The MobileBeat 2009 conference went better than we had dared hope for. And we came away with a surprise lesson: Europe’s mobile industry has led the world since its birth, but the balance of power is changing. Many attendees remarked on it: MobileBeat is an event the Valley couldn’t have pulled off a couple of years ago, but now it rivals what you’d expect from a European conference. We’re not bragging about ourselves. It’s the iPhone that has shaken and awakened Americans into a new excitement, enthusiasm and energy for mobile goodies. We Yanks care enough now to argue about it onstage: Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra drew lots of attention at MobileBeat for declaring Google is “not rich enough” to support individual app platforms, as opposed to one standardized browser-based platform. Full story...
We’d like to invite you to pitch your startup idea for the “Who’s Got Game?” contest!
This is our second annual contest that will highlight the best game startup.
Popular video sharing platform YouTube announced today that it has added a new “Safety Mode” feature to its video watching experience.
PlaySpan scored a deal to provide virtual goods and global payment solutions for FooMojo’s FooPets.
(Editor’s note: Jeff Bussgang is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. This column originally appeared on his blog Seeing Both Sides.
Yell.com, the British online version of the Yellow Pages, has launched 18 new microsites powered by Daylife SmartSections, which VentureBeat wrote about in December.
Aspera has made its name transporting big digital files and videos from one professional creator to another since 2004.
There’s a new version of GiveWork, the application that lets iPhone owners perform simple tasks to help refugees, with new features that should make those tasks a little more varied and interesting.
E-cards have become an attractive way of sending cards versus traditional print cards. Through customization and animation features, e-cards are a quick and easy way to avoid the the Hallmark aisle and postage, but still let that someone know you care.
It’s always difficult for any big site to test and roll out new features. Many companies just test internally until they determine they have something good enough to roll out.
According to the Department of Labor, the majority of jobs in the near future will have a heavy focus on technology and having technical skills, including technical consulting and computer systems design.