The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) may be shelved by the U.S. House of Representatives, but the Senate’s PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) still looms and Joyent CTO Jason Hoffman just can’t believe the stupidity that got us all into this mess. Read More »
Code 42, a Minneapolis, Minn.-based backup and software recovery company received a whopping $52.5 million round of capital from Accel and Split Rock Partners. This is the first investment from Accel’s $100-million big data fund. Read More »
Apple has apparently re-introduced code references to Facebook integration to the most recent iOS 5.1 beta that were once present in pre-release software but later removed. It doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily see Apple include Facebook sign-in at the system level, like it’s done with Twitter, but … Read More »
Revolution Growth, the venture firm founded by AOL veterans Steve Case and Ted Leonsis, made its first public bet today, investing an undisclosed portion of its $450 million fund in FedBid, an online reverse auction site for the federal procurement process. Read More »
CES and Macworld are hogging the event spotlight right now, but what about events for developers? Last year’s WWDC sold out quick, and this year’s probably will too, so you may want to plan on alternate conference and training opportunities in 2012. Here’s a list. Read More »
China’s online video service PPTV struck a strategic partnership deal with local cable TV provider WASU last week that could hold the key to finally bring online video to the living room in China. Android TVs and set-top boxes could also play a big role. Read More »
An alternate wireless network has been emerging in the U.S., one not built by the mobile operators but by cable providers. Cablevision, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast have all launched reams of Wi-Fi hotspots in their MSO footprints, and last week Bright House joined the club. Read More »
Aviary, a maker of mobile photo editing tools, is introducing an update to its four-month-old mobile software development kit today with more effects, better controls and high-resolution output. Can photo editing tools hasten the demise of point-and-shoot cameras? Aviary thinks so. Read More »
First Solar has broken its own record. The company announced Tuesday that it’s able to produce a thin-film solar panel that can convert 14.4 percent of the sunlight that hits it into electricity. The new record exceeds the 13.4 percent it achieved last year. Read More »
Looks like investors are still willing to fund pre-commercial next-gen biofuel startups. Joule — the startup behind the unusual hybrid solar-biofuel technology that launched back in 2009 — announced it has raised a third round of funding of $70 million, bringing its total funding to $110 … Read More »
Apple is only weeks away from hosting a special iPad event, according to sources speaking to Japanese blog Macotakara Tuesday. The sources claim we’ll see the iPad 3 and iOS 5.1 put on public display as early as the beginning of February. Read More »
A newly granted Apple patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday describes a system through which your clothing could talk to your iPhone to help it create tailored workouts that know you better than you know yourself. Read More »
More Must Reads
As Apple adds to its collection of architecturally significant retail stores, the company is getting even fancier for its proposed new flagship store in Aix en Provence, France. It is doing away with walls almost entirely and going for an all-glass structure. Read More »
Another European country is pushing a nationalistic agenda when it comes to cloud computing, one that could have huge repercussions for U.S.-based cloud powers and the nature of cloud computing in general. France Telecom is pushing a French cloud to feature built-in-France technology. Read More »
O3b Networks, a Google-backed, satellite-based telecom company, says it will launch its revolutionary new satellite-broadband service next year. It launched with fanfare in 2008 and in 2010 raised a whopping $1.18 billion but had to limit its size and scope because of the global credit squeeze. Read More »
Apple has filed suit against Samsung once again in Germany, aiming to have sales of 10 of the Korean company’s smartphones halted. In a separate newly filed suit, Apple also targeted five models of Samsung tablets. Apple is targeting design rights with its latest suits. Read More »
SendGrid, a TechStars graduate, has become one of largest email platforms in the world by handling the boom in transactional emails that web application send out to stay in touch with users. The company is announcing it has raised a $21 million Series B round. Read More »
RunKeeper is taking another step forward with its HealthGraph API initiative by updating its user reports feature. New, simpler Fitness Reports incorporate more health data. As the number of health-related gadgets and apps grows, RunKeeper’s HealthGraph API is becoming the glue to track such data. Read More »
Charlie O’Donnell, a principal at First Round Capital in New York, thinks Brooklyn is increasingly where the action is, and he’s launching the first Brooklyn-based venture capital fund to help kick-start companies on the other side of the East River. Read More »
Startups looking to disrupt the traditional energy industries — oil, coal, gas-burning cars — need to have more than just innovative technology. They need a team and a plan in place that can scale their technologies to compete on the massive scale needed. Read More »
Online video chat provider Yowie is boosting its social presence, with a Facebook app that will let individual users talk to one another while sharing interesting videos. The app differentiates itself by ranking users based on videos they share and their behavior in chat rooms. Read More »
Although the House has said it will shelve the much-criticized SOPA anti-piracy act until there is consensus on the legislation, critics — including Reddit and Wikipedia — say they plan to go ahead with blackouts to protest the law and its Senate counterpart, known as PIPA. Read More »
After my Gmail account was hijacked last year, I looked into Google’s two-step verification process. It relies on your having your smartphone with you, even when logging in on a PC. Here are two ways to use your smartphone to better protect your Google account access. Read More »
When SAP pre-announced better-than-expected earnings, there was no mention of cloud computing. But, there is a feeling that the company, as it completes its buyout of SuccessFactors and closes more Business ByDesign deals, might be able to put its reputation of cloud cluelessness behind it. Read More »
Since before Apple announced its press event taking place this week, there’s been speculation that a logical step would be to sell digital textbooks directly through its iBookstore. But it turns out, what the company announces might not be that complicated. Read More »
My primary phone is the iPhone. I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do. Speaking to Dan Lyons in an article comparing the iPhone to Android devices, Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak points out the … Read More »
Adding T-Mobile support to the iPhone may sound simple, but it’s a much more difficult task than it appears. New bands don’t just necessitate new antennas, but a complete phone redesign. T-Mobile’s Apple moment may come with the iPhone 5, but don’t hold your breath. Read More »
Solar service provider Sungevity under went some serious expansion in 2011 as it began to target the East Coast and overseas, and lined up Lowe’s as an investor and partner. Now following that growth, the startup has started raising a new funding round of $40.8 million. Read More »
Pioneer’s new $599 AppRadio2, a smart, 7-inch capacitive touch display radio supports both iOS and Android phones. It includes an external GPS, rear-camera input, and of course, smartphones with compatible apps. Looks like a great way to get Pandora, Waze, or Rdio integrated with your car! Read More »
Hulu is launching its first original scripted show just days before Netflix will unveil its first stab at an original TV show. Both companies are part of a bigger movement toward original online programming that includes new ways of funding as well as distribution. Read More »
In a new research note to clients, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White noted December was a record month for his “Apple Barometer”: an index of sales at Apple’s Asian suppliers. It’s an unusual bump in a month when orders at Apple’s suppliers typically fall off. Read More »
News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch’s comments about piracy reinforce the sense that the billionaire media and entertainment mogul doesn’t understand how content works in a digital era, and that he is continuing to try and impose the scarcity that media companies have had in the past. Read More »
For anyone who doubts cloud computing is driving IT, check out new numbers from IHS. The researcher predicts unit shipments of “cloud servers” — those that run cloud computing infrastructure — will grow 35 percent to a whopping 875,000 this year, from 647,000 in 2011. Read More »
Apple’s iOS mobile platform tends to sell more paid software than its rivals, and its biggest advantage might be a head start that Google, Microsoft or any other mobile competitor can’t do much to eliminate: iTunes. It’s also an advantage Apple likely isn’t done profiting by. Read More »
According to one maker of a waterproof microscopic film technology, we might see waterproof devices among the next generation of mobile phones, and Apple could be at the fore of this movement. The revolution could come without big trade-offs in physical design. Read More »
Amazon will let customers run micro-instances of Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 for free on its EC2 service starting now, according to a new post to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) blog. Such try-before-you-buy tactics have helped Amazon win converts to its cloud platform. Read More »
A group of tech companies led by IBM and including CA, Cisco, Citrix, EMC, NetApp, Red Hat, SAP — is throwing its weight behind a proposed standard to assure that applications can move between clouds. Amazon, RackSpace, Microsoft? They’re not on board, at least not … Read More »
Beepl opened its social Q&A site to the public, with the hopes of challenging Quora and others by finding specialists to answer user questions. It does that with technology that matches users with the queries that they are most interested in and most qualified to answer. Read More »
Phone company Verizon quietly launched its smart home products nationwide about three months ago, which enable customers to lock and unlock doors and windows, watch home video cameras remotely, and manage thermostats and lighting. Read More »
Lonelygirl15 writer and ARG creator Jan Libby is currently seeking Kickstarter funds for a new alternate reality game experience called Snow Town, but the underlying technology could become a secret weapon for creating transmedia experiences. Read More »
This week had me running around the CES event, where Android 4.0 was everywhere. New tablets with multicore chips impressed me — and could even be notebook replacements — plus a few smartphones looked incredible. Apps may start looking better to due to a Google initiative. Read More »
Surprise! The hypervisor battle rages anew and is in fact getting more heated as VMware tries to push vSphere (not just the free ESXi hypervisor) to customers and Microsoft vies to win market share and credibility for Hyper-V. Read More »
PNT ExComm, the federal agency overseeing the national GPS satellite network, has concluded that any LTE network LightSquared would build, no matter how much it scales back its transmission power, would interfere with GPS devices nationwide. LightSquared’s hopes of building its network are quickly dwindling. Read More »
Trenches II is the latest in a lineup of World War I-themed games from Thunder Game Works. Falling somewhere between Plants vs. Zombies and Flight Control, Trenches II offers slightly more advanced, compelling gameplay, so much so that it approaches the realm of real-time strategy gaming. Read More »
Electric car maker Tesla Motor’s stock saw one of its sharpest drops in months on Friday on the news that two of its execs have left; shares closed at $22.79, which was a 19.33 percent drop, though the shares rebounded a bit in after hours trading. … Read More »
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