VentureBeat |
- Mega Man X comes to iPhone, fans hate the result
- How Intel researchers found people want Ultrabooks for the “flow experience” (interview)
- Just Kik it: New Kik API lets you share from any app across iOS, Android
- Dragon voice recognition finally lands on Android, thanks to Swype
- Spotify who? Rhapsody hits 1M paying U.S. subscribers
- Transformer Prime tablet runs afoul of toy trademarks: Hasbro sues Asus
- Official list of SOPA supporters includes the X-Men, bible publishers & country music
- Akamai is acquiring Cotendo for $286M
- ‘Game Type’ joyfully lampoons the new Xbox Live Dashboard
- CES 2012 to be one of the biggest tech trade shows ever, with Ultrabooks and startups galore
- Sony’s next Xperia sports 4.5″ screen, 13MP camera, 4G LTE
- Mindbloom app reveals how men and women want to improve in 2012 (exclusive)
- Cloudability raises $1M, helps keep your cloud spending in check
- Skitch’s new iPad app is worthy of drawing your attention
- AMD introduces world’s fastest graphics chip with new Radeon line
- Facebook on government audit: “We could have been more transparent.”
- Scribd is disappearing word by word, page by page, thanks to SOPA
- Amazon’s “CEO” apologizes for Kindle Fire’s issues on Conan
- Move over Farmville, Gardens of Time is Facebook’s most popular game
- AOL’s media business is in trouble, says major investor
- Limited number of Cruchies Awards tickets are on sale now
- Ingk Labs rescues technology behind SwapThing to build the next eBay (exclusive)
- Unity Technologies developers will be able to publish 3D games via Adobe Flash
- Cyber-Ark gets $40M in funding to protect sensitive corporate data
- Yahoo considers selling Asian assets, continues fickle CEO search
- GMZ Energy turns heat into electricity, secures $14M in funding
- Study: Modern Warfare 2 most addictive console video game
- Star Wars: The Old Republic attracts crowds, server queues require Jedi patience
- Headset maker Jawbone raises another $40M, bringing its total to $210M raised
- Google Voice for iOS adds nifty new features, but it’s buggy (updated)
| Mega Man X comes to iPhone, fans hate the result Posted: 22 Dec 2011 09:49 AM PST
I fondly remember playing Mega Man X for SNES when I was younger and loved the challenge and attention to detail. The game introduced and let you play as Zero, Mega Man’s friend that uses an energy sword instead of an arm cannon. But as much as I want to re-live the experience, angry complaints around the web and a terrible-looking trailer (see below) are not making me download this in a hurry. Fans are angry for good reason. First off, the game functions less smoothly than the 1993 SNES version while the iPhone is capable of incredible 3D graphics. The game makes you load portions of each map you play through, with jarring black screen transitions. Those in-level loading times were never required on the SNES, so it’s inexcusable to include them on the iPhone version. The other major offense the iOS version of MMX is adding the ability to purchase upgrades like “all weapons” or “all health boosts” with real money instead of making the player unlock it by completing the game the proper way. Way to cheapen the experience even more, Capcom. A full 7-minute trailer that shows you this mess can be viewed below:
Filed under: games        
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| How Intel researchers found people want Ultrabooks for the “flow experience” (interview) Posted: 22 Dec 2011 09:00 AM PST
Intel’s research delves into ethnography, or the social science of observing people and how they behave in their everyday lives. Two of the top Intel people doing this work are David Ginsberg, who runs the Insights and Market Research Group at Intel, and Tony Salvador, senior principal engineer at Intel’s Experience Insight Lab. I caught up with Ginsberg and Salvador recently over lunch together with a few other reporters, and we asked them about the kind of research they did for Ultrabooks — a category of fast, tiny laptops that resemble the MacBook Air. Dozens of Ultrabooks will be on display at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, where Intel chief executive Paul Otellini is giving a keynote speech. Here’s what they had to say: Question: Tell us about your Ultrabook research. David Ginsberg: The Ultrabook story actually starts a little bit in the past, about a year and a half ago. My team was doing some work on how people experience this notion of performance. You ask people what matters most about their PC, and they will tell you performance. You ask them, “What does that mean,” and they will tell you speed. You ask them what brings speed and, if they have an opinion, they will tell you the CPU. Then you say, "What CPU companies do you know?" and, if they have an opinion, they will tell you Intel. We're the company they know about, the maker of the chip that provides the most value in what they're buying. But we all know in the real world that when they go to buy, there are a lot of other dynamics going on. We really wanted to take a deeper dive. Maybe they're telling us speed matters because that's the only word they know and can verbalize. But maybe there's something else going on. So we tried something different from market research surveys or focus groups. We used approaches that are based on understanding the emotional side of things. These tools were based on psychology and neuroscience, to get at the underlying emotions that we can't really get in traditional survey work; and from that, we did a big project worldwide. We learned some pretty startling things that made us start to look at things differently. We have a culture at Intel of thinking about performance, meaning speed and gigahertz and that kind of stuff. But what really came out of the study is, when people think about their highest performing computer experience, they verbalize that with the word “speed” because that's the only word they can come up with. But that's not actually what most people are thinking about. When we ask people to describe their experience, it was an experience of “flow.” It wasn’t just one thing. It was about the entire experience of using a device. It turned out to be much more about this notion of being in the zone or the moment — being in the “flow.” (Flow is the mental state in which a person is fully immersed and energized in a state of concentration).
DG: It's almost like the technology disappears and you're just one with your content, with what you're trying to do. You might have only had five minutes, but an hour goes by because you're so engrossed in what's happening. When they're talking about performance, it's that experience that they're thinking about, which is a very different notion than just amping up the speed. And so this notion arises. How do we enable flow? How do we enable this uninterrupted seamless experience? Because what happens is, as soon as the video gets jaggy or that hourglass comes up, and it pulls you out of that flow experience, you suddenly remember oh, I should be mowing the lawn, or I should be doing the dishes. It jolts you out of the experience you're having with your device. That was a big realization for us as a company, and not just from a marketing perspective but from a product perspective. We really want to enable great experiences. We have to enable this notion of flow — or, as we translated it to our engineering community, to make it a little bit easier for them to wrap their heads around, this notion of “responsiveness.” Responsiveness is a bigger part of performance than anything else. So we started talking to engineers and the PC group about how to enable some new computer experiences. This notion of flow is really at the heart of the Ultrabook. The Ultrabook obviously is a physical manifestation of the newest thin-and-light devices. But when you look at the four vectors that define the Ultrabooks from our perspective, it was more than just that. Q: What are the four vecyors that define the Ultrabooks? DG: Responsiveness was one of the key vectors. That's why you see things like instant boot-up and all the other responsiveness features built into it. Mobility without compromise was the second piece of it. People love the mobility their tablets provide for them, but there's a desire for the performance that they're used to in a traditional computer. The third vector for Ultrabooks was the design that reflects me. Obviously, thin and light plays into that. Style and the looks of these things really matter today. The fourth was security. We're seeing this desire for security and the willingness to value it and actually pay for it, which is a huge shift in the way people are thinking about computer devices. That was how we approached Ultrabook. It was really grounding how we thought about this and consumers’ needs, as opposed to just going about designing the next CPU architecture. Q: With the design of the Ultrabook, all Intel really had to do was look at Apple’s MacBook Air, right? DG: Well, that's why we say it's more than just about the thin and light. Obviously that's a key piece of it, and there's no doubt that the MacBook Air has shown how important it is; we're proud of Intel's role in the MacBook Air in helping power it. There's no doubt that thinness in general is an important thing in today's market. But things like enabling responsiveness, enabling the security — those are huge parts of what we are trying to do. Q: This research is all going on during what time period, relative to the launch of the MacBook Air? DG: This performance research was end of 2009, first half of 2010. When we did that research, which got us to the notion of flow, we weren't really thinking about four vectors. Over time, we had this notion of how flow applies to all technology devices. Whether you're talking about a smartphone or other devices , flow is important. People want the technology to fade into the background so that they can focus on what's important for them. I would argue is a truism across technology today. Q: Can you see this flow ever becoming formalized or standardized like a service level agreement for how well your technology or device works or your computer works? DG: It's actually really interesting, and I don't know that I'm the right guy to go into all of this part. But a lot of folks in both the labs and in our benchmarking groups within the company are looking at, “How do we quantify this.” You move to some base metrics that measure the experience. How can you create an experience of base metrics that would allow us to actually do that? They're doing some interesting work on that.
They actually do quantify the experiences in terms of these physical to perceived relationships. And to think about applying that then to a service level agreement for example of, I'm watching a video on my TV, remote control thing. Or I'm downloading some data or something like this, to quantify that in the context of an experience of a flow experience is a very interesting proposition. DG: And that is what some of the benchmarking folks are looking at. How you do that? We came out with this research and we were so excited about it and we went and talked to some folks in Tony's team and they were like oh, that's just perfect. TS: So they're doing it from like a physical point of view, right? We look at the flow experience from a psychological view. There's been a lot of research and brain study on flow. The science they call “brain work” has been really coming along and people are understanding more and more about how the experience really works. It turns out you can be interrupted for about a minute when you're doing some sort of writing. That’s when you are deep into it. Somebody can bother you quickly, you can answer them and go back to your work. Your brain structure is still in place to get you right back into it again. If it's more than a minute, then it takes about 20 minutes to get back into that flow. DG: What was interesting about the concept of flow is that it wasn’t meant to be applied to technology. TS: That’s right. To do the work that your team did in this case sort of questioned what does performance mean. From that point of view, it was really interesting work for the company as a whole. Q: You can apply that to video games as well. Jane McGonigal talks about that in her book, Reality is Broken. TS: They do apply the theory of flow to games, but I think that's one of the things that happen in games is people get into the flow experience. It turns out that flow when you look at it this way is actually this edge between order and anxiety. It's that knife-edge and so when you're working on something that is right at the edge of your capabilities, or you're still able to do it but it doesn't go off into the really high anxiety mode of, "I don't know what to do. I can't do it." That's the edge where people were just sort of totally engaged in games and they can’t stop playing. On technology and flow, we heard this coming out of the work we did with real people. It's like when you're giving a great presentation. You're giving like the hardest presentation of your life and people are shooting questions at you and you're just answering them left or right without having to stop and think. It just all flows. Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| Just Kik it: New Kik API lets you share from any app across iOS, Android Posted: 22 Dec 2011 09:00 AM PST
Kik, maker of a popular mobile messaging app, aims to change that with its new API, which allows developers to quickly implement mobile content sharing within their apps to any of Kik’s 6 million registered users. The API also lets you refer friends to a specific point in apps. For example, it could be used to point friends to a specific song you discovered on Shazam’s app. Even better, the API is platform agnostic, allowing you to share between iOS and Android devices seamlessly. Kik’s app launched last year and saw explosive growth from users who were hungry for a fast messaging alternative to texting. The company now sees 500 million messages a month across its mobile apps, CEO Ted Livingston told VentureBeat in an interview yesterday. Kik’s chat volume has been doubling every quarter. Kik is also launching a new “Apps that Kik” section of its app to promote apps using its API. "Part of what has made Kik Messenger such a success has been connecting people anywhere while keeping the app experience very fast and easy to use," Livingston said in a statement today. "The launch of the API and the addition of the Apps That Kik discovery service provide an insanely simple solution to drive app adoption for developers." As Livingston explained it, developers need to add only five lines of code to implement the Kik API. When a user chooses to share something via Kik, the third-party app opens the Kik app on their phone to complete the message. Kik is launching the API today with several companies, including Smiler and FileKicker. To take advantage of the feature, you’ll need to download the latest Kik apps on iOS and Android, which also went live today.
Filed under: dev, mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Dragon voice recognition finally lands on Android, thanks to Swype Posted: 22 Dec 2011 08:30 AM PST
Swype’s software keyboard lets you swipe to type text, instead of hunting and pecking virtual keys. With its latest update, Swype has replaced Google’s built-in voice recognition for Nuance’s Dragon Dictate technology, which currently supports English, Spanish, Italian, German, and French. Given that Dragon is the result of years voice recognition by Nuance, it will likely be far more accurate than Google’s solution. Dragon also powers the dictation capabilities in Apple’s Siri virtual assistant, which means that by installing Swype, Android users will have dictation capabilities similar to the iPhone 4S. (In my experience, Siri’s dictation has consistently been more accurate than Google’s.) Aside from Dragon integration, the latest Swype version also lets you install new keyboard languages from inside its keyboard preferences. It also offers a better language modeling algorithm, which supposedly lets Swype better understand common phrases. Earlier this week, Nuance announced that it will acquire its voice recognition competitor Vlingo, which could lead to some massive improvements in its dictation software down the line. The updated app is available to all Swype users currently from within the app’s preference panel. You may already have Swype installed on your Android phone without even knowing it, but if not, you can download the Swype Beta software.
Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Spotify who? Rhapsody hits 1M paying U.S. subscribers Posted: 22 Dec 2011 08:26 AM PST
Rhapsody has been around for 10 years, but it is now fighting fiercely with newer competitors like Spotify, MOG and Rdio. Spotify in particular has been agressive and recently announced it now has 2.5 million subscribers. However, don’t let that number fool you, as Spotify is actually in 13 countries while Rhapsody is only available in U.S. In its 10 years, Rhapsody has evolved quite a bit, with better designs and a constantly growing catalogue that now has 13 million tracks. But 2011 is the company’s biggest year, with the 1 million subscriber mark, a small indie rock music festival in Austin, a Windows Phone 7 app launch, integration with Facebook Music and most importantly, the acquisition of small-time rival Napster from Best Buy. “We’ve accomplished quite a bit over the past decade, so it’s no small statement to say that 2011 was probably our biggest year yet,” said Rhapsody president Jon Irwin, in a statement. “I told our team that when we topped one million paid subscribers, I’d shave my head… it was probably the best free haircut I’ve ever had.” Rhapsody is now streaming more than 10 million songs a day and is available across more than 60 devices, including PCs, Macs, smartphones, iPod touches, smart TVs and old-school MP3 players. Next on the company’s docket is finding more devices and expanding where you can listen to streaming music. “The next frontiers for subscription music are the living room and the car,” said Irwin. “Consumers will be able to enjoy Rhapsody from even more connected audio and video systems, as well as other platforms and distribution channels-at home, in the car and everywhere in-between, domestically and abroad.” Filed under: media        
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| Transformer Prime tablet runs afoul of toy trademarks: Hasbro sues Asus Posted: 22 Dec 2011 08:04 AM PST
Toy maker Hasbro is taking gadget maker Asus to court for trademark violation. As far as Hasbro is concerned, Asus’ preferred nomenclature comes too close for comfort to the company’s toy and entertainment franchise — especially its trademark-pending 2010 series, Transformers Prime. Altogether, Hasbro is claiming the infringement of five trademarks in this suit. "Hasbro continues to aggressively protect its brands and products,” Habro wrote in an emailed statement. “The specific actions we are taking today against Asus underscores yet again Hasbro's willingness to pursue companies who misappropriate our intellectual property for their own financial gain.” The highly anticipated Asus tablet is a 10.1-inch unit running Android 4.0, a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s a third of an inch thick, weighs around 1.3 pounds and comes with a mobile dock featuring a full-size QWERTY keyboard and touchpad, hence the “Transformer” nomenclature. Because the Tranformer Prime (or whatever it’s going to be called once the legal dust settles) is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 3, the first-ever quad-core processor for mobile devices, Asus and Nvidia are telling consumers the tablet will deliver lightning-fast apps, gorgeous video, responsive gaming and an extra-long battery life — up to 18 hours, in fact. The tablet also features an 8MP rear-facing camera and a 1.2MP front-facing camera. Here’s a demo showing the gadget in action: For most adults in their tablet-buying years, it’s almost impossible to hear the name “Transformer Prime” and not immediately think of Transformers — the toys, the cartoons, the live-action movies, the comic books, etc. And if your childhood (and young adulthood) was anything like mine, it’s impossible not to think about Transformers and be filled with a subtle and inexplicable feeling of giddiness. Asus might have been making a clever allusion to a pop culture (and nerd culture) icon, but they’re also cashing in on something Hasbro has worked for decades to build: positive brand associations on a subliminal level. We’ve contacted Hasbro for more specific information on the lawsuit and hoped-for outcomes and will update you as more information becomes available. Filed under: mobile        
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| Official list of SOPA supporters includes the X-Men, bible publishers & country music Posted: 22 Dec 2011 08:00 AM PST
The U.S. House judiciary committee responsible for the Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA) has released a list of companies (PDF) that have publicly expressed their support for the legislation. SOPA gives both the U.S. government and copyright holders the authority to seek court orders against websites associated with infringing, pirating and/or counterfeiting intellectual property. The implication of having the bill pass is that it could drastically change the way the Internet operates. For example, if a website is accused of containing copyright-infringing content (such as a song, picture or video clip) the site could be blocked by ISPs, de-indexed from search engines and even prevented from doing business with companies like PayPal. Rather than uphold the potential law fairly, many expect media companies to file court orders against any piece of content that gets in the way of its own licensed properties — thus giving it an advantage over anyone that isn’t a huge business with a legal department. As we previously noted, SOPA is likely to have a negative effect on business and innovation if it’s signed into law. However, as the judiciary committee’s list shows, some actually agree with SOPA. The list contains 142 companies and organizations that publicly support the act. The list is dominated by music labels, book publishers, television networks and movie studios. And since the majority of funding for SOPA support is coming from media and publishing companies, this isn’t very surprising. One thing I found interesting about the list was the number of pro-SOPA companies based in my native city of Nashville, Tenn. (a.k.a. “Music City”). Of the 20 businesses I identified, most of them were affiliated with country music, Christian music or religious book (bibles) publishing companies. It’s worth noting that earlier this year lobbyist groups based in Nashville helped urge lawmakers to pass a new state law making it illegal to share your streaming music or video subscription account, punishable with jail time and thousands of dollars in fines. The list of SOPA supporters also includes Disney-owned Marvel Entertainment, which is responsible for producing comic book/film super-hero properties like Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Iron Man and several others. (On a semi-related note, I’m uncertain if this development turns Marvel’s classic do-gooders into unintentional super-villains.) The list also includes some companies that have little to do with digital copyright licensing and piracy. Makeup and accessory companies like Estée Lauder, L’Oreal and Revlon are all included on the list as well as pharmaceutical company Pfizer and jewelry company Tiffany & Co. Online communities, such as Reddit, are taking advantage of the judicial committee’s official list of SOPA supporters by encouraging people to contact each company to voice their disapproval. If you wrote a letter to one of the a pro-SOPA companies on the list, copy and paste it into our comment section below. [John Rich image via Warner Music Nashville; Wolverine via Twentieth Century Fox/ Marvel] Filed under: media, VentureBeat        
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| Akamai is acquiring Cotendo for $286M Posted: 22 Dec 2011 07:33 AM PST
Akamai will purchase all of Cotendo’s outstanding equity for a net cash payment of $268 million. Pending regulatory approval and other typical acquisition conditions, the deal is expected to close sometime over the next six months. In a release today, the companies stated that they expect their combined technologies, which each have a lot to do with safely and securely delivering content and application packages in the cloud, to accelerate innovation in cloud and mobile services. “As we look to accelerate growth across the dynamic landscapes of cloud and mobile optimization, we are excited to be joining forces with Cotendo,” said Akamai presidents and CEO Paul Sagan in a statement. “Cotendo’s technology, partnerships and people are a strong complement to Akamai. Together, we believe there is tremendous opportunity for our combined technologies as enterprises embrace the move to the cloud and seek solutions for an increasingly mobile world.” Contendo was founded just three years ago in Silicon Valley. The company also has a tech center in Israel. Half of its 100 employees are working in Israel currently. Overall, Cotendo has taken $36 million in institutional funding, starting with a $7 million Series A from Sequoia Capital in the very beginning of 2008 and concluding with a $17 million fourth round last June with funding from Sequoia, Banchmark and a few others. The startup’s single-platform software includes acceleration services for web apps, static and dynamic web content, SSL, Advanced DNS, Adaptive Image Compression, performance monitoring and automatic failover. Cotendo also offers real-time reports and analytics and a distributed cloud application environment called Cloudlet for decision-making at the edge, close to the end users. Akamai was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company provides services to help its client companies, such as Adobe, efficiently deliver web-based content, such as software download packages, to users. “The Cotendo team is very proud of our accomplishments,” said Cotendo CEO and co-founder Ronni Zehavi. “By combining our innovative technology and employees with Akamai, we expect our customers and partners will gain access to a comprehensive, global platform and wider portfolio of leading-edge services supported by some of the most experienced providers in the industry.” Filed under: cloud, deals        
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| ‘Game Type’ joyfully lampoons the new Xbox Live Dashboard Posted: 22 Dec 2011 07:14 AM PST
We recently reported on the discontent of many indie developers with the new Xbox Live dashboard . The main complaint was that Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) are now so well hidden on the new dashboard, that they can easily be missed. Weapon of Choice developer Mommy's Best Games has run with this theme, basing an entire XBLIG game around the advertising-heavy new look dash. The game’s title, 'Game Type', is also the moniker of the dashboard tile that Xbox users need to select, in order to find and download indie games on their console. The game itself is split into two parts. The first part involves actually finding your way to the game through an ad-ridden spoof console dashboard. The main game then starts up, revealing a side scrolling shooter, in which the dashboard adverts have come to life and need to be shot down. The lead character in the game is 'hoodie girl', described as the "idiotic stock photo" that Microsoft decided to assign to the 'Game Type' dashboard tile. With tongue firmly in cheek, Nathan Foults of Mommy's Best Games says "I’ve been thrilled Microsoft created the special dashboard tile just for our game.” He continues “with the incongruous stock photo of a woman in a hoodie doing a jump-kick, and the forgettable ‘Game Type’ title, it’s good to know Microsoft was advertising our poorly-named game, and not trying to label the console’s entire digital game storefront. Otherwise, it’d be a horrible match that would simply make no sense and generally lead fewer gamers to find the store and browse on their own terms." Hidden in the first part of the game is a wall of text which describes the motivation behind the game: “The Xbox 360 menu system (or dashboard) controls how gamers find digital games on this console. The Fall 2011 update to the dashboard relegated the main path to browse all new digital games – Arcade, Indie, and Games on Demand – to a single, ill-named tile. This tile is called "Game Type". Between the terrible name and the absurd picture, it seemed no one really thought too hard about the game portal. In addition, TV and Movies are first on the menu. Bothered (and subsequently inspired) by this, I made Game Type." Despite the humorous nature of this protest, there is a real concern from many indie developers that their titles are being brushed to the side. Microsoft has stated that it is listening to feedback from developers, and is taking it into account for future programs. In the meantime, it is good to see that satire is alive and well on the XBLIG channel, whose content is not controlled directly by Microsoft, but rather by peer review. Game Type is available to buy for 80 Microsoft points. If you can find it. Filed under: games, VentureBeat        
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| CES 2012 to be one of the biggest tech trade shows ever, with Ultrabooks and startups galore Posted: 22 Dec 2011 07:00 AM PST
Putting recession fears behind it, the Consumer Electronics Show coming in January looks like it’s going to be one of the biggest in history. The biggest U.S. tech trade show (officially called the 2012 International CES) will draw an estimated 149,000 attendees to Las Vegas this year, about the same number as attended in January 2011 and not far from the record of 152,000 set in 2006. The big deal will be the Ultrabook, a full-fledged thin computer that turns on instantly.
The show will likely have more than 2,700 exhibitors occupying more than 1.8 million square feet of exhibit space, Oxman said. That suggests that the high-tech economy is doing better than it was a year ago and it is more confident about its ability to sell the gadgets and services that will be on display at the show. CES is a barometer of the tech ecosystem, from startups to big retailers. “It’s looking very very good,” Oxman said in an interview. “We are just thrilled at the level of excitement and engagement of exhibitors. They are felling good about economic recovery and the interest among consumers in buying consumer electronics. It’s our second-biggest show in history and we are still selling space.” This year's show takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center and other venues from Jan 9 to 13, with a press day starting Jan. 8. Oxman said that this year’s show is just shy of the record 1.85 million square feet booked in 2008, but he said the show continues to book new exhibitors. In the past five years, the biggest attendance number was 152,203 in 2006, while the biggest exhibit space was 1.86 million square feet in January 2008.
“That’s the highest level in the history of the survey,” he said. Overall, consumers are expected to spend $190 billion on consumer electronics in 2011, up 5.6 percent from a year ago. This year, there will be more diversity than ever. ESPN is going to stage a major boxing match in the middle of the Central Hall show floor and then broadcast it in 3D. Oxman said, “The joke is that the show floor is already like a boxing match. This is a sanctioned one.” Content companies are competing for the same space on the floor as hardware and software companies, Oxman said. While the crowds are huge, the big selling point of CES — which dates back to 1967 — is that attendees stage a dozen meetings on average at the show, eliminating the need for travel later in the year. As for trends, Oxman said that the iLounge, which is home to Apple-related peripherals, has grown huge this year and its space is sold out. Three years ago, the iLounge was 4,000 square feet, and now it has grown to 85,000. Apple itself doesn’t exhibit at CES. One of the interesting new sections is Eureka Park, which is a brand new exhibit area for startups at the Venetian Hotel. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the White House’s Startup America Partnership, the section will be home to at least 94 startups with cool new products. “This is the first time we are putting such a spotlight on early stage companies,” Oxman said. Last year, big trends included connected TVs, 3D TVs, motion-control systems such as Microsoft’s Kinect for the Xbox 360, which went on to have the No.-1-selling consumer electronics launch of all time. Oxman expects all sorts of sensors to be much more widespread this year, since sensors are so inexpensive. Oxman said he was reminded of a story about a toddler who swipes a TV screen because he was so used to playing with touchscreens. TVs with a resolution of 4K, much higher quality than high-definition TVs with 1080p screens. Those TVs will come loaded with App Stores and the ability to run apps, much like smartphones and tablets, Oxman said. In the past few years, Las Vegas has added 10,000 hotel rooms, helping to ease the crunch that happens every year with CES. Keynote speakers include Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who kicks off the official show on the evening of January 9. That will be Ballmer’s last keynote, as Microsoft isn’t going to hold the opening keynote slot in 2013, nor will it have a booth. Oxman said that Microsoft pulled out of the opening keynote slot by “mutual agreement.” Date Square Ftg Attendance Exhibitors [Photos from last year's show by VentureBeat] Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| Sony’s next Xperia sports 4.5″ screen, 13MP camera, 4G LTE Posted: 22 Dec 2011 06:57 AM PST
The phone, currently referred to as the Sony Ericsson LT28at (expect a better name soon), will feature one of the most powerful smartphone cameras on the market, clocking in at 13 megapixels, reports the Xperia Blog. (Pictured right, an existing Xperia model.) Its other specs are no joke: the LT28at is said to feature a massive 4.55-inch screen (a tenth of an inch smaller than the Galaxy Nexus) with a 720p high-definition resolution, 4G LTE support, and a 720p front-facing camera for video conferencing. The specs are a sign that next year’s round of Android smartphones will be all about big, high-resolution screens and excellent cameras, a standard set by the Galaxy Nexus. The LT28at will likely be one of the last major releases to sport the Sony Ericsson brand. Sony recently announced that it has bought out Ericsson’s share in their joint phone venture, and that it will be killing off the brand in 2012. Expect Sony to work hard over the next year to make up for the progress lost by Sony Ericsson, which took too long to develop a competitor to the iPhone. The phone is said to be heading to AT&T later next year. We expect some sort of announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Below, check out some sample photos from the LT28at’s camera from Picasaweb. Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Mindbloom app reveals how men and women want to improve in 2012 (exclusive) Posted: 22 Dec 2011 06:00 AM PST
Some 36,000 people have played the game and it helped them follow through on 1.2 million commitments that they have made to improve their lives. The results of the game play have yielded some interesting data about how men and women want to improve. Seattle-based Mindbloom found that younger folks are four times more likely to embrace healthcare gamification — a game that encourages better health — over baby boomers. Nearly 65 percent of its users are young adults ages 18 to 35. "These young adults are the first digital generation, and they have a growing appetite to apply interactive entertainment for everything from health and fitness to spirituality,” said Mindbloom founder Chris Hewett, a former game developer. Mindbloom seeks to integrate gaming technology, art, and human psychology to make personal growth more effective. The company’s Bloom* app launched on the iTunes App Store has been downloaded more than 175,000 times. About 52 percent of Mindbloom’s players are men, with 85 percent of all users under the age of 44. About 80 percent of the users have focused on their health as their No. 1 life priority by doing simple things like drinking more water, getting more sleep, and walking more. Relationship-focused commitments included call parents, spending time with close friends, or saying “I love you” followed health-related activities with about 70 percent interest from both sexes. Women, however, focused more on lifestyle, creativity, career and finances — in order of importance. Men focused first on career, lifestyle, finances, and creativity. About 70 percent of men used Mindbloom to support career goals, while 58 percent of women did. Both wanted to limit complaining and negativity at work, but men were more interested in expanding a professional network. Both sexes listed spirituality as their area of least interest, but women were more likely to use Mindbloom to encourage prayer or journaliing in their lives. For 2012, New Year’s resolutions are focusing on health, particularly among women. Filed under: games, mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Cloudability raises $1M, helps keep your cloud spending in check Posted: 22 Dec 2011 05:00 AM PST
Cloudability, a company that helps people manage cloud services spending, has secured $1 million in its latest investment round. This seed investment round was led by Trinity Ventures and Walden VC, including $250,000 in funding from Portland-based angel investors. In November, Cloudability launched its beta service to help companies become more efficient with their cloud spending. "We are focused on three main tasks: preventing big overages, saving time, and identifying areas of [spending] waste," chief operating officer J.R. Storment said in an interview with VentureBeat. Cloudability's beta service gives its customers a clean and simple dashboard that shows their daily cloud spending and gives advice on how to spend their money efficiently. Customers also get daily emails (shown right) so they can track their spending on the go. Cloudability will also alert you to overages or unusual account activity, which can prevent massive bills. In one case, Cloudability helped a video streaming service find a security flaw and avoid overage costs when spammers uploaded over 24 terabytes of video to its servers. The service supports more than 80 cloud service providers including Amazon Web Service, Salesforce and Rackspace and customers can use the dashboard to manage spending from multiple services. Cloudability's beta is free for companies that spend up to $2,500 per month on cloud services. For higher levels of spending, services start at $49 per month. "In the short term with the money, we will hire more engineers to grow our team considerably," said Storment. "We will also plan to integrate a lot more services and give customers a snapshot of all of their services, from domain purchases to CRM management. We are going much wider in our reach of services and rolling out tools that will give actionable advice to customers so they can save money." With this latest $1 million round, Cloudability plans to expand its team and continue to develop its platform to keep up with a growing demand of its services. In 2012 it plans to roll out new services that help companies manage not only their cloud spending, but internal spending as well. Since its beta launch in November 2011, Cloudability has signed up more than 1,078 active customers and now manages over $21 million in cloud spending. In 2012 it plans introduce an official release of Cloudability and add more services to help customers reduce waste in their business spending. Cloudability was founded in 2011 by Mat Ellis, J.R. Storment and Jon Frisby. It currently employees seven people at its headquarters in Portland, Oregon. The company is backed by Trinity Ventures, Walden VC, and a group of angel investors based in Portland. Filed under: deals, VentureBeat        
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| Skitch’s new iPad app is worthy of drawing your attention Posted: 22 Dec 2011 03:00 AM PST
Skitch previously launched a premium Android application that coincided with the company’s sale to note taking service Evernote in August. “We built our iOS version of Skitch first for iPad because it's the ideal form factor for tactile annotation,” Evernote VP of Marketing Andrew Sinkov wrote in a blog post. And having spent time playing around with Skitch on my iPad (as shown in the picture of my birthday cake to the right), I have to agree with Sinkov’s statement. I can see this app quickly becoming an invaluable tool for anyone who holds lots of meetings or conducts many hands on demonstrations. Much like the web version, the Skitch iPad app has a basic set of annotation tools, including an arrow tool, a paint brush (for scribbling/drawing), a text box tool, a shapes tool (ovals, rectangles & lines), a crop tool and a cursor tool (to move the annotated parts around the image). There are, however, a few missing features in the iPad version that probably didn’t make sense for a touch screen interface. For instance, the app doesn’t have a tool for erasing, so you’ll have to select and delete anything you mess up on. Also missing is the paint bucket tool, the ability to change the font style in text boxes and fewer color options. The app gives you plenty of options when it comes to importing an image into Skitch. You can pull up photos from your iPad’s albums, snap a new picture with the iPad camera (iPad 2 only), take a screenshot of another app running in the background or just scribble on a blank canvas. You can also take screenshots of a specific web page or a custom map. Any image you’ve altered is then stored on the app’s home screen. While there are a handful of apps similar to Skitch (like Whiteboard and Bamboo Paper), none of them can offer the full range of Evernote integration. But even if you don’t have an Evernote account, the app still offers plenty of sharing options, including the Apple TV’s mirroring feature. Check out the demo video embedded below for a hands on look at the app. Filed under: cloud, mobile, social, VentureBeat        
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| AMD introduces world’s fastest graphics chip with new Radeon line Posted: 21 Dec 2011 09:00 PM PST
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip maker said the code-named Southern Islands chips use a revolutionary new architecture that the company has been working on for five or six years. Dubbed “Graphics Core Next,” the architecture takes AMD’s graphics chips into the 28-nanometer generation of chip manufacturing process. That process enables AMD to put 4.3 billion transistors, or basic computing components, on a single chip. This kind of announcement makes PC gamers salivate. If you take a game like Battlefield 3 and play it on a computer with three monitors, you will get a smoother experience than previous generation of graphics chips, said Devon Nekechuk, product manager at AMD, in a press briefing. He said that the chip runs about 30 percent faster on the 3D Mark 11 Extreme benchmark test compared to Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580 graphics chip. Gamers still want these kinds of chips, as do consumers who use big displays or multiple displays for high-end PC work. The chips will feed the $15 billion PC gaming ecosystem, which needs better hardware to run high-end games like Battlefield 3. The graphics chip family will be known as the AMD Radeon HD 7900 series of chips and it will include the AMD Radeon HD 7970, the first coming to the market on Jan. 9. The chip has 2,048 stream processors based on the Graphics Core Next architecture. It can support as many as six monitors at the same time and can use 3 gigabytes of graphics memory, dubbed 3GB GDDR5/384-bit. It consumes about 300 watts, though will operate on a lot less than that. Still, it is enough to require an improved fan design and a sophisticated heat sink to cool off the chip during operation. At a static level, the 7970 will consume 15 watts of power. AMD says the boards being launched with the graphics chips can be overclocked, or turned up beyond specifications, to over 1 gigahertz operation. “There is a lot of overclocking headroom on this chip,” said Nekechuk. “The enthusiasts will really appreciate that.” The family has three versions coming in the near future. The Tahiti (under the Southern Islands code name umbrella) is going to be called the AMD Radeon HD 7970 and it will be the world’s fastest graphics chip. Other lesser chips include Pitcairn and Cape Verde. The new graphics cards (pictured at top) using the chip have a “long idle” feature that allows them to turn off power when the display is not in use. The new chip also supports Digital Discrete Multipoint, (DDM), an audio feature that embeds surround sound into each display when you are using as many as six displays. That makes for better surround sound capability. It will be interesting to see if Nvidia, which has a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show, can match AMD’s performance anytime soon. AMD said about 600 gaming titles support the graphics chip. Each Tahiti chip has 32 Graphics Core Next cores. Filed under: games        
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| Facebook on government audit: “We could have been more transparent.” Posted: 21 Dec 2011 06:16 PM PST
While the company said the Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) commended its security measures, its lack of user-tracking software and its real-names-only policy, the DPC also noted a few areas where improvement was needed — and Facebook agreed. For facial recognition features in Tag Suggest, which surprised many users with its seeming knowledge of faces in photos of all kinds, Facebook said the feature “could have been done in a more transparent fashion.” Overall, though, the DPC didn’t hand Facebook a wrist-slap of any kind, as the company and its business practices were found to be fully compliant with Irish law. (Facebook’s international headquarters is based in Ireland.) However, the DPC did ask Facebook to make some improvements in the areas of advertising, third-party apps and the Friend Finder. Facebook stated today that it would be working on those recommendations in a few explicit ways. First, the company said it would start offering additional notifications to European users to clarify the function of the Tag Suggest feature and decide whether or not to let their own images receive the Tag Suggest/facial recognition treatment. Facebook will also be changing some of its data retention and deletion practices and will be collecting less information about people when they’re not logged in to Facebook. Finally, Facebook said it would be giving users more and better information about how to control their personal data on Facebook and in Facebook-linked apps. “The DPC's review of our existing operations highlighted several opportunities to strengthen our existing practices,” wrote Facebook director of public policy Richard Allan today on the company blog. “Facebook has committed to either implement or to consider other best-practice improvements recommended by the DPC, even in situations where our practices already comply with legal requirements.” Facebook will undergo a follow-up review with the DPC in six months. “This audit was the most comprehensive and detailed ever undertaken by our office,” said commissioner Gary Davis to PCMag. The DPC is asking Facebook to take the following steps or institute the following features or practices:
Image courtesy of Jolie O’Dell. Filed under: social        
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| Scribd is disappearing word by word, page by page, thanks to SOPA Posted: 21 Dec 2011 05:50 PM PST
At least, that’s what could happen if certain bills make their way to congressional approval. Scribd is a popular online publishing tool, and to make a point about SOPA, it’s voluntarily removing its documents from the Internet and urging users to put a stop to this legislation. SOPA, the Stop Online Privacy Act, and PIPA (Protect IP Act), its sister bill, have come under heavy fire from Internet companies, and for good reason. If so much as a single document was posted to Scribd and the end user who posted it didn’t hold the copyright, the entire Scribd network might be taken down. Not only would those sites be blocked by ISPs; they would also be de-indexed from search engines and prevented from doing business with companies such as Paypal. “With this legislation in place, entire domains like Scribd could simply vanish from the web,” said Jared Friedman, Scribd’s CTO and co-founder, in a release today. “That’s why we’re showing our users just what SOPA and PIPA could do to Scribd and other sites. These bills aren’t just dry acronyms; they’re a direct attack on the underpinnings of the web.” As a demonstration of what could happen if either SOPA or PIPA gets a go-ahead from the government, readers visiting Scribd will watch documents — more than a billion pages containing nearly half a trillion words — vanish right before their eyes. A dialog will then appear to alert readers to the protest and the bills and will provide links to more information. While SOPA and PIPA are targeted at stopping piracy and the sale of counterfeit goods online, they also put a lot of relatively innocent bystanders in the line of fire, especially user-generated-content sites like Scribd and Wikipedia. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has also taken a similarly strong stance against SOPA, calling for a blackout of Wikipedia to protest the bill. So far, almost 90 percent of voting Wikipedians support the protest. Scribd and Wikipedia aren’t the only ones up in arms; a huge list of Internet progenitors petitioned lawmakers to put a stop to SOPA in an open letter. Vint Cerf, Esther Dyson, Jim Gettys and a score or two of various luminaries and web inventors wrote, “these bills will create an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure.” To contact the congressional representatives responsible for SOPA, check out the resources available at AmericanCensorship.org. Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| Amazon’s “CEO” apologizes for Kindle Fire’s issues on Conan Posted: 21 Dec 2011 05:31 PM PST In this clip from Conan O’Brien’s late night show, “Jeff Bezos” takes a moment to apologize for the Kindle Fire’s poor performance and idiosyncratic touchscreen. In classic tech founder fashion, he bills the bugs as features and offers a few nonsensical fixes. Of course, this isn’t Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos but an actor. However, the Kindle Fire’s performance issues are all too real. Amazon did issue an over-the-air update today to squash those pesky bugs. "This update enhances fluidity and performance, improves touch navigation responsiveness, gives you the option to choose which items display on the carousel and adds the ability to set a password lock on Wi-Fi access," Amazon stated in a note on the new release. Bugs or no bugs, the Fire is selling like hotcakes. Since holiday shopping started, Amazon has been selling around one million Kindle units each week, and the company stated last month that its Black Friday shopping numbers had quadrupled year over year for all Kindles. Nevertheless, Conan seems to think the iPad 2 is the better, less bug-ridden bet. Filed under: media, offBeat        
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| Move over Farmville, Gardens of Time is Facebook’s most popular game Posted: 21 Dec 2011 05:02 PM PST
The hidden object game beat out Electronic Arts’ The Sims Social and Zynga’s Cityville for the title of the most popular game of 2011, Facebook revealed Wednesday. In Gardens of Time, players sign up for the Time Society, a group of time-traveling detectives whose duty is to explore hidden object scenes of the past without disrupting the flow of history. As players find objects, they earn coins and collect artifacts to personalize their own gardens. If you missed this garden phenomena, consider yourself one fortunate survivor. The Disney Playdom game is so addictive that it has already served up more than 5 billion hidden object game sessions since its April launch. And while Zynga, the newly public social game maker that the market is iffy about, didn’t win the top prize, it did get four titles on the top 10 list. Cityville ranked third for the year, Indiana Jones Adventure World nabbed fifth place, Words With Friends followed closely behind it in the sixth spot and Empires & Allies took home an honorable mention as the eighth most popular Facebook game of the year. Farmville, however, is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Facebook appears to be on its way to becoming the gaming console of the future. Not convinced? Consider that more than 25 percent of Facebook gamers play games at least every other day. And chew on this: The average Facebook gamer plays games on over 50 percent of the days they visit the social network, and plays over three different gaming titles each month. Healthy or not, these social media socialites are also serious gamers. Still curious about how Facebookers are wasting, ahem spending, their time? Here are the social network’s most popular games of the year, broken out by category:
Filed under: games, social, VentureBeat        
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| AOL’s media business is in trouble, says major investor Posted: 21 Dec 2011 04:18 PM PST
Over the past few years, AOL has attempted to shift away from its roots as a dial-up internet service provider in favor growing its media and advertising business. The company has also made a number of high-profile acquisitions since 2009, including the $25 million purchase of TechCrunch and the $315 million purchase of The Huffington Post. Starboard wrote a nine-page letter to Armstrong recently, which points out AOL’s $500 million annual losses and 70 percent decline in stock price in 2011. Starboard also states that AOL’s current market cap of $1.4 billion doesn’t include any of its media properties — implying that those media properties (TechCrunch, Huff Post) hold little or no value. The company’s overall value essentially depends on its dial-up business. The investment firm specifically goes after AOL’s local reporting initiative Patch, which it predicts will operate at a loss of up to $150 million in 2011. “This valuation discrepancy is primarily due to the company's massive operating losses in its display business, as well as continued concern over further acquisitions and investments into money-losing growth initiatives like Patch," Starboard wrote in the letter, which was obtained by BusinessInsider earlier today. “We believe the current market price of AOL fails to reflect the substantial value of the sum-of-its-parts. Shareholders have clearly given up hope that the massive investment in the display business, and most dramatically in Patch, will generate an acceptable return on investment.” Starboard, which describes itself as an investment management firm that seeks to invest in undervalued and under-performing public companies, has a 4.5 percent stake in AOL. Obviously, it wants AOL to turn around, but it certainly isn’t pulling any punches. As BetaBeat points out, Starboard could also be positioning itself to sit on AOL’s board of directors, which has eight spots up for reelection in February 2012. AOL issued a formal response to Starboard’s letter, which basically translates to uh-uh. The company writes:
Filed under: media, VentureBeat        
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| Limited number of Cruchies Awards tickets are on sale now Posted: 21 Dec 2011 04:16 PM PST
That's right, you can now buy the second, extremely limited batch of tickets to the 5th Annual Crunchies Awards, which recognize and celebrate the most compelling startups of the year. This year’s event is coming up January 31, 2012. The first batch of tickets sold out right away, so act fast if you want to nab one of the remaining 250 tickets and attend! The Crunchies have been co-hosted by TechCrunch, GigaOm and VentureBeat every year since their inception in 2007. This year, the awards will be held in glamorous Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, CA. So dust off your top hats, get your tickets here, and join us at this annual celebration of startups and technology. Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| Ingk Labs rescues technology behind SwapThing to build the next eBay (exclusive) Posted: 21 Dec 2011 04:04 PM PST
Proving that one man’s trash is another’s treasure, New York-based incubator Ingk Labs has salvaged an e-commerce patent gem from a defunct startup. It hopes to use that second-hand technology to corner the online-bartering market and take on eBay and Amazon. Ingk Labs rescues undervalued intellectual property (IP) from dying startups, and then brings its IP buys back to life as new companies. Today, it has resurrected the technology behind SwapThing, a now obsolete site for multi-user online exchanges. The accelerator has acquired SwapThing’s IP for an undisclosed sum and will fold it into Barterpop, an Ingk Labs company slated for early 2012 launch. Barterpop will allow consumers and businesses to exchange goods and services in multi-party trades. The motivation, Ingk Labs CEO Craig Alberino told VentureBeat in an exclusive interview, was to acquire a seminal patent in the barter space and protect Barterpop, a SwapThing competitor that Alberino hopes will grow to compete with the likes of Amazon and eBay. The patent in question, Alberino explained, covers the process of multilateral online exchanges, and has already weathered numerous IP challenges. What does that mean, exactly? Say that you want a laptop and you have two items to barter with, and Dylan is willing to trade his laptop but doesn’t want your items. Barterpop, using the acquired IP, will play matchmaker and link you, Dylan and Heather, another barterer with items to satisfy you both, to create the perfect three-way swap. The experience will also enable retailers to insert themselves in between two consumers to complete a three-way trade.
The market opportunity for a barter site is on the rise, Alberino argued, even though he admitted that people before him, dating back to the early 2000s, have tried and failed to create a home-run swap site. “Barter is up in a down economy that has left many short on cash but rich in talent and treasures,” he said. Ingk Labs has lined up investors to support the Barterpop venture and believes it now owns the technology and the IP to dominate the field. The logic goes that if Amazon or eBay were to enter the swapping market, and Alberino is confident they will, the companies would be forced to license Barterpop’s technology. In addition to Barterpop, Ingk Labs will launch 11 more new companies in 2012 — three of them already have funding — by applying its dumpster-dive-like approach to IP rescue and acceleration. Ingk Labs was founded in 2006, though the company has only focused its attentions on IP rescue in the past year. SwapThing founder Jessica Hardwick will join Ingk Labs in an advisory role as part of the IP acquisition deal.
Image via Keoni Cabral/Flickr Filed under: deals, social, VentureBeat        
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| Unity Technologies developers will be able to publish 3D games via Adobe Flash Posted: 21 Dec 2011 04:00 PM PST
Unity is beginning the open beta test for its Unity 3.5 game development engine. Since Adobe published its Flash Player 11 in October, Flash games are able to run 3D graphics and take advantage of 3D hardware in a user’s computer. That, in turn, makes it possible to run 3D games created with Unity’s 3D game engine tools and distribute them to the wider web via a Flash add-on. For developers, this means that they will be able to get high-quality Unity-based 3D games out to a larger mass market, since Flash is present in more than 90 percent of user computers. For consumers, it could mean much better experience when it comes to playing 3D games on the web. “We are finally delivering on 3D for everyone,” said David Helgason, chief executive of San Francisco-based Unity, in an interview. “Flash is the last major platform for us, and the biggest one of all. It’s amazing. We think 3D content will burst out on the internet.” To encourage developers to port their Unity games to Flash, Unity Technologies is holding a contest with a $20,000 prize. Helgason said that it took months of engineering work to make Unity compatible with Adobe’s Stage3D web technology, which enables Flash to make use of 3D hardware in a user’s computer. In the past, Flash was based on exploiting only the central processing unit (CPU). Helgason said that Unity games will now be almost universally available on the web via Flash, on the consoles, on iOS and Android, and a variety of other smaller platforms. The open beta is available for download at 8 am Pacific time on Thursday, Dec. 22. The new version of Flash is also supporting Google’s native client technology for the Chrome browser. “We believe this will make Adobe flash into a AAA games platform,” Helgason said. Filed under: dev, games, mobile        
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| Cyber-Ark gets $40M in funding to protect sensitive corporate data Posted: 21 Dec 2011 03:00 PM PST
Cyber-Ark protects important and sensitive data including passwords, financial records and top secret files. "Cyber-Ark has always been focused on solving sophisticated threats that enterprises are facing" Cyber-Ark CEO Udi Mokady told VentureBeat. The company helps protect its customers from four main security issues: security threats from malicious insiders, sophisticated outside attacks on sensitive data, compliance with government security regulations and cloud server file protection. Cyber-Arc offers several product suites, ranging from complete company identity protection to file and server session protection. It offers several layers of protection with its security services including firewalls, secure networks and end-to-end encryption. "With this latest round of funding we will focus on expanding globally. More than 40 percent of our revenue comes from outside of the US and we believe we can really expand to additional countries" said Mokady "There is going to be a big push on R&D, and we really want to expand the umbrella around our [security] solutions." With this new round of funding, Cyber-Ark plans to pursue global expansion for the company and fund research and development of new products. It also plans to build up its sales and marketing departments. Since its founding in 1999, Cyber-Ark has grown to serve more than 1,000 customers worldwide, including Fortune 100 companies and eight of the top 10 global banks. The company is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts and maintain offices in North America, Europe and Asia. Cyber-Ark has received $65 million in funding so far this year from Goldman Sachs, Jerusalem Venture Partners, Vertex Venture Capital and Cabaret-ArbaOne. Briefcase photo via Shutterstock Filed under: deals        
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| Yahoo considers selling Asian assets, continues fickle CEO search Posted: 21 Dec 2011 02:57 PM PST
Yahoo has been shaky in 2011 with falling revenues and uncertainty after the firing of CEO Carol Bartz. A cash infusion and and restructuring of assets might be just the thing to help the company find its center again. The company is expected to sell its entire stake of Yahoo Japan back to majority shareholder Softbank, and sell most of its stake in huge Chinese Internet company Alibaba, according to the New York Times. It will likely keep a 15 percent stake of Alibaba Group. Along with today’s reports on the Asian assets, AllThingsD is reporting that Yahoo has intensified its difficult search for a CEO replacement. Potential candidates in the running include Google business lead Nikesh Arora, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, and Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson. However, take those names with a grain of salt because the report is using unnamed sources, and Yahoo’s board is notoriously fickle with its decision-making. But at the heart of the matter, a new CEO, if it could install one soon, could help lead the sale of the company’s Asian properties and re-focus the company on products. Yahoo’s stock on the Nasdaq exchange increased nearly 6 percent today on the Asian asset sale and CEO rumors, and now sits at about $16 a share. Filed under: deals, media        
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| GMZ Energy turns heat into electricity, secures $14M in funding Posted: 21 Dec 2011 02:41 PM PST
GMZ Energy specializes in renewable and economically viable energy. "We have a solid state material that lets you generate electricity from heat. There are huge amounts of waste heat, and if that can be harnessed it can be used to generate tons of electricity," GMZ CEO Aaron Bent told VentureBeat. Essentially, instead of creating electricity from burning fossil fuels, the company uses a renewable thermoelectric (heat-electricic) material to convert heat to electricity using the sun and wasted heat from industrial and automotive sources. The material, which developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College, works by generating an electrical current from temperature changes. A heat source is placed on one side of the material, creating an electrical current. GMZ Energy is currently developing its first product for launch in 2012; a solar hot-water collector that will generate electricity for homeowners. "The funding will be used for two major things; to complete the release of our new product and move in it to production, and to accelerate our other waste heat recovery projects," said Bent. GMZ Energy was founded in 2007. GMZ Energy has been funded by BP Alternative Energy, Energy Technology Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mitsui Ventures, I2BF Global Ventures and strategic corporate partners. Nuclear Plant photo via Shutterstock Filed under: deals, green        
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| Study: Modern Warfare 2 most addictive console video game Posted: 21 Dec 2011 01:54 PM PST
About 1,231 British gamers took part in the study designed to discover more about their playing habits. Just under two thirds of those surveyed claimed to feel “addicted” to playing video games. When asked to elaborate on how video games fit into their everyday life, 42 percent admitted they often miss out on social occasions in order to play video games, while 82 percent admitted they regularly missed out on sleep as a direct result of their gaming. When asked if they thought they could easily give up playing video games, 51 percent said, “No.” Playr2 founder Simon Kilby, a gamer himself, can empathize with the study’s findings. He admits he’s often put important things off to continue playing his favorite titles and, although it may not count as an addiction in a medical sense, he feels with certain titles that he couldn’t wait to finish what he was doing to get back to playing. “I'm only surprised that Skyrim didn't top the list, because I don't know a single player who hasn't become entirely engrossed with the game,” he said. According to the study, the top 10 “most addictive console video games” are: 1) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – 73 percent of gamers who said they'd played said they felt “addicted” to it 2) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – 70 percent 3) Halo 3 – 68 percent 4) Final Fantasy VII – 63 percent 5) Grand Theft Auto IV – 58 percent 6) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – 56 percent 7) The Sims – 55 percent 8) Red Dead Redemption – 46 percent 9) FIFA 2012 – 42 percent 10) Tetris – 39 percent "Looking over the list of console games, it's not hard to see how people are so easily drawn into them,” Kilby said. “Although a number of the top ten have open-ended multiplayer modes that could keep you playing for hours on end, it's great to see titles like Final Fantasy VII and Tetris in there, which are clearly loved for other reasons." Filed under: games        
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| Star Wars: The Old Republic attracts crowds, server queues require Jedi patience Posted: 21 Dec 2011 01:50 PM PST
New players can avoid waiting times altogether by selecting a low population home for their freshly minted Star Wars hero. Electronic Arts has been ramping up the amount of game worlds quickly. Even during the busy evening hours on launch day, we were able to find several East and West coast servers with only a light load. But to play together with friends, game characters must reside on the same server, which is why the more heavily frequented destinations tend to attract even more players.
Electronic Arts must be pleased that the high popularity of The Old Republic was the biggest of its opening day issues. There were no major problems besides the waiting queues to report, in contrast to the bumpy launch of online shooter Battlefield 3 in October. The Old Republic has been well received so far, earning a 89 out of 100 score in our review of the early experience. How do the server queues affect your playing habits? Are you patiently waiting in line or instead creating a new character on a low population galaxy far, far away? Filed under: games        
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| Headset maker Jawbone raises another $40M, bringing its total to $210M raised Posted: 21 Dec 2011 12:58 PM PST
That amount is one of the biggest raised by a mobile hardware company, but San Francisco-based Jawbone has always been ambitious. As we noted when the company raised its $49 million round earlier this year, you could say that "over-engineering" a headset has gotten Jawbone pretty far. The company makes wireless Bluetooth headsets for cell phones, but its latest devices are more like motion-sensitive computers that you wear in your ear. The funding means that the company isn't yet done beefing up the ordinary headset into something cool. "We are experiencing fantastic growth and the worldwide demand for our mobile lifestyle products and services is unprecedented," said Hosain Rahman, CEO of Jawbone. "This new group of investors – with their world-class expertise in mobile, consumer Internet and technology, and international markets – will help us achieve the next level of expansion." Jawbone will use the money to broaden its offerings and global presence. Deutsche Telekom will be Jawbone’s lead carrier partner for its European expansion. The company (formerly Aliph) has launched several generations of its smart Bluetooth headsets and has pretty much turned the latest Jawbone Era device into a connected app platform whose features can be updated over time. It also provides caller identification by verbally telling you the name of who is calling you. To date, the company has raised $210 million. The new round came from Deutsche Telekom, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Russian investor Yuri Milner, and investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Other existing investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. Founded in 1999 by Alexander Asseily and Rahman, the company used advanced noise cancellation technology as the defining feature for its first headset launched in 2006. Touting "military grade" voice clarity, it sold the device at the hefty price of $120 when competing products sold for $40. Jawbone billed its headset as sounding even better than listening directly to a phone. The better sound came from having three microphones built into the device. It also had a sensor that felt the movement of your jawbone and correlated that with your speech. Digital signal processing took the data, stripped out the noise, and then reproduced the sound. The noise was stripped out even when the user wasn't talking. Jawbone said the speech turned out more intelligible, letting you hear the difference between a "p" sound and a "b" sound. The company followed up with a smaller version in 2008. The third-generation headset, the Jawbone Prime, arrived in April, 2009, and the fourth-generation Icon (pictured above) model debuted in January 2010 with a web site where you could customize the device. The most recent version was the Jawbone Era with motion-sensing controls, multiple processors, and a free voice communication service. It also created its Jambox intelligent wireless speaker and speakerphone and Thoughts, a free mobile service that lets users play around with voice messages in a new way. Earlier this month, Jawbone had to issue an apology and offer refunds to purchases of its Up health wristband after many users complained of issues with battery and synching problems. All of these models have relied on a noise-cancellation technology dubbed Noise Assassin. And the Jawbone models became the best-selling Bluetooth headsets at retailers such as Verizon Wireless and Best Buy. The company's surveys showed four out of five people preferred using Jawbone with a phone over using only a cellphone itself. Jawbone has 250 employees. Filed under: mobile        
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| Google Voice for iOS adds nifty new features, but it’s buggy (updated) Posted: 21 Dec 2011 12:56 PM PST
The application catches-up the iOS app to where the Google Voice Android app was a month ago. The iOS app adds welcome features like group texting, multi-line text entry, one-touch copy and paste in the dialer and integration with Sprint phones. The Sprint integration is especially good because it lets the company’s new iPhone owners send calls to the native dialer. But as great as those features are, the app has a few serious issues that need fixing. The biggest single issue being complained about is that when you call someone through Google Voice, it now shows your phone’s number on other people’s Caller ID rather than your GV number, as it previously did. I can confirm that this issue is legit, as I saw it in my own testing. Other issues reviewers have include the following: Sprint users no longer being able to make U.S. calls, one user said he could no longer make international calls, another said voice dictation no longer works and a few users said the app no longer works because they cannot log in. Google was forced to pull its Gmail for iOS application in early November because of crippling bugs, and later released a working version of the app in mid-November. Coupled with these new Google Voice errors, this makes us wonder if the mobile app team has been shaken up lately. In the past, updates weren’t so consistently buggy. At this point, I would highly recommend not updating your Google Voice application for iOS until these issues are resolved. Update: A Google spokesperson has sent us the following (predictable) statement:
Filed under: mobile        
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