Yard’s platform translate to around 35 million CPU hours every quarter.

With the new alliance in … Continue Reading

Landmark cloud music ruling frees up Google and Amazon for streaming music services

In a significant court ruling Monday, a Manhattan judge ruled that cloud music services are in the clear to store a single copy of a song and allow users to listen to that copy — as long as it can be confirmed they own the song on their hard drives.

The ruling frees up “cloud music locker” services like Google Music and Amazon Cloud Drive to scan a user’s collection and give them access to … Continue Reading

Appbackr’s crowdfunded apps reach $1M sold in app markets

Appbackr is a relatively new platform intended to help developers find funding for their mobile app ideas, and it’s just announced a significant milestone: $1 million worth of Appbackr-funded apps have been sold in mobile app markets to date.

Here’s how Appbackr’s crowdfunding approach works: The service connects app developers with buyers (called backrs) who are interested in purchasing wholesale copies of the app in question. Developers get paid immediately, and backrs make a profit … Continue Reading

Unlocked and downloaded: Cell phone videos are a powerful weapon in Libya

[Updated with new VentureBeat interview]

The images and videos of bloody fighting in Libya can be hard to watch, but they are easy to come by.

“Everyone has stuff like this,” a rebel fighter said to a Reuters reporter in Misrata, as he showed cell phone video of government tanks entering the city and video of what he says was an unarmed doctor shot by Gaddafi troops, bleeding to death in the street.

Cell phones … Continue Reading

Piracy: Fox’s TV show paywall doesn’t pay (so far)

Piracy of Fox TV shows is on the rise just one week after the television studio decided to delay all new programming on the web by eight days, reports Torrent Freak.

Under Fox’s new “TV anywhere” policy, only members who are subscribed to a traditional cable subscription can view new TV shows the day after they air. Non subscribers must wait a week to watch their favorite shows on Hulu or Fox.com. That delay in … Continue Reading

Samsung’s Impulse 4G could be AT&T’s first LTE 4G phone

AT&T has yet to launch its LTE 4G network, but we’re already seeing spy shots of possible models of its LTE phones.

Today we have a glimpse at the Samsung Impulse 4G, which could very well end up being AT&T’s first LTE 4G phone, according to the mobile site Boy Genius Report.

There aren’t any details available yet for the Impulse, but as BGR points out, it looks strikingly similar to Samsung’s Droid Charge on … Continue Reading

Ngmoco names TV veteran as chief operating officer

Mobile gaming firm Ngmoco has named a TV executive as its new chief operating officer. The move positions Ngmoco to offer broader entertainment on its mobile social gaming network.

The San Francisco company named Joanna Drake Earl, former chief strategy officer and chief operating officer at Al Gore’s media startup Current TV, as head of day-to-day operations at Ngmoco. Her job will include driving the launch of Mobage, which is Ngmoco’s global mobile entertainment network.… Continue Reading

Deus Ex Human Revolution depicts an original sci-fi world

When it comes to science fiction worlds in the video game industry, there are just too many of them. For new video game creators, it’s getting harder to be innovative in the art design.

That was one of the problems facing the developers at Eidos Montreal (owned by publisher Square Enix), which created the big budget sci-fi game Deus Ex Human Revolution, which debuts on the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 today. A considerable … Continue Reading

Apple building cheaper 8GB iPhone 4: Could this be the iCloud iPhone?

Apple suppliers are currently in the process of building an iPhone 4 with a reduced 8 gigabytes of memory, Reuters reports.

Such a model would be less expensive than current iPhones for Apple to build, since flash memory is among the most expensive elements in the device. It would provide Apple a low-cost alternative to unveil alongside the iPhone 5, and it would likely replace the current low-end 8GB iPhone 3GS, which retails for $50 … Continue Reading

Enterprise solid state memory provider Pure Storage snags $30M

Pure Storage, a developer of solid state storage drives for businesses that need to store a lot of data, announced today that it has raised $30 million in its third round of funding, led by Greylock Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures.

Pure Storage’s technology is aimed at driving down the cost of server storage. But rather than try to lower the pure cost per gigabyte for solid state memory, Pure Storage basically stores … Continue Reading

Salesforce.com’s Chuck Ganapathi joins Accel Partners — to build the next Salesforce.com

Chuck Ganapathi, the man who created Salesforce.com‘s Chatter, the company’s largest product development effort ever, has left to join Accel Partners as Entrepreneur in Residence.

Ganapathi said in an interview with VentureBeat Monday evening that he’ll seek to build a company that is both “mobile” and “social” at its core, adding that the collision between those two is the most exciting trend happening for enterprise companies right now. We’re in the midst of one of … Continue Reading

Wanova raises $10M for desktop cloud management service

Wanova, a startup that makes it easy for enterprises to manage a fleet of PCs, has raised $10 million in a second round of funding.

San Jose, Calif.-based Wanova has created the Wanova Mirage software that combines several different technologies to make it far easier for companies to keep their computers updated, backed up, and free of nasty viruses. Thin clients, where the computing is handled in servers, can also achieve this kind of result. … Continue Reading

Sony redesigns its PlayStation Home virtual world as a social game hub

Hoping to jump on a trend, Sony is planning to launch a redesign of its PlayStation Home virtual world, making it into a hub for social games.

PlayStation Home launched in 2008 for the PlayStation 3 and it has more than 23 million registered users. It is currently a virtual world where users can wander through attractions and stores with their avatars, or virtual characters. But virtual worlds have fallen out of favor, while more … Continue Reading