Verizon expands Smart Grid play, launches consulting
Verizon is already eying opportunities to provide wireless networks for Smart Grid communication systems, but today it’s expanding its presence in the space even more with the launch of a security consulting service for utilities rolling out smart meters and other advanced grid infrastructure.
Security is one of the foremost concerns as utilities and other companies work on building a cleaner, more efficient grid. With so much energy consumption data flying by on wireless networks, it… Continue Reading
Motorola probably sold 250,000 Droids in first week, Flurry says
Motorola probably sold 250,000 Droids in the first week, making it the Android platform’s first legitimate challenger to the iPhone, according to analytics firm Flurry. Those figures are more than four times what HTC and T-Mobile were able to do with the MyTouch phone and about one-sixth of what Apple pulled off with the iPhone 3GS in their first weeks. (Keep in mind that Apple launched that model in eight countries, not one like the… Continue Reading
Verizon boosts smartphone cancellation fee to $350
Ditching a BlackBerry, Android or other smartphone from Verizon will cost twice as much as it used to starting next week. Canceling a two-year service contract early on top-of-the-line phones will cost $350 at first, sliding down to $110 at the end of two years.
New York Times gadget guy David Pogue asks the fairly obvious math question about Verizon’s charges: “If the premise of the early-termination fee is to help Verizon recoup its original cost… Continue Reading
Happy Droid Day!
After weeks of speculation, followed by a real announcement, followed by more waiting, Motorola and Verizon have finally released the Droid, the supposed iPhone-killer which is the first device using version 2.0 of Google’s Android operating system.
The reviews have been positive so far, with gadget king Walt Mossberg calling it “a more credible alternative to the iPhone” as well as “the best super-smart phone Verizon offers, the best Motorola phone I’ve tested and the best… Continue Reading
5 O’Clock Roundup: Raytheon buys BBN, Verizon hot … and not, things built on Twitter
Raytheon completes acquisition of BBN for $350M — Both companies do defense R&D and are packed with MIT grads. Raytheon works on military projects such as the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment. R&D company BBN makes cheery Internet publishing tool suite EveryZing, but the company also developed the sniper detection system Boomerang, used by American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
U.S. Army troops in their MRAP vehicles are currently equipped with 6,000 Boomerang systems over there…. Continue Reading
Cisco recruits Smart Grid players into interoperable consortium
A day after IBM announced its new SAFE software package providing a standard infrastructure platform for utilities and Smart Grid startups, Cisco Systems has announced its own consortium of companies adopting common IP-based communications standards. In doing so, the company hopes to network Smart Grid stakeholders into a completely interoperable ecosystem for sending and receiving energy consumption data.
Cisco has recruited a number of impressive names for this consortium including major meter makers Itron and Landis+Gyr,… Continue Reading
5 O’Clock Roundup: TiVo gets $200M judgement, Amazon restores 1984, Tim O’Reilly preaches government as a platform
VentureBeat launches 5 O’Clock Roundup — Roundup, our end-of-workday mix of high-level business stories and tech items that we didn’t post on but think you should know about, has been renamed 5 O’Clock Roundup.
5 O’Clock Roundup will post every weekday at 5:00 pm Pacific time. It will almost always be written by me, with contributions from our readers and from the rest of the VentureBeat team. PR people, you’re welcome to pitch me at paul@venturebeat.com.
I’ve… Continue Reading
Verizon President Strigl to resign
“I believe that this is an appropriate time to announce my retirement,” Verzion President and COO Dennis F. “Denny” Strigl — pronounced “STREE gul” — said in a prepared statement from America’s biggest phone company this afternoon.
According to a Verizon spokesman, Strigl had been “planning his retirement for some time,” so his announcement of the timing wasn’t a surprise.
Strigl, who reports to CEO and chairman of the board Ivan Seidenberg, has held the President/COO slot… Continue Reading
Roundup: Ancestry IPO, exec pay cap in Congress, Verizon’s sub-$99 smartphones
Ancestry.com files for a $75 million IPO – The company, which traces its roots back to Ancestry Magazine and 1983, has collected nearly $400 million to date — $95 in investment rounds, and another $300 million from the sale of a majority stake to Spectrum Equity Investors in 2007. Now, with a claimed $197.6 million in 2008 revenue, and $8 million in profits on $99 million in revenue for the first half of this year, Ancestry… Continue Reading
Q&A: Verizon says it will be the first to offer ‘true’ mobile video
[Disclosure: This post is one of a series of articles sponsored by Verizon. The company has given us editorial freedom to write what we'd like. In return for us covering the company's developer conference, Verizon will be running ads on our site in ensuing weeks.]
Verizon just launched an app store called Vcast Apps, opening the door for developers to reach 1 billion consumers by working with the company’s software development kits and application programming interfaces…. Continue Reading
Roundup: Apple tablet haters, do NOT text while driving, Verizon cutting another 8,000 jobs
Why the rumored Apple tablet could be a flop — Apple products get more than their share of pre-release hype from … well, from just about everyone but Bill Gates. PC World writer Michael Scalisi explains why he thinks the rumored device, best described as an oversize iPod Touch, isn’t something that will sell. Specifically, he thinks the iPhone’s touch-to-type interface won’t work comfortably on a larger device, and that Mac fans will feel thwarted… Continue Reading
Verizon agrees to limit exclusive handset deals
A few weeks ago, the FCC began to examine whether exclusive handset deals between cellphone makers and wireless carriers was bad for consumer choice. This was the latest follow-up to a request made last year by a group of two dozen smaller wireless carriers, each with under 500,000 customers.
But Verizon has beaten the FCC to the punch. The company announced that it will limit its exclusive handset deals to six months, at least for these… Continue Reading
Roundup: Verizon Pre not coming too soon, the fall of Vidoop, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Verizon won’t be offering the Palm Pre within half a year — Lots of coverage on Techmeme.
“The Fall of Vidoop” – A fascinating, in-depth look at issues inside the secure storage company, as told by former employee and web developer Chris Messina.
Facebook gets SMS – Receive text messages about your friends’ latest status updates (yes, kinda like how Twitter works).
How should Twitter, the company, use Twitter, the service? — ReadWriteWeb explores the idea.
Best Buy… Continue Reading
Roundup: Twitter’s inventor readies next big thing, Verizon supports texting bans, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Twitter co-founder to launch iphone payment service — The project, code-named Squirrel, will allow your iPhone to take credit card payments (though it won’t be the first service to do this), TechCrunch’s MG Siegler reports.
Verizon will support bans on text messaging while driving — One such law recently took effect in California.
European Commission fine against Intel expected Wednesday — IDG calls the case, which has been under investigation since 2000, “one of the most significant… Continue Reading
IBM pours $2B into smart grid as other big names reach for a piece of the pie
IBM’s lending and leasing branch, IBM Global financing has committed $2 billion to fund startups and utilities working on smart-grid and green technology projects. With this investment, it leaps to the front of a crowd of major corporations like Intel, AT&T, General Electric and others looking to get in on smart grid while the getting’s good.
IBM says the move is an attempt to give an additional boost to companies that will also qualify for some… Continue Reading
Roundup: Microsoft’s team-up with Verizon, Wolfram/Alpha’s demo, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Are Microsoft and Verizon teaming up on an iPhone rival? — That partnership may be the real source of rumors about negotiations between Verizon and Apple, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Stephen Wolfram demos Wolfram/Alpha search engine — Larry Dignan of ZDNet says the “computational knowledge engine” (a search engine that understands your questions and computes the correct answer, rather than just digging up relevant web pages based on keywords) probably isn’t a Google… Continue Reading
Verizon flirts with Apple, but Android is already girlfriend material
There’s been lots of speculation that Verizon, the largest U.S. phone network, is flirting with Apple, with the idea of introducing an iPhone on Verizon’s network next year.
Verizon is building out a new fourth-generation network, based on Long Term Evolution (LTE), which is why interest in this is high.
There are plenty of reasons why Verizon would court Apple, which has so far signed an exclusive deal with AT&T within the U.S. market. Foremost among them:… Continue Reading
Roundup: Pleo is dead, Twitter spreads swine flu, Google Earth solves plane crash and more
Here’s all the latest action:
Verizon iPhone in the works — Apple and Verizon have been talking about launching an iPhone for the Verizon network as early as next year. USA Today has the story.
Tragedy strikes as Pleo, the magic dinosaur, is liquidated — Ugobe, maker of robotic dino Pleo, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will liquidate its intellectual property.
Cleantech funding not so miserable — Investor Rob Day questions the reported 84 percent drop in cleantech investing… Continue Reading
Roundup: US CTO choice gets thumbs up, EPA seeks new powers, Pirate Bay protests erupt
Here’s the latest action:
Tech industry cheers Obama’s CTO choice – He may not have come out of Silicon Valley, but Aneesh Chopra from Virginia is getting positive reaction to his appointment as the nation’s top technology official. The Wall Street Journal has more. Our initial story is here.
EPA to seek new powers over climate regulations — Two years after the Supreme Court said the Clean Air Act gave the EPA the power to regulate emissions, the… Continue Reading
Apple to Verizon: Can you hear me now? Maybe.
Before it settled on AT&T as the carrier for the iPhone in the United States, Apple shopped the phone to Verizon Wireless and was shot down. It’s thought that Verizon didn’t want to make the concessions (including ceding a lot of control) to Apple which AT&T ended up doing. Of course, the mobile landscape was very different at the time, and now it’s hard to argue that the iPhone hasn’t changed things significantly. So it… Continue Reading