Android 4.0 is here: Live from Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich launch
Tonight, we bring you exciting live news from Google’s Android event in Hong Kong.
The latest version of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich, brings beautiful design, longed-for features and brag-worthy technological advances, and we’ve got all the details below.
For all the awesome one-OS-for-all-devices information we knew about six months ago, check out our primer on Ice Cream Sandwich and how it’s going to end Android fragmentation, especially for mobile app developers.
(If you’re pressed … Continue Reading
Samsung’s Android 4.0-powered Galaxy Nexus has everything you’d ever want
As if to purposefully make new iPhone 4S owners feel screen size envy, Samsung and Google today finally announced the long-awaited Galaxy Nexus, a mammoth 4.65-inch smartphone running Android 4.0.
Yes I said phone — not tablet. The Galaxy Nexus is the latest in Google’s flagship Nexus lineup of phones, which have traditionally set the pace for all other high-end Android phones to follow for the next year. Judging from the Galaxy Nexus’s specifications, the … Continue Reading
Pandora prepares to do battle with local broadcast radio
Internet radio service Pandora is getting so big across the globe that it can now challenge broadcast radio stations in a number of local markets, said Tim Westergren, chief executive of Pandora.
Pandora now has more than 37 million active users, Westergren said in an interview with Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.
“We are large enough as a company with our reach to be attractive to a huge pallet … Continue Reading
Ballmer: Kinect platform will highlight new era of innovation, openness
Speaking at the Web 2.o Summit today Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that the Kinect, the motion-sensitive camera for the Xbox 360 game console, is going to be at heart of rush of innovation.
“You’re going to see a range of important innovation that will be coming to Kinect on the XBox this holiday season,” said Ballmer. Today Microsoft announced a partnership with Sesame Street to use the Kinect to engage young television viewers, and … Continue Reading
Google introduces “Infinite Digital Bookcase,” acts as virtual librarian
Google introduced the newest form of bookcase to your browsers today — what it calls an “Infinite Digital Bookcase,” and damn does it look cool.
The company announced the bookcase in an official blog post.
With tablets and eReaders offering a number of new ways to experience books, the browser has been relatively ignored. However, not a lot of people consider getting into a bubble bath with their nice glass of wine and a laptop … Continue Reading
Google gets ready for the debut of Ice Cream Sandwich
Months after it was officially announced at Google I/O this spring, Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest iteration of the Android operating system, is having its launch event tonight in Hong Kong.
Yes, as the sun sets on Mountain View, California, and the Google campus’s brand-new Ice Cream Sandwich statue, Google executives are gearing up for a press event at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (pictured above; giant Android added for dramatic effect).
And … Continue Reading
Ballmer: “We’ve picked our play” in social with Skype deal
Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, said in a very loud conversation with co-host John Battelle at the Web 2.0 Summit that his company has made a big bet on social through both Skype and Xbox Live. Ballmer used his signature booming voice to hammer home his points in a comical conversation.
Microsoft hasn’t launched what some people expected it to do: a social network that competes with the likes of Facebook or Twitter. Ballmer … Continue Reading
Everyme is filling out your address book, gets funding from Andreessen-Horowitz and CrunchFund
Y Combinator alumni Everyme is making sure you’re never missing information from your address book again. In order to do this, the company closed a $1.5 million round of funding from a slew of big name investors including Andreessen-Horowitz, CrunchFund, Greylock Partners, Tencent, SV Angel, and others.
Mobile address books are a little cumbersome. You have to input or upload a lot of information, but it never really feels fleshed out. Some contacts don’t have … Continue Reading
Sony to launch PlayStation Vita on Feb 22 in North America and Europe
Jack Tretton, head of Sony’s U.S. game business, announced today that Sony will ship its PlayStation Vita handheld gaming device on Feb. 22 in the U.S.
Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Tretton said that the PlayStation Vita is Sony’s latest push in mobile gaming and an attempt to compete with the likes of smartphones such as the Apple iPhone. The Vita will feature some spectacular games such as Uncharted Golden Abyss, … Continue Reading
Ben Horowitz on how to be an uber investor and breed technical CEOs
Ben Horowitz, a co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, says he and his famous partner Marc Andreessen hope to carve out a different path in creating a new kind of venture capital firm.
They hope to capitalize on their fame going back to the days of the founding of Netscape, their startup successes, and their love for technical CEOs to beat other venture capital firms to the best new startups. Horowitz also said … Continue Reading
Relax, Apple will more than make up lost iPhone sales next quarter
Sit down. Take a deep breath. Apple may have missed Wall Street’s mark this quarter — especially for iPhone sales — but given the rate of iPhone 4S sales so far, the company is poised to make us completely forget about this “disappointing” quarter come its next earnings report.
Apple sold 17.07 million iPhones during its fourth quarter — a 21 percent jump from a year ago, but well below the near 20 million units … Continue Reading
Apple’s Q4 earnings by the numbers
Apple reported big earnings today with its fourth quarter results, but it unfortunately missed Wall Street’s expectations. That considerably hurt Apple’s stock, which tanked 6 percent in after hours trading as of this posting.
Apple is in a transition mode of sorts after the death of former CEO and technology seer Steve Jobs. New CEO Tim Cook has done his best to keep momentum on Apple’s best-selling products. The new iPhone 4S sold a record-setting … Continue Reading
Yahoo revenue down 24 percent, turning to products to save itself
Yahoo announced its third quarter earnings today, with with both revenue and revenue costs down due to a search agreement Yahoo made with Microsoft. The company tallied $1.217 million in GAAP revenue, down 24 percent year over year.
Yahoo recently fired its chief executive officer, Carol Bartz, and though it was not reflected in this quarter’s earnings, the rocky road that Yahoo has faced is evident. The company is trying to bounce back, however, by … Continue Reading
How Foursquare is moving beyond the check-in
“We want to build tools that change the way all the people in this room experience the real world,” said Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley at the Web 2.0 Summit today, as he described his company’s retreat from the game mechanics that first made the check-in service a success.
With more than 10 million downloads, Foursquare is the category leader for location services, even as it moves away from its initial offering. Crowley said Foursquare is … Continue Reading
Intel: Notebook sales and cloud growth drives record Q3 earnings
Increases in microchip sales for notebook PCs and data servers contributed to Intel’s sixth consecutive quarter of record-breaking revenues and a double-digit increase in net income, the company reported in its third quarter 2011 earnings report today.
Intel reported $14.2 billion in revenue for the third quarter 2011, up $3.1 billion compared to a year ago — a 28 percent increase. McAfee and Intel Mobile Communications contributed $1.1 billion in revenue to the company’s top … Continue Reading
Despite iPhone sales, Apple surprisingly misses Wall Street expectations
Apple was probably cheering this weekend with a record-breaking number of iPhone 4S units sold, but we’re certain the company isn’t happy today with fourth quarter earnings that didn’t meet Wall Street’s hefty expectations. Apple hasn’t missed Street targets in a very long while.
Apple’s long-term viability was questioned when long-time CEO and tech visionary Steve Jobs passed away a few weeks ago. But Jobs left a strong team in place led by new CEO … Continue Reading
New Yorker entrepreneurs: Join us for drinks and DEMO at the Katra Lounge
If you’re based in the New York area and have a great, disruptive business idea, we want to hear from you.
Members of the VentureBeat staff and I will be in Manhattan next week. We’d like to spend our time meeting with the great brains devising and building tomorrow’s incredible technology.
We’re in town for two reasons. First, we’re looking for awesome stories to cover in VentureBeat.
Second, we organize the big launch conference DEMO. … Continue Reading
Google releases 50 new features for presentations in Google Docs
Google is rolling out a suite of new changes to its Google Docs service, including 50 new features for Presentations, according to an official blog post today.
The company has its eye on collaboration features and has been including them in many of its latest products, including social network Google+. For Google+, it was the ability to share screens and docs in Hangout, the video chatting feature. Google Docs has always allowed users to edit … Continue Reading
Financial security startup BillGuard raises $10M to protect you from fraud
Personal finance startup BillGuard has raised $10 million in second-round financing, and it’s using it to expand its service that helps protect accounts from fraudulent activity, the company said Tuesday.
BillGuard protects users by registering their credit and debit cards and keeping an eye out for questionable and fraudulent charges. The company uses a crowdsourced approach to identifying unauthorized charges, by not only providing its own detection but also incorporating users’ billing complaints to track … Continue Reading
The FTC’s privacy guy: You don’t want to meet him.
“I’m the guy you don’t want to meet and frankly I don’t want to meet you either.” That’s how the Federal Trade Commission‘s David Vladeck opened his talk at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco today.
The line was met with laughter, but the subject is serious. Vladeck said the government agency is paying attention to invasions of privacy that companies engage in, either deliberately or by accident.
According to Vladeck, more and more … Continue Reading
