Norge News Blog

How Sandra Bullock kept a baby a secret

2010-04-29T15:32:00.007-07:00

Sandra Bullock has Oscar-winning talent, but it took more than just being a good actress to keep the adoption of her infant son private for months -- especially when the paparazzi started swarming following allegations of marital discord.

Mark McGrath and fiancée welcome twins

2010-04-29T15:32:00.005-07:00

Thursday morning was twice as nice for rocker Mark McGrath and his fiancée, Carin Kingsland, who gave birth to twins -- a boy and a girl -- in Los Angeles

Kid Rock to host 2010 CMT Music Awards

2010-04-29T15:32:00.003-07:00

Someone alert the authorities: Kid Rock's been given the keys to the CMT Music Awards.

'A Day in the Life' lyrics to be auctioned

2010-04-29T15:32:00.001-07:00

John Lennon's autographed lyrics for "A Day in the Life" -- one of the best-known songs from an iconic album -- are expected to sell for more than a song when they go up for auction at Sotheby's New York on June 18.

AdMob opens the gates to other mobile ad networks

2010-04-29T13:12:00.009-07:00

Mobile ad network AdMob, a San Mateo, Calif. startup that Google hopes to acquire as soon as the FTC approves the deal, has removed two major restrictions in hopes of broadening its customer base.
First, it has enabled support for iPhone and iPad apps that use Apple’s iAd system by complying with the confidential rules and restrictions Apple has provided to ad network companies.
AdMob’s ad system, AdWhirl, was acquired along with the company of the same name last year. AdWhirl will now let app developers serve their own ad units — “house ads” in industry jargon — along with ads served by Apple’s iAd system onto the screens of iPhone and iPad toters.
Second, AdMob has removed a previous restriction that only let developers add one other advertising network into their apps. “Adding their own in-house advertising was probably the most popular feature,” CTO Kevin Scott told me during a phone interview. “But based on feedback from our developers, they wanted more flexibility.”
“It was easy for us to go in and allow an unlimited number of other networks. Otherwise, they’re going to go out and try implementing their own solutions.”
AdMob, which claims to serve ads for 1,700 apps, released its source code last December, another move aimed at bringing in a larger customer base. Developers frustrated with one little thing now have the opportunity to try fixing it themselves.
Tags: iAd, ipad, iPhone
Companies: AdMob
People: Kevin Scott

Our own interview with Bungie’s Harold Ryan and Activision’s Thomas Tippl on their new game deal

2010-04-29T13:12:00.007-07:00

All eyes in the video game industry are now on Bungie and Activision Blizzard, which announced this morning that they are working together on Bungie’s next major game after the Halo series.
I just interviewed Thomas Tippl, chief operating officer of Activision Publishing (a division of Activision Blizzard) and Harold Ryan, president of Bungie. Here’s the transcript.
VentureBeat: Tell me about the thinking behind the deal.
Tippl: From Activision’s perspective, this is a fantastic opportunity for us. It broadens our portfolio of existing games with a new franchise from a proven team. Bungie is one of the best development teams, one of the most creative out there with a proven track record. We are the leading publisher with presence in all parts of the world. We have a multiplatform strategy and distribution capability. The gaming community will be very excited about the future and play Bungie’s games on all platforms. This is a partnership that is going to be accretive to our operating margins and consistent with our strategy to grow.
Ryan: For us, we became independent from Microsoft in 2007. We put a lot of thought into it and what we wanted for the future of the company and our products. We had a lot of opportunities to work with different potential partners for our next intellectual property. Activision allowed us to meet all of the goals we had for remaining an independent company. We wanted independence. We wanted to create new original properties we wanted to control. And we wanted to get our stories out to consumers worldwide on multiple platforms.
VB: Why was it so important to go off into a new game universe, considering you had done so well with Halo?
Ryan: Microsoft still has full ownership of Halo itself. We tried to coordinate on a new, well executed franchise plan over the next 10 years. That required control of the messaging, timing and content. There are a lot of things that went really well for us with Halo, and there were things we would do differently. Now we have an opportunity to plan 10 years out. We can address all of the things we didn’t do quite right last time with a partner we trust.
VB: Thomas, how do you do this in a way that makes business sense? Bungie is probably not a cheap partner.
Tippl: It depends how you want to look at it. The way you generate financial returns in the industry is focus on really big opportunities, make sure you have best development talent, best marketing talent, best sales talent, best online talent, and make games that appeal to the right audiences. There are very few developers with this kind of track record. Over the last couple of years, we have done that with Blizzard, the No. 1 online game developer. We attracted Bizarre Creations, the No. 1 independent racing game developer that will do a new intellectual property for us. We have attracted great teams, such as a new studio that is working for us as Sledgehammer Games. They have started work on the Call of Duty franchise. Now Bungie is working on the next big thing in interactive entertainment. Our strategy has clearly paid off. We haven’t just been throwing money around like some of our competitors. That is why in 2009, Activision Publishing delivered operating margins above 20 percent while our competitors posted losses. This is totally working and is very exciting for our long-term prospects.
VB: By the way, what is that Call of Duty game you are announcing tomorrow night?
Tippl: Tomorrow you will see a teaser for this year’s Call of Duty release, which is shaping up to be awesome. The quality is really great. Treyarch is taking the Call of Duty franchise to the next level with their release this holiday.
VB: This deal took place amid what happened at Infinity Ward. How did that affect the discussions here?
Tippl: From our point of view, those are completely unrelated topics. It’s unfortunate. We have been in this business for 20 years. We have never been put in this situation. The timing on this announcement is totally unrelated. We have been in discussions for the last nine months. We signed a term sheet in March. We finished the long form discussion today, and that’s why we are discussing this with you.
VB: And Harold?
Ryan: It really has been unfortunate what is happening at Infinity Ward. From Bungie’s view, we have been talking potential publishers for a couple of years. We have come to completion of the deal. We have lots of other stuff going on with Halo: Reach, which starts a multiplayer beta next week. We are done with the negotiations and are ready to step forward into the partnership.
VB: You have been working on the property, the new game universe, since 2007. Is it pretty far along?
Ryan: Yes, it is pretty far along. It is a natural stage to find a publisher. Our focus has been on Halo: Reach. Most of the studio will move over to the new intellectual property [IP]. Our burn rate will go up compared to what it was. Until now, we have been completely self-funding the development.
VB: There is a lot of talk in the industry about other platforms like the iPhone, iPad, Facebook and MMOs. It seems like you believe very strongly in the core console platform. Is that true?
Ryan: No. We are very focused on fun. We like to create competitive and cooperative fun for gamers. And we focus on connecting people and building communities. We have always done that. We are absolutely looking to take this IP to the broadest consumer group we can get to worldwide on almost every platform.
VB: So you could take this to some of the new platforms I have mentioned?
Ryan: Absolutely.
Companies: Activision Blizzard, Bungie
People: Harold Ryan, Thomas Tippl

Cisco tops new Greenpeace ranking of IT companies

2010-04-29T13:12:00.005-07:00

Greenpeace released its latest listing of information technology companies ranked by eco-friendliness today, promoting it at GigaOm’s annual Green:Net conference in San Francisco. The big winner is Cisco Systems, which topped the Cool IT LeaderBoard, buoyed by its relatively new environmental policies.
To produce the list, Greenpeace looked at companies’ full environmental footprints and at their various initiatives to lessen their impact on the environment and become more energy- and resource-efficient.
Cisco, which knocked IBM out of the No. 1 slot, scored extra points with its push into Smart Grid and connectivity technology, helping not only itself but many other businesses become more energy efficient. Cisco itself has a goal to reduce its emissions by 25 percent by 2012 (from 2007 levels).
The other notable placement was Google, which was dropped to the middle of the pack despite its trumpeting of green efforts and recent approval to buy and sell wholesale energy. The company claims that it wants this capability in order to use more solar and wind generated electricity, but this remains to be seen. Greenpeace dinged it because it hasn’t been as transparent in its emissions reporting. It is also not very forthcoming about the amount of energy being sucked up by its data centers.
Ericsson came in second place, acknowledged for its efforts to measure carbon emissions and other metrics. It equips its customers with the tools they need to see how big their footprints are, and to take action to reduce their energy demands and carbon output. IBM fell to third despite its increased involvement with Smart Grid technology.
The bottom of the list belonged to large electronics manufacturers, including Toshiba, Sharp and Panasonic. While these companies have been racing each other to advanced battery and storage technology that could one day vastly improve the capabilities of the Smart Grid, they have remained relatively quiet about current efforts to shrink their footprints.
Greenpeace was pretty unforgiving in its analysis. As the New York Times points out, Sony is the largest buyer of renewable energy in Japan, but it still came in second to last place because it has not disclosed any emissions data.
Tags: energy efficiency, information technology
Companies: Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Google, Greenpeace

Coming soon: Call of Duty Vietnam

2010-04-29T13:12:00.003-07:00

Activision Blizzard is poised to announce the next game in the Call of Duty series, which has generated $3 billion in revenue over the last seven years.
The new game, Call of Duty Vietnam, is being produced by Activision Publishing’s Treyarch studio and is expected to be unveiled Friday night on Game Trailers TV with Geoff Keighley. No details have been shared yet, other than a teaser for “next big Call of Duty”‘ game.
The announcement will include a trailer of scenes from the upcoming game. To date, the Call of Duty franchise has been split into two different story arcs and settings. One is focused on World War II and the other has branched into modern combat with Modern Warfare. The last game, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, debuted in September and generated more than $1.1 billion in sales and 15 million units sold as of Jan. 13.
But Activision Blizzard fired the co-founders of Infinity Ward, which made Modern Warfare, and has been locked in litigation as a result. This new announcement is designed to show that the litigation hasn’t frozen the franchise. Treyarch is working on its game, and Slegehammer Games, a new studio, is also working on Call of Duty games.
“Tomorrow you will see a teaser for this year’s Call of Duty game,” said Thomas Tippl, chief operating officer of Activision Publishing, in an interview this morning. “Treyarch is working on it and taking the Call of Duty franchise to the next level.”
So far, it’s not clear when the new Vietnam game will debut. But the setting isn’t a surprise. Other combat shooting games such as Battlefield Vietnam and Men of Valor have been set during the Vietnam war. But Vietnam as a setting has not yet produced any blockbuster shooter games. Still, publishers have to move the settings around to keep gamers from getting bored.
Companies: Activision Blizzard, Treyarch

Come see VentureBeat’s executive editor talk about the future of news

2010-04-29T13:12:00.001-07:00

Journalists, PR pros, and anyone else with an interest in how the media world is changing should consider stopping by San Francisco’s 111 Minna tonight, where VentureBeat Executive Editor Owen Thomas will be participating in a panel entitled, “Can Fairness & Accuracy Survive in a Page-View World?”
We’ve already had some fun internal discussions about this since Owen joined VentureBeat a month ago, so I can promise that he has plenty to say. Owen has also worked at Time, Wired, Red Herring, Gawker/Valleywag, and most recently NBC, so he can draw on a long background in journalism when talking about these issues.
Other panelists include Cnet’s Ina Fried, InfoWorld’s Eric Knorr, and public relations firm Waggener Edstrom’s David Patton (formerly of the Wall Street Journal). Media analyst Sam Whitmore will moderate. Here’s the event description:
Media and publishing companies face unique challenges today. Ad-supported content can often translate into intense pressure to drive page views and click-throughs. Does this rush to be first allow time to fully and accurately cover the story? Therein lies the question – can media outlets realistically create deeper, richer and more engaging content, or will they strive to deliver the ‘quick bite’ story that drives traffic and sells ads?
Waggener Edstrom, which is organizing the panel, tells me there are about 30 tickets left. You can grab one here. The event is free.
Companies: Waggner Edstrom Worldwide
People: Owen Thomas

Bullock's ties to New Orleans

2010-04-29T11:33:00.007-07:00

It's a city synonymous with rebuilding -- so New Orleans seems like the perfect place for Sandra Bullock to raise son Louis.

Sister: Bret Michaels sounds good

2010-04-29T11:33:00.005-07:00

Bret Michaels "sounds like Bret" nearly a week after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage, his sister told a radio show Wednesday.

Worst movie remakes of all time?

2010-04-29T11:33:00.003-07:00

Remake "Clash of the Titans?" What was wrong with the original?

Sandra Bullock files for divorce

2010-04-29T11:33:00.001-07:00

Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock has filed for divorce from Jesse James in a Texas court, saying their marriage "has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities."

English Attack teaches English via entertainment

2010-04-29T07:41:00.003-07:00

French startup English Attack,which just went into beta, is offering free English language lessons tailored specifically to the young adult market. The company is one of the 20 products pitched by (mainly European) startups in TheNextWeb conference startup rally in Amsterdam this week
Input is the key for language learning, and English Attack targets teenagers and young adults with the type of input they love best: entertainment. The majority of English learners are 15-35, and they are difficult customers. They don’t like rigid text books (in fact, they tend not to be big on reading at all), are enthusiastic gamers and social networkers and, most importantly, don’t like to pay for content online. English Attack builds free language exercises around the type of interactive, social and gaming content they are already using.
The tool is intended to be complementary to more structured English learning like classes and is aimed at intermediate level learners. Teachers can get involved by developing their own exercises. An upcoming teacher platform will also let them assign homework from existing exercises (and track how students scored). Teachers can also advertise for free on the site if they contribute content.
The business model is freemium with paid features to be added in later versions. France is the first test market to be followed shortly by Turkey and Brazil. English Attack says it has 5 or 6 competitors, only half of which are focused on English and none of which specifically target young adults. The company is currently self-funded.
Tags: english, language learning
Companies: English attack!

MusikPitch to help songwriters compete for contracts

2010-04-29T07:41:00.001-07:00

A startup that allows songwriters to compete for custom music licensing contracts is launching today. The Nashville, Tenn., company, MusikPitch, promises to match songwriters with people or companies looking for custom music via “contests.” A “contest holder” wanting to license a particular piece of music specifies what it’s looking for, including requirements such as song length, genre and budget, and songwriters then compete over a 14-day period to meet those requirements.
Songwriters submit their tracks, and the contest holder then has until 5 days after the close of the contest to review submissions and provide feedback to songwriters that they may use to fine-tune their submissions. At the end of the contest, the contest holder chooses a winner and pays the specified prize, while MusikPitch provides a form licensing contract, in which MusikPitch takes full rights to the song and then licenses it to the contest holder.

MusikPitch’s standard licensing contract will work for 90% of cases, according to founder Scott McIntosh. For the 10% where an industry standard contract isn’t a good fit, for example animation films in which songs are produced in-house as a work-for-hire, MusikPitch will work with the contest holder to negotiate a more suitable contract.
MusikPitch decided on a model in which it essentially serves as the publisher to ensure that songwriters would get performance royalties (based on radio play, TV, and public performances) as well as mechanical royalties (from sales of the music) if a song has commercial potential, according to McIntosh. MusikPitch collects royalties, of which it receives a share, and will refer songwriters to performing rights organizations BMI or ASCAP if it believes the song will be sold commercially down the line. The prize amount is not an advance on future royalties, which the song can generate if it ever goes commercial (ie, if it is used in public such as radio or TV or sold).

The company charges contest holders a $39 flat fee plus 10% of the prize amount. MusikPitch will recommend a prize amount when a company is setting up a new contest, and the recommendation will be based on industry standards for the usage category (for example, movie trailers, personal projects, independent films, etc). However, contest holders are free to set their own prize amounts. A “premium” prize level is meant to incentivize songwriters to provide higher quality work, said McIntosh. If contest holders do not find a winning song for their purposes, MusikPitch will refund their money.
The service is free to songwriters. The standard length of a contest is 14 days, but contest holders can extend this for no additional fee. MusikPitch is also planning to add quick, shorter contests in the future, said McIntosh. The submission file type will be MP3 for the initial entry and then most likely wav files, but will be based on the contest holders’ needs. All contests are closed so that only the contest holder can hear all submissions, and the songwriter is only able to hear his or her own entry.
A small number of invitations to MusikPitch went out Monday and Tuesday. McIntosh said the goal is to target songwriters who are already producing quality work, but he hopes MusikPitch will also discover new songwriters. McIntosh would like to have up to 50 contests being run a day, with 50-100 entries per contest, a number he believes won’t overwhelm contest holders but would provide them with a large enough entry pool to find a winner.
In addition to finding songs to license for TV shows, video games, films, and corporate jingles, MusikPitch would also allow contest holders to find songwriters to create a personalized wedding or reunion song.
MusikPitch is the second venture focused on songwriters for McIntosh (the first was StartMySong). It has raised $100,000 from angel investors. There are many companies in the crowdsourcing space including 99designs for design work and Crowdspirit for software, but the contest concept is new to music licensing. The closest competitor is probably Taxi, but its process is less automated, with the label or publisher telling Taxi what they are looking for and Taxi filtering through the submissions itself (similar to the traditional A&R function). There are “a lot of people tap dancing around it,” said McIntosh.
Companies: MusikPitch
People: Scott McIntosh

5 tips for finding a community manager

2010-04-29T07:40:00.001-07:00

(Editor’s note: Erin Bury is the Community Manager at Sprouter, an online collaboration tool for entrepreneurs. She submitted this story to VentureBeat.)
While more and more companies are adding community managers these days, too many are leaping onto the bandwagon without actually knowing what they’re looking for.
These next-generation communications persons blend social media savvy with an up-to-the-minute knowledge of online trends and master networking skills. But it’s not a one-size-fits-all role. The person and qualities your company requires depend on a number of factors, including where you are in your business’s growth trajectory, how big the company is, your budget limitations and your specific goals.
I’ve been a Community Manager for a year and a half for Sprouter,. When I began, our goals were simple: Build our brand recognition on a grassroots level while working on new features and functionality behind the scenes.
When we launched the current version of our site last August (with a new name and new branding), the focus shifted to getting media attention, gathering feedback from users and answering questions from the community. These days, my role includes speaking at, attending and organizing events, planning out social media strategy, public relations; customer service, content creation – and sometimes playing receptionist. (I should point out Sprouter only has four people on staff).
The point is: My role at the company has changed dramatically and it will continue to evolve. So too will your needs vary depending on where your company is in its evolution.
While it’s essential that your community manager have an outgoing personality and at least a basic understanding of social media and communications, it’s more important to first know what you’re trying to achieve and then find a potential hire that matches those ambitions. Otherwise, you’ll never get the most out of the role.
If you’re in the market for a Community Manager here are my five tips for finding someone who works for you and your business:
Figure out your priorities – What’s important now – and what do you expect to be important in a year? Is your main priority to build brand recognition before your public launch or to acquire more customers for your established company? Know what you want the community manager to focus on, so you can develop the role from there.
Use those priorities to build your job description – If your priority is to get media coverage then consider hiring someone with a public relations background. If you’re looking to create great content for your blog or newsletter, then look for someone with journalism or other writing experience. And if you’re looking for someone who can shake hands at events, make sure they’re not afraid to walk up to a crowd of strangers and introduce themselves.
Communicate duties and goals effectively – Make sure to outline metrics goals and specific day-to-day duties you want the candidate to achieve – giving them something to work toward. Community management is about relationships, but it’s also about impact on your bottom line.
Experience isn’t as essential as you think – Since the role of community manager is fairly new, you’ll likely interview people who have never held such a position. Don’t overlook them due to this inexperience. This is truly a field where the best way to learn is by doing. Ambition and smarts can actually be more valuable than experience.
Bring them into your inner circle – The best tool a community manager has in their arsenal is a deep understanding of your business. They’re the ones communicating your message, so make sure they understand your growth strategy and your goals for the future. If you regularly update your them, they’ll not only be able to evangelize your company, they’ll be able to adapt the role as needed.
Tags: community manager

In memoir, Laura Bush says she, husband may have been poisoned

2010-04-29T06:33:00.001-07:00

Laura Bush is suggesting she, her husband, and several aides were poisoned during a 2007 visit to Germany for the G8 summit -- one of several new details in the former first lady's forthcoming memoir, "Spoken from the Heart."

Randy Quaid's wife makes plea deal in hotel case

2010-04-29T06:32:00.007-07:00

Felony fraud charges against actor Randy Quaid and his wife, Evi, were dropped Wednesday after she accepted a deal on a misdemeanor offense, a California prosecutor said.

Court rules in Seinfeld cookbook case

2010-04-29T06:32:00.005-07:00

The author of a children's cookbook cannot copyright ideas for slipping vegetables into children's food, a federal appeals court ruled.

Lindsay Lohan and other stars drop-kicked from films

2010-04-29T06:32:00.003-07:00

Lindsay Lohan has been dumped once again. This time not by a girlfriend, but by a film director.

'Lord of the Rings' director becomes knight

2010-04-29T06:32:00.001-07:00

Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning writer and director of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, was knighted in his native New Zealand.

Apple expands in-house chip resources by acquiring Intrinsity

2010-04-27T16:50:00.001-07:00

Following rumors earlier this month that it was acquiring mobile chip company Intrinsity, Apple today confirmed the deal to The New York Times.
Apple declined to discuss the reasons for the acquisition, but it seems like part of a larger effort to move more of the design and manufacture of its products inside the company. The A4 chip in the iPad was the first big example of that, and there’s speculation that Intrinsity’s chip was “the basis” for the A4, according to The Times. (Presumably, technology from PA Semi, a chip company that Apple acquired in 2008, also played a role.) The acquisition should help Apple expand its chip efforts to its other devices like the iPhone.
In addition to giving Apple more control over the process, moving work in-house allows the company to be even more secretive than it is already, since it won’t have to worry about pesky leaks coming from partner businesses, as TechCrunch’s MG Siegler points out. Of course, the most recent leak, where an Apple engineer left an iPhone prototype at a bar, can’t be laid at the feet of partners.
Another set of rumors in the last few weeks had Apple acquiring chip maker ARM, but ARM chief executive Warren East has denied that. Meanwhile, Google has been doing some buying of its own, with the acquisition of Agnilux, founded by defectors from PA Semi.
Tom Halfhill, an analyst with Microprocessor Report, told The Times that “he believes” the acquisition price was $121 million.
Tags: A4, ipad
Companies: Apple, Intrinsic

'Deadliest Catch' star: Phil's sons struggle with his death

2010-04-27T15:04:00.003-07:00

The stars of "The Deadliest Catch" are tough guys who make their living doing grueling work -- but the death of Capt. Phil Harris earlier this year dealt a terrible blow to his fellow fisherman, particularly his two sons, Jake and Josh.

M.I.A. video elicits strong online response

2010-04-27T15:04:00.001-07:00

If singer/rapper M.I.A.'s purpose was to get people talking about her new single "Born Free," she succeeded.

Nokia’s new N8 camera aimed at Facebook hipsters

2010-04-27T13:57:00.005-07:00

Nokia sells more handsets worldwide — nearly half a billion in 2009 — than top competitors Samsung, LG and Motorola put together. You could throw in fifth-ranked Sony Ericsson and Nokia would still be close to beating the bunch with nearly 40 percent market share.
But in America, Finnish Nokia has lost its footing through several missteps, including an attempt to end-run America’s superpowerful wireless carriers and sell unlocked phones directly to consumers, without the usual subsidy provided in exchange for a subscription contract. Buyers didn’t bite.
The N8, a new phone planned to go on sale in the third quarter of this year, is Nokia’s attempt to recapture the Facebook generation. What do young social networkers do? They post short text updates at all hours. They shoot and post lots of photos at social events and on outings. They play video and games a lot.
Nokia has built, in effect, a Facebook member’s smartphone. It packs a 12-megapixel camera with four times the digital resolution of Apple’s 3-megapixel iPhones, and more than twice the 5 megapixels in Verizon’s new Droid Invincible. Users can edit photos directly on the phone, then share them immediately onto popular social networks without plugging into to laptop to edit, or going home to upload.
The N8 shoots YouTube-ready video at YouTube’s highest resolution of 720 scan lines, compared to the iPhone’s 480.
The phone also has a built-in social network application that merges Facebook and Twitter updates into one stream on the phone’s home screen. It can download Facebook events onto its calendar. There are built-in maps with travel guides for 70 countries, great for wanderlust daydreaming even if you can’t afford to see the world.
Who’s the market for this phone? Let’s go to the press kit: Nokia mixes sterile product photos with several shots of a young couple at the seaside with their N8’s. The young lady tucks her Nokia into the back pocket of her jeans. These are would-be iPhone users.
Selling against the iPhone will be hard, because of the gadget’s role as a cultural icon. But Nokia has correctly identified two of Apple’s most exploitable weaknesses.
First, the iPhone shoots pretty good photos, but its camera isn’t as high-res as it could be and you can’t edit photos on the phone before uploading to Facebook, Twitpic or wherever.
Second, Apple seems culturally averse to social networking. The company builds its own Web browser, but doesn’t build a Twitter or Facebook application into its mobile devices and laptops. (Ask a software developer how easy Twitter would be compared to Safari.) Steve Jobs once demoed podcasting during a product launch, but he never tweets from his new gadgets, nor does he go to Facebook and click Like buttons. His idea of a photo feature is a fussy Apple-hosted family album, not a random bunch of look-we’re-drunk shots uploaded to Facebook at 2:00 AM.
Nokia’s press kit does something edgy for a gadget launch: It contains a blurry shot of the N8 being used by young adults outdoors, in which the N8 itself is out of focus. The photo is meant to look like it was taken by a friend with a cellphone, not a photographer with a truckload of equipment. Instead of “look at this awesome phone,” it says, “this could be you.”
Companies: nokia

5 things to know about Chinese startups from former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee

2010-04-27T13:57:00.003-07:00

We were lucky enough this morning to sit down with Kai-Fu Lee, one of the most prominent figures in the Chinese internet universe. Known best and most recently for serving as the founding president of Google China, he also led R&D at Apple and founded the Microsoft Research division in China — the full trifecta of computing kingpins.
After departing Google last September (an event he remained understandably mum about during this meeting), he spied several gaps in China’s tech startup and venture capital culture. First and foremost: there were hardly any funds providing seed and early-stage financing to young entrepreneurs. The country lacked its own Ron Conway.
To remedy the problem, he founded Innovation Works, a startup incubator — with a twist. Instead of just doling out a million dollars here and there to promising projects, the company recruits top engineering graduates throughout the country and enlists them to help its portfolio companies get off the ground, while simultaneously grooming them to found startups of their own in 12 to 18 months.
It’s like Y-Combinator, only it starts with the human capital — one of China’s greatest strengths. VentureBeat’s Kim-Mai Cutler interviewed him about his vision for the company in September immediately after he left Google.
Now, with 80 employees and 2,500 square-feet of office space in Beijing, Innovation Works is looking to raise a $115 million (it’s putting this together right now — not that we heard that from Lee), in order to create five successful Chinese startups a year in the mobile internet, cloud computing, gaming and e-commerce sectors.
In discussing Innovation Works and its goals, Lee offered intriguing observations about how startup culture is different in China than America, and how his incubator’s entrepreneurs are being trained to take on both. Here are 5 of his insights:
1. Education gap: The education system in China is not set up to produce startups, Lee says. Students graduate with advanced technical training, but lack the holistic skills they need in marketing, sales, operations and leadership. “They come out as rockstar programmers, but they need coaching,” he says.
Education is even lagging behind government policy, which is actually strongly encouraging young people to start their own enterprises with matching funding and debt forgiveness programs. Lee urges recent grads to join the staffs of startups — through Innovation Works or otherwise — before heading out on their own. Launching a startup straight out of school almost guarantees failure.
2. Parent trap: Older generations in China remain very conservative, including the parents of burgeoning entrepreneurs who are skeptical — to say the very least — of the startup lifestyle. Lee says he has had to personally convince more than a few parents (and at least one girlfriend) that joining Innovation Works would be a good move for young engineering recruits.
The company pays half what Microsoft, Google and Chinese search engine Baidu pays, and obviously requires more than a little risk. In a culture where security and prestige are major goals, it’s hard to entice the cream of the crop to go out on a limb and launch something on their own. “I got very nice letters back from two of the three parents I wrote to,” Lee says. “But they also said things like ‘My son’s success is now in your hands.’”
3. Failure is not (really) an option: In the Silicon Valley startup community, failure is almost celebrated. Many successful entrepreneurs say their failures taught them more than any experience, and some VCs like to see a few disasters under a team’s belt before financing them. Not so in China. “People don’t understand the risk and the failure,” says Lee. Having a startup fall apart is viewed as a sign to get out of the game, not try again. This limits the amount of experience startup executives bring to the table, stifling innovation.
4. It starts with people: “Y-Combinator would have a very hard time making it in China,” Lee says. “It would have a hard time finding the startups and qualified people to fund. It could interview hundreds and find only two.” The American incubator model only works in China if you turn it on its head, starting first with the people before generating the concept. Right now, Innovation Works is funding two external startups and working on five projects that came fro the inside team. Lee says this ratio will probably flip as more entrepreneurs get the training they need. When he was first starting the incubator, he spoke with Bill Gross of Idealab, incorporating a lot of similar ideas, including centralized infrastructure like human resources, mentoring services and other tools to all of the companies it is working with. It exposes entrepreneurs to these needs and skill sets before they spin out.
Now Innovation Works is a bastion of engineering talent — one of the key features that attracts startups into its portfolio, Lee says. When it first opened hiring, it immediately received 7,000 resumes. By the end of the first month, it had 40,000 to sift through. About 30 engineers were initially selected. Now the company has a database of more than 100,000 resumes, making it a great resource for startups having a tough time recruiting for aforementioned reasons.
5. China requires a different lens: While the mobile internet, gaming, e-commerce and cloud sectors are rapidly growing in both China and the U.S., they differ across borders in both clear and subtle ways that impact startups’ trajectories, Lee says. One major example: the iPhone and Android have yet to gain traction in China because they are too expensive and complex contracts with carriers are not the standard. Nokia has the bulk of the market share, but is falling behind in its mobile internet offerings. This is something developers in China have to contend with and strive to work around.
Application stores, like Apple’s App Store, also won’t work in China, according to Lee. “The Chinese don’t pay for software.” he says. “A freemium model will be more successful.” And when it comes to which apps people want most, Chinese users prioritize games, music, photos and instant messaging over the standard search, YouTube, and browser options preferred by American users. Developers have to tailor their goals to these interests.
Lee also acknowledged that mobile and social gaming startups in China will have an incredibly hard time breaking into American platforms like Facebook — mostly due to tough competitors like Zynga. Notably, Zynga is moving toward a deal with Japan’s Softbank, as we reported yesterday, which could open up new opportunities for the company in Asia. It will be interesting to see if it has as much trouble expanding into China as its Chinese counterpart would have jumping to the states.
Tags: china
Companies: Google, Innovation Works, Zynga
People: Kai Fu Lee

Zynga grabs a member of MySpace’s old guard for public relations

2010-04-27T13:57:00.001-07:00

Social gaming giant Zynga has grabbed MySpace’s vice president of global communications, Dani Dudeck, to shore up its public relations department.
The company, which has attracted bad press before for serving users misleading offers in games and for comments made by its rather candid chief executive Mark Pincus, will need to tightly manage its public image as it quickly grows toward 1,000 employees.
Dudeck expressed enthusiasm on her personal Twitter account about moving back from Southern California to the company’s Potrero Hill office in San Francisco.
She leaves after a string of senior employees stepped down at MySpace. Ali and Hadi Partovi, who sold iLike to MySpace, left full-time roles at the social network while former chief executive Owen Van Natta left the company earlier this year. Dudeck was one of the few executives at MySpace who stayed on after the departure of Van Natta’s predecessor, Chris DeWolfe, who ran the company at the time of its sale to News Corp.
Tags: hires, public relations, social gaming, social networking
Companies: MySpace, Zynga
People: Dani Dudeck

Salesforce.com and VMware team up on new platform for business apps

2010-04-27T13:56:00.003-07:00

Two big players in enterprise technology, virtualization company VMware and sales application maker Salesforce.com, announced today that they’re working together on a new service called VMforce. With VMforce, developers can build business applications using the popular Java language, then run them on Salesforce’s Force.com platform.
The move should help Salesforce reach a broader and more traditional group of business app developers. Salesforce says there are already 72,500 businesses running more than 135,000 apps in Force.com, but those apps are locked in to Force.com — if you want to run them on a different cloud service, you have to build them again from scratch.
On the other hand, there are 6 million enterprise developers using Java, including 2 million using the Spring Framework developed by SpringSource, and those Spring developers can now “simply drag and drop your app onto Force.com to deploy it to the cloud,” according to a blog post from Salesforce Chief Technology Officer Parker Harris. Besides getting access to Salesforce services and infrastructure, those developers will still have a Java app that they can move to other platforms.
VMWare Chief Technology Officer Steve Herrod writes that this is VMware’s first use of the technology from SpringSource, which it acquired last year. The company will be launching other platform application services, all united by an “open” philosophy:
Enterprises are very concerned with the privacy, security and auditability of their applications – something that is often a concern or blocker for public PaaS offerings. VMware’s [platform-as-a-service] will have a significant focus on enterprise-grade qualities — providing strong controls for privacy, identity, and authorization control, allowing applications to be extensions of those in the corporate datacenter.
VMware’s entries into this space will focus on addressing this challenge and, with our partners, creating “Open PaaS” offerings. …
A PaaS offering can be architected in a way that clearly separates layers and avoids the restrictions seen in many of today’s implementations. Furthermore, the parts of a PaaS offering that the applications depend on (e.g. libraries, messaging, data access) can be built using open development frameworks and technologies with liberal licensing programs. Ultimately this makes it easier for an ecosystem of more compatible PaaS offerings to grow, providing choice for the developers and consumers of the applications.
The companies are planning a developer preview of VMforce later this year.
Tags: VMforce
Companies: Salesforce.com, VMWare

Marketo brings in another $10M for marketing automation

2010-04-27T13:56:00.001-07:00

Marketo, a company selling web tools for salespeople and marketers, has raised $10 million in a fourth round of funding. The funds came from existing investors, led by Mayfield Fund and with participation from InterWest Partners and Storm Ventures.
The company has been bringing in funding at a steady rate — it raised $8 million in August 2008, followed by another round in September 2009. Its funding now totals $32 million. The money is supposed to help with Marketo’s continued growth: In the funding press release, Mayfield’s Robin Vasan said the firm encouraged the San Mateo, Calif. company to raise more money so that it “can grow even faster.”
Marketo’s applications include automation for email marketing campaigns, analytics for sales leads, and more. They integrate with other sales apps like Salesforce.com. The company says it has signed up more than 500 customers in the last two years. Competitors include Eloqua and LoopFuse.
Companies: Interwest Partners, Marketo, Mayfield Fund, Storm Ventures

Gwyneth Paltrow wants more kids

2010-04-27T11:48:00.005-07:00

Apple and Moses, make room in the house: Your mother, Gwyneth Paltrow, wants to add to the family.

Is Carrie Bradshaw a classic?

2010-04-27T11:48:00.003-07:00

This spring, "Sex and the City's" Carrie Bradshaw will have nearly her entire life story recounted for audiences.

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon renew vows again

2010-04-27T11:48:00.001-07:00

Renewing one's wedding vows is typically a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey prefer to do it a little more frequently than that -- like every year!

Ground Truth grabs $7M for mobile internet measurement

2010-04-27T07:17:00.005-07:00

Ground Truth, a provider of mobile measurement data, today announced a second round of funding for $7 million.
Ground Truth leverages millions of mobile internet subscribers from sources like telecommunication companies to provide insights into mobile internet usage. Ground Truth calls its methodology True View and focuses on providing marketer, publisher and mobile operators with data to better their business, including traffic and performance metrics.
Since the data is compiled from an assortment of sources, the company claims more accurate data than traditional survey methods from competitors like Nielsen and ComScore. A recent study from the company showed that half of the time spent on the mobile internet was on social networking sites. Interestingly, while sites like Facebook and MySpace may be the most popular with PC users, sites like MocoSpace and AirG are visited more on mobile phones, according to the company.
The Seattle company has closed around $9.5 million in total funding. The round was lead by Emergence Capital Partners and Openair Ventures including existing investors Steamboat Ventures and Voyager Capital. Kevin Spain, principal at Emergence Capital Partners, will join the Ground Truth’s board of directors.
Tags: mobile internet
Companies: comscore, Ground Truth, Nielsen
People: Kevin Spain

Zong lands $15M for gaming and social network mobile payments

2010-04-27T07:17:00.003-07:00

Zong, a mobile payment company, today announced it secured a first round of funding for $15 million. The company plans to use the funding to hire more staff and continue marketing efforts.
Zong allows users to make mobile payments for virtual goods within games and on popular social networks like Facebook. Through a widget, the user enters their mobile phone number in a one-time sign-up process which is then linked to a credit or debit card. Once complete, the user can use the widget to purchase virtual goods like clothing or weapons.
The company claims to have seen rapid growth since it’s launch only a few months ago. The reason may be its twist in how the payment process works, which uses mobile carriers and not traditional banks to process transactions. The result is lower transaction fees for the user. An advantage over other mobile payment companies like FaceCash, Square, Obopay and Bling Nation.
According to Venturewire, Zong has partnered with some 174 wireless carriers and was recently selected by Facebook to process its new Facebook Credits currency for popular social games Farmville and Mafia Wars.
The first round funding was lead by Matrix Partners and Dana Stalder, general partner of Matrix, will join Zong’s board of directors.
The company, founded in 2008 and spun out of Echovox, which helps companies make money through mobile services, is based in Palo Alto, California.
Tags: Facebook, mobile payments, social gaming
Companies: Face Cash, Matrix Partners, Zong
People: Dana Stalder

5 tips for managing a growth-stage company

2010-04-27T07:17:00.001-07:00

(Editor’s note: Clate Mask is the co-founder and CEO of software company Infusionsoft. He submitted this story to VentureBeat.)
Starting and growing a business is not for the faint of heart – especially if you want to grow fast. When I say “grow fast” I’m talking about rates of 80-100 percent per year. It’s achievable, even in this economy, but it results in spectacular highs and lows and tests and stretches the entrepreneurial venture in every imaginable way.
Our company has gone through this type of growth over the past seven years. Here are five of the biggest lessons we’ve learned about managing a growth-stage company:
Set your prices higher - Most entrepreneurs simply don’t charge enough to make a profit. This hampers the business’s growth because there isn’t enough dough to share with marketing partners. Consequently, the business struggles to grow at a fast rate, not because the product wasn’t good, but because it was too inexpensive.
I remember many years ago when we were launching our first product. I had a price in mind, based on competitive research and what seemed reasonable to me. Fortunately, a couple of partners talked me into charging a higher price, and that made all the difference in the marketing of that product, which paved the way for us to eventually launch our flagship product. I often think that we might have never escaped those early years if we had set a lower price on that first product.
Work relentlessly to establish the vision of your company - For most of us, vision doesn’t dawn on us overnight. Sure, there are seminal moments when glimpses of the vision come together, but usually, it happens over time, only through much reflection, deliberation and practical application of your business plan.
Corporate vision guides everything – and it becomes clear through constant, iterative planning, execution and reflection. Some people give up hope of clarifying the vision. Others establish a notion of the vision only to obliterate it beyond recognition for arcane reasons.
Constant, iterative planning, execution and reflection are needed to establish, clarify and maintain your vision. Once we got serious about it at the end of 2006, the magic in our business began to happen. I wish we had pushed ourselves to establish a grand vision, a “BHAG” as Jim Collins puts it, earlier in our company’s history.
You need more cash than you think - As you grow a business quickly, it’s amazing how much cash is consumed. Investment in equipment, systems and personnel are constant. You’re always leasing more space than you presently need so that you can accommodate the growth. Customer acquisition is critically important, which requires a bunch of cash. And, of course, there’s the normal need for working capital to account for the receivables that begin to mount.
It’s frustrating to realize just how much capital is required to grow the business. Timing when raising venture capital is crucial, but many entrepreneurs resist or deny the need for capital because it frequently implies dilution. As a result, the venture grows slower than it could and sometimes a market opportunity is lost. I’ve certainly learned a few lessons from bootstrapping, but it is also heart breaking to see how much capital is required to grow a business. It’s always more than you think.
Your culture is your most valuable asset - Your competitors can knock off your products, replicate your process and steal your customers. But they can’t swipe your culture. They can’t compete in the marketplace if your positioning is based on you and how you operate. (By the way, this is why the vision work is so important-because it establishes who you are, why you operate and how you attack the market.)
Your culture attracts the right people, ejects the wrong people and clearly guides your path. The trick is to stay true to it. When we were looking for venture capital, we were fortunate in that we had many VCs interested in us. By that point in the company’s history, we knew who we were and we wanted a VC partner that would support that. So, we made it clear to VCs that we were about serving small businesses. If the VC was looking for us to move upstream and serve a larger customer, we were not the right fit for them.
In the end, the fact that we clearly communicated that helped us attract the right VC partner and repel the wrong ones.
A high growth rate will demand the heart and soul of you and your people - I am convinced that most of corporate America couldn’t hack it in a high growth venture. The change is constant. The pace is blinding. The required “figuring it out” is taxing. You must be highly adaptive… and you must devote an incredible amount of energy and intensity to the venture.
This is true not just for founders, but also for employees. I have learned that striking the work/life balance is incredibly difficult in a high-growth venture. Which means you and your employees need understanding families. And it means your heart better be in the venture. Because if it isn’t, you won’t find the balance; you’ll burn out.
I always say that I need missionaries as employees, not mercenaries. The hired gun will never last in a startup. You’ll use him up, wear him out and move on to the next person. And that’s a lesson I learned early on: don’t hire mercenaries… and do your best to help your missionaries find some life balance so that they can keep fighting the crusade.
Tags: managing growth

Celebs who've complained about dieting

2010-04-27T07:02:00.001-07:00

Actress Amanda Seyfried has been pretty candid about her disdain for dieting. She recently spoke up on The Huffington Post site about how unfortunate it is that near starvation is often necessary for success in Hollywood:

Lindsay Lohan's dad threatens legal action against her

2010-04-27T06:03:00.005-07:00

Lindsay Lohan's father will "pursue any and all appropriate legal action" to prevent his daughter from becoming "another Hollywood statistic" because of alcohol and substance abuse, Michael Lohan's lawyer said Monday.

Michaels' type of hemorrhage has wide range of outcomes

2010-04-27T06:03:00.003-07:00

The feeling of blood hitting the brain's sensitive covering can give a person the worst headache of his life, doctors say.

Judge orders Randy and Evi Quaid jailed

2010-04-27T06:03:00.001-07:00

Actor Randy Quaid and his wife, Evi, were booked into the Santa Barbara County, California, jail Monday after they showed up for a hearing on accusations that they defrauded an innkeeper and failed to pay a hotel bill.

AdMob report: Nexus One is barely there

2010-04-27T05:19:00.005-07:00

Here in downtown San Francisco, you’d think Google’s Nexus One was duking it out with the iPhone for top slot in the mobile world. It’s a really great gadget.
But worldwide, mobile ad network AdMob — soon to be owned by Google unless the acquisition is blocked by regulators — has issued a report today that says only one in 50 mobile ad requests to AdMob in March came from an HTC-built, Google-branded Nexus One phone. There’s a chart in the report where, compared to the plot lines for other phones from HTC and Motorola, the Nexus One is almost unfindable. Motorola’s Droid phones draw 16 times as many ads through AdMob’s system.
This isn’t the first batch of bad numbers for the Googlephone. Six weeks ago, mobile app analytics firm Flurry reported that Nexus One sales seemed weak based on Flurry’s own data. They estimated Nexus sales at just over 10 percent of the number of iPhone sales in the first few weeks after launch — 1.05 million versus 135,000. And remember, those early iPhone buyers spent $600 for the phone, making the $179 Nexus One a bargain for early adopters.
I was cautious about calling Google’s phone a flop at the time, but AdMob’s report is hard to brush off, given the pending Google acquisition. And I refuse to buy into the apologist creed that the Nexus One was designed for a small number of super geeks, in order to influence the wireless industry through them. Whatever secret documents are floating around inside Google, I’m sure none of them say, “Acceptable market share: Two percent.”
The easiest explanation for Nexus One’s fizzle is that Google messed up by choosing to sell it exclusively online. The more sophisticated analysis going around is to blame Google’s carrier partner T-Mobile for not pushing to sell the phones in its stores.
The consumerist response is, “Why didn’t Google go with Verizon instead?” Google had, in fact, planned to offer Verizon-ized versions of the phone, pairing the premium handset with America’s largest high-speed wireless network. But this week the Verizon link on Google’s purchase page changed from “Coming Soon” to a promo for Verizon’s Droid Incredible, a second-generation Android phone from HTC that goes on sale this Thursday, April 29th. Again, I doubt this is part of Google’s master plan.
There’s one mitigating factor worth a mention: Based on who totes a Nexus One in my local personal network, it’s reasonable to wonder if Google may have countered its own interests by creating the favorite phone for people who truly, deeply, passionately love to block ads.

Tags: Android, nexus one
Companies: Google

Hootsuite simplifies Ow.ly URL shortener, plans vanity shorteners

2010-04-27T05:19:00.003-07:00

Social media startup HootSuite is introducing changes to its popular URL shortener Ow.ly — commonly used on Twitter, Facebook and other sharing sites — to make its brand less invasive. On top of that, it says it will soon sell custom URL shorteners to businesses (think Amazon’s amzn.com).
Before now, when you clicked on an Ow.ly link, the service would put an opt-out “social bar” at the top of whatever page you were viewing, containing the HootSuite logo, as well as options to retweet the link, share it on other social networks, rate the content, or conduct a new Twitter search. Perhaps in response to criticism, the company has removed this bar from Ow.ly links, simply redirecting you to the page you want.
However, if you like the social bar and want it included, you can use the shortener Ht.ly (pronounced “hoot-ly”). The company says this should be the preferred choice of marketers who want to see links shared as much as possible. But most users, particularly on Facebook, probably don’t care how far the link travels beyond their immediate friends.
HootSuite attributes the shift to “changing desires in the marketplace.” People may have been annoyed by the bar, preferring instead to go with the clean and simple bit.ly, tinyurl or ff.im. Then again, maybe the company just wanted to offer more options. Whichever you choose, ow.ly or ht.ly, will become your default the first time you choose it.
And regardless of your choice, you will still have the same access to click-through data, broken down by region or date, and spliced according to custom metrics. You can also export these reports no matter what, and both filter out bots and phishing attempts by checking against Google’s Malware/Phishing list.
The next stop on HootSuite’s roadmap is to offer vanity URL shorteners to people and companies looking to brand their links. Several examples besides the Amazon one I mentioned above: Facebook uses fb.me, Google has goo.gl, and Twitter now offers twt.tl. HootSuite will make it easy for a business of any size to tap into this strategy.
In addition to URL shortening, HootSuite offers tools to help you track conversations online across multiple social media platforms. You can, for instance, continually search for keywords on Twitter, and you can create lists of Twitter members you want to follow. This functionality is also offered for Facebook, LinkedIn, and the slew of other networks people, particularly companies, want to keep an eye on.
Earlier this month, the startup launched several new collaboration tools for public relations agencies and teams of any kind looking to collaboratively publish and monitor content. These features can be used to assign tasks to team members and set permission levels for different types of tasks.
Based in Vancouver, HootSuite was founded in 2008, and raised $1.9 million in venture capital last December from Blumberg Capital, Heart Interactive Media and angel investor Geoff Entress.
Tags: Social Media
Companies: Bit.ly, Facebook, hootsuite, Twitter

Kim Kardashian’s ShoeDazzle raises $13M as shoes sales sprint

2010-04-27T05:19:00.001-07:00

Watch out, Zappos. ShoeDazzle has a deal for the shoe lovers of the world. Today, the profitable online shoe sales company is announcing that it has raised $13 million in funding as it expands into new categories.
With celebrity Kim Kardashian as co-founder and spokesmodel, the company has seen its sales rocket in the past year. Every month it recommends pairs of shoes for its (mostly) female customers to buy.
The shopper buys one pair and at that point starts paying $39.95 a month. Each month, ShoeDazzle recommends five shoes for the buyer. The customer can pick one pair, or turn them all down and elect not to pay anything for that month. Shipping is free.
The customers can buy the latest current styles from celebrity designers, including Kardashian herself. The online business captures the “essence of shopping on Rodeo Drive, while remaining fun, affordable and effortless,” Kardashian said.
This built-in customer loyalty is a strength; not many companies have a way to get customers coming back every month. The company treats its customers like celebrities, stealing a page out of the playbook of Zappos, the online shoe sales company bought by Amazon.com for $807 million.
The funding was led by new investor Lightspeed Venture Partners and included existing investor Polaris Venture Partners. The company will use the money to launch related products. So you can probably expect an expansion into other fashion categories beyond shoes.
ShoeDazzel was started by chief executive Brian Lee, who previously founded LegalZoom. Jeremy Liew, a partner at Lightspeed, said in an interview that the deal was the first one he’d led in 18 months.
“This business is growing by word of mouth into millions in monthly revenues within a year,” Liew said. “The first generation of online commerce was for people who knew what they wanted and were hunting for the best price. This generation lets shoppers gather a group of things, only some of which they will buy.”
Liew said some of the new funds will go into improving the recommendation technology that suggests the shoes for shoppers. To date, the company has raised $20 million.
Companies: Lightspeed Venture Partners, ShoeDazzle
People: Kim Kardashian

353,812,819 = total number of personal records hacked since 2005

2010-04-27T00:20:00.001-07:00

More than 353.8 million records containing sensitive personal information have been leaked in security breaches since the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse began tracking them in January, 2005.
The nonprofit privacy advocate has compiled an extensive list of every known breach, along with the number of records exposed with each security breach. The list ends with an unknown number of leaks as a result of the latest Blippy breach.
The list includes data breaches where data exposed includes Social Security numbers, account numbers, and driver’s license numbers. Since the list includes only known breaches, it isn’t complete. Clearly, something has to be done about this, as the years 2009 and 2010 show no abatement of the trend.
Tags: privacy, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Companies: Blippy

To expand its boundaries, Zynga allies with Japan’s Softbank

2010-04-26T22:18:00.003-07:00

Zynga, the maker of FarmVille and other popular social games, is preparing for an alliance with Japan’s Softbank investment firm as a way to break into the fast -growing Japanese market, VentureBeat has learned.
Japan is seeing significant growth in social gaming, even the U.S. shows signs of a slowdown.
Mark Pincus, the CEO of Zynga, had backing from a Softbank affiliate for one of his previous companies, SupportSoft.
The biggest maker of social games on Facebook, Zynga has been growing quickly. Its games are played by 252 million people every month, according to AppData. The company has seen a lot of that growth happen in the U.S., where Americans embrace Facebook in record numbers and spend playing games there, much of the time on Zynga’s games.
But now Facebook’s growth is slowing down, and the social game market has likewise paused. SecondShares, a market for trading shares in privately held companies, recently estimated that Zynga is worth $5 billion. But it noted in the risk factors section of its report that four of six major Zynga games have been declining in traffic recently. Zynga’s newly launched game Treasure Isle, which has more than 21 million users now, is the only one registering a surge in traffic.
To continue its expansion, Zynga is diversifying to other platforms, such as the FarmVille.com site, which has roughly 15 million users. And as the Softbank deal suggests, Zynga is looking at international expansions to keep its growth rate up.
Zynga has already built up a big war chest to keep expanding, raising $180 million from Russia’s DST in December. It has acquired small game developers without announcing the purchases, presumably to avoid tipping its hand to rivals. The company also knows that some of the biggest success stories in social games are in Asia, where players have taken to the model of playing games for free and paying real money for virtual goods. If Zynga wants to be a long-term player in social games, it has to expand to the Asian markets.
It isn’t clear exactly what Zynga and Softbank are going to announce. But more than one source has confirmed that an alliance is in the works.
A spokeswoman for the company said, “We are focused on building the best social game experience for our customers and have no news to announce at this time.”
[Photo: Joi Ito]
Tags: social games
People: Mark Pincus

AMD launches its fastest six-core microprocessors

2010-04-26T22:18:00.001-07:00

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices is launching its fastest low-cost consumer PC microprocessor today, the six-core AMD Phenom II X6.
The company is coupling the new processor with its AMD 890FX chip set and ATI Radeon HD 5000 series graphics to create a complete consumer PC package, which AMD calls its “most powerful desktop platform ever.” Well, at least until the next fast chip comes along in a few months.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD said the chip is aimed at enthusiasts who want to run immersive 3D and visualization applications. The new processors aren’t as fast as Intel’s fastest Core i7 microprocessors, but they are more affordable, said Adam Kosack, an AMD marketing manager, in an interview.
The two new versions of the AMD Phenom II X6 processor are the 1090T Black Edition $295) and a standard edition 1055T ($199). Both feature AMD’s new Turbo CORE technology, which boosts performance of three cores when the other three are idle. This is good for programs that don’t require a lot of simultaneous processing and instead do serial processing, or one task after another.
The Turbo CORE technology lets three cores run as fast as 500 megahertz faster than the standard six-core processing speed. Among the applications that can use this are games and productivity software, which may need only three cores instead of six. The Black Edition chip will run three cores at 3.6 gigahertz instead of 3.2 gigahertz when in Turbo CORE mode. The 1055T can run at 3.2 gigahertz in Turbo CORE mode, compared to its normal 2.8-gigahertz speed for six cores.
Computer makers who will launch PCs in North America using the chips include BOXX, iBuyPower, CyberPower, Systemax, MainGear, NCS Technology, Velocity Micro, and ZT Systems. Motherboard makers who will sell system boards (which can be built into PCs by do-it-yourself builders) include NCIX, Newegg, Tiger Direct, and ZipZoomFly.
The latest launch shows that AMD is hitting its stride. It comes just a month after the company talked about its new 8-core and 12-core processors.
Companies: Amd

Roundup: WSJ teams with Foursquare, Google adds local biz listings to Street View

2010-04-26T20:36:00.003-07:00

Here’s the latest action:
Samsung book rattles South Korea — Kim Yong-chul’s new book “Think Samsung” has polarized the country, with some championing him as a corporate whistle-blower as others demonize his disloyalty for exposing the corruption perpetrated by Chairman Lee Kun-hee.
Wall Street Journal launches news service via FourSquare — The newspaper says it will now be offering news and reviews related to locations through the application, complete with custom badges that can be earned by visiting WSJ-tagged places. GigaOm looks at whether this is a legitimate new media channel.
FRV, BP Solar to build 37-MW of solar in Italy — Fotowatio Renewable Ventures will own and operate the photovoltaic facilities built by BP Solar for an estimated $167 million. The arrays are expected to be finished by the end of 2010.
Conway’s SV Angel closes $20M fund — Initially, famed investor Ron Conway said we was raising a modest $10 million fund to seed smaller startups, but the amount has since doubled, and 15 investments have already been made with the money. TechCrunch has more.
South Korean official gets busted over iPad — South Korean minister Yu In-chon stepped into some hot water today when he pulled out an Apple iPad during an e-books demonstration. The device has not been approved for wireless networking in the country yet.
Yahoo models new data center after chicken coops — Yahoo’s newest data center, located in New York, is taking energy efficiency to the next level with a design similar to that of a chicken coop, effective at cycling more fresh air for cooling.
Blackberry 6 expected in Q3 — Research in Motoon’s new mobile platform, BlackBerry 6, will be available starting next quarter, according to co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. Engadget has more.
Google adds local biz listings to Street View — Now when you view storefronts on Google Street View, you will also be able to see the names of the businesses residing there, and click on them for full contact and other details.

Google changes approach to ad agencies — As much as it depends on them, the search company has always had a tense relationship with traditional advertising agencies. Today, it rolled out an effort to better match digital advertisers with agencies who can help them, and to better train agency partners in the AdWords platform.
Twitter takes down tweets after DMCA complaint — The micro-blogging site removed a tweet linking to a leaked download of a song by The National. TechDirt has full details on the debacle.
Search for TV shows on Google — Now when you search for a particular television series and click the “Show options” button above the results, you can specify a search for videos of full episodes made available through other sites like Hulu, YouTube, and Amazon, as well as ABC.com and AMCTV.com.
India’s largest wireless operator picks GetJar to deliver app store – Mumbai-based Reliance Communications will offer its more than 100 million customers access to GetJar’s catalog of 65,000+ free apps for hundreds of mobile handsets. GetJar, founded in 2004 in Lithuania, isn’t well known in the U.S., but the company claims to be second only to Apple in total downloads at nearly 1 billion to date. In America, Sprint carries GetJar’s catalog “on deck,” meaning it ships pre-installed and is easy to find on customers’ phones.
Companies: Apple, BP Solar, Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, Foursquare, Google, Research In Motion, Samsung, SV Angel, Twitter, Wall Street Journal, yahoo

Entertainment journalist Sharon Waxman’s site TheWrap raises $2M

2010-04-26T20:36:00.001-07:00

TheWrap, the entertainment news site founded by journalist Sharon Waxman, announced today that it has raised $2 million in a second round of funding.
Waxman, who is based in Los Angeles and previously covered Hollywood business for The New York Times, launched the site in January 2009 to “cover Hollywood in the digital age.” That’s also when she announced raising a $1.5 million first round led by Maveron, who also led the new funding.
TheWrap says it says it now gets more than 1 million unique visitors every month.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the funding news comes just a few days after Nikki Finke, writing at her competing site Deadline, claimed that TheWrap was about to fold due to a lack of funding.
Companies: Maveron, TheWrap
People: Sharon Waxman

Energy Dept. teams with Masdar Initiative to advance cleantech breakthroughs

2010-04-26T18:22:00.001-07:00

The U.S. Department of Energy announced today that it has signed an agreement with Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s far-reaching strategy for developing and deploying renewable energy and other sustainable technologies. The two organizations say they will work together to make these advancements more affordable and accessible for the world community.
The memorandum of understanding will open lines of communication between the U.S. government and the companies governing and working on Masdar’s various projects. The idea is to share best practices and research and development resources, particularly to advance carbon capture, water and biofuel technologies, the Energy Department says.
The culmination of the Masdar Initiative is Masdar City, a radically green, planned community located in Abu Dhabi, built by corporations including the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, and funded by the United Arab Emirates government. It will act as home base for the International Renewable Energy Agency, and is expected to cost $22 billion over eight years of construction.
Running only on solar power and other alternative sources of energy, the city — covering 2.3 square miles — is designed by British firm Foster + Partners to be both carbon and waste neutral. Cars will be banned from its streets in favor of greener mass transit options. Even the streets are designed to be narrower and shaded to allow for natural cooling.
Masdar City will also house the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an educational institution with close ties to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It won’t just be a laboratory for green technologies, but a real, working urban environment. Current plans account for 50,000 residents and 1,500 businesses. About 60,000 more workers are expected to commute into Masdar City every day.
In addition to solar installations on most rooftops, 20-megawatts worth of wind turbines will be erected outside the city’s perimeter. Beyond that, a massive hydrogen power plant is in the works.
Water innovation is one of the areas the Energy Department is most interested in. Masdar City will depend on solar-powered desalination facilities to meet its population’s freshwater needs. Up to 80 percent of the water used will also be recycled as many times as possible, with gray water being used to irrigate agricultural plot.
Achieving waste neutrality may be the most difficult challenge. To achieve this, bio-waste will be recycled into fuel via incineration or fertilizer for crops. Plastics and glass will be aggressively recycled under current plans.
Masdar and its investors already have numerous ties in the U.S. For example, General Electric will be testing many of its new smart, energy-efficient appliances, like refrigerators and clothes dryers, within the city. The Masdar Clean Tech Fund is also a major investor in Bay Area-based solar module maker Solyndra, Texas thin-film maker HelioVolt, and clean energy company EnerTech, among other American ventures.
Tags: energy efficiency, renewable energy
Companies: EnerTech, HelioVolt, Masdar, Masdar Clean Tech Fund, Solyndra, U.S. Department of Energy

Samsung exec: We might build a Google TV

2010-04-26T17:19:00.001-07:00

The Korea Herald, an English-language newspaper based in South Korea, quotes an unnamed Samsung executive: “We are considering Google TVs. We are examining the business feasibility.”
The television sets would run on Google’s Android operating system, already used on the company’s Nexus One and Motorola Droid phones, among other devices.
Google announced last month that it is working with Intel and Sony to develop its Google TV platform, allowing users to surf the web on their sets and tap into various applications via Android. So far, Sony is working on building a Google TV set-top box, but not necessarily a whole TV. Last week, Google acquired stealthy chip company Agnilux, which may have something to do with the effort.
Samsung has been moving in a very similar direction. In January, it launched the first application store for televisions, calling it Samsung Apps. To populate this new marketplace and recruit developers to the platform, it is also holding a contest for the best apps.
An analyst contacted by the paper said “there is no problem” for Samsung to produce Android-powered TV sets. But he worries that the move means Samsung will risk handing its control of the TV set market over to Google. “I think it would be better for Samsung to expand its own platform,” he said.
Samsung is the world’s second-largest mobile phone maker after Nokia, and claims to have the world’s slimmest TV set ready to launch in the United States this week.
Tags: Android
People: Google, Samsung

Lost iPhone case fluctuates from serious to ridiculous as Dilbert creator gets into mix

2010-04-26T16:22:00.007-07:00

The case of the missing iPhone is a story that can’t decide whether it wants to be serious or ridiculous.
In the circle of Apple bloggers, the story about how an Apple engineer lost a valuable prototype of an iPhone that gives away secrets about the company’s future models, is serious business. A police search of a Gizmodo editor’s home shows that a criminal investigation into the matter is under way.
But the comics among us want to turn the affair into a laughable circus. First, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak created a stir with a gag T-shirt that said “I went drinking with Gray Powell (the Apple engineer who lost the phone) and all I got was a lousy iPhone prototype.” Then today, Scott Adams lampooned the matter in a cartoon released on his web site. [image: Scott Adams]
“I found this story too delicious to resist, but I worried that the story would become stale before my comics would work through the pipeline. I think the soonest I can get something published is in about a month, perhaps a bit sooner, but I’ve never tested it,” Adams wrote.
He wrote the comics exclusively for his blog readers, and he noted he didn’t need to make anything up. [image credit: Scott Adams]
Tags: lose iPhone prototype
Companies: Apple, Gizmodo
People: Gray Powell, Scott Adams, Steve Wozniak

Don’t miss your chance to grill John Battelle, founder of Federated Media

2010-04-26T16:22:00.005-07:00

Would you like to ask John Battelle, author of “The Search” and founder of Federated Media Publishing, a question? If so, Thursday, April 29th is your chance.
HP’s input | output is a series of interviews with some of the smartest people on the planet, and this one is going to be exciting. Among other things, the conversation will be around “marketing in the new normal,” as John will discuss the spectrum of marketing in today’s social and mobile web.
The interview will be live streamed on Thursday at 1PM PST/4PM EST, and you’re all invited to attend. We’ll be live-tweeting the webcast with John, and would like to add some of your questions to the conversation.
To ask a John a question, please include it in a comment below. Or, if you prefer, tweet it to @venturebeat and we’ll make sure your question gets passed along. You can also tweet questions yourself during the webcast using hashtag #hpio.
Go here for live webcast details.
Many thanks to HP for making this event possible.

SolarBridge spans gaps in solar with new $15M

2010-04-26T16:22:00.003-07:00

Fitting with the trend toward more capital-efficient investments in cleantech, microinverter maker SolarBridge Technologies, raised $15 million in a second round of venture funding today. The company produces a small component of photovoltaic systems, but could make a big difference in how solar is used.
Microinverters convert the direct current electricity produced by individual solar modules into alternating current electricity, making it compatible with electrical grids. Traditional, central inverters pose several problems. Because they aggregate the energy produced by a field of panels, total energy output is lower when just one panel is broken, or even in the shade.
Microinverters ensure that one defunct panel doesn’t impact the rest. This allows for panels to easily be upgraded, swapped out or repaired without disrupting whole systems. It also boosts the amount of sunlight converted into energy overall, and reduces the intermittent and unreliable nature of solar power — one of the major hurdles standing in the way of broad adoption.
Perhaps most compelling, the technology is said to lower the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) generated by solar systems because of higher efficiency, yields and reduced maintenance costs. This could help major solar manufacturing companies like First Solar and SunPower in a big way, making their products more competitive with fossil fuels.
SolarBridge, an Austin, Tex., company founded in 2004, says the recent round of funding should be enough to break into profitability, according to Greentech Media’s interview with CEO Ron Van Dell. It will be used for final product testing, beta installations and, eventually, production.
The company says its microinverters are said to last more than 25 years — another advantage over central inverters that usually have to be replaced, at a high cost, after a decade or less. To distinguish itself from the competition, it is offering a quarter-century warranty.
SolarBridge is indicative of a trend toward cleantech companies with narrower business models. It’s harder than ever for big solar, wind, and even biofuel enterprises to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in capital to support long-term manufacturing strategies. As a result, analysts predict that more startups will find niches within these markets, pursuing quicker M&A exits, or revenue via technology licensing agreements.
The microinverter maker previously raised about $12 million in October 2007. The recent round was led by Rho Ventures, and included existing backer Battery Ventures.
Tags: Solar
Companies: Battery Ventures, Rho Ventures, SunBridge Technologies

Spark Capital’s Rob Go is gone to new stealth project

2010-04-26T16:22:00.001-07:00

Rob Go, the principal who created Spark Capital’s seed funding vehicle Start@Spark, has moved on from the Boston-based VC firm to start an unnamed new venture.
Spark is best known for its 2008 investment in Twitter. Start@Spark focused on Boston and New York-based companies. Spark invested in Boxee, Tumblr, Veoh and KickApps, but these deals were done before the launch of Start@Spark.
Details have been hard to come by. Spark hasn’t responded to my questions yet, and Go was entertaining but uninformative in an email to me. “I touched so many things at Spark and don’t want to say I’m more proud of one company than another,” he said when asked to name his biggest accomplishment.
What I really want is a partial list of Start@Spark’s portfolio. Tips to paul@venturebeat.com.
Companies: Spark Capital
People: Rob Go

BYD looks beyond EVs to home energy management

2010-04-26T15:20:00.007-07:00

BYD Auto, one of China’s most ambitious electric vehicle makers, just stretched its reach a bit further. Backed with $250 million from none other than Warren Buffett, the company is readying its all-electric e6 sedan for the U.S. market by the end of 2010. But already, it’s looking to carve out a niche for itself in the growing home energy management market, according to Cnet.
BYD will be stepping away from its automotive focus to offer comprehensive energy efficiency products to homeowners. These include solar panels, large energy storage systems (not unlike the one Panasonic is working on), and light-emitting diode lighting systems — not to mention software solutions for monitoring and automating how and when energy is used in real time.
The company — which started out as a battery and consumer electronics maker — has been inching toward this type of strategy for a while, growing its presence in advanced battery manufacturing and vehicle charging systems. Both are closely linked with broader grid and energy opportunities.
To showcase its other energy technologies, including solar panels and home-scale batteries, BYD has teamed up with a company called KB Home to build a prototype low-energy house in California. It says it plans to roll out similar systems to other contractors, particularly those located in states with generous government rebates on green energy installations. California is a prime example.
Breaking into home energy efficiency is a bold move for BYD, which will come into direct competition with Panasonic. It has also diversified its solar offerings with the acquisition of Sanyo, and seems to be leading the pack when it comes to grid-scale storage systems capable of storing energy loads generated but not used during off-peak hours.
Still, BYD isn’t exactly an underdog. It has the distinction of being the fastest growing automaker in a country where car sales are increasing explosively. Last quarter, its profits tripled to $249 million, a spike attributed to higher demand for its vehicles. Over the course of 2009, its profits nearly quadrupled to $555.2 million from the sale of 162 percent more cars.
Tags: electric vehicles, energy efficiency
Companies: BYD Auto

Barnes and Noble’s Nook outsold Amazon’s Kindle in March, says analyst

2010-04-26T15:20:00.005-07:00

Things may be looking up for Barnes and Noble’s Nook ebook reader, at least according to analysis by Digitimes Research. Its numbers from hardware suppliers show that the Nook outsold Amazon’s competing Kindle for the month of March 2010, and accounted for 53 percent of all ereader device purchases.
Amazon has historically refused to divulge specific numbers for its Kindle sales, which leaves tea leaf reading analysts as one of the few ways to determine its success against competitors like the Nook.
Digitimes senior researcher Mingchi Kuo offers a few reasons why the Nook may be faring better. For one, it has the in-store advantage at Barnes and Nobles. Customers can touch and test the device in person, and the company also sales representatives on-hand to answer questions. Amazon announced last week that Target stores will soon start carrying the Kindle, but the Nook still has the advantage of being featured in dedicated book stores.
The Nook also had the advantage of coming out more recently — it was announced in October 2009, and started shipping out in November. The release came just in time for the holiday season, and also offered features that the Kindle lacked — like a secondary color touch-screen display, and the ability to loan ebooks to friends. In comparison, Amazon hadn’t announced any new devices since the Kindle DX in May 2009 (it released the Kindle 2 in February 2009).
Until Amazon releases a new Kindle, or drastically reprices the current models, the Nook is likely to continue winning out. The Nook is also receiving more new features and updates than the aging Kindle, which continue to make the device more compelling. Then again, Amazon is spending more time developing its Kindle ecosystem by delivering apps for the iPad and iPhone that are more polished than Barnes and Nobles’ — so maybe it doesn’t care as much about winning the hardware battle.
Digitimes also reports that global e-book device shipments totaled 1.43 million in the first quarter of 2010, and will hit 2.02 million units by the second quarter. Global shipments of ebook readers in 2009 were a mere 3.82 million in 2009, and Digitimes predicts it will jump to 11.4 million units for 2010.
Tags: ebooks, ereader, kindle, Nook
Companies: amazon, Barnes And Noble

GE, Nissan join forces to ready the grid for electric cars

2010-04-26T15:20:00.003-07:00

Nissan continues to beat the electric car drum. Last week, it started taking reservations for its all-electric Nissan Leaf, and beat its own expectations with more than 6,600 immediate orders. Now today, it announced that it is teaming up with General Electric to research the impact electric vehicles are likely to have on U.S. electrical grids — one of the biggest questions in the industry.
The proliferation of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles predicted to take place over the next three years could make energy demand to skyrocket, exceeding utility supplies, and causing rolling brownouts and blackouts. Not only would this disturb ratepayers, but would also cost electric utilities millions of dollars in maintenance fees.
To avoid these problems, GE and Nissan said they will work together for at least three years to develop practical electric vehicle charging infrastructure that will keep grid power loads healthy and balanced.
In addition to surveying how cars will interact with the grid in general, it sounds like the two companies will be brainstorming roadside and household solutions similar to Coulomb Technologies‘ Smart ChargePoint charging stations — compact machines that can be bolted to standard telephone poles to deliver quick, high-voltage charges to advanced car batteries.
The key will be to develop stations that can communicate with one another and with the utilities pumping energy to the grids. If the utility is aware of how much energy is being used to charge cars in real time, it can make intelligent decisions about how much to make available, and when.
Both GE and Nissan have made bold moves to develop their own charging equipment. GE plans to manufacture these types of systems. Nissan, on the other hand, has contracted AeroVironment to build charging equipment suited to charge its Leaf models in people’s garages. The automaker plans to use $100 million of its grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy to deploy 12,750 charging stations in the U.S. when the Leaf launches later this year.
Coulomb isn’t the only venture-backed company working on the problem. Better Place, also based in the Bay Area, says it also has charging station technology in the works. However, its strategy has recently shifted more toward battery switching stations, which would allow drivers to swap out depleted batteries for fully-charged models while they are on the go. This would solve the issue of charging wait times, which reach 30 minutes, even at their fastest. No one would want to use gas stations if it took 30 minutes or more to fill up their tanks either.
In order for GE and Nissan to pitch competitive products, they will need to figure out a while to safely increase the voltages pumped out by charging stations to cut down waiting time. They will also need to come up with a viable way to integrate these charging stations into existing fueling infrastructure. It will be interesting to see whether charging station makers will cut deals with Exxon, Chevron and Shell to offer EV charging options alongside their traditional gas pumps.
Recently, Microsoft joined forces with Ford, implementing its Hohm energy management system to automate when cars charge. For example, EV owners could specify that they only want to charge their cars during off-peak hours when demand is low and electricity is at its cheapest. Other energy management enterprises like Tendril, Control4 and 4Home are taking similar approaches to the problem.
To tackle the home-charging issue together, GE and Nissan say they will look into equipment that could safely deliver a higher voltage than standard wall outlets currently being used, and consult with utilities to see if incentive or different rate plans can be offered to encourage off-peak charging. Utilities could then market charging solutions by saying they take advantage of lower-cost electricity.
Tags: electric vehicles
Companies: Better Place, Coulomb Technologies, General Electric, Nissan

Police seize Gizmodo editor’s computers in lost iPhone case

2010-04-26T15:20:00.001-07:00

Gawker Media’s Gizmodo site is in for a legal fight with police about whether it has the same legal protections as other mainstream journalists.
In connection with a criminal probe in the case of the lost iPhone prototype, San Mateo police searched the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen and seized six of his computers on Friday night, Gizmodo reported.
Gaby Darbyshire, chief operating officer of Gawker Media in New York, wrote a letter to the San Mateo police department that accused them of breaking California’s journalist shield law. Chen wrote in a post that he arrived home in the evening last Friday to find the police already inside his home, having broken down the door, and exercising a search warrant.
The criminal probe is believed to be under way because Gawker Media acknowledged that it paid $5,000 for the iPhone prototype, which could be considered a stolen good under law. For an analysis of the issues related to paying for news, check out David Carr’s column in the New York Times.
A 27-year-old Apple engineer left the phone at a bar by accident and the finder did not return it to Apple. Rather, the finder sold the device to Gizmodo, which gleefully wrote everything it knew about the phone and even tore it apart. Apple asked for the prototype back and Gizmodo sent it. But the criminal probe has now escalated the conflict to a new level.
In practice, the mainstream media are protected from search and seizure under journalist shield laws, which protect the sources of the news organizations. But since Gizmodo is a blog and may not have the same protection, the criminal case might address an important issue in the modern press. Nick Denton, chief executive of Gawker, said that his company would let Darbyshire’s letter stand as its response.
[photo credit: Gizmodo]
Tags: iPhone prototype
Companies: Gizmodo
People: Jason Chen

Jim Carrey crashes Conan O'Brien's stage show - as Superman

2010-04-26T14:32:00.001-07:00

Jim Carrey made a memorable cameo at Conan O'Brien's stage show in L.A. on Saturday night, performing the title role in a spirited duet with O'Brien of the Five for Fighting song "Superman."

Jesse James back from rehab without wedding ring

2010-04-26T14:31:00.005-07:00

After a month at a treatment facility, Jesse James was spotted back at his Los Angeles area home Monday with his children, but no wedding ring.

No-name radicals vs. 'South Park' just a distraction

2010-04-26T14:31:00.003-07:00

Free speech issues and portrayals of Islam needlessly stirred a hornet's nest recently when "South Park" depicted the Prophet Mohammed disguised in a bear suit in the 200th episode of the popular Comedy Central TV show.

Playboy dollars help save Hollywood sign

2010-04-26T14:31:00.001-07:00

Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, who made his fortune showcasing one type of Hollywood beauty, is sharing his wealth to save another.

Playdom buys game developer Merscom to cash in on brand-based games

2010-04-26T13:21:00.001-07:00

Playdom continued its buying spree as it announced today it is acquiring social game developer Merscom for an undisclosed price.
Merscom is based in Chapel Hill, N.C., and it makes games for big brands such as Sea World, Purina, National Geographic and NBC Universal. Playdom, a big player in social games on both MySpace and Facebook, plans to leverage Merscom’s expertise in working with brand owners. And it will try to recruit more game veterans in the North Carolina game development community.
Merscom was founded more than 16 years ago to produce games based on brands. The team has produced over 250 games in total and over 30 casual games for such brands as Lifetime Networks, Paramount and Starz Entertainment. Prior to 2009, Merscom produced games primarily using overseas developers. In 2009, Merscom added in-house engineers and started work on social games. The company’s first internally produced social game, The Crazies, was released in conjunction with the movie of the same name last month.
Merscom has 20 employees, led by founders Kirk Owen and Lloyd Melnick. John Pleasants, chief executive of Playdom, said in a statement, “We believe that brands matter and that over time, as the social gaming industry matures, games which incorporate content from popular culture and widely respected brands will garner larger market share than those without it.”
Mountain View, Calif.-based Playdom has previously acquired game development firms including Three Melons, Offbeat Games, Green Patch and Trippert Labs. Playdom’s most popular games include Social City, Sorority Life, Mobsters, Tiki Resort and Big City Life. Playdom raises its war chest for the acquisitions with a $43 million round in November.
Companies: Merscom, Playdom
People: John Pleasants

FreeWheel lands $16.8M for online video ads from Disney and others

2010-04-26T12:22:00.003-07:00

FreeWheel, a startup that focuses on online video advertisements, announced today that it has raised $16.8 million in strategic institutional funding.
The company’s Monetization Rights Management product lets content owners and distributors manage, distribute, forecast, and analyze ads across a variety of video platforms. Given the increasingly fractured online video market — which will only be further fractured by TV Everywhere initiatives like Comcast and Time Warner’s, not to mention the rise of video on mobile platforms — FreeWheel’s product allows for some much-needed control over ads. The company also offers consulting via its Business Services Group.
The San Mateo, Calif.-based company was founded by former DoubleClick executives in 2007, so the company is no stranger to the online ad world. It plans to use the funding to scale its infrastructure to better support clients, expand internationally, and develop new products. Its clients include Vevo, MLB.com, and Discovery Communications.
Steamboat Ventures, a Disney-affiliated venture capital firm, joined existing FreeWheel investors Turner Broadcasting System, Battery Ventures, and Foundation capital in the round. The company previously raised $12 million in third-round funding a year ago.
Tags: ads, video
Companies: Disney, FreeWheel, Steamboat Ventures

Mint founder Aaron Patzer makes a slight jab at Blippy’s privacy woes

2010-04-26T12:22:00.001-07:00

Aaron Patzer, the founder of personal finance startup Mint, made a slight jab at beleaguered Blippy today. Blippy is a startup that lets people share details of purchases they’ve made with their friends, and it recently came under fire after credit card numbers of a few users showed up in Google searches.
“I don’t get enough value out of something like Blippy,” Patzer said at the Future of Money conference in San Francisco. “I also think the better thing to do is to use aggregated anonymous statistics.”
He added: “I don’t like getting questions about my purchases at lingerie shops. What I wear is my own business.”
Last week, a tipster discovered that credit card numbers of a handful of Blippy users were showing up in Google searches. The bad news came just a day after the startup, which allows people to share their credit-card purchases, said it raised $11.2 million in new funding at a $46.2 million valuation.
Blippy has since announced a multi-pronged effort to shore up security. It’s hiring a chief security officer to focus solely on issues relating to information security. It’s also pledging to have external auditors look at its technical infrastructure, control caching of information in search engines and create a security and privacy center.
As part of damage control, Blippy had been working with Google to remove the URLs containing credit card numbers and all snippets and caches related to Blippy. The company added that the credit card numbers that were exposed were from old purchases and that the company had examined all of the data published to the service since.
Tags: personal finance
Companies: Blippy, mint
People: Aaron Patzer

Eric Lewis and his 'rockjazz' piano

2010-04-26T11:31:00.001-07:00

There's no point inventing a label for pianist Eric Lewis' eclectic performance style; he's beaten everyone to the punch. He calls it "rockjazz."

Gosselins cleared to work on new show

2010-04-26T11:02:00.003-07:00

Kate Gosselin's eight children have permits to work on their mom's newest reality TV show, "Kate Plus 8," according to a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

Khloe & Lamar 'make it work'

2010-04-26T11:02:00.001-07:00

Having survived their first NBA season as a married couple, Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom have found a nice balance between career and family. The secret to a happy home, despite the time apart, she says, is simply "caring enough to make it work."

U.S. Supreme Court to review California’s video game violence law

2010-04-26T10:12:00.003-07:00

The U.S. Supreme Court said today it would review a California law that prohibited sales of violent video games to minors. An appeals court previously struck down the law, saying it is an unconstitutional infringement of free speech.
The high court agreed to hear an appeal by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown about a law that was supposed to take effect in 2006. They argue that violent games are akin to sexual materials, which the government can and should restrict to protect children.
But the video game lobby argues that it has been singled out as a medium, noting there are no laws that ban the sale of mature books and movies. The industry trade groups the Entertainment Merchants Association and the Entertainment Software Association challenged the law and asked the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal. The EMA represents game retailers while the ESA represents game companies such as Electronic Arts.
Besides California, eight other states have passed similar laws, but all have been struck down on First Amendment grounds. Games such as Grand Theft Auto 4, pictured above, have been lightening rods for controversy because they give players the option of playing violent criminals who shoot innocent civilians or cops. GTA IV sold well above 10 million units after its launch in 2008.
In a statement, Electronic Arts spokesman Jeff Brown said, “This is another sign that gamers need to wake up and get organized to protect their rights. Censorship and content restrictions are a very real threat to videogames. Any gamer who has not registered with the ESA’s VideoGame Voter Network, loses the right to complain when government starts taking games off the market.”
A San Francisco federal appeals court said that the state hadn’t produced enough evidence that proves that video games cause physical and psychological harm to minors. The law required that video games be labeled for violence level, and it banned to sale or rental to anyone under 18. The industry has its own voluntary system in place that recommends that retailers not sell mature-rated games to minors, but it doesn’t carry criminal penalties and retailers have occasionally failed to pass stings where government agencies send kids to buy violent games.
Tags: video game violence
Companies: electronic arts

Yahoo to be pre-loaded onto “tens of millions” of Samsung phones

2010-04-26T10:12:00.001-07:00

App stores are no substitute for what the mobile industry calls “on deck” placement, in which an application is pre-loaded onto a phone’s home screen, or a top-level menu.
On-deck placement costs lots of money, plus it can take months of begging — er, negotiations with multiple wireless carriers or phone makers in order to win an expensive deal.
Yahoo just announced the inking of such a deal with Samsung, the world’s second-largest handset maker. Only supergiant Nokia sells more phones. Yahoo and Samsung have had a partnership since 2007, but the new deal expands Yahoo’s presence onto millions and millions more Samsung phones.
An exclamation-point-riddled email from a Yahoo spokesperson says that “Samsung will distribute Yahoo! services, including Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Front Page, Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Flickr, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Contacts, Yahoo! Calendar, and Yahoo! Weather on Samsung’s mobile devices globally, currently planned to begin in May 2010.”
A Yahoo-Samsung deal makes a lot of sense. Yahoo lacks strong wireless carrier relationships. Samsung doesn’t have a star smartphone. Putting the two together gives Yahoo outstanding placement in the world’s pockets, and makes Samsung’s phones Internet-friendly right out of the box, no app downloads required.
Yahoo’s voice-driven mobile search, which is optimized for the sort of searches that mobile users make the most — restaurants, movies, air travel, businesses — will probably be competitive to Google among Samsung phone owners. There’s no placement like default placement.
Companies: Samsung, yahoo

Trion Worlds aims to disrupt video-game business with new online titles

2010-04-26T09:21:00.005-07:00

After more than four years of toil, Trion Worlds is raising the curtain today on three major online games that collectively represent one of the most daring bets in video-game history.
Many established game companies struggle to make just one massively multiplayer online game at a time. But this startup has raised more than $100 million and hired a team of 250 people across three studios so that it can produce big games in parallel.
The three PC-based titles are Rift: Planes of Telara; End of Nations, real-time military strategy game set in the near future; and an unnamed title that Trion Worlds is jointly producing with NBC’s SyFy Channel. The first two are hitting in 2011, while the third is sometime later than the first two.
“We have raised a significant amount of money to do a most exciting thing,” said Lars Buttler, chief executive of Redwood City, Calif.-based Trion Worlds (formerly called Trion World Network). “We are creating high quality online games and, in effect, are taking the video game industry that makes games for hardcore gamers into the connected era.”
The ambition is to build a better game than World of Warcraft, the long-running fantasy MMO which has 11 million subscribers and generates more than a billion dollars a year in subscription revenue for Activision Blizzard. To do that, Trion Worlds had to spend considerable time designing a new online game platform that focused on a server-based architecture.
A new technology platform for server-based games
In its founding back in January 2006, Trion had similar inspirations as OnLive, which is building an online game service where it can do all the processing in servers and send images back to gamers, with almost no computing done on client machines.
But Trion’s approach to doing server-based games is very different. Buttler says the company designed its game to take advantage of modern servers which can adjust loads as needed. Rather than do the traditional way where one server handles a whole section of a game world, Trion distributed tasks among a number of servers. It can use one server for artificial intelligence, another server for other features and so on. If one section of the world becomes crowded with players, it can simply tap more servers to handle the load.
It also takes advantage of the user’s own computer in a way that OnLive does not. The user downloads software that can render the art work. Hence, the heavy-duty animation is handled by the user’s computer, while the company’s servers handle the chore of running the game. (If it turns out that technologies such as OnLive or Gaikai prove themselves, Trion can adapt so that its servers work with the rendering technology of the other companies; but for now, Trion will tap user computers for rendering).
With this blend of server and client processing, Trion can create what it calls “dynamic worlds.” It can make changes in the parts of the game running in the servers and — presto — the game world can change overnight. Instead of a cheery town, it can turn an environment of the world into ruins. Buttler believes this is the key to creating games worthy of the “next generation” moniker.
“When Blizzard makes a substantial change, they swap out one big world for another,” Buttler said. “We can make constant small changes to our world. You may see a merchant one day who is gone the next. A town may be alive or in ruins. The goal is to create a world that is truly alive and that you can influence.”

Rift showcases the server-based platform
One game that takes advantage of this is Rift: Planes of Telara (formerly called Heroes of Telara when shown last year). In this game, a beautiful Tolkien-like “high fantasy” world is under attack from dark forces from different dimensions. They open up rifts in space and send in monsters to attack the world. The players have to defend against these attacks to stop their world from tearing apart. Rifts can be triggered by the game designers or the players themselves or even occur spontaneously.
The rifts show that the world is dynamic, or always changing, and not static like past worlds, Buttler said. When a rift opens, the terrain, buildings, lighting, sky and everything else changes. Players can fight the demons coming out of the rift single-handed, or in a group. The more help you have, the more loot you can collect from the dead bodies when the rift episode is over. But with more people, you have to dispatch the various enemies more quickly to be able to get the loot. So the rifts are likely to draw huge numbers of players to one location. With rifts, there are no safe zones in the game. If a rift opens near a town, you will have to defend that town or lose the safety and resources in that town.
The graphics and physical simulation of the environment are cool, with a lot of use of lighting and shadows. Similar to Sony’s recent Uncharted 2: Among Thieves game for the PlayStation 3, the draw distances are huge. That is, you can see a long way from one place to another in the game. Typically, online games have short draw distances because it’s hard to animate so much detail and then deliver the images to the user’s screen over the Internet in a timely manner. The look isn’t quite as good as Uncharted 2, but it is very good for an online game. And you can wander for long distances within a level without seeing a loading screen. That keeps users from getting really bored.
End of Nations will stretch how far online games can scale up
With the End of Nations game, the setting is the near future where a world war is fought with modern armies. The game lets players create their own custom regiments of armor and infanty and then pick any region within the world map to enter the war.
The player can fight alongside allied players in huge maps — with as many as 51 players fighting in a single map. And the Trion folks expect they can handle many more.
No other real-time strategy game has been able to pack that many players into a tactical map with furious combat scenes. You can fight in large areas where there are lots of cool animated details. It can take as long as 20 minutes to move units across a whole map. And players can call in air strikes or missile strikes to assist the ground combat. Those strikes can destroy buildings and they’re quite satisfying to watch.
There will be about 50 tactical maps upon launch. On the strategic level, players can level up to become commanders in charge of other players as they try to change the balance of power in a worldwide metagame that resembles the board game Risk. Thousands of players can play across a world simultaneously. So every time a player logs into the game, they can assess where they are needed most and dive into a tactical map so that they can make a difference in the worldwide battle.
Before you jump into a fight, you can visit your headquarters and check the status of the world war. You can see where the hot spots are in the tactical maps, and view where your friends are playing. You can also customize your tanks, artillery, and other vehicles with colors and decals. You can loot vehicles, do research, and get access to more advanced weapons as you play over time.
The defining feature is that each game will be flexible and adaptable. Trion believes games have to change with the times and keep users interested by introducing events in the storyline of the game that totally change the environment of the game. Trion can do it because it uses the same dynamic game platform with modern server design in each game.
I got a good look at each game, except for the sci-fi game being built with SyFy. For that one, Trion only shared concept art of what the game will look like. Both Rift and End of Nations look beautiful and they are well designed to attract the hardcore fans of each genre. In the fantasy and RTS genres, there is nothing like what Trion showed.
Three games, three different development models
Buttler said that each game is being built with a different business model. The company has three internal game studios in San Diego, Redwood City, and Austin. The Redwood City studio is internally owned and is working on Rift. Trion will publish the game, sell it in a box at retail, and then collect subscription fees for online play.
With End of Nations, Trion is working with a game studio it does not own: Petroglyph Games, which has 90 employees at its headquarters in Las Vegas. Headed by Michael Legg, the team has a lot of game veterans who used to work at Westwood Studios, which was acquired by Electronic Arts. When EA, in its infinite wisdom, decided to move the studio to Los Angeles, many on the Las Vegas team quit and started their own studio. By working with this outside company, Trion gets access to a seasoned team and reduces its risk of carrying lots of developers on its own payroll.
And with SyFy, Trion is doing something different. In San Diego, it is co-developing the game with the TV channel, which carries half the costs and pays for publishing fees. The game is tied to the theme of a new SyFy TV show that is in the works. Together, they are creating a new universe of characters, alien races, environments and more. As TV episodes air, the online game’s story line will change and adapt in a similar episodic manner. Players will reportedly be able to influence the outcome of the game, which can influence the TV show. The team building this game is headed by game veteran Rob Hill and includes a lot of former Sony Online Entertainment veterans.
Hill said that look of the SyFy game (pictured right) is not “post apocalyptic,” as has been the case with a lot of recent games from Fallout 3 to the Gears of War series. SyFy wasn’t interested in such scenery, and neither were the artists at Trion. Beyond that, Trion is keeping details quiet.
What’s taking so long?
Buttler said the games are taking a long time to make because that’s what it takes to build large-scale worlds. The maps in each game are big on the tactical level, but lots and lots of those maps are what constitute the entire world of the game.
The development has not been without hardship. Some staffers have left for other companies. That includes Jon Van Caneghem, co-founder of the company, who resigned in April 2009, and Jay Lee, vice president of technology. But Buttler has been able to hold it together, hiring executives such as marketer David Reid and former Sony online game maker Scott Hartsman. But Hill, another Sony game veteran, said that he was drawn to Trion because of the huge opportunity.
“You don’t get a chance to do something like this everyday,” he said.
Investors seem to be standing behind the company. Trion raised three rounds of funding from investors including Act II Capital, an unnamed “large global financial institution,” as well as DCM, Trinity Ventures, Rustic Canyon, Time Warner, Bertelsmann and Peacock Equity – the joint venture between GE Commercial Finance’s Media, Communications & Entertainment business and NBC Universal.
“We’ve done new studios, new architectures, and new games,” Buttler said. “I’m not apologetic at all about what that costs. I would argue we have been very disciplined financially.”
Companies: Trion Worlds
People: Lars Buttler

Executives show off Trion’s next-generation games (3 videos)

2010-04-26T09:21:00.003-07:00

Trion Worlds has unveiled three very interesting games that have been in the works for years and are scheduled to debut starting in 2011.
The games and the platform they run on have been in development for more than four years. Now the company is showing what the new games will look like in action for the first time.
We had a chance to attend Trion’s unveiling event last Thursday. Check out the three videos below. The first is an interview with Michael Legg (pictured right), president of Petroglyph Games, an external game studio in Las Vegas that is developing End of Nations for Trion to publish.
The second interview is with Scott Hartsman, a former Sony Online Entertainment executive and general manager of Trion’s studio in Redwood City, Calif., which is developing Rift: Planes of Telara.
And the third interview is with Lars Buttler, chief executive of Trion, talking about what the company is doing with both its platform and its new games.

Companies: Trion Worlds
People: Lars Buttler, Michael Legg, Scott Hartsman

Google hints at no Nexus One for Verizon

2010-04-26T09:21:00.001-07:00

Verizon users been waiting patiently for Google’s Nexus One smartphone since it announced the device in January, when it also said that the phone would be headed to Verizon sometime in spring. But now it looks like Verizon may be the only provider not to get the device, according to a recent blog post by Google (via GearLog).
The post, which details some recent Nexus One partnerships, recommends that Verizon users check out the recently-announced Droid Incredible instead. Google is also displaying a similar announcement on the Nexus One’s purchase page.
The Incredible is a better phone in practically every way — it sports a better camera, runs HTC’s Sense UI software that improves the phone’s interface, and would likely not have the hardware issues Nexus One owners are seeing. It would make little sense for Google to continue with its plans to bring the Nexus One to Verizon with a superior device coming soon. Still, I know many Verizon users who were eagerly awaiting the Nexus One, and who would have appreciated a quicker response from Google on its availability.
Google’s lack of communication about the Nexus One on Verizon affected developers and the Android ecosystem as well. Developers didn’t know when to expect the device on Verizon, which could have had an impact on the production of their apps. Being unpredictable like this isn’t doing Google any favors, particularly when it needs carriers on its side.
The Nexus One was initially announced for T-Mobile, where it was sold for $179 with a new two-year plan, or $529 without a contract. Google later brought out an AT&T-compatible version of the phone for $529 with no contract, and Sprint announced that it will be receiving the phone as well.
Most likely, Google held off on bringing the Nexus One to Verizon because it knew that Verizon was going to push the Incredible as part of its popular Droid line of Android phones. Verizon’s strong marketing machine positioned the Motorola Droid as a sort of anti-iPhone — the Droid was faster, more capable, and less “girly” — and it was a major contributor to its sales success. The Incredible can fit in well with Verizon’s marketing image. If Google had made the Nexus One available on the carrier, it would have only diluted Verizon’s marketing efforts for the Incredible.
Tags: Android, droid, Incredible, nexus one, smartphone
Companies: Google, Verizon

Was Shakespeare's ghost writer ... Shakespeare?

2010-04-26T09:02:00.001-07:00

To most people, the literary debate over who wrote the works of William Shakespeare would appear to be much ado about nothing. After all, the play's the thing, right? What does it matter who wrote it?

Intel launches new version of its Classmate PC for kids

2010-04-26T08:21:00.007-07:00

Intel launched a new version of its Classmate PC, a learning laptop for kids. The new design is more flexible and durable than past Intel computers that promote electronic learning.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel unveiled the design at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. With the Classmate PC, Intel designs the hardware, software and chips for the system and provides a reference design for local computer makers in a variety of countries. Those PC makers offer the low-cost machines to schools and governments.
The Classmate PC is a clamshell (opens and closes like a clam) and can be converted into a touchscreen tablet computer. It has the Intel Atom processor and a 10.1-inch liquid crystal display; the new model has more memory and storage to run education applications. It has up to 8.5 hours of battery life and can connect via Wi-Fi, 3G, WiMAX, and has integrated global positioning system (GPS) navigation.
“Our ethnographers have spent countless hours understanding how technology can help school age children here in the U.S. and around the world build the skills required for the future,” said Kapil Wadhera, acting general manager of Intel’s Emerging Markets Platform Group, which helped design the computer.
The user interface is optimized for e-book applications and has a water-resistant keyboard, touchpad and screen. It can withstand being dropped from a desk and has an optional anti-microbial keyboard. In tablet mode, the “palm rejection” feature ignores the touch of hands resting on the screen.
More than 300 vendors are supporting the system worldwide.
Tags: Intel Classmate PC
Companies: Intel

WISeKey raises $20M for security services

2010-04-26T08:21:00.005-07:00

WISeKey said today it has raised $20 million in funding at a $200 million valuation from a group of undisclosed investors.
The Geneva, Switzerland-based company plans to expand its information security and identity management software in Brazil, Russia, India and China. WISeKey also said that it plans to go public and will file to do so as soon as the stock market is more stable. That very fact suggests a new confidence in the stock market, which has seen a few tech IPOs so far this year — more than in the past two years combined.
WISeKey was started in 1999 by Carlos Moreira, who is chief executive. He is a former United Nations security expert, and he built WISeKey to make encryption technology to fight against counterfeiting and to provide security for secure digital transactions. The company said the investors are in the U.S. and Europe.
Companies: WISeKey

Razorfish 2.0: Jeff Dachis returns, with a “buildup” buy of Xplane

2010-04-26T08:21:00.003-07:00

Remember Jeff Dachis? The brash Internet-consulting mogul made a name for himself in the ’90s at his then-hot Web shop, Razorfish, by declaring that “everything that can be digital will be.” He’s got a new line: Everything that can be social will be.
And he’s putting $50 million from Austin Ventures to work trying to prove it at his Texas-based Dachis Group — starting with the acquisition, announced Monday, of Portland, Ore.-based Xplane, an information-design consultancy.
Dachis’s thesis: Business is increasingly done on the Web. The Web is becoming more social. Therefore: “All businesses are going to be social businesses.” And he aims to charge a pretty penny helping them get socialized.
Xplane, founded by entrepreneur Dave Gray in 1993, was perhaps best known for the “little man” illustrations that it produced for Time Inc.’s late, lamented Business 2.0 magazine. (Full disclosure: I worked with Xplane illustrators while at Business 2.0.) But Dachis was more interested in Xplane’s niche in “change communication” — visual explanations of new business processes aimed at helping companies change their cultures.
Dachis wouldn’t say how much he spent to buy Xplane, his company’s fourth acquisition since it launched in 2008. But he said it lifted Dachis Group’s annualized revenues from seven figures to eight figures. In other words, he’s now doing more than $10 million in sales.
Just don’t call it a rollup. Dachis bristled at the term, which he feels was tarnished by Razorfish rivals like USWeb/CKS.
“We’re not putting [the acquisitions] all together at once, and we’re not buying things that are commodities,” said Dchis.” If you want to think USWeb, you’re on the wrong track. It’s a buildup.”
Also? Don’t call him a consultant.
“We can build a great little business with consulting,” Dachis explained. “My sense is that Austin Ventures doesn’t see just consulting as the opportunity here with me. There’s an interesting concept beyond the consulting business that might be attractive to them. That’s not something we’re revealing yet.”
He suggested, though, that building and buying tools to help businesses become social could be part of Dachis Group’s strategy.
The acquisition takes Dachis Group to 100 employees in seven cities across five countries, Dachis said. And he still has a good piece of that $50 million left to spend.
Some free advice for social-media shops looking to sell out: He’s looking for diversity in geographies and skills. He’s already acquired a London-based business, and Xplane has an office in Amsterdam. So if you’re doing something Dachis Group isn’t doing, in a place where it doesn’t have an office, drop him a line.
Companies: Dachis Group, Xplane
People: Jeff Dachis

Should an entrepreneur be a sole proprietor?

2010-04-26T08:21:00.001-07:00

(Editor’s note: Scott Edward Walker is the founder and CEO of Walker Corporate Law Group, PLLC, a law firm specializing in the representation of entrepreneurs. He submitted this column to VentureBeat.)
A reader asks: I founded a web company by myself a while ago and for the last six months I’ve been making some serious coin. I never formed a corporation or an LLC and was wondering, after reading your post last week, if you think I should. I’m not looking for VC funding, and all the guys who work for me are independent contractors. Why can’t I just remain a sole proprietorship? It seems like a waste of money to incorporate at this point.

I’m not a big fan of sole proprietorships — and not many lawyers are.
The advantages of running this type of business are pretty obvious. It’s simple. There are no legal documents that need to be drafted and no filings with governmental entities (other than perhaps a simple fictitious name or “DBA” certificate if you are doing business under a name other than your own).
Because of this, it’s inexpensive. No legal documents and no filings means no legal fees and no filing costs. There’s also no “double taxation” – meaning, unlike with a C corporation, the business does not pay income taxes separately. All income taxes are handled on the owner’s personal tax returns.
The biggest disadvantage with a sole proprietorship, though, is that you have unlimited personal liability. In other words, you as the owner will be held personally liable for all of the business’s activities, including its debts and liabilities, since there is no distinction between the business and the sole proprietor.
With a web business, there may not be a lot of potential liability exposure compared to, say, a medical device company or a real estate owner. However, there could be lawsuits relative to IP infringement, privacy regulations, your contractors (in certain circumstances) and other issues. If you do get sued, all of your personal assets (money, home, car, etc.) are at risk.
Another major disadvantage of a sole proprietorship is you can’t issue equity to a key employee or an investor. There’s also arguably a greater tax audit risk doing business this way.
The bottom line is that sole proprietorships have limited utility for entrepreneurs. If you’re considering one, be sure the unlimited personal liability and lack of structure for equity issuances are things you’re comfortable with. If they are, I’d definitely advise at least buying some comprehensive liability insurance from a reputable insurer to protect against lawsuits and other claims.
Startup owners: Got a legal question about your business? Submit it in the comments below or email Scott directly. It could end up in an upcoming “Ask the Attorney” column.
Disclaimer: This “Ask the Attorney” post discusses general legal issues, but it does not constitute legal advice in any respect. No reader should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information presented herein without seeking the advice of counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. VentureBeat, the author and the author’s firm expressly disclaim all liability in respect of any actions taken or not taken based on any contents of this post.
Image by See Wah via Flickr
Tags: ask the attorney

Source: Bret Michaels was in excruciating pain

2010-04-26T07:32:00.003-07:00

As Bret Michaels continues to be watched closely by his doctors, a source reveals the rocker's excruciating moments before he was taken to the emergency room.

Inside Johnny Depp's very own pirate ship

2010-04-26T07:32:00.001-07:00

Hollywood actor Johnny Depp is arguably best-known for his role as maverick captain Jack Sparrow in the wildly popular "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.

NComputing launches low-cost thin client that acts like a full Windows PC

2010-04-26T03:15:00.001-07:00

NComputing is unveiling today a “thin client” computer which costs just $200 but acts like a full-fledged Windows PC for the enterprise.
The L300 — the latest in a series of models — is a little box that connects to a standard Windows computer and uses that PC as a server, allowing a bunch of users to share one computer through NComputing’s distributed computing software. The box, in turn, is connected to a keyboard, mouse and monitor.
The client taps the computing power of the PC, just like old terminals shared a slice of the computing power of a mainframe computer decades ago. With the L300, as many as eight clients can share a $700 PC. Each one of those clients can simultaneously run a 1080p high-definition video while sharing a single PC, said Stephen Dukker, chief executive of NComputing.
“The aim is to deliver a true PC experience,” he said.
The L300 is the first NComputing product that uses the company’s new Numo chip, which helps reduce the cost of computing dramatically by combining distributed computing with its vSpace virtualization software, which allows a computer to be subdivided so that it can serve different users. The L300 is targeted at the enterprise market, where companies can enable lots of workers to get on the Internet or company network without much expense.
With typical enterprise PCs, you have to pay a lot of licensing costs per machine, such as licenses for each copy of Windows running, Dukker said. But with NComputing, the cost is lower because users are sharing a single copy. But there are some things that the L300 can’t do which a PC can, such as running games. Of course, companies may like that fact since employees can’t goof off at work.
To date, NComputing has more than 20 million daily users for its virtual desktops, which are in use in developing countries. India uses the devices in a number of schools as well as government agencies. Full told, NComputing has more than 600,000 commercial deployments of its thin clients. Dukker argues that virtual computers can save 75 percent in capital costs, 75 percent in operating costs, and 90 percent in energy consumption compared to PCs.
Dukker says the solution works whether you are deploying four computers in a remote office or 4,000 in a corporate headquarters. As a promotion, NComputing is giving away 1,000 devices at this week’s Interop conference in Las Vegas. Volume shipments of the L300 are expected to begin in April.
we are strong in bric countries. tremendous success in india. vdi revolution is reaching the mainstream. there has never been case when a tech that
cost 3-4 times has been accepted. that is why corporate virtualization has not taken off yet.
vspace
Companies: NComputing

Rhapsody plays offense: iPhone app allows downloaded playlists

2010-04-26T02:16:00.003-07:00

One of the original pioneers in streaming music is still making waves.
Rhapsody released a new version of its iPhone app that allows people to wirelessly download playlists to their iPhones, iPods or iPads and listening to them whenever — even if they don’t have an Internet connection. The move comes just weeks after the company, which was revolutionary at the beginning of the decade for offering an all-you-can-eat subscription model, began life as an independent company after been spun-off from Real Networks.
The ability to cache playlists is a much sought-after feature that hadn’t yet landed in the U.S. before. Berkeley-based competitor MOG plans to launch this feature on both Android devices and iPhones with a $10 a month subscription service in the second quarter of this year. The much-hyped Swedish startup Spotify offers this already. But sadly, it hasn’t been able to cross the pond from Europe.
Rhapsody recently launched its first Android app and is at work building one for Blackberry devices. The company’s app is free, but to download playlists, users will have to pay either $10 a month for access from a single device or $15 for access on up to three devices (think computer, phone and iPad).
The company was spun-off from Real Networks about three weeks ago. Real and Viacom each own about 47.5 percent of the company. Vivendi’s Universal Music Group also owns a small stake of under five percent.
Companies: Rhapsody

OpenSky, the social-commerce-for-bloggers startup, raises $6M

2010-04-26T02:16:00.001-07:00

OpenSky, an e-commerce startup from veteran New York entrepreneurs, raised $6 million in a second round led by Highland Capital Partners and Canaan Partners. The round brings the company’s total funding to about $11 million.
The company helps bloggers monetize their businesses, by making it easy for them to sell products directly to readers and earn a revenue share. Bloggers choose what and when to sell; for example, it makes sense for make-up or fashion-focused bloggers to sell clothes and cosmetics to readers that they have established a rapport with over many months or years.
OpenSky does some of the heavy lifting by signing on retailers, facilitating orders and tracking purchases. It also uses a proprietary matching process to connect products and suppliers to the most appropriate potential seller. OpenSky splits the markup with publishers 50-50. That beats traditional affiliate marketing programs, which usually offer sellers specific fees below 10 percent of the retail price.
The company’s founder, John Caplan, was chief executive at Ford Models and head of marketing at About.com. (The other execs have strong e-commerce pedigrees, with stints at Gilt Group, Zappos, Bonobos and Target.) He did a soft launch earlier this month after finding 250 established bloggers willing to sell products directly to their audiences.
Caplan argues that Opensky won’t compromise the perceived integrity of the bloggers, because they retain control over what they recommend. (It’s up to the publisher how much they might want to affect their credibility by selling products.)
Tags: e commerce, New York, social commerce
Companies: OpenSky
People: John Caplan

I didn’t spend my money on Apple stock, and all I got was this lousy PowerBook.

2010-04-25T19:16:00.001-07:00

Here’s a spreadsheet of infinite regret.
After Apple shares hit an all-time high of $272.18 on Friday, a few fanboys started reconsidering their purchases from long ago. Jason L. Baptiste wrote on YCombinator’s Hacker News, “If you spent the money on an original iPod in 2001 on Apple stock ($499), you would have $14,513.78 today.”
Thus, a meme was born, as the comment was widely shared and retweeted.
UC Berkeley junior Kyle Conroy decided to actually put that idea to the test for hundreds of Apple products. He created a table comparing the original prices of the company’s products from the past 13 years with the total returns of an investment had you put the same amount in Apple shares. (Conroy didn’t factor in depreciation or inflation though.)
It’s pretty stomach churning to see what could have been. If, instead of spending $5,700 on an Apple PowerBook in November 1997, you decided to put that cash into Apple stock, you would have $330,563.38 today. Ouch.
The full table is here.

Companies: Apple

Smart Technologies acquires NextWindow to move into touchscreen business

2010-04-25T17:15:00.001-07:00

Touchscreens are the hottest thing in user interfaces for everything from phones to laptops to tablet computers such as the iPad. So it’s no surprise that Canada’s Smart Technologies has acquired New Zealand touchscreen technology maker NextWindow.
The purchase price wasn’t disclosed. NextWindow makes the optical touch technology that is used in all-in-one computers, computer displays, and large-format touchscreens. It makes touch components that are used in computers and monitors sold by Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Medion, NEC, Samsung and Sony.
Calgary-based Smart Technologies makes interactive whiteboards that users can share to enhance learning in the education, business and government sectors. So the NextWindow deal will extend Smart Technologies’ reach into the broader consumer technology market. In that sense, the businesses are complimentary, say Nancy Knowlton, chief executive of Smart Technologies, and Al Monro, chief executive of NextWindow.
The privately held companies plan to keep their operations and offices. NextWindow was founded in 2001. Market researcher iSuppli forecasts the global market for touch screens will reach $6.4 billion by 2013, up from $3.4 billion in 2008.
Here’s a description of NextWindows’ technology from the company’s web site:
By using optical sensors at two corners of the screen, Optical Touch “sees” the touching object from two angles. The result is extreme accuracy, with no contact pressure required. No special coatings and films are needed—there’s nothing to scratch, wear out, or cloud the display image. The screen can be sealed against dirt, dust, and moisture, ideal for heavily used kiosks in public areas.
Working together, two optical sensors track the movement of any object close to the surface by detecting the interruption of an infra-red light source. The light is emitted in a plane across the surface of the screen and can be either active (infra-red LED) or passive (special reflective surfaces).
At the heart of the system is a printed circuit controller board that receives signals from the optical sensors. Its software then compensates for optical distortions and triangulates the position of the touching object with extreme accuracy.
Some of NextWindow’s products, such as the 1900 series, use low-profile optical sensors mounted on the surface of the glass. Other products use different configurations. In all models, the infrared light source and optical sensors are synchronized using a sophisticated algorithm that also eliminates the effect of ambient light, creating an extremely clear, accurate screen.

Publicist: Bret Michaels still in critical condition

2010-04-25T14:01:00.001-07:00

Rock singer and reality TV personality Bret Michaels remained in critical condition Sunday in a hospital intensive care unit, his publicist said.

Apple hires video game journalist as AppStore games editorial manager

2010-04-25T13:15:00.001-07:00

Apple is bringing on IGN editor Matt Casamassina to spearhead editorial content for iPhone and iPad games on the AppStore. He announced the move on Thursday via a recent blog post.
Casamassina describes the position like this:
In a nutshell, I will be leading the charge for games on the AppStore, so whether you browse through iTunes, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, the games content you see will be handpicked and organized by me and my team.
Apple has historically been a company that hasn’t paid much attention to games on its computing platforms — primarily because many games were developed for Windows, and often took months to appear on the Mac, if they ever did. With the advent of the AppStore and decent graphics power on the iPhone and iPad, Apple finally has created a platform where games can thrive.
Games became the most popular app, surprising Apple at first. It has hired seasoned game developers such as Graeme Devine to work on iPhone game technologies.
With tens of thousands of games now available on the AppStore, the problem for users is discovering the games that they really want to play. The addition of a full-fledged game journalist to its editorial staff will help users find hidden gems more easily, and will give game developers the assurance that an informed eye is highlighting game content.
Casamassina has been a consistent presence at IGN, a network of video game and entertainment sites, over the last 13 years. He focused on IGN’s sites dedicated Nintendo platforms for his first 12 years, and last year became IGN’s editor-at-large, according to GamaSutra.
Tags: App Store, ipad, iPhone, itunes
Companies: Apple, IGN
People: Matt Casamassina

'Dragon' tops tepid box office

2010-04-25T12:31:00.001-07:00

"How to Train Your Dragon" took the top spot at the box office in its fifth weekend in theaters with only an estimated $15 million -- still good enough to top rival offerings from CBS Films ("The Back-Up Plan") and Warner Bros. ("The Losers").

Here come the mash-ups: Likebutton.me shows what Facebook friends are ‘liking’ across the web

2010-04-25T12:17:00.001-07:00

Just a few days after Facebook unveiled a number of plug-ins that spread its social features across the web, the neat mash-ups are starting to appear.
LikeButton.me takes Facebook’s activity feed plug-in, which shows what your friends “like” on other pages, copies it several times while referencing different destinations like YouTube, The Huffington Post and CNN and puts them all in one place.
The combined effect is to show you what friends are liking on sites across the web on sites like MTV and Pandora. It’s a completely different interface for understanding what’s happening in your social network; instead of seeing status updates and photos, you’re seeing content that friends are enjoying on other sites.
To be clear, Facebook designed the social plug-ins in such a way that the host site shouldn’t have access to the activity of you or your friends. It’s as if LikeButton.me is giving up a piece of real estate on its site to Facebook.com.
Companies: Facebook

Stars shine on red carpet

2010-04-25T06:01:00.001-07:00

Bryce Dallas Howard arrives at the premiere of "The Losers" in Hollywood. See who else made an appearance on the red carpet recently.

Week in review: Police investigate lost iPhone, Blippy overshares credit card numbers

2010-04-24T19:15:00.001-07:00

Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:
Police get involved in the lost iPhone case — Police are investigating the case of the lost iPhone prototype, which was left by an Apple engineer at a bar and subsequently sold to the blog Gizmodo for $5,000.
Blippy users’ credit card numbers found on Google — VentureBeat broke the news that some members of Blippy, a social-sharing site for shoppers, had their credit card numbers published to Google by Blippy’s servers. Blippy cofounder Philip Kaplan soon responded, stating, “While it looks super-scary and certainly sucks for those few people who were affected, and is embarrassing to us, it’s a lot less bad than it looks.”
Will FaceCash, the mobile payment application, kill the credit card? — A Silicon Valley company with a noteworthy founder has created a mobile payment system called FaceCash that it hopes will one day displace credit cards. You might be tempted to write this off as too audacious. But consider this: The founder is Aaron Greenspan, the Harvard graduate who claimed in 2007 that his former schoolmate, Mark Zuckerberg, ripped off his work when Zuckerberg created Facebook.
Lost next-generation iPhone puts a scorching spotlight on luckless Apple employee — Speaking of the lost iPhone, it reportedly belonged to Gray Powell, a 27-year-old Apple software engineer. The story is pretty comic, unless you’re the hapless Powell or a member of the Apple legal team.
What’s wrong with an LLC? — Attorney Scott Edward Walker looks at the pluses and minuses of running your startup as a limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation.
And here are five more stories we think are important, thought-provoking, or fun:
What you missed at Facebook’s f8 conference — Facebook made some huge announcements its f8 developer conference on Wednesday. This post highlights the biggest news and also points to the rest of VentureBeat’s coverage.
Facebook steps up lobbying, deepens ties with intelligence agencies, FTC — Facebook has also been gradually boosting its profile in Washington D.C. over the past year. Disclosures released recently show that, on top of lobbying the usual suspects Internet companies reach out to, the fast-growing social network has also been busy deepening ties to government intelligence and homeland security agencies.
Fabulis vs. GayCities: A social-networking battle that’s totally gay — Jason Goldberg is moving in on Scott Gatz’s turf. And Gatz is not taking it lying down. The two openly gay entrepreneurs are both trying to create the hot place for their brethren to check in with each other online.
YouTube’s video rental store is open for business — After dabbling with film rentals by offering five Sundance Film Festival titles in January, and expanding its beta testing effort with more content in February, YouTube finally launched its rental store this week.
How Facebook plans to fuel the app economy with Facebook Credits — One of the less-hyped elements of Facebook’s event was the release of more details about Facebook Credits, a long-awaited virtual currency on the social network that will likely have a lot of impact on how much money is made by Facebook’s partners.
[top image via Gizmodo]
Tags: f8, Gizmodo, iPhone, YouTube
Companies: Apple, Blippy, Fabulis, Facebook, facecash, GayCities, Google
People: Aaron Greenspan, Gray Powell, Jason Goldberg, Philip Kaplan, Scott Gatz

Blippy claims credit card leak plugged. We find one more number

2010-04-24T12:15:00.001-07:00

On Friday, we reported that Blippy, a social network for shoppers cofounded by Fucked Company and AdBrite founder Philip “Pud” Kaplan, had accidentally published some of its members’ credit card numbers into Google. Kaplan was quick to respond. “It’s a lot less bad than it looks.”
True, the 127 transactions we found in Google turned out to contain only four unique card numbers, two of whom belonged to the same person. The cards’ expiration dates weren’t published, making an unauthorized charge difficult, if not impossible. Blippy contacted all three members to ensure there had been no incidents of fraud.
This morning, Blippy tweeted that they are going back over their January and February data, and are working with Google to scrub any numbers that got into the search giant’s index. On the phone at 11:29 AM Pacific, Kaplan told me he had just received word from Google that all credit card numbers on Blippy.com pages had been purged from Google’s index. CEO Ashvin Kumar wrote a blog post that explains how “only a small subset of our users have the potential to be affected by this incident.”
Even so, both Blippy and VentureBeat found another credit card number and name in Google earlier this morning. It was only one, but it proves Blippy can’t say with certainty that all numbers have been found. “Obviously, we accept full responsibility,” Kaplan said, “and we still have multiple people working on it. We’re not saying we’re done.”
The point here isn’t that Blippy goofed. It’s that unplanned oversharing of personal information will likely become a bigger and bigger problem as Facebook, Twitter and other social networks find more ways to pull more personal data onto the Internet and spread it around to multiple sites and services. Why did Blippy allow Google to crawl its members’ pages, the source code for which included data not meant to be published to anyone but the individual members? Why is Blippy still Googleable at all, instead of, say, blocking the search engine with a robots.txt file? “For the same reason Yelp is in Google,” Kaplan said. “We want people looking for people and places to find us.”
The computers hooked up to the Net continue to become more and more powerful, more and more clever, and more and more interconnected. To me, that’s pretty cool. But businesses and their customers need to understand the risks.
Finding Blippy members’ card numbers didn’t require deep-geek hacking. Simple Google searches for words or abbreviations that are sometimes paired with a credit card number on Blippy were sufficient. It wouldn’t be hard for a serious cracker to write a program that auto-scours Google for anything on Blippy that looks like a credit card or Social Security number. That’s probably why Google blocked all searches of site:blippy.com soon after the news got out Friday. Maybe they should have left it that way this morning.
The fifth card number leaked from Blippy to Google belongs to a talk radio host who we think will be amused rather than angry. We’ve contacted him, but we’re scrubbing his name until then.

Companies: Blippy, Google

Woz makes light of the lost iPhone prototype

2010-04-24T11:16:00.001-07:00

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has taken to liberty of making light of the serious incident where an Apple employee left an iPhone prototype at a bar and the finders sold it to the blog Gizmodo. That incident has reportedly prompted a police investigation.
CNET reports that Wozniak sent around a photo to his friends where he is wearing a T-shirt that says, “I went drinking with Gray Powell and all I got was a lousy iPhone prototype.” Wozniak is drinking a beer and holding an iPhone in his hands.
Powell was the unlucky Apple engineer who lost the prototype, which is the basis for a future iPhone model. Apple typically guards its designs under a veil of secrecy, since its competitors would no doubt love to get a head start in cloning its products. While that’s serious stuff, Wozniak is known for his humor and practical jokes.
It will be interesting to see if the other Steve (Jobs) has a sense of humor. The tech industry certainly needs more of it. [photo credit: CNET]
Companies: Apple
People: Gray Powell, Steve Wozniak

You can bid on what?!

2010-04-24T11:01:00.001-07:00

Check out the memorabilia being auctioned on eBay by people who claim that the goods were owned or used by celebrities.

EC Roundup: Another bubble rears its head – and the entrepreneurial benefits of WoW

2010-04-24T08:16:00.001-07:00

Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner.
What’s wrong with an LLC? – LLCs can be a good way to shield yourself and your personal assets, but if your future business plans involve seeking venture capital, there are some big pitfalls. Attorney Scott Edward Walker runs down the pros and cons.
Another bubble? Eye-popping valuations raise eyebrows – There’s a rebound happening in venture capital, but not one that anyone was expecting. While most companies are still having trouble securing financing, some unproven companies are getting generous valuations. Allegis Capital managing director Peter Bodine discusses this pendulum effect and how it can affect your startup.
An argument against disruptive technologies – Disruptive technologies can change the world – but very often, the world has no interest in being changed, notes angel investor Jason Cohen. There’s nothing wrong with incremental improvements, he notes. And those companies are much more likely to succeed.
The funding Bill of Rights: Helping entrepreneurs and VCs come together – The relationship between an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist can be enormously rewarding (monetarily and emotionally), but it can also be incredibly painful, costly and aggravating. Lawrence D. Lenihan, the founder, CEO and managing director of FirstMark Capital offers a look at the rights held by both sides.
World of Warcraft: Entrepreneur incubator – World of Warcraft isn’t just the most popular online game in the world, it’s also a fantastic tool for budding entrepreneurs. John Seely Brown, former director of Xerox PARC, makes the case for the video game as an incubator in this thought leader lecture at Stanford University.
Tags: entrepreneur corner

More open than thou: Blogger battle rages over new Facebook tools

2010-04-23T21:16:00.001-07:00

Facebook has reignited the openness debate, after it launched tools this week that may reshape the web and hand it a big advantage over other competitors in indexing and understanding it.
The word “open” — like “green” or “eco-conscious” — is one of the more amorphous concepts floating about the tech industry. Google touts openness while keeping its advertising and search algorithms secret. On the opposing side, Apple regularly faces heated criticism about the barriers it has erected to the app store.
The truth is both proprietary and purely open systems have respective flaws. Most companies lay somewhere in-between despite their rhetoric.
Facebook’s grand idea this week was the “Open Graph.” It’s a fundamentally different way of mapping the web via people’s real social relationships and affinities toward things like music, books and local venues, instead of hyperlinks between static pages. Two parts of this project involve spreading “Like” buttons around the web that record people’s preferences and metadata that companies can add to their web destinations so Facebook can treat them almost like Fan Pages housed within Facebook’s site.
The moves sparked criticism that the company was collecting data on people’s preferences without giving them the power to port that information elsewhere and that it was compelling publishers across the web to reformat their pages to Facebook’s liking.
“Rather than using data that’s already on the web, everyone that wants to play Facebook’s game needs to go and retrofit their pages to include these new metadata types,” wrote Chris Messina, a longtime open source advocate who now works for Facebook’s much bigger rival Google. ”When… Facebook gets to hoard all of the metadata and likes around the interactions between people and content, it depletes the ecosystem of potential and chaos.”
Both of Facebook’s moves carry big implications for startups that don’t want to play by the company’s book. So a few have already launched counter-initiatives. Hunch co-founder and prolific angel investor Chris Dixon, has helped form OpenLike, a way for people to share their preferences with multiple services. Another competitor Meebo partnered with Google and other companies to launch XAuth, a system that lets web site owners figure out which social network a person often uses and allows them to log-in with the network of their choice.
Facebook’s own openness advocate, David Recordon, argued that the company’s moves were open. Developers can now store Facebook user data for more than 24 hours and subscribe to changes in user data in real-time. He added that any developer could make use of the new metadata that publishers add to their pages. Plus, the company has adopted OAuth, a way for users to share parts of their data like friend lists, photos or status updates, without handing over their IDs or passwords.
Tags: likes, liking, open graph, openness
Companies: Facebook
People: Chris Messina, David Recordon

Roundup: Amazon profits climb, Google denies iPhone rumors

2010-04-23T20:19:00.001-07:00

Here’s the latest action:
Amazon profits climb in the first quarter — The growth was driven by increased business, not cost-cutting. The online retailer’s sales grew 46 percent.
Is Google developing an iPhone app for free turn-by-turn directions? — Google says no.
Google Ventures invests in OpenCandy — The startup, which recommends software to its users, raised a $5 million second round, bringing its total funding to $8.5 million.
Senate may fix anti-angel legislation — We’ve covered complaints that provisions in the finance reform bill being considered by the Senate create unnecessary obstacles for angel investors and aim to “destroy Silicon Valley.” Now the Angel Capital Association says it “understands” that Senator Chris Dodd will introduce amendments that address these concerns.
ARM quashes Apple rumors — Warren East, the head of chip maker ARM, told the Guardian that he’s happy that speculation about an Apple acquisition has pushed up ARM stock prices. But he said:”Our standard business model is an excellent way for technology companies to gain access to our technology. Nobody has to buy the company.”
Ad exchange The Trade Desk gets a new investor – Wider Wake Networks contributed half a million dollars to The Trade Desk’s recent $2.5 million seed round.
Companies: amazon, Apple, Arm, Google, OpenCandy, The Trade Desk
People: Chris Dodd

The police get involved in the lost iPhone case

2010-04-23T19:16:00.003-07:00

Police are investigating the case of the lost iPhone prototype, which was left by an Apple engineer at a bar and subsequently sold to the blog Gizmodo for $5,000.

CNET reported that Apple has spoken to local police in Silicon Valley about the circumstances behind the disappearance of the iPhone and the investigation is believed to be led by a computer crime task force of the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office, which has jurisdiction in the county that includes Cupertino, Calif., where Apple’s headquarters is located.
Editors at Gizmodo.com, a site owned by Gawker Media, have disclosed a lot about how they came to get the iPhone prototype, which is believed to be a version of a product that won’t ship for months. Apple closely guards these prototypes, since its design and innovation are how it sets itself apart from clone phone makers.
A 27-year-old Apple engineer left the phone by accident at a bar in Redwood City, Calif. He went back to find it and frantically checked, but it wasn’t there. Gizmodo editor Brian Lam wrote that whoever found it tried to return it to Apple but had no luck. Then the finder approached Gizmodo, which paid money for it. CNET said it couldn’t determine which party the police were investigating. Apple sent a letter asking for the prototype back and Gizmodo returned it, after spilling all of the secrets it could, including taking the phone apart.
The incident has received huge coverage, with much of it focused on the unlucky engineer. Last year, an employee at one of Apple’s contract manufacturers, Foxconn, in China committed suicide after his employer’s security staff put pressure on him for losing Apple iPhone prototypes.
The investigation shows that Apple still takes its security and secrecy very seriously, as past attempts to sue bloggers have shown. And it also shows that the media may be on fuzzy legal ground when it buys property that clearly belongs to somebody else, in effect receiving a stolen good.
CNET wrote that under a California law dating back to 1872, anyone who finds something and knows who the owner is likely to be but “appropriates such property to his own use” is guilty of theft. In addition, a second state law says that any person who knowingly receives property that has been obtained illegally can be imprisoned for up to one year. On the other hand, the First Amendment protects the press from disclosing confidential sources.
[photo credit: Gizmodo]
Companies: Apple

Kleiner Perkins’ Randy Komisar: Maybe Web startups don’t need venture capital

2010-04-23T19:16:00.001-07:00

Venture capitalist Randy Komisar suggested today that Web startups may not actually need his money — at least, not right away.
Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, reached that conclusion in a roundabout way during a question-and-answer session at the Startup Lessons Learned conference in San Francisco. His main point was a piece of common entrepreneurial advice: To paraphrase Komisar’s new book on the topic, startups need to “get to plan B.” They need to cycle through different ideas with as a little time and money as possible, so they can discover which of their assumptions are wrong. For startups in fields like biotech or cleantech or enterprise technology, that process may take months or years of work, and and it probably requires sizable funding. But at a consumer Internet company, things should be much faster and cheaper.
“So why do we need venture capitalists?” Komisar asked. “They may not be as important.” That means he might tell an early-stage Web startup looking for funding, “You get my money later, at a higher valuation, when you need to accelerate a good idea to a great one.”
Another interesting — and quotable — part of the discussion covered Komisar’s idea of a startup’s “analog” and “antilog.” Every startup idea involves a few “leap of faith” assumptions. As entrepreneurs explore those assumptions, he said they should look for companies that successfully built on those ideas (analogs), as well as companies that used those ideas and failed (antilogs).
But what if your idea is a completely revolutionary breakthrough?
“Every idea is ‘revolutionary,’” Komisar said, laughing. “If I see that word in another pitch. … Everything is derivative and if you don’t think so, examine your idea very, very carefully. Everything is derivative, and that’s not a bad thing.”
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is the king of the big, disruptive idea, Komisar said, yet Jobs has also said, “We’ve always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” So you can look at a disruptive technology like the iPod, and see that it had an analog in Sony’s Walkman, which established that people are willing to listen to music on headphones in a social setting.
Towards the end of the conversation, Komisar also turned philosophical. For most entrepreneurs, creating a startup is not a good way to make money, he said. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.
“It’s a great way to live your life,” he said. “Entrepreneurship is a manifestation of the best things in the human condition: Creativity, creating value, sharing that value. To me, it’s a noble profession.”
Companies: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
People: Randy Komisar

Fusion Garage may have sold only 64 Joojoo tablets

2010-04-23T17:17:00.001-07:00

A recent email sent by Fusion Garage to customers of its Joojoo tablets (via Uneasy Silence) tells us two things: One, the company apparently doesn’t know how to properly use the BCC field to hide email addresses, and two, it’s likely that it only sold 64 Joojoos.
That number may seem incredibly low, but it’s not unexpected given that we learned at the end of March that Fusion Garage only had 90 preorders for the tablet. 15 of those preorders were canceled, which means that since those court documents were published another 11 preorders dropped out as well. And of course, some who received a Joojoo may have returned it, and Fusion Garage may have included other email addresses in the BCC field for some reason.
At this point, I almost feel a bit sorry for Fusion Garage. The company famously rose into the spotlight when it split up with TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, and turned what was to be the CrunchPad tablet into the Joojoo. It worked hard to convince tech journalists that the Joojoo would still be a worthwhile tablet, but then Apple announced the iPad and all of a sudden nobody wanted to spend $500 on a first-generation device from an unproven company. After countless delays, it finally shipped the Joojoo to its handful of customers right around the launch of the iPad — erasing any early advantage the Joojoo might have had.
Moving forward, the Joojoo will have to compete with cheaper Android tablets and other entries like HP’s Slate running Windows. Unless Fusion Garage drops the price of the Joojoo drastically, and manages to stay afloat despite its initial low sales, I suspect that we won’t be seeing the Joojoo around for much longer.
Tags: JooJoo
Companies: Fusion Garage

Social Gold takes a blast at the tyranny of Facebook Credits

2010-04-23T15:17:00.003-07:00

Facebook announced this week that it will be launching its Facebook Credits virtual currency in June so that people can spend real money on virtual goods in games and other apps on the social network.
That doesn’t sit well with other providers of virtual currency, including Jambool, which offers virtual currency on its Social Gold platform. Vikas Gupta, chief executive at Jambool in San Francisco, wrote in a blog post that Facebook’s new currency could actually hurt the purchasing of apps. Credits are supposed to accelerate the spending of money on Facebook’s free-to-play apps. In these apps such as Zynga’s FarmVille game, players would play a game for free but use the currency to buy special items like better tractors for tending crops.
At the f8 conference, Facebook manager Deb Liu said that users will have a two-step process when they want to buy something in certain apps. A user would use a credit card or another payment means to buy Facebook Credits. Then, in games where there is a separate currency, they would have to convert the Facebook Credits into a new currency before they could actually spend it. In response to a question, Liu acknowledged that the two-step process could slow things down and possibly stop using from buying something.
“We’ve always argued that the purchase experience needs to be in-game, user friendly and above all frictionless,” Gupta wrote. “This means that the money should flow from one end of the system (user’s pocket) to the other side (the game) with least amount of friction or steps involved. We consistently see that this is what the ideal model is, and this is what drives better conversion and higher ARPU for games. This is also what users want — there is less confusion, and the users do not get disengaged from the game they are playing.”
He added, “Whenever the users have to buy one currency and then convert it to the game’s currency, the conversion is poor. However the games will always want to have their own currency. Given this, it seems Facebook has a challenge on its hands: Facebook Credits have poorer conversion and therefore lower monetization than platforms like Social Gold.”
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said that there are lots of advantages to standardizing around a single currency, allowing users to spend money in lots of apps without having to enter their credit card numbers over and over. Liu argued that Facebook Credits will be like the euro in Europe, motivating people to cross borders and spend money.
But there are lots of reasons that game publishers will have two currencies in games: Facebook Credits and their own currency specific to their own games or even a single game. One reason is that currency is often used to motivate users, with sales promotions that are specific to a game.
“Such sales and giveaways are always local to a game, as it keeps the economic impact localized to single game,” wrote Gupta. “It continues to be that currency is just as integral to the game’s dynamics as the virtual goods themselves — often even more so. Giving away control of that currency reduces the potential of your game, and limits what your game can do on the platform.”
Gupta concluded, “We continue to believe that Facebook identity — thanks to the simple and elegant Open Graph API — will be everywhere on the web. On that Open Graph, developers have two choices to monetize: a low conversion, high fee universal currency (Facebook Credits), or a high conversion, low fee platform like (Social Gold).”