Sentilla raises $15M to supercharge data center management
IT infrastructure software maker Sentilla wants to turn IT departments into profit centers instead of financial burdens, and they’ve just raised $15 million to work towards that goal.
Sentilla’s software uses physical equipment and virtual cloud IT infrastructure to improve data center efficiency by discovering, monitoring, analyzing, planing and automatting data center workloads. Sentilla’s energy management platform is currently in its sixth generation. Sentilla’s service is subscription-based and the company says it currently helps customers … Continue Reading
HTC launching two Windows Phone Mango devices Sept. 1
Mobile manufacturer HTC will reportedly launch two new Windows Phone devices equipped with Mango, the first huge update to the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system, at an event on Sept. 1.
HTC declined to comment for this story, saying it does “not speak to rumors or speculation about unannounced products.”
A massive Mango update was already rumored for Sept. 1, so the event date makes sense. Mango will offer more than 500 new features, … Continue Reading
MS offers free Windows phones, training to WebOS devs — gets 1K responses
Following HP’s swift destruction of its webOS ecosystem last week, Microsoft stepped up on Friday to give webOS developers a new home with free Windows Phone devices, training, and tools.
Now, the company’s Senior Director of Windows Phone 7 development Brandon Watson, who made the initial plea to webOS devs via Twitter, says he’s received nearly 1,000 responses to the offer.
We’ve dropped a line to Watson to see if he can offer up more … Continue Reading
SeatGeek teams up with Yahoo Sports for ticket deals
Startup SeatGeek will be partnering with Yahoo Sports websites to help boost usage of its ticket aggregation service, reports All Things D.
SeatGeek aggregates sports, concert, and theater ticket listings from several different ticket vendors and arranges them on an interactive seating chart. The new partnership with Yahoo will allow the company to add links to SeatGeek’s service into athletic team’s schedule pages, sports news articles and all of its Rivals.com college sports pages.
This … Continue Reading
How to choose the right marketing automation tools
[Editor's note: VentureBeat received several messages saying this story contains inaccuracies. The following corrections have been made: The description of Pardot has been revised to reflect that the Pardot platform does extend into sales, new information on Genius' customer retention has been added, the spelling of Silverpop's Vtrenz product has been corrected, and the statement that Silverpop stopped developing its marketing automation product has been removed. For an update on this story, see our followup … Continue Reading
Lab126 trademark filings hint at Amazon’s upcoming Android tablet
Amazon.com has applied for name and logo trademarks for its hardware group, Lab126, in what’s become another clue that the company is about to release a color-screen, Android-based tablet.
The trademark applications were filed Aug. 16 for “design and development of computer hardware and software” and were discovered by GeekWire over the weekend. The company’s logo, included in the trademark filing, is a bit of a Rorshach inkblot test, but it looks an awful lot … Continue Reading
Verizon to take $20/month 300MB data plan nationwide for holidays
After launching a $20/month 300MB data plan in the mid-Atlantic region last week, Verizon intends to take the plan nationwide just in time for major smartphone releases like the iPhone 5, according to a report by 9to5Google.
Verizon did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
The report says Verizon sees the new plan as a value alternative to its $30/month 2GB plan. The company also hopes customers will think the plan is a … Continue Reading
Lithium hires a new CEO for helping enterprises engage with customers
Lithium, a company that makes customer relationships more social, is announcing today that it has hired a veteran Adobe executive as its new chief executive.
Rob Tarkoff (pictured right) will replace founder Lyle Fong (pictured below) as CEO of Emeryville, Calif.-based Lithium. Fong will become the chief strategist and remain on the board. The change is effective Sept. 2.
The new addition will help the company figure out how to further marshal the power of … Continue Reading
NPD: Android maintains US lead, Google buy could revive Motorola
Surprise surprise, Android is still the leading US smartphone platform, with a 52 percent second quarter share, according to the research firm NPD Group.
That’s to be expected, since not much has happened to displace Android’s lead in the last quarter. NPD also notes that Motorola’s market share has fallen in the quarter — down to 9 percent from 12 percent last year — but Google’s recent Motorola purchase could bring some new life to … Continue Reading
Apple iOS 5 features earthquake warnings for Japanese iPhone users
The next version of Apple’s iOS software will include an earthquake warning notification system for Japanese iPhone owners, according to 9to5Mac.
After the damaging earthquake that hit Japan earlier this year, Apple decided it was time to hook its popular smartphones into the Japanese early warning system that can give people up to two minutes of warning time before a quake hits. Apple head Steve Jobs reportedly sent out a note to Apple employees in … Continue Reading
Android could hit HP’s TouchPad thanks to Touchdroid project
If you were one of the many gadget hounds to snag a $99 HP TouchPad this weekend, you may soon be able to run Android on the tablet thanks to a group of intrepid hackers.
The group’s Touchdroid project is only a few days old, but it’s notable since it’s the first concerted effort to bring Android to the TouchPad. And if it succeeds, Touchdroid would breathe new life into the tablet, which at the … Continue Reading
Can Google+ replace your company’s intranet?
(Editor’s note: Curtis Smolar is a partner at Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley. He submitted this column to VentureBeat.)
A reader asks: With all of the buzz surrounding Google +, I’ve been contemplating using it to replace my company’s intranet. I realize there are likely some risks that go with the savings this will create, but are there any legal implications?
Answer: Google+ introduces a paradigm shift from a walled garden to an … Continue Reading
Annoyed by braggarts, hackers will vote on best security hacks
Skilled hackers are often annoyed by amateurs who use automated attacks to cause mayhem. They refer to the youngsters as “script kiddies,” since they follow scripts and aren’t truly skillful. So a new web site called RankMyHack.com has emerged that will allow underground hackers to anonymously submit their exploits and have the community vote on them.
The New York Times reports that some 700 hackers have submitted evidence of more than 1,200 web site hacks … Continue Reading
AMD stays the course with new desktop and laptop chips
Advanced Micro Devices is doing something today that seems rather unfashionable. The chip maker is announcing a series of new additions to its desktop and laptop microprocessors.
It seems so mundane to introduce PC chips at a time when competitors Intel and Nvidia are racing off into smartphone, tablet and “ultrabook” (thin laptops) chips. Hewlett-Packard said last week that its PC business might be put up for sale, in part because tablet demand was hurting … Continue Reading
Skype purchasing GroupMe to ramp up group communications
Skype on Sunday said it will acquire group messaging startup GroupMe, a move that will help the company expand its offerings in group-based communications. Exact terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“[GroupMe] complements our existing leadership in voice and video communications by providing best in class mobile text-based communications and innovative features around group messaging that enable users to connect, share locations and photos and make plans with their closest ties,” said Skype CEO … Continue Reading
Zynga confirms it hired EA’s Jeff Karp as marketing and sales chief
Confirming previous reports, Zynga verified that it poached another Electronic Arts executive. Jeff Karp, who was formerly executive vice president at EA Play, has joined Zynga as chief marketing and revenue officer.
Under his new role, Karp will oversee all aspects of marketing at the social gaming company, which has been able to recruit a number of traditional video game executives in part because of its fast growth and upcoming initial public offering.
Before Karp, … Continue Reading
Why HP needs to merge with SAP
HP has had to face tough realities this week. Fortunately, there is a way for it to survive: Embrace the inevitable trend favoring “vertical” companies.
In the first part of the 2000s, IBM and HP went in two vastly different directions: HP acquired Compaq to bolster a horizontally-integrated PC business, while IBM sold its PC division to Lenovo and focused on creating a vertical stack of enterprise products.
In the early 2010s, HP’s decision to … Continue Reading
The age of personal robots is at hand (video)
If the past 50 years saw the rise of industrial robots, the next 50 will be about the age of personal robots.
That’s the view of Steve Cousins (pictured above), chief executive of Willow Garage, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based maker of personal robots like the PR 2, the robot he’s introducing onstage. At last week’s Hot Chips conference at Stanford University, Cousins demonstrated what his 450-pound personal robot could do, from giving high fives to … Continue Reading
Google must take the offensive with Motorola patent portfolio
Google’s plan to buy Motorola Mobility will likely win approval from the Department of Justice, just as Oracle earlier received approval to buy Sun. The acquisition will double Google’s workforce and increase the size of its patent portfolio to more than 17,000 patents. What should it do with all those patents?
Google is not an active patent plaintiff, but at the same time, Google has never owned this kind of patent portfolio before.
Larry Page … Continue Reading
US Best Buy stops selling TouchPad, HP gives refunds to owners
HP’s massive TouchPad fire sale won’t be hitting Best Buy stores in the U.S., as the retailer will be shipping its remaining stock back to HP, Engadget reports.
The news is certainly going to disappoint deal hounds who were hoping for US Best Buys to offer the tablet for $100, as Canadian Best Buys did yesterday. VentureBeat’s Regina Sinsky talked to a Best Buy manager yesterday who admitted that the company never had plans to … Continue Reading
