Samsung calls Australian tablet ban “grossly unjust”

Device maker Samsung says an Australian judge who banned the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in that country does not know the basic facts of the case, and her reasoning  is “grossly unjust.” Lawyers for Samsung are appealing a temporary injunction that has frozen the company out of the market due to claims that Samsung  ”slavishly copied” the iPad when creating its own tablet, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Samsung’s attorneys claim the … Continue Reading

Verizon runs Galaxy Nexus ad with $200 price — still won’t let you buy

Verizon Wireless may be trolling Android fans this Thanksgiving weekend.

The carrier has begun running an ad featuring the much-anticipated Galaxy Nexus for $199.99, but for some strange reason the ad doesn’t allow you to actually pre-order the phone for that price. It’s like Verizon cooked you a drool-worthy turkey dinner that you can’t eat.

The Galaxy Nexus, the latest in Google’s flagship Nexus Android phone lineup, is slated to launch in Canada on December … Continue Reading

VBWeekly: Everything you need to know about Black Friday (video)

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and the VentureBeat offices are deserted. Where is everyone? Out shopping for insane Black Friday deals, apparently.

VentureBeat chief technical officer and resident videographer Christopher Peri spends some quality time with his camera, talking about what’s going on with holiday shopping this year. So far, online shopping is up 14 percent over the same period last year, which is a great trend.

Chris also talks about the top 10 Black … Continue Reading

That’s the ticket! Gogobot raises $15M for social travel recommendations

Gogobot has raised an $15 million second round of funding for its social travel search site.

Gogobot recommends travel deals powered by tips from friends and family. It also has an iPhone app that allows people to share their travel experiences and photo “postcards” from their trips.

“We believe the best advice comes from people you trust – people like you – and not from anonymous strangers on the internet,” the company’s website reads.

Documents … Continue Reading

Pepper spray: One more reason to do your Black Friday gadget shopping online

Last night an overzealous shopper at a Walmart near Los Angeles used pepper spray on a crowd in an effort to get at a stash of heavily-discounted Black Friday gadgets.

Around 10:20 on Thanksgiving night, the unidentified woman shot pepper spray inside the store when the coverings were lifted off items she intended to purchase.

“Somehow she was trying to use it to gain an upper hand,” police Lt. Abel Parga told The Associated Press.… Continue Reading

Foxconn makes $63M investment in cloud computing centers

Proving that cloud computing is more than a here-today-gone-tomorrow fad, Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, will spend $63.3 million over the next five years to construct two cloud computing buildings.

Foxconn, which is best known in the U.S. as the maker of key parts for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, will start building its cloud complex on a 4.57-acre lot at Kaohsiung Software Park in southern Taiwan beginning December 1, according to a Digitimes report that … Continue Reading

BalconyTV turns apartment balconies into music venues

Irish band The Script have opened for U2 and appeared on CNN, but they made their TV debut on Stephen O’ Regan’s balcony in Dublin.

O’ Regan runs BalconyTV, a home-made TV show in which new bands perform on apartment balconies from Mexico to New Zealand. The company just pitched at Startup Bootcamp’s investor day in Copenhagen.

“One day in my apartment in Dublin about 5 years ago we had the silly idea to start … Continue Reading

Google running long-winded Google+ commercial over Thanksgiving weekend

Google is certainly stepping up its game when it comes to prime time advertising via television commercials. Its most recent is running over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to promote the company’s social network Google+.

It uses essentially the same pitch Google+ used when it first debuted in July 2011, which would be fine except that the total length of the video is roughly 90 seconds — about a minute longer than the super-effective 30-second TV … Continue Reading

Former EA leader Jamil Moledina switches focus to cross-platform social games

Jamil Moledina envisions a future in which all games are cross-platform. And to help make that future a reality he left a job at video game giant Electronic Arts to take on the role of vice president of business development at social games company Funzio.

Moledina was formerly the director of business development for the EA Partners program, which included forging relationships with development talent to publish games across a variety of platforms. Prior to … Continue Reading

The DeanBeat: The critical season for game sales is upon us

The holidays came early for a lot of gamers in November, with releases ranging from Uncharted 3: Drake’s Fortune to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Starting Friday, everybody else will start piling into the gift-buying market as well. In general, the last two months of the year can account for as much as 40 percent of the game industry’s revenues. Black Friday deals will abound as games … Continue Reading

Cloud gaming service OnLive offers crazy discounts this Thanksgiving weekend

The pioneering on-demand cloud gaming service, OnLive, is offering all users a free five-day rental of both Homefront and Red Faction: Armageddon during its Frag Feast promotion this Thanksgiving weekend. In addition, you can buy your first full OnLive game for just one dollar, an offer that includes such recent blockbuster titles as Batman: Arkham City, L.A. Noire and Saints Row: The Third.

Having launched in June 2010, OnLive is attempting to revolutionize the way … Continue Reading

Amazon Cyber Monday deals: $199 Xbox 360 bundle, $300 Nokia N8, and more

Not interested in fighting through crowds today? Then it may just be worth sitting back and waiting for Cyber Monday deals — the online-only version of “Black Friday” — to roll in.

Amazon just revealed some of its deals for the conveniently made-up holiday, which includes a 250-gigabyte Xbox 360 (with Halo: Reach and and Fable III) for a cool $199, and Nokia’s former flagship phone, the N8, unlocked for just $299.99.

Other discounts include … Continue Reading

Over $1K for a virtual spaceship? 2000 Dark Orbit players say ‘yes’

In the world of free-to-play games, there is a theory that small numbers of players are willing to spend large amounts of money on the games they love. These players are rather unflatteringly referred to as ‘whales’.

Dark Orbit players recently helped demonstrate this whale theory, with 2000 of them each splashing out €1000 ($1335) on a rare virtual space-drone, which can be used to gain a competitive advantage in the game.

Whilst some developers … Continue Reading

Peter Molyneux parody account ‘Molydeux’ suspended by Twitter

The Twitter account parodying Peter Molyneux, the legendary English game designer and Microsoft Europe creative director, has recently been suspended.

The account — which gained over 19,000 followers and cited by many as the funniest  account on Twitter — clearly stated that it was not the real deal. It also doesn’t have Twitter’s “verified” seal of authentication. But that hasn’t stopped some people from taking it all too seriously.

Molyneux, perhaps best known for creating … Continue Reading

Mapping Black Friday insanity on Twitter (infographic)

Now that the majority of you have stuffed your bellies with multiple helpings of a delicious Thanksgiving meal, it’s inevitably time to start scoping out deals for Black Friday.

Of course there are plenty of people who don’t care much for Black Friday –  avoiding it at all cost due to the massive crowds. However, last year, at least 212 million shoppers did participate to generate an estimated $45 billion in sales.

To find out … Continue Reading

CloudBeat 2011: the final agenda and speaker list

We’ve been making a lot of noise about CloudBeat 2011, our new cloud event coming up next Wednesday and Thursday just south of San Francisco in Redwood City. And with good reason.

Both days are packed with customer-centric case studies, big-name fireside chats, deep-dive breakout sessions, and lots of networking. We’re asking the tough questions to uncover core cloud adoption strategies that companies in all stages are putting in place to better empower employees, serve … Continue Reading

TrialBee could save lives by bringing drugs to market faster

Big pharma still uses manual methods to recruit participants for drug trials, and that costs the industry money. Lots of money. The pharma industry loses $4.2 billion per year due to drug trial delays and $250K in lost sales per day that a new drug’s market launch is postponed. More importantly, delays in the approval of new treatments can also cost lives.

This is the problem that pre-launch startup TrialBee, one of the highlights of … Continue Reading

EA finally starts issuing Battlefield 1943 vouchers to PS3 gamers

After experiencing high level of backlash, including a lawsuit filed against the company,  Electronic Arts has finally responded to public pressure by delivering the extra content promised to Playstation 3 owners of Battlefield 3.

“There have been some misunderstandings around Battlefield 1943 and Battlefield 3″, EA said in a statement on its website, which also explains what gamers must do to get their downloadable copy of Battlefield 1943.

In June, the company announced that PS3 … Continue Reading

AT&T and Deutsche Telekom kill FCC application for T-Mobile merger

Question: What costs over $4 billion and a coveted slice of wireless spectrum? Answer: The stipulation included in AT&T’s bid to purchase rival carrier T-Mobile USA in the event the sale doesn’t go through.

Today, AT&T and current T-Mobile USA owner Deutsche Telekom announced that they are withdrawing the application for the merger, which was pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission. As a cautionary measure, AT&T has listed the $4 billion pretax charge on … Continue Reading

Z2Live expands Trade Nations brand with launch of free-to-play strategy game Battle Nations

With the launch of Battle Nations on iOS, developer Z2Live is hoping to repeat the success that has made it a force in the free-to-play games market.

Seattle-based Z2Live might not be as well-known as other mobile developers like Angry Birds maker Rovio, but the studio’s first two games — Trade Nations and Metalstorm: Online — can regularly be found near the top of the highest-grossing app charts on iOS (iPod, iPhone, iPad). Now the … Continue Reading