SYN Straight News — GigaOM

SYN Straight 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 »

CumuLogic Bringing Sun Cloud Roots to Java PaaS

The growing Java PaaS market will soon need to make room for CumuLogic, an startup led by a team of Sun Microsystems veterans. The Sun connection is notable because Sun was the Java owner and development leader before its acquisition by Oracle early last year. 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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Comcast Tower

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 »

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 »

More Must Reads

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 »

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 »

Most web workers have probably heard that “the Internet is running out of addresses.” In response, The Internet Society, together with such major players as Facebook, has announced World IPv6 Day. What will this mean for web workers, businesses and individuals? Read More »

Apple finally allows third-party apps to broadcast video to Apple TV 2 in the new iOS 4.3 beta released today. Also new in the beta is support for a variety of multi-touch gestures for the iPad, and settings for creating a Personal Hotspot. Read More »

Vevo’s music videos are coming to Android phones, thanks to a dedicated app released this week. The music video site has had huge success with iOS apps, clocking 3 million installs on iPads, iPhones and iPod touch devices. Connected devices haven’t shown any similar interest yet. Read More »

Accel Partners, the firm backing Facebook and Groupon, announced has opened an office in New York, giving the city’s growing tech scene another profile-raising boost. It’s further recognition that New York has grown in importance and could signal more eastward migration from Valley VC firms. Read More »

After spending much of 2010 boosting its network to 21 Mbps, T-Mobile is poised to offer smartphones that can take full advantage of the faster speeds. The first may be the Samsung Vibrant Plus although current Vibrant owners may be put out by the upgrades. Read More »

The Verizon iPhone finally became a reality yesterday, and it brought with it one feature the existing GSM AT&T version lacked: Personal Hotspot, which lets you share your data connection with up to five other devices via Wi-Fi. That feature might not remain exclusive long. Read More »

Only six months after introducing a $40 unlimited prepaid 3G data plan, Virgin Mobile is adding a 5 GB soft-cap of data each billing period. Users that reach the limit will see their bandwidth slowed until the next month of service begins. Read More »

Verizon will soon be selling a CDMA-compatible version of the iPad, according to Verizon Communications CFO Francis Shammo. Users currently have to use a MiFi device to allow iPad’s to connect to Verizon’s network via Wi-Fi. The new version would be able to connect directly. Read More »

Consumers love credit cards, so why not start a program to reward them for spending money on eco-friendly goods and services? That’s the idea behind a proposed government program in South Korea in which users can earn points, and cash, for buying greener products. Read More »

PHP Fog has raised $1.8 million for its PaaS cloud targeting PHP developers. Just as Heroku attracted large numbers of Ruby developers, a PHP PaaS offering certainly should attract users, even if PHP Fog isn’t the only one at that dance. Read More »

Verizon and Apple today released the iPhone on Verizon’s 3G network. It will start selling on Feb. 10 for $199.99 for a 16 GB version and $299.99 for a 32 GB unit at Apple and Verizon stores. This could rock the smartphone market in the U.S. Read More »

If you’ve ever used a networked road tolling service then you know how convenient it is. Well, what if cars had connections in them at all times that turned them into driving credit cards. That’s the idea behind a Toronto-based startup called Skymeter. Read More »

There have been a number of recent productivity apps to help individuals track where their time goes. TimeDoctor offers to do the same thing for companies, including those with remote teams, by tracking the time that remote employees spend on different tasks. Read More »

Bump Technologies has grown from a novel way to share contacts into a full fledged content sharing network that is moving beyond its bump mechanic. Now the company has raised $16 milllion to further pursue its vision of transforming the way people interact through their phones. Read More »

The news that Tapjoy, formerly Offerpal, raised $21 million in funding last week shows there is a big opportunity to be had by helping the freemium model expand on mobile. It’s a lesson that W3i, a desktop application marketing company, is looking to exploit. Read More »

The bigger the better for the greentech sector. Is 2011 the year of the Godzilla greentech company? On this news-laden Monday, there’s some particularly interesting evidence of the market advantages of being a massive company today selling into the energy, fuel and chemical markets. Read More »

Nvidia said today Intel will pay the graphics chipmaker $1.5 billion as part of a legal settlement. The agreement shows how fast things are changing for Intel and the computing industry as power efficiency is trumping performance, and entertainment is winning out over productivity. Read More »

Square, the mobile payment start-up co-built by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, has taken on $27.5 million in new funding to help it compete in the increasingly competitive mobile payments market. The latest funding comes from Sequoia Capital, giving the start-up a reported valuation of $240 million Read More »

Turns out, CES wasn’t just about tablets: There were also a number of announcements of services and devices that will help you to get rid of your pay TV subscription and embrace the Cord Cutters lifestyle. Check out the most important news in our recap. Read More »

LogMeIn Hamachi is one of my favorite tools for creating a VPN to connect to my network remotely. I can create and access secure virtual networks across public and private networks. The new Mac version 2.0 sports a spiffy GUI, plus features that have been Windows-only. Read More »

Intel Capital and Braemar Energy have invested an undisclosed amount of funding into Viridity Energy, a startup which makes software that dynamically manages power loads on the grid in terms of energy pricing, renewable energy generation and energy storage. Read More »

Finally, after years of rumours and speculation, it looks like Verizon is about to start selling Apple’s iPhone. On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal boldly proclaimed “The iPhone is finally coming to Verizon Wireless.” So what does that mean for AT&T, and for you? Read More »

What if you could connect cell phones straight to TV set HDMI ports without adding an HDMI port to the phone itself? That’s the idea behind MHL, a new standard that uses Micro USB ports for HDMI video. One of the first adopters is HTC. Read More »

Klout — one of a number of services that are trying to measure influence in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter — has closed an $8.5-million funding round from Silicon Valley powerhouse Kleiner Perkins, and adding Kleiner partner Bing Gordon to its board of directors. Read More »

Intuit is positioning its GoPayment mobile service to compete with Square and others by offering a free version of the service for a limited time. The move may only be temporary, but it underscores the growing attention to mobile payments from companies across the mobile ecosystem. Read More »

Directly connecting Wi-Fi devices to each other is now simple and configuration-free thanks to Wi-Fi Direct. Here at CES, I got a look at demo apps using this peer-to-peer technology, which I expect to see in many phones and consumer electronics devices in 2011. Read More »

The Buffalo CloudStor is an external drive that has built-in capabilities allowing you to make its contents available outside your own network. As with Pogoplug Biz and Pogoplug Video, users will be able to make the contents of the drive available anywhere with an Internet connection. … Read More »

MeghaWare, when it officially launches in the spring, will give users a single portal to view and manage the entirety of their web identities — from Google Apps to Netflix to, interestingly, Amazon S3. It’s a strange combination of services, until you consider the business model. Read More »

Google Docs users can now upload videos and watch them right within Docs. The upload is limited to 1GB files, and uploads count against your Docs storage. Sounds more like a paid storage solution than a free video hosting service like YouTube, doesn’t it? Read More »

First Solar’s own power generation projects have always been mounted on racks that don’t tilt throughout the day to follow the sun, but the company is exploring the use of trackers. First Solar announced Friday it has bought RayTracker for an undisclosed sum. Read More »

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