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Lensmaker Tamron announced a new 24-70mm F2.8 zoom lens today, beating Nikon and Canon with a model that brings image stabilization to this premium lens category.

The SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD lens includes Tamron's vibration compensation technology, which can counteract camera shake to stabilize photos. It's a feature that Canon and Nikon haven't added to their 24-70mm F2.8 lenses.

Such lenses don't have a huge zoom range, but they're popular among photo pros and enthusiasts, in particular because their wide aperture is good for low-light shooting with smoothly blurred … Read more

When Facebook goes public in a deal that could value the company at $100 billion, small fortunes will be made.

Here are some of the individuals and firms that stand to make the most from Facebook's IPO.

Mark Zuckerberg: He can now officially change his surname to Zuckerbucks. With his 28.2 percent ownership in Facebook, the paper wealth of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg now serves as an eternal rejoinder to the legion of armchair critics--and where are they now?--who thought that the then-22-year-old was bull goose loony for rejecting Yahoo's $1 billion buyout offer in 2006. … Read more

Warpia announced today another wireless display product, the ConnectHD (model SWP400VC).

Unlike existing wireless display standards, such as Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) or WHDI from Amimon, which support only audio and video, ConnectHD can also handle videoconferencing and can work with any computer that has a USB 2.0 (or later) port.

The device has two separate parts. One is a compact USB adapter, about the size of a cellular USB modem, to be connected to a computer. The other is a larger receiver with a built-in wide-angle, 720p HD camera, and an HMDI connector to be connected to a large display, such as an HDTV.

Warpia says that the package also includes a multidirectional microphone and can be used for making video calls, playing back digital content, and displaying video games on an HDTV. It basically mirrors everything you see on a computer's screen on the big TV.

The ConnectHD supports HD up to 1080p and can handle a wireless distance between the computer and the big screen of up to 30 feet. The device uses the wireless USB 1.0 standard and supports Windows computers only.

Warpia says that it will be demoing the ConnectHD at CES 2012. The ConnectHD is available now, costing about $200.… Read more

Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, is forming a venture capital fund to invest in some of the startups his bloggers write about, according to a Fortune report.

The $20 million CrunchFund will reportedly be funded primarily by AOL, which bought TechCrunch last year, as well as venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Greylock Partners.

Arrington and AOL did not respond to requests for comment.

Although the arrangement flies in the face of traditional journalism's principles of avoiding conflicts of interest, Arrington told The New York Times that the fund'… Read more

Clean-tech start-ups that think they can be nimble and quick to market may be interested in a new incubator from San Francisco.

Greenstart, whose team includes former executives from the Jumpstart Automotive Media Group, is looking to act as an accelerator for start-ups that can essentially be up-and-running in about six months.

Akin to what Y Combinator did for Web and mobile start-ups, Greenstart is looking to offer the same type of services for green-tech start-ups.

The company says it wants to find "fast cleantech" companies, but its application of that term is pretty broad.

"We define … Read more

Venture capitalists are now less optimistic about the entrepreneurial atmosphere in Silicon Valley over the next 6 to 18 months, according to the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index, which reported its first drop in confidence in more than a year.

Based on a June survey of 32 Silicon Valley VCs, the index (PDF) dropped to 3.28 on a 5-point scale (1 indicating low confidence and 5 indicating high) for the second quarter. The latest number showed a decline from the first quarter's mark of 3.65 and ended a five-quarter rise in confidence after hitting a low at the end of 2008.

The downturn in confidence was sparked by concerns over sluggish economic growth in the U.S. and abroad as well as regulatory uncertainty in the VC industry, according to the index.

Several of the venture capitalists interviewed for the survey believe the still struggling economy may dampen investments, with one VC noting that the industry is basing its long-term investments more on short- and medium-term worries. Two VCs also said that fear is growing over the fragile economies in Europe and China and that both markets need to be watched for any impact they may have on business opportunities over the next year.… Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Rebecca Lynn's bio below.

Let's say you have an ingenious new business idea, and you're ready to seek venture capital. Knowing what venture capital investors look for in a pitch could mean the difference between a term sheet and a rejection.

As a VC, I've seen hundreds of pitches. And I can tell you that in today's environment, the best PowerPoint slide decks--whether delivered by first-time entrepreneurs or veteran company builders--share similar structure, content, and zing.

First, what's changed? I recently hosted a panel called "… Read more

Cloud computing is still more attractive to venture capitalists than it is to enterprise IT buyers, and that's unlikely to change in 2010. As IT buyers warm to the idea and implementation of cloud computing, 2010 is going to prove to be a very big year for cloud-computing M&A as big-fish vendors like VMWare, Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle round out their cloud product portfolios with little-fish innovators.

Some, like Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, suggest that cloud computing is simply a fad, one that attempts to solve many of the same problems that SOA, EDI, etc. already attempted … Read more

No other investor has had as much success in open-source software as Peter Fenton, general partner at Benchmark Capital.

A competitive triathlete, Fenton has turned the standard marathon of open-source business-building into a sprint, churning out four big open-source sales--JBoss ($350 million), Zimbra ($350 million), XenSource ($500 million), and SpringSource ($420 million)--while most investors have yet to turn a profit on any.

Not that Fenton is a one-trick pony. He also just sold FriendFeed to Facebook and sits on the board of Twitter. It's fair to say that Fenton can now afford a second Aston Martin.

But Fenton … Read more