Quixey grabs $3.8M for app search

App search service Quixey has just sealed a deal for $3.8 million to power its growth and develop new partnerships.

Quixey aims to do something new: It lets users search for mobile, desktop and web apps based on what the app does. The company calls this “functional search,” and Quixey says it differs from typical mobile app store search, which is based on keywords found in titles and descriptions.

Instead of relying solely on what … Continue Reading

RockStar Motel wants to put artist success in the hands of music fans

Luca Sacchetti has just created a social music network with the goal of giving fans the power to sign and represent artists online. RockStar Motel enters private beta today, with an official launch in October 2011.

“It amazes me how emotionally drained I feel,” says founder Sacchetti in an email to me this morning. “I pictured this day completely different than how I feel at this moment. When I started this journey I felt like … Continue Reading

Verizon to launch Samsung Droid Prime in Oct. with Android 4.0

Who needs Galaxy S II? Not Verizon Wireless. The carrier is reportedly planning a far bigger smartphone release from Samsung, the Droid Prime, for this October, according to the mobile news site Boy Genius Report.

Verizon will have exclusive dibs on the Droid Prime, which we’ve called the Nexus Prime in past reports. It will be the first phone to run Android 4.0, codenamed “Ice Cream Sandwich.” Judging from the report, it’s unclear if the … Continue Reading

Say cheese! Flip camera founder opens new restaurant The Melt

I am meeting with Jonathan Kaplan, the founder of the Flip video camcorder, at his new fast casual restaurant called The Melt. The chain’s flagship opens on August 30 in San Francisco. They serve soup and grilled cheese, and I am a vegan.

“Of course, we would love for you to try one,” says Kaplan, who doesn’t know this. I politely decline, without going into the gory details of my dairy-free diet.

I can’t tell … Continue Reading

Samsung releases ChatON, another group messaging app no one will use

Samsung is getting ready to launch a new mobile messaging service called ChatON.

The app is essentially a group chat app that combines texts, images and video messaging from Samsung’s Bada OS,  iOS, Android and BlackBerry.

But with the multitude of other group messaging options available to users (Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Messenger and  Facebook’s new messenger app in particular) it’s unclear if ChatON will ever take off.

Samsung’s new chat service is scheduled to … Continue Reading

Calling all developers: Chumby moves from hardware to software, and it needs your help

It takes a village to move a company’s focus from hardware to software. San Diego-based Chumby is making that move, and it’s calling out to the developer village for help.

The company’s original focus was hardware, specifically a cute, little alarm clock that runs hundreds of apps in 29 categories on top of a Linux OS.  The company calls the device “a window into your internet life that lives outside your desktop.” Those alarm clocks … Continue Reading

Zeebo raises $17M for interactive education for kids

Zeebo, which started out making low-cost game consoles for emerging markets and is now focused on education, has raised $17 million in equity funding according to an SEC filing.

The San Diego, Calif.-based company has previously focused on making game consoles for emerging markets in countries such as Brazil, China, India, Russia and Mexico. But the company is now focused on creating an entertainment and education platform for a 2012 debut.

“Zeebo is realigning its … Continue Reading

Samsung announces 4G LTE-enabled Galaxy S II, Galaxy Tab 8.9

Samsung this weekend announced 4G LTE versions of the already popular Galaxy S II Android smartphone and one forthcoming Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab 8.9.

The new devices aren’t dramatically different spec-wise from previously announced models, but they show Samsung’s commitment to equipping their devices with new 4G technologies. In the past, Samsung has released the Epic 4G for Sprint with 4G WiMAX, Droid Charge on Verizon with 4G LTE and the Infuse 4G on … Continue Reading

Samsung eyes WebOS, recruits ex-HP VP for PC sales

Samsung may be taking advantage of HP’s recent missteps. The company is reportedly thinking of purchasing HP’s webOS software, and it has also recruited HP’s ex-VP of PC marketing Raymond Wah, reports the Taiwanese news site Digitimes.

Of all of the potential webOS buyers out there, Samsung is one of the most interesting. The company has already gained some ground in low-end phones with its Bada software, and it has been nimble enough to succeed … Continue Reading

Report: iPhone 5 to sport screen under 4″, metal back

Here’s one iPhone 5 rumor that we hope ends up being bunk: Apple may be keeping the iPhone 5′s screen size somewhere under 4-inches, putting it well below most high-end Android phones, reports the Taiwanese news site Digitimes.

Panel supplier sources tell the site that Apple is looking towards a 3.5- to 3.7-inch screen size for the iPhone 5. The device’s bezel may be thinner, which should serve to make the screen look bigger. Additionally, … Continue Reading

MokaFive slashes corporate computing costs and let workers use Macs

MokaFive is one of the companies that is rewriting the rules of corporate desktops by adding a small layer of software to manage the computer from afar yet allowing that computer to locally execute programs.

With this new kind of virtual management, MokaFive delivers a bunch of benefits. First, it cuts the cost of corporate computing while giving users access to beefy desktops or laptops. It lets workers use Macs in the enterprise. It lets … Continue Reading

Kenandy raises $10.5M for cloud “social manufacturing”

Kenandy is taking the old world of industrial manufacturing into the new world of the cloud with its “social manufacturing” platform. And today, the company is coming out of stealth and announcing it has raised $10.5 million in a first round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Sitting atop Salesforce.com’s Force.com cloud software, Kenandy is creating a service that combines the nuts-and bolts of manufacturing software with cloud technology and social media. … Continue Reading

IBM updates Connections mobile apps to push enterprise social networking on the go

IBM on Monday launched three updated mobile applications designed to help businesses that use its enterprise social networking package, Connections.

The apps, for iOS, Android and BlackBerry, plug in enterprise users and their customers so they can access things like blogs, employee data, status updates, wikis, videos and photos. Ideally, enterprises that use Connections will have an edge when it comes to collaboration and unified communication solutions.

The IBM Connections software was previously known as … Continue Reading

Singularity University graduates a class of tech world changers

Ray Kurzweil wrote the textbook on how to save the world. In his book”The Singularity is Near,” Kurzweil (pictured above) wrote about how the exponential changes being brought about by the advance of technology and how that can be used to help humans survive longer and reshape the world. Back in 2007, he co-founded Singularity University with Peter Diamandis and they’re now graduating acolyte entrepreneurs.

Today, Kurzweil, Diamandis (pictured right) and other tech dignitaries at … Continue Reading

Peter Diamandis sounds the alarm on embracing exponential technologies (video)

Peter Diamandis, the chairman of Singularity University and head of the X Prize Foundation, says that executives had better be aware of exponential technologies like the rapid advances in chips (Moore’s law), biotechnology, or connectivity so that they can use them to gain a competitive advantage.

“If you’re a CEO of a company and you’re not aware of where these technologies are going, they can literally put you out of business in a snap of … Continue Reading

Hurricane Irene mayhem chronicled via Instagram

Instagram users hunkered down in New York, New Jersey and other cities in the path of the rather menacing-looking Hurricane Irene are chronicling the mayhem through an online Instagram photo album called Instacane.

Hurricane Irene began pounding New York and nearby states this evening, prompting a flood of content related to the hurricane on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and — yes — Instagram. The photo-sharing site, based in San Francisco-based, has more than … Continue Reading

Apple drops 99-cent iTunes TV rentals

Apple on Friday quietly removed its 99-cent TV show rentals from the iTunes Store.

The decision comes just days after CEO Steve Jobs resigned, signaling the company could be looking to simplify its product offerings or just showing off its willingness to cut less-successful product offerings.

Rentals had cost 99 cents per episode. Customers who want to watch TV episodes through iTunes and their iOS-enabled devices now only have the option purchase individual shows, which … Continue Reading

Serial entrepreneur Naveen Jain plays digital doctor

Naveen Jain has been one of technology’s heavy hitters for a long time as the founder of startups such as Moon Express, Intelius and InfoSpace.

Now he is jumpstarting an incentive-based prize challenge to develop what he calls Digital Doctor, a way to improve access to better healthcare through artificial intelligence. Jain is donating $1 million of his own money to get it going.

The idea is to get Digital Doctor medical diagnosis technology on … Continue Reading