Novatel Ovation MC935D USB Modem on the way in Q2

It’s certainly not the main Novatel device we’re hoping to see announced while we’re here in Vegas, but they’ve gotten the announcement party started a bit early with this morning’s debut of the Ovation MC935D.

Built around a single-band 2100Mhz HSUPA/HSDPA radio capping out at 7.2 Mbps down and 5.76 Mbps up, this one’s pretty much strictly for our homies on the other side of the water (Read: Europe), though the quad-band EDGE/GPRS might get you through in a pinch elsewhere.

No word on pricing just yet, but we’re told to expect this one beginning in Q2. We’re just about positive this one will be floating around at the pre-CTIA ShowStoppers event tonight – so if pictures of little USB dongles sitting on tables are your thing, you’re in for one wild ride.

Sony calls it quits, basically burying the technology as a whole

It seems that FED (field emission display) technology is not going to be the successor of LCD and plasma. Toshiba gave up on FED and SED, respectively, as early as January 2007. The company stopped a joint venture with Canon, which also seems to have more or less stopped development in that area (at least there were no FED or SED-related news from Canon in the last couple of months).

Now FED gets the Sony axe, too.

Sony said last summer it wanted to buy a plasma TV factory from Pioneer in Japan. The factory was supposed to be rebuilt into a FED display factory, but Sony has abandoned the plan now. In addition, the company will close FED Inc., a spin-off entity entirely focused on FED production. FED Inc. was founded late 2006 for $26 million.

Sony began experimenting with FED technology as early as 1998 and showcased a 13-inch prototype TV at SID 2001. But even though Sony said it plans to boost FED production last July, FED was never commercialized. And it’s doubtful that any other company will dare to mass-produce large-size FED displays now.

Sassy Lauren, she of the cheap HP?

Lauren AKA the girl from the Windows commercial is really Lauren De Long, a SAG-eligible actor with special skills including cheerleading, stage combat, and ear prompting. Giz and TechFlash tracked her down and she informed them that she is under NDA for her involvement in Microsoft’s laptop taste test. So she wasn’t an average girl picked up off the street, BangBus-style [Editor's Note: DO NOT DO A SEARCH ON THIS], to purchase a laptop for the Redmond marketing department. Who knew?

Hell hath no fury like a fanboi scorned so a number of sites have already offered Ms. De Long a great MacBook in place of the poorly reviewed HP she purchased.

I mean even Ellen Feiss, the stoned switcher girl, had a bit more cred in that she was a real 14-year-old girl who just got a G4 and was called in by Errol Morris and interviewed rather than given a script and then carted around town hunting for a laptop. I understand advertising is mendacity, but Microsoft’s brand is a bit more over the the top than Apple’s, don’t you think?

Also, quick tip for those of you trying to look like “average people:” wear glasses and a scarf. It turns of that burnished LA charm in seconds and makes you look like a mousy SUNY student.

Google’s New VC Fund Lacks Domain Name

Now that Google has come out of the closet with its proper venture capital fund, dubbed Google Ventures, I’m curious as to how many people will be going to googleventures.com today, only to find that the domain name is neither owned or operated by the company.

We’re not sure if this is an oversight or if Google has actively tried but failed to claim ownership over the domain name, but the fact is googleventures.com was first registered back in 2004, and that it’s currently supposed to expire in June of this year.

Since the WHOIS information at this point is unprotected, hence public information, we know that the domain name was registered by a James Hung from Connecticut. Hung is the CEO of The Hive, a “global venture consulting firm comprised of business and technology gurus, entrepreneurs, and strategic partners in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.” The domain name is not being forwarded to the firm’s website, but only displays an image saying that site is currently unavailable.

Microsoft unveils partners for applications store

Microsoft Corp has signed up multiple software partners for its upcoming cellphone software marketplace, including Web music service Pandora, game publisher Electronic Arts Inc and social site Facebook.

The software company said on Tuesday it plans to discuss those partnerships and conduct demonstrations of the software store — set to launch later this year — at the CTIA wireless showcase in Las Vegas this week.

Apple Inc started the trend for cellphone application stores last summer and its offerings from third- party developers of software, ranging from the practical to the whimsical, have helped boost iPhone sales.

Some analysts are skeptical whether Apple’s rivals will be able to generate as much interest from consumers and developers with their own mobile software offerings.

Analysts expect BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd, which popularized email on the go, to officially launch its application store at CTIA. Google Inc already has a store for phones based on its Android system. And Palm Inc is planning one for its Pre phone.

In February, Microsoft revealed plans to open Windows Marketplace for Mobile in the second half of this year, but had not announced software partners until CTIA.

Along with a list of initial partners, the company said it expects many of its existing 20,000 mobile phone software partners to offer software via the marketplace.

DESIGN COLLABORATION

Other partners include Gameloft SA, weather website Accuweather.com and News Corp’s MySpace social networking website. The Windows application for social network Facebook will be the first to let consumers upload video captured on their phones directly to Facebook in April.

The apps marketplace will work on phones based on Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft’s next version of its mobile operating system, also available later this year. Companies expected to sell phones running Windows Mobile 6.5 include LG Electronics Inc and HTC Corp.

MySpace said LG plans to preload its application onto its new Windows phones in the second half of the year.

In a keynote speech at the show, the president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices unit, Robbie Bach, will announce an alliance with fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, who will design themes to let consumers customize their phone’s appearance.

Microsoft also plans to make its marketplace attractive to carriers with options such as a share of software revenue, 70 percent of which goes to the software developers, according to Andy Lees, who heads Microsoft’s Window Mobile division.

“We’re also partnering with mobile operators very closely so they can have their own stores in the mobile market place,” Lees said in an interview ahead of the show.

This would mean that purchases could be included in the consumer’s phone bill.

“That means we’re a very friendly strategy for carriers and for (consumers),” Lees said. He promised strong operator support for the store, but declined to name specific customers.

Google forms $100 million venture fund

Google Inc is forming a $100 million fund to invest in early-stage start-up firms.

The fund, to be called Google Ventures, will be wholly owned by Google, but will operate as a separate entity and will seek investment opportunities to maximize returns rather than looking for investments that strictly fit with Google’s strategic vision.

Rich Miner, a co-founder of Android smart phone software that Google acquired in 2005, and Bill Maris are the fund’s two managing partners.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Miner appeared at an investor conference for Internet start-up companies with a name tag that listed his name alongside Google Ventures.

Miner said on Monday that Google Ventures will look at a wide variety of companies to invest in, including consumer Internet products, information technology, health care and biotech, among other areas.

“Just as we were founded by entrepreneurs, we think we can help some of those next entrepreneurs with the next great idea,” said Miner.

Google Ventures has already invested in Pixazza Inc, an photo-based online marketing service and Silver Spring Networks, a company that uses technology to improve the efficiency of power grids.

Google has invested in other companies in the past through its philanthropic division, Google.org. While Google.org may continue to make investments from time to time, Maris said that Google Ventures will now function as Google’s “primary vehicle” for making venture-style investments.

Several high-tech companies have in-house venture capital arms, including Intel and Motorola, But Maris said that Google Ventures will have more in common with traditional venture capital firms.

“We’re making financial return our first lens,” said Maris. But he noted that a part of the appeal of Google Ventures for start-up firms is the relationship to Google and its 20,000 employees.

The fund will focus primarily on companies seeking seed funding and early stage funding, and Google Ventures will have the ability to make investments ranging from tens of thousands to “several tens of millions” of dollars, Maris said.

Picli.com ventures into dark age, returns with business model

Picli.com, a photo sharing community site launched in private beta in March 2007, has relaunched with a slew of new features and a more clearly defined business model.

Two years seems like a long time for a site to be in beta, and Picli’s developer/designer founder duo of Sam Street and Sean Miller acknowledge this in the FAQ, referring to 2008 as ‘the dark age’ in which, well, nothing much happened. Still, Picli managed to gather a passionate core user community of about 2,000 in this time, whose feedback has contributed to the recent refinements.

Picli’s a bit like Flickr meets Digg – users submit their photography under Creative Commons licensing, which then gets rated up or down by the community. The central focus of the site is the Showcase, a gallery of the most popular photos.

With the relaunch comes tiered membership packages, which the founders are currently soliciting user feedback on before any final decisions are made. There are plans to build upon the online advertising options, currently revolving aorund Google AdSense, and to implement a photo buying service where Picli users could sell usage rights on their images to picture buyers, using a commission-based system which Miller and Street call ‘targeted tagging’. The guys also plan to release an API that will encourage developers to extend the site’s functionality to mobile devices and web apps.

While on the face of it Picli may seem like yet another Flickr, the founders are adamant this isn’t the case – it’s less about acting as a giant harddrive for users to upload all their photos to, and more about community-driven quality control, where photographers share only their best work and take inspiration from others — not dissimilar to what FFFFound does for visual artists.

Miller and Street are bootstrapping Picli for the moment, and say they would love the site to drive traffic to members’ personal portfolio sites as a result of the interest generated on Picli. The site’s gone a ways in proving the concept around a free-to-use model. Whether or not it can compete with the likes of fotoLibra and Demotix will depend on how readily the user community coughs up for annual subscriptions, and whether or not picture buyers find on Picli what they can’t find elsewhere. Watch this space.