The female tech CEO: rising trend or exception to the rule? (video)

This week, IBM named its first-ever female CEO, Virginia Rometty.

In an industry that historically lacks gender balance, this move struck the VentureBeat staffers, including publisher Alicia Saribalis, as momentous.

But in reflecting on the events of the day, we also pondered whether the female tech CEO presiding over an established company (examples also include Meg Whitman and the gone-but-not-forgotten Carol Bartz) was an anomaly attributable to the extraordinary moxie and hard work of a … Continue Reading

iPhone 4S jailbroken for first time, “hurdles” remain for public release

A member of the infamous iPhone Dev-Team, a group of hackers, has found a way to jailbreak the Apple iPhone 4S for the first time since its release two weeks ago.

Jailbreaking your iPhone opens the door to loading unapproved applications, and to using the phone on additional carriers. Not surprisingly, Apple hates its devices being jailbroken and used in unintended ways, so the company regularly issues operating system updates that make it harder to … Continue Reading

Samsung’s new phones will have flexible screens

Samsung‘s new mobile device lineup will feature flexible screens starting in 2012, the company announced today.

In its quarterly earnings call, Samsung’s vice president of investor relations, Robert Yi, told investors, analysts and press, “The flexible display we are looking to introduce sometime in 2012, hopefully the earlier part. The application probably will start from the handset side.”

After flexible-screen mobile phones roll out, the company plans to introduce the same technology for tablets and … Continue Reading

Video: A deeper look at the $35 Android tablet shows that it’s usable, mostly

An Android tablet that sells for just $35 seems like an irresistible bargain. At that price, you might even be willing to put up with some serious tradeoffs. But does the Aakash tablet work well enough to be useful?

We were able to get on our hands on this device twice. The first day we had limited time with it, and wrote an overview, India’s $35 Aakash Android tablet lands in America, based on our … Continue Reading

Klout raising new $30M round at a $200M valuation

Klout, the startup best known for its ability to measure a person’s online influence, might be raising a new, third round of investment that would significantly add to the company’s total funding and valuation.

Klout works by measuring a person’s activity on a variety of social networks such as Twitter, Facebook LinkedIn Google+ and others. Based on that individual’s interaction within those social networks, Klout calculates the true reach of that person’s communications and issues … Continue Reading

HP’s MacBook Air competitor coming to market soon, says exec

HP will soon be manufacturing Ultrabooks, the super-light, super-slim computers that will compete with Apple’s MacBook Air.

In the wake of the joyous news that HP is not killing off its PC division, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP’s Personal Systems Group said in a conference call today, “We’re very focused on having a suite in that ultramobile space, and you’ll see that very soon.”

The Ultrabook space is heating up; HP is actually … Continue Reading

With a facelift and Android apps, Google TV may finally live up to its potential

A year after Google TV’s middling launch, Google is finally ready to take another stab at its ambitious smart TV platform.

The company announced today that the long-awaited GTV update, which brings with it a revamped interface, Android apps, and more, will start to roll out next week.

I was a bigger fan than most of Google TV — I’m actually still using it daily — but the platform’s problems have become increasingly grating over … Continue Reading

BuyWithMe acquired by Gilt Groupe, in for another round of layoffs (report)

A boatload of BuyWithMe employees are about to take a permanent “Gilt trip” after the startup’s acquisition.

Gilt Groupe, the luxe-themed website for upmarket flash sales, is reportedly in the final stages of buying struggling daily deals service BuyWithMe.

The latter company all too recently let the world know it was axing more than half of its staff after it was unable to raise a new round of funding. Some feel the layoffs happened to … Continue Reading

WebOS still a goner after Whitman saves HP’s PC division?

[Update: HP has since said this is an "unfounded rumor."]

HP decided yesterday that it would, in fact, keep its massive PC business alive, but the webOS division will reportedly not be so lucky.

A report by the Guardian says the unit will be shut down, and that and up to 500 jobs could be cut along with it.

When HP’s former CEO Leo Apotheker announced the company was considering spinning off its … Continue Reading

Think twice before using Google+ with corporate and education Google Apps accounts

Anyone who plans to enable Google+ features on their Google Apps account for work or school should make sure to note the privacy policy before proceeding.

Yesterday, Google began allowing customers of its Google Apps accounts — the company’s enterprise suite of web-based applications for documents, email and more — to sign up for its social network Google+. App accounts can then gain access to all of Google+’s features, like Circles, video chat Hangouts and … Continue Reading

In a commitment to honesty, Twitter tries to bury the hatchet with third-party developers

Ryan Sarver had just come back to work after his wedding.

Notice I said “wedding” and not “honeymoon.” Sarver has for some time been Twitter’s first line of defense between the company and a occasionally disgruntled army of third-party developers. The relationship between those two entities has been testy at best and an out-and-out war at worst for the better part of two years. Unfortunately, mid-2011 was no time for a honeymoon.

I met with … Continue Reading

Why iCloud is a bigger deal than you think for Steve Jobs’ legacy

Steve Jobs introduced a lot of important products to the world, including the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. But one of the most important things he ever helped produce may be a product that didn’t even fully launch until after his death.

iCloud, a virtual storage drive for your personal content, is just getting off the ground this month. Along with the iOS 5 operating system, it was the last product Jobs showed off in … Continue Reading

That was fast: Samsung topples Apple as top smartphone maker

Samsung has now become the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, leaping past Apple, which held the title for just one quarter.

Samsung shipped 27.8 million smartphones last quarter, accounting for 23.8 percent of the smartphone market, compared to Apple’s 17.1 million units shipped, according to the research firm Strategy Analytics.

For Samsung, success not only came from Android, but also from Bada, its platform for inexpensive smartphones. In August, Bada appeared to be selling better than … Continue Reading

Groupon’s growth plan: launching ‘Groupon Reserve’ and replacing its worst salespeople

Group deals startup Groupon is launching a new service called Groupon Reserve, the company announced today.

The service will focus exclusively on high-end deals from high-end merchants and may silence critics who complain that most of the deals from the company’s regular daily deals service aren’t good enough. The first deal is a $70 three-course tasting menu for two at New York restaurant Bice.

Select Groupon email list subscribers in New York received the following … Continue Reading

Drinks and pitches flowed freely at DEMO and VentureBeat’s first New York City startup party

More than 100 people from New York’s burgeoning tech scene showed up October 25 for a startup party sponsored by VentureBeat and DEMO.

That’s not a bad turnout for an impromptu event organized just a week before. It’s a sign of the robust vitality and collegiality of the New York tech economy, which is one of the reasons VentureBeat was there in the first place.

VentureBeat editor-in-chief Matt Marshall and I were visiting New York … Continue Reading

Codecademy raises $2.5M to make you a coding master

There’s something about Codecademy that made investors plunk down $2.5 million dollars today to help the Y Combinator startup teach more people to code online. Codecademy uses game mechanics to make JavaScript instruction fun and engaging for people who use its simple, clean online interface.

The money is going to be used to hire new team members, according to co-founder Zack Sims, who  told VentureBeat the company is going to be looking for coders and … Continue Reading

RIM has its own future of mobile video — take that Microsoft

Update: Research in Motion requested Vimeo take down the videos due to copyright infringement. The parody is still hilarious, though.]

As if the Microsoft video detailing the future of technology wasn’t enough, Research in Motion may have accidentally released its own predictions.

Two videos were accidentally posted on a commissioned artist’s online portfolio and quickly taken down thereafter, according to Pocketnow.com, which fished the videos out of its cache. Whether the videos were actually ordered … Continue Reading

Soaring RedBox lifts Coinstar profits, planning online streaming service

Video and game rental service RedBox is having a banner year, increasing the Q3 earnings of parent company Coinstar 90 percent, the company announced today in its earnings call.

Coinstar’s RedBox kiosks, located in grocery stores and other retail spots, offer inexpensive movie and video game rentals. The dollar-a-day pricing is part of its appeal, but Coinstar announced plans to raise prices on DVD rentals to $1.20 per day.

The company also plans to launch … Continue Reading