A List Games raises $9.3M to market digital games

A List Games has raised $9.3 million in a second round of seed funding so that it can continue to market games via digital distribution, the company announced today.

The funding comes from parent company Ayzenberg Group, a digital marketer. A List Games tries to take the big risks out of traditional video game publishing deals. Many indie game makers are scrappy enough to find their own capital, so A List Games hasn’t focused on … Continue Reading

Adobe: Android 4.0 will get Flash by end of 2011, will be last version for Android

Adobe may be giving up on mobile Flash, but it’s going to get one more version out for Google’s upcoming Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” before it gives up the ghost.

The company confirmed today that it will release a version of Flash for Android 4.0 before the end of the year (can you believe that’s little more than a month away?), reports the mobile site Pocket-Lint. But, staying true to its word, Adobe said … Continue Reading

Apple’s biggest store ever to be revealed tomorrow in Grand Central Station

Apple’s Grand Central store may be revealed as soon as tomorrow morning.

According to 9to5mac, which has been chronicling the construction of the venue, workers will arrive Tuesday and remove black boards that currently obfuscate the store’s facade. At that point, the location will be officially announced as a new Apple store.

When it opens, this new location will be the largest Apple Store in the world.

The store will be the workplace of an … Continue Reading

eBay snaps up recommendations service Hunch

eBay has acquired recommendations platform Hunch, according to a press release issued Monday morning. The company did not disclose terms of the deal.

Sources told former TechCrunch editor-in-chief and current CrunchFund investor Michael Arrington that the purchase price was around $80 million.

Hunch, founded by serial entrepreneurs Caterina Fake, Chris Dixon and Tom Pinckney, launched in 2009 as a question-and-answer decision engine. The startup later switched gears to focus on building a “taste graph” to … Continue Reading

NOLAbound opens applications to lure entrepreneurs to New Orleans

The city of New Orleans today is rolling out the social media red carpet for aspiring entrepreneurs, as applications open for NOLABound, with the hopes of spurring a startup scene in the Crescent City. Think of it as a mini-dose of the TechStars meets The Real World New Orleans.

The NOLABound program will provide travel stipends for 25 individuals interested in starting arts-based businesses, those in the biosciences, digital media, and sustainable industries, to spend … Continue Reading

Oracle accuses HP and Intel of secretly keeping dead Itanium chip alive

Oracle filed court documents late last week contending that Hewlett-Packard and Intel have secretly been keeping the unpopular Itanium server chip alive, even though no one wants to buy it.

“HP has secretly contracted with Intel to keep churning out Itaniums so that HP can maintain the appearance that a dead microprocessor is still alive,” according to a filing obtained by All Things D. “The whole thing is a remake of Weekend at Bernie’s,” the … Continue Reading

Windows Phone Marketplace surpasses 40,000 apps

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform now features more than 40,000 apps and games in its Marketplace, according to All About Windows Phone.

While Microsoft’s fledgling smartphone operating system is way behind in adoption compared to iOS and Android, there are signs that Windows Phone is poised to pick up a lot of steam in 2012, and its phones will feature less-expensive hardware options, 4G LTE and NFC capabilities. Several research firms, including Gartner and IDC, … Continue Reading

Review: Need for Speed: The Run falls miles behind Hot Pursuit

Need for Speed: The Run is Electronic Arts’ newest installment in the long-running franchise and the next try at restoring the series back to its glory days. After long hours of race after race, and car after car, EA convinced me it is taking a step backwards yet again by providing one of the biggest letdowns of the year.

With hype surrounding the title, gamers are up in arms about EA’s new story-driven approach in … Continue Reading

Crowdfunding: Where it has been and where the new bill is taking it (infographic)

When marketing executives Michael Migliozzi II and Brian Flatow decided they wanted to buy Pabst Blue Ribbon, a private beer company, they created BuyaBeerCompany.com to ask the public for financial help. The idea was quickly shot down by the SEC, prompting the recent discussion on where “crowdfunding” fits into the scheme of private businesses.

Crowdfunding, the practice of private companies soliciting the public for investments, has been made popular by websites such as Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, … Continue Reading

3D printing sees more of New York with Shapeways’ new facility, $5.1M funding

3D printing company Shapeways is opening up its own production facility with a new $5.1 follow on of funding from Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures.

When I think of 3D printing, I am reminded of those old Sci-Fi shows where you entered an object of desire into a device to only moments later open a hatch and find it sitting there. 3D printing is just that, and allows anyone to choose or create a … Continue Reading

Spotify gets canned by over 200 labels, citing detriment to music industry

Over 200 labels falling under distributor STHoldings have pulled their music loot from streaming music services believing the new business model is hurting, not helping, the industry.

The U.K. based indie label distributor confirmed the move in a statement yesterday saying, “Despite these services offering promotion to many millions of music listeners we have concerns that these services cannibalise the revenues of more traditional digital services.”

STHoldings is pulling its labels from Spotify, Rdio, Napster, … Continue Reading

Apps for occupiers make organizing, communicating and sharing easier

The smartphone has been at the center of the Occupy Wall Street movement, just as it has played a pivotal role in the Arab Spring. And while the cameras in phones have recorded some of the movement’s most searing images, a growing number of apps are helping protest participants communicate and coordinate with one another.

Occupy Wall Street encampments across the U.S. have been dismantled by police actions, and as cold weather sets in, the … Continue Reading

Review: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword proves Nintendo hasn’t learned anything

While all eyes will soon be shifted to the Wii U, the Wii’s successor, Nintendo still expects there are “millions” of this generation’s console to be sold. If any game from the Japanese publisher/developer can move units off store shelves during the holiday season, it’s The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Not since the launch of the Wii in 2006 has there been a proper console Zelda release, and with more than 89 million Wiis … Continue Reading

Microsoft and TechStars launch Kinect startup accelerator

Microsoft has welcomed with open arms the hackers and academics who are tinkering with its Kinect motion-sensing system for the Xbox 360. Everyone from students to researchers are finding new uses for the technology beyond the game console. Now Microsoft and TechStars are teaming up to create an accelerator that will promote startups using Kinect for commercial applications.

The accelerator will take applications for a class of 10 startups through Jan. 25. They will then … Continue Reading

LivingSocial set to raise almost $200M at $5B valuation

Daily deals site LivingSocial is close to raising nearly $200 million in venture financing, which will value the site at $5 billion, The New York Times has reported, citing unnamed sources close to the matter. Previous LivingSocial investors such as Amazon.com are expected to participate along with new investors, according to the Times.

LivingSocial is America’s second largest daily deals site after Groupon, which listed itself on the NASDAQ exchange on Nov. 4.  The money … Continue Reading

New Arrested Development episodes headed to Netflix!

Fox made a huge mistake by canceling Arrested Development in 2006. Looks like Netflix is making a redemption, however, by offering new episodes to subscribers in 2013.

The show, which ran for three seasons, has become a cult classic amongst dry-absurd-humor loving watchers (read: me) who have longed for more episodes of the Bluth family’s antics. Rumors of a movie have circulated since its small screen departure without much fruits for the scuttlebutt labor. Contractual … Continue Reading

Instagram rockets to 13 million users in 13 months

The popular photo app that’s responsible for flooding the internet with fuzzy, low-contrast, retro images of cats, hipsters and urban street scenes shows no sign of slowing down.

Of course we’re talking about Instagram and its iPhone-only app for sharing stylized photos. The startup attracted 12 million users in just over a year on the App Store. By early November, the small company — and we mean small; Instagram has just seven employees — grabbed … Continue Reading

Kayak answers the age old question, when are holiday airfares cheapest?

Travel search site Kayak.com processed a whopping 443 million searches in the first half of 2011. There is an information gold mine buried in those hotel and flight queries, as well as answers to some of our most pressing travel questions: Is it too late to get an affordable plane ticket for the holidays? Are you paying more than average for airfare? What days of the week are cheapest to fly?

We asked Kayak and … Continue Reading

VentureBeat to co-host the 5th annual Crunchies Awards

The 2011 Crunchies Awards are coming up. We’re happy to announce that we’ll be co-hosting the event, along with our friends at TechCrunch and GigaOm, as we have done every year since the awards started in 2007.

This annual celebration of startups and technology will be held on January 31, and it’s moving to the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, a gorgeous venue that seats over 2,000 people, so there will be twice the … Continue Reading

Apple says it could lose $2.7B if Motorola wins iCloud case

Motorola has inched closer to winning a German court battle against Apple centering on iCloud and MobileMe — and Apple says it could lose up to $2.7 billion in sales if Motorola wins, Bloomberg reports.

Unlike Apple’s many Android-related legal battles, this time around it’s the target. The news comes after a U.S. judge ruled in October that Apple needs to prove its design patents valid in a case against Samsung.

On April 1, 2011 … Continue Reading