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SiPort IC Brings HD Radio(TM) to Microsoft's Zune HD Portable Media PlayerDigital Terrestrial Broadcast Receiver Delivers Improved Reception, New Programming Functions with long battery life and excellent form factor SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 15Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:20 am New Lenders Break Into Education Finance Marketplace With Help From CologyCology Achieves Record Growth in 2009 With the Private Student Loan Industry's Most Comprehensive Core Processing System SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Cology...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:17 am New York Times tricked into serving scareware ad - Computerworld
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:16 am Motorola downplays T-Mobile in US - Inquirer
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:04 am Here Comes the Google Ad Exchange [MediaMemo]
The search giant will reportedly open up its AdX service, which is supposed to bring together ad buyers and sellers the same way a stock market does, within the next two weeks. ClickZ says the exchange is supposed to open up in conjunction with next week’s AdWeek festivities in New York. That timeline sounds right to me. Google (GOOG) has already been inviting selected clients to try out the system, which is based on the one that DoubleClick ran before Google acquired it last year. Google told potential buyers via email that will begin integrating them into the exchange this week. None of this will have any impact on Google’s search users, but it’s potentially important for online advertisers and publishers. Up until now, the online exchange market has been dominated by Yahoo’s (YHOO) Right Media, but Google will become an instant rival as soon as it opens its doors. Meanwhile Microsoft’s (MSFT) offering, AdECN, seems stuck in the starting gate The exchange will be opening shortly after the departure of its manager, Michael Rubenstein. Rubenstein is now president of ad tech startup AppNexus. Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am U.S. Hotel Prices Drop 17 Percent According to hotels.com Hotel Price IndexRoom Rates at Their Lowest in Five Years DALLAS, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- According to the latest hotels.com Hotel Price Index(TM) (HPI) released today, the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Marriott Rewards Members Can Now Help Protect Their Identity With New Partner LifeLock, Earn PointsBETHESDA, Md., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Marriott Rewards, Marriott International Inc.'s (NYSE: MAR) award-winning guest loyalty program, and LifeLock, Inc. are providing members...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Jingwei International Clarifies Auditor RelationshipSHENZHEN, China, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- Jingwei International Limited (OTC Bulletin Board: JNGW; "Jingwei"), one of the leading providers in...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Apple betrays the iPhone's business hopes (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - Fixing a major but unacknowledged bug in the operating system, last week's iPhone OS 3.1 update has rendered most iPhones and all iPod Touches incompatible with Exchange 2007 servers that require on-device data be encrypted, a standard safeguard used by businesses.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Cognizant Deploys IT Infrastructure Services at Rodale to Reduce Costs, Increase Efficiency, Improve Customer ExperienceGlobal Media Company Leverages Cognizant's Advanced RIM 2.0 Remote Infrastructure Management Platform to Ensure Service Quality Excellence TEANECK, N.J. and EMMAUS, Penn.,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Mobile Marketing Association Keynotes Today at Mobile Media World 09Toronto Mayor David Miller Proclaims Sept. 12-16 2009 MOBILEINNOVATIONWEEK and Delivers Opening Address, Available as a Free Live Webcast NEW YORK, LONDON, SINGAPORE, SAO...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Guns, Lots of Guns: A Video of Microsoft's Bing Visual Search, Aiming Right at Google [BoomTown]
With all the Microsoft employees tweeting about Bing 2.0 last week (”Super imressive!”), especially its new Visual Search offering launched yesterday, BoomTown thought it might be better just to show it in action. So, here is a video that Microsoft (MSFT) did showing the service, powered by its Silverlight technology. It is not comprehensive to speak of–only 50 specific visual search terms for now, such as “digital cameras” and “top songs.” But it is still pretty cool and very pretty, as the thumbnails shuffle here and there depending on your request, which you can see in the video below. It kind of reminds me of the “Guns, lots of guns” scene from “The Matrix,” which I have also posted below. That’s good, because Microsoft is going to need all the ammo (and innovation) it can get if it hopes to compete more effectively with Google (GOOG)–which, by the way, doubtlessly has its own version of visual search at the ready, in case Bing’s catches on. Until then, here are the videos: Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:52 am First Look at the Microsoft Zune HD - Washington Post
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:48 am Ethiopia seeks climate change answers from publicEthiopia will conduct a nationwide canvass of opinion to enable people to submit their ideas on how to tackle climate change, state media reported on Tuesday. The Ethiopian News Agency...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:31 am Radware Upgrades DefensePro Security Solution to Protect Against High-Volume Cybercriminal ActivityRadware's DefensePro 5.0 goes beyond standard Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) to offer enhanced Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) prevention in one solution MAHWAH,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:30 am Town of Celebration Now Enjoying Spiderhost's Reliable E-mail and Intranet HostingORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- href="http://www.celebration.fl.us/">Celebration , Central Florida's prominent planned community, is now enjoying reliable e-mail...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:30 am Powerbell Weight-Training Kit Is Heavy on Style
We’ll be honest. The only reason that we’re posting about Wieder’s Powerbell is because of its looks. For a piece of fitness kit, it… Well, it doesn’t look much like a piece of fitness kit. While we have no intention of spoiling the smooth, skinny lines of our arms by ever lifting one of these weights, we can appreciate its modular form. Unlike regular kettle-bells, which are bought one-by-one in a variety of weights, the Powerbell has one handle which, when unlocked, allows flat plates to slide in and out. And while it is certainly space-saving, it isn’t quite the money saver Wieder would have us believe. The product site shows a row of kettle-bells lined up, prices at the side. These add up to $300. The Powerbells? $400 or $300, depending on the maximum masses of 20 or 40 pounds, plus $25 shipping. Right now there is a “sale”, where these “drop” to a still-too-close $200 and $250. Still, it has one major advantage over any other weightlifting gear. When you give up on using it after a week, it will still look good as a doorstop. Product page [Wieder via Uncrate]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:25 am Chinese schools quietly discard controversial Web filter (Reuters)Reuters - Schools in Beijing are quietly removing the Green Dam filter, which was required for all school computers in July, due to complaints over problems with the software.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:19 am After Office Tie Helps During Happy HourBy Chris Scott Barr If you like to have a drink directly after leaving the office, then you might find this interesting concept to your liking. During the day, the After Office Tie looks just like any...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:18 am Meet Ford's 'family' car but don't call it a minivan - USA Today
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:09 am Most Detailed Photos of an Atom YetBuzzSkyline writes "Ukrainian researchers have managed to take pictures of atoms that reveal structure of the electron clouds surrounding carbon nuclei in unprecedented detail. Although the images offer no surprises (they look much like the sketches of electron orbitals included in high school science texts), this is the first time that anyone has directly imaged atoms at this level, rather than inferring the structure of the orbitals from indirect measurements such as electron or X-ray interferometry."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:09 am Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 8:09 pm - ZDNet
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:05 am Magic Wand Remote Conjures Channel Changes
We can’t decide which is better: The buttonless Kymera Magic Wand universal remote, or the wonderful website which accompanies it. The pages look like pages from an epic, ancient tome, complete with hand-drawn illustrations and crinkly, yellowing paper. The wand itself is a simple stick, containing the hair of a unicorn’s mane. Wait, no. It’s a stick containing an LED. In practice mode, you can try out any of the 13 gestures and the light will flash a coded pattern to let you know which one. When you are ready to do some serious magic (change channels), the wand learns simply by performing a gesture and beaming a boring, modern-day remote at its tip. Change channel by flipping left or right, for example, or increase the volume with a quick clockwise twirl. A wonderfully whimsical device, the 14-inch wand will be available on October 1st for £50, or $83, batteries included. Product page [The Wand Company]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:02 am Logitech Announces New Lapboard With Retractable Mouse PadBy Chris Scott Barr Laptops are awesome, but they do have their drawbacks. My biggest issue is that I like to use a mouse, rather than the trackpad after a while. Sure, it’s fine for a bit, but a...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:52 am Extreme Pro: SanDisk’s Blistering Fast New Memory Cards
Putting a cheap memory card into a DSLR is like putting vegetable oil into the tank of a Ferrari*. The camera will write slower and you’ll saturate its internal buffer sooner. In short, if you have spent the money for a fast camera, then you should spend the money for a fast card. I use SanDisk Extreme IV cards as they go great with my Nikon and have rather resplendent packaging (since reduced in size). They’re fast, to-ing and fro-ing data at up to 45MB/sec, which keeps my camera’s buffer free and means transfers from card to computer are also quick. Today, these have been superseded by the Extreme Pro, a Compact Flash card available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB sizes. They run at a blistering 90MB/sec, or double that of the previous cards. The catch is the price, which starts at $300 and rises quickly to $800. Extreme indeed. Even the next model down, the Extreme III, has been ousted. This time the new range is simply called “Extreme” and offers rates up to 60MB/sec on cards from 8GB to 32GB and prices from $130 to $375. My lowly 4GB cards are starting to look a little old-fashioned. Product page [SanDisk] Press release [DP Review] *OK, it’s not quite the same. A slow card won’t actually trash your camera, but you get the point.
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:39 am Bloodbot Stabs You Like A ProBy Evan Ackerman Wired posted a gallery on Friday of surgical robots, and Bloodbot here caught my eye, largely because it seemed to be the most practical. The robot consists of an arm with a needle and...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:17 am Kickster iPod Nano Case Designed By Committee, Includes Nifty KickstandBy David Ponce Within 24 hours of the 5G iPod nano announcement, the design community at Quirky had come up with a pretty cool case for it. This case maintains a slim profile while adding a ton of functionality...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:15 am Zune 4.0 software now live - go get it!It is now September 15th, and that means that you are now able to go and grab the Zune 4.0 update. Go ahead and do it, if you love music. The Zune.net site is still undergoing maintenance, but if you have...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:08 am Twittering ferries alert passengers to delaysThe world's first tweeting ferries are sailing across The Solent, thanks to an inventor who took matters into his own hands after becoming frustrated with delays to his commute. Hundreds of passengers...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:00 am Why Pat Gelsinger Will Be MIA from IDF [Voices]By Don Clark, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal Next week, hundreds of high-tech’s most geekiest participants will flock to San Francisco for the Intel (INTC) Developer Forum, better known as IDF. But one of their most prominent cheerleaders will not be there. Patrick Gelsinger, a senior vice president who also served in the past as Intel’s chief technology officer, says he will then be in Hopkinton, Mass., starting his new job at data storage giant EMC. His surprise departure from Intel was announced Monday along with a major management reorganization at his former employer. After nearly 30 years at Intel, Gelsinger says it will be strange to miss IDF, which includes mind-numbing talks about chip developments, late-night carousing and offbeat attempts at humor that he fomented (such as mock fashion shows of generic-looking computer modules). “I’ve been fathering IDF so long I can’t quite remember not being there,” he says. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:00 am Zune.net now streams entire Zune music catalog in the browser (even on Macs!)One of the main gripes we've had with Microsoft as it pertains to the Zune platform is that they have stubbornly decided to keep it to a PC-only experience, leaving those of us who live in OS X out in...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:00 am Logitech intros Portable Lapdesk N315
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 TrustedReviews | Lenovo ThinkPad T400s Multitouch Screen: A Fingers-On Look Washington Post We've already reviewed Lenovo's ThinkPad T400s laptop, a reasonably slim and powerful corporate raider. We love it, it works, and it's riding high atop our chart for the best all-purpose laptops currently kicking around. So how could Lenovo improve on ... Lenovo Brings Multitouch, Outdoor Screen to Notebook Lenovo Extends Touchscreens to Four-finger Input Lenovo launches multitouch tablet PCs |
Then: The Wealth of NationsBook Titles, If They Were Written Today (via Making Light)
Now: Invisible Hands: The Mysterious Market Forces That Control Our Lives and How to Profit from ThemThen: Walden
Now: Camping with Myself: Two Years in American Tuscany
*To collect your prize, you have to pay for a room at a hotel of your choosing.
Source: Boing Boing | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:24 am
chris chapman: roll-out vegetable garden (via IZ Reloaded)
English designer Chris Chapman wanted to make planting vegetables and herbs at home less work with his roll-out vegetable mats. The design aims to make home food production as simple as possible and easy to maintain for busy individuals and families. The design features a mat pre-treated with fertilizer on its underside and a series of seed pouches which slowly biodegrade over time.
Creative Commons noncommercial licenses include a definition of commercial use, which precludes use of rights granted for commercial purposes:Defining Noncommercial report published... in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation.
The majority of respondents (87% of creators, 85% of users) replied that the definition was "essentially the same as" (43% of creators, 42% of users) or "different from but still compatible with" (44% of creators, 43% of users) theirs. Only 7% of creators and 11% of users replied that the term was "different from and incompatible with" their definition; 6% or creators and 4% of users replied "don't know/not sure." 74% and 77% of creators and users respectively think others share their definition and only 13% of creators and 11% of users wanted to change their definition after completing the questionnaire.
On a scale of 1-100 where 1 is "definitely noncommercial" and 100 is "definitely commercial" creators and users (84.6 and 82.6, respectively) both rate uses in connection with online advertising generally as "commercial." However, more specific use cases revealed that many interpretations are fact-specific. For example, creators and users gave the specific use case "not-for-profit organization uses work on its site, organization makes enough money from ads to cover hosting costs" ratings of 59.2 and 71.7, respectively.
Pratt Students Design For One Dollar
Source: Boing Boing | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:13 am
The September 11th Collection
(via Internet Archive News)
Source: Boing Boing | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:13 am
Amazing Vacuum Tubes May Eliminate Motors (Aug, 1931)
IMAGINE a tube, a thing of glass and metal, replacing a motor to operate a piece of machinery. Imagine a fiat bed printing press--or any machine using a reciprocating motion---getting its energy from a glorified descendant of a radio tube.That's just one of the things that research engineers of the General Electric Company expect to see within the next few years. With Thyratron power tubes and solenoids it is technically possible today.
William C. White, engineer of the vacuum tube research department of General Electric, makes that prediction. The field of vacuum tube engineering, he says, is not to simply do a thing in a different way and with different means, but to do it better and cheaper. It is possible, he adds, that as knowledge of the possibilities of vacuum tubes increases we may have to modify many of our ideas, such as the accepted one that an electric motor is the best and cheapest means of producing mechanical movement, at least in reciprocating parts.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Reminder! That Zune HD launch is hitting tomorrow, and I guarantee they’re going to be at least trying to roll the new 4.0 software out at midnight. I’m spending my Monday night drinking beer and refreshing zune.net, why aren’t you? All right, I also watched Gossip Girl. On accident!
Anyway, the new stuff they’ve got coming is hot. I’ll post a full unboxing and tour tomorrow for the curious. Having handled the hell out of this little thang, I can tell you it’s worth taking a look.
Update: The update is live. 131.2MB? Seriously? After I wrote a thousand words on iTunes taking up 88?
http://zune.net/en-us/products/software/download/default.htm if you must know.
Update:
C’mon guys! Let’s make this happen!
“Zune needs an update”
“Can’t contact Microsoft Update right now”
Son of a..
Seriously. Launch it or don’t launch it. I like this thing but your competitor, Apple, wouldn’t launch a new platform that didn’t work, even at midnight. Let’s do this, people!
Okay. I’m doing this in the morning. With coffee. If you can make it go, comment how you did so here for other very early adopters.
Introducing DataLiberation.org: Liberate your data! (via /.)We're a small team of Google Chicago engineers (named after a Monty Python skit about the Judean People's Front) that aims to make it easy for our users to transfer their personal data in and out of Google's services by building simple import and export functions. Our goal is to "liberate" data so that consumers and businesses using Google products always have a choice when it comes to the technology they use.
What does product liberation look like? Said simply, a liberated product is one which has built-in features that make it easy (and free) to remove your data from the product in the event that you'd like to take it elsewhere.
So, I don't know about that two week business. All those aromatics are, by definition, volatile. Calling food chemists -- that can't be right, can it?The hourglass does not require any electricity; simply combine 2 1/4 cups of coarsely ground coffee beans with 3 1/2 cups of water in the brewing chamber and allow the coffee to infuse with the water for 12 to 24 hours. When the infusion process is complete, turn the hourglass over and 16 oz. of extract instantly drains through a reusable stainless steel filter and into the extract chamber. Combine some of the extract with hot water for traditional coffee or cold water for iced coffee. The extract can be kept in the included carafe and stored in a refrigerator for up to two weeks.
The Acid Reducing Flavor Enhancing Coffee Hourglass.
(via Red Ferret)
If Lottery Tickets Told the Truth (via JWZ)
The recession has seen a rise in lotto sales as people streamline their financial idiocy from "paying for money they don't have" to "paying for money they'll never have." Even the Wikipedia article says that "buying a lottery ticket reduces the buyer's expected net worth..."
 Portfolio.com | HP shows off new ultra-thin pcs, stylish netbook Reuters SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co unveiled several new products for the important fall season, including thin and light laptop pcs and an eye-catching new netbook. The world's No. 1 PC maker has ably navigated a steep ... HP 13-inch laptops bring on aluminum and affordability HP unveils ultra-thin laptops, stylish notebooks Thinnest Notebook Offer from HP (HPQ) |
9 Ways Marketing Weasels Will Try to Manipulate You (via Kottke)5. Design for Procrastination
Ariely conducted an experiment on his class. Students were required to write three papers. Ariely asked the first group to commit to dates by which they would turn in each paper. Late papers would be penalized 1% per day. There was no penalty for turning papers in early. The logical response is to commit to turning all three papers in on the last day of class. The second group was given no deadlines; all three papers were due in the last day of class. The third group was directed to turn their papers in on the 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks.
The results? Group 3 (imposed deadlines) got the best grades. Group 2 (no deadlines) got the worst grades, and Group 1 (self-selected deadlines) finished in the middle. Allowing students to pre-commit to deadlines improved performance. Students who spaced out their commitments did well; students who did the logical thing and gave no commitments did badly.
* Steer clear of offers of low-rate trial periods which auto-convert into automatic recurring monthly billing. They know that most people will procrastinate and forget to cancel before the recurring billing kicks in.
* Either favor fixed-rate, fixed-term plans -- or become meticulous about cancelling recurring services when you're not using them.
Just how big a deal was a federal judge’s ruling Monday in the copyright infringement fight between Veoh and Universal Music Group?
Depends on who you ask, of course.
Executives at Veoh say Judge A. Howard Matz has given them a new lease on life, and at least some of the company’s investors are doing some chest-beating. Universal, the world’s largest music label, says it’s confident it will win an appeal.
You can get the same split opinion by asking two different companies who happen to be locked in a similar fight. Executives at Google’s YouTube (GOOG), which is trying to fend off a copyright suit filed by Viacom (VIA), say the Veoh ruling bolsters their case. You can guess what Viacom says.
The gist of the fight: Universal says Veoh didn’t try hard enough to keep illegally uploaded material off the video site; Veoh says it made a good faith effort. Matz agreed with Veoh, and tossed out Universal’s claims.
Even if you disregard the posturing, it’s fair to say there’s a genuine debate over the ruling’s meaning. Veoh, along with some of my bloggy colleagues, are treating the decision as the final word on Web copyright disputes, or at least those that involve the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
And Matz certainly slapped Universal around. But it’s worth noting that copyright owners have lost Web cases in the Ninth District before, but ultimately won on appeal. Ask Grokster, the now-defunct file-sharing network that dissolved after a 2005 Supreme Court ruling.
You can read all of Matz’ judgment at the bottom of this post. But this excerpt, where he argues that simply having illegal material on your site isn’t a crime, and neither is knowing about it (at least in a general sense), gives you a good sense of Matz’ thrust and tone:
No doubt it is common knowledge that most websites that allow users to contribute material contain infringing items. If such general awareness were enough to raise a “red flag,” the DMCA safe harbor would not serve its purpose of “facilitat[ing] the robust development and world-wide expansion of electronic commerce, communications, research, development, and education in the digital age,” and “balanc[ing] the interests of content owners, on-line and other service providers, and information users in a way that will foster the continued development of electronic commerce and the growth of the Internet.”
Legal debate aside, the ruling does give a practical benefit for Veoh. It allows the company to fetch a higher price on the auction block.
CEO Dmitry Shapiro has been shopping the site to bidders over the summer, and as of a few months ago, he was willing to accept less than the $70 million investors like Time Warner (TWX), Goldman Sachs (GS) and former Disney (DIS) CEO Michael Eisner had poured into the site.
Selling a Web video site in 2009 is a tough challenge without a handicap, but the lawsuit was a big one. It was a huge time and money suck — Veoh may have spent as much as $6 million fighting the case in the last two years — and more important, the unresolved case was a huge liability. Who wants to buy a lawsuit?
Now Shapiro says, Veoh’s options include not selling at all. He insists that some of Veoh’s existing backers are willing to recapitalize the company, and that new investors might join in as well.
I’ll take him at his word, but if I had to bet, I’d wager that Veoh ends up getting acquired sooner than later. Maybe quite soon — the company has a board meeting today.
Wonder what they’ll talk about?
VEOH –
Still here? How about that? You get a bonus video! (But be warned: Pacino chews up a lot of scenery here, and there is some impassioned cursing.)
So that was day one of Techcrunch 50. The best tech conference in the universe, that pays my wages.
And what did I learn today? Today I learned that the Rocky soundtrack makes any technical hitch a million times more dramatic. I learned that Yossi Vardi believes that any disaster can be solved with a show of hands or a forced round of applause. I learned that, where other entrepreneurs quote Sun Tzu, Calacanis prefers the wise words of Disney’s Ratatouille. I learned that when Arrington and Calacanis squabble, they sound like a gayer version of Starler and Waldorf.
But most importantly of all, I learned that there’s no way any of us are going to make it through a second long day without downing some serious booze. And so, with that in mind, I’m delighted to announce the rules of the Techcrunch 50 Day Two Drinking Game.
The rules are simple – we start tomorrow at 9am (Pacific). Get up early, grab yourself a case of beer and then either sit in the room or, if you had better things to do with three grand, tune into the live stream and follow these simple instructions…
Good luck everyone. Now, make sure you follow me on Twitter for minute-by-minute commentary of day two, and – hey – let’s try to be wasted by noon!
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Soft-spoken Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh had some surprisingly harsh criticism for the TC50 companies he saw today: Why aren’t you trying to change the world? I asked him more about that in our backstage sidestage interview during the TC50 cocktail party. “To be fair, is selling shoes changing the world?” I asked. Watch the clip after the jump to hear his answer.
I pressed Hsieh on details about his relationship with Jeff Bezos and Amazon. He can’t really comment because the US Justice Department hasn’t yet ruled on the deal, but he did admit “I’ve always thought Jeff was a lovely man.” So that’s how it works in that soon-to-be corporate family.
The most interesting admission may be his advice for start-ups: Do you really need venture capital?
TC50 and Tony Hsieh from sarah lacy on Vimeo.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
The rumors are true, there are actually two HP Envy computers coming out. The first one is the HP Envy13. The “Voodoo” name is gone due to branding to the international market. Like its predecessor, this Envy is thin at 0.8-inches and light at 3.74 pounds. While light, battery life is claimed to be up to 7 hours with its user-replaceable battery.
Battery life can be brought up to 18 hours using the Envy’s slice battery. The battery is the size of the bottom of the laptop and is pretty thin. It latches onto the bottom of the device adding a little heft, but it’s probably worth it.
What else did HP cram into this thing? A very, very bright screen at 400 nits, compare that to a MacBook Pro at around 250 nits (nits being a measure of brightness). There is also a glass trackpad that supports gestures. HP even teamed with Monster to bring Beats audio to the Envy.
There is no internal optical drive, but HP will be offering the slice battery and a USB powered Blu-ray drive as a package for about $200. The 13.1-inch display is available in two resolutions: 1366 x 768 and an optional “HD+” resolution at 1600 x 900. Both displays are of the glossy variety, no anti-glare here.
The Envy 13 will be using an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and will have an ATI 4330 with 512MB of video RAM. The starting cost? $1699. Also interesting is that HP will package the Envy line in special black boxes to give the unboxing experience a premium feel. There will be minimal paper documentation as the Envy line comes with one sheet of paper and a SD card with full documentation.
Company Site: [HP.com]
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
HP is calling its newest business machine the “world’s thinnest full-performance notebook.” Why do they use that tag line? It’s the thinnest standard-voltage notebook measured at its thickest point. The ProBook 5310m has an Intel Core 2 Duo SP9300 (2.26 GHz) processor. If you choose, you can get an Intel Celeron SU2300 (1.20GHz). Battery life is somewhere between 6 and 7 hours. You get more battery life with the Celeron. HP chose to put in a display port into this notebook since it is more versatile than placing a HDMI port. There’s a 13.3-inch LED backlit LCD display at a resolution of 1366 x 768.
Since this is HP’s business machine, there is an anti-glare option, as well as HP QuickLook 3 which gives you access to your Outlook calendar, and QuickWeb browser. QuickLook and QuickWeb are accessible via dedicated buttons on the right of the keyboard - they allow you quick access to apps without needing to boot up a full operating system. There is a 4 cell battery as well as a 6 cell battery option.
After handling this particular laptop, it seems like a winner. The black brushed aluminum case along with a rubberized bottom case make the 5310m seem sturdy and hard to drop. The HP ProBook 5310m starts at $699.
Company Site: [HP.com]
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Computers, Laptops, Netbooks
Vivian Tam has company. HP has just introduced a brand new fashion netbook, this time designed by Studio Tord Boontje. The pattern is applied in multiple layers - the more you look, the more you see. HP calls it “HP Imprint 3D” and the “industry’s first three-dimensional surface technology.” It’s actually a pretty cool effect. Think of the old Apple iBooks with the clear shell with a pattern on the case, a pattern on the inside of the plastic, and a pattern on the front of the plastic shell and you can sort of picture the HP Imprint 3D. What’s the pattern? A design of of plant life and endangered animals is on this white-on-white artwork. There are also 15 wallpapers included designed by Tord Boontje. The Vivian Tam HP was criticized for a high price tag. That won’t happen here. The HP Mini 110 by Studio Tord Boontje will start at $399. There will also be a line of companion mice and bags to match the design.
Company Site: [HP.com]
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
HP Pavilion All-in-One MS200 PC is HP’s new, non-touchscreen all-in-one that is aimed to fit in small spaces like dorms with its 18.5” 16:9 widescreen. The overall body has a smooth, rounded design with a matte black and silver finish. It definitely is a computer that you wouldn’t want to hide in a cabinet. Packed inside is a 1.50 GHz AMD dual processor, 2GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive, stereo speakers, and a built-in webcam and microphone. For movies and photos, the MS214 has a DVD burner and a 6-in-1 media card reader. Pricing starts at $599, which is just right for the dorm and apartment crowd.
Company Site: [HP.com]
Full Story » | Written by Merlyn Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Computers, Laptops, Netbooks
How’s this for a set of specs? An 11.6-inch display with 1366 x 768 resolution powered by NVIDIA ION, HDMI out, 3.22 pounds, 1.60 GHz Intel Atom, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, and 6 hours of battery life at $399. Sounds pretty good to me. The downsides: this netbook still can’t handle streaming HD video, there is no wireless n (only b/g), some crapware is preinstalled like AOL Portal and MSN Toolbar. Then again, at that price, it’s hard to complain.
Company Site: [HP.com]
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
There were plenty of rumors about this laptop, but here’s the official word. The HP Envy15 is the big brother to the HP Envy13. What separates this from its little brother? The HP Envy15 has an Intel Core i7 Processor and can support up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM. It’s also 1-inch thick and weighs 5.18 pounds. This is a monster of a laptop packed into a thin package.
Like the Envy13, there is no internal optical drive. However, there are 2 hard drives, 1GB of VRAM, and the LED backlit LCD display has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 so you can watch full HD video on this thing. The case is all aluminum and magnesium. The VGA webcam that is built in has IR projectors so if there is low light, the IRs will blast you so the camera can see you. It’s like night vision.
The Envy15 also can use a slice battery, although not the same one as the Envy13. Style-wise, the case is aluminum and laser etched. There is only one pattern so far, but expect a transition in color next year.
What’s this going to cost? The Envy15 starts at $1799. HP will package the Envy line in special black boxes to give the unboxing experience a premium feel. There will be minimal paper documentation as the Envy line comes with one sheet of paper and a SD card with full documentation.
Company Site: [HP.com]
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
At $549, the Pavilion DM3 could easily be a bulky and unstylish machine, but it’s not. HP made a sub-$600 notebook under 1-inch thick and it weighs only 4.2 pounds. There are two processor options: the Intel Pentium SU4100 (1.30 GHz) and the AMD Athlon Neo X2 (1.60 GHz). The Intel version costs a little more at $649, but offers up to 10 hours of battery life. The AMD version costs less at $549, but gets around 6 hours of battery life. Neither one will have an internal optical drive.
Company Site: [HP.com]
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
HP’s line of home servers has grown with the introduction of the EX490 and the EX495. What’s the difference between these two besides 5? The EX490 has a single core Intel chip with 1TB of hard drive space and costs $549. The EX495 has a dual core Intel processor with 1.5TB of space with a price tag of $699.
HP’s MediaSmart Server can constantly convert your videos so you can access them in more web-friendly formats. The dual core processor can handle transcoding faster than a single core processor. The video conversion tools are also tweaked giving the user the ability to choose file formats, video and audio bit rates, resolutions, and more.
These machines are also more Mac-friendly since Macs can now access the administration panel. Linux machines are still out of luck when it comes to admin, but any computer with a web browser can access files on the server. You will still need a Windows machine for the initial set up.
The MediaSmart Server line will also see a software store pop up soon that will give access to software for your server and software for client machines.
Company Site: [HP.com]
Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 DAWN.com | Interior Launches Climate Strategy Washington Post Interior Secretary Ken Salazar launched the Obama administration's first coordinated response to the impacts of climate change Monday, which he said would both monitor how global warming is altering the nation's landscape and help ... US Interior Dept seeks better climate cooperation Interior Dept. gets ready for global warming Regional Councils Key to Feds' Climate Change Response |
He calls me out on it in the video below so I might as well admit it: I’ve been a bit hard on Paul Graham and Y Combinator in the past. It’s not that I think he hasn’t been a great mentor to young entrepreneurs– he has. But that’s a lot of equity to give up and to date no Y Combinator company has really hit it huge. Graham says that’s going to change.
“Four or five of our companies could go public,” he says in the interview after the jump and names some names. (He also does the cutest face ever at minute marker 3:28. Jim Carrey meets one of Jason’s puppies?)
This is a longer video, but it’s one of my favorites I shot all day. Stay until the end where he tells start-ups how to market themselves to customers and investors in a downturn.
TC50 and Paul Graham from sarah lacy on Vimeo.
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It’s not exactly gadget-related, but it does involve high voltage so I figured that’s a go. Some great (and terrifying) pictures are making their way around the web right now that are the result of artist Hiroshi Sugimoto passing a huge amount of voltage through a bit of film. A very cool application of technology to art.
I thought I’d pass it on, with the significant addition of a very abstract short film I watched recently that uses the same method. It’s called Energie!, by one of my favorite video artists, Thorston Fleisch. Click on through to get at it.
WARNING: Epileptics should not watch this film! It is almost entirely strobing light.
WARNING: Other people, be careful, it will put you in a trance if you put it full screen and turn it up. It takes about a minute to really get started.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Despite the fact that some feel they are whistling in the dark, TomTom just released the latest generation of their “PND” (don’t call it a GPS) the XXL. Featuring a large 5 inch screen, the new PNDs also have improved routing technology that learns your route, and helps to determine the most efficient way to get where you are going.
Both units share the large screen, but if you want TomTom’s “Advance Lane Guidance” you need to shell out for the more expensive XXL 540S unit. The 540S also has Mexico mapped out for you, unlike the 530S, which only has the US and Canada.
Both units will be available next month, with the XXL 530S at $279, and the 540S coming in at $299. Judging from the feature set, if you are a constant traveler, I’d spring for the 540S.
From the press release:
CONCORD, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–TomTom, the world’s leading provider of navigation solutions and digital maps, today announces the latest models in its award-winning portable navigation product offering – the TomTom XXL 530S and TomTom XXL 540S. Drivers can now enjoy TomTom’s premium technologies, including the highly acclaimed IQ Routes™ Technology, on an extra-large five inch screen.
“The new TomTom XXL devices enrich our product portfolio by providing our customers with new offerings that cater to individual preference and need, like the larger, easy-to-read screen” said Jocelyn Vigreux, president of TomTom Inc. “The introduction of the XXL range is in line with our strategy to increase the depth and breadth of our product offerings, based on customer feedback.”
Optimal Routing
The TomTom XXL 530S and XXL 540S devices enable users to always drive the smartest and most efficient routes, whenever or wherever they go. The TomTom XXL 530S and XXL 540S include TomTom’s exclusive IQ Routes™ technology. The technology is based on historical speed measurements for every time of day and for every road segment, from large highways to small local roads. In up to 35% of all cases, the use of IQ Routes results in driving a faster route, saving significant travel time, money and fuel.
In addition to the above mentioned features, the new TomTom XXL devices come with:
* Full maps of the US and Canada
* TomTom Map Share™ technology, so users can instantly modify street names, street direction, points of interest and more on their device and benefit from corrections made by others
* TomTom Help Me menu, so users can easily access local emergency service providers such as police, fire stations and hospitals.
* TomTom’s newest user menu with an elegant interface that features optimized icons for even easier navigation
* Award-winning Fold and Go EasyPort® mount, folds flat against the device, making it easy for users to transport
* TomTom HOME, the free desktop application to keep users’ devices up-to-date at all timesFeatures unique to the TomTom XXL 540S:
* Advanced Lane Guidance for realistic representations of complex highway junctions and lane-specific visual directions that take the stress out of navigating these otherwise challenging areas
* Preloaded maps of Mexico, the US and Canada
* Seven million points of interest, so users have access to information and location details of more restaurants, hotels, gas stations, etc. than ever before
* High-quality black finish, for a sleek look
 TG Daily | Silverlight Is Still Racing Flash Wall Street Journal Microsoft Corp. has closed the technological gap with Adobe Systems Inc. in a battle over software for adding video and animation to Web sites. But Microsoft's efforts to win customers in the market are moving much slower. ... Microsoft Bing adds visual search Microsoft Updates Bing with 'Visual Search' Feature Hands-On With Bing Visual Search |
The second company to emerge from the TechCrunch50 DemoPit as a peoples’ choice winner is YourVersion, a discovery engine that looks to help recommend new content based on your past searches and interests. The company was among the top two recipients of TechCrunch50 tokens, which are used by conference attendees to vote on their favorite companies in the DemoPit, and shares today’s Peoples’ Choice Award with oDesk.
YourVersion launched today, and looks to help users search for content across blogs, multimedia sites, Twitter, and other social sites, updating with relevant content in real-time. Rather than force users to run the same searches multiple times or rely on a clunky bookmark system, YourVersion pays attention to your interests, and presents results accordingly. You can browse through results from all of these content sources, indicating which ones you like (or dislike) using thumbs up or thumbs down functions.
For mobile users, YourVersion offers an iPhone application, which you can download for free on the App Store here. There’s also a Firefox extension that allows users to quickly share their favorite blog posts and news articles on Facebook, Twitter, and other services.
Q: So it’s like Digg and reddit without needing user submissions? Do you have commenting?
A: Yes, this also helps prevent the editorial tone you get on those sites. We will have comments in the future.
Q: How do you get more passive discovery?
A: There’s a line between implicit and explicit. You’ve got thumb, share, etc as explicit. Below that is implicit — if people repeatedly go to the same sites again and again on the same topics, that’s a good indicator.
Video:
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Each year we see hundreds of impressive applications to TechCrunch50 — unfortunately, we always have a number of great companies that deserve attention but don’t quite make the cut as finalists. That’s why we have our TC50 DemoPit, where we invite a few dozen other strong startups to demonstrate their wares in the conference building’s main hall. Each conference attendee is given two TechCrunch50 tokens — one for each day — which they use to vote on their favorite startups in the bunch. We then tally up the votes and give the top two companies the chance to present on stage.
The first winner for today is oDesk, which is today launching a new iPhone application that allows project administrators to monitor the work stream of their team members while they’re on the go. The stream features photos of your team’s workplace, keystroke events, and lets you know when your workers are checking in and out. Alongside the launch of the iPhone oDesk will also be bringing the new stream functionality to the desktop with a desktop app.
oDesk has been around for a while, offering a “marketplace for talent” that makes it easy to hire workers remotely. The company currently has over 340,000 providers, with 12,200+ jobs that are open.
Video:
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It’s not often that you hear about innovation in the used car space, but Mota Motors, a new site that’s launching today at TechCrunch50, has managed to pull it off. Mota’s multi-faceted service effectively holds your hand through the entire used car buying (or selling) process, offering a level of trust and convenience that has been difficult to achieve on traditional peer-to-peer car sales channels like CraigsList or Ebay. And with that trust comes some options that used car buys previously haven’t had: using Mota, you can elect to finance a used car — something that you’ve previously only been able to do through deanship used car lots, which typically charge a 20-30% markup.
Here’s how it works: Mota has a database of car listings from multiple used car sites, which you can browse through much as you would on a site like Autotrader. But rather than simply aggregating these listings, Mota adds a layer of intelligence to the process. Say, for example, you happen upon a sedan that you’re interested in purchasing. Mota will analyze the text of the car listing and suggest questions that you should probably ask the seller. If the listing only has one photo, Mota will likely suggest that you ask for a few more. If the car you’re looking at has a history of brake issues, it will suggest that you ask about the last time the brake pads were replaced, and so on.
The next thing Mota does is help establish trust in the deal. Through the service, car sellers can elect to have their cars inspected at an independent repair shop for around $75 to determine if there are any outstanding problems with the vehicle (Mota already has a national deal in place with PepBoys). From there, the seller and prospective buyer can determine who should pay for any necessary repairs. And this certified inspection also opens the doors to allowing finance and extended warranty companies, which historically have only been been able to offer their services to car dealerships, which perform their own inspections.
Mota also offers features directed towards people who are looking to sell their cars: it can effectively write your car listing for you, using sentences that read like an actual human wrote them. And it makes it easy to syndicate your car listing to multiple sites, suggesting an asking price based on current market conditions — CEO Reza Bundy says that the average sale time fro a car can get cut from eight weeks to eight days if you sell it using the proper parameters. The site does a number of other small things to help streamline the process, like using Facebook and MySpace to look up profile photos of buyers and sellers, to help give them a more human face.
Though all of this, Mota is making money. The site gets paid for lead generation to the repair shops that verify cars, as well as from the car sites themselves for the transactions that it helps mediate. And because the car inspection process tells Mota any problems with a car that’s being purchased, it can offer buyers coupons for any repairs they might need — again driving more leads to repair shops. And the service is driving customers to financing and warranty companies (all of this is opt-in for the user).
All in all, the future is looking bright for Mota. The site has already forged deals with some of the nation’s top car sites, including AutoTrader. And the company has a very solid team behind it: Bundy founded IronPlanet, a successful marketplace for used heavy machinery, and VP Marketing Rafael De La Cruz was one of the key executives behind Vitamin Water parent company Glaceau before it was acquired by Coca-Cola.
Q:Are you focused on the seller or the buyer?
A: Both. The buyer can instigate the process.
Q:Why wouldn’t I just go to carmax?
A: It’s a dealer, you’d pay 30% more. Most people are doing peer to peer deals now, to get more money for their cars.
Q: How did the text in that description get generated.
A: We parse the data, look at the keywords. Compare to the most questions to answer. We have have some modular prewritten sentences. Some are seasonal — if you have convertible selling in the summer,we’ll promote that.
Video:
Other Coverage:
TC50: Mota wants to curb “lemons,” fix the used car market VentureBeat.
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Slingbox owners love their devices. They allow you to watch your home television content anywhere you are in the world with an Internet connection. A new startup, Spawn Labs, launching today at TechCrunch50 wants to extend that concept to video games.
For most startups just getting off the ground, cash on hand is extremely limited, to be reserved for only the most essential expenses. But that doesn’t mean these fledgling companies don’t have an abundance of talent. TheSwop, a new site making its debut today at TechCrunch50, is looking to help these startups and other growing companies trade ‘favors’ to each other, in whatever fields they specialize in. These can run the gamut from advertising and business planning to graphic design and development, or resources like office space.
Because exchanging goods and services this way can be a tricky business — you wouldn’t want to swap time with one of your extremely talented developers for work by a shoddy designer — TheSwop features one-on-one videos of each of its subscribers so that you can see the “whites of their eyes” before you consider a deal. Each subscriber also has a transaction history, as well as reviews left by other members. Another key feature, given the nature of many of these services: the site offers a map of each of its possible service providers, with paid subscribers (who are likely more trustworthy than free users) highlighted with larger markers.
Using the site is simple: you run a search for whatever you’re looking for, and then use the site’s virtual currency (called “favor points”) to trade for that. You can also perform transactions with cash if you’d like — the site doesn’t force you to use its platform, so you can take things offline to finalize the deal.
Roelof Botha: I don’t like it. Money was invented for a reason, we’ve seen people try to use beans etc. and it doesn’t work. I wouldn’t invest.
Marc Andreessen: Why limit it to startups? How do you ensure currency keeps its value?
A: If you’re a large company you’d probably use a larger barter exchange model. When you enter the site you get a certain number of points, you can buy more, but we won’t just flood the system with points.
Tony Hsieh: How do you make money, or at the end of the day do they owe lots of favors?
A: We’re freemium. Everyone can use for free, but you can pay to every larger map markers, other premium features.
Paul Graham: Why don’t you just let people buy favor points.
A: We’re considering that.
Andreessen: One thing barter companies in dot com era discovered is that there is a role for price discrimination — there are certain things that aren’t otherwise going to be available on the market, or would be charged for differently.
A: These would be the types of services that every startup needs.
Video:
Outside Coverage:
TC50: Startups can trade favors at TheSwop.com VentureBeat.
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Getting a meeting with Marc Andreessen isn’t easy so I made sure I cornered him and shoved a camera in his face backstage at TechCrunch50 to ask him about his new life as a VC. It’s been seven weeks and one day, and so far, he says he loves it and it’s fun. Of course, as he notes, seven weeks in there’s no expectation that companies will have exited and it’s not enough time for any of them to fail yet either.
Andreessen also reiterated what Ron Conway said earlier: There’s no dearth of funding for good start-ups in the Valley. More on why he did that Skype deal and what he’d rather hear TC50 companies talk about in their pitches on the clip.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
RefMob is launching at the TechCrunch50 event today a service that allows business owners to make more noise about their paid referral programs online while at the same time giving more people the opportunity to earn bonuses for referring people using social networking apps.
RefMob enables people to share paid referrals that they know of for a variety of business categories, like bonuses for getting new apartment tenants or driving more job applications to a company looking to hire, instantly on Twitter and Facebook. The general idea is to let people leverage the tools they’re already using to keep in touch with each other for sharing referrals and consequently making arrangements for splitting the financial gains between them.
The big plus for companies is that they get an easy way to create a paid referral program online that they can easily distribute via their customer base, essentially magnifying the reach. They can easily measure the success of these programs in a handy dashboard and evaluate results for future programs.
Expert panel Q&A:
Q – Paul Graham: I like the idea, and I can see business getting excited about this. But which ones are you going to be able to convince?
A: We have found there are lots of small business owners who struggle with their social media strategy and we can help them. Companies who conduct business online are obviously a good match for our service.
Q – Marc Andreessen: What does a business do to get started?
A: They sign up, create a referral and distribute it to their customers by e-mail.
Q – Tony Hsieh: It seems unnatural friend behavior to institutionalize this type of thing?
A: Well they do work, although admittedly not in every industry. We just want to magnify the effect for those who it would work for.
Video:
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There are so many factors in today’s newfangled computer-gadgets that it’s impossible to tie one down as key in something like battery life. But if you have reason to believe one program or component might be worth investigating as a major contributor to battery draw, why not check it out?
We all think of our browsers as being relatively passive applications, but the truth is they push huge amounts of data in and out of RAM, run constant searches against your temp folders and cookies, and all kinds of other things that you don’t really notice. While certainly not on the level of, say, rendering video, this can be a serious draw on your battery; and as the browser is, for many of us, the most frequently used program we have, it makes sense to investigate whether one might be more efficient than another in this respect.
To put it another way: it’s a slow news day. But that doesn’t make this little shootout over at Anandtech any less interesting. It’d be tedious to run down the details when you’re about to do that at the actual article anyway, but take a look at a few of the results here:
That’s actually pretty impressive. I think we have to give IE8 some credit here — but it might be worth checking this out on a Mac too, to see if Safari provides better performance on its native hardware.
While the total time saved is around half an hour at the maximum, that could be a half an hour you really need, so keep this experiment in mind next time you forget your AC adapter at home.
[via Giz and Lifehacker]
As an employer, chances are you use sites like Craigslist or Monster.com to try and get the best candidates for vacant spots. If that’s indeed your modus operandi for recruitment, than you’re probably also used to receiving bad or incomplete resumes, applications from totally unqualified persons or just utter spam. LocalBacon thinks it doesn’t have to be that way, and believes the solution to the problem is making job seekers pay to apply for jobs.
Launching at the TechCrunch50 event today, LocalBacon wants to remove the clutter from the inboxes of many a manager or HR professional looking for the right person to put to work while at the same time giving job seekers the opportunity to stand out from the crowd in their quest to land a good position. The way they want to achieve that is by both increasing the quality of applications and decreasing their amount by charging potential candidates $0.99 (or more based on interest/demand) to apply.
If you think about it, making potential candidates cough up cash – well, virtual currency in the form of credits – for applying is a solid way to weed out the ones that apply just for the sake of applying even if they know they’re not really qualified for the job. It also decreases the chances for employers, who get to post job openings for free, to get sent incomplete or sloppy resumes because applicants would likely make more of an effort having put some money on the line. This in turn means solid candidates have a better shot of getting noticed in the first place.
Aside from the fairly innovative business model, LocalBacon also offers a pretty amazing lightweight program for employers to keep on top of applications across vacancies and applicants for managing their profiles and resumes. LocalBacon uses a standardized listing format and application process that is aimed to reduce the amount of time it takes for job seekers to search and apply for openings. Job seekers also receive specific contact information about the hiring manager, real-time updates about the status of their application and timely concise feedback regarding their application.
Expert panel Q&A:
Q – Roelof Botha: I like the idea of turning the job board concept upside down. No one seems to be satisfied about it. Think about clever ways to extract more value. I really like it though.
Q – MM: I want to complement the app, but I have a question about the social component. How are you going to work social behavior into the service?
A: Facebook is a potential way to go, and we’re thinking more about referrals.
Q – Tony Hsieh: It doesn’t seem to fit with Zappos to have job seekers pay for applying?
A: Certain cultures might conflict what the job seekers paying. But remember they wouldn’t
Q – Paul Graham: Is the chronological listing of incoming applications scalable?
A: We’re in early stage right now, so we’re thinking of ways to add more features for organization for premium users.
Q – Tony Hsieh: Do you integrate with existing ATS systems?
A: Yes, we can (with APIs and such).
Video:
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Eventually, it’s probably safe to assume that all electronics will be in some way connected to the Internet. As long as you’re not worried about a Skynet-style Terminator apocalyptic future, that’s probably a good thing. With that in mind, the online gaming network SGN began working on a secret project to connect children’s toys to the Internet. Today, ToyBots is being unveiled at TechCrunch50.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AP - Google Inc. is testing a new format that is supposed to make reading online stories as easy as flipping through a magazine, a shift that eventually could feed more advertising sales to revenue-starved publishers.
Microsoft looks to be attacking Google with just about everything it can think of. It’s pushing Bing to be the chief competitor to Google, trying to get past its current 3.5% market share. Bing’s newest attack looks to be with its new visual search feature.
The idea of visual search is that users, when searching for terms, rather than seeing lines of text will see images of what they’re searching for. Those images can then be sorted to refine the search. For example, searching HDTVs will show images of all different HDTVs, while on the sidebar there are options to limit the search by brand, price, size, resolution, etc. As of right now, the feature is limited to specific searches such as HDTVs and new cars, though it should be coming to more soon.
Bing’s new feature, however, isn’t exactly new to the game. Google Product Search has had similar functionality for a while, though Bing has the options on the sidebar, making them easier to access than the bottom of the page on Google. That alone might make it a bit easier to use than Google’s version. It’s doubtful that this will change anyone’s search engine of choice, as while it is an improvement, not everything people search for can be identified with an image. What Microsoft needs to do to really get that market share it wants is to get Yahoo moving on moving over to Bing as the default search engine.
Read [InformationWeek]
Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
From satiating paranoia to working around company/school firewalls and geolocational limitations, there are countless reasons why someone might want to browse the web anonymously. While such things are pretty simple to do on a full-blown computer, going faceless on a mobile handset hasn't proven too feasible - until now.
By combining the expandability of Android with the open source anonymity network Tor, those clever gents over at the University of Cambridge have made it all work.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Seems I’ve also been roped in by Sarah Lacy to act as gopher and occasional co-host for her backstage interviews with some of the event’s more interesting experts and pitchers.
First up was Penn Jillette, fresh off stage from pitching the Penn and Teller iPhone app. The application essentially lets you text Penn & Teller after which they’ll perform some magic over the air. The way they do it is by fooling users into thinking they’re using iPhone applications to contact the magicians, but what it really uses is an overlay that mimics the iPhone interface. Nifty, ey?
From satiating paranoia to working around company/school firewalls and geolocational limitations, there are countless reasons why someone might want to browse the web anonymously. While such things are pretty simple to do on a full-blown computer, going faceless on a mobile handset hasn’t proven too feasible – until now.
By combining the expandability of Android with the open source anonymity network Tor, those clever gents over at the University of Cambridge have made it all work.
It comes in two parts:
You install both, wait for the proxy to make the proper connections, and then fire up the browser. We’d never recommend using this for illegal uses, of course – but if you’ve got a legit reason to stay off the radar, this is about as plug and play as it gets.
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Remotely connecting two computers is still a pretty big pain. It usually requires two parties jumping through a bunch of hoops to get things working. This includes each computer having the same software, using various passwords, and waiting on a connection. iTwin, a new startup launching today at TechCrunch50 aims to make the process entirely plug and play.
 PC World | Why Apple TV Must Evolve to Avoid Extinction Wired News Without making an announcement, Apple slashed the price of its larger-capacity Apple TV set-top box on Monday and discontinued a lesser model. Even with the price cut, the product is unlikely to survive if it does not adapt to consumer ... How Apple could make the newly cheaper Apple TV useful Apple TV Price Drop Prelude To itunes Integration? Price of 160GB Apple TV Slashed |
Paying attention, Verizon and AT&T? You might have a new monster of a mobile company (with lots of Android offerings) to deal with if Deutsche Telekom can successfully navigate a deal to purchase Sprint Nextel via its American arm, T-Mobile USA.
After rumors of the German mobile giant’s interest in swallowing up the on again, off again mobile carrier that is Sprint Nextel, shares of the Now Network Co. shot up 14 percent. The theoretical mobile entity, let’s call it T-Sprint, would move past AT&T to become the second largest mobile carrier in the States.
However, there are plenty of eyebrow raising questions to be sorted out before this rumored merger could take place. First, would this help or hurt T-Mobile (a la Sprint’s envelopment of Nextel)? More importantly, as things currently stand, Sprint and T-Mobile operate their own networks that rely, respectively, on entirely different technologies – so, how would the newly formed company integrate these independent platforms?
Finally, and it’s a BIG finally, is there even any possibility that US regulators would approve such a merger? For now, all of us who use (or have investments in) Sprint or T-Mobile will just have to sit back and wait to see if there are any merits to this rumor.
via Reuters
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Dude, there’s this new iPhone app you can get. It’s called “Dude”. That’s right, dude, this app is called “Dude”. No, it’s not a Jeffrey Lebowski app, as cool as that would be. This “Dude” app catalogs many, though not all, of the ways in which the word “dude” may be used in every day conversation. Not only do you get a description of when “dude” might be used, you get to hear some dude saying “dude” with the proper inflection!
Is this Dude app worth a paltry ninety nine cents? Probably not. You’ll listen to each and every “dude” recording included, just to see what it’s like, and then you’ll very likely never touch this app again.
But get this, dude: if you tweet something about this app, you can win a free MacBook! Dude!
For complete Dude enjoyment, we recommend that you watch the following clip, which is not safe for work, due to adult language.
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Without making an announcement, Apple slashed the price of its larger-capacity Apple TV set-top box on Monday and discontinued a lesser model. Even with the price cut, the product is unlikely to survive if it does not adapt to consumer demands in the entertainment market, analysts agree.
The price reduction brings the 160-GB Apple TV from $330 down to $230 — the price of the previous 40-GB model, which is no longer for sale.
“In its current form, the Apple TV is not a product that has very much life in it,” said James McQuivey, a Forrester analyst. “I think that’s reinforced now that they’ve cut one of the [models] and they’ve reduced the price.”
Apple executives, including Steve Jobs, have repeatedly referred to Apple TV — a digital media box that plays content from a user’s iTunes library on a television — as a “hobby.” In earnings calls, the company has carefully avoided revealing sales numbers of the product.
When speaking about his skepticism in Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader, Jobs has said that avoiding disclosure of product sales is a sign of weakness, because “Usually, if they sell a lot of something, you want to tell everybody.” Clearly, Apple does not have much to brag about with the Apple TV.
Apple won’t even have an Apple TV to talk about in the near future if the company does not make major revisions to the product and its business model, McQuivey said.
Apple has dismissed the idea of an Apple TV featuring a TiVo-like digital video recorder, but McQuivey speculates that a hybrid device would be compelling. He suggests, for example, a device capable of recording HDTV programs while providing the additional option to subscribe to receive a fixed number of movie downloads each month via iTunes.
“It’s a product they need to morph into something bigger or take it out completely,” McQuivey said. “It doesn’t have a market-shaping role, and Apple is a market shaper.”
It’s unlikely the underwhelming performance of the Apple TV is Apple’s fault, said John Barrett, an analyst and director of research at Parks Associates. That’s because the set-top–box segment of the market is a particularly tough environment, packed with various options for consumers to purchase and watch video.
Other than the obvious competitors such as the Netflix Roku set-top box, which streams movies from Netflix.com, Apple is competing with several other players that serve video to consumers in different ways. Cable providers offer movies for purchase through video-on-demand services on their digital cable boxes. Many cable boxes even include a DVR for recording TV programs.
Apple even has to worry about videogame consoles: Sony offers an online movie rental and purchase system through its PlayStation 3, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 features a Netflix streaming application.
And then there are the do-it-yourself workarounds to account for: Consumers install entertainment software such as Boxee onto their computers and connect them to their TVs. And of course, digital pirates sail the internet seas.
On top of this, the entire set-top–box category (which Barrett calls “media adapters”) might not survive the next three to five years. Set-top–box revenues declined 2 percent in the second quarter of 2009, according to Del O’ro Group, a market research firm. The cost of internet-enabled TVs are dropping “like a rock,” Barrett said, and once they become widely adopted and technologically refined, they’ll be able to stream and download media without the help of a companion device, rendering the set-top box irrelevant.
“You’re in a tough market that by nature is kind of temporary,” Barrett said.
The shift to widespread consumer adoption of internet-connected TVs will take some time since the replacement cycle for TVs is longer than most other electronics, Barrett said.
“It’s going to take time,” he said. “But it’s probably going to be a year when people realize, ‘I can get this connected TV, and I can get whatever kind of content I want on it.’”
Perhaps rather than killing its set-top box, Apple will morph its Apple TV into an actual TV, McQuivey speculated.
“Apple has always said they don’t want DVR in the Apple TV,” McQuivey said. “Does that mean they won’t, in the future, take the guts of the Apple TV and put it in a television made from Apple? Add some DVR or put in a Blu-ray player? That’d be a new animal.”
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Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Mobile
I used to be a Windows Mobile guy. Now, looking at most of the offerings I find most of them lacking. That is, until I spied the HTC Leo. This phone, while on the large side, is super thin and the best looking WinMo smartphone I’ve ever seen. A monster 800 x 480 display will make media, spreadsheets, and docs almost enjoyable while on the go. The preliminary specs say this has a capacitive screen.
The UI in the spy shots suggest HTC has not strayed too far from their previous skin on Windows Mobile phones. I’ve found this to work pretty well for casual users, but power users will come face to face with the ugly underpinnings of the base OS. It’s good, but to a point. Other shots confirm HTC will rely on the honycomb-like icon display that is part of 6.5.
The screen looks to be glass and the unit has a host of hard buttons below the screen. Those buttons are still needed to tame Windows Mobile. No word on a stylus yet. The big screen and capacitive touch interface should make for some fun. I am still very skeptical that this will be any improvement over Windows 6.1 but we’ll see. Hopefully, HTC will change it up a bit more.
Read [WM Power User]
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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![Screen shot 2009-09-14 at [ September 14 ] 12.24.01 PM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Screen-shot-2009-09-14-at-September-14-12.24.01-PM.png "Screen shot 2009-09-14 at [ September 14 ] 12.24.01 PM")
Back when OpenTable launched on the iPhone in November of last year, one of the very first comments we got on the story was from a gent named Chris. “Unless it’s on Android, it’s useless,” it read.
Good news, Chris! OpenTable is no longer useless to you. This morning, the online restaurant reservation service launched their app onto the Android Market.
As with both their web service and the applications available on other platforms, the OpenTable Android app serves as a means of checking for and reserving tables without having to dial any numbers, wait on hold, or strike up a conversation with a hostess. Punch in a date, time, and party size, and OpenTable will spit back a list of restaurants that fit the bill. Pick the one you want, and OpenTable will get your name on the list.
The Android app takes things a step or two further than the iPhone variant, making use of Androids ability to tie multiple applications together. They’ve partnered with both WHERE and GoodFood here, allowing users to drill down to a restaurant in either app and immediately hop into OpenTable to make the reservation.
It’s easy, it works well, and best of all, it’s free. Check it out in the Android Market.
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Apple is not known for messing up its compositions, but to quote John Brownlee on the Apple store's current iPod mockup tableaux, "Either the people holding it have elephantiasis, or this is a photoshop disaster." Compare!
Google-designed Android operating system is clearly the flavor of the season as seen by the launch of LG’s latest phone. The new LG phone, unimaginatively named LG-GW620, will the company’s first Android-based device. It will feature a 3-inch full touchscreen and slide out QWERTY keypad.
LG did not offer detailed specs for the phone.
The new device is expected to be first available in Europe in the fourth quarter of this year. The company has not disclosed the pricing for the device and hasn’t said when it will be released in North America.
“Our objective is to provide a wide selection of smartphones to satisfy the diverse preferences of today’s consumers,” said Skott Ahn, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile. “This Android phone is just one of many smartphone models we plan to introduce worldwide in the years ahead.”
LG’s Android phone comes on the heels of its rival handset maker Motorola introducing an Android-based device of its own called Cliq. A feature-packed phone, the Cliq has a touch screen, physical slide-out keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity, the ability to shoot video at 24 frames per second, a standard headphone jack and GPS capability. The device also sports a custom-designed user interface that integrates email, text messages, social networking feeds from sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace and photos.
Other companies such as Samsung and Sony Ericsson are also looking to introduce new Android-based phones later this year.
Unlike Motorola, LG won’t focus on Android alone and will continue to churn out phones running Windows Mobile, says the company. LG plans to announce three new Windows Mobile-based smartphones in the next few weeks and a total of 13 new smartphones that run Windows Mobile over the next 16 months.
See Also:
Photo: LG-GW620/LG
Well what do we have here? Apparently, it’s the first “live” (leaked) images of HTC’s upcoming WinMo-based Leo handset.
We know. WinMo. Yay. Well, maybe the inclusion of Qualcomm’s 1Ghz 8520B Snapdragon processor, a rumored 4.3″ large GARGANTUAN touch screen display with a resolution of 800×480, and 320MB of system RAM will change your (and possibly our) minds. Anything is possible!
As for carrier, pricing, and availability information, we’re all in the dark until HTC decides to fess up. Or maybe, the stars will align to reveal Leo’s fate.
via WMExperts
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![Screen shot 2009-09-14 at [ September 14 ] 8.49.49 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Screen-shot-2009-09-14-at-September-14-8.49.49-AM.png "Screen shot 2009-09-14 at [ September 14 ] 8.49.49 AM")
Sound the alarm! Breaking news! This just in: Samsung, who announces something every week (No. Really.) will be announcing something at CTIA on Wednesday, October 7th.
To be honest, we actually expect them to announce multiple somethings at CTIA – but this one was big enough that they wanted to highlight it. With that said, here’s the catch: it’s big enough that they want to highlight it, but not so big that they’re renting out a theater for the press announcement; this is goin’ down right in their booth. Expect something fun, but probably not anything mindblowing.
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HP's Vivienne Tam-designed "Digital Clutch" is designed to "reflect a transformative spirit and sophisticated lifestyle" in which "high fashion, small form factor and innovative function" are "fused" to "take the personal computer from a necessity to a lifestyle statement for modern-day women on the go."
In a particularly progressive twist, this second edition will no longer feature the pink flowers of the original. It will, however, retain the enormous markup on the otherwise identical black one.
Press Release [HP]
Sweden's Energy Aware Clock hangs on the wall and depicts a permanent visualization of your energy use. Every hour, it chimes to remind you to feel guilty about the size of your residence. [Geek]
It could take more than 20 hours to perform an upgrade installation of Windows 7. But for most, it'll take about two or three. [Chris Hernandez]
Sensing a great disturbance in The Force, it appears that LG has finally decided to take the Android platform seriously. The company will be releasing the Android-powered GW620 by the end of the year “in select European markets.”
There aren’t a whole lot of technical specs right now, except that the device “features a 3-inch full touchscreen and slide out QWERTY keypad” – that looks like a nice, big 3.5mm headset jack in the above photo, though, so there’s that. And that keyboard looks relatively spacious.
Full press release:
First Android Device Signals LG’s Two-tier Smartphone Strategy
Seoul, September 14, 2009 – LG Electronics (LG), a global leader and technology innovator in mobile communications, reinforced its aggressive strategy in smartphones by announcing the first Android mobile device which will give LG a broader and more dominant position in this expanding market.
The announcement of LG’s first Android-powered smartphones comes only a week after the world’s third largest mobile phone company announced that it would be introducing three new Windows Mobile smartphones in the next few weeks. These developments underscore LG’s commitment to offering greater consumer choice in the expanding smartphone category.
The new LG-GW620 features a 3-inch full touchscreen and slide out QWERTY keypad to meet the growing needs of consumers who rely on their mobile phones for more than just making calls. The LG-GW620 benefits from an operating system that was created from the ground up to take advantage of the many mobile applications and services developed by search leader Google.
In anticipation of strong demand for smartphones that support social networking functions right out-of-the-box, the LG-GW620 also lives up to LG’s consumer-friendly design philosophy by making the smartphone experience more accessible for typical users. At the same time, LG’s messaging phones have traditionally been very popular with young professionals who demand a full QWERTY keypad for a fast mobile computing experience. The LG-GW620 manages to meet the needs of both types of users simultaneously.
“The LG-GW620 will appeal to first-time smartphone customers by offering a new and different kind of user experience,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “Our objective is to provide a wide selection of smartphones to satisfy the diverse preferences of today’s consumers. This Android phone is just one of many smartphone models we plan to introduce worldwide in the years ahead.”
In addition to the Android model, LG announced in early September that it will be introducing a minimum of 13 new smartphones over the next 16 months that utilize Microsoft’s Windows Mobile. The newest release, version 6.5, was announced just last week.
The LG-GW620 will be available in the fourth quarter of this year in select European markets.
![LG_GW620[20090914125359314]](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/LG_GW62020090914125359314.jpg "LG_GW620[20090914125359314]")
[via Gizmodo]
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AT&T’s official date for MMS on the iPhone is September 25th, but reports across the web and Twitter say otherwise. For some, MMS is already available on iPhones in the US, possibly as a result of AT&T rather sensibly rolling out the service slowly. With its data network already strained by iPhone users, ahem, using their phones, the telco could be testing early to avoid being swamped in two weeks time.
Whether or not anyone will care is a different matter. Being able to receive an MMS from non-iPhone users will of course be welcome, but with email, Twitpic and Flickr, will iPhone users bother with MMS?
I can’t test this one out, as I have neither an iPhone nor do I live in the US, so help us out, Gadget Lab readers: can you send messages yet? Tell us in the comments.
MMS Comes Early To Your iPhone (or, at least, mine) [MediaIte]
#myfirstmms [Twitter]
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Seems pricey to me. [Colorware]
Case-mate's carboard iPhone case comes with free shipping and personalization--with a Sharpie.
For beginners, tuning a guitar is a pain, and learning on an out-of-tune instrument is discouraging at best, and liable to get you stoned by your neighbors at worst (and we don’t mean the good, rock-star kind of “stoned”). The Headstock Tuner will help you tune your guitar and, because it reads vibrations instead of sound*, it’ll work in noisy places and doesn’t need to be plugged in to an electric guitar’s jack.
The tuner is tiny, and clips onto the headstock. This alone is an improvement, as the headstock holds the tuning heads and is where you’re attention should be. Next up is the interface, which glows red when you’re out of tune and, as you turn the pegs, moves a line closer or further from the target to guide you. It then turns green when you hit the spot.
I used to play the guitar, and when I began I used an analog needle and dial tuner. It worked fine, but this one looks way easier to use, and I totally dig the chunky light-on-dark display. $42.
Product page [Daddario via Oh Gizmo!]
*We know that sound is vibration. Don’t be so picky.
Viliv's S7, at $630 and up, isn't cheap by netbook standards. But at 1.8 pounds and with a swiveling touchscreen and 3G internet, its a striking one. The internals are similar to other smaller UMPC-style netbooks (lower-power 1.33GHz Atom, SSD, etc.) and it's available from Dynamism.
Apple blogger and Mac repair guy Josh Carr relates a heart-warming story of cars, broken computers and utter laziness, all of which culminate in a happy ending.
A customer brought a rather bashed up 13” black MacBook in for repair and when Josh asked what had happened, the customer admitted he’d driven over it. Yes, he drove over his own computer. More on that in a second.
Amazingly, despite a thorough crushing, the MacBook worked just fine, although it needed a new display and optical drive. A few bucks and a couple of hours later and the MacBook was as good as new and the customer very happy.
Which brings us back to the manner of the poor computer’s compression. Just how do you drive over your own laptop? Step one: put it on the floor next to the wheel. Step two: forget about it while doing something else. Step three: Decide to drive the car to your own mailbox which is “just down the road”. And here we see the problem. Everybody gets distracted, and maybe leaves something where they shouldn’t. But most people, I’d like to believe, could perhaps walk the short distance to their mailbox.
MacBook Car-nage: Surviving a drive-over [TUAW]
Photos: Josh Carr/TUAW
You arrive at work and, climbing sweatily off your bike, you look for a safe place to lock it up for the day, somewhere that it will hopefully still be when you want to go home. You then walk into the office and, in the restroom, try your best to cool down and squeeze your sticky body into its work clothes.
Rewind.
You roll up near the office, hop off your bike and push it into the Bicycle Cellar. Leaving your ride on the rack, you hit the shower and grab some clean clothes from your locker. Fresh, you leave for the day, the bike secure. Bonus: if you work out of town, the Bicycle Cellar is almost on the platform of local railway station.
If you live in Tempe, Arizona, then this dream is real. The Bicycle Cellar sits next to the Tempe Transportation Center and the main ASU campus, nestled up to the Sun Devil Stadium, and contains secure bicycle parking in a wide-open studio along with showers, changing rooms, bike-repairs and bicycle rentals.
It’s a fantastic idea, and it solves pretty much every problem of bike commuting in one go, although by riding slower and using good locks you can arrive dry and safe at any destination. Yearly rates start at $110 and rise as demand rises. Monthly plans can be had from $25, and for emergencies or for infrequent use, you can pay $3 for all-day parking. If you do sign up for a monthly or yearly plan, you get a card which can be swiped to enter 24 hours per day. Lockers cost extra.
This is the sort of thing that should be built into every office building.
Product page [Bicycle Cellar via Bike Hacks]
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