$250 million Venture Capital Fund Established For Investment In Social Web

Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers along with Facebook, Amazon, and Zynga, are establishing a $250 million fund (the sFund) to aid the development of a new generation of social web offerings. 

"There's going to be an opportunity over the next five years or so to pick any industry and rethink it in a social way," said Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. "We think that every industry is going to be fundamentally re-thought and designed around people."

With KPCB putting up most of the money, the others are offering assistance in various ways. Amazon will provide it's web services platform for one year to selected companies and Facebook providing access to it's platform team and beta APIs.

The big focus of the fund will be social start-ups from all industries but no money will be provided to direct competitors of Facebook, Amazon, or Zynga (so there's the hook!).

"Think of it as a quarter-billion-dollar party. The third great wave of the internet is mobile and social together. It's going to be tectonic," said KPCB partner John Doerr.

Source: BBC 

New Kindle - Bigger Is Better?

On Wednesday Amazon introduced a new larger version of the Kindle e-reader, saying that it is a new way for people to read large format documents such as textbooks, newspapers and reports. They also hinted that new partnerships that are in the works that may put Kindles in the hands of university students and newspaper readers. The Kindle DX (deluxe), has a screen that is two and a half times the size of the two older versions and will go on sale this summer for $489, or $130 more than the Kindle 2.

Regarding text books on the DX Rik Kranenburg, group president of higher education, professional and international publishing at McGraw-Hill said. “Currently on college campuses, the vast majority of students have computers, most of them laptops, and that’s the main vehicle for digitally accessing our content now. But we are eager to experiment with devices like the Kindle, iPhone and the Sony e-reader.”

Source: New York Times

Amazon Announces Kindle 2

Visit the Amazon.com page today and you will be greeted with a note from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announcing the upcoming release of the Kindle 2 e-reader.

The new device features a list of improvements:

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines

Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback

Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images

Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging

More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books

Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns

Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you.

The Kindle 2 releases on February 24th and can be pre-ordered today for $359.00