What you need to know – 01/26/11

Apple is planning to integrate the next iPhone and iPad iterations with Near-Field Communication functionality, which will allow formobile payments directly from the device.

Social marketing company Crowd Factory raised a $6.5 million round of funding led by Storm Ventures.

Demand Media hits the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday under the symbol DMD: the digital publishing company priced its stock at $17 a share—$1 more than what many estimates had placed it at.

Online investment network eToro closed a funding round of $8.3 million from Spark Capital, Social Leverage and existing investors.

Google Voice added number porting, letting users take full advantage of the application with their original mobile phone number.

Nielsen will also hit the New York Stock Exchange today under the symbol NLSN: it has priced its initial public offering of 71.4 million shares of its common stock at $23.00 per share.

VatorNews’ Ronny Kerr chatted with ngmoco founder Neil Young, who will be presenting at Vator Splash February 3 in San Francisco.

Cloud gaming company Playcast Media Systems raised a $10 million in Series B financing from MK Capital and JVP, with participation from existing shareholders.

Cloud-based video monitoring platform Sensr.net secured $1.5 million in financing led by Spark Capital, with participation from Charles River Ventures and strategic angel investors.

Solar installation chain Solar Universe closed a $7 million Series B round led by RockPort Capital Partners.

On the heels of a new funding round from top-tier investors, audio sharing site SoundCoud will be extending its operations from its Berlin, Germany headquarters to San Francisco, with several new hires slated for the city in the coming months.

Reminiscent of post-election Iran a year ago, demonstrations against government corruption in Egypt have triggered blocking of microblogging site Twitter, which was used to organize protest. Reports say Facebook has also been blocked.

Today’s featured investor on VatorNews is Tim Chang of Norwest Venture Partners.

Yahoo is cutting 140 employees, amounting to a mere 1% of the company’s global employee base, and add to the 600 it cut last month.