Educational startup Grockit is expanding its reach today from social learning to streaming video. The startup has launched Grockit TV, a set of live courses to supplement its SAT and GMAT test prep service.

The courses are streamed live and also available as archives, but to encourage students to watch the live stream together (where they can interact via chat), the live stream of the course is free. But if students want to download a course or re-stream it, students will get all 20 hours worth of test prep and college admissions videos for $99. Best of all, Grockit CEO Farb Nivi is one of the teachers (he is a former Princeton Reviews national teacher of the year). The first 50 readers to use the promotion code “techcrunchlove” will get a free Grockit TV video course plus its premium online adaptive test prep.

Grockit has been quietly testing a few GMAT courses, and plans to stream its first SAT session on October 10. Founder Farb Nivi is excited about the potential to bring in more new students to Grockit through social marketing. Students can log in with their Facebook or Twitter accounts and invite their friends on Facebook or Twitter to come join them (online study session!). In the tests so far, some students are “bringing in double digit numbers of people to Grockit per single share,” says Nivi.

Grockit has tiptoed into video last June when it began to include YouTube Edu videos into its courses, but this goes a step further. And it won’t stop with test and college admissions prep videos. “We’ve got plans for Grockit TV content beyond test prep” says Nivi, “including K12 academic classes and programming for parents and students and teachers.”

Grockit is on a roll. Yesterday, it became the first educational app on the Google Apps Marketplace. Nivi just hired a CEO from Google, and closed a $7 million B round last May.

Earlier this year, OpenFeint, the comprehensive social gaming platform from Aurora Feint, announced that it would be adding Android game developers to its rapidly growing community. Today, OpeinFeint is releasing its platform for Android Apps and will be launching 20 games for Android in the next month.

The games launching via OpenFeint’s Android platform include dot (ustwo), Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick Studios), MiniSquadron (Supermono), Super Slyder (Sandlot Games), The Moron Test (DistinctDev, Inc.), and Tic Tac Toe (Posimotion). OpenFeint is also announcing the release of its Feint Spotlight app, where Android gamers will be able to discover new games, connect to the community, and win prizes.

OpenFeint’s mobile social platform and application for smartphones includes a set of online game services such as leaderboards and achievements running in a cloud-based Web environment. The company’s offering for the Android developer community includes a standard SDK, a game discovery store and mobile payment options. Aurora Feint has also incorporated Google Checkout into the developer SDK.

Since being introduced over 18 months ago, OpenFeint’s platform now reaches 37 million mobile players and is being used by 3,000 games. And with a cross platform gaming network, called Playtime, over iPhone devices and Android phones, gamers can play with friends who who use different smartphone operating systems.

OpenFeint faces competition from Apple's Game Center solution for developers, which also provides a real-time gaming platform. And it should be interesting to see what features Google will offer to developers for its upcoming gaming platform.

Grid2Home, a “smart grid” technology startup in San Diego, obtained a round of seed funding from Granite Ventures, the company announced today. Grid2Home’s software and solutions enable smart appliances, energy meters, electric vehicles and the like to communicate with power systems, and thereby operate more energy efficiently.

Grid2Home’s “communication protocol stack” and software can, for example, let home owners switch between different energy types that they'd like to use, relying on power generated by a rooftop solar installation to heat a pool in most instances, but changing to power from the utility if solar cells are depleted, or power from the utility is within a certain price range.

With the funding from Granite Ventures, Grid2Home also announced the appointment Rick Kornfeld as chief executive and president, and Doug Rasor as chairman of the board.

Against a backdrop of Nokia-blue screens, the company's head of markets Niklas Savander tried to command the stage on Tuesday morning at London's ExCel center. He was no Steve Jobs, opting for a conservative khaki suit and bungling a few words, but at the end of his opening address, he tried to deliver his last line with gusto: "Today is all about here and now, it's about three words: Nokia is back." Although seemingly sincere, these are strange words for a company that seems anything but "back."

"In turmoil" is a more fitting description.

"The question analysts are asking is: 'Where does Nokia sit in the four stages of bereavement?' Is it denial?" asks Benedict Evans, a consultant for Enders Analysis in London. "Or have they finally come to realize that Apple's product is indeed better."

In rapid succession, the company has ousted its CEO, 30-year Nokia veteran Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, appointed a new CEO, Stephen Elop, a Microsoft executive from the enterprise software side, and seen the departure of Anssi Vanjoki, head of mobile solutions and one-time CEO candidate. And there's no sign that the reorganization is over. Early Tuesday, the company's chairman, Jorma Ollila confirmed his 2012 resignation.

The body pile in Espoo, Finland is a clear sign that the hardware-centric company, which has perfected the art of the $15 cell phone but not the $300 smartphone, is not only reshuffling the deck chairs but tinkering with its very DNA. Nokia, at 123,000 employees, is only sustainable at its current size if it can become a sizable player in the competitive, software-heavy, smartphone market and go head-to-head with Google's Android operating system and Apple's iOS (two rivals Savander evoked repeatedly in his address). They will need a little help.

Redmond To The Rescue?

That help may come from Redmond. Several months ago, Microsoft and Nokia were engaged in takeover discussions, according to a source familiar with the talks, who did not want to be named to avoid upsetting Nokia and Microsoft executives. Rumors that Nokia is a takeover target are not exactly new. Earlier this summer, the stock saw a brief pop after a local Finnish paper Kauppalehti said Microsoft, Google and Cisco were all potential bidders. There have also been whispers of Intel, Nokia's partner in the high-end MeeGo operating system, briefly looking under Nokia's hood earlier this year. But the prospect of Microsoft and Nokia linking up is an interesting one— it's difficult to imagine Microsoft hurling itself into the incongruous business of cheap cell phones but the duo (aside from RIM) have the most to lose by the rise of Apple and Google.

The analyst community is skeptical that a full-on Microsoft-Nokia takeover is still in the works. Of four analysts surveyed by TechCrunch, none saw it as the most likely outcome. Describing Nokia as currently locked in a "death spiral, just loaded with challenges," senior Needham analyst, Charles Wolf says "It would be a disaster. Ballmer [(Microsoft's CEO)] is not the brightest bulb… but I don't think Ballmer is dumb enough to do it."

Ultimately, Microsoft may not meet Nokia at the altar, but growing evidence is pointing towards a stronger alignment between the two companies. Momentum has certainly been building in that direction. In August 2009, the companies announced a joint partnership to develop and market Microsoft enterprise apps for Symbian. The first of those apps, the MS Office Communicator, debuted in May.

Furthermore, while there was some takeover talk, over the past year many of Nokia and Microsoft's "lengthy” discussions have centered on smaller, strategic partnerships and investments, according to sources briefed on the discussions. Despite the outward fanfare, a source says Nokia started to look for partners late last year when they realized that Symbian, and specifically its Ovi store and services, would struggle to take off. Nokia courted companies like Yahoo— leading to Yahoo and Nokia’s May announcement of project Nike, a global launch of co-branded services with a focus on e-mail and maps. With Microsoft, there was significant back and forth on several key issues, including:

- whether Nokia would take on Microsoft’s mobile operating system as its primary platform (favoring it over Symbian)

- whether Microsoft would take Navteq off Nokia’s hands (the $8.1 billion purchase has been somewhat accretive to Nokia’s earnings but many believe it has fallen short strategically; meanwhile, Microsoft has been rumored to be shopping around for mapping solutions)

-and the possibility of deeper integration with Bing services, like Bing maps, on Nokia’s phones (potentially sharing local search revenues).

At the time of this post, Nokia did not respond to a request for comment.

Some of these issues may still be in play, or perhaps revisited, with Elop’s highly anticipated arrival next week. Elop himself is an interesting choice for Nokia. In Ballmer’s September 9 e-mail to employees, he touted Elop’s contribution and emphasized the company’s relationship with the Finnish handset maker, “I appreciate the way that Stephen has been a good steward of the brand and business…and look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role at Nokia.”

While one could interpret Elop’s departure as a loss for Microsoft, given how Nokia poached a key executive, the situation seems more amicable. According to a source plugged into the machinations of Redmond’s top brass, Elop’s move to become the CEO of a major technology company (i.e. possible competitor) was notable because there was no rush to physically push him off Microsoft’s campus. Although technically stripped of his title, Elop was allowed to linger. Typically, when a senior Microsoft executive leaves for another tech company, the end is far more abrupt. When asked for comment, Microsoft simply referred to an 8-k filing which noted that Elop’s last day was technically September 10.

However, the most telling smoke signal here could be basic necessity. Many analysts believe Nokia and Microsoft desperately need some thing or some partner, to aggressively compete in the high-margin smartphone market.

Nokia’s stock has been hammered by its failure to gain real traction in the high-end segment. Its US listed shares have tumbled to just under $10 a share as of Wednesday morning trading— from an all-time high of more than $60 back in June 2000. Furthermore, although Nokia proudly waves the number "260,000," the number of Nokia smartphones sold per day according to the company, the figure distorts reality.

Nokia is scrambling to defend its market share. On the high-end it’s dwarfed by RIM, Google and Apple in the United States— Symbian only captured 2% of the smartphone market in the first quarter, according to Nielsen. In Asia and Europe, Android is starting to eat its lunch in the mid-market by offering attractive phones in the $100-$150 price point. And then there’s the ongoing fight to get developers on the Symbian platform. This summer, Android's stronger than expected gains eventually pushed Nokia to issue a downward revision to its full year outlook— the firm warns that margins may come in below the 11-13% range and the company now expects a decline in their value market share. That's a fierce downdraft. Or, as analyst Mats Nystrom says, "with the value in software, the industry has already changed… Nokia is now brutally forced to change."

“You have a whole organization centered around hardware, they’re like a deer in headlights,” Needham’s Wolf says.

On Microsoft’s end, there is mirrored battle for relevancy.

According to Accel Partner Richard Wong, the upcoming Windows Phone 7 launch is largely seen as their last stand to really matter in the smartphone category. “Nokia and Microsoft could collaborate in a way that was inconceivable 7 years ago,” Wong says, “I could imagine a deeper partnership, cross investment or a deal to drive Bing services on Nokia devices.” Although Nokia is struggling to increase its market share, it is still the biggest handset maker in the world. A tighter integration would help Microsoft get its services— and perhaps Windows 7— into the hands of millions of more customers.

Of course, that’s assuming that any partnership is tied to strong execution, something both companies have lacked in the mobile department (see: Kin). For all this potential and the what ifs that must be dancing in Elop’s head, they are two gigantic companies that have yet to crack the code on smartphone innovation. Slamming their heads together may not generate the desired results. Or, as Evans at Enders warns, “Two dinosaurs don’t produce a mammal, they produce a dinosaur.”

We’re all pretty familiar with tagging people on sites like Facebook and Flickr. It’s a great way to let the people who are in the pictures know you’ve uploaded shots of them, and it’s also a good way for others to see who the persons are in the photos they’re looking at.

But what if you’d rather steer clear of the walled gardens of the Web and upload photos to your own website or blog? Wouldn’t it be useful to be able to tag those, too?

Enter Stipple, a recently launched startup that lets you tag images across the entire Web (see example on BritneySpears.com). The company is today launching People Dots, a feature that allows users to build a bridge between Stipple and their Twitter and/or Facebook accounts.

If Stipple is enabled for your website or blogging platform, which requires placement of a small snippet of code, you can upload photos to your site or blog like you’re used to. Using an inline editor, you can use People Dots to quickly label your friends.

Their ‘dots’ will then show their names, along with a link to either their Twitter or Facebook profile. That way, visitors will be able to click through to that person’s account to connect with or follow him or her (it also shows the person’s latest tweet if applicable).

The editor also boasts auto-complete functionality that that pulls from your list of friends, making it even smoother to add “people dots”.

Also cool: when you label your buddies with Stipple’s People Dots, you can opt to send notifications to the persons in question. This can be in the form of a Facebook status update or via a tweet posted to your own Twitter account, including a mention of the “dotted” person. Notifications are enabled by default but can easily be switched off.

Very cool if you ask me and very well executed – going to enjoy playing around with this one.

Today, after many previews, speed tests, and leaked videos, Microsoft will be finally unveiling the full public beta of Internet Explorer 9. I recently sat down with Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft’s general manager in charge of IE9, who took me through some of the main features of the new browser and sat down for the TCTV interview above.

IE9 is built for speed, it takes advantage of the latest HTML5 and other modern Web technologies, and makes a point of stripping away all unnecessary UI elements. The IE9 browser will only work on Windows computers, but it takes advantage of the graphics processor for hardware acceleration and the multiple cores in most PCs to offload different tasks. “We are using all the PC and we are putting the site at the center of the design,” says Hachamovitch. “Our goal was to have the sites shine through.”

One of the first things you notice about IE9 is how barebones it looks. The semi-transparent chrome around the browser is designed to disappear. There are very few buttons because people don’t use them. According to Hachamovitch, for instance, only 25 percent of people ever use the home button. Instead of the usual Microsoft feature overkill, IE9 removes features and refreshingly simplifies the experience. If you go by pixel count, IE9 gives more real estate to sites than either Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. To illustrate this, Hachamovitch opened each browser in a different window and pointed them to Twitter. In a window the same size as all the rest, IE9 was able to show one extra Tweet because it didn’t waste as much space at the top with a clutter of toolbar menu items.

IE9 also uses the entire desktop to its advantage. Any page or tab can be pinned down to the taskbar at the bottom and launched like any other app. “The other guys I'd characterize as being browser centric,” says Hachamovitch, “we are going to be site-centric.” Microsoft is launching with a slew of partners from A to Z, including Amazon, CNN, and Jango, to tune their sites especially for IE9. When you visit each of these sites, the button background colors change to match Amazon gold or CNN red to match the site. And when you pin that site to the taskbar and hover over it, a customized list of options pops up such as creating a wishlist or playing a stream of songs.

Finally, Hachamovitch addresses the need for sites written in HTML5, CSS3, and friends, all of which IE9 supports, to get to the point where they can use the same markup language no matter what browser visitors are using. Today, that is simply not the case.

Vienna-based social yellow pages startup Tupalo (a European competitor to Qype) has launched in the U.S. in partnership with CityGrid Media, a local media company "connecting the millions of businesses and customers on the web." As a result, Tupalo now offers over 1 million business listings across the U.S., adding tens of thousands more on a daily basis. This, of course, also pits the startup against the major local (and International) player Yelp.

Google Health, which enables you to store and manage all your health information in one place on the Web, is getting a much-needed redesign and feature upgrade today. And Google, which launched Google Health in 2008, has partnered with popular mobile health app CardioTrainer and personal health and wellness monitoring device Fitbit to integrate data from these applications into your Health profile.

Via a new dashboard, Google Health will now organize all of your health and wellness (i.e. fitness) information in one place. The new platform will give provide graphs on your progress with weight loss goals, and you’ll be able to create custom trackers for wellness issues like dietary habits, daily sleep, frequency of exercise, pregnancy or even how many cups of coffee you drink a day.

Additionally, you’ll be able to now keep a journal on progress for wellness goals for health conditions. And Google is upgrading content integration for Google Health, allowing users to access content links for each medical condition, medication or lab result users input in their Google Health profile. Past medical history or conditions can be easily removed as well.

And Google is partnering with TechCrunch50 startup Fitbit, which develops a wearable device that captures health and wellness data such as steps taken, calories burned and sleep quality; and CardioTrainer, a mobile app for tracking fitness activity and weight loss, to integrate this data into your Google Health profile.

Google says that in the two weeks since CardioTrainer's integration went live, the app’s developer WorkSmart Labs says that users uploaded more than 150,000 workouts to Google Health. This data can then be mashed up with medical data that users input to Google Health.

Of course, one the keys to the overall success of Google Health are partnerships with insurance companies and hospitals to make data more available to consumers. As of last Fall, Google Health still needed to sign up hundreds of insurers in the U.S. Today, Google is announcing relationships with the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Sharp HealthCare. Last year, Google announced a partnership with CVS to import prescription data into the platform.

IBM has agreed to purchase OpenPages, a privately-held software company based in Waltham, MA that helps companies identify and manage risk and compliance activities across the enterprise through a single management system. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the acquisition is subject to regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions. The acquisition of OpenPages expands IBM's business analytics capabilities to support compliance and risk management processes. Following the close of the acquisition, IBM intends to integrate OpenPages within IBM's Business Analytics software portfolio.

Yahoo has just announced that Yahoo Connected TV is now available on a number of new models of Toshiba television sets, including Toshiba 46"-55" HDTVs and the WX800 Cinema Series 3D LED.

The Yahoo Connected TV service provides widgets and apps on TVs, allowing users to access more than 65 Yahoo TV Widgets, including those for Twitter, Pandora, eBay, CBS, and USA Today, and thousands of content sources. Via the program, consumers also have access to over 50,000 movies and TV shows and thousands of entertainment sources on demand.

Yahoo Connected TV is also available on certain Sony, Vizio, LG and Samsung television models. Yahoo also recently struck a deal with European TV manufacturer Vestel Group to ship Yahoo Connected TV to consumers in more than 40 countries across Europe starting in Q1 2011.

Audio and infotainment group Harman International Industries (aka HARMAN) has picked up Aha Mobile, a Palo Alto-based provider of on-demand mobile and location-based Internet content services, the company announced this morning.

The terms are not being disclosed, but the startup is merely 2 years old and just raised $3 million from Venrock in May 2009, so we’re assuming this is a good exit for the fledgling company and its sole investor.

Aha Mobile specializes in converting Web-based content to streaming mobile radio in order to allow users to safely access news, entertainment and social media via in-vehicle infotainment systems or smartphones. The company’s audio publishing platform blends user preferences, behavior, and predictive search technologies to deliver a personalized information experience that even adapts based on the user's expected traffic corridor.

Its iPhone app, Aha Radio, basically lets you listen to your Facebook friends’ boring status updates, Ashton Kutcher’s latest tweets and your favorite podcasts so you can keep your eyes firmly on the road. It also boasts integrated speech-to-text technology and is capable of streaming free customized traffic reports based on your location.

Dinesh C. Paliwal, HARMAN Chairman, President and CEO, in a statement says Aha Mobile’s technology will effectively be deployed by the company.

"Delivering safe and convenient Internet access to mobile users is one of the biggest challenges facing the infotainment industry," said Paliwal. "In particular, the rapid growth of social networking through platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and others must be carefully managed in the automotive environment to prevent driver distraction.”

In addition to planned integration with HARMAN systems, Aha Mobile says it will continue working with third parties to enable customized Web content on their products by leveraging its proprietary platform.

Mobile advertising network Greystripe is moving into new territory today, expanding its platform to allow advertisers to reach users on the mobile web. Greystripe, which has until now offered in-app advertising on the iPhone, iPad, Android and Java platforms, is bringing its Flash-like ads to the mobile web.

Greystripe has already partnered with a number of advertisers, such as Sprint and Dove, and publishers, including CollegeHumor, Evite and Dictionary.com, to beta test the mobile web offering and are claiming to see strong results in terms of CTRs and CPMs.

For Greystripe’s rich media ads on the mobile web, the network is seeing a 1.31 percent CTR, compared to a 0.84 percent CTR for an average mobile web ad. Greystripe CEO Michael Chang also says that CTR’s are increased by an increase in size and above the fold placement on the mobile web.

Ads available on the mobile web include Greystripe's interactive Immersion Ads and iAd-like Expandable ads. At launch, Greystripe will support these rich media ad formats on Android and iPhone devices, and static ads on BlackBerry devices.

There’s no doubt that as the use of smartphones increase, the mobile web will become more of a desirable platform for advertisers to reach consumers. In fact, some think that mobile web advertising will be more effective than in-app advertising. Chang says that he wants Greystripe to be ahead of the curve in offering both advertisers and publishers a comprehensive platform to reach consumers.

The mobile ad network arena is a competitive space, filled with tech giants like Apple and Google, as well as large independent networks like Millennial Media. For Greystripe, the mobile web offering also presents the opportunity to attract advertisers who want to reach audiences across the mobile web, iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry. And for publishers, Greystripe says that serving ads via their network can be lucrative. The company says a number of application publishers in the Greystripe network have consistently earned more than $100,000 per month.

Greystripe has been able to raise an impressive amount of VC funding and even got a $2 million infusion from NBC. The startup is one of the remaining independent mobile ad networks that hasn’t been swallowed up by a huge technology company; so it should be interesting to see if the company will eventually be acquired. Rumor has it that RIM is shopping around for an ad network.

Extole (the startup formerly known as TellAPal), which offers a suite of social media marketing tools under the guise of a “Social Marketing as a Service Platform”, this morning announced it has secured $5 million in Series A funding.

The round was led by Trident Capital with participation from Redpoint Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners.

Extole says it plans to use the fresh funding mostly for hiring purposes and product enhancements.

The company markets a number of products (Refer-A-Friend and SocialBuilder) designed to enable brands to leverage social marketing solutions, such as referral marketing services and viral Facebook sweepstakes apps, to increase sales and brand awareness in a measurable way.

Its reference clients include Drugstore.com, Roku and Vistaprint.

The company was originally established back in 2007 under the name TellAPall, but it’s now been completely rebranded to Extole. Founder and CEO is Brad Klaus, former chief exec of Syndero and VP of Sales at Qualys before that.

Conviva, a San Matea, California based video streaming solutions provider, has raised $15 million in Series C funding, bringing the total capital secured by the company to a healthy $44 million since its launch in 2006. The round was led by GGV Capital (formerly Granite Global Ventures) and joined by existing investors Foundation Capital, New Enterprise Associates and Pelion Venture Partners (formerly UV Partners). Conviva markets technology that helps broadcasters deliver high-quality video over the Internet at scale, "protecting" audiences from sub-par video streaming experiences and thus increasing viewing times for digital content.

Zazuba, operating currently out of Washington D.C. is a way to book online appointments for everything from manicures to meditation to dog grooming. An “OpenTable for everything else,” Zazuba works primarily by providing businesses with a web based appointment manager and booking widget for their own sites, ultimately aggregating the data on Zazuba.com.

Unlike distributed booking companies like Libersy, Genbook and Bookfresh, Zazuba does it gratis, for both businesses and the end consumer. Like OpenTable, customers can book appointments by service category, price or reviews. And there’s a Zazuba mobile app for those who need a manicure like now.

Zazuba’s business model is Cost Per Action/Cost Per Click, with businesses paying to be at the top of search results for certain services. What’s nifty about this is that since actual booking of appointments (i.e. direct revenue) goes through the service, advertisers get a super accurate sense of ROI, without having to go through any grunt work like manually slogging through data and comparing conversions.

Says founder Michael Buckwald, “Ultimately, we think online local advertising is being held back by the general lack of an ability to book online and as a consequence the inability for local advertisers to develop metrics around their local ad campaigns.”

Zazuba launched four weeks ago and is currently only available in the Washington DC area. While limited in coverage, the site currently has over 50 businesses signed up and Buckwald says that those businesses are each taking in several thousand appointments a month, “Significantly faster growth than OpenTable or Craigslist four weeks after launch in DC.”

Zazuba is built on an API, so interested web and mobile developers can have their way with its appointments interface.

“Siri could actually make a haircut appointment for you rather than just telling you about places nearby and Groupon could let you book an appointment to redeem a Groupon from their site rather than inundating a receptionist with a thousand calls.”

Pretty forward thinking for a startup so far from Silicon Valley.

Spotify is going to announce that it's hit the 10 million users milestone later this month, according to a "special party" invitation sent to press and partners (image and source: Music Ally). That's about the same amount of users as there are tracks in its vast music catalog, to put things in perspective. As you're no doubt aware, Spotify's availability is limited to seven counties across Europe, namely UK, Finland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, France and Spain, so it's not a bad number to boast about. On the other hand, there's no indication at this point if that means there are 10 million active users rather than 10 million registered users, which makes a world of difference.

Amid a lot of high-level debate about economics, Summer Davos mixed in a few just wacky mad-scientist-like inventors. One was Adrian D. Cheok, a professor at Keio University in Japan and the National University of Singapore. He even has an awesome high-pitched, mad-scientist like giggle.

He's developing a set of augmented reality technologies that use controlled electric shocks to trick the brain that you're having certain sensory experiences. An electronic lollipop, for instance, could let you taste your favorite wine or your mother's homemade cookies. A jacket could deliver a hug to your children if you're working late. A text message could taste "sweet" or "bitter" by activating certain parts of the taste buds.

This is weird stuff. Is it too weird? There are clearly a lot of societal and ethical issues. You think MySpace had problems with pedophiles trolling chat rooms? Introduce life-like hugs. Oh, hey Mr. Attorney General.

Another concern is whether this is just a legal form of a psychotropic drug. And on a societal level, do we need a more virtual world? If parents can virtually hug their kids will they feel better about working late or traveling all the time? Is there an inherent higher value judgment on so-called "real world experiences," or, on the other hand, if your brain doesn't know the difference is it still a real world experience?

It is easy to come up with scary questions, but it is easy to come up with some salutary business applications too. My suggestion was a dieting application. If I could just have the taste of delicious-but-bad-for-me food, I think I could cut out carbs. You could apply the same logic to an application to quit smoking. Others suggested learning applications: You know how a certain smell or song triggers vivid memories? What if that same neurological pathway could trigger, say, mathematical tables. Cheok said one man heard of his research and asked for a way he could hug his daughter who had such a severe auto-immune disease she couldn't have human contact. It's possible this kind of technology could shape human relationships in ways we can't imagine, the way cell phones, email, Skype and social media has.

When it comes to the creepy factor, this wasn't the weirdest. Another researcher gave a presentation on how scientists were breaking down neuron pathways in a similar way to how geneticists decoded DNA. Already they can manipulate the actions of flies and mice by shining a light into their brains. Clasping his hands like a devious villain, he closed the presentation by calmly asking the audience whose thoughts they'd like to control. He was kidding. . .I think.

The presentations absolutely captivated the audience, with people gasping, laughing and above all asking questions and engaging. It reminded me how much I miss writing about real, crazy, science-based innovation. I get the Valley's practical emphasis on commercializing products, but there's a lot of money in the Valley. Couldn't we have just a little science fiction too?

Is there a modern day Sputnik here? If Americans thought cloning and stem cell research were cases where ends didn't justify the "you're-playing-God!" means, think of the outrage to technologies like these—especially if they were to be developed in countries like China or even, the Middle East. If faster-growing economies aren't enough to shake American schools out of their science-rut, maybe the fear of another country being able to mind control us is.

If a Google employee rampages through my email, Google Voice or other data for no justifiable reason I expect a lot more from the company than simply terminating them. There needs to be criminal charges brought as well.

We’ve asked Google if they’ve pressed charges against either of the two engineers they’ve fired for inappropriately accessing user data, and they won’t comment.

So much of our life is lived online, and so much of our highly sensitive personal data is stored on Google’s servers, that it is absurd that there aren’t more dire consequences facing those that choose to molest that data. If a Google employee broke into my home and stole files from my office they’d go to jail. And frankly I’d be far less concerned with that situation than if they were perusing my email for entertainment during their lunch break.

A few days ago, for no particular reason, I asked people on Twitter if they’d trust Google with their money and data if Google launched a bank. The overwhelming response was “no.” Surprised, I wrote “wow, most of you say no way you’d trust Google Bank with your money. I certainly would. My bank sucks.”

I think I’d like to amend my answer. My bank certainly does suck. But I’m pretty sure they’d have an employee arrested if they, say, accessed my data and tried to exhort me with it.

I’m not so sure Google would do the same.

Earlier this month I wrote about the extraordinary steps Google is taking to retain talent. It doesn’t seem like such a big problem – after all LinkedIn is only tracking 118 (well, it’s 120 now) former Google employees now at Facebook. But it’s being taken very seriously at Google.

The counter offers we’ve confirmed are so large that some commenters scoffed, suggesting it wasn’t accurate data. But even former Googler now Facebooker Paul Buchheit has confirmed these counter offers.

And worse – he’s confirmed that many Google employees are interviewing with Facebook and Twitter, among others, simply to get a hefty raise. “Many people at Google use Facebook offers in order to get a big raise,” says Buchheit.

What’s Google offering? An immediate response for starters. They have put policies in place to ensure that an employee gets a response within 24 hours, we’ve confirmed from sources close to Google. Raises of 15% – 20% aren’t uncommon, as are new restricted stock grants ranging up to $500,000 in value. Employees are also often offered a different job, a move into a managerial role, etc.

Why does one of the hottest companies in the world need to work so hard to keep employees? Three words – Pre IPO stock. Silicon Valley is where even regular joe employees can make millions if they join the right company at the right time. And it’s a pretty safe bet that Facebook and Twitter are the right companies at the right time right now. So employees, particularly engineers, flock to those companies. Because of the stock options, as well as the chance to work at the hot company of the moment.

Google knows all about this because not so long ago they were the hot company and stole engineers effortlessly from Yahoo, Microsoft and just about everyone else.

It’s Different This Time

Google is doing more than just the usual recruiting stuff to fight this. Counter offers like these are relatively unheard of until now. In the past companies have let those engineers go, knowing it’s the way Silicon Valley cycles through things.

But some are saying that Google’s aggressive counter offering is actually creating a much bigger problem by encouraging even loyal employees to dip their toes into the Facebook pool. Why not? Only a sucker would sit and hope for recognition, when they can, as Buchheit says, “use Facebook offers in order to get a big raise.”

Maybe it’s better if Google just lets some of its engineers go. The finger in the dam approach rarely works, and it seems to be affecting morale across Google.

If you’re like me you don’t have the new Twitter yet (Wow, talk about a gradual roll-out fail. Hey dudes, I work for TechCrunch remember!). So what’s a girl to do other than stay up all night crying and manually refreshing Twitter.com until she gets a taste of that sweet sweet bifurcated screen?

Well there’s, yes, a Twitter app for that. For those of us that are still out of the split screen loop, Ryan LeFevre has made “Am I Upgraded Yet?” a simple app that direct messages you when you’re (finally) eligible to switch over.

So peace out guys, I’m going to sleep. And crossing my fingers that that DM will be there in the morning. Oh and in case you forgot, it’s @alexia.

Thanks: @pistachio and @moth

I’m sitting in the final session of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions (or “Summer Davos,”) and my head is numbingly packed with economics and facts. But former Google China president, Kai-fu Lee just snapped me out of it when he said that the next Google or Apple won’t come out of China, won’t come out of Asia, and will likely come out of the United States. He went further to say a Google or Apple wouldn’t come out of China for another fifty or 100 years, thanks to the lackluster educational system.

What? Then why does he have an incubator here?

To be fair, Lee is bullish on what he calls “micro-innovation” or what we’d call rapid iteration in the Web 2.0 world. He draws a distinction between Facebook and Chinese Web giant Tencent and Apple/Google, saying Facebook and Tencent took ideas from others and iterated on them, while Apple and Google were huge innovations.

I’m not sure I see the distinction. Apple back in the day was obviously hugely innovative. But more recently, Apple returns are driven by two things it didn’t invent: MP3 players and smart phones. Apple iterated on them and, through design, created amazing products. Search, too, was an existing category Google made better. What’s more: Many people would argue the big innovation at Google was the paid-search business model, which was invented by Overture.

Now let’s look at Facebook. Yes, social networks weren’t new, but I’d argue the way Facebook developed its social network was every bit as distinct as how Apple iterated on the MP3 player and Google iterated on the search engine. The news feed and connect were hugely innovative– so innovative they terrified people. You can argue a search algorithm or designing a phone is a harder technical problem, but that seems an order of magnitude, not a fundamental difference of “innovative” versus “not innovative.”

As for the educational system, it’s an important point, as many say the Chinese educational system is based on rote learning, not thinking. But so are a lot of countries, and immigrants–educated in those countries–have been some of the biggest innovators during the golden age of Silicon Valley.

I worry sometimes that people in other countries put Silicon Valley on a pedestal. Living in Silicon Valley can absolutely help you build an idea into a company thanks to its much famed ecosystem. I think living among entrepreneurs pushes people to quit a job and follow their dreams. But there’s nothing magic about it. Great entrepreneurs are everywhere and in today’s world capital is flowing all over the world to find them. I find it hard to believe there’s not one Steve Jobs in all of China for the next fifty years.

China has another edge too: It makes things. I’m a big believer in the theory that that’s where a lot of fundamental American innovation came from, and that it’s something America has lost in the great globalized “knowledge-economy” age. When you make things, you see how they work… and how they could work a lot better.

After watching SAP CEO Bill McDermott, HP CTO Phil McKinney, and Square Co-founder Jack Dorsey give their conference spiel today,  I took a stroll into the DEMO pit in order to find the seven best startups at DEMO.

While the presentation junkets split all 67 worthy startups into Mobile Technologies, Cloud Technologies, Consumer and Social and Media Technologies, I’ve culled the seven that caught my eye (and ear) and presented them here in no particular order:

Parallels Definitely the darling of DEMO, the already established Parallels chose Santa Clara to launch its Parallels Desktop 6/Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac app which allows people to use their iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch in order to remotely access Windows applications running on a Mac. You know what this means? Yes, Flash and printing, on an iPad, Uh huh, that’s right.

IQ Engines This startup’s Any Image Recognition Engine is a visual search engine that uses both an exact and category algorithm as well as crowdsourcing in order to tag any image you throw at it with a relevant label. Attempting to one up Google Goggles, IQ Engines aims to provide accurate and comprehensive image intelligence services to shopping applications, web publishers, photo labeling applications, as well as tools for the visually impaired.

Range Networks Open BTS’ Range Networks aim is pretty noble, to provide low cost web connected cell phones to everyone on the planet using scalable mobile infrastructure. Founded by Glenn Edens, the startup uses GSM technology which allows people to route calls over the Internet. And, not having to send as much info through expensive landlines, Range Networks holds that it can set up cell phone plans for $2 to $3 a month. Heard of them before? They’re the ones that built all the open source VoIP stuff for Burning Man.

Dynamics Dynamics (see photos above) is a credit cards payments system that is attempting to disrupt current payment system practices in order to to create “Card 2.0.”  A Dynamics card looks like a normal credit card but is in fact a thin flexible computing platform, which allows for both a programmable multi-account and a “hidden” functionality, preventing theft as well as increasing convenience as you get to choose what “card” you use.

Bump Ever wish you could send really mean texts to someone who had blocked your driveway, getting them to respond and perhaps even move their car? You’re one step closer with the BUMPME iPhone app, which allows users who don’t know each other to to send and receive messages to each other through unique identifiers, like license plates.

Particle Particle is an integrated development environment (like OpenPlug) which lets developers to translate one mobile app into the native language of another app, enabling programmers who write in Java to develop apps for the iPhone (in Objective-C) and vice versa, switching through what used to be incompatible platforms with ease.

Footfeed Like Check.in, Footfeed tries to eliminate Checkin fatigue by aggregating checkins from Foursquare, Facebook, Gowalla, Britekite and Twitter but, unlike Check.in, Footfeed’s got an iPhone app where you can still reap the benefits of cross platform mayorships, points, deals, tokens or whatever the kids are doing these days on the go! It’s about time.

Yep. I'm going there again.

When I looked at the "Summer Davos" program, the panel I was most excited to attend was about the role of women in Asian workforces. The role of women in China is fascinating: Despite real problems of gender equality issues—not to mention the role karaoke bars play in business negotiations – women have also helped power China's rise, migrating en masse to factories and aggressively learning new skills to climb their own socio-economic ladders.

And new research by the World Economic Forum shows that for the first time women and men are entering college at the same rate in China. And while only 20% of leadership roles in China are held by women, it does better than many Asian neighbors. In terms of professional equality, Japan lags far behind and India ranks as one of the worst. I was fascinated to talk about these differences, hoping maybe there was some sort of gender-equivalent of the "greenfield advantages" emerging markets face over the developed world.

I got two surprises at the session. The first was that it was mostly another session about how women don't get enough opportunities with the same reasons cited as the ones we hear in the Valley all the time: Not enough role models, not enough mentoring and problems with work-family life balance. We tried for an hour to come up with solutions but most came down to "Men need to hire more women." I felt comforted and frustrated at once. On one hand, at least everyone in the world seems to have the exact same issue. On the other hand, are we doomed to keep having the same conversation with little apparent progress until the end of time?

But the second surprise was more shocking. According to the World Economic Forum's statistics, there is almost gender parity when it came to technical and professional jobs and leadership roles in the United States. Huh?

You don't have to be a business reporter for fifteen years to know CEO and director level jobs are highly lopsided towards men. Tech or not in tech, there are simply not as many of women in successful, high-profile leadership roles, and many of the most successful don't want to do media interviews because they are sick to death of this topic that some people say – constantly—doesn't "get enough attention."

I challenged the numbers and was told they get thinner as you go up the ladder, which explains the disconnect. But the numbers show that in the US women are equal to men in getting a foot in the door, which is more than developing markets can claim. A few women law partners in attendance said that they had challenges getting women up that ladder, because they'd usually chose to go part-time after their second child, despite having the resources to hire help.

Here's what we need: A serious study that looks at choice. Are more women not in management decisions by choice or because the chose not to be or because of a glass ceiling? Until we have some new way to look at this issue, I'm done discussing it because the discussion doesn't ever get us anywhere new. Bloggers saying this needs attention are playing to a crowd or just haven't been doing their homework because I have written about or been on panels to discuss this issue more than two dozen times in my career, and I’m not alone.

But suffice to say for all those people who jump up and down about the problem in the Valley: Statistically you are the envy of the world. Statistically, women have enough leadership roles at lower levels that you should be able to move up if you are talented and you want to. Maybe you’re at a disadvantage, but for most immigrants, women or other minorities being at a disadvantage has made them stronger.

One of the best speakers I’ve heard at Summer Davos was also one of the most successful people, and he came from a far more challenged background than the average American. His advice in an off-the-record mentor session was this: “The most successful people in the world never complain. I’m tired of people saying their opportunities were taken away from them by others.” Amen.

Canon and Nikon, the photography world’s Hatfields and McCoys, have both recently released new DSLRs and compact manuals. While all of them are certainly excellent cameras, they’re clearly gunning for each other and a quick perusal of all their specs seems in order.

The contenders are the Nikon D7000, released just a few minutes ago, the Canon 60D, released last week, the Nikon P7000, also released last week, and the Canon G12, released the day before yesterday. As you can see, it really is a fresh crop of photographic equipment; let’s see what these devices’ numbers look like next to each other.

Continue reading this article…

Just when you thought our digital culture was bumping against the limits of oversharing, Looxcie steps in with a device that makes it even easier for oversharers to document every mundane moment of their lives. The Artiman Ventures backed startup has officially launched a wearable camcorder, that fits over the ear, which allows users to capture short clips and immediately share and publish those videos on the web via a companion mobile app.

And starting this Wednesday, the device is available on Amazon.com for $199.

Looxcie, pronounced look-see, is meant for casual users who love to video-share but are craving more flexible options (versus other live streaming services like Qik).

This is how it works: a user straps Looxcie on their ear, putting the camera roughly at eye level. The device can continuously record and store up to 4 hours of video footage, after which the rechargeable battery taps out. If something noteworthy occurs, the user presses an “instant clip” button, which will take the last 30 seconds and package it into a video file. Through Bluetooth, that file is sent to Looxcie’s companion mobile app, which can then be shared via e-mail, Facebook or YouTube. For impatient users, you can also configure the app to upload “instant shares” automatically.

For now, the mobile app is only available on Android devices, but Looxcie plans to roll out apps for the Blackberry, Windows and iPhone operating systems by the end of this year. If you have none of the above but still want to use a wearable camcorder, you can upload your files to your PC or MAC via a USB cord— of course, this effectively negates the instant-sharing functionality. Check out a sample clip:

The real question is, is it worth it? I have no doubt that there will be a few die-hard video bloggers who will want to give this device a real test drive, but it’s hard to imagine massive traction with the average consumer. For aesthetic and practical reasons, the average consumer may not want a device, that he may or may not use, sitting on top of his ear. Looxcie also suffers from several product limitations, which may discourage the hardcore demographic. At 15 frames per second and HVGA 480×320 resolution, the video quality is OK, just mediocre— not superior to your average iPhone or Android smartphones. Furthermore, four hours of recording time and a 30-second limit on instant clips seems insufficient if your goal is to actually record your life.

That all said— never underestimate people’s need to share on the web and the lengths they will go (and the electronics they will purchase) to do so.