Intuit announced the integration of iPhone and BlackBerry to QuickBooks Online, the web-based small business accounting software.

Now the more than 130,000 small businesses that subscribe to QuickBooks Online have even more freedom to manage their business anywhere, anytime– even without a computer. These early version web-based mobile applications are part of Intuit’s Connected Services strategy to help entrepreneurs connect to their data when and where they need it.
Available on IntuitLabs.com, these iPhone and BlackBerry applications help QuickBooks Online users get an up-to-date view of their finances by:

• Checking current bank and credit card balances.
• Tracking who owes them money and who they owe.
• Finding vendor and customer contact info with addresses via Google Maps.
• Running balance sheet and profit and loss reports.

iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations announced the general launch of its much-anticipated subscription-based auto racing simulation and Internet racing service.

After four years of development and testing, virtually anyone anywhere in the world with a PC, high-speed internet access and a set of automotive-style wheel-and-pedal controls can develop his or her race-driving skills and also compete in the newest form of global motorsport– real-time, online competition, known as Internet racing.

The announcement was made by iRacing’s co-founders and owners, John Henry, who is also principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, and Dave Kaemmer, a pioneer of motorsport simulation technology with more than 20 years experience in the field.

iRacing has signed agreements with most of the major North American motorsport facilities, including all of the tracks owned by International Speedway Corp (ISC) and Speedway Motorsports (SMI), which between them represent almost all the venues for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series. Most of the major North American road-racing circuits, from Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park to Wisconsin’s Road America to California’s Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca are also represented in iRacing’s inventory of laser-scanned, extremely accurate digital versions of real-world raceways.

This is a much safer way to race. Anyone care for some competition?

Lifetime Networks has acquired ParentsClick Network, a San Francisco-based company that offers tools for parents to create their own social networks and blogs.

ParentClick Network sites include MothersClick.com, FathersClick.com, and MomBlogNetwork.com.

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed though reports were pointing at $10 million.

Sify Technologies Limited has forged an agreement with Google Inc. to bring the Google Apps suite of communication and collaboration tools, including email, chat and online documents, to Indian Internet users. Google Apps will now power Sifymail and chat, as well as other applications using the Google Apps platform, which would be leveraged across Sify’s fast expanding Network Infrastructure, reaching out to over a million users across India and abroad.

Sify provides Internet access in India through the ePort cyber café chain and home broadband access, as well as interactive rich media content with sites such as Sify.com for news, sports, finance, games, shopping and video content, Sifymax.com for broadband entertainment content, Samachar.com for global Indians to stay in touch with everything Indian. The agreement with Google will complement Sify’s strengths in connectivity and content to catalyze the use of the Internet by Indians with world-class applications, tools and content tailored to Indian requirements.

Sify will start launching these services for users in the coming months.

An estimated 63.1 million American households or three-fourth of those online are paying their bills online rather than writing checks, a survey sponsored by CheckFree revealed.

The survey indicates that consumers are more confident about online security as more Americans are gaining experience in using Internet services, making security concerns less of a barrier to online bill payment adoption than in the past. In the latest survey, only 13 percent of respondents cited online security as the top reason for not using the online bill payment service, down from 17 percent in the 2007 survey. Overall, online security ranked third among barriers to online bill payment adoption this year, compared to its number-one ranking in 2007. The primary barrier (15%) in the new study was “I don’t know enough about how it works.”

For the second year in a row, American consumers who go online each month paid more of their household bills online at bank and billing organization websites than by any other method. An estimated 31 million households are using online banking websites to pay bills, 47.9 million households are using biller websites and 16 million are using both online banking and biller sites to receive and pay bills. Approximately 63.1 million of Internet-using households pay at least one bill online in an average month, up from 61 million in the 2007 survey. These households collectively paid 934 million bills in a typical month, according to the survey results.

Online bill payments continued to outpace check bill payments for the second consecutive year. Online bill payments made at both bank and biller websites rose to 42 percent of the total volume of household bill payments made each month, up from 39 percent in the 2007 survey. Online bill payment adoption has significantly grown since the 2002 survey, when only 14 percent reported paying their bills online.

The survey polled 3,031 US consumers who use the Internet, were at least 21 years of age and were at least partly responsible for household bill payments. The online survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent. The results are considered representative of the nation’s 85.1 million Internet-connected households.

Long the butt of insomnia jokes, C-Span, the cable television non-profit, has launched a new Web site that is actually - well - not boring.

Featuring the typical red, white and blue political look, the Web site manages to integrate YouTube and Qik videos and offer a roundup of relevant Twitter tweets.

There are actually two sites.  One for the DNC and one for the RNC.

Access to major political blogs such as Politico, The National Review, Gawker, etc is available.  You can also search for political blogs based on state.

Live streams (in case you’re having trouble sleeping) are only a click away.

When companies like C-Span and AARP can roll out pretty nice looking Web sites, you start to realize that the Web has been embraced by just about everyone.  Evolve or die.  It’s nice to see there are still a few dinosaurs out there.

blinkx announced a partnership with Getty Images that would make its content more easily accessible at www.blinkx.com. Under the terms of the agreement, blinkx will leverage its AdHoc platform to place contextually relevant advertising against Getty Images’ multimedia, and will share resulting advertising revenue with Getty Images.

“We believe our assets deserve wide exposure, and we’re always looking for innovative ways to make our digital content easily accessible,” said Josh Rucci, senior director of multimedia sales, Getty Images. “We’re pleased to partner with blinkx, whose technology enables us to expand our reach further than ever before.”

blinkx has more than 350 partners and 26 million hours of indexed video and audio content, including favorite TV moments, news clips, short documentaries, music videos, video blogs annd more. blinkx uses advanced speech-recognition technology to deliver results that are more accurate and reliable than standard metadata-based keyword searches.

Hollywood Media Corp. has sold its Hollywood.com and Hollywood.com Television businesses to R&S Investments, LLC, an entity owned by Mitchell Rubenstein and Laurie S. Silvers for $10 million. The purchase price includes $1 million paid out to Hollywood Media and earn-out payments of $9 million.

Hollywood Media plans to focus on its profitable online Broadway Ticketing business (including Broadway.com), which currently has an approximate 10 percent share of the Broadway ticket market. Hollywood Media also owns the UK-based CinemasOnline and a minority interest in MovieTickets.com.

Amazon announced that it has acquired Shelfari, a book-sharing site. The announcement was further confirmed by Shelfari co-founder Josh Hug in a blog post.

“It’s an exciting day here at Shelfari. The rain has stopped, the birds are chirping and the biggest news of all – we are being acquired by Amazon.com,” Hug said.

Financial details of the acquisition were not released.

A simplified homepage, designed to get users to the information they seek quicker, has been launched by MapQuest this morning.

Honestly, I’m such a devoted Google Maps user, that I don’t even remember what MQ used to look like.

The new landing page automatically populates a map with your location (according to IP address).  Enter an address for a map, or click the “get directions” button (which is grayed out by default) to get instructions on traveling from A to B.

The streamlined look allows users to get directions, gas prices, construction information and view live traffic cams - all from the homepage.

Below the fold you will find tools to customize your map.  You can plot out the city’s best burgers or locate the nearest coffee shop.

I don’t see myself ditching Google Maps, but I might cheat a little.  You won’t tell, right?