Nimble launches 2.0 customer relationship management to help brands beef up their social presence

Customer relationship management company Nimble rolled out its 2.0 version today to help companies better make use of social media.

The company told us last month that it was adding new features, such as a hub to control all of a company’s different social networks. As Nimble chief executive Jon Ferrara explains, you can’t just put a community manager in front of a computer and call that “relationship management.” He says there is a lack … Continue Reading

Can Zynga satisfy investors with its first-ever earnings report?

Zynga is expected to report a profit for the fourth-quarter in its first-ever quarter financial report after the market closes on Tuesday.

The largest publisher of social games on Facebook is expected to report a profit of 3 cents a share, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Revenues are expected to be $302.4 million, up 54 percent from $195.8 million a year ago.

Zynga has been launching one social or mobile game after another … Continue Reading

What the heck is an interest graph? Pearltrees raises $6.6M to show us

Social curation startup Pearltrees has just sealed a deal for €5 million (around $6.6 million), all in the name of creating a better interest graph.

Much is being made in current social media circles of the “interest graph” concept, which is more about what you know than who you know, and which purportedly has strong connections to purchase intent and other matters of concern to online marketers.

Put differently, while social networks like Facebook focus … Continue Reading

WePay serves the “unsophisticated” online seller

WePay, the company that makes it easy for Joe Schmo to charge people online, has officially helped over 25,000 customers, and is releasing other numbers today.

“When we first built this company, we said we’re going to make it really easy for normal people to collect money online from groups of friends,” said chief operating officer Rich Aberman in an interview with VentureBeat. “It’d be a way for people to collect money for your fantasy … Continue Reading

Apple set to unveil iPad 3 on March 7

Wednesday, March 7 is the date covetous Apple fans can finally catch their first real glimpse at the much-ballyhooed iPad 3, according to a new report.

Citing reliable sources, iMore editor-in-chief Rene Ritchie declared that we can expect Apple to unveil its newest tablet on the first Wednesday in March. The day aligns with past Apple media events and matches the early March timing AllThingsD reported last week.

“Along with the 2048×1536 Retina display, the … Continue Reading

On a mission from God — VentureBeat and DEMO heading to Chicago to find hot companies

As our DEMO world tour rolls on, we continue to add more stops along the way.  Next up is Chicago where we’ll be on February 27.

We know Chicago has turned into a hive of startup talent, so it seemed like the logical place to go to meet up-and-coming innovators. This will be our first time out that way, so if you’re building the next big tech company in Chicago, we want to meet with … Continue Reading

New YouTube producer terms let Google play your videos anywhere

After announcing a new YouTube Google TV app yesterday, Google is now encouraging YouTube content partners to sign new terms that give the company permission to play their videos across all platforms (mobile, TV, web, etc.) by default.

Right now, content partners upload their videos to YouTube and take a cut of the revenue that’s brought in from the advertising. The partners currently have the option to restrict their videos from being played on certain … Continue Reading

Instant messenger app IM+ raises $10M

Shape, the company behind online instant messenger service IM+, announced Monday it has raised $10 million from Russian brokerage firm Finam.

IM+ is an online instant messenger and mobile app that connects with multiple instant messaging services including Aol instant messenger, Jabber, Skype, Google Chat, and Facebook Chat. You can send instant messages from multiple accounts in one interface and save your chat history. The service has more than 17 million monthly users.

Shape also … Continue Reading

U.S. says Google’s acquisition of Motorola is a go

Google headquarters must be all high-fives today. Just hours after the European Commission cleared the company’s proposed acquisition of Motorola, the U.S. Department of Justice has given its approval on the deal as well.

“The division concluded that the specific transactions at issue are not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics,” the Department of Justice said in a press release today that concerned Google’s Motorola acquisition and its approval of the Nortel and Novell … Continue Reading

Mozilla moving forward with Metro-style Firefox for Windows 8

Mozilla has decided to begin work on a touch-enabled version of its popular Firefox web browser for Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system, the company revealed yesterday.

The Windows 8 OS allows companies to develop apps for its touch-based Metro interface as well as for a traditional desktop interface. But while Mozilla has the traditional side essentially covered with the current iteration of Firefox for PCs, the company has to start developing the Metro app, … Continue Reading

Google confirms Internet users in Iran are blocked (updated)

Updated with charts from Google.

Google confirmed today that its users in Iran are being blocked by a new regulation against access to secure browsing, or HTTPS websites. The block has been in action since February 10.

In celebration of the overthrow of its monarchy in 1979, Iran decided to block Internet access to all encrypted websites using the “HTTPS” format. That means anyone using the Internet in Iran won’t be able to connect to … Continue Reading

ZeptoLab cuts deals with toymakers on Cut the Rope characters

ZeptoLab is cashing in on its Cut the Rope smartphone game — which has been downloaded more than 100 million times — by announcing several licensing deals today with Hasbro, Mattel, JAKKS Pacific, and apparel company LF USA.

The merchandising agreements are part of the company’s push to become a global gaming brand and expand into new markets. The deals are similar to those struck by Rovio for its Angry Birds mobile game and Outfit7 … Continue Reading

PBS lets iOS users see new documentary before it airs on TV

The Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) has decided to rip a page out of HBO’s book by giving iPad and iPhone owners early access to its exclusive video content before it debuts to the rest of the world.

iOS device owners that have the free PBS app can watch the first hour of the new documentary on President Bill Clinton American Experience: Clinton today — a week before it premieres on television Feb. 20, which is … Continue Reading

Apple’s labor response proves its brand is in danger, critic says

Apple released a statement to the press this morning about new labor condition audits it had asked for at Foxconn, the Cupertino company’s most infamous Chinese manufacturer.

Mike Daisey, an actor and monologist whose reporting and theatrical work has brought increased scrutiny to Apple’s labor practices, says the timing of the announcement is big news in and of itself.

“This isn’t new information,” Daisy told VentureBeat. “They talked about this work with the Fair Labor … Continue Reading

Facebook and the big IPO letdown

Facebook’s IPO has raised hopes in Silicon Valley that the tech industry’s days of wine and roses will soon be back with hundreds of startups going public. Even President Obama seems excited. He recently proposed an “IPO on-ramp” to help young, smaller companies go public.

Sadly, everyone is going to be disappointed.

We are not going to see the flood of IPOs that happened during the late 90s. The rules of the game have changed. … Continue Reading

Bridgelux raises $25M to replace your old lightbulbs with LEDs

Bridgelux, a company that produces low-cost LED light bulbs, announced today it has raised $25 million in funding from Chinese lighting company Kaistar Lighting.

“We want people to think about lightbulbs and the innovation behind them, we want you to throw away lightbulbs because ours are better and more energy-efficient,” Bill Watkins, Bridgelux chief executive and former Seagate CEO, told VentureBeat.

The company produces solid-state lighting, or light bulbs made of light emitting diodes (LEDs) … Continue Reading

Most installed Google TV apps include Napster, Pandora, and CNBC

Music and financial news top the list for the most successful Google TV applications, according to a new six-month-long study from Xyologic.

The Android OS-based Google TV software, which currently runs on a variety of set-top boxes from Logitech, Sony, and others, allows regular television sets to gain access to content on the Internet. It also helps organize that content so it can more easily be found and consumed, and it adds support for developers … Continue Reading

Google’s Motorola acquisition clears EU regulators’ hurdles; U.S. is next

Google’s planned acquisition of Motorola Mobility has just officially passed muster in the European Union.

Regulators had put the deal on hold in both the U.S. and EU pending investigation for possible antitrust issues.

“We’re happy that today the European Commission approved our proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which we announced in August,” wrote Google VP and deputy general counsel Don Harrison today on the company blog.

“This is an important milestone in the approval … Continue Reading

Zynga launches iPhone game Dream Heights: Let the copycat wars begin

Zynga launched its Dream Heights mobile game for the iPhone and iPad today. The title enables players to build the “skyscraper of the century,” but the game is sure to get a lot of press because Zynga has been accused of ripping off the game from independent developer Nimblebit, creator of Tiny Tower.

Zynga acknowledged its entry into the popular genre wasn’t the first.

“While Zynga surely isn’t the first of many great games already … Continue Reading

Rich men love Pinterest too (infographic)

Scrap everything you think you know about the people of Pinterest.

Pinterest, the insanely buzzy invite-only digital pin-board site, has been pegged as the online place where 35-to-44-year-old Suzy homemakers congregate to swap recipes and fashion finds.

That characterization may be true of members in the U.S., but across the pond the average Pinterest user is anything but predictable.

Pinterest users in the U.K. are predominantly well-to-do, professionally-motivated young men between the ages of 25 … Continue Reading