Apple hints that Palm’s ability to sync with iTunes may be short-lived
At a recent conference, Palm executives proudly proclaimed the recently launched Pre smartphone’s ability to synchronize with Apple’s iTunes media. But the technical achievement may turn out to be temporary.
Apple hinted that future versions of iTunes may break compatibility with third-party media players. That’s… Continue Reading
Sun Microsystems’ code-named Rock chip crumbles due to delays
As Oracle closes in on its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Sun has voluntarily decided to lose some weight by canceling its Rock server chip project.
After five years in development, Sun’s commitment to the Rock chip has crumbled, even though the chip was key to… Continue Reading
Neustar protects web sites from “poisoning” hijack
Web security company Neustar is launching a product that protects web sites from so-called DNS Cache Poisoning, something hackers have used to hijack web sites.
A year ago, security researcher Dan Kaminsky stunned the world with his disclosure of a fundamental flaw in the security of the… Continue Reading
Electronic Arts exec foresees shift to digital game distribution
John Pleasants has stayed behind the scenes at Electronic Arts as its No. 2 executive. He is president of the global publishing organization and chief operating officer, running everything except EA’s game development studios themselves. Recruited by EA chief executive John Riccitiello, Pleasants joined in… Continue Reading
Otoy joins the fray of companies offering video games on demand
When OnLive came out of hiding in March and declared it could let gamers play fast-action games over the network — a futuristic service dubbed video games on demand — a lot of critics said it was impossible.
But now Otoy, a startup with just… Continue Reading
Structure 09: The GigaOM Cloud Computing conference — VentureBeat Readers get a discount!
Cloud computing has shifted from idea to reality. Get the scoop on how to put cloud computing to work in real companies at GigaOM’s Structure 09 conference on June 25th. Your exclusive VentureBeat $75 discount on this year’s conference is available now! http://structure09.eventbrite.com/?discount=MPVENTUREBEAT.
Don’t miss… Continue Reading
The iPhone 3GS promises to deliver better game experience
The keynote address at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference contained several good nuggets for game developers. The biggest deal is that Apple’s just-announced iPhone 3GS model will be much better at displaying 3-D graphics and supporting networked multiplayer games than current iPhones are.
Apple executive Phil… Continue Reading
WWDC roundup: New hardware and software, lower prices point to a big year for Apple
VentureBeat readers may be wondering why more than half our staff is obsessively covering Apple’s Worldwide Developer conference today. Sure, Apple is a publicly-traded company while we cover startups and innovation. But Apple, especially through its iPhone developer platform, has put itself at the center… Continue Reading
As if iPhone users didn’t hate AT&T enough already
Apple discussed two new features for the iPhone today at its developer conference that many people have been wanting for a long time. One is tethering, where you can access the internet on your computer through your phone’s connection (which hadn’t been announced before). The… Continue Reading
Facebook drops “regions” concept in move to simplify site
Facebook is mostly getting rid of “regions,” a long-time feature that lets users grant and receive access to personal profiles, groups and events within a geographic area.
The company says these regions, which can range in size from a city like San Francisco to a… Continue Reading
TheFunded Founder Institute tries to tempt investors with a new financing model
Everyone knows it’s a tough time for startups raising money — for one thing, the first three months of the year saw the lowest number of venture investment since the late 90s. In response, Adeo Ressi, founding member of the controversial VC-rating site TheFunded, has… Continue Reading
After 25 years, Tetris has sold 125 million copies
Twenty five years ago, a 29-year-old Russian mathematician loosed Tetris upon the world. Now the game has sold more than 125 million copies — an astounding average of 5 million per year. Now the two men who are responsible for turning it into a worldwide… Continue Reading
Electronic Arts hits extremes with cute games for girls and hardcore violent titles with brothels
[Updated with video of the Old Republic game]
Game maker Electronic Arts is showing off 12 games at the E3 conference today, and they range all the way from cute and cuddly Littlest Pet Shop Online titles to the dark and hellish Dante’s Inferno.
The company… Continue Reading
Bing demo video
Microsoft says Bing, the company’s new search engine, will launch on Wednesday, June 3, after a few delays this week. Even if I get Bing to load, I’m too old to spend the weekend typing up a review. But I had Microsoft send us this… Continue Reading
Roundup: Atari loses $319 million, Microsoft’s Bing fails to bring the bling
Here’s the latest action:
This must be Botched Launch Week — You can ogle our pretty screenshots of Microsoft’s new search tool, Bing. But most of the world still hasn’t been able to connect. Microsoft PR says Wednesday June 3 is now the official launch… Continue Reading
Liveblogging the launch of Google Wave
Eric Eldon and I are at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, where Google is launching a new product called Google Wave today as a “developer preview”. The goal of the product is apparently to reinvent email/online communication. We’ll update this post throughout the… Continue Reading
Heyzap raises seed round for casual game widgets
Showing there is still investor interest in games, startup Heyzap is announcing today it has raised a round of in seed funding from Union Square Ventures. The amount was $500,000 to $1 million.
Heyzap creates widgets that allow any web site operators to embed casual… Continue Reading
Argentine president gambles on tech taxes, faces tough crowd
A new proposal from Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has the country’s tech community scratching their heads. Her pitch: to effectively double taxes on technology products that are not manufactured or assembled in the province of Tierra del Fuego, including notebooks, cell phones and… Continue Reading
It’s official: Facebook raises $200M from Russian investor
After months of rumors about whether Facebook is raising more money — or even if it needs the money to pay the bills — the company has officially confirmed that it has taken a new round of funding.
Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies is putting… Continue Reading
Stanford’s Bill Dally leaps from academia to the computer graphics wars
Bill Dally recently made the jump from head of the computer science department at Stanford University to being chief scientist at graphics chip maker Nvidia. Now he has to be the chief visionary for the products that Nvidia will make in the future. His expertise… Continue Reading