Apple already sells out first week’s shipment of iPadsSaturday, March 27, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Apple’s web site says that it has already sold out its first shipment of iPads, the tablet computers that start selling on April 3. Now the company says that anyone who orders an iPad now can expect them to ship starting April 12. And that’s just for the versions with Wi-Fi only, with prices ranging from $499 (16-gigabyte model) to $599 (32-gigabytes) to $699 (64-gigabytes). If you want to buy a more expensive version with 3G data networking service, you have to wait until shipments in late April. [...] Read more |
Week in review: Y Combinator Demo Day, Trip Hawkins’ new Facebook gameSaturday, March 27, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Here’s our summary of the week’s business and tech news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the past seven days: Y Combinator presents 26 new startups — Y Combinator hosted its latest Demo Day this week for startups graduating from its incubator. This post offers a roundup of every presenting company, except for those in stealth mode. Photoshop’s new “Content-Aware Fill” feature gives you the power of the gods — You can practically see VentureBeat’s Devindra Hardawar drool as he describes Adobe’s preview of a new feature in its image editing program. [...] Read more |
Roundup: First week of iPads sells out, cities compete to join Google’s broadband testSaturday, March 27, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Here’s the latest action: Apple sells out first week’s worth of iPads — If you order an iPad now, you’ll have to wait until April 12, more than a week after the April 3 launch. Meanwhile, MacRumors has pulled together a list of some launch applications created specifically for iPads. Cities vie for test Google’s experimental broadband network — More than 1,100 communities applied to be part of Google’s pilot program, some using promotional stunts like temporarily renaming themselves “Google. [...] Read more |
Roundup: First week of iPads sells out, cities compete to join Google’s broadband networkSaturday, March 27, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Here’s the latest action: Apple sells out first week’s worth of iPads — If you order an iPad now, you’ll have to wait until April 12, more than a week after the April 3 launch. Meanwhile, MacRumors has pulled together a list of some launch applications created specifically for iPads. Cities vie for test Google’s experimental broadband network — More than 1,100 communities applied to be part of Google’s pilot program, some using promotional stunts like temporarily renaming themselves “Google. [...] Read more |
Facebook says new program to automatically share data ‘has nothing to do’ with adsSaturday, March 27, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Tucked into Facebook’s new proposed privacy policy released yesterday was a paragraph saying the social network will automatically share your data with special “pre-approved” partners when you visit their sites. But no partners were listed, nor was there any detail given on how these partners would be chosen. I talked to Barry Schnitt, Facebook’s director of communications and public policy, today to get a few more details. More broadly speaking, Facebook has a deep inherent tension in its business model. [...] Read more |
EC Roundup: Becoming a giant-slayer and 6 critical tips for launching a startupSaturday, March 27, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner. Ask the attorney: M&A waters can be dangerous – especially for the buyer – Buying a competitor is a sign of strength, but one that also carries a lot of risk. Attorney Scott Edward Walker runs down four more things to watch out for – and ways to keep the upper hand. 5 ways startups can slay giants – Entrepreneurs regularly face off against companies significantly larger than them. It’s an uphill battle, but not an impossible one. [...] Read more |
Our hands-on impressions: Nintendo to start selling DSi XL a week before Apple debuts iPadSaturday, March 27, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology To buy a DSi XL, or an iPad? That is the question. The coming week is a big one for gamers, as Apple and Nintendo go head-to-head in the handheld gadget market. Nintendo starts the battle on Sunday as it begins selling the DSi XL game handheld for $189.99. Apple follows with the April 3 debut of the iPad, which is a tablet computer with many applications beyond games. On the one hand, the competition between these devices is fierce because gamers aren’t likely to dish out money for both of these gadgets. [...] Read more |
GameStop rolls out Jolt as it moves into digital distribution of gamesFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology GameStop is opening 400 retail video game stores a year. But it’s not blind to the fact that digital distribution of online games could threaten that physical store business. That’s why the nation’s biggest game retailer bought Jolt Online Gaming last year and today launched its first free-to-play online game. The first title is Legends of Zork, a fantasy online game, and it one of a billion such games online. But this one stands a real chance because it will get exposure in every one of the thousands of GameStop stores in the U. [...] Read more |
Freemium Summit: Evernote shares the insider secrets of free appsFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Giving away your product for free can be either a disaster or a great move. Doing it the right way is an art, as various speakers said at the Freemium Summit in San Francisco today. A case in point is the “freemium” business model of Evernote, which creates software that serves as a memory aid, or external brain. The company gives away its product for free on a variety of platforms and charges a $5 per month subscription to the power users who want the most features. Phil Libin, chief executive, revealed a wealth of details today about how the freemium model makes sense for Evernote, which now has 2. [...] Read more |
Speaklike offers human-powered translation for blogsFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Blog publishers wanting to translate their works into multiple languages now have a range of human-powered translation options from translation company Speaklike. The company, which launched a translation service for instant messages last year, has built a plugin for the popular WordPress blogging system used by VentureBeat and The New York Times. The system isn’t instantaneous, but it uses experienced freelance translators rather than amateurs or machine translation. Speaklike offers a pay-as-you-go system for small publishers, and an enterprise-scale service for bigger companies. [...] Read more |
Nvidia gets back in the game with long-awaited Fermi graphics chipFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Since Advanced Micro Devices launched its newest generation of desktop graphics chips in September, Nvidia has been a distance second in the performance game for graphics chips. But today, Nvidia is launching its graphics chip, the GeForce GTX 400 series, code-named Fermi, in the hope of taking the speed demon title back. These are high-end graphics chips that hardcore gamers care about, but in six months to a year they’ll be widely available to all sorts of PC consumers. The GTX 480 and GTX 470 graphics chips will debut in graphics cards for PCs at the prices $499 and $349, respectively. [...] Read more |
Verizon slows down expansion of its FiOS fiber networkFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Verizon is looking to end the expensive roll out its FiOS service — which delivers high-speed internet, television, and phone service, to millions of subscribers across the East Coast. The company will finish up its FiOS expansion in certain major markets, but those that haven’t received it yet are most likely out of luck, according to the AP. The company is still looking to bring FiOS to communities where it has secured “franchises” — the rights to sell TV services that compete with cable. [...] Read more |
Bancorp, Sungevity team up to finance residential solarFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Rooftop solar panels may be dropping in price, but they’re still out of range for most consumers to buy out of pocket. To bridge this gap, companies like SunRun and SolarCity have cropped up, offering new payment models to make solar panel ownership more realistic. Now one of the newer entrants, Sungevity, has landed a partnership with U.S. Bancorp to finance short-term solar leases. This leasing program launched today in California, helping regular homeowners find, install and maintain the right solar panels for to ten years. [...] Read more |
Apple-Google rivalry doesn’t stop Jobs and Schmidt from getting coffeeFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology The relationship between Google and Apple has been cooling for a while now. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt left the Apple’s board of directors last year because the two companies were increasingly competing head-to-head. And despite claims of mutual admiration, a long article published earlier this month in The New York Times highlighted how the rivalry has turned personal, with Apple chief executive Steve Jobs feeling betrayed by Google’s decision to enter the smartphone market. [...] Read more |
Facebook Auto-Connect? Social network shares data with ‘pre-approved’ sitesFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Facebook said it may automatically share data about users with special partners the minute they visit a site for a more ‘personalized’ experience. The changes are part of new privacy policy the company proposed today. The company didn’t say who these pre-approved partners would be, but said that there would be an opt-out. When a user visits one of these sites, Facebook may hand over information including their name, their friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, connections, and any content shared using the ‘Everyone’ privacy setting. [...] Read more |
Facebook Auto-Connect? Social network shares your data with ‘pre-approved’ sitesFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Facebook said it may automatically share data about users with special partners the minute they visit a site for a more ‘personalized’ experience. The changes are part of new privacy policy the company proposed today. The company didn’t say who these pre-approved partners would be, but said that there would be an opt-out. When a user visits one of these sites, Facebook may hand over information including their name, their friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, connections, and any content shared using the ‘Everyone’ privacy setting. [...] Read more |
Facebook may automatically share your data with ‘pre-approved’ partnersFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Facebook said it may start automatically sharing data about users with special partners the minute they visit a site for a more ‘personalized’ experience. The changes are part of a new privacy policy the company proposed today. The company didn’t say who these pre-approved partners would be, but said that site members would be able to opt-out of having their data shared. When a user visits partner sites, Facebook may hand over information including their name, their friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, connections, and any content shared using the ‘Everyone’ privacy setting. [...] Read more |
Telecom gear maker Calix goes public at top of rangeFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Petaluma, Calif.-based Calix, maker of broadband hardware and software unknowingly used by many rural customers in America, completed an initial public offering today for which shares were priced at $13.00. Reuters reports that the price was at the top of the company’s expected range. The company’s name is pronounced with a short a. It’s New York Stock Exchange symbol is CALX. In today’s offering, Calix sold 6.3 million shares, raising an estimated $82.3 million. VentureBeat covered the company’s $100 million funding round last August. [...] Read more |
Facebook proposes new location policies, says you’ll be able to tag placesFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Facebook proposed a few changes to its privacy policy today, and notably it’s taking a much broader approach to including location. Now the company hasn’t launched geotagging or “checking in” yet, but in the most recent version of its privacy policy first released last year, the company said it would allow people to add “a location to something you post.” They’ve made that a lot vaguer now, and instead you can tag posts with a “place” like a Fan Page. [...] Read more |
Facebook’s proposed location policies hint that friends can tag you at placesFriday, March 26, 2010Source: Venture Beat | Category: Technology Facebook proposed a few changes to its privacy policy today, and notably it’s taking a much broader approach to including location. The company hasn’t launched geotagging or “checking in” yet. But in the most recent version of its privacy policy released last year, the company said it would allow people to add “a location to something you post.” They’ve made that a lot vaguer now, and instead you can tag posts with a “place” like a Fan Page. Making geotagging compatible with Fan Pages could make Facebook’s local pages a lot richer and maybe even competitive to Google’s Place Pages or Yelp’s listings. [...] Read more |
