Sean Ludwig is a staff writer for VentureBeat, and he covers mobile tech, cloud computing, and streaming media. Previously, he has written for PCMag, Fast Company, Computer Shopper, LAPTOP Magazine, Seattle Weekly, and others. When he’s not writing into the late hours of the night, he’s seeing ridiculous concerts, walking New York City, and eating Ben & Jerry’s. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Sean stands behind everything in VentureBeat’s ethics statement. Please send all pitches to tips@venturebeat.com.

stories by Sean Ludwig

500 Startups’ Dave McClure inspires Montreal tech scene by flipping it off

July 12, 2012 8:05 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Editor's Pick

If your tech conference is ever lacking in enthusiasm or profanity, just bring in 500 Startups founder Dave McClure to warm up the audience and flip them off.

McClure gave one of the first talks at Montreal’s International Startup Festival …

The Echo Nest rocks out to $17.3M from NVP to make music apps smarter

July 12, 2012 6:45 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Music-focused startup The Echo Nest has raised $17.3 million in its fourth round of funding, a move that will help it improve its music platform, which powers many popular music apps around the web and on mobile devices.

Some of …

Cloud communications biz Twilio adds global SMS and multi-language support

July 12, 2012 6:00 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Cloud communications startup Twilio has upped its worldwide footprint with much-welcome support for global SMS and dozens of new languages, the company announced Thursday.

Twilio helps many small- and medium-sized businesses by providing telephony infrastructure via the cloud. Developers working …

TechStars alum Cloudability snags $8.7M from Foundry to track your cloud costs

July 12, 2012 4:30 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Cloud-cost tracking startup and TechStars Cloud alum Cloudability has raised $8.7 million in its first round of funding, the company announced Thursday morning.

Clouability offers cloud-based software that ties into various IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS services and tells you how …

Fluid Interaction’s ‘Twheel’ app could radically change how we use Twitter

July 11, 2012 3:00 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

If you’ve ever wanted to speed through your tweets faster, Fluid Interaction‘s just-launched Twheel app may be exactly what you’re looking for. The company’s app turns your Twitter feed into a rotating wheel and claims to increase your “tweet consumption …

MobileDay lets you dial into conference calls with one tap

July 11, 2012 2:25 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

If you’re anything like me, conference calls are one of the more annoying aspects of your workday. Thankfully, enterprise-focused startup MobileDay wants to make at least one aspect of conference calls less unpleasant — the dial-in.

MobileDay, which is competing …

AdRoll nabs $15M from Foundation, Accel, & Merus to get you clicking more ads

July 11, 2012 4:30 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Online ad retargeting startup AdRoll has raised $15 million in its second-round of funding. It plans to expand the company and improving its technology, which allows companies to serve more relevant display ads.

AdRoll has somewhat cracked the code in …

RIM investors respond to today’s big meeting by shedding stock

July 10, 2012 12:20 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Research in Motion investors didn’t like what they heard today at the struggling company’s annual shareholder meeting, with RIM’s share price down more than 5 percent Tuesday.

The BlackBerry maker’s stock price has been on a steep decline in the …

Beautiful Google+ app now available for iPad

July 10, 2012 11:42 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Google’s gorgeous new iPad app for its Google+ social network is now live in the App Store, the company announced today on its blog.

The company introduced the app for iPad at its recent I/O conference. And it’s a wonderful-looking …

Dropbox doubles size of Pro accounts for free, intros 500GB plan

July 10, 2012 10:55 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

In the face of growing competition, cloud storage startup Dropbox has doubled the size of its 50GB and 100GB Pro plans at no additional cost and debuted a new 500GB plan for those who need a ton of space, the …

Kim Dotcom lives another day: extradition hearing pushed back to March 2013

July 10, 2012 7:41 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

A New Zealand judge has pushed back the extradition of Megaupload kingpin Kim Dotcom to March 2013, a move that will give him more time to prepare for an eventual trial in the U.S.

Dotcom’s contentious extradition hearing was scheduled …

Hacker brings slick Windows 8 theme to the iPhone (video)

July 9, 2012 8:21 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Although it might pain some Apple fanboys, a clever new theme for jailbroken iPhones shows what would happen if the Metro design of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system landed on the iPhone.

Jailbreaking your iPhone opens the door to …

Salesforce to buy GoInstant for over $70M (updated)

July 9, 2012 11:56 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Updated at 2:57 p.m. PT with more information about the deal.

Enterprise cloud giant Salesforce will purchase “co-browsing” startup GoInstant for more than $70 million, the companies announced in a blog post.

The Wall Street Journal initially reported the deal …

Yahoo launches Genome ad solution to give better audience analytics

July 9, 2012 9:16 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Yahoo’s previously announced Genome ad product has now gone live, and it promises to empower companies with more accurate audience data and analytics.

Announced at Internet Week New York in mid-May, Genome is based on analysis software from Interclick, which …

Microsoft to acquire giant-tablet maker Perceptive Pixel

July 9, 2012 8:04 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Microsoft has agreed to acquire large-scale tablet-maker Perceptive Pixel, the company announced today at its Worldwide Partner Conference.

“The acquisition of PPI [Perceptive Pixel] allows us to draw on our complementary strengths, and we’re excited to accelerate this market evolution,” …

Microsoft: Windows 8 launch expected in ‘late October’

July 9, 2012 7:45 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Microsoft has announced that it expects its upcoming Windows 8 OS will be available to consumers starting in “late October,” with manufacturers receiving Windows 8 in August to prep for the launch.

Speaking at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, Vice President …

Kayak’s IPO finally takes off with shares priced at $22 to $25

July 9, 2012 6:51 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Travel search site Kayak‘s long-delayed IPO looks like it will finally lift off, as the company filed an amended S-1 Monday morning that prices its shares at $23 to $25 a pop.

The eight-year-old flight-, hotel-, and car-reservation service originally …

Hulu’s Jason Kilar says ‘no’ to Yahoo

July 6, 2012 12:52 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar was one of the high-profile names being thrown around in Yahoo’s search for a new CEO, but it turns out he’s not interested in the job.

A Hulu spokesperson sent us the following statement on the …

FBI wants to give Kim Dotcom access to one document out of 22M before hearing

July 6, 2012 8:17 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

U.S. authorities want to give alleged Megaupload kingpin Kim Dotcom access to just a single 40-page document out of 22 million e-mails before his extradition hearing, according to Stuff.co.nz.

Dotcom has become a bit of an Internet folk hero as …

Twitter set to unveil revamped search and discovery features

July 6, 2012 6:54 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Popular social network Twitter will unveil significant changes to search and discovery as soon as today, according to a tweet by engineering manager Pankaj Gupta.

“Search & discovery in @twitter set to change forever after tmrw,” Gupta wrote on Twitter …