Visa Places Bet on New Approach to Payments With Rare Investment in TrialPay

Visa, Greylock’s Reid Hoffman and others are pouring $40 million into TrialPay, which helps companies like Facebook, Gap and Fandango increase sales through the use of incentives.
trialpay_alexrampell

Online Sales Play Role in Helping Harry Potter Break Box-Office Records

Harry Potter’s final installment of the massively popular film franchise is on its way to breaking all kinds of records, assisted by nearly magical online and mobile presales that took place in the 45 days leading up to its debut.
potter

Nuance’s Dragon Go Is a Voice-Powered Search App That Knows Where to Look

Voice-powered search is a crowded field dominated by the search giants — Google and Bing — but Nuance hopes to earn its place with Dragon Go, an app that not only recognizes what someone is saying, but also knows which services should be queried for results.
go_pandora

The M-Commerce Tipping Point Is Now

With the age of the PC declared officially over–smartphones outsold PCs for the first time in 4Q 2010–American retailers are all asking the same question: When will the m-commerce tipping point arrive? The answer is, it’s happening now.

Exclusive: Mickie Rosen to Join Yahoo as Audience Head

Yahoo is hiring former News Corp. and Disney online exec Mickie Rosen to run its Audience unit, which includes the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s powerful content sites, sources said. Rosen will report to Americas head Ross Levinsohn, who has worked with her before, both at News Corp. and Fuse Capital. The move is Levinsohn’s first management rejiggering since he took over last year, and there is likely to be more to come.

Exclusive: Comcast's Top Digital Exec Amy Banse to Open New Silicon Valley Equity Fund for Cable Giant and NBC

Amy Banse, currently the president of Comcast Interactive Media, is shifting into a job as head of a new Silicon Valley-based equity fund aimed at making digital investments for the television cable giant, as well as its new NBC Universal unit, according to sources with knowledge of the plans. As part of the shift, sources said, Banse will be charged with combining two existing corporate investment funds: NBC U’s Peacock Equity and Comcast Interactive Capital.

Three Cool iPad Ads

Earlier this week we got Condé Nast’s instructions on how to make a killer iPad ad. Now, three examples of some good ones.

Windows Phone 7: There’s an App for Some of That

How many Windows Phone 7 apps will be available when the first devices running the OS ship? Microsoft refuses to say, but I’m told it will be plenty. Or, as one exec told me, “enough.”

Exclusive: Comcast Reshuffles Its Digital Deck Before NBC Comes Aboard

Comcast hasn’t finished acquiring NBC Universal yet. But it is already shuffling some of its digital leadership ahead of the deal’s close. Current digital boss Amy Banse will end up with a new gig, and her lieutenant Matt Strauss gets a promotion.

A Service That Says ‘Yes, We Have Bananas on Sale’

Springpad is a free service that lets you save digital content like a photo or a Web page and sends alerts related to that content.

Apple: 1 Million 3GS Handsets Sold

HP Announces PC-Free Printer

Rubinstein and McNamee: Remaking Palm