Apple may launch new Macbook Air models in Q1 2012
Apple will launch refreshed models of the popular MacBook Air laptop in the first quarter of 2012, including a new 15-inch model, according to a Digitimes report.
Hardware manufacturers are expected to debut between 30 and 50 new “ultrabook” laptop models at CES in January. Ultrabooks, like the MacBook Air, have a minimalist thin-and-light design philosophy and emphasize low power usage and strong processing abilities. If the Digitimes report is true, Apple is concerned about … Continue Reading
Amazon: Black Friday Kindle sales up 4X, Kindle Fire tops charts for 8 weeks
We might as well call it Kindle Fire Friday. Amazon revealed today that its Black Friday sales were through the roof for its Kindle lineup, though, as usual, the company didn’t offer any specific numbers.
Amazon said that sales for its entire Kindle lineup were up four times over last year’s Black Friday amount, with the Kindle Fire tablet leading the way. Additionally, the company announced that the Kindle Fire has been its top-selling product … Continue Reading
The definitive interview: The making of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is one of the best video games of the year. It is the flagship of Sony’s games on the PlayStation 3 this fall and shipped 3.8 million copies on its first day of sales on Nov. 1. We described it as one of the best but also one of the most annoying games yet in the series from Sony’s Naughty Dog studio.
Justin Richmond, game director at Naughty Dog, told us … Continue Reading
Half of all Black Friday shoppers bought electronic gadgets
About half of all goods purchased over the Black Friday weekend were electronic gadgets, according to a survey by the Consumer Electronics Association and polling firm Caravan.
The survey estimate that 118 million Americans will shop Thursday through Monday and consumer electronics trailed only clothes as the most popular gifts purchased this weekend.
“Black Friday shopping has fast become a Thanksgiving weekend tradition, like football or a post-Turkey dinner nap, for millions of shoppers,” said … Continue Reading
For venture investing, will 2012 look more like 2008 than 2011? (poll)
Will 2012 be a continuation of the good, bubble-like times for the venture capital industry and startups that are raising money? Or will we see a dramatic, economic-doldrums-induced slowdown like we did at the end of 2008?
Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch has raised these interesting questions in a post that recalls the R.I.P. Good Times slide deck that Sequoia Capital produced in 2008 as it was predicting disastrous times for startups and advising those startups … Continue Reading
Black Friday e-commerce sales were up 26 percent from last year
Black Friday electronic commerce sales were $816 million, up 26 percent from a year ago, according to comScore.
The number underscores the relentless march of digital commerce as users prefer to surf the malls of cyberspace rather than brave crowds in physical stores. ComScore said that e-commerce sales for the first 25 days of the holiday season — Nov. 1 to Nov. 25 — were $12.7 billion in the U.S., up 15 percent from $11.1 … Continue Reading
Charlie Walton, inventor of RFID, passes away at 89
Charlie Walton, the inventor of an ubiquitous wireless technology known as RFID, has passed away at 89.
Walton, who lived in Los Gatos, died on Nov. 6, according to his wife Ann Walton. I once wrote an article about Walton while at the San Jose Mercury News and his efforts to proselytize RFID, known in long form as radio frequency identification.
These are the chips that go into the access control devices, so you can … Continue Reading
Mike Cassidy: How to build a $500M company in 500 days
No one embodies the classic, sniff-it-out serial entrepreneur more than Mike Cassidy, who has now built and sold four companies (Stylus Innovation, Direct Hit, Xfire and Ruba), some of them with very impressive exits.
Last week, Cassidy traveled to Turkey for a start-up event, and he talked about how he does it. Below right is one of the slides he showed to the audience of about 200 entrepreneurs and investors. It documents the milestones he … Continue Reading
20 Turkish startups — hot and heavy on e-commerce, but light on marketing
Here are the startups that presented at the big Turkey start-up-investor event 4ki Istanbul last week.
I saw some great technology, but one consistent weakness was on the marketing side. Many Turkish entrepreneurs are so focused on building their product (a good thing!) that they often give short shrift to how they present or market themselves. Many of them are still in incubation phase, so we got merely sneak peeks at what they’re doing.
One … Continue Reading
Why Turkey is the next raging e-commerce hotspot
Last week, I visited Turkey, and discovered what a lot of people are saying about this fascinating country: It’s the next developing hotspot for technology startups, especially for e-commerce.
The sector is exploding: The Turkish e-commerce market hit $10.6 billion in the first six months of the year, compared to $16.3 billion for all of 2010.
And after years of neglecting Turkey, U.S and other investors are now starting to flock there. Investment capital isn’t … Continue Reading
AT&T willing to divest more of T-Mobile’s assets to ensure merger
Telcom AT&T may divest a significantly larger portion of assets to ensure that the company’s merger with T-Mobile is completed, according to a Bloomberg report that cites unnamed people familiar with the matter.
AT&T and Deutsche Telekom first announced plans for AT&T to acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 billion in March 2011. T-Mobile, which is the fourth largest wireless carrier, has struggled to compete against Verizon, AT&T and Sprint. So, selling to a competitor for … Continue Reading
Week in review: Sex and video games
Every week we highlight some of our favorite recent stories, as well as revisiting the most popular VentureBeat stories of the week.
But first: This is the first big holiday shopping weekend of the year. Kick it off with our Black Friday coverage, which has a ton of tips on where the sales are, which gadgets are cheap, and how the economy is doing. Or, just watch VentureBeat’s Christopher Peri explain in a short video … Continue Reading
Google Chrome upgrades: Gamepad & WebRTC support coming in 2012
Google is set to add plug-and-play gamepad support to its Chrome web browser early next year, Develop reports. Google developer advocate Paul Kinlan also announced the search behemoth will be adding open source video and voice chat application WebRTC to its browser.
Speaking at the Develop Liverpool conference, Kinlan’s plans could pave the way for cloud-based gaming and open video chat services to make an appearance on the browser, which is currently supported by over … Continue Reading
Authorities seize 131 domains associated with piracy and counterfeiting
The US government has seized 131 domains allegedly associated with counterfeiting- and piracy-related websites, reports TorrentFreak.
The action signals that U.S. authorities have resumed “Operation In Our Sites”, a joint initiative between the Department of Justice and Immigration and Customs Enforcement that aims to stop online piracy and counterfeit item sales by assuming control of a site’s domain name. The domain seizure strategy is very similar to what both the Protect IP and SOPA pieces … Continue Reading
PC phenomenon Minecraft scores big on Metacritic
After more than two years in development, indie sandbox building game Minecraft is finally getting some love on Metacritic.
Fourteen publications have weighed in with overwhelmingly positive reviews since the game’s official launch during last weekend’s sold-out MineCon event, giving Minecraft a combined Metacritic score of 95 out of 100. Most outlets praised the game for its genre-defining game play and imagination, with Eurogamer going so far as to call it “a towering achievement in … Continue Reading
Network virtualization poised on the brink of big things, Big Switch co-founder says (video)
Earlier this year, VentureBeat sat down with Kyle Forster, the co-founder of Big Switch Networks, to talk about network virtualization, a key cloud technology.
The company’s technology is built on OpenFlow, a platform for network virtualization that gives network administrators more control over the behavior of network devices, such as routers and switches.
“We like to think of our company as a VMware for networks,” Forster says.
Big Switch’s software can make it so that … Continue Reading
Tesla opens showrooms to show off its electric Model S cars
Black Friday shoppers on the market for an electric car might want to drop by a Tesla showroom this weekend. The company has put its vehicle technology on display, with prototypes of the new Model S Beta electric sedan appearing in stores around the U.S. and Canada.
The technology tour will be rolling out in selected cities across the country, showing off the vehicle’s drive train and electric motor, as well as the battery pack, … Continue Reading
Not content to wait for Black Friday, mobile shoppers spent big on Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day 2011 will go down as a day when many of you opted to indulge in more than just an extra helping of turkey. A growing number of shoppers opened up their mobile wallets for online deals too good to pass up.
The U.S. holiday saw a 511 percent jump in global mobile payment volume from Thanksgiving 2010, with a majority of folks in the U.S. shopping via mobile between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. … Continue Reading
How I explained Occupy Wall Street to my kids with Hershey’s Kisses (video)
What does it mean to be the “99 percent?” And why is everyone so mad at the top 1 percent?
I decided to explain it to my daughter and son, ages 10 and 5, in terms of candy. One recent Friday afternoon, I bought two bags of Hershey’s Kisses and went down to the Occupy SF encampment a few blocks from VentureBeat’s headquarters.
I was armed with some hard statistics: For income distribution, I used … Continue Reading
Penguin restores most e-books to lending library services
Giant book publishing company Penguin Group has decided to restore its catalog of e-books to e-book library lending services, such as the one offered via Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and tablet devices.
As VentureBeat reported earlier this week, Penguin decided to yank all e-books from any book sharing service that used the OverDrive lending system — which includes Amazon and several public libraries across the country — due to concerns that lending would lead to increased … Continue Reading
