dave

PARIS--Sure, social networks are sprouting like weeds as venture capitalists pour money into what they hope will be the next Facebook.

Dave McClure, leader of 500 Startups, has a different idea: children's books.

It may sound old-school, but it's not, exactly, because books now can be read on tablets.

"Historically, education has been a hard market," McClure said at the LeWeb show here, in part because of the difficulties of government regulation and fragmented state markets. "Now you can go direct to the consumer."

He thinks that entrepreneurs--largely male and single--are overlooking the market. &… Read more

Who needs to go to a restaurant to have a great meal when you could have one made for you at home?

That's the idea behind KitchIt, a Silicon Valley startup that is hoping to use technology, smart and easy design, and good culinary industry connections to offer everyday people custom restaurant-quality meals at home at affordable prices.

The concept is simple: To use KitchIt, you go to its Web site, enter your city, the date and type of the dinner you're planning, how many people are in your party, and the price range per diner.

Once you'… Read more

There's a fierce debate going on in Silicon Valley about the state of startup funding. Some are screaming that valuations are way too high. Others are arguing early stage startups are facing a cash crunch and are unable to raise their first real money, known as the Series A.

Longtime venture capitalist Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital said recently that every day he gets five to 10 introductions to startups that need Series A money--up from one to five a year ago--but that there just isn't enough capital to invest.

Whatever the reality--and TechCrunch just crunched some numbers … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--From Dave Lieb's desk, he can see a wall-mounted monitor about 75 feet away with nothing on it but black digits on a white background. Right now, it reads "59,957,611."

"It's going up one a second," says Lieb, the CEO of Bump Technologies, watching the number steadily climb. "I think we'll hit [60 million] just after lunch."

By 60 million, he means the total number of "Bumpers," people who have downloaded Bump's iPhone and Android apps, which allow two users to instantly share … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Intel hauled out its first Android tablet running on "Medfield," an upcoming Atom chip for smartphones and tablets, while two executives also chatted with CNET about their relationship with Google, all at Intel's developer conference today.

The Medfield Atom chip is one of Intel's most power-efficient chip designs--a strict requirement for tablets and smartphones. It contains a single processing core--as opposed to more power-hungry dual-core Atom chips used in Netbooks--and will be available in devices in the first half of 2012.

The tablet that Intel showed today (see photo below) is a so-called reference design … Read more

The music and technology worlds are colliding. That's never been more apparent than at yesterday night's performance by Jane's Addiction. The concert was as much about entertaining a group of hardcore fans as it was about promoting LG's upcoming Thrill 4G, AT&T's first smartphone packing 3D capabilities.

Indeed, 3D was the key gimmick at the event, with random individuals selected to hold a Thrill 4G and tape the concert in 3D. LG will later take the footage shot and splice together what it bills as the first 3D user-generated concert. It's unclear, … Read more

Less than a year after unveiling a pair robotic legs that let paraplegics stand and walk, New Zealand's Rex Bionics has made its first commercial sale to a champion Paralympian who took his first steps in more than 30 years with the aid of the device.

New Zealander Dave MacCalman, who sustained a spinal cord injury diving into a shallow river, paid $150,000 for the customized exoskeleton that will have him walking up stairs, looking directly into other people's eyes, and reaching tall shelves once he has a bit more practice maneuvering it.

"It's just great, such a relief to be out of the chair," says the 6-foot 4-inch athlete as he stands up using the device in this TVNZ video. When he first tried the mechanical legs, "I was fascinated by my feet moving, so I tended to watch them more than anything." … Read more

Intel has completed its $7.68 billion acquisition of McAfee.

The completion of the deal, announced yesterday, follows approvals by the various boards of directors and stockholders, as well as reviews by the Federal Trade Commission, the European Commission, and other regulatory groups.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel, McAfee will become part of the company's Software and Services Group, run by senior vice president Renee James. McAfee president Dave DeWalt will report directly to James.

McAfee will continue to offer its own branded line of security products and maintain its own customers. The two companies said they'… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--The offices of Path float 40 stories above the city in one of the upper floors of a residential tower just a block away from the waterfront, where the hallmarks of a young start-up--fridges of Red Bull, whiteboards awash in colorful scribbles, the glow of massive Mac desktop monitors--colonize what would normally be coveted apartment space for one of San Francisco's most financially fortunate. There's a balcony with sweeping views of the Bay Bridge and the waters underneath, where on this sunny fall afternoon a lone kayaker in a bright-orange craft flits around uncomfortably close to industrial … Read more