Who's your paddy? A precise examination of the genome of domestic rice has determined that one of the world's most ancient of all domesticated agricultural grains was first farmed in China.

Vintage hood ornament from this weekend in Sonoma… http://zan.gy/iCy4uQ # Forget about Facebook & Zynga. I am most excited about Dunkin' Donuts IPO – buy a share and get a glazed doughnut to go. #

This past November, the blogosphere was briefly set on fire when a comment Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak made in passing stated that Apple had acquired the voice recognition company Nuance. Wozniak quickly came out and corrected that comment, and most believed that he had simply confused Nuance with the company he mentioned right afterwards, Siri — a company that Apple actually did acquire in April 2010. But as it turns out, Wozniak's comment, whether he knew it or not at the time, may not have been as off as it seemed. Apple has been negotiating a deal with Nuance in recent months, we've heard from multiple sources. What does that mean? Well, it could mean an acquisition, but that is looking fairly unlikely at this point, we hear. More likely, it means a partnership that will be vital to both companies and could shape the future of iOS.

With two online game services down and 100 million accounts possibly compromised, Sony is mulling a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the hackers, according to AllThingsDigital.

Sony hasn’t reached a final decision on whether to offer the reward. The options shows that the company is still taking a hard line on pursuing hackers, even as Anonymous, the hacktivist group, considers more attacks in the coming days against different Sony sites.

The PlayStation Networks, which has 77 million registered users, has been down fore more than two weeks as a result of a hacker attack. The Station, an online network for 24 million PC online gamers, has been down since Monday. Sony has apologized multiple times for the outage and says it is beefing up security.

If Sony moves forward on the reward, it will do so in cooperation with law enforcement agencies such as the FBI. Sony is hoping to knock loose information about who carried out the attack on April 19. Our timeline on the sequence of events is here. Meanwhile, Sony said that accusations by computer security expert Gene Spafford during a Congressional hearing Thursday were wrong.

Spafford said that Sony was running outdated versions of Web server software and had not been using a firewall on its servers. In a statement, Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold, said the company was using updated software and had “multiple security measures in place,” including firewalls. Anonymous is rumored to be planning a new attack.

Tags: Anonymous, hacker attack

Companies: Sony

People: Patrick Seybold

A new document shows that Zynga is raising a new round of funding up to $490 million, according to Inside Social Games.

The filing shows that Zynga, the largest social gaming firm on Facebook, has authorized a new series of Series C preferred shares as of early March, according to financial analysis firm VC Experts.

In February, published reports suggested that Zynga was raising a round of $500 million at a valuation of $10 billion. But the round was never announced. The filing shows that the deal may still be in the works or has already been completed. VC Experts calculated that the post-investment value of Zynga after the new round could be $9.1 billion, assuming that all authorized shares have been issued.

AllThingsD previously said that Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Investments, venture firm Kleiner Perkins were participants, while the New York Times said in April that T.Rowe Price now owns $71.8 million in stock. The murky things about the filing is that Zynga doesn’t have to file these documents on a timely basis and they are somewhat vague as well.

Tags: social games

Companies: Zynga

Old @crazyegg heatmap of http://wordpress.com homepage from 2005 (Taken with instagram)

It’s Friday.  You know, the day we all get down?  Friday means another Best in Beta newsletter featuring the hottest and most helpful new startups, web apps, and mobile apps.  Subscribers get the weekly newsletter free.  Non-subscribers pay $0.99 to view it below.  If you aren’t in to parting with your $0.99, get on the [...]

Venture capital-backed startups got a slap on the back this week, but that was followed by a slap in the face in the latest round of Washington political gamesmanship over how much lawmakers should or should not encourage venture capital-backed innovation. So far, the battle to enhance U.S. innovation is taking yet another hit. What [...]

San Francisco-based JiWire, which operates an online advertising network targeting public Wi-Fi networks in places such as airports, said today that it has raised $20 million in new funding. New investor Trident Capital led the Series C round, which was joined by existing investors Comcast Interactive Capital, DFJ Frontier, Norwest Venture Partners, and Panorama Capital. The [...]

I received an interesting letter in the mail on Friday. 

Here it is: 




So, let's start with the bad: 

For some reason, the date on the letter was typed in as April 11. The postmark on the envelope said May 4. So someone at Key Bank made a mistake.

The second bad thing was the name. You NEVER mail a letter to someone without knowing their name. "ATTN: Manager/Owner" is completely impersonal, and will always get a much worse response then "Dear Dave."

Ok, so let's get into the good:

I thought the message here was really interesting. Mark, the branch manager at the local Key Bank, was offering to do something he felt could really benefit me. Specifically, he offered to distribute my marketing materials to his customers for free.

Importantly, he wasn't asking for anything back in return, although it's implied that if he does this for me, I will reciprocate in some way...probably either by referring him business or becoming a Key Bank client.

I thought this was a really good marketing tactic, and certainly better than the vast majority of direct mail I receive.

The case he made was pretty compelling; offering me something that most business owners crave -- free promotions to potential customers.

A couple of key lessons that I see here are:

1. It's much better to give first then ask first. By giving (in this case, giving was done in the form of offering to promote my business), the bank got me interested, and increased m chances of saying "yes." And once I said "yes" to this, the chance of me becoming a client of there's shot up too.

2. Partnerships work. A partnership is simply a relationship between two firms in which they both hope to benefit. The bank offered me the benefit of customer exposure. And the benefit they would have received in return was my business.

Partnerships are key to the success of many businesses. To identify potential partners, think about other companies who are serving the customers you would like to serve. And then contact them. In the bank's case, it knew that it was serving customers that I wanted to serve.

Importantly, partnerships and direct mail are just two of tons of marketing tactics that are available to you to grow your business. What's critical is having a real marketing plan and identifying the optimal marketing tactics for YOUR business. Watch the video below to learn more:

read more

An anonymous author on Read Write Web recently proclaimed the death of the Check-In in 2011, pointing to factors such as falling numbers on Foursquare and modest check-ins on Facebook Places as indicators of the decline in interest among users. At the time this caused a bit of a stir among the blogging community and Shel Holtz [...]

Whoa there tipsters, slow down. We've just been bombarded with tips coming our way that Google has rolled out a new-look search results page. Scanning Twitter, it looks like there are in fact a lot of people seeing this. And boy is it ugly. I mean, it's great that Google appears to be trying to clean up the look of the results page, which has gotten pretty cluttered over the years as they add more and more types of information and snippets. But the new design is too sparse. And the colors are too soft. It looks like Bing on a bad day.

Notable developer Joe Hewitt has left Facebook to pursue independent projects. From his blog: "Today was my last day at Facebook. Normally when I leave a job I go out cursing the management and wishing I had left much sooner. In the case of Facebook, I sent heartfelt emails to all of my managers thanking them for the privilege of letting me work there, and I genuinely meant it. Facebook was the longest I ever worked at one company, and the best employer I've ever had." Updating.

7% 7% 0

Facebook leads the location-based market, with Google Latitude and Foursquare close behind

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to attend the Social-Loco Conference in San Francisco, which brought together many of the best minds in the social media and location industry to see and discuss the latest greatest innovations in that booming space. AskLocal, BUMP.com, Hearsay Social and Neer (from Qualcomm) are just a few of the many startups and services that showed ... [Read more]

Slim week: nearly $130 million for 17 startups (two seed, nine early-stage, six late-stage)

Seed-stage AppDirect, a new way for businesses to find, buy and use Web-based software, raised a $3.25 million seed round led by iNovia Capital. Mobile developer NoiseToys raised $1.2 million in seed funding from several investors, including DCM, former Playdom Chairman Rick Thompson, and Guitar Hero co-creator Charles Huang.   Early-stage COLOURlovers raised $1 million from a long list of ... [Read more]

Lenovo is backing a new video game system that is expected to launch in the second half of this year in China. The iSec system has Kinect-like motion controls and is aimed at a mass market consumer that doesn’t buy the current game consoles.

Beijing-based Eedoo Technology (spelled eedoo by the company) hopes to cash in on the fact that foreign companies like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are barred from direct sales in China. Eedoo is funded by Lenovo, China’s biggest PC manufacturer, and it unveiled the iSec (previously known as the eBox) on Friday. The name refers to Sports Entertainment Center.

The iSec uses a 3D depth camera, much like Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing system does, so that a user can control the system with hand gestures or body motions. The games that the company has talked about so far focuses on exercise or martial arts. The system also supports other kinds of entertainment such as movies and web surfing or karaoke.

China’s government hasn’t approved the game consoles in the past because they have been focused purely on fun, rather than entertainment. Eedoo has an edge in getting approval because it is locally made and it is family friendly, with a focus on health and entertainment.

Jack Luo, chief executive of the company, said the company will focus on the Chinese market first. He did not disclose the price. China’s online game market based on the PC is going through a boom right now, with overall revenues expected to hit $5.8 billion in 2011, according to Niko Partners. Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are still trying to get approval to sell their machines in the country. Zeebo, another low-cost console maker, launched in China with a focus on education titles.

Tags: China, game console, iSec, online gaming, video games

Companies: eedoo Technology, Lenovo

People: Jack Luo

The Royals and the Middletons pose for an official family photo with Bride and Groom, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge. Originally...

Jumping the Broom is about a man and a woman from different worlds who unexpectedly meet, fall in love and get married despite the objections of the family. Both families...

Will Apple pull the old chip switcheroo again, and embrace ARM CPUs on its Macs instead of Intel silicon? You bet it might, say new rumors, because it could mean your MacBook lasts pretty much all day on a charge.

Only a handful of years ago, Apple abandoned its long relationship with IBM and the PowerPC line of processors for shiny new Intel silicon. The switch from G5 to Intel caused an upheaval of epic proportions among the user community and for the people who code for Apple software--and even required Apple to nursemaid the transition with special dual-mode compatibility code in its OS X for years. But Apple's never looked back, and thanks to a few early-access treats from Intel, and special treatment like the unique one-off processor designed to make the original MacBook Air such a paradigm-breaking machine, the two have kept working together. That may, according to a new and surprisingly emphatic rumor, all be about to change.

SemiAccurate, a publication that was previously correct in predicting Apple would swing away from using Nvidia GPUs, is the source of the latest rumor. It's based on some insider information, and some smart deductive work: In just a few years, ARM is expected to transition its CPU design to full 64-bit addressing, which would significantly boost the computing power, while retaining the core light power requirements that's a characteristic of ARM's design. A transition to ARM CPUs in two to three years would enable Apple to quickly make use of a whole new class of super-powerful chips that eat batteries much less quickly than competing chip architectures. And it would come just a short while after Apple takes its first steps in incorporating lessons from iOS devices like the iPhone (which runs on an ARM chip) back into its computing operating system OS X, with the latest update into OS X Lion.

And don't forget Apple already has lots of ARM design expertise in-house, thanks to its acquisition of PA Semi for close to $300 million in 2008.

With two more generational tweaks to OS X, and continued development of iOS, Apple could easily make OS X work on ARM chips instead of Intel's. This would also align how code is written for pretty much every device Apple makes. Supplying an emulation system, like it did for the transition to Intel chips inside Macs, wouldn't be difficult, and the fact that Mac apps are now slightly cheaper to buy (thanks to the Mac App Store, and halo effect of the iOS App Store) would mean users wouldn't feel hard done by when, in say four to five years, Apple stopped supporting Intel x68-only software for its ARM-based Macs.

But there's one big reason Apple would want to pull off this trick, which would be timed to the A15 ARM generation: Mobile computing. There's an undeniable move away from desktop PCs that was initially driven by advances in laptop tech, boosted by the netbook phenomenon, and is now being rocketed into the stratosphere by the tablet PC paradigm. Users now expect ever-more powerful portable machines. And though Intel has teased its next-gen low-power 3-D chip solution, the main reason it's currently shut out of the tablet market is that its chip architecture simply can't compete with ARM chips in terms of power consumption.

The iPad works for around 10 hours on a charge, while the new 11-inch iMacs run reliably into four hours of usage, and Apple's existing bigger MacBook Pros can go up to 7 hours with the Wi-Fi on...all with existing tech. Imagine in 3 years' time, with evolutions in battery design, screen technology (so they consume less power when lit) and solid-state memory advances, a MacBook sporting a low-power-consumption, super-fast ARM chip. Hypothetically, that Mac could run for 18 hours or more on a single charge.

If Apple's desktop Macs ran ARM chips, too, then perhaps they'd need much less cooling--leading to quieter, more efficient power needs. And who wouldn't like to run apps on a top-end Mac Pro with four ARM CPUs aboard, sporting up to 32 separate processor cores?

[Image: Flickr user junesey]

Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.

Most Innovative Companies 2011: Apple.

Christina Norman told the audience at our Innovation Uncensored event last week how she was visibly unsure about joining OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network as its CEO. Even a star-powered, deeply funded network is a lot like a small startup, full of twists and turns. In the latest twist a week later, Norman herself has been let go.

Photo: Brigitte Sire

Now that Oprah Winfrey herself has announced she'll be turning her full attentions to her OWN network and plans to bring along her new show, Oprah's Next Chapter, in Jan 2012, she's overseen the network's first big staff move, too: dismissing CEO Christina Norman. The dismissal comes after the network has failed to outperform the channel it replaced, Discovery Health, Brian Stetler reports today on the New York Times' Media Decoder blog. Peter Liguori, chief operating officer for Discovery Communications, takes over immediately--at least through the rest of 2011.

Norman just told us last week about how her first big visit with Oprah was a flop. Oprah had to cancel--her dog died. In case that wasn't a bad enough omen, a second meeting went horribly, Norman said, adding that she was visibly ambivalent about the opportunity.

[video_twistage 1]

Norman was so bad in the interview, she said she remembered Oprah saying, "I thought you needed hormones or something." Norman also admitted: "This is not the kind of job, the kind of person you half-ass it for." She let the bad interview pass but later came to her senses. "I called everybody I knew to get back in it," Norman told her panel's moderator Linda Tischler. But months later, she heard Oprah was still on the hunt for a CEO. So she threw her hat back in the ring. She landed the position.

Until today. Norman never seemed to be kidding herself about the challenges she faced at the network. It is very much a startup, Norman told Fast Company last week, after, it's now being reported, the OWN board had already made the decision to dismiss her--but before the news was announced. "Is it going to work, is it going to fail?" Norman asked about the network. "It's going to be a roller coaster, and how do you sort of lead and navigate through that?"

[video_twistage 2]Video editing by Adam Barenblat

Micro-finance is terrific in concept. All it's missing is a winning platform. In this installment of Work Smart, John Ferber of Microgiving.com describes the important differences between loansharking and micro-giving and lending that's estimated to have helped a billion people in need. Plus, learn about a few micro-lending and giving sites, including a Google-style search site for micro-finance services--proven to do good. 

 

La Red Innova is the No.1 Tech Conference on Innovation, Internet, Creativity and Entrepreneurship where Spain, Portugal and Latin America meet the World. Opinion leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, investors, academics, bloggers and government entities come together to share their experiences, ideas and projects.

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Add more -ing to your business plan, to build your business faster and smarter.

Business plans take many forms. To a bakery owner, it might be a 50-page document detailing the company's financial plans for the next five years. To a programmer, it might be a drawing on a napkin, an idea, or prototype. Or, it might exist only in concept: For many tech start-ups right now, business plans are considered a waste of time—they're even downright uncool. After all, Facebook didn't have a business plan at the beginning. Bootstrappers tend to shun business plans, too. We're not raising money, they reason. So why spend our energy writing a plan?

This way of thinking isn't necessarily wrong, but it's not for everybody. I run an organization that helps entrepreneurs launch their businesses, and I've seen a lot of people, who decide to just do it, get into serious trouble. I met one woman, who wanted to build a website and an e-mail newsletter about religion. She and her friends loved the idea. She poured tens of thousands of dollars into building a fancy website, but after working on it full time for a year, she got frustrated by her lack of progress and approached me for advice. I asked a few basic questions: Is your primary revenue source ads in newsletters or on the website? What does it cost you to acquire a subscriber? What brands want to advertise, how much will they pay, and how much traffic do you need to get them interested? How many subscribers do you need to break-even? All I got were blank stares. We eventually got her on the right track, but her oversights cost her a lot of time, money, and aggravation.

Then there are those business owners who spend months writing their plan. I had one client—let's call him Lenny—who had a 40-page business plan complete with text, charts, footnotes, and numerous appendices, not unlike a college term paper. When we met the first time, Lenny walked in with a swagger, and dropped a spiral-bound tome on my conference table. When I tried to ask him a few questions, he simply said, "It's all in there." I explained to him that I didn't have time to read it and asked him to explain his business. Lenny tried, but had trouble keeping it clear and quick, and left out many important topics. He had spent four months writing a document that nobody wanted to read and that didn't help him articulate his ideas.

So, what is a business plan, if neither of those two things? It's the process of planning a business. It's about thinking through a business idea and sharing those thoughts clearly.

When thinking through your idea, try your best to be objective. Quiet the voices in your head that say, I just know it will work. And don't rely on just your research and analysis. Get out and talk to potential customers. Reach out to people who understand your type of business. Share your thoughts, and ask for advice and introductions.

Once you've analyzed and vetted your ideas, and you're confident that you're on the right track, shift into pitch mode. Prepare to share your ideas in a persuasive, clear, and compelling way in order to attract partners, employees, advisory board members—and investors if you need them.

The best way to share your ideas is through conversations. If you're great at making presentations, you could conduct those conversations with spoken words and a few visuals, like a product demonstration and a few drawings on a white board. But most people find it easier to keep business planning conversations on-track with the aid of a short PowerPoint presentation. Of course, this is business, and there are numbers involved. Unless you can count cards like Rain Man, you'll probably want to run the numbers using an Excel spreadsheet, and paste a few high-level charts into your PowerPoint deck. Finally, you've got to land meetings to have the conversations, so you'll want to have a one-minute elevator pitch and a one-page summary.

So when planning a business, save time and trees by ditching the 40-page term paper. Spend just a few weeks thinking through your ideas and creating a short, compelling pitch. Then buy yourself a beverage as a reward for being smart, and use the napkin as a coaster instead.

Facebook, for me at least, has mainly been about looking for newly updated photos of my two-year-old nephew who lives two time zones away in the Midwest. But I’m well aware this isn’t a mainstream point of view, and that many of the online social network’s 600 million global users really like to get their [...]

Anytime you get a few hundred people in a room and add a couple of drink tickets, there are bound to be some interesting moments. And when that crowd is comprised of the techies, entrepreneurs, risk-takers and rich people from the startup scene, you’re starting from some pretty fertile ground for quirkiness. Last night’s Seattle [...]

The cleantech industry has a million different technology ideas out there, and just about as many financing strategies. There are mom-and-pop companies raising cash from friends and family, there’s venture capital, government grants, big energy company partnerships, and huge projects such as wind farms or ethanol refineries that rely on deep pockets in private equity [...]

What do the top executives at Qualcomm view as the key developments as mobile communications accelerate with the proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and other wireless devices? At a town hall forum last night at the wireless giant’s San Diego headquarters, Qualcomm chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs said the mobile experience has gone through a critical [...]

It has been a wild and woolly week in the world of Microsoft, and so it is time once again to look back over the last seven days and dig through the biggest stories. For this week’s question, sound off in the comments as to what piece of software you use to manage music on your Windows [...]

HopStop is a New York City based website that provides directions via subway, bus or walking to and from anywhere you want to go in 37 cities around the world. As a busy 26-year old in the big city with almost no sense of direction, I use its slick iPhone app almost everyday. The site provides [...]

Any startup that can compel an investor to interrupt their pitch in front of a crowded auditorium to offer investment deserves some recognition. You may remember Volta; it’s the company that Dave McClure so proudly proclaimed to have a “raging boner” for on stage at this year’s Launch Conference. Volta provides an A/B testing framework [...]

Earlier this week, Jessica Pressler of NY Mag tweeted, “I just Tweeted in my head, or had what they used to call, ‘a thought.’” While hilarious, it’s a poignant observation. Keeping a thought to yourself is now out of vogue – despite the very obvious benefits of keeping a respectable public image. We’ve been conditioned [...]

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), Samsung’s Windows Phone 7 (WP7) handsets are “gaining traction.” The statement from the research company came in a report on the top five global smartphone manufacturers. Samsung, maker of several WP7 phones including the popular Focus, has been a provider of Windows Phone 7 handsets since the mobile [...]

Free the music! Developers, rejoice. Rdio, the much loved social music service, is leaking its Mobile Playback API for Android and iOS platforms tomorrow to select developers at San Francisco’s Music Hack Day. “Our Mobile Playback API is one of the first of its kind so we expect that mobile developers will be very eager to [...]

TNW Quick Hit: Microsoft has confirmed that many Windows Phone 7 handset owners are experiencing downtime issues with Xbox LIVE services on their phones. Users of Samsung Focus, HTC 7 Mozart, and Omnia 7 devices have reported the problem, confirming that it is not a handset or manufacturer specific issue. In a tweet, the company said that [...]

Brands may be pouring money back into online display advertising, but that doesn't mean that display advertising works or won't be replaced by something else in the next few years. Will it be social, mobile, or something else? At TechCrunch Disrupt NYC, we'll get into this debate with three of the best operators in online advertising: Facebook's new VP of Global Advertising Carolyn Everson, Medialets CEO Eric Litman, and Right Media founder Mike Walrath. Media companies and brands still don't understand the power of social advertising, and Everson is going to explain it to them.

The idea behind Grubwithus is an awesome yet simple one. You browse for a restaurant you'd like to go to in a certain city and buy a ticket for your meal at a set price. But the key is that others do this as well, all with the intention of meeting new people over dinner. And when you're buying your ticket, you can see who your dinner buddies will be. Yes, it's sort of like Groupon meets Meetup. And yes, it's brilliant. So it should be no surprise that a long list of prominent early-stage investors have decided they'd love to back Grubwithus. The service, which launched out of Y Combinator last year, has just raised a $1.6 million round. Who's at the funding table? Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, NEA, SV Angel, Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, Vivi Nevo, Maynard Webb, Matt Cutts, Elad Gil, Paul Buchheit, Alexis Ohanian, Start Fund, and Y Combinator.

LAGOS, NIGERIA-- I'm in Lagos to speak at an event and decided to come a week early to check out the country's tech and entrepreneurship scene. Apparently Arrington thought I was kidding when I told him this. But he should know by now, I don't need a lot of arm twisting to visit a country of 150 million people chaotically surging into modernity. Where there's that much opportunity, there's always entrepreneurship. Nigeria has fascinated me for the last few years: It has the largest population of any country in Africa. It has abundant natural resources, most notably oil. And it has a ton of potential outside of oil. According to the World Bank the non-oil economy has grown at 8% per year for most of the last decade. The problem is employment hasn't budged, and the country has fifty million unemployed young people. Those are the official figures, but people in the country tell me it's actually much higher than that. That helps explain why Nigeria is more known in the West for 419 email scams than its vast economic potential.

Who needs another social network? Maybe you, friend. Admittedly, the social networking space is packed with so many players, it makes the mind reel. Across the Web, it seems like a new social network is born (and dies) every day. There are niche social networking sites for everything you can imagine. The knitting and crochet community has one, as do gamers, pet-lovers, and bowlers. Some of these specialized networks have significant traffic, and while Facebook Groups continues to evolve, it seems that there may still be room for social networks that revolve around shared interests, and specific groups and activities. It's also true that more and more companies are becoming interested in leveraging online activity and interaction to create meaningful connections, relationships, and services offline. The examples are endless. It's for these reasons that Zenergo, an activity-based social network that launches today, still believes there's room to succeed.

Originally posted in True Films

Here is a rare inside look at where your stuff comes from. The central event in China today is the mass migration of 100 million country folk to the cities to work in factories. This documentary follows one family out of those 100 million as it sacrifices everything to gain very little. Just getting the last train home at New Year's is an ordeal worthy of arctic expedition. This raw and candid film is really a coming of age story about a typical teenage girl who can't leave her boring farm quick enough, and the great pain her parents endure to help her succeed. But in the end it is a heartbreaking family drama -- one played out millions and millions of times. With no preaching, you get to see the actual costs of the cheap jeans and electronics we purchase today. A big global picture is painted with this very intimate portrait of real life in the real China.

-- KK

San Francisco-based JiWire, a provider of location-based information for the wireless market, announced Friday that it has raised $20M in a Series C funding round. The funding was led by Trident Capital, and also included prior investors Comcast Interactive Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Norwest Venture Partners and Panorama Capital. The firm said the funding brings its total raised to $45M. Trident's John Moragne joins the company's board of directors.

Menlo Park-based venture capital firm Mohr Davidow said Friday that it has named Paul Cleveland as its Chief Operating Officer. MDV said that Cleveland will be responsible for finance, operations, and administrative functions in the newly created role. Cleveland was most recently CFO and EVP of Corporate Development at Affymax; he has also seved at Integrated Finance, Ltd., JP Morgan, Cooley Godward, Sidley & Austin and Davis Polk & Wardwell.

This week, a proposal to tax cars by the mile seemed to take the country by surprise. But, yawn, it's actually so 2009.

My kids and I have a new game we play while driving around Manhattan:  spot the dirty restaurants.  It's easy.  You just look for the large letter grade posted on the restaurant storefront.  If it's an "A", it's usually prominently displayed on the front door, next to the menu.  The "B's" are typically on a side window.  The "C's" are the most challenging to find -- and thus, earn the most points in our game.  Last week, I spotted one on a restaurant's side window, behind a planter, posted at the eye level of a toddler.

Demand Media reported a 48% increase in revenue; SV Angel raises $11.7 million for new fund

Demand Media reported $79.5 million in revenues in Q1, an increase of 48% over Q1 2010, when the company posted $53.6 million in revenues Google is gearing up to map the world’s newest country, the Republic of South Sudan, which is expected to take shape later this year.   Group messaging application GroupMe acquired “personal relationship management” company Sensobi. Terms ... [Read more]

A convenient guide for navigating the online world of Mother's Day gifts

Look alive, slackers! Mother’s Day is this Sunday, and if you haven’t gotten something for your mom yet, now is the time to start looking. Of course, many of you will go online for all your Mother’s Day shopping needs, but a word of warning: there are many seemingly ideal gifts online that don’t actually translate well in real life. ... [Read more]

T-Mobile had a hard time holding on to subscribers in the first quarter, despite the carrier’s cute Apple-esque TV ads and every-increasing 4G speeds.

The company announced today that it lost 471,000 contract customers in the first quarter, compared to a loss of 118,000 contract customers this time last year. T-Mobile lost 99,000 customers overall in the last quarter, ending with 33.63 million customers.

It’s not entirely surprising to see T-Mobile subscribers jumping ship — AT&T’s impending acquisition of the company isn’t helping to attract new subscribers, and it’s had a very limited (though high-quality) selection of Android smartphones. Still, it’s going to be interesting to see how long T-Mobile’s subscribers numbers continue to freefall.

T-Mobile’s earnings were $135 million for the quarter on $5.16 billion in revenue. That’s down from $362 million in earnings last year on $5.28 billion in revenue. Contract churn, or the number of subscribers who left the carrier, jumped to 2.4 percent in the quarter, up from 2.2 percent last year.

The company blamed “competitive pressures” for its contract customer loss. It certainly didn’t help that it was facing off with the Verizon iPhone and a slew of other Android smartphones on other carriers.

Tags: 4G, carriers, smartphones

Companies: Apple, AT&T, T Mobile

When Sprint announced it was working with Google to offer seamless integration of Google Voice for mobile phones on its network, it seemed like a win-win situation. But barely three days after integration support went live and its clear that everyone is losing — most of all, Sprint customers.

Everything that made Google Voice so appealing has become unavailable for some Sprint subscribers who have attempted to integrate their accounts.

Problems those subscribers have encountered include crippled Google Voice accounts, losing the ability to make or receive phone calls (and SMS messages), security breaches to voicemail and expensive international calling fees (that use Sprint’s rate instead of Google’s). Some can’t activate GV at all, but considering the mess integration is causing that seems more like a blessing than a problem.

What’s worse still is that if you are suffering from GV integration problems, Sprint customer service reps will direct you to the Google Voice Forum, which Google really isn’t acknowledging at this point in time. If you fall under one of these confirmed subscribers or are just someone who relies on their phone for more than just data, it’s probably best to hold off on any integration plans until things have been patched up.

According to Engadget, the problems stem from a failure to correctly issue unique access codes that grant your phone the authority to access things like voicemail and Google Voice. The blame seems to be shared by both human and computers at this point.

But regardless of how these problems are happening, it’s pretty clear that neither Google nor Sprint did enough error testing to ensure a successful launch.

The integration was intended to boost the number of Google Voice users, give Sprint an edge over other carriers and grant Sprint customers access to all the great benefits of using Google Voice without the drawback of having to reroute all calls through a Google utility number.

Instead, everything backfired and may even result in turning people off of Sprint and Google Voice in favor of something more reliable.

Tags: Google Voice integration, wireless

Companies: Google, sprint