With $24M in funding, Qwilt aims to save carriers from video traffic overload

With consumers watching more and more video content over the web via tablets and smartphones, carriers and ISPs are going to need help preparing their networks for the onslaught of traffic.

Enter Qwilt, a new startup emerging from stealth mode today aiming to offload the stress of providing popular video content to consumers. The company also announced today that it has raised $24 million across two rounds of funding from Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Crescent … Continue Reading

More than a million people remember Steve

Apple said today that more than a million people from around the world share their memories, thoughts, and feelings about Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder who died on Oct. 5. The remembrances are running in a live page that scrolls from one tribute to the next in an unending expression of grief and respect for the departed tech leader. Jobs died of pancreatic cancer at age 56.

The remembrances are messages that people send to … Continue Reading

Ultimate team-up: Federated Media and Automattic partnership brings ads to WordPress.com

Leading digital advertising company Federated Media and WordPress developer Automattic forged a strategic partnership today that allows for greater interaction between advertisers and audiences from over 24 million blogs hosted by WordPress.com.

The partnership, which was announced during the Web 2.0 Summit event in San Francisco, Calif., gives WordPress.com blog owners the ability to place advertisements on their sites. In turn, advertisers on Federated Media’s network gain the ability to target their ads by matching … Continue Reading

Hilary Mason of bit.ly says realtime data reveals we’re no heroes

When we read or watch something online, we’re not quite the same person as we when we decide to share it.

No one knows this better than Bit.ly, the link shortener that has a front row seat on the world’s realtime data, especially content shared over social networks. Hilary Mason, bit.ly’s chief scientist, presented insights based on her research, comparing our online browsing behavior to footprints on a beach.

Exploring those footprints in aggregate reveals … Continue Reading

Why can’t we be friends? Facebook and Google+ relationship remains complicated

Facebook has no plans to integrate with Google+, Facebook’s chief technical officer Bret Taylor said today at the Web 2.o Summit in San Francisco.

“Every service is better when it’s social,”  he said. Apparently that dictum doesn’t apply, however, when it comes to services like Facebook and Google+ socializing with each other.

The sitdown with Taylor followed closely on the heels of a conversation with Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Vic Gundotra, the lead engineer … Continue Reading

Siri can be pretty funny at times

The iPhone 4S’s voice command system, Siri, has been out and running for a few days. It’s amazing technology — but it also produces some pretty funny replies.

From our own testing we have found that Siri does not always give the same reply to the same question. Since Siri’s technology is contextual, it probably depends somewhat on the questions you asked before, where you are, and who knows what other factors. Maybe there’s even … Continue Reading

iTunes Match launching soon? Apple reveals its on/off switch in iOS 5

Apple has added an iTunes Match on/off switch to iOS 5′s settings screen under the music tab, which could signal that the company is planning to launch its cloud-based music service soon.

iTunes Match is a music service that gives legal access to any songs currently in your iTunes music library. For $25 a year, subscribers can download their songs from Apple’s cloud to any device running the iOS 5 mobile operating system, such as … Continue Reading

Venture Capital deals drop across the board, clean tech hit

Venture Capital deals in the third quarter of 2011 dropped 12 percent in dollars invested compared to last quarter. Clean technology and life sciences industries were particularly hard hit, according to a report released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

“Public policy challenges in the life sciences and clean technology sectors are impacting investment levels this quarter as is the IPO market that basically came to a screeching halt in August,” explained … Continue Reading

Spotify finally debuts its BlackBerry app for streaming music

Streaming music service Spotify has finally launched an application to bring its service to BlackBerry owners who love having access to copious amounts of music.

Spotify has seen substantial growth in its revenue and number of paid subscribers since its launch in the U.S. in July. As of October, the service has more than five million active users, with two million paying subscribers. On the mobile side, it’s not doing quite as well: It offers … Continue Reading

New LinkedIn feature Classmates is a smarter way to connect with alumni

In addition to its new headhunting service Talent Pipeline announced today, LinkedIn also unveiled a new way to keep track of your alumni networks.

Keeping track of alumni and friends after college is a challenge. If they’re lucky, college friends get new jobs, move to all corners of the country, get married and were it not for social networks, you’d never know they married your ex. While, that particular friend you may not want to … Continue Reading

Sergey Brin: Google+ is part of a bouquet of momentous projects

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said today that the Google+ social network is working surprisingly well and is part of a “bouquet” of services to come.

Brin (pictured in the middle) made a surprise appearance at the Web 2.0 Summit alongside senior vice president Vic Gundotra (pictured left). Brin said that he was very happy with the launch of Google+, which has hit 40 million users just weeks after its release. Since it has only penetrated … Continue Reading

Google vs. Oracle trial delayed, but it’s no threat to Android, spokesperson says

The judge in the ongoing Google/Oracle lawsuit over Android and its use of Java has issued a stay. That means the trial will be delayed, and no new date has yet been set.

Sources close to the matter tell us the trial, which was previously scheduled to begin on October 31, had to be put off because of the judge’s full schedule, which includes a particularly thorny gang trial.

Also, the U.S. Patent and Trademark … Continue Reading

New Yorkers: Join us for drinks and pitches on Tuesday at the Katra Lounge

VentureBeat and DEMO will be heading to New York City next week, where we’ll be throwing a party on Tuesday, October 25 at the Katra Lounge (Bowery and Rivington), and we want the best of the NY tech scene to be there.

This is a great chance to meet some of the VentureBeat writers and have an opportunity to connect with entrepreneurs and other movers and shakers. Or just come by and have a drink!… Continue Reading

Kobo’s new $200 Vox tablet takes on the Kindle Fire & Nook Color

Kobo today launched Vox, a new, priced-to-sell Android tablet. Or is it an e-reader? Does anyone know the difference these days?

Vox is a color, 7-inch touchscreen, Android-running gadget that features music, video and social widgets and apps. It has a web browser, an email client, and even an app store stocked with more than 15,000 free Android applications.

The product directly competes with the much-hyped Amazon Kindle Fire, a similar device set to start … Continue Reading

Lytro unveils its revolutionary light field camera

With Lytro’s new light field camera, you’ll never have to worry about your photos being out of focus — because it’s the first camera ever to let you focus your pictures after taking them.

The company debuted its new cameras at a press event today, which will start at $399 for the 8-gigabyte version, and $499 for the 16GB version.

Lytro made some bold promises when it debuted in June, saying that it would start … Continue Reading

Meet SwiftKey, the virtual keyboard Google would be crazy not to acquire

Google has been placing a lot of emphasis on its virtual keyboard for Android, and a lot of the recent changes have been inspired by startup SwiftKey.

“We’re doing very interesting things that have caught the attention of people all the way up to the top of Android… and Google,” said SwiftKey chief marketing officer Joe Braidwood in a call with VentureBeat this morning.

The company focuses on the artificial intelligence of text correction and … Continue Reading

Cloud video editor WeVideo integrates its service with YouTube

Cloud video editing startup WeVideo has announced that its service will be accessible through YouTube starting today, a move that will give YouTube’s astounding amount users much better video editing tools free of charge.

WeVideo launched at DEMO Fall 2011 in mid-September and it was one of the most promising and talked-about companies of the conference. Its premise is letting users access a powerful Flash-based video editing application accessible from any browser and eventually it … Continue Reading

Zipcar goes social with new Facebook reservations app

Zipcar launched a Facebook application today, for the company’s “tech-savvy” customers.

“We know that our members are tech-savvy and actively engaged in social media, so providing members with the ability to reserve a Zipcar directly through Facebook is a natural next step,” Scott Griffith, chief executive of Zipcar in a statement.

According to member surveys performed by Zipcar, 88 percent of Zipcar users are also Facebook users who spend roughly 15 hours a day on … Continue Reading

How you can be an expert and get paid for it, the Demand Media way

If you’re an expert on any subject, you can become famous and get paid for it. Even if you’re just writing posts on the internet. That’s the message delivered today by Joanne Bradford, chief revenue officer at web media giant Demand Media.

“Every expert deserves to be followed,” Bradford said.

The problem is that there are sometimes too many experts. Those people turn knowledge into a commodity, the price for that commodity falls in the … Continue Reading

23andMe uses genetics data to help attack Parkinson’s disease and other ills

Anne Wojcicki, chief executive of genetics firm 23andMe, said today that her company has been able to find a way to attack a rare form of Parkinson’s disease that her husband, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is susceptible to.

At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Wojcicki said that genetics information that her company has collected from volunteer subjects has yielded some useful information about diseases and our genetic predisposition for getting them. So far, … Continue Reading