Ad monitoring service DoubleVerify raises another $33M in quest to be “next DoubleClick”

Online ad verification startup DoubleVerify on Tuesday announced it has raised a cool $33 million in a third found of funding.

Companies like DoubleVerify and competitors like AdSafe and AdXpose serve an important role in the increasingly crowded — and uncertain — online ad marketplace. Publishers, marketers, ad networks and others in the ad supply chain use verification services to ensure that ads are being served correctly and to generally keep better track of individual … Continue Reading

Otoy’s cloud tools can render stunningly realistic video (exclusive)

Filmmakers and game creators would love to create animations so realistic that they look like they were produced inside a Star Trek Holodeck, the virtual simulator from the sci-fi TV and film series. In the Holodeck, you couldn’t tell whether what you were seeing was real or was just a computer animation.

We’re not there yet. But the folks at Otoy — including some of the best computer film animators and graphics experts in the … Continue Reading

Index shows that cost of acquiring new mobile users dipped slightly in July

The cost of acquiring a new user for iPhone mobile apps declined slightly in July, according to an index monitored by mobile app user acquisition platform Fiksu.

That means July was a less expensive month for mobile marketers looking to acquire loyal users (someone who opens an app three or more times) and getting an app ranked in the app stores. While the one-month aberration isn’t that big of a deal, it is interesting that … Continue Reading

The global internet speedup initiative will make web video faster

Get ready for a ride on the Global Internet Speedup Initiative. It’s an alliance of companies who want to make the internet faster by shortening the distance that data has to travel when someone is requesting it.

With the new standard, it will be easier to fetch something like a YouTube video for any given user. That’s because of the alliance among companies such as OpenDNS, Google, Verisign, Comodo and major content delivery networks such … Continue Reading

Pretzel yourself with TwisterMania on Kinect

Some game ideas go together like peanut butter and jelly. That’s what comes to mind with the combination of Microsoft‘s Kinect motion-sensing system and Hasbro’s Twister board game.

Majesco Entertainment is announcing today that it will publish a game called Twister Mania for Kinect on the Xbox 360 video game console this holiday season. This game seems like a natural for Kinect, just like the Fruit Ninja for Kinect (fruit-slicing) game

Some of these kinds … Continue Reading

So many servers, so little time! Fusion-io packs virtualization in with latest product

Fusion-io, a flash storage company, announced its latest product ioCache, a virtualization solution that ties into the company’s focus on data center efficiency.

ioCache integrates flash memory and caching, or saving data in the cache for later use, to free up otherwise redundant actions in servers. This allows for faster data communication and more room for virtual computers on one server.

The product was born out of Fusion-io’s purchase of IO Turbine, a company specializing … Continue Reading

HP plans to go forward with PC spinoff

Hewlett-Packard said on Mondaythat it plans to spin off its personal computer division and is working on how to separate the unit from the rest of the company.

The company previously said in what turned out to be a disastrously planned announcement that it would consider selling, spinning off, or keeping its PC business. It also shut down its WebOS tablet business at the same time it was paying $10 billion to acquire software firm … Continue Reading

AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon to spend $100M on Isis mobile payment network

The mobile payment network Isis is said to receive a major boost of more than $100 million from its parent companies AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, Bloomberg reports.

According to anonymous sources, the additional outlay is meant to make Isis, a network that will allow consumers to use their phones for payments and reward cards, more competitive against competing mobile payments services like Google’s recently announced Wallet. The actual amount that Isis will get depends on … Continue Reading

Pirate Bay founders launch BayFiles: a copyright-friendly file-hosting service? (Yup)

Founders of popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay are launching a new file-hosting service called BayFiles, reports TorrentFreak.

Much like file-sharing services RapidShare and Megaupload, BayFiles works lets users upload files to its servers and easily share them online. That’s different from The Pirate Bay, which currently hosts torrent files (essentially pointers to files you can download from the peer-to-peer BitTorrent network).

And unlike The Pirate Bay, BayFiles will be dedicated to respecting copyrights — … Continue Reading

Cloud-sync company Funambol raises $3M

According to a form D filed with the SEC this afternoon, open source cloud-sync company Funambol has raised $3 million in funding from previous investors HIG Ventures, Pacven Walden Ventures and Nexit Infocom.

Funambol works to sync a number of cross-platform devices, such as laptops, smartphones and tablets over the internet and connect them to your heavily used websites and systems. The company refers to itself as, “like iCloud for all mobile phones and connected … Continue Reading

Lantos 3D ear mapping: much cooler than you think

A technology originally invented for scanning the inside of your mouth might lead to better-fitting earbuds and hearing aids, thanks to Lantos, which just announced a new chief executive, Jeffrey C. Leathe, along with a $4.1 million second round of funding.

Traditionally, if you need an image of your ear canal a doctor pours silicon gel into your ear, which expands and hardens to create a model of your inner ear. The process is uncomfortable, … Continue Reading

Analyst predicts Amazon’s iPad competitor could sell up to 5M units in 2011

Amazon could sell as many as five million tablet PCs in 2011 and become the top challenger to Apple in the tablet space, according to an analyst at Forrester Research.

Back in July it was reported that Amazon was working on an Android-based tablet to be released in October, 2011 that could be serious competition with the Apple iPad. So far, Android tablets have cornered just 20 percent of the tablet market share, and no … Continue Reading

Missouri teachers win injuction, allowed to be Facebook friends with students

Teachers in Missouri were granted a preliminary injunction today over a new law that bans direct social networking contact between teachers and students.

The new law, which went into effect August 28, prohibits teachers from becoming friends with their students on giant social network Facebook.

Last week, the Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA) filed a suit that argues the law infringes on educators’ first amendment rights of free speech, association and religion. It asked the … Continue Reading

This $25 computer (yes, computer!) also runs Quake 3

Remember that $25 computer about the size of a flash drive game developer David Braben unveiled in May? According to a video posted on Saturday, it can run games in high-definition, too.

The Raspberry Pi computer is a single-board computer that’s capable of rendering video games like Quake 3 at a 1920-by-1080 pixel monitor resolution. The game cruises along at around 20 frames per second with the lighting and geometrical details cranked up to maximum … Continue Reading

Solar thermal power developer Infinia raising $25M

Infinia, a manufacturer of satellite-like dishes that generate electricity from sunlight, has raised $6 million of a $25 million funding round, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Infinia’s PowerDish is a parabolic disk covered with mirrors that concentrate sunlight. That light hits a small point on something called a Stirling engine, which uses the heat generated from the sunlight to create a temperature differential across the engine. That causes helium gas … Continue Reading

Exclusive: With new design chief at the helm, here’s how HTC’s products will change

Scott Croyle only just took over as the new design head at mobile device company HTC, but the former vice president of design already has big plans.

In the near future, the smartphone and tablet maker will “concentrate on delivering more content and services into our products, focusing on the user experience,” Croyle said in an interview with VentureBeat. “For example, larger screens for streaming video and enhancing the entertainment experience, and front and rear … Continue Reading

Cisco buys Office collaboration startup Versly

Cisco on Monday announced it has acquired Versly, a young privately-held startup that develops tools to help users collaborate using Microsoft Office programs.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Versly’s plug-ins let groups collaborate using Word, PowerPoint, Excel and email. The acquisition pairs well with Cisco’s goal of increasing business collaboration and social networking opportunities. Versly’s software will be integrated into several of Cisco’s collaboration offerings, including WebEx, Quad and Jabber.

Rob Salvagno, … Continue Reading

New LED light bulbs cost $15, still too expensive

Lighting Science Group and Dixon Technologies today unveiled a new energy-efficient light bulb that uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) priced for less than $15.

That brings LED lighting, which is much more efficient than typical incandescent lights, slightly closer to commercial viability. LED lights typically costs around $18 per kilolumen of light produced, while incandescent bulbs are around $2.20 per kilolumen. LED lighting bulbs probably won’t reach that point until 2015, Lux Research analyst Murray McCutcheon … Continue Reading