Internet & Media- Page 1239

Buzznet gets $12.5 million round, changes name

Despite its reliance on advertising revenue in a difficult economic environment, Buzznet announced Thursday it has raised a $12.5 million fourth round of venture funding.

Focus Ventures led the round, with existing investors Anthem Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Redpoint Ventures, and Sutter Hill Ventures participating.

Buzznet, which operates such Web sites as Celebuzz, Socialite Life and Videogum, also announced that it is changing its name to Buzz Media.

Buzz Media declined to comment on whether it received a higher or lower valuation in its fourth round. But CEO Tyler Goldman said: "I thought it was a fair valuation … Read more

Ballmer speaks, Yahoo shares rise, again

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once again publicly declared his interest in a Yahoo search deal, during a keynote speech at the 2009 Media Summit in New York.

And as with his past declarations of interest, Yahoo's stock responded. Yahoo climbed 4.84 percent to $14.07 a share in early morning trading.

Ballmer, according to a post in AllThingsD, had this to say about Yahoo and new CEO Carol Bartz:

I'm sure when it's appropriate, we'll have a chance to sit down and talk.

...Whether a deal gets done or not, who knows.

...There are a … Read more

Cisco buys Flip Video maker for $590 million

Updated 7:46 AM PT with comments from executives at Cisco and Pure Digital.

Cisco Systems, the world's largest maker of switches and routers that power the Internet, has taken another step toward becoming a major player in the consumer electronics market.

On Thursday the company announced it has acquired Pure Digital Technologies, the maker of the popular Flip Video camcorders. Cisco will pay about $590 million in stock for the company and will also provide about $15 million in retention-based equity as incentives to PureDigital employees, the company said in a statement.

Pure Digital started selling its consumer-friendly mini camcorder in May 2007. The device, which is a little bigger than a deck of cards and has a built-in USB connection, was designed to provide an easy and simple way to take video and upload it to the Internet, especially to popular sharing sites like YouTube and MySpace.

The device, which costs between $100 and $229, depending on the version purchased, has built-in memory storage to take up to 30 minutes or 60 minutes of video. The integrated software also makes the device easy to upload video to PCs or Macs. The product line has grown and now includes the Flip MinoHD, a small high-definition camera. Pure Digital says it has sold more than 2 million total Flip video units since the product first went on sale.… Read more

Google deal brings classic books to Sony Reader

Sony's e-book reader is about to get a little help from Jane Austen in its battle with the Kindle.

Sony announced a partnership with Google Wednesday night that will bring a half-million classic books to the Sony Reader Digital Book. Users will now be able to access the free book downloads through Sony's eBook Store.

For years, Google has scanned books and converted them to digital format--at least in part--for its Google Book Search project. For now, Google is providing books to Sony whose copyrights have expired, which means most of the new additions to the Sony Reader … Read more

Netflix: Silverlight 3 could help with glitches

Netflix said on Wednesday that the next version of Silverlight shows some promise in helping ease recent issues that some users have had while trying to stream videos on lower-end computers.

"There are test configurations in our lab where we are seeing an improvement," said Kevin McEntee, vice president of Web development for Netflix. McEntee told CNET News that the company went out and bought computers such as an Asus Netbook that users had said were causing problems. In some cases, the low-end machines weren't able to keep up with the video and were dropping frames, McEntee … Read more

At SXSWi, how much should big media be listening?

AUSTIN, Texas--With panels and discussions every year about social engineering, hacking, remixing, and culture jamming, South by Southwest Interactive is the must-attend conference for geeks who want to shake things up.

Maybe that's why the many panels at the conference about the future of media--from print to broadcast to music to film--were tinged with the message that fast, often radical change is necessary. With panel topics like "How Copyright Law Failed The Digital Age," "New Think for Old Publishers," and "Old Media Finds New Voice Through Twitter," this year's SXSWi promised to … Read more

SXSWi 2009: Tech fest in Texas

roundup South by Southwest Interactive in Austin is the ultimate petri dish for tech enthusiasts eager to try out innovative ways to meet up, socialize, and consume media.

Latest coverage Featured stories At SXSW, attendees confront Twitter saturation So many people are using the "#sxsw" tag in their tweets that it has become extremely hard to filter for worthwhile panels and parties. That is creating an opportunity for other services. (Posted in Webware by Daniel Terdiman) March 14, 2009 1:10 PM PDT Facebook: It's party time for the social Web...on the iPhone Facebook Connect for … Read more

Google again delays debut of Project 10^100 ideas

Google had planned to announce on Tuesday the ideas for its Project 10-to-the-100th to improve the world through Google-sponsored work, but the search giant delayed the announcement a second time.

"We will unfortunately have to delay announcing the top ideas for Project 10^100 for a while longer. We've never managed a project like this and it's taken more time than we ever imagined possible. We apologize for our overoptimistic assumptions about how quickly we could analyze all the ideas that we've received, and thank everyone for their patience," said Andy Berndt, managing director of … Read more

Muziic: YouTube approved our site

Muziic, the service that acts as a media player for YouTube music videos, has agreed to make changes asked for by YouTube managers, and the service's 15-year-old co-founder saw nothing else standing in Muziic's way.

Last week, YouTube managers raised objections to the size of Muziic's video player and said it violated the company's API terms of use, said David Nelson, Muziic's teenage co-founder. After discussions that occurred over several days, Nelson agreed to increase the size of the player, which has been postage-stamp size since launch.

On Tuesday, Nelson told CNET News that changes … Read more

Courts, coach cry foul over Twitter

You know a Web app has come into its own when it gets banned in courtrooms and locker rooms.

Twitter, which went from being just another Web geek service to an Internet phenomenon lampooned on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," is now becoming a nuisance for at least two American institutions--the judicial system and the NBA.

Some judges and lawyers believe the integrity of trials is being threatened by jurors posting comments about cases on the popular microblogging service.

Lawyers for a building products company are asking an Arkansas court to overturn a $12.6 million judgment … Read more