Black Friday 2011: the best apps and services for holiday shoppers
Whether you’re braving retail stores this Black Friday, or just choosing to stay at home and hunt deals virtually, it’s best to be prepared. If you have a smartphone, then it’s easier than ever to plan your Black Friday festivities ahead so you don’t end up missing out on the best deals.
We’ve compiled a list of our favorite apps and services to make you a Black Friday master:
TGI Black Friday: If you haven’t … Continue Reading
Apple yanks Big Fish Games’ subscription app for iPad games
Apple has yanked the Big Fish Games subscription app after a few days on the market. So much for a great experiment in subscription gaming on the iPad.
Big Fish Games announced the new app today, and it was the first game publisher Apple permitted to offer a subscription gaming service on the iPad. The app charged gamers $6.99 a month in return for allowing them to dozens of video games from Big Fish’s library … Continue Reading
Rise Art introduces the fine arts world and social media with its new e-commerce website (exclusive)
When was the last time you heard about an amazing new collage, or a great new painter? Probably not recently enough to feel like fine art is still a staple in our society. And yet there are amazing new artists out there.
Art e-commerce website Rise Art sees a disconnect between artists and the digital world. It aims to reconnect the two today, with new social features and an undisclosed round of funding.
When Rise … Continue Reading
Sun shines on Solaria as solar panel maker raises another $30 million
The future is looking bright for solar panel maker Solaria. The company just raised $30 million according to documents filed today with the SEC. Solaria makes crystaline solar panels and is based in Fremont, CA, with operations in Germany and the Philippines.
The advantage crystaline solar panels have over thin film (the more popular manufacturing technique) is they rely on optical concentrators which can deliver 30 percent more output from the same amount of surface … Continue Reading
Startup and the City: View from the other side of the hiring process
Editor’s note: Julia Plevin recently started a job at a startup that’s still in stealth mode. She’ll be posting occasional columns on VentureBeat about her experiences.
“Would you be able to spend twelve hours in an airport with this person?” our CEO asks each of us as we consider engineering candidates we’ve interviewed for open positions.
I started to interview people during my first week at the startup. It’s been a pretty awesome experience.
When … Continue Reading
YouTube rolls out the first of its Disney movie archive to renters
As promised, YouTube is rolling out content from Disney and is starting with movie rentals through the website today, according to a company blog post.
Children are becoming increasingly interested in playing, imagining and being entertained by the internet over traditional forms of family play. According to a survey performed by Nielsen, 44 percent of kids aged 6-12 want an iPad for Christmas, closely followed by an iPod touch. Where families once gathered around the … Continue Reading
Online holiday shopping jumps 14 percent
Thousands of people are taking to the streets to protest the sad state of the economy, but online, it appears that business is booming.
Online shoppers are spending more than ever, dropping $9.67 billion between Nov. 1 and Nov. 20, according to a new comScore report. That’s a 14 percent increase over the same period last year.
By the time the dust settles at the end of December, comScore, predicts that online shopping will be … Continue Reading
Nexon will hold $1.3B IPO on Dec. 6 (exclusive)
Online gaming firm Nexon is expected to go public on Dec. 6 in Japan, VentureBeat has learned. The company, which was started in Korea and moved its headquarters to Tokyo, is expected to raise $1.28 billion in its initial public offering. [Update: the price was set on Dec. 6. The IPO will be Dec.14]
Next to Zynga’s expected IPO, the Nexon deal is one of the biggest pending IPOs in the video game industry and … Continue Reading
Signaling acquisition talks, Microsoft pens NDA with Yahoo
Microsoft has signed a nondisclosure agreement with Yahoo so it can take a closer look at its books, a signal the software giant might be getting serious about acquiring Yahoo.
We heard back in early October that Microsoft was eyeing Yahoo for a possible acquisition. At that time, signals were clearly mixed about the possible deal. On one hand, Yahoo would give Microsoft a highly trafficked web portal that would help it compete with content … Continue Reading
Y Combinator alum HighlightCam gets $2.8M, giving your iPhone videos purpose
Mobile video editing company HighlightCam received $2.8 million in funding led by Quest Venture Partners, according to a Form D filed with the SEC today.
Cameras are getting better on the iPhone, with the iPhone 4S sporting an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p high-definition quality video. People already carry their phones around to use in lieu of a camera, and the App Store is filled with photo-editing applications such as Instagram and Hipstamatic. Their charm … Continue Reading
Activision says Call of Duty Elite service will be stable for Thanksgiving users
Gamer social network Call of Duty Elite will be stable this Thanksgiving and for the subsequent holiday weekend, Activision Blizzard said today.
When the service debuted on Nov. 8 it had a number of issues that made it tough for users to connect. Now, the company says it has stabilized the service and can deliver all of its major features to both paid and free users.
“We are where we should have been at launch,” … Continue Reading
LandingZone for MacBook Air makes docking stations cool (exclusive)
When you think of cool, innovative technology, docking stations aren’t the first things that come to mind. But a young startup called InfiniWing has built an impressive add-on for Apple’s wildly popular MacBook Air laptop that could turn some heads.
InfiniWing plans to target business as well as consumer users with its LandingZone docking station, which lets users plug the MacBook Air in to make use of a larger screen, wider keyboard, and printer. It … Continue Reading
The 25 most beloved web services and work apps
Ever wonder what business applications people really love, versus those they just tolerate?
Take QuickBooks for example: Millions of business people use it, but what percent really love it?
On the BestVendor beta site, we ask people to share three favorite “work apps” they recommend, along with other products they use. Nearly 3,000 startup and small business professionals have signed up so far.
Using their data, we compared applications based on how much they are … Continue Reading
Tablet magazine publisher Zinio raises $20 Million
Online magazine publisher Zinio has raised a an investment round of $20 million, according to documents filed with the SEC.
Zinio lets magazine publishers who don’t want to build their own mobile apps distribute their content on devices such as the iPad. The last known funding for Zinio was $7 million the company raised in September 2005, according to PaidContent.
Zinio describes itself as the “world’s largest news stand.” The company has been around for … Continue Reading
Investors should be even more worried about Groupon, as its share price falls
Groupon’s stock has fallen precipitously during the last three days. Today, it broke below the Chicago-based couponers IPO price of $20.00 for the first time. At a recent price of $17.41, any IPO investors who were still holding on to the stock would be down nearly 13%.
Someone who bought at retail at Groupon’s 52-week high of $31.14 (shortly after the stock debuted) would be down 45%.
As with many stock movements, it’s impossible to … Continue Reading
Spotify’s impressive growth continues, with 2.5M paying subscribers
Streaming music service Spotify has over 2.5 million paying subscribers — a 25 percent increase since September, the startup announced today.
Spotify’s premium service is a paid, ad-free version of its streaming music service that lets people share playlists. The premium service has continued to grow at a healthy rate since launching to U.S. customers in July, due in part to a major partnership with social network giant Facebook. To jump-start that partnership, Spotify decided … Continue Reading
China overtakes U.S. to become world’s largest smartphone market
It was bound to happen eventually. Smartphone sales in China for the third quarter of 2011 surpassed U.S. sales, making China the largest smartphone market by volume, reports Strategy Analytics.
The firm’s research found that smartphone shipments reached 23.9 million units in China during Q3, while the U.S. had 23.3 million units shipped.
Even more telling is how those sales compared to the past quarter: China grew 58 percent, while the U.S. fell 7 percent. … Continue Reading
Nook Simple Touch to match Kindle’s $79 price tag on Black Friday
Barnes & Noble will release a limited edition Nook Simple Touch e-reader with a white border for a bargain-bin price of $79 on Black Friday, the company announced today.
The most basic Amazon Kindle now retails for $79, no matter what day of the week is. However, the Nook Simple Touch has several clear advantages, as the basic Kindle does not have a touch screen and features some advertising.
For Black Friday, Barnes & Noble … Continue Reading
Dylan’s Desk: The time to start a company is now
Much of what happens at a startup happens out of sight of journalists and their readers.
It’s not the stuff of compelling reading, either. Running a business involves a vast amount of logistical work, stuff that has to be learned step by step if you don’t already know how to do it.
You don’t find this out in business school. The only way to learn it is by doing it. That’s why, if you’ve got … Continue Reading
HTC reconsidering S3 purchase after it loses patent suit against Apple
This isn’t a good week for S3 Graphics. After S3 had its patent dispute against Apple dismissed by the U.S. International Trade Commission earlier this week, the company’s suitor HTC is now having second thoughts about its union.
HTC said that it will “reevaluate” the $300 million S3 purchase, Bloomberg reports — a move that makes clear what the Taiwanese phone maker’s main interest in the company was, and shows just how quickly fortunes can … Continue Reading
