Segway teams with GM for two-wheeled transport
And you thought the original Segway was funny looking. Now the company that brought you the standing transport for people who don’t feel like walking has joined forces with General Motors to produce a two-wheeled, two-passenger vehicle for “urban” transportation — unveiled for the first time today. Powered entirely by electricity and dubbed the Puma, it looks sort of like the back end of a bicycle taxi without the bike.
Unlike its Segway cousin, which tops… Continue Reading
Segway takes $5M more for innovative scooters
A scant two months after completing a $35 million funding, Segway, makers of the innovative, self-balancing scooters known everywhere but seen almost nowhere, has taken on another $5 million.
The funding was first reported by peHUB at the end of last week, but VentureWire offers a few more details this morning. The money is from an unnamed strategic investor that the company “couldn’t pass up”, according to VW. The round is staying open with $9 million… Continue Reading
Segway’s top tech guy segues to Apple
Segway, the upright, self-balancing electric scooter, was supposed to revolutionize travel. Instead, it’s a neat piece of technology that not many people use. Perhaps realizing this, Segway’s chief technology officer Doug Field, is moving on to a company that makes products that a lot of people use: Apple.
Field will assume the roll of a vice president of product design at Apple, O’Reilly Radar learned via a post on the Segway Forums. What exactly he’ll do… Continue Reading
Roundup: More YouTube user data fallout, MacBook Air SSD prices fall and more
Here’s the latest action:
More fallout from the YouTube/Viacom lawsuit — After a judge ruled that Google wouldn’t have to reveal YouTube’s source code but would have to open its user data for all to see, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wrote a post condemning the decision as a violation of privacy. Google lawyers are also on the case, according to The Wall Street Journal. The outcry in the blogosphere has been even bigger.
Chicken Little, the SSD-based… Continue Reading
Segway ups third funding to $35M — have you bought yours yet?
Sidewalks used to be so much nicer, before the Segway Personal Transporter started hitting the streets. Remember being able to walk peacefully along, happy on the two legs God gave us? Then Dean Kamen brought us the Segway, and suddenly you couldn’t step outside without one whizzing by. Everyone and their neighbor bought one, making Kamen and his investors rich –
Whoops, sorry, wrong future. In retrospect, it seems at least a little silly that the… Continue Reading
Segway Social: Another niche, another social network
The Segway, a personal stand-up scooter with gyroscopic sensors, was once hyped as the future of transportation. However, when it launched in late 2001 it quickly became clear that it was actually the future of scooters that very few people could afford. It created a niche market. And what do niche markets do these days? Create social networks.
The Segway Social site launched this week. It aims to bring together aficionados of the device and give… Continue Reading
Roundup: Veoh sues, MySpace’s tiny profit, Nirvanix, Wikipedia’s color-coding, more
Here’s the latest action:
Veoh Networks files preemptive suit against Universal Music Group — Veoh, the San Diego video start-up we’ve written about, said it filed the suit to assert its rights as a copyright-compliant company after UMG threatened it with litigation.
Geni gets cloned by a German Verwandt, but there’s also Israeli MyHeritage — Verwandt, the German copycat of the family tree social network company Geni, told us last month it had raised financing from Neuhaus Partners, and… Continue Reading
Roundup: The Obama Valley, Twitter’s cash, Zonbu, SimplyHired and more
Here’s the latest action:
Barack Obama gets big Silicon Valley names behind him — Obama has picked up checks from Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz, Google backer Ram Shriram, YouTube founder Chad Hurley and many more, making him an early valley favorite, at least among the area’s power players. Thanks to Eric Savitz, of Barrons, who has sifted through Federal Election Committee filings.
MySpace.com launches Mexico site — It is here.
TomTom, the Dutch maker of navigation devices, plans to… Continue Reading
Segway gets $10M more — to shun white elephant status
Segway, the maker of the high-tech scooter-like self-balancing vehicles, has raised $10.12 million of a planned $20 million third round of capital, according to a regulatory filing cited by PEhub.
When it launched, the Segway was hyped as the next new thing. But it failed to meet expectations. The company has had a topsy-turvy ride — getting banned in various public places, and recalled for technical problems. On the other hand, just enough people are buying… Continue Reading
Wikia’s coffers, Browster dies, closed Dash, Techdirt’s $, and RepoMan Redux
Roundup of the latest Silicon Valley action:
Browster, dies — The web 2.0 carnage is beginning to pile up. This week’s casualty is San Francisco’s Browster, the company that wanted to save you time by popping up a little image of a page when you scrolled over a link — letting you avoid clicking. It focused on search results at Google, but never found a way to make money. It munched through $5.8 million in funding from… Continue Reading