NYT Company News — GigaOM

NYT Company News

Hug Energy, which had developed an application for computer energy management, is shutting down. CEO Marcus Tallhamn made the announcement in a blog post and an email to users, citing weak investor interest. It’s a sign of how crowded the energy management space has gotten. Read More »

While YouTube wasn’t a big topic of discussion during Google’s fourth quarter earnings call, CFO Patrick Pichette let slip that revenues grew at the online video site more than doubled in 2010. There’s still no word on whether or not YouTube is profitable, though. Read More »

 
 

Feds Promise $571 Million in Biofuel Loan Guarantees

Biofuel production nationwide has been woefully behind schedule as would-be producers struggle to just get their first commercial plants rolling. The U.S. government wants to help and on Thursday announced loan guarantee commitments totaling $571 million for Coskata, Enerkem, and a JV from Valero. Read More »

The DOE has offered a $967 million loan guarantee for the Agua Caliente Solar project, a 290 MW photovoltaic facility that will be built in Yuma County, Arizona, will be developed by NRG Energy and will use First Solar panels. Read More »

Apple may be trying to make it harder for users to repair or upgrade their own hardware, according to iFixit. New iPhones and recent MacBook Pro and Air models are shipping with a new kind of non-standard anti-tampering screw securing their outside and battery cases. Read More »

Samsung has acquired Liquavista, a display company that uses an electrowetting technology for color screens. The process uses electrical charges to move colored oil and can use reflective sunlight to consume less power. With refresh rates at 60 frames per second, could smartphones use these displays? Read More »

Amazon had long been rumored to want to buy Netflix. Instead, it bought the next best thing: Lovefilm. Regarded as the European version of Netflix, Lovefilm operates a DVD-by-mail and subscription streaming business. But will Amazon go head-to-head with Netflix in the U.S.? Read More »

Silicon Valley startup Law Pivot is introducing a new recommendation feature for its Quora-like Q&A services that aims to democratize access to quality legal advice. Even before today’s news, though, Law Pivot has defied the odds by gaining traction in a notoriously technology-resistant profession. Read More »

Flash gaming site Kongrate launched the free Kongregate Arcade app earlier today in Android Market, only to have it yanked after Google reportedly said it violated the Market’s non-compete rules in the terms of service. The rejection, if upheld, raises questions about Android’s celebrated openness. Read More »

Launch rumors of the Nokia X7, a new Symbian smartphone, appear to be squashed as the phone will reportedly not be available on AT&T next month. Without carrier support for subsidies and marketing, the odds of Nokia gaining a foothold in the U.S. continue to decrease. Read More »

Gevo Lowers IPO Target to $100M

Biofuel startup Gevo has lowered its upcoming IPO to $13 to $15 per share. That’s about $100 million, or $89 million after fees, less than the $150 million it targeted in August, but close to what analysts have predicted. Read More »

GoGrid Fuses Cloud Capabilities to Dedicated Servers

Cloud provider GoGrid has expanded its Infrastructure-as-a-Service catalog by launching a Hosted Private Cloud that maintains all the features multitenant clouds, but on dedicated physical servers. It’s an interesting tactic, and it highlights the different value propositions and visions of the leading cloud providers. Read More »

More Must Reads

Video publishers that want to distribute to viewers through apps built into connected TVs are feeling the effects of fragmentation, having to pick and choose between platforms. But the ability to build for a single, standards-based browser like Opera could make development a lot easier. Read More »

Verizon is launching four LTE handsets in the first half of 2011, but one, the HTC Thunderbolt, is expected to offer simultaneous voice and data. It’s likely Verizon will keep voice and data traffic separate meaning the solution will only work in areas of LTE coverage. Read More »

Playboy is coming to the iPad starting in March. And that’s not just a big screen conversion of the watered-down app currently available on the iPhone and iPod touch. No, it’s the fully uncensored magazine, both past and current issues. Read More »

Starbucks is taking mobile payments nationwide with the rollout of payments by smartphone at more than 7,500 locations. The payment system builds off a limited trial from last year and has the potential to push mobile payments into the mainstream for the first time. Read More »

Amazon Web Services, which built and popularized cloud computing with its Elastic Compute Cloud and Simple Storage Service has moved up the stack from infrastructure to providing Amazon Elastic Beanstalk, its brand new Platform-as-a-Service play. With Beanstalk, Amazon hopes to outgrow the competition. Read More »

With record revenue, profits, and products sold, Apple today posted the holiday quarter results to beat all holiday quarters, at least until next year. Total revenue topped $26 billion, besting the closest quarter on record by more than $10 billion. Read More »

Bandwidth.com and Verizon Communications today signed an agreement that could make it easier from companies such as Skype and Twilio to build out cool VoIP applications and service as well as set precedent ahead of any regulatory policy on how phone companies charge for VoIP calls. Read More »

After dumping its mobile phone group in 2008, Lenovo bought it back for double in 2009. Now the company has formed a new Mobile Internet and Digital Home Business Group, just as computer sales are eclipsed by smartphones. Is it too late for Lenovo? Read More »

While the iPhone has received a couple Microsoft apps like Bing and Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft Office programs have been no shows — until now. Microsoft announced today it is releasing an iPhone version of OneNote, it’s note-syncing app for the iPhone. Read More »

The entertainment world just got a little bit more conglomerated: The FCC has settled on the conditions needed for it to approve the long-debated joint venture between NBC Universal and Comcast today. Those conditions signal that the FCC fully recognizes the importance of online video. … Read More »

The first non-Rackspace OpenStack-based cloud-storage service is in beta, but it’s just the first in what should be many products based on the open source cloud project. Internap’s XIPCloud Storage platform provides a self-service, web-based offering to complement the hosting providers existing dedicated storage offerings. … Read More »

While competitors have introduced smaller and cheaper mobile data plans, Sprint is increasing the price of its data plans for smartphones by $10 a month, applying a “premium data” add-on charge to all smartphones, not just devices that run on Sprint’s 4G network. Read More »

Electric vehicle drive train system maker KLD Energy is looking to raise $10 million in debt and securities, and has closed on a little over $2 million of that round. The startup has planned to build its business via electric scooters in Asia. Read More »

EMC launched a slew of new products and a new product line that it hopes will keep it relevant in a changing IT world where cloud computing and products with a more consumer feel are changing the dynamic at both ends of the spectrum. Read More »

Just three days after introducing a new feature that allows users to share their mobile phone number and address with applications and third-party websites, Facebook said late last night that it is suspending the change as it works to clarify the permission process. Read More »

Intematix, an eleven-year-old VC-backed LED materials company, has an announced a new product called ChromaLit, which uses a new design for a phosphor light source for LED makers. The company says it will revolutionize the way LEDs are made. Read More »

Tilera, a chip design firm that’s building a 100-core processor for hugely parallel compute problems, has raised $45 million in funding from investors that include Artis Capital Management, WestSummit Capital Management and Comerica Bank. The company has raised a total of $109 million. Read More »

Cheezburger — the blog network that brought you I Can Has Cheezburger, the Fail blog and many other similar humor-oriented sites — today announced that it has closed a $30-million round of funding from a group of venture capital firms including Foundry Group and SoftBank Capital. … Read More »

Database startup Clustrix revealed the identities of four customers today, strong evidence that there’s something to its webscale SQL database beyond the $30 million investment that Clustrix has raised thus far. The customers announced are AOL, Photobox, Box.net and iOffer. Read More »

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be taking a medical leave of absence from the company to focus on his health, though he will continue on as CEO and still be involved in “major strategic decisions.” COO Tim Cook will run day-to-day operations in his absence. Read More »

GridPoint — the smart grid startup that’s raised lots of money and has a lot to prove — has now raised yet even more funding: a $23.6 million round according to a filing. That brings 8-year-old GridPoint’s total financing to over $240 million since its founding. Read More »

YouTube’s first test of live video last year showed low viewer counts and low-quality, jittery streams. But not to be deterred, it is rolling out a new beta test of YouTube Live, with Revision3′s DiggNation serving as the first big stress test of the service. Read More »

Wireless hotspot provider Boingo filed paperwork for an initial public offering today as it looks to capitalize on the growth of mobile devices. While the number of shares offered and the price range have not been determined, the company said it hopes to raise $75 million. Read More »

More bad news about cellulosic biofuel maker Range Fuels. The financially-strapped company reportedly plans to shut down its plant in Georgia after making just one batch of ethanol. It needs to more raise more money and tackle technical problems at its first commercial plant. Read More »

Apple has posted a downloads countdown page on its site as it approaches 10 billion apps downloaded. This year marks the App Store’s third birthday, so that’s an average of over 3 billion app downloads per year. iTunes took eight years to reach the same milestone. Read More »

In one of the first indications about manufacturer satisfaction with the Windows Phone 7 launch, an LG executive said the big Microsoft roll-out was, “less than we expected.” But he said the platform still has a chance as an easy-to-use alternative to Android. Read More »

Redbox parent Coinstar missed its quarterly revenue projections by a wide margin, blaming weak titles and its 28-day rental window. But it is also suffering due to competition from online services. After all, why go to a kiosk when you can rent from home? Read More »

Rebtel is hoping a new update to its BlackBerry app will help it make up some ground on VoIP leader Skype. The app now allows Rebtel BlackBerry users to make free international phone calls to other Rebtel users on BlackBerry and Android apps. Read More »

Yesterday, we learned that iOS 4.3 will have new features including more multi-touch gestures, the ability to act as a Wi-Fi hotspot, and third-party support for AirPlay streaming. Today, more features continue to be revealed, and at least one previously removed option has been added back. Read More »

A plan to bring a nationwide wholesale LTE network to the U.S. is in trouble. LightSquared has a troubled private equity backer and may be losing ground in Washington as it seeks a way around regulations that are making its planned network a long shot. Read More »

For next-generation biofuels to make any type of dent in the fossil fuel industry, oil companies will have to get on board, and here comes one to the rescue for the struggling cellulosic ethanol sector. Oil giant Valero is backing cellulosic ethanol startup Mascoma. Read More »

General Electric is grabbing a piece of the booming data center energy business, with a $520 million offer for Lineage Power Holdings, a provider of gear for the $20 billion-per-year data center and telecom power conversion industry. Read More »

Discovering music with Shazam was always magical, but it gets even better today with Spotify integration on Android and iOS handsets. Shazam is used in 150 countries while Spotify is only available in a half-dozen, so does this mean Spotify availability is about to expand? Read More »

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