Announcing DiscoveryBeat: an event on how to get your apps noticed in an age of noise
VentureBeat is throwing a new mini-conference and networking event, DiscoveryBeat.
DiscoveryBeat addresses one of the biggest conundrums for Silicon Valley’s most dynamic startups and developers: How to get your social game or mobile application noticed in an age of noise?
It will be held in the afternoon… Continue Reading
Broadband chip maker MaxLinear files for IPO
Broadband communications chip maker MaxLinear has filed to go public in another indicator that the good times are back for tech stocks and exits.
Carlsbad, Calif.-based MaxLinear makes analog or mixed-signal radio chips that can be manufactured in standard chip factories. The chips enable devices to… Continue Reading
NXP’s sensors for smart Band-Aids, smart bottles, and pay-per-use cars
Forget about smart phones and smart computers. Cheap and plentiful sensor chips are making possible everything from smart Band-Aids to smart bottles.
NXP Semiconductors, a chip maker that spun out of Philips in 2006, showed off prototypes for these cool applications at its headquarters in San… Continue Reading
Ubisoft on the making of James Cameron’s Avatar the Game (video)
Avatar the Game from Ubisoft is one of the major video game releases of the fall. Based on James Cameron’s Avatar movie, a sci-fi action film debuting on Dec. 18, the game has its own story about a battle between the corporate RDA and indigenous… Continue Reading
James Cameron’s Avatar the Game won’t be as good as the film
Few movies are as eagerly anticipated as James Cameron’s Avatar, a sci-fi epic that has been almost 14 years in the making and is hitting theaters on Dec. 18.
Accompanying the film release is a major video game from Ubisoft dubbed James Cameron’s Avatar the Game…. Continue Reading
How investigators tracked down a Modern Warfare 2 cyber pirate
The posting last Thursday on Craigslist was alarming. Someone was selling a Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundle, with both a console and a game, for $500. The problem was that Modern Warfare 2, one of the most anticipated games of the year, doesn’t officially… Continue Reading
Facebook restates its zero tolerance for scam offers and ads
Faced with media scrutiny, Facebook reiterated in a blog post that it is taking action to improve the quality of third-party ads in its apps. The post was inspired by the controversy that began last Friday when Techcrunch editor Michael Arrington confronted Offerpal chief executive… Continue Reading
Graphics chip maker Nvidia rides on industry recovery
Graphics chip maker Nvidia reported good third fiscal quarter results thanks to the continuing recovery of the personal computer market. The company reported today that revenues came in at $903.2 million for its third fiscal quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $838.1 million. Earnings per… Continue Reading
Activision Blizzard’s video game sales exceed estimates despite recession fears
Activision Blizzard, the largest independent maker of video games, announced that it had better-than-expected quarterly earnings for the third quarter. That’s a bit of a surprise since recession fears have dogged the company, as well as rumors that some of its games were not selling… Continue Reading
Lawsuit alleges Offerpal co-founder was cheated out of ownership
Offerpal Media founder Anu Shukla was hit with a lawsuit this summer over alleged shenanigans over the company’s founding, VentureBeat has learned.
In August, Kevin Halpern filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Shukla. He alleges that he helped start the company in 2006 with Shukla… Continue Reading
Spore Islands launches on Facebook as EA tries social games expansion
Rumors persist that Electronic Arts plans to buy social gaming startup PlayFish to break into the fast-growing market of Facebook games.
In the meantime, EA continues to expand into social games on its own. Today, it launched Spore Islands, a spin-off from the create-a-creature Spore game… Continue Reading
Third quarter global game sales decline 6 percent
Global console video game unit sales declined about 6 percent compared to a year ago according to a measure of three key regional markets, a new report says.
Unit sales collectively fell in the U.S. and United Kingdom markets, while Japan saw an increase in the… Continue Reading
Chip industry forecast not as dire as expected — down 11.6 percent for 2009
The chip industry has a brighter forecast than during the summer, but 2009 will still go down as a dismal year with a 11.6 percent decline in revenues, according to the semiconductor industry’s trade group.
Worldwide chip sales are expected to be $219.7 billion this year,… Continue Reading
Hell returns as id Software’s John Carmack builds Doom Classic for the iPhone
John Carmack is the programming wiz at id Software, the Mesquite, Texas-based company that pioneered the first-person shooter game genre that has generated billions of dollars in the game industry since 1993. Now Carmack has returned to the game that started it all: Doom. He… Continue Reading
Isabella Products and AT&T launch two-way sharing digital photo frames
Isabella Products is announcing Vizit, a two-way interactive digital photo frame that will share photos via AT&T’s wireless network.
Most web-connected digital photo frames can display pictures via flash memory cards or receive them over the Internet. Concord, Mass.-based Isabella has made one that uses AT&T’s… Continue Reading
Ngmoco scores with iPhone games that charge per time played
With a new game, a new business model, and a new developer platform, iPhone game publisher Ngmoco has been able to land itself on the top of the AppStore charts.
Ngmoco’s Eliminate Pro shooting game moved to the No. 1 spot on Apple’s app download store… Continue Reading
In midst of offers debate, Offerpal names George Garrick as CEO
Updated
Offerpal Media has named George Garrick as chief executive. He replaces founder Anu Shukla, who has been in the midst of a fiery debate about the ethics of the business of offers, which are special ads that direct users to participate in a promotional deal… Continue Reading
New York Attorney General sues Intel for antitrust violations
While Microsoft went down in flames on antitrust issues long ago, Intel had until recently escaped the ire of government regulators. But today, the New York Attorney General filed an antitrust suit against the world’s biggest chip maker.
The lawsuit echoes allegations made by the European… Continue Reading
A reinvented Carly Fiorina declares her candidacy for U.S. Senate
Carly Fiorina is reinventing herself as a politician today as she is expected to announce that she is running for the U.S. Senate seat in California that has been held for years by Democrat Barbara Boxer.
I say that she’s reinventing herself because she has played… Continue Reading
With 100,000 apps, is Apple’s iPhone unstoppable?
Apple announced today that the number of apps in the AppStore has now crossed 100,000. That’s a remarkable achievement for a platform that launched just 15 months ago.
As we’ve said before, the momentum behind Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch seems unstoppable. The 100,000 number should… Continue Reading