If you thought 2011 seemed like a big year for web startup funding, you were absolutely right. According to the latest MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), 2011 saw the highest level of VC investment in Internet companies over the past decade.

.9 billion went into 997 VC deals in Internet-specific over the course of 2011, an increase of 68 percent in dollars and 24 percent in deals from the previous year, when .1 billion went into 807 deals. Internet companies accounted for 24 percent of all VC investments in 2011, compared to 18 percent in 2010, the MoneyTree report said.

From the Q4 2011 MoneyTree report (click to enlarge)

But the year didn’t close on the strongest note for Internet VC investments. In the fourth quarter of 2011, .29 billion went into Internet companies, a 23 percent decline in dollars from the previous quarter and about even with the fourth quarter of 2010, when .25 billion was invested. Web VC investment in 2011 was really carried by its exceptionally strong second quarter, when .4 billion was invested in Internet companies.

Another interesting data point from the survey is the large amount of seed and early stage investments seen in 2011 across all industries that received VC funding. Seed and early stage funding as a whole was the higher in 2011 than it has been in at least seven years, according to the MoneyTree report, accounting for 1810 of the 3673 total deals completed in the year — nearly 50 percent of total deal activity.

From the Q4 2011 MoneyTree report (click to enlarge)

The current level of activity may seem a bit frothy, but with the huge numbers of people using the Internet today, may people think this is just the beginning for the industry’s growth. And either way: With 2012 on deck to be a strong year for web startup exits, particularly through initial public offerings, the Internet VC funding frenzy will probably not slow down significantly any time soon.

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Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, widely viewed as the only real challenger to Apple’s iPad is out in the wild. Some folks love it. Some hate it. But it goes without saying most are curious about it. Anyway for those who got the device have been putting it through the paces. Online video hosting platform company, Ooyala processes more than 1 billion analytics pings per day, reflecting the viewing behavior of over 100 million global unique users. It has used that data to put together this infographic to showcase what Kindle Fire owners are watching.

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The tech industry’s movers and shakers have been saying for months now that the HTML5 is very important. New data released Friday indicates that HTML5 is not just going to be big, it’s going to be huge — and it’s coming fast.

More than 2.1 billion mobile devices will have HTML5 browsers by 2016, up from just 109 million in 2010, according to a new report by ABI Research. Much of this growth will be thanks to Apple’s massive support for the HTML5 platform, according to the study. And Apple is also likely to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the technology’s wide scale adoption. Because Apple has so much control over its software and devices, it will be most poised to take full advantage of HTML features as they emerge in the coming years.

As is often the case in business, where there’s a winner, there’s usually a loser. HTML5 could largely replace Abobe’s proprietary Flash technology. And HTML5′s swift ascent could render Flash irrelevant in short order. “I think the disappearance of Flash is closer than people think,” ABI senior analyst Mark Beccue said in a press release accompanying the data.

HTML5′s projected growth is all the more impressive considering that the actual standard is not officially expected to be completed until 2020, according to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards body. But that won’t stop companies and independent engineers from developing and deploying HTML5 features, ABI said.

Indeed, Facebook CTO Bret Taylor has said his company is putting a “huge amount of our investment” in HTML5, and Google recently debuted its first homepage doodle composed entirely with the HTML5 mark-up language. It may seem like buzz about HTML5 is everywhere already, but if the latest research is correct, we’re only at the beginning.

Feature image courtesy of Flickr user EJ Callow.

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Although it might not make a difference to consumers, the 4G network ripping through Sprint-branded devices such as the EVO 4G doesn’t actually belong to the carrier. Rather, Sprint rents use of Clearwire’s network, and the two have been duking it out for months over just how much that service is worth. That battle finally came to an end today when Sprint, which happens to be Clearwire’s majority owner, agreed to pay at least .03 billion this year and next to run its WiMAX devices on the network. The two companies also agreed to mutual wholesale rights, meaning they can sell access to each other’s 3G and 4G networks to other providers. And they reached a pricing agreement for phones that offer both 3G and 4G connectivity — a bone of contention for Sprint, whose customers can’t all take advantage of 4G speeds, depending on where they live. Then again, Clearwire needs those billions precisely so that it can expand its network. As for Sprint, it can now blow less cash on legal fees — and instead gird itself for a potential three-horse race against Verizon and AT&T&T.

[Image courtesy of Mobiledia]

Continue reading Sprint to pay at least billion to use Clearwire’s 4G network through 2012

Sprint to pay at least billion to use Clearwire’s 4G network through 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A recent poll has shown that British people are very highly addicted to thier mobile phones. Research has shown that 88% of people do not leave their homes without their mobile phone. This just goes to show that without things like mobile phones in thier pockets people would be lost. This goes on to say that an insanely high amount of 53,658,000 phones are carried around in bags and pockets in the streets of the UK every single day.  In truth Britain sends over 1 Billion texts a week putting us into the top 6 for texting in the world which is ridiculous considering Britain is such a small country.

The poll went on to say that over anything else a mobile is the one thing we will always take with us even over a wallet or purse which is certainly an eye opener. Funnily enough the midlands saw the best/worst result depending on how you look at things with a massive 98% of people saying they carried it with them every single day.
The most prominant question to ask is why? The answer is not difficult at all. The amount of things a mobile phone can now do is astronomical ranging from a simple text or call to checking the bank details online or even getting insurance quotes. Phones are becoming more and more advanced by the year with some having either MP3 within the phone itself or in the case of the I-Phone an actual I-pod included within the phone! As well as this you can now watch television as well as your favourite film all from the touch of a button on the phone as well as look at quotes from different car insurance firms!

Of course it does mean that muggings have risen simply because there are more phones out there to take as well as the really important question are we becoming too dependent on technology? It wasn’t like this 30 years ago and it seems to be that younger generations are becoming increasingly lazier.

If technology is your thing then why not look for gadget insurance to make sure your favourite new gadget is protected against anything and everything!

Shocking admission: I’ve never seen a Star Wars movie. Well, that’s not entirely true: I did see Episode One and Episode Three, but I’m pretty sure those don’t really count. (I liked the song “Duel of the Fates,” though, and the one that played when Anakin fought the other guy in the lava or whatever.) I bring this up because this story is about C3PO, the friendly robot that I’m only familiar with because, well, I’m pretty sure everyone has heard of R2D2 and C3PO, including myself. The scoop: Darpa, made famous by Metal Gear Solid, wants to commission a C3PO-like software/device that’s able to translate 20 languages on the fly, identify specific speakers, and whatnot. It’d be useful for our troops in foreign lands, obviously.

It’s called Robust Automatic Translation of Speech, or RATS, which is silly. In theory, it’d be able to translate from any of 20 languages into sweet, sweet English. It would certainly save the government money—good news for all you fiscal conservatives. The Pentagon’s human translator budget is currently $1 billion. It makes me wonder: do they (or any other company for that matter) need guys in Brazil? The only time I use the Portuguese I learned in college is during UFC post-fight interviews. This is probably something I should investigate on my own time.

Anyhow, the first languages Darpa wants the system to be compatible with are Arabic, Farsi, and Pashto, spoken in Iraq (and elsewhere, of course), Iran, and Afghanistan. It should be able to translate words and phrases heard among 1,000 speakers. That’s a key point: being able to distinguish Speaker A from Speaker B from Speaker Z.