VentureBeat |
- Apple may go the iPhone 4S route with new iPad 3, says report
- InboundScore ranks incoming website sales leads intelligently (exclusive)
- GetGlue prepares to take social TV mainstream with $12M in funding
- WTF CES: Grover and dance group Jabbawockeez invade Qualcomm’s keynote (video)
- Zendesk launches Windows Phone app to support more cloud-based call centers
- CapLinked wants to modernize startup investment, takes new money from new investors
- Hands on with Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga, a Windows 8 laptop/tablet hybrid (video)
- People who cheat at social games are three times more likely to cheat in real life
- What developers will be doing, learning & listening to in 2012 (survey results)
- Gear4′s Sleep Clock uses iPhone, radar to help you sleep better (video)
- Flagship raises $270M for green & health technologies
- Halfway between phone and tablet, Galaxy Note is surprisingly good (photos, video)
- Dell plans to reenter the tablet arena with a bang later this year
- New Google social search “bad for the Internet,” says Twitter (updated)
- Reddit goes black Jan. 18 to protest SOPA & PIPA — Who else will join?
- Paypal’s mobile payments growing exponentially, reached near $4B in 2011
- Last week Steve Jobs was a doll, this week, a comic book
- ‘Showtime Anytime’ app streams premium TV shows to your iPad
- Feedair Friend streamlines your mobile notifications
- Will.i.am touts making music on his Intel Ultrabook, calls it “the new ghetto-blaster”
- Adobe Reader updates to support e-signatures inside PDFs
- T-Mobile expands 4G network, launches cross-platform Bobsled Messenger
- Intel finally scores its hits with smartphone customers: Lenovo and Motorola
- Dell unveils its ultra-thin XPS 13 Ultrabook
- DirectTV’s integration with Samsung Smart TVs means one less box in the living room
- Now you can transmit data to smart devices over inaudible soundwaves
- LG and Gaikai to bring cloud gaming to 3D televisions in 2012
- Sony shutters PS Vita dev studio before its game even releases
- Dow Jones said VCs had a “lackluster” 2011, recession still in effect
- Razer shows-off Project Fiona, a PC gaming tablet (hands-on video)
| Apple may go the iPhone 4S route with new iPad 3, says report Posted: 11 Jan 2012 09:32 AM PST
In terms of aesthetics, the next iPad may look nearly identical to the current model and features the same home screen button and dock connector, according to a report from Japanese blog Macotakara. The only significant difference to the appearance is the tablet’s slightly thicker body. If true, this means some iPad 2 body cases will probably be incompatible. The report also indicates that the majority of changes in the iPad 3 are significant upgrades to hardware components inside, such as a faster A6 processor, better front & rear cameras and an enhanced 2048-by-1536-pixel resolution screen produced by Sharp. This move would mimic Apple’s decision to release an interim iPhone 4S with component upgrades rather than a fully redesigned iPhone 5 . Apple contract manufacturers Foxconn Electronics and Pegatron Technology are allegedly scheduled to begin assembly of the iPad 3 soon to fulfill an early March launch, according to Macotakara. While the manufacturer fulfillment dates (as well as information about Sharp’s screen) fits earlier reports about the next generation iPad launch date, it doesn’t mention anything about Apple producing two iPad models. [Via 9to5Mac] Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| InboundScore ranks incoming website sales leads intelligently (exclusive) Posted: 11 Jan 2012 09:30 AM PST
Now a new tool from startup InboxQ seeks to automate the qualification process for sales professionals, helping sort the good leads from the duds, all through a website contact form. InboundScore launches Tuesday as a more intelligent alternative to the typical website contact form. The product takes an inbound lead’s email address and company URL, scours public and private data sources for individual and company information, and spits out a detailed lead report with a score between 1 and 100 that also includes up to 25 appended data points. The intelligence-gathering contact form comes from one year-old Y Combinator alum InboxQ, a four-person, San Francisco-based startup that makes web and browser-based technologies to help companies filter the Twitter stream for sales leads. “The sweet spot is 10 out of 100,” InboxQ co-founder and InboundScore creator Joe Fahrner said of the lead-scoring tool in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “Any lead that scores 10 or higher tends to be a real actionable lead.” How does it work, exactly? A bit like magic — socially- and digitally-informed magic, that is. The scoring methodology and data aggregation elements are part of the startup’s secret sauce. But, generally speaking, as Fahrner explained, the tool does a bit of real-time web crawling, using the provided email address and website URL, to gather information from social networks, company websites and other sources. The final report can include the contact’s bio, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles, the number of Twitter followers the contact has, analysis on how the contact uses Twitter, the contact’s estimated buying authority, along with information on the company’s estimated revenue and financing history, its social footprint, and the company’s website traffic, rank and visitor demographics.  sample reportThe score that InboundScore comes up with should be a pretty accurate reflection of the quality of the lead, with higher scores pointing toward better prospects. The score will (theoretically) work across all industries. “The current scoring methodology is one-size-fits-all … it’s useful for anyone out of the box right now,” Fahrner said, though he admitted that certain indicators factored into the score, such as Facebook fans, will have less relevance to some businesses. InboundScore employs much of the same technology parent-company InboxQ uses to filter and identify Twitter sales leads. “What we’re building is a generalized filter for any type of inbound communication,” Fahrner said of the company’s grander ambitions. The company is launching the new lead-scoring service into private beta Wednesday, and it will be free to start. When the public launch comes later in the year, InboundScore will start at $29 per month, with scoring customization features and high lead counts costing extra. Fahrner believes the relatively approachable price point will help the startup attract small to medium-sized businesses and startups that can’t typically afford much more costly enterprise lead-qualifying solutions. Want early access? You better hope that you (and your company by association) have a high InboundScore, as the startup is qualifying would-be customers with its own software. Clever. [Image via of lincolnian/Flickr] Filed under: social, VentureBeat        
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| GetGlue prepares to take social TV mainstream with $12M in funding Posted: 11 Jan 2012 09:00 AM PST It’s not in the same league as Facebook or a Twitter, or even half the size of Instagram, but GetGlue’s highly-specialized social network for entertainment watchers could be on its way to superstardom. On GetGlue, more than two million die-hard entertainment fans check-in to television shows and movies, over the web or from mobile devices, to share their enthusiasm and get rewards for their viewing behaviors. Seventy five major television networks have already taken notice, and now investors are doubling-down, placing a $12 million bet on the startup’s chances at mainstream fame. “2011 was a year where we were doing a lot of innovation in the social TV space,” GetGlue founder and CEO Alex Iskold told VentureBeat. “With this financing, we can continue to play a market-defining role as social television goes mainstream.” But what is social television, exactly? It’s a niche section of social networking dedicated entirely to (usually influential) entertainment enthusiasts, and the networks and brands that want to reach them. The space started to take shape in late 2009 and early 2010 with the launch of GetGlue and several other similarly purposed services such as Philo (shutdown after being acquired by Local Response), Miso and Comcast’s Turnerfish, all of which proffer a second screen application experience for entertainment-sharing and chatter. Social television has since evolved to include network-branded applications around popular shows. And, perhaps the biggest sign of a genre-in-the-making, Yahoo acquired television-tagging application IntoNow just a few months after it launched. Whether mainstream viewers want to take part in these back-channel behaviors is questionable. There’s more than enough evidence to support the idea. After all, a growing number of TV watchers are multitaskers who use their tablets or smartphones for additional stimulation. But it’s taken GetGlue, one of the leaders in the space, more than two years to get to two million members. We’re talking small potatoes compared to Facebook’s 800 million members or the 15 million users of photo-sharing sensation Instagram. GetGlue’s small user base could be a bit misleading. Application users are an extremely active bunch. Altogether, they have engaged with GetGlue more than 350 million times by checking-in to content, or leaving a rating or review. And the startup saw hockey-sticky growth in check-ins in 2011 — with the exception of December — Iskold said. In November 2011 alone, GetGlue had almost 20 million check-ins. It’s enough activity that major television networks have run upwards of 680 badge and sticker-style promotions around their shows on the service. And more than 30 networks have embedded GetGlue check-in functionality into their own second-screen applications. The startup made money in 2011 with show sponsorships, said Iskold. Big brands such as Pepsi, HTC, Coke and the Gap all sponsored GetGlue show rewards and content (usually involving the same shows that they were already sponsoring on television). GetGlue, which released a new version of its flagship iPhone app and revamped its website Monday, will focus its 2012 road map on personalizing the entertainment guide for the user, introducing more supplemental show content and working to allow networks to better customize their experience, Iskold said. So could this be the breakout year for social television and GetGlue? We’ll be watching (pun intended). GetGlue’s $12 million round of financing was led by New York-based RHO Ventures. Investors in the startup’s previous $6 million Series C round — Time Warner, RE Ventures and Union Ventures — all re-upped in the new round. Filed under: deals, social, VentureBeat        
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| WTF CES: Grover and dance group Jabbawockeez invade Qualcomm’s keynote (video) Posted: 11 Jan 2012 08:55 AM PST Monday we saw a choir singing tweets for Microsoft at the Consumer Electronics Show, and Tuesday we got Sesame Street’s Grover and the world-renowned dance group Jabbawockeez at Qualcomm’s CES keynote. Grover joined a Qualcomm representative to show off the company’s Vuforia augmented reality platform, while Jabbawockeez kicked off the keynote with a tech-infused dance. It’s not unusual for CES press conferences to become a blur of announcements, statistics, and self-congratulation — so it often comes down to surprise appearances like these to make a typically boring event memorable. The Qualcomm rep demonstrated how Vuforia can be used with a tablet and a Sesame Street app, which allows kids to interact with real-world toys in a virtual space. As you can see in the video above, props and characters come alive when viewed through Vuforia. The company also showed off its newly produced mini-documentary series on how mobile is changing lives at its keynote — which added an emotional core to the event.
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| Zendesk launches Windows Phone app to support more cloud-based call centers Posted: 11 Jan 2012 08:01 AM PST
Zendesk made our list of "Top 10 disruptive cloud companies we're excited about" because it helps small and medium-size companies create on-demand help desks and cloud-based call centers. The company's mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Android are already helping businesses compete with much bigger players, and now it will also offer Windows Phone 7 app support. "The addition of Zendesk for Windows Phone accomplishes our goal of enabling agents to interact with customers across the widest variety of mobile platforms," said Adrian McDermott, Zendesk VP of product and engineering, in a statement. "We want organizations to have the ability to provide support on-the-go regardless of their preferred mobile device. Adding Windows Phone to our suite of mobile apps furthers our goal of democratizing customer support and significantly improving customer satisfaction." Like its other mobile application brethren, Zendesk on Windows Mobile will enable companies to view, create and update support issues with clients on the go. Using the Windows Mobile app, companies will be able to respond to customer support requests in real time. And support agents can also use Windows Phone’s handy “Live Tiles” to pin info about support issues to their device's home screen. The new Zendesk app will join the 50,000 apps now offered by Microsoft in its Windows Phone Marketplace. The Windows Phone 7 platform got a big push this week at CES 2012 at Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s last keynote and by Nokia in the form of its hyped Lumia 900 smartphone for AT&T. Zendesk additionally took a big step this past September by partnering with Twilio to create Zendesk Voice, which lets companies set up cloud-based call centers for much less money than regular call centers. Zendesk Voice is available in the U.S. and Canada, with calls billed at 5 cents per minute. Filed under: cloud, mobile        
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| CapLinked wants to modernize startup investment, takes new money from new investors Posted: 11 Jan 2012 08:00 AM PST
"Investing in private companies has depended on outdated technology for too long," said CapLinked CEO Eric M. Jackson in a release this morning. "Emails loaded with attachments, spreadsheets for tracking leads and clunky enterprise data rooms are straight out of the 1990s. CapLinked makes the process easier for companies, investors and their advisors by giving them social tools to connect and share information." The fresh money brings the startup’s total funding to $1.4 million in two rounds, a seed round in mid-2010 and an angel round in March 2011. Today’s newly announced investors in the company include a few luminaries. Chris Yeh, a prominent blogger and investor who is also a vice president at PBworks, pitched in for the round, as did angel investor and onetime Paypal exec Jason Portnoy, TheGlobe.com founder Stephan Paternot, Althea Foundation chair Alexsis de Raadt-St. James and a couple others. "Private companies are an important source of job creation and economic growth," said Portnoy in a statement. "By streamlining the investment process and giving companies new tools to raise capital and sell assets, CapLinked is changing how private investments get made." CapLinked, which was founded in 2009 by former Paypal exec Jackson and finance pro Christopher Grey, claims it has almost 100,000 accounts of would-be investors as well as 10,000 profiles for cash-seeking companies. To date, CapLinked has seen $12 billion in transactions through its service. Through the CapLinked site, privately held companies can better manage the fundraising process, including networking and investor relations. Investors can use the site for deal flow, due diligence and portfolio tracking. And both companies and investors can bring advisers, attorneys and consultants into the loop of information. While CapLinked is steeped in tech provenance, it’s not just tech companies raising funds through this service. The company tells us it is also being used by private companies in energy, transportation, real estate, financial services and food and beverage verticals. Previous investors include Peter Thiel, Dave McClure, Yammer CEO David Sacks and a slew of other Silicon Valley luminaries. Filed under: deals        
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| Hands on with Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga, a Windows 8 laptop/tablet hybrid (video) Posted: 11 Jan 2012 07:15 AM PST
With laptops beginning to model tablets much more frequently in terms of thinness and lightness, it was only a matter of time before we began to see a model that blurs the line further by essentially being both. The IdeaPad Yoga is an Intel-powered thin-and-light Ultrabook laptop that mimics the MacBook Air when it is positioned like a laptop and mimics the iPad when it is set up like a tablet. We were intrigued enough by this concept that we simply had to see it in action. Lenovo product ambassader Ashley Perry walked us through the motions and showed us how the device’s hinges allow it to bend backwards and transform into a tablet. In a way, this takes after the dock-able IdeaPad S2 tablet, except it takes it further by being a combo device. Having the machine run Windows 8 also adds allure, because it’s still only available to developers. I also got my hands on the device briefly and it was as cool as I expected it to be. The machine’s 13.3-inch screen with 10-finger touch was entertaining to try. The form factor itself is fun to play with too, but it was a little too heavy to use frequently as a tablet. The iPad is 1.5 pounds while this thing is more than double that. Lenovo expects the IdeaPad Yoga to ship when Windows 8 is available commercially, which should be in the third or fourth quarter of this year. The company expects the device to run for less than $1,200. Watch the full IdeaPad Yoga hands on video below:
Filed under: mobile        
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| People who cheat at social games are three times more likely to cheat in real life Posted: 11 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST People who cheat at social games are cheaters in real life too. So says a survey by casual game maker PopCap Games. The survey looked at the habits of more than 1,200 adult consumers. Of those who admit cheating, the stats are telling. About 48 percent of them admit to cheating in real life as well. Of those who say they don’t cheat in social games, only 14 percent said they cheated in real life on everything from stealing hotel towels to cheating on taxes. That means people who cheat in social games are 3.5 times more likely to be dishonest in real life, compared to those who don’t cheat in social games. The data shows that about 118 million people regularly play social games in the U.S. and the U.K., and about 55 percent of the players are women. About 11 percent of those who play social games in the U.K. admit to cheating, while 7 percent of U.S. players say they cheat. The survey said that men are more likely to cheat in social games than women (54 percent to 46 percent). And 72 percent of the cheaters are under the age of 40. The report was conducted by the Information Solutions Group for PopCap. Of those who admit to cheating, 53 percent said they cheat on tests at school. U.K. cheaters are more likely to cheat on their taxes than U.S. cheaters (58 percent versus 33 percent). About 51 percent of people who cheat at social games park in handicap spaces or steal towels, cups or other items from hotels (compared to just 14 percent of those who said they don’t cheat at social games). About 49 percent of the cheaters also cheated on a committed relationship; 47 percent reported stealing packets of sugar, butter or jam from a restaurant; and 43 percent said they steal magazines from waiting rooms. "How we behave in virtual space and interact with others in social games often mirrors how we act in the real world," said Clay Routledge, professor of psychology at North Dakota State University. "With more than 100 million people playing social games regularly, we can expect to see the full range of psychological characteristics represented in the social gaming population – even cheating." The survey polled members of Toluna's Internet ePanel in the United States and United Kingdom between September 15 and September 22, 2011. Of the 1,201 respondents, 801 (67%) were from the U.S., while 400 (33%) were from the U.K. [Image credit: Lions Den] Filed under: games, social        
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| What developers will be doing, learning & listening to in 2012 (survey results) Posted: 11 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST
Zend released its Developer Pulse global survey report this morning. The survey itself was conducted in late November 2011; around 3,335 respondents were polled. The company itself is known for its comprehensive focus on PHP, the programming language that powers around a third of the entire Internet, including Facebook, Wikipedia, WordPress, Zynga and many other household-name-type websites and services. "2012 brings with it escalating requirements for cloud, mobile and social apps,” Zend CEO Andi Gutmans said in a statement, echoing the most dominant trends of the past couple years — the ones that are capturing companies’ imaginations and paying developers’ bills, so to speak. Here are the findings of the survey: What devs are working on in 2012: mobile & cloudAccording to the Developer Pulse report, around two thirds of developers around the world will be working on mobile app development projects in the next 12 months. And a further 67 percent of the developers surveyed said they wanted to improve their mobile app development skills this year. Around half of the developers in this survey said they would be working on projects in four key areas: cloud technologies, social media integration, analytics and big data processing, and creating APIs. About 46 percent of the devs (52 percent for large enterprise developers) said they wanted to learn more about cloud application development, and 44 percent said they wanted to learn more about building big data apps. More than 60 percent of the developers said they will use a public cloud service for their apps this year. Amazon was the most popular option, claiming 30 percent of the audience. The languages devs are using in 2012Most programmers these days will learn and use several languages in the course of their career — and depending on the type of work you’re doing, you’ll use several languages over the course of a single project. The Developer Pulse report reflected the “new norm among developers… use of multiple languages and rising use of dynamic open source languages,” as Zend noted in a release. However, the four most commonly used languages are those old standbys: PHP, C, Java and JavaScript. According to the report, around 67 percent of devs spent more than 50 percent of their time with PHP (keep in mind, the survey was conducted by Zend, the PHP factory). Zend also says they survey showed an “uptake of PHP in the enterprise.” In addition to PHP, Zend’s developer respondents said they use one or two other languages on a regular basis, with as many as 33 percent of large-enterprise developers using both Java and PHP. Music to code byWhether you’re rockin’ those ubiquitous white earbuds in your cubicle or rocking Turntable.fm throughout the office, if you’re a developer, you’re probably listening to music while you write code. I’m an Iron Maiden girl, myself. More than anything else, this survey’s respondents agreed that music is the thing for a developer’s ears. What they listened to while working, however, was split along fairly diverse lines of taste and preference. The survey also shows that while you secretly love Lady Gaga, you will likely take that secret to your grave and only listen to Mother Monster in the privacy of your own headphones. Filed under: dev        
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| Gear4′s Sleep Clock uses iPhone, radar to help you sleep better (video) Posted: 11 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST
Gear4 might have a solution with its Sleep Clock, which uses an iPhone app, a dock, and radar (!) to sense your sleep pattern and wake you up at the moment when you’re at the lightest point in your sleep cycle. The Raleigh, N.C. company has made an app and sleep monitor hardware that uses sensors to detect, track, and interpret your sleep patterns. Once it develops a profile of your sleep habits, it can then make recommendations, said Victor Marks, senior market development manager at the company, in an interview. Gear4 is known as a maker of accessories for mobile devices. Its new Sleep Clock is a dock for your iPhone that works together with an app on the phone. Aside from showing the time, the Sleep Clock uses a doppler radar to sense your body’s breathing and movements. If you wake up in the middle of the night and turn over, the Sleep Clock records that, too. The next morning, you may not remember that moment, but it may tell you that you were restless. On the iPhone, you can look at your entire sleep pattern, including how long it took you to fall asleep and how many minutes exactly you slept. It can show you how much of your sleep was deep and how much was not as restful. The Sleep Clock fits into a wave of new products related to research on “the Quantified Self,” where researchers measure every possible thing they can about a person in the hopes of gaining larger insights. A slew of products, such as the Fitbit and Striiv pedometers, Jawbone’s Up and Lark’s sleep monitor/alarm, are aimed at making it easier for people to measure themselves in order to get healthier and sleep better. The app is free, but the Sleep Clock sells for $199. It will go on sale soon. We caught up with Marks at the Showstoppers party in Las Vegas on Tuesday. See our video interview with Marks below. Filed under: mobile, video        
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| Flagship raises $270M for green & health technologies Posted: 11 Jan 2012 05:30 AM PST
The new Flagship Ventures Fund IV L.P. was set at $250 million, but investors exceeded that amount. Investors included all types of organizations from foundations to corporations to individuals, including a few new limited partners that had not contributed to previous funds. Flagship’s portfolio companies seem to be tackling big, human-scale problems from energy to epidemics, and the firm has seen exits that match that ambition. Some of its more notable exits include Adnexus Therapeutics, which was sold for $430 million to Bristol-Myers Squibb; Morphotek, which was acquired for $325 million by Japanese big pharma company Eisai; and Hypnion, which was bought by Lilly for an undisclosed sum. "We are quite pleased by the market's reaction to our fourth fund," said Flagship CEO and managing partner Noubar Afeyan in a release. "Despite the difficult environment for fundraising, especially for early-stage venture firms, we received strong support from our prior investors, as well as from several new important limited partners. We believe that the firm's investment strategy and… history of building valuable, transformative companies are well aligned with the world's ever increasing reliance on innovation, entrepreneurship and value creation." Indeed, VC fundraising had a lackluster year in 2011, according to Dow Jones analysts. On average, a U.S.-based venture capital firm in 2011 was only able to raise around $120 million. Flagship's last fund, which launched in pre-economic-meltdown 2007 with a healthy $235 million raise, fed a portfolio of 24 ventures such as Joule Unlimited, which aims to solve the global energy crisis with a biofuel alternative, and Selecta, which produces nanotechnology-powered vaccines. Counting the new fund, Flagship now manages more than $900 million of early-stage capital and has cultivated a portfolio of more than 65 companies. Also, 25 of those companies came from inside Flagship itself via the firm’s in-house venture creation group, VentureLabs. In addition to continuing its investment in early-stage companies, Flagship will use part of the new fund to invest in later-stage companies. Filed under: deals, VentureBeat        
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| Halfway between phone and tablet, Galaxy Note is surprisingly good (photos, video) Posted: 10 Jan 2012 10:53 PM PST As smartphones grow ever larger and tablets shrink, they’ll inevitably meet at some kind of hybrid, halfway point, neither entirely tablet nor entirely phone, but a bit of both. The Samsung Galaxy Note is that midpoint, and it’s coming soon to the U.S., the company announced yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show. With a 5.3-inch display, it’s a gigantic phone — but also a pretty small tablet. Unusually for a modern tablet, it comes with a stylus, though it works with your naked fingers, too. To my surprise, it works pretty well. I spent some quality time with the Galaxy Note at CES 2012 today and came away impressed with its flexibility and responsiveness. The stylus was unexpectedly useful, particularly when enclosed in the larger shell that makes it into a full-sized pen. The Note ships with its own note-taking app, called S-Memo, and can even do handwriting recognition on your scribbles. The handwriting recognition was relatively accurate, in our limited testing, although it’s slow. To emphasize its usefulness for writing notes and drawing, Samsung has hired cartoonists to draw caricatures with Galaxy Notes, and the caricatures are strewn all over the company’s display here in Las Vegas. Samsung released the Galaxy Note in Europe in late 2011, eventually selling over a million of the hybrid phone-tablets. But it was cagey about when the Note would arrive in the U.S. Yesterday, the company revealed that it will be coming to AT&T Wireless in the U.S. early this year. The Note sports a WXGA (1280 x 768 pixel) screen, has a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and has an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a 2-megapixel camera on the front. The rear camera can record 1080p video. The Note supports Wi-Fi a, b, g, and n, as well as Wi-Fi Direct. On AT&T, it will use the fast Long-Term Evolution (LTE) 4G network. See below for more up-close photos of the Galaxy Note. Photos: Dylan Tweney/VentureBeat. Video: Christopher Peri/VentureBeat. For more gadget news, be sure to check out VentureBeat’s live coverage from CES 2012. Filed under: mobile        
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| Dell plans to reenter the tablet arena with a bang later this year Posted: 10 Jan 2012 10:13 PM PST
The company has plans to release a consumer tablet later this year, and is paying special attention to creating a valuable ecosystem for consumers on the device, Dell chief commercial officer Steve Felice told Reuters today at CES. “We have been taking our time. The general failure of everyone that’s tried to introduce a tablet outside of Apple” is a sign that Dell was wise to wait, Felice said. “You will see us enter this market in a bigger way toward the end of the year. So we are not really deemphasizing it, we are really being very careful how we enter it.” Given the recent failures of HP’s Touchpad and RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook, it makes sense for Dell to concentrate on making its tablet stand out. But it can’t wait too long, as tablets are steadily eating up PC sales, and right now Dell has nothing to satisfy slate-hungry consumers. Felice didn’t say if the future tablet would run Android or Windows 8, but it seems like he’s very interested in what Microsoft is trying to do with the new operating system. “There hasn’t been a lot of advancement and it’s given Microsoft a good window to come into the market with Windows 8. I like the touch Windows 8 feature,” he said. Indeed, Windows 8 seems a fitting choice for Dell, a company that has been far more comfortable with Windows than any other platform. Dell is also teaming up with Chinese search engine Baidu for tablets and smartphones in that country, but those devices don’t have much a chance to make it to the U.S. Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| New Google social search “bad for the Internet,” says Twitter (updated) Posted: 10 Jan 2012 07:39 PM PST
Twitter is not happy with Google‘s new social search features. So unhappy, in fact, that the company is calling it a “bad day for the Internet” and media overall. “We're concerned that as a result of Google's changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone,” the company said in a statement. “We think that's bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users.” Google introduced its new “personalized,” Google+-enhanced search today. Instead of providing regular Internet results such as photos, videos, news and shopping results that have been the norm for Google’s web search, now the company is pushing Google+ content to the first page of your search queries. A search for photos will push photos from your Google+ friends to the top of the results. Looking for a person? Their Google+ profile will show as a suggested result. Larry Page, Google’s chief executive officer, recently blogged on the social network that Google had delivered the “+” and was now injecting more “Google.” Now it seems Google+ is starting to push a little of the “+” into the company’s other products. Twitter, which once had related tweets show up in Google search results, though it does not anymore, is not happy with the change. Many would argue that the short length of tweets, 140 characters, isn’t enough content to act as a “result,” though Twitter adamantly disagrees. “As we've seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and Tweets are often the most relevant results,” statement continued. Perhaps it is because of its brevity that news is broken so frequently on the site, and can be valuable with the addition of multimedia such as video, photos, and links. Alex Macgillivray, Twitter’s general counsel, tweeted this was a “bad day for the internet” and having worked for Google said, “I can imagine the dissension at Google to search being warped this way.” Google has not sat idly by, however. The company responded to Twitter on its official Google+ page. The statement reads, “We are a bit surprised by Twitter’s comments about Search plus Your World, because they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer, and since then we have observed their rel=nofollow instructions.” Twitter blocked Google from being able to access its data feed of public tweets in July, causing Google to take its real-time search offline completely. The company blames this as one of the reasons why other social results do not show up in searches. One Google spokesperson told VentureBeat:
Google has faced antitrust opposition for months now. In July, the company sent chairman Eric Schmidt to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary antitrust committee about claims that the company was not being fair in its web-based search and other products. Shortly before that, the company admitted to a probe by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Why target Google? Well, the company has obvious dominance over the search market and is gaining much popularity in the mobile phone industry. Having this kind of influence requires a level playing field for other companies, less Google become a monopoly. Recently the company released a new flight search tool, which raised eyebrows among air travel aggregators such as Orbitz, Kayak and even newcomer Hipmunk. Google introduced the tool, which allows you to search for tickets without leaving the Google search website, in September and starting pushing the tool to the top of search results in December. With Google accounting for a good amount of traffic to other travel sites, taking the top search result spells antitrust issues. Facebook declined to comment in an e-mail to VentureBeat. via All Things D, Image via VGramatikov/Shutterstock Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| Reddit goes black Jan. 18 to protest SOPA & PIPA — Who else will join? Posted: 10 Jan 2012 07:32 PM PST
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. Should SOPA (or PIPA) pass, it could drastically change the way the Internet operates. For instance, 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 online. Reddit’s blackout will run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (EST) and coincide with the Jan. 18 congressional committee hearing to hear opinions from many web security experts and tech industry leaders about the impact SOPA and PIPA could have. One of the seven people who will testify at the hearing is Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, as VentureBeat previously reported. “We wouldn't do this if we didn't believe this legislation and the forces behind it were a serious threat to reddit and the Internet as we know it,” the Reddit team writes in a blog post. “Blacking out reddit is a hard choice, but we feel focusing on a day of action is the best way we can amplify the voice of the community. During the blackout period, Reddit will display a simple message about how the proposed legislation would eliminate sites like Reddit as well as a list of links pointing to resources about SOPA/PIPA. The team also plans on embedding a live stream of the House committee hearing to raise awareness. The black out is definitely a bold move for Reddit, but the site’s organized protest is also very significant. The company recently reported that it brings in over 2.06 billion page views (and 34,879,881 unique visitors) to the site per month, which it achieved without a search engine marketing campaign, an advertising partnership or spending any money on outside promotion/marketing from other places (text/banner ads, commercials, etc.). Reddit community members are also responsible for orchestrating the boycott against domain registrar Go Daddy for its support of SOPA, which resulted in lots of bad press for the company, a mass exodus of customers to other domain registrars and the forced apology/renouncement of SOPA by Go Daddy’s executive team. With a little over a week away, it’s possible other social networks will join Reddit’s blackout on January 18. While nothing official has been announced, there have been rumblings that Google, Twitter and Facebook are also planning a collective protest effort against SOPA and PIPA. Who else should join the blackout? Let us know in the comments. [For more information about the proposed SOPA legislation, check out this infographic about the bill's negative effect on business and innovation as well as VentureBeat's ongoing SOPA coverage.] (William Wallace/Braveheart Reddit Alien image courtesy of Reddit) Filed under: media, social, VentureBeat        
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| Paypal’s mobile payments growing exponentially, reached near $4B in 2011 Posted: 10 Jan 2012 06:56 PM PST
The online payment company racked up nearly $4 billion worth of mobile payments last year, a huge jump from $750 million in 2010, PayPal mobile vice president David Marcus told VentureBeat in an interview today. Putting the figure in an even crazier perspective, tallied up a mere $141 million in mobile payments in 2009. Marcus tells me that the company initially expected to earn $1.5 billion from mobile payments last year — so reaching $4 billion was quite the happy surprise. He attributes the massive growth to an overall increase in mobile commerce, more useful mobile payments apps blending online and offline capabilities (PayPal is one of the most popular ways for Starbucks customers to top off their in-store credit via its app), as well as a massive uptick in iPad-based e-commerce. PayPal just recently announced that it’s testing in-store payment capabilities at Home Depot, which allows customers at Home Depot stores to pay for purchases using their PayPal account, either through a pin code or a special PayPal card. Marcus believes that partnerships like this will increase the company’s mobile payment earnings even more in the future. Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Last week Steve Jobs was a doll, this week, a comic book Posted: 10 Jan 2012 06:21 PM PST
The comic book is titled “Steve Jobs: Founder of Apple and is scheduled to hit Amazon as well as physical newsstands and comic books stores on Wednesday. Soon after Jobs’ death in October, people became hungry for more on his life story. Walter Isaacson’s biography was hugely anticipated, but despite its completeness, people still wanted more. Talks about unpublished interviews and plans Jobs may have left behind are still circling among the Apple fan crowd. What’s the next natural step? Make the story a cartoon. Publisher Bluewater decided to create the book based on its previous success with another hot name in Silicon Valley: Mark Zuckerberg. The Jobs comic book is 32 pages long and chronicles his experience with Apple from the beginning. It does not, however, mention Jobs’ passing as the book was put in production prior to the event. "Admire him or dislike him, Jobs' vision and business acumen revolutionized the world," said comic book author in a statement, "Between he and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, you would be hard pressed to find someone with greater influence over how we communicate, interact and do business over the last 30 years." This is not the first product to bear Jobs’ likeness since his death. Recently two companies, In Icons and Dragon in Dream Corporation, created an extremely realistic (scarily so) action figure of Steve Jobs. The doll was being offered at $100 with an estimated shipping date of February. That is, until Apple stepped in threatening to sue for unauthorized use of Jobs’ likeness and the Apple logo. The mini Jobs, complete with black turtleneck, was to be packaged with two apples and a “One More Thing” backdrop. Bluewater, which also works with celebrities such as William Shatner, isn’t stopping with Jobs. A graphic biography of Bill Gates will be released in March, completing the trilogy of cartoonified powerful tech icons, who Bluewater says have a lot in common. "There are definitely some similarities between Zuckerberg, Jobs and Gates. It takes a certain kind of drive and a certain kind of genius to move society the way they have,” said Cooke. The Steve Jobs comic book will be sold for $4. The comic book was written by CW Cooke and illustrated by Chris Schmidt. You can also pre-order Bill Gates’ comic book here. Filed under: media        
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| ‘Showtime Anytime’ app streams premium TV shows to your iPad Posted: 10 Jan 2012 06:04 PM PST Following the success of its rival’s HBO Go mobile app, the CBS owned premium TV network Showtime has launched a new iPad application allowing current subscribers to stream content. The app, called Showtime AnyTime, gives you On Demand streaming access to most of the network’s library of movies, documentaries and comedy specials. But the crown jewel of the app is definitely the backlog of Showtime original programs, such as Weeds, Dexter, Homeland, Californication, Shameless, Nurse Jackie, The Big C and several others. It’s unknown if Showtime plans to add an incentive for subscribers to use the app by making episodes of its original programs available a week before it debuts through the cable channels. Previously, HBO used this strategy during the most recent seasons of its original shows Game of Thrones and True Blood. While the app is free to download in Apple’s App Store, only people who pay for a Showtime content package through AT&T Uverse or Verizon FiOS. Comcast is expected to add access to Showtime content through its Xfinity TV web service and mobile applications. But its unlikely Comcast customers will ever gain access to the Showtime Anytime App itself. The same is true for HBO content and access to the HBO Go iOS app. As for the app’s user experience, it’s pretty much what you’d expect from a streaming video service. You’ve got the ability to create your own queue of favorite shows, options to share viewing activity via Facebook & Twitter, rate shows and more. And much like Netflix, the Showtime Anytime app remembers where you stop watching a video, and allows you to start again at the same moment no matter what device you’re on. This will be a useful feature when Showtime adds support for other connected mobile devices. The company plans to launch Showtime Anytime on the iPhone as well as several Android OS devices in the coming months. [Showtime Anytime App screenshots via Showtime] Filed under: media, mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Feedair Friend streamlines your mobile notifications Posted: 10 Jan 2012 06:00 PM PST
Available as either a small light-emitting diode (LED) display device or a smartphone app, Feedair Friend keeps you in touch with all of the messages that you get from social networks, news outlets, financial institutions, retailers, healthcare providers and more. Feedair Friend takes those streams and lets you customize how you receive them by time, sender, content, and device. The San Jose, Calif.-based company unveiled the product at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "The Feedair Friend meets a real need for today's media-swamped consumers," said Simon Milner, Feedair chief executive and founder. "Digital distractions and overload are common among CE enthusiasts, so we set out to simplify and organize media updates in an at-a-glance, cohesive manner." The hardware device has a digital ticker display and WiFi connectivity. You can sit it in front of your desk, powered via an AC adapter or universal serial bus plug. Updates are streamed to the small display in ticker style. The software product works with iOS (iPhone, iPad) or Android phones. You can manage information flow via Vidgets (visual widgets) from the deck of your smartphone. The Feedair Vidget bar sorts messages into 20 different categories such as productivity, social networking, retail loyalty, healthcare, financial services, personal interests and hobbies. You can also view the ticker updates on the smartphone app. The Feedair Friend and Feedair Vidget Bar will be available on the company’s web site in March 2012 for $50 or so. The company was formed in 2009 and has 12 employees. It is privately funded. Milner, the inventor of the Plug Computer, started the company with a vision to simplify consumer electronics. For more news out of this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, be sure to check out VentureBeat’s live coverage from CES 2012. Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| Will.i.am touts making music on his Intel Ultrabook, calls it “the new ghetto-blaster” Posted: 10 Jan 2012 05:47 PM PST
Will.i.am, who is the director of creative innovation for Intel, is carrying around a new Intel-based Ultrabook laptop and using it to craft new songs and sharing it with his fans. He said he has been making music on computers for a long time, but now it is easier to do it while one the run as he travels the world. Fans can track his movement, and his creativity, online. Will.i.am, a member of the blockbuster group the Black Eyed Peas, said he is taking an Ultrabook everywhere he goes. He is the midst of an Ultrabook creative campaign as he tours 12 countries, creates 12 songs, and engages in 12 philanthropic ventures to help inner city communities. He says technology can amplify the creativity of the music industry. “Today, it’s the Ultrabook and this is the new ghetto-blaster,” Will.i.am said, holding an Ultrabook up to his ear. “I’m proud to be at the center of it and I’m proud to be with Intel,” he said. “You make a song and two months later it comes out. Now you make music on the computer and listen to it on a computer. It’s amazing.” Filed under: mobile        
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| Adobe Reader updates to support e-signatures inside PDFs Posted: 10 Jan 2012 05:08 PM PST
Adobe has released a new version of Reader with native EchoSign integration that enables users to sign PDFs inside documents. The update also includes a “Send for Signature” option so you can send your PDFs off to other people to sign. Adobe acquired electronic signature startup EchoSign in July 2011. In September, the company pushed out an EchoSign for Adobe Reader update to connect the two services in a makeshift fashion. Today, Reader with EchoSign demonstrates the almost-perfect efficiency we always wanted from the power couple. How do the new Reader features work? They’re quite simple — almost. “With the new update, when you open a PDF document to be signed with Adobe Reader, you will have the option to place a scanned copy of your signature into the document,” former EchoSign CEO and current Adobe vice president of web business services Jason Lemkin explained. “What if you don't have the ability to scan an image of your signature? Don't worry; we have that covered too. Using Adobe EchoSign, you can sign a document yourself by using the ‘Only I Sign; feature, which gives you the option to either draw in your own signature using a mouse or simply type it in.” The “Send for Signature” option is also just as convenient as it is complex. You’ll need to open your document in Reader (the new version, of course), click the “Send for Signature” button, then use the separate Adobe EchoSign web software to prepare and send the document on to a contact for signature. Here you can add in additional fields such as company and title, as well as track the signature process. The two e-signature processes sound a tad more involved than they should be, but we can certainly see how the updates could become indispensable and widely popular utilities for businesses of all sizes. After all, Reader is used by more than 1 billion people. Curious about the legality about these e-signatures? Don’t fret, Lemkin said. “Documents signed using Adobe EchoSign are protected by the Federal E-SIGN Act, which makes online electronic signatures in a commercial transaction equivalent to a written signature.” The new version of Reader is available for download now. Updates will be pushed out to existing Reader users over the next few days on a rolling basis. Image via wiertz/Flickr Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| T-Mobile expands 4G network, launches cross-platform Bobsled Messenger Posted: 10 Jan 2012 05:00 PM PST T-Mobile may have lost out on getting acquired by AT&T, but it’s not giving up the fight to survive in the U.S. just yet. The carrier announced today at a small CES gathering that it has widened the availability of its fast 42-megabits-per-second 4G network to 12 new markets, which now covers a total of 184 million consumers in 175 markets. Additionally, T-Mobile has launched Bobsled Messenger, a new cross-platform group messaging service that will compliment the company’s existing voice-over-IP calling service, Bobsled Calling. T-Mobile’s continual 4G expansion shows that the company hasn’t been slowed down by the almost year-long AT&T acquisition talks. Last year at CES, T-Mobile announced its first 42Mbps 4G markets — now that network is covering almost two-thirds of the U.S. population. Not only would it have been unwise for T-Mobile to slow down its growth efforts because of the AT&T acquisition (and possibly illegal), it would have been a major disservice to the carrier’s 33 million customers. To coincide with the news of its expanded 4G HSPA+ network (T-Mobile notably hasn’t moved to LTE yet), the company also announced its latest 4G phone: the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G. It appears to be a slight upgrade from T-Mobile’s existing Galaxy S II model, and it includes a faster 1.5 gigahertz dual-core Snapdragon S3 processor. Given how much T-Mobile needs to focus on delivering killer devices (it’s the only U.S. carrier without the iPhone at this point), it seems strange for the company to get into the business of mobile messaging. But according to Brad Duea, senior vice president of Value Added Services at T-Mobile, Bobsled Messenger and its accompanying VoIP service will allow T-Mobile to offer services that its customers find useful. (Yes, Duea says the company has been in touch with Apple about getting the iPhone.) After being available in limited release since last April, Bobsled Messenger has processed over 68 million text messages and has had 207,000 groups set up by T-Mobile users. And those are numbers from only 1,046 customers who’ve signed up for testing. The company has also made its Bobsled products cross-platform, allowing people to easily communicate with their friends and family on other networks. Bobsled Messenger is currently only available on Android and via the web on PCs at this point, but the company is working on BlackBerry and iOS apps. Bobsled Calling also received an upgrade today: T-Mobile announced that the Android and iOS apps will now be able to make free calls to anyone in the U.S. Sweetening the pot for T-Mobile customers, the company announced Tuesday that it will offer $150 worth of free apps, content and services on newer phones. The apps will be accessible through the Bonus Apps widget on many devices, or through the T-Mobile Mall. Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Intel finally scores its hits with smartphone customers: Lenovo and Motorola Posted: 10 Jan 2012 04:58 PM PST
Intel chief executive Paul Otellini announced in his keynote speech that Intel has lined up these customers for its code-named Medfield smartphone and tablet chips (now called the Intel Atom Z2460) that use the Atom family name and are designed with Intel’s heretofore PC-centric x86 architecture. The deals with the major players show that Intel is still a formidable force in the mobile semiconductor market, which is expected to become the world’s biggest. “The best of computing is coming to smartphones,” declared Otellini. Lenovo’s new Intel-based Android smartphone, the K800, is expected to debut in the second quarter on the China Unicom mobile network, according to Lenovo senior vice president Liu Jun. But the deal with Motorola, sealed by the appearance of Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha, is a big strategic partnership where Motorola will launch a smartphone with the Intel chips in the third quarter of the year. That is the first of multiple Atom-based phones Motorola will create. On stage, Jun said Intel and Lenovo would achieve great success in the booming smartphone market. He said the phone has great battery life and no-compromise performance.
Tom Kilroy (pictured below), senior vice president at Intel, said in an interview with VentureBeat Monday the company’s pitch is that Atom-based smartphones offer a no-compromise experience, where the phone is fully capable of running software that ordinarily would require a PC to run. Intel has failed many times to get its chips designed into smartphones. Most recently, it failed with the Meego alliance with Nokia to build a mobile operating system fell apart. Since that time, Intel has allied itself with Samsung on a mobile version of Linux and with Google on its Android operating system to ensure there are mobile operating system alternatives. Kilroy said that Intel decided to create the entire design for the phone from scratch, creating a “reference design” (pictured at top) that can be easily adopted by phone device makers. He said that you’ll see the Intel-created design emerge as products in different forms this year with 4-inch screens and eight-megapixel cameras that can take as many as 15 pictures per second. The reference design smartphone has eight hours of talk time, six hours of HD video playback, 45 hours of audio playback, support for 1080p HDMI, and many more features. It also has McAfee smartphone protection for security. Intel showed Angry Birds running on the platform and said the reference design can run the Metro interface for Windows Phone. Intel also showed the first prototypes of its upcoming 32-nanometer Atom chips, code-named Clover Trail, running Windows 8, Microsoft’s upcoming operating system.
“This is also a really big change for the industry,” Kilroy said. Kilroy said the Ultrabook marketing budget would run in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Netbooks (stripped down computers for surfing the web) have fallen by the wayside because tablets have overtaken them. Intel will promote its AppUp download store as a place to get apps for Ultrabooks, Kilroy said. While many vendors offered netbooks, their hearts weren’t in it. By contrast, Kilroy said there is unprecedented enthusiasm in the computer ecosystem in favor of Ultrabooks. Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| Dell unveils its ultra-thin XPS 13 Ultrabook Posted: 10 Jan 2012 04:30 PM PST
While Intel first described the Ultrabook specification in the middle of last year, Dell began working on the new laptop about two years ago. During that time, the company did some soul searching, cutting back on the number of its computer brands from eight to four. It now has the Alienware name for gamers, Vostro for business users, Inspiron for mainstream consumers, and XPS for performance fans. The laptop has a distinctive look because it is made out of carbon fiber, which is stronger than the magnesium alloys used in other laptops but lighter than machined aluminum.
“It’s a thoughtful design that doesn’t compromise,” Peters said in an interview. “We think it’s a defining moment for Dell. We are trying to set the bar is this category. We are not reacting to the Ultrabook spec or copycatting someone else.” Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and head of global operations at Dell, got up on stage at the keynote speech for Intel chief executive Paul Otellini at the Consumer Electronics Show. He showed off the features of the new Dell machine to a cheering crowd. The machine has flash memory so it can boot within seconds, using Intel’s Rapid Start technology. It weighs 2.99 pounds and is 6 millimeters at its thinnest and 18 millimeters at its thickest. It has a full-size backlit keyboard and uses Intel’s Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7 processors with integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics. It also has a variety of security features that make it suitable for the enterprise. The display uses bonded Gorilla Glass for durability.
The glass track pad is ready for Windows 8, the upcoming operating system from Microsoft. It has a mini DisplayPort and Ethernet jack as well as high-quality audio that comes out of the keyboard. The battery life is longer than eight hours, and it has location awareness. It has a USB 3.0 port on one side and a USB 2.0 port on the other and 128 gigabytes of flash memory, upgradeable to 256 gigabytes. Like other Ultrabooks, the machine is designed to be responsive, without forcing users to wait for boot-ups or other delays. The price will be under $1,000, and it will ship in February. For more gadget news, be sure to check out VentureBeat’s live coverage from CES 2012. Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| DirectTV’s integration with Samsung Smart TVs means one less box in the living room Posted: 10 Jan 2012 04:05 PM PST Samsung has announced its new line of Smart TVs will let DirecTV customers access their TV service without the use of a set-top box. The company announced the feature addition at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. At Samsung’s press conference yesterday, the company showed off its latest set of smart TVs with heavy emphasis on taking TVs to the next level of connectedness. Its updated Smart Hub (pictured above) will add in all sorts of features and apps, including the ability to play mega-popular game Angry Birds and watch free Angry Birds cartoons. But DirecTV integration takes the Smart TV idea a step further by helping you clean up your living room. All of the typical set-top abilities, including DVR and live pause, will be accessible through the Home Media Center on the Smart TV. The DirecTV integration is handy in another way: if you have a DirecTV box in one room, a Samsung Smart TV in another room can connect to that box as if it was a DirecTV set-top box. Stephen Goldstein, vice president of Samsung America, explains in a statement:
Samsung’s new Smart TVs will be available in Spring 2012. Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| Now you can transmit data to smart devices over inaudible soundwaves Posted: 10 Jan 2012 04:04 PM PST
Sonic Notify has built a unique content delivery platform to deliver data such as ads, apps, web pages, video and more in the form of an audio signal to a mobile device. The audio signal, which is inaudible to the human ear, can be broadcasted during a television show, radio broadcast, movie showing, music concert or any other event, and can be received by any smart device with a microphone. While the possibilities are seemingly endless, examples of what can be done with Sonic Notify's technology include sending a companion app to your iPad when you watch American Idol, pushing a video of a new cereal to your phone when you walk past its display in a grocery store, or pinging cast information to your iPhone while you’re watching a movie in theaters (actually, turn. Co-founder Alex Bell told VentureBeat, "The Sonic Experiences app uses a complex algorithm to decipher the audio signal transmitted, reducing problems associated with frequency noise. With Sonic Notify, we are making the link between the speaker and microphone as robust as we can." Sonic Notify's technology works by sending out a code as an audio signal from a speaker to any device with a microphone. A companion app provided by Sonic Notify interprets the unique code to deliver the correct content. Everything is based on proximity; once a device gets close enough to the signal, it can receive the data. While I can only hope this type of technology will be used to enrich our lives with helpful and captivating content, I know one of the biggest markets for this service is advertising. What advertiser wouldn't want to send ads of their products straight to your phone when you walk into a store or see their product on TV? For now, you need to have Sonic Notify's app on your device to receive the audio signals, but this type of technology could open the doors for content providers to send unwanted content your way without any input from you. Filed under: media        
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| LG and Gaikai to bring cloud gaming to 3D televisions in 2012 Posted: 10 Jan 2012 03:04 PM PST
Gaikai says it has spent three years building the fastest interactive cloud network in the world, instantly capable of delivering cutting-edge games without the need for any extra custom hardware. The company’s cloud platform will be a part of LG’s game portal service within the Smart TV ecosystem and will allow consumers to use their Smart TV log-ins to seamlessly play a broad range of games, including some of the lastest award-winning releases. "We care passionately about delivering the best content and most premium experiences possible for our valued customers," said Taeg Il Cho, VP of TV Product Planning Group at LG Electronics. "The ability to have award winning games that run on much more powerful hardware in the cloud than today's PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 made this a must-have feature for our televisions and future devices." Gaikai has recently scored some big deals with other retailers and game publishers – including Best Buy, Capcom, Ubisoft, Walmart, and Electronic Arts – by offering the ability to stream games directly to Internet users. By adding a small amount of code to a website, a retailer or publisher can offer streaming game demos to interested consumers, who can then purchase the game on the same page. A prototype version of the LG Smart TV gaming service will be demoed live from the CES 2012 show floor in Las Vegas. Filed under: games, VentureBeat        
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| Sony shutters PS Vita dev studio before its game even releases Posted: 10 Jan 2012 02:55 PM PST Sony has confirmed the closure of BigBig Studios, developer of the upcoming PlayStation Vita launch title Little Deviants. The release of Little Deviants is expected to be unaffected, though it’s hard to get excited about a game whose quality obviously contributed to an entire studio being shut down. Leamington Spa-based BigBig developed a number of titles for the original PlayStation Portal, including Motorstorm: Arctic Edge and the Pursuit Force series. “…it was felt that by focusing on other Studios that are currently working on exciting new projects, we would be in a stronger position to offer the best possible content for our consumers," Sony told Develop Online. "We have reviewed and assessed all current projects and plans for the short and medium term and have decided to make some changes to European studios. As a result of this, there will be a realignment of resource within the studio to ensure that the studio is in the best position to achieve this." Sony is left with 15 first-party studios, including UK-based Media Molecule, developer of the LittleBigPlanet franchise. Filed under: dev, games, mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Dow Jones said VCs had a “lackluster” 2011, recession still in effect Posted: 10 Jan 2012 02:54 PM PST
While U.S. VC funds finished the year with a strong fourth quarter of fundraising, funds raised by VCs during 2011 came in at barely more than half of the 2008 total. “The industry has not yet bounced back from the recession,” said a Dow Jones VentureWire spokesperson in an email. The numbers for 2011 were slightly higher than those from 2010 (by 5 percent, to be exact), though that was largely driven by activity in early-stage funds. All told, 135 U.S. venture capital funds raised $16.2 billion, representing a 12 percent decline in the number of funds raised this past year. Fundraising for the fourth quarter alone came to $5.2 billion — that’s more than the total funds raised during the second and third quarters put together. While the state of VC fundraising in the U.S. could best be described as “meh,” the story in Europe was even less positive. European VCs, said Dow Jones, hit a record low in 2011, when 41 funds raised just $3 billion in 2011. This represents a year-over-year deep decline — a 20 percent drop in the number of funds raising cash and an 11 percent drop in the total amount raised. We asked Dow Jones for some historical context — just how much have funds dipped and surged since the 2008 crash? “You'll see that investment in early-stage and multi-stage funds dropped significantly between 2008 and 2011,” said a company representative, who kindly provided us with data for the graphs we’ve created below. “Later-stage funds, however, are faring better in terms of capital collected having raised $4.7 billion in 2011 versus $3.9 billion in 2008,” the rep concluded. “The drop in the number of funds collecting capital is also notable and shows consolidation in the industry. In 2008, 205 funds won commitments from LPs. In 2011, 135 funds won commitments.” "While brand-name firms are able to raise funds, most firms face significant challenges in fund-raising," said VentureWire editor Zoran Basich in a statement. "Limited partners remain wary of the industry after a decade in which returns have not matched expectations. Unless that changes, limited partners are likely to stick with what they view as the tried-and-true fund managers." Filed under: deals, VentureBeat        
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| Razer shows-off Project Fiona, a PC gaming tablet (hands-on video) Posted: 10 Jan 2012 02:26 PM PST
Tan showed off Fiona, a new concept tablet computer for gamers, today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He loaded up the PC game Space Marine and started shooting away, using the game controls that were attached as handles to the side of the tablet. This is the sort of no-compromise PC gaming experience that can happen on tablets once Windows 8 ships, Tan said. “Try to do that on an iPad,” he said. “Tablets today are good enough for casual gaming. This isn’t Angry Birds,” a reference to the lightweight entertainment that you often find on Apple’s iOS devices. “This is the only tablet in the world designed specifically for PC gaming,” he said. Fiona is a thick tablet that will take a much different form when it debuts in the second half of the year. Right now it uses an Intel quad-core Core i7 microprocessor, and it will eventually run Windows 8. You can rest it on your knees and lean back to play it on a couch. When Microsoft ships Windows 8, you’ll be able to use the Metro touchscreen interface to browse through games. “This is going to run a full library of PC games right out of the box,” Tan said. “This is a concept device, and the design will change, but you can see that it has great graphics.” You can socialize on the system and compare your score to other players’s scores. The system automatically accepts game controls such as Xbox 360 game controllers, so it’s easy to control the games. Fiona is a little heavier than most other tablets, but it has a full-fledged gaming computer under the hood. Filed under: games, mobile        
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It’s time for yet another edition of unconfirmed Apple iPad 3 news — except the most recent crop of rumors give a far more practical scenario for the company’s next tablet.
All sales leads are not created equal.
According to data from a new report, developers are planning to invest their time, talent and energy in a few notable avenues over the coming year — and a handful of programming languages, as well.
After 
Community news sharing site 
If you need one example that epitomizes the massive potential in mobile payments, you need only look at 
Popular PDF viewing application Adobe Reader just got infinitely more functional for business users, with one of its most significant feature updates in years.
Don’t let the good times roll just yet, Silicon Valley: Analysts at Dow Jones are saying the effects of the 2008 economic crash still haven’t worn off for venture capitalists.
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