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Digg’s Money Guy Joins High Gear Media Board
Today, the company’s announcing that Chas Edwards is joining its board of directors. Edwards is the former Chief Revenue Officer of Federated Media who in May 2009 left the digital advertising network to become the money guy at Digg. High Gear Media is riding the wave of built-for-the-web content production platforms, publishing a mix of original, licensed, aggregated and user-contributed content. You could compare this approach to the Demand Media model, the route AOL is taking towards massive low-cost content production and Seeking Alpha’s strategy in the stock market vertical. It’s clearly turning into something of a trend. High Gear Media publishes automotive content through about 75 websites targeting key buyer and vehicle segments and currently reaches about 2.2 million unique monthly visitors in total. Including its own editorial staff, the media startup at the moment counts over 200 content contributors. They make it really easy for people to become one, too: all you need is to sign up using Facebook Connect and you’re off. High Gear is announcing a partnership with a major media company shortly that will lift its profile and audience even more, although the company remains tight-lipped about the name of the new partner (Yahoo? AOL?). Curious to see if Edwards can help them sustain their growth and monetize the traffic they’re generating. He’ll be sharing a board seat with High Gear Chairman and Founder Hesky Kutcher, Rob Solomon, (former CEO of Sidestep.com) and investors Andrew Braccia of Accel Partners and James Slavet of Greylock Partners. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 
Source: TechCrunch | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:30 am Moody's Worries About the U.S. So You Don't Have toIn a new report the credit ratings kids at Moody's think deep thoughts about Aaa-rated nations, like the U.S., U.K., France and Germany. The report comes to the startling conclusion that life will not...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:21 am 270g: JVC announces world’s lightest and smallest HDD camcorder
JVC Japan announced three new interesting camcorders just last week, but the fresh Everio model the company unveiled today in Tokyo is actually even cooler. JVC says their Everio GZ-HD620 [JP] is the lightest and smallest HD camcorder with a built-in HDD around. And as the device weighs just 270g and is sized at 53mm×63mm×115mm, this isn’t hard to believe.
As you can see on the picture above, the camcorder is really tiny. JVC made sure the device is worth considering spec-wise, too: 1,920×1,080 resolution, AVCHD, Dolby Digital 2ch audio, 120GB HDD, 1/4.1”, 3.32MP CMOS sensor, 30x optical zoom, 200x digital zoom, microSD/SDHC slot, USB port, HDMI port, 2.7-inch LCD screen, and easy YouTube uploading function. The camcorder will hit Japanese stores starting next week with a price tag of $1,240 (in silver, black and red). As JVC sells their Everios outside this country, too, you can expect the GZ-HD620 to be available in the US and Europe pretty soon as well.
Source: CrunchGear | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:21 am Judge slams file-sharing laws - TG Daily
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:19 am CrunchPad Renamed JooJoo - Techtree.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:14 am Peek at the Tetris God at workHere's a rare peek into the celestial kingdom in which the Tetris God decides which shape to send you next. The Tetris God (via Geekologie)
Previously:
Source: Gizmodo | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:04 am Don't jump off cliff for climate - Politico
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 8 Dec 2009 | 3:00 am Exclusive SpaceShipTwo unveiling gallery (Updated!)
The world's first commercial spacecraft was officially unveiled on Monday afternoon.Photos shot for Boing Boing by Alan Radecki, photographer and Mojave aviation and space historian.
Source: Boing Boing | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:59 am Wendy "Elfquest" Pini's artwork for the never-made "Stormbringer" movie Tavie sez, "Wendy Pini, creator of Elfquest, is my favorite living artist. I had long been curious about this out-of-print book about her quest to bring Michael Moorcock's "Stormbringer" to the big screen. The artwork was supposed to be phenomenal, but the book was unfindable long before I had even heard of Elfquest. Richard Pini has now made the book available online - in its glorious, lushly illustrated entirety - at Wendy's website for her web graphic novel, Masque of the Red Death. The paintings are incredible." Law & Chaos - Wendy Pini (Thanks, Tavie!)
Source: Gizmodo | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:43 am UPDATE 1-Wipro says sees growth in Middle East, China* Sees China and Latin America as potential growth marketsSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:32 am UPDATE 1-Pioneer,Shanghai Auto jv aims for $147 mln in sales* Car navigation jv aims for $147 mln in sales in three yearsSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:28 am Discontinued desktop 3D printers on the cheap
$5000 Printer Available Now! (For a limited time) (Thanks, Rich!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:24 am UPDATE 2-Activist funds take TNT stake, said seeking breakupAMSTERDAM, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Investors bought into TNT on Tuesday, trading on prospects the Dutch mail company could be broken up under pressure from two North American activist funds holding a combined...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:22 am Natuna LNG development may be delayed - sourcesJAKARTA, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The development of the giant Natuna gas project may be delayed due to uncertainty over terms and conditions, which could affect the selection of partners for the project, two...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:20 am UPDATE 1-Caledon Resources says not to sell co, shares fall* Says to focus on growing Cook mine output * Sees 485,000 tonnes of saleable output from Cook in '09 * Plans base production of 700,000 tonnes in 2010Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:10 am UPDATE 2-Dubai World, creditors mull new date for Dec debtDUBAI, Dec 8 (Reuters) - State-controlled Dubai World [DBWLD.UL] is discussing a new date with banks for $3.5 billion in debt falling due on Dec. 14, but with no deal yet announced, spooked investors sold...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:06 am Google Sues "Google Money" Scam ArtistsFresh from the official Google blog, we have news that Google is taking a group of online scammers to court. We've all seen the ads: "Use Google to Make 1000s of Dollars!" "Easy Cash with Google: You...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:05 am Video: Google Real-Time Search Event (Plus Noshing!) [BoomTown]
Please see this disclosure related to me and Google. Here is a short video BoomTown did at the Google search event yesterday, where it launched a number of new features to its flagship offering–most of all, comprehensive real-time search. Innovations also included a hopped-up mobile translation service, voice querying in Japanese and Google Goggles, which searches from pictures you take on your mobile device. This video includes one of the real-time data partners that Google (GOOG) announced today, MySpace’s Chief of Products Jason Hirschhorn, as well as Google PR dude Nate Tyler and a view of the superior spread the company put out at the event–unlike the food-free Bing search event by Microsoft (MSFT) a week ago. Here is the video of the event, which took place at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley:
Source: Gizmodo | 8 Dec 2009 | 2:00 am Study Suggests Real Life Luxury Item Sales *Improved* By Knockoffs & Noobs -- Also True With Second Life Content?It's one of Second Life's greatest mysteries: though the sale of virtual items that are cheap knock offs of popular (and more expensive) Second Life brands remains a persistent and painful social problem,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:53 am UPDATE 1-Green Dragon clears debt, gets BlackRock as investor* Says paid about $55 mln to redeem last convertible bondSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:45 am User Data Easier Than Ever to Phish on Facebook, New Study ShowsWould you give a complete stranger your email address and date of birth? How about personal information about your friends? If results of a new study on Facebook user behavior is any indication, around...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:45 am Amazon developing Kindle tools to aid the blind - The Tech Herald
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:38 am CORRECTED - UPDATE 1-Dutch TNT targeted by activist funds - report(Changes shareholding in first bullet point and second paragraph to just over 5 percent from nearly 11 percent)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:31 am MapLock Makes Sure Your GPS Doesn't Get LostBy Evan Ackerman I honestly don’t know whether this thing is totally stupid, or totally brilliant. The MapLock is like a bike lock, except it’s made for your GPS… It clamps onto the face...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:30 am CNN Invests in Neighborhood News Feed Outside.In [Voices]By Shira Ovide, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal CNN.com is investing in Outside.In, a start-up that feeds neighborhood blogs and other local news and information to the Web sites of newspapers, TV stations and other media. The investment, whose size the Time Warner Inc. Web site declined to disclose, comes as news organizations seek more local information about high school sports, eateries and social events, in which they see an untapped market. Outside.In and a growing cadre of start-ups either hire people to write neighborhood news, or collect and organize dispatches from local citizens, news outlets or bloggers. MSNBC.com, a joint venture of NBC Universal and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), this summer acquired EveryBlock, which feeds crime reports, restaurant health inspections and other data to news organizations’ Web sites. AOL Inc. recently acquired the local-news network Patch. CNN.com, which is part of Time Warner’s (TWX) Turner Broadcasting, plans to carry the Outside.In dispatches on its own Web site—the biggest push into local news so far by one of the most popular national news outlets in the country. Read the rest of this post on the original site
Source: Gizmodo | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:12 am Oscar insiders take their movie chat online (Reuters)Reuters - Adam Shankman has a Twitter habit, and it's making Academy officials nervous.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:08 am Secret’s Out: Sample Sales Move Online [Voices]By Claire Cain Miller and Jenna Wortham, Staff Writers, New York Times Daniela Busciglio still winces at the memory of shivering in line for hours to get into New York sample sales, then shoving her way through throngs of other shoppers looking for deals on designer clothes. But now the mobs are moving online, to sites like Gilt, Rue La La, One Kings Lane, Ideeli and HauteLook. On the Web, the shopping is just as competitive, but it is no longer a blood sport. “Who wants to go to sample sales with lines out the door and girls scratching to get in?” said Ms. Busciglio, 27, now a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:05 am Google’s Personalized Results: The “New Normal” That Deserves Extraordinary Attention [Voices]By Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-chief, Search Engine Land On Friday afternoon, Google (GOOG) made the biggest change that has ever happened in search engines, and the world largely yawned. Maybe Google timed its announcement that it was personalizing everyone’s search results just right, so few would notice. Maybe no one really understood how significant the change was. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:04 am What Makes Content Spreadable? [Voices]By Mike Arauz, Blogger, MikeArauz.com On Thursday Dec. 3rd, at the height of Tiger Woods nonsense, my co-worker Clay Parker Jones came up with the brilliant idea that it would be funny to compare Jay-Z’s 99 problems – none of which have anything to do with women – to Tiger Woods’ problems – all of which have everything to do with women. We both made funny info-graphics illustrating the joke and put them up on the interwebs. At first we posted them to our Tumblr accounts, and within minutes they were receiving several likes and reblogs (one of the best things about Tumblr is how quickly you can find out if something is going to spread). Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:03 am How Games Are Supporting Personalized Narratives [Voices]By Josh Lovison, Contributor, Gaming Insider Online content, as it becomes increasingly interactive and tailored to the individual, faces a problem: How does it deliver an individual experience and still contribute to a cultural identity? We have a human need for joint attention. When we see something cool, we point it out to a family member or friend. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:02 am The Stars Look Down [Voices]By Jeffrey Zeldman, Blogger, Zeldman.com It wasn’t the first time and won’t be the last. Like an angry Hebrew God, he creates things and then, in fits of pique, destroys them. Sometimes, on the web, communities end because money runs out. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:01 am Daily Crunch: Cat People Edition
Boxee and D-Link present the Boxee Box
Source: CrunchGear | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:00 am AMD to Show 3D Blu-ray Playback at CES (PC World)PC World - Blu-ray Discs based on a new format for 3D video will be on show at January's Consumer Electronics Show.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:00 am Fighting fraud online: taking "Google Money" scammers to court"Use Google to Make 1000s of Dollars!" or "Easy Cash with Google: You Could be Making up to $978 a Day Working from Home!" You may have seen offers like these using Google's name or logo that sounded too good to be true. Unfortunately, nearly all of them are, and, despite hundreds of consumer complaints and our own efforts to keep these sites from tricking people, some scams continue. To fight back, we're working to stop various fraudulent "Google Money" schemes, and this week filed suit against Pacific WebWorks and several other unnamed defendants.Google hasn't created or endorsed any of the sites like those described in our complaint. Misleading ads try to take advantage of consumers in the midst of a difficult economy, and as the economic situation has worsened, the problem has only grown. As far as we can tell, thousands of people have been tricked into sending payment information and being charged hidden fees by questionable operations.   Even as we're taking legal action to try to cut these sites off at the source, we're still working constantly to remove scammy URLs from our index, and we'll permanently disable AdWords accounts that provide a poor or harmful user experience, whether or not they use Google's trademarks illegally. That said, we can't guarantee that schemes like these won't pop up, like the proverbial "Whack-A-Mole", someplace else online — either on a different network or under a different name. We can solve only part of the problem — the rest is up to you. Just as you should be careful about giving out financial information in the real world, you should be skeptical and review any offers online before sending any information, and always be on guard when presented with an offer that seems too good to be true. Below is a significantly abridged list of some names that we know are suspect. For more tips on how to spot a scam online or what to do if you think you or someone you know has been tricked, check out this earlier post. Although there's no secret kit that can guarantee riches, many people really do make money online. In our experience, the best way to build a business on the web is to really serve users — offer useful products and services or write about something you have a passionate interest in. If you are wondering if a particular program is legit, Google's business and advertising programs can be found from our home page, and the best place to find real jobs at Google is google.com/jobs. Names to be wary of: Google Adwork, Google ATM, Google Biz Kit, Google Cash, Earn Google Cash Kit, Google Fortune, Google Marketing Kit, Google Profits, The Home Business Kit for Google, Google StartUp Kit, and Google Works. Posted by Jason Morrison, Support Engineer (Search Quality Team), and Stacey Wexler, Senior Litigation Counsel   
Source: Gizmodo | 8 Dec 2009 | 1:00 am Building the Dream Google Smartbooksnydeq writes "InfoWorld's Mel Beckman conjectures on the functionality necessary to make the Google 'smartbook dream' a reality, prioritizing the features any smartphone/netbook hybrid would require to succeed. From multitouch, to SSDs, to dual-boot capabilities, the list goes beyond what early Android-based entrants have to offer but remains within the realm of possibility, especially if Google CEO Eric Schmidt's hints at a future Chrome/Android OS convergence come to pass."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Gizmodo | 8 Dec 2009 | 12:20 am Two More Operators Put IPhone on Sale in Singapore
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 BBC News | Google Gets Real-Time, Personalized Search BusinessWeek Even small changes to the world's most-used search engine inevitably changes how hundreds of millions of people use the Web. In the past few days, Google introduced two big features which could have major implications for the future of online search ... Google launches Goggles Google fits Android for visual search Goggles Google Goggles |
'Fake fingerprint' Chinese woman fools Japan controls (via /.)Skin patches on her thumbs and index fingers were removed and then re-grafted on to the matching digits of the opposite hand.
Japanese newspapers said police had noticed that Ms Lin's fingers had unnatural scars when she was arrested last month for allegedly faking a marriage to a Japanese man.
The apparent ability of illegal migration networks to break through hi-tech controls suggests that other countries who fingerprint visitors could be equally vulnerable - not least the United States, according to BBC Asia analyst Andre Vornic.
(Image: Fingerprints, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from kevindooley's photostream)
Stil Novo Design (via Make)
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
When Brightcove released a major upgrade to its online video platform last month, one of the new set of features was better analytics. It turns out that Brightcove’s new video analytics suite is powered TubeMogul. Professional video publishers who use Brightcove can now measure things like the geographic distribution of their viewers, how many seconds they watch each video, their drop-off rate, number of unique viewers, number of new viewers, as well as total video plays.
The two companies have also signed a joint R&D pact to develop new video analytics products exclusively for Brightcove. TubeMogul will also become a marketing partner for Brightcove’s paid video hosting, streaming, and advertising services. About 125,000 people use TubeMogul’s free video analytics. Many of them are online video professionals Brightcove is hoping to turn into paying subscribers for its new “low-end” $99/month plan.
Analytics are an important part of the video equation, especially for advertisers and marketers who need to demonstrate the ROI of spending money on online video. TubeMogul already has an advanced analytics package Brightcove can plug into its latest release. TubeMogul adds Brightcove as a customer and will receive both R&D payments and marketing fees for each new Brightcove client it helps to sign up.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Last month we broke the news that MySpace was acquiring music service iMeem, and that an agreement had been signed between the two companies.
All of that was accurate, including the $1 million fire sale price. But despite reports to the contrary, while the deal was signed it never closed (which explains why MySpace hasn’t announced it).
Sometime between signing and closing some problems came up in due diligence, we’ve heard. Specifically that some of the hard assets that MySpace was acquiring, hundreds of servers, were leased rather than owned. Meaning that MySpace couldn’t buy them.
The two sides have feverishly been renegotiating the deal, say our sources. At this point a deal may still be done in the next day or so at an even lower price than the $1 million. Or the deal may be terminated altogether (we’re hearing it’s likely some sort of deal will still happen).
It’s also always been unclear exactly how much capital iMeem raised to fund the company. We’ve tracked just $25 million in announced or leaked deals on CrunchBase. But we’ve heard the total is much closer to $80 million, including debt and pre-paid royalties to music labels. It’s clear that those investors aren’t seeing any return at all on that investment. Users, though, are still hoping the service lives on under MySpace.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Polly wanna crack it? So for some reason you want to get on the right side of a router’s WPA protection. Okay, I won’t ask questions. But how long is it going to take your computer to brute-force the password? A couple days? Have I got a service for you!
WPA Cracker, a creatively-named new site, lets you submit the result of a handshake with a WPA-protected Wi-Fi point, and will have the password back to you before you’ve finished your cup of coffee. Of course, you’ll be $34 poorer for it, but hey, if that means you don’t have to pay for internet for six months you demonstrate a network’s vulnerability to your boss, it might just be worth it. WPA Cracker has a cluster of computers ready to do a massively parallel dictionary attack on the bit of encrypted data you send their way.
Now, I suppose this service is susceptible to abuse, but keep in mind that even a hundred-million-word dictionary can’t crack long, random alphanumeric strings. The lesson here is to assign ridiculous and unbreakable passwords to all your accounts and devices, and keep them safe in a central location like OS X’s keychain or one of the many programs designed to do just that.
[via Computer World]
Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops, Wireless, Gadgets / Other, ebooks, Household, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
The CrunchPad is back from the dead but with a different name. Now the JooJoo, the tablet is scheduled for pre-orders on Friday under the Fusion Garage name. Fusion Garage held a video call for reporters and analysts Monday morning to make the announcement to move ahead with the launch without TechCrunch.
Fusion Garage claims they have every right to sell this without TechCrunch’s approval, despite what TechCrunch founder, Michael Arrington’s, earlier blog post stated. Beginning on Friday, the JooJoo will be available on pre-order for $499 through theJooJoo.com.
If you are unfamiliar with the Crunch… I mean JooJoo, it is a 12.1-inch touchscreen tablet computer. It only has one button and that is the power button, the remaining inputs are all done through touch based input. For text input, the JooJoo has an on-screen keyboard that, like any other touch screen device, can disappear when not in use. The device can also switch between portrait and landscape mode like an iPod.
The device runs on a Unix based operating system that boots directly into the browser much like Chrome OS. Fusion Garage also claims that the JooJoo can display full HD video. It runs on a 4GB solid state drive that is used solely for storing cached information from the browser. Pretty much meaning you can do offline work when you don’t have a signal.
In case you didn’t get this from the rest of the article, the JooJoo is meant mainly for web browsing, email, video sharing, and can double as an e-reader as well. Fusion Garage claims that they are working with other companies to bring special, 3rd party software like tablet versions of various popular magazines.
Honestly, if I had $500 laying around, I would pre-order this the first day it comes available, aka, Friday. Even though it was pretty much stolen right out from under the hands of the developers, I still feel that buying this shows appreciation for the one and a half years of hard work they put into it. So in appreciation for the CrunchPad, I would get a JooJoo.
Read [PCWorld]
Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
The first time you go surfing, it’s a pretty significant achievement to just stand up on the board and ride a wave. Most people never leave their stomachs, or when they do, they fly face first into the wave. Google Wave, it seems, is not entirely dissimilar.
On its Google Wave Blog today, the company announced a very significant milestone for the young service: A million invites have been sent out. The single biggest complaint about Google Wave so far has been the lack of access to it as everyone who wants to see what all the fuss is about. So Google has opened up the floodgates today and apparently let in everyone who previously requested an invite (though they are still requiring the invite request here). But a million invites is hardly a million users, and certainly not a million happy riders.
After a huge amount of hype following its unveiling at Google I/O, some amount of backlash for Wave was inevitable. But many Wave users still can’t quite figure out what to use the service for. My main problem with it right now is more of a chicken-and-egg one. During my busy days, I never remember to open up Wave, and there is no good notification method that you have new Wave messages, so I skip entire days without visiting. And then when I do, I’m too overwhelmed with what I’ve missed. And even if there was a good notification technique, that in some ways defeats the point of the service. Ultimately, I think Google Wave is something I’d like to have open all the time, as I see it as a new potential variety of communication for the web. And if I have it open, I don’t need another service, like email, to notify me about new messages. But I don’t have it open all the time now because usage among people I know is too sporadic.
Luckily for the Wave team, they have Google backing them. If Wave were a startup, they’d likely be in some trouble right now trying to figure out how best to position themselves. But with Google’s resources, Wave can take its time to find its audience, and most importantly, to let developers build things on top of it. “Although we are opening up access a bit, do remember that Google Wave is still only in its early preview phase,” the team notes today for the umpteenth time. A very early preview with a million plus invites sent out; that’s a pretty impressive early preview.
While Wave finds its way, it has been the source of some great comedy on the web. There have been sites dedicated to pointing out what Google Wave is easier to understand than. And there have been videos using it to reenact scenes from Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting. And also the Declaration of Independence. And then others are using it for the opposite reasons: Like to hunt down killers.
[photo: Universal Pictures]
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Soon nearly every manufacturer and brand will have an electric vehicle in its lineup. Well, soon might be relative, but at least VW is getting into the game with an EV version of the Up! hatchback that debuted at the L.A. Auto Show last week. Plus, the next-gen Beetle will be offered in the States with an optional clean diesel engine. The greenies at the Copenhagen Climate Summit are probably pleased with this news.
The EV Up! will be available in Euroland before America, but at least it’s coming unlike a lot of other electric cars found only across the Atlantic. Tougher safety regulations over here tend to keep away other manufacturers. But since the Up! has been developed to also house a diesel/electric hybrid powerplant, the already developed platform might as well have an all-electric option. The non-EV Up! lineup is set to be released for the 2011 model year with the EV option coming in 2014.
Nat Torkington says,
Here is a Library of Congress map showing prevalence of Malaria throughout the United States in the 1870s. Astonishing how dangerous it was. In some places, it accounted for one-seventh of all deaths. People thought it was bad air (literally, "mal-" + "air"), figured out it was a parasite in the blood in the 1870s, but it wasn't until 1908 that a Cuban doctor made the connection with mosquitoes.Incidentally, if you've ever wondered what the "ague" is that Shakespeare kept banging on about--it's what the English called malaria. It was widespread in the marshlands during Shakespeare's time. (via sciblogs)
 Product Reviews (blog) | Boxee, a Start-Up, to Offer a Device to Put Web Video on TV New York Times Boxee, a start-up that is trying to bring the boundless selection of Web video to the living-room television, said on Monday that it would put its software into a set-top box that will go on sale next year. At an event in New York City, ... Boxee Gets Boxed, by D-Link Boxee unveils prototype 'Boxee Box' Boxee debuts Boxee Box, ready to take on Roku |
AP - Fresh information from blogs, news sites, Twitter and other popular hangouts will appear in Google's search results more quickly as the company aims to give people a more comprehensive look at what's happening on the Web.
Along with the announcements of the Google real time search and the labeling of your local businesses, Google had another feature up their sleeve today at their huge demo. This came in the form of an app that will be used on mobile devices (Android is on a roll), that will essentially analyze a picture taken and bring up various information on an object in that image. And if that doesn’t get your attention, the title of “Google Goggles” will.
So for instance, let’s say you scan a book cover. The app will instantly pull up the information on that book including the link to the Google search about that book. Links to Amazon will most likely be included so that you can proceed to either buy the book or read various reviews on the book. Right now, the only downside to this app is the ability to spend money at a record pace.
And in case you don’t believe cartoons, TechCrunch was able to get a live demo:
Quite honestly, I really like the way Google is using their developmental talent to boost their mobile devices. In time, Google’s Phd’s and superior teams will take over the thousands of homemade apps of the Apple App store.
Read [TechCrunch]
Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 Reuters | Copenhagen summit welcomes US emissions curbs BBC News UN and EU officials have welcomed the US declaration that greenhouse gases are threatening to human health. An EU spokesman said the announcement showed "a degree of resolve" on the part of President Barack Obama to address climate change. ... Summit calls for coping skills in Copenhagen Haggling begins at UN climate talks Developing nations target mid-2010 climate deal |
Sometimes you have to apply the smell test to what your sources are telling you, and the rumors we’re hearing about Apple’s purchase of music service LaLa are definitely smelling a little off. $80 million for LaLa? That isn’t what we’re hearing.
LaLa was purchased for $17 million by Apple, according to our sources with indirect knowledge of the deal. And the company supposedly had $14 million in cash in the bank, meaning the actual purchase price was really $3 million.
That’s in line with recent competitive sales like iLike ($20 million) and iMeem ($1 million). LaLa had plenty of cash in the bank, but they were burning $500k/month, say our sources. There’s just no reason Apple would pay $80 million for the company.
We also believe that LaLa was acquired mostly for the star engineering team and the awesome recent Google deal more than for the product. iTunes in the cloud isn’t something we should hold our breath for. $3 million for top-of Google music results and a top team of engineers makes a lot of sense. $80 million not so much.
LaLa has raised $35 million and was valued at $180 million or so in it’s last round of funding. The reason for the misreports on the $80 million sale may have to do with those numbers. We’ve heard that the purchase price was “forty or fifty cents on the dollar” from one source, meaning 40% or 50% of the $35 million in venture capital the company has raised. But a misunderstanding of what that means could easily have people thinking it was 40% or 50% of the last round valuation, which gets you the $80 million number.
If we get additional sources on this story either way we’ll update. LaLa, which used to love to talk to us, has become scarce when we call or email.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
We know Boxee. We like Boxee. And when we heard Boxee was planning on dropping some dedicated hardware, our hearts… well, maybe they leapt a little bit, but there was also some skepticism there. Part of the fun of Boxee has been its hardware-agnostic nature. Put it on your AppleTV, put it on your micro-PC, put it on your iPhone — whatever. Would dedicated hardware take away the fun?
Probably not, I just like to be a naysayer now and then. The Boxee Box looks pretty awesome.
There’s not much to say: it’s got inputs, outputs, and a cool “sinking ship” design. We have a parking lot here in Seattle that looks like that, and everybody hates it but me (I think). But enough about that. Here’s what the Boxee Box is sporting:
No word on the guts, but I’m sure they’re barebones while still supporting HD. I’m a little surprised they have composite audio but not composite video. Not that you need that so much, but it’s nice when you want to hook up an old TV or something. I don’t know. I’m just attached to those cables from my SNES days.
Basically it’s a little tiny HTPC: hook it up to your router, plug in a hard drive with some media on it (or let it access your home network) and you’re good to go. They haven’t settled on a price yet, but I’d put it at… oh, $100 or so just off the top of my head. Don’t hold me to it.
On the website of sculptor and mathematician George Hart, there are step-by-step instructions for how to craft a Möbius strip from a single bagel. I like his thoughts at the very end of the instruction process:
"It is much more fun to put cream cheese on these bagels than on an ordinary bagel. In additional to the intellectual stimulation, you get more cream cheese, because there is slightly more surface area."
Mathematically Correct Breakfast: How to Slice a Bagel into Two Linked Halves (via Serious Eats NY, thanks Laura)
Source: Boing Boing | 7 Dec 2009 | 6:42 pm
The $200 touchscreen tablet known as the CrunchPad has morphed into a $500 device called JooJoo.
Designed and developed by a Singapore-based company, Fusion Garage, JooJoo is tablet-like device made for internet surfing and little else.
Wired.com got some hands-on time with the JooJoo. At 2.4 lbs, JooJoo is a lightweight, slim tablet with a vivid, crisp 12.1-inch touchscreen display.
JooJoo has a capacitive touchscreen, which means it is about as responsive as an iPhone touchscreen and as much of a delight to use. There’s also an LCD screen that supports high-definition content. Overall, it measures about 13.3-inches deep, but has a slimmer profile than Apple’s Macbook Air.
JooJoo runs a custom operating system built by Fusion Garage and boots in just under nine seconds directly to a homepage screen. It’s fast and takes the user directly to services that they may use.
The homepage screen is divided vertically into three sections: Be connected, Be informed, and More apps.
Under the ‘Be connected’ tab, there are web services such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube among others.
The ‘Be Informed’ tab features sites such as The New York Times, Reuters, AOL and CNN.
More apps has icons that link, for instance, to Google docs, Yahoo and Hulu.
Now here’s the weird part, a default option on the device called ‘Paint me a new background’ changes the homepage screen color to a new one every time you come back to it. And screen colors include red, violet, green and yellow — all of which seem rather bright and a tad harsh.
The good news, says Fusion Garage, is that users can always uncheck the option and set it to plain white. Still, it’s rather puzzling to us why Fusion Garage would offer this feature.
JooJoo is also thin in the number of ports it offers. There’s just one USB port. It also has a standard headphone and microphone jack.
When Google first announced its acquisition of mobile advertising outfit AdMob (see adjacent graph and text; click to enlarge), the company said it didn’t anticipate regulatory concerns but wouldn’t be surprised if there was some regulatory review.
A reasonable stance given the Obama administration’s stated concerns about Google’s domineering presence in the market for Internet search advertising. Prescient, too, because according to The Wall Street Journal, the Federal Trade Commission is indeed reviewing the $750 million acquisition. The FTC once-over is said to be largely procedural, and there’s no indication that the agency has found anything over which to take issue.
And the Commission may not find anything. At this point, the mobile ad market is far too immature and fragmented for Google (GOOG) to really undermine competition–even with the 30 to 40 percent share of the mobile ad market the acquisition of AdMob will give it.
That said, by purchasing AdMob, the search sovereign will become the Internet’s largest mobile advertising company, which could conceivably be its first step toward becoming a mobile ad monopoly.
Google has not yet responded to a request for comment.
 Washington Post | Apple buys Lala, entering the streaming music business USA Today After years of resisting efforts to offer music fans the ability to "rent" music instead of buying downloads, Apple is finally joining the party. Apple's (AAPL) purchase of online music service Lala brings the No. ... Apple Will "Invent" Music Streaming CNET News Daily Podcast: Apple's Lala buy confirmed, plus we talk shirt Apple Buys Lala Music Service |
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Section: Gadgets / Other
This holiday season, more of us are looking for the absolute lowest prices. One way to find these deals are to watch sites that track hourly deals such as gadget-buddy.com, nobrainerdeals.com and cleansnipe. These three sites can bring the best of the net’s deals.
A rather simple Google Blogger posting of deals found. The site posts deals at other vendors, sometimes with images. While technically not an hourly deal site, the savings can be substantial.
For example, right now on the site is 50% off Logitech Guitar Hero instruments (which are class, btw). To get the deal, the site arms you with a coupon code. The deal is good until 12/10. The selection of goods shown at gadget-buddy stays around the gadget theme.
Nobrainerdeals.com is similar to gadget-buddy except it widens the scope a bit. You’ll find Dell computers alongside an infant’s car seat. The deals are direct links to manufacturer sites.
The deals are organized so you can search for just gadgets if you so desire.
If you want to see hourly deals done right, check out cleansnipe.com. This site collects hourly deals from several action sports sites and presents them at once. The deals are typically wholesale or better and even a dollar-deal is thrown out occasionally.
Better still, the site allows you to set up alerts to tell you when that specific snowboard is on sale or when dollar deals are announced. It is a very handy tool, though I’d like to see the ability to add a category (example: add bicycle helmets instead of Giro E2), so users can make a decision based on price.
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
We’ve posted about Virgin Galactic before, but this might be their biggest announcement yet. Take a look at SpaceShipTwo in all its glory, ready to launch the wealthy into flight.
Branson and company just unveiled SpaceShipTwo in the Mojave desert today, and it’s looking good. Testing has already started, however full blown commercial flights aren’t expected to start until 2011. Given the history of the space program, that seems best. Branson has stated previously that the first people to go up will be him, along with his family and the designer of the spacecraft, Burt Rutan. A seat on the ship will cost roughly $200,000 so I’d suggest you start saving now.
Tomorrow, the makers of Firefox will be launching the third version of Thunderbird, its open source and free email application that is produced out of Mozilla Messaging, which is a subsidiary of Mozilla devoted to producing innovation around communication and the internet. Thunderbird 3, which is available in 50 languages and is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, has made more than 2,000 improvements and fixes to the new email client. Thunderbird 3 will be available to the public mid-day tomorrow here.
One of the main improvements to Thunderbird 3, says Mozilla Messaging CEO David Ascher, is the client’s search capacity. The new search interface contains filtering and timeline tools to try to help users pin-point emails by words, correspondents or attachment types. Thunderbird 3 also includes tabbed email, which lets users view emails and folders in tabs within the client, similar to the way that you manage tabs in Firefox. Tabs are remembered in the client, so you don’t have to keep re-saving tabs.
Thunderbird has also added a new archive feature that moves email from your inbox into separate archive folder, a sleeker address book, a new setup wizards, and the ability to combine individual mailboxes to manage multiple email accounts in one spot. The email client has been tweaked to integrate more seamlessly with Gmail and Windows and Mac OS X.
Ascher tells me that Thunderbird currently has 10 to 15 million users. While this doesn’t reach the user base of Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and others, Thunderbird has seen steady growth in a field with formidable competitors. And this version is the most powerful iteration of the email client yet, so I expect Thunderbird to gain a few more fans with this release.
We expect for Thunderbird to collaborate with Mozilla’s recently launched, open-source, experimental email and communication platform, Raindrop. Ascher tells me that Raindrop is still constantly evolving but it will be interesting to see what two-way interactions the platform will feature and what content it eventually will bring in.
Full disclosure: My husband works for the Mozilla Corp.
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Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking, Web Apps, Websites, Google
Every product now-a-days has a UPC on it. A UPC is that tiny square with a bunch of black lines on it that the guy at the cash register scans so the system knows what item it is and how much to charge you for it. Well Google is now planning to put a similar decal onto stores that they deem their “Favorite Places.” Basically meaning that that store is “Google Approved” as Gizmodo puts it. With the recent Big Brother talk going around, this probably won’t help.
These window decals, or QR codes, will be placed on stores that were ranked the highest in search results for Google and Google Maps. You can then take your phone and scan that code to receive extra information on the store such as reviews or coupons. Of course to accomplish the whole scanning part, you will need specific apps such as QuickMark.
This is just another way Google is name-branding itself. Soon it will be a household name across every market with things like Google Approved Games or Google Generic Foods. But I guess it could also just be them trying to get information out to us easily.
Read [Gizmodo]
Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
The Short Version: These headphones fit a sort of questionable niche; who really games and travels so much that they need compact gaming headphones? But that aside, the G330s are still a mixed bag. Sound quality is good for a traditional headphone style, but they don’t seem to fit as intended. If you find yourself needing a portable gaming headset, try these on before you buy.
Also: I’m giving away the pair I reviewed, details at the end of the review.
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
The question I have to ask you right off the bat is, do you really need your headphones to look cool? I mean — if you’re playing WoW in a cafe, isn’t it a little late to worry about your image? Secondly, in what situation are you traveling and gaming so much that you need a special headset with a microphone built in? You don’t have enough space to pack a solid headset like the Megalodon, yet you can carry a 17″ gaming laptop? But enough questions, you see my point. The G330 headset seems to be a product without a market to me, but perhaps Logitech knows best.
The G330 has a behind-the-head design that makes it extremely compact. It’s also flexible so it won’t snap in your bag. The whole thing seems extremely well-designed and is built very well. It’s all flexible plastic, and the mic is positionable. The earcups swivel a bit so they push directly onto your ears, which helps the sound a lot; traditional headphones tend to improve the closer they are to your ear. The cord is about seven feet long, has a pretty standard in-line remote on it, and ends in the traditional green and pink 3.5mm jacks. These plug into a short USB adapter. Construction all around is excellent.
Unfortunately, the fit is a little more difficult to like. I’ve had behind-the-head sets before and they’ve worked for me, but for some reason this one seems to sink on me. That is to say, I put it on, position it so it’s gripping me by the ears, essentially, and start gaming. All is well until I realize that a few small movements I’ve made have caused it to slip down, causing the frame to rest on the top of my ears and the actual drivers to no longer be where they should be. All it takes is a quick adjustment, but really, a good pair of headphones shouldn’t become uncomfortable every five or ten minutes.
I can’t guarantee that this will be your experience: after all, we all have differently-shaped heads, and the G330 may fit yours admirably. All I know is that my head isn’t that small, and even on the tightest setting these things slip down all the time.
When they’re on properly, they sound quite good. The swiveling ear cups ensure the sound is taking the best path into your ear, and they also help distribute the pressure equally. They produced decent depth, good highs, and solid bass. Keep in mind these are not closed headphones so your roommate, spouse, or neighbor at the cafe will hear what you’re hearing (not to mention what you say into the mic).
I still don’t really understand the draw to a semi-compact pair of headphones (in-ears provide better sound, isolation, and are far smaller) for “portable gaming.” It’s not for a DS or something — the Razer Moray+ does that — it’s for PC gaming on the go. But is that really… something? I don’t know. I just wanted to register my puzzlement.
I had a mixed experience with the G330, but because it was with such a subjective thing as fit, I can’t withhold a recommendation. Logitech makes good headphones, and if one pair doesn’t fit me, I’m not going to trash it. But the behind-the-head design isn’t for everybody, so if you’re looking for a pair for yourself, try them on first if you can. I can’t recommend them as a gift, however: it’s just too much of a risk that the recipient will encounter the same fit problems I did. Aside from that, however, the G330 is an attractive, well-built, decent-sounding pair of headphones.
And the contest! Tell us what games you like to play on the go; I’ll pick one of you guys at random and you get the pair I’ve got (lightly used, mostly disease-free).
The idea of a portable music store with access to the major labels, and is DRM-free to boot, seems almost too good to be true. And it kind of is: it’s for Android. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — but have you ever used Android’s standard music player? Me neither, at least not after the first try.
Obviously there are replacements for the media browser, but if Mewbox wants to make it big (like Wham!), they’re going to have to be patient, because even as Android blows up, it’s going to take some time before people start relying on it as a music playback device. It doesn’t help that the launch phone (the G1 I know and love) didn’t even have a standard headphone jack.
But if you’re interested, go check it out. Sounds like it’s more than just a store: there’s some promotion and giveaway stuff going on as well. It’s new enough that it isn’t even in the Marketplace, so you’ll have to get it on your phone by other means, but give it a few days and I’m sure it’ll show up in the usual spots.
[via The Inquirer]
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By Juliet Ye, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
The latest tactic in China’s ongoing battle against online pornography: cash.
Authorities are now offering rewards to informers who provide tips about pornographic Web sites, the state-run Xinhua news agency reports (in English and Chinese).
Internet users who report to the police on Web sites that contain lewd and pornographic material are eligible for rewards ranging from 1,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan, according to a joint statement issued Friday by the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center and three other government departments (in Chinese), which provided phone numbers and email addresses for the public to submit information.
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AFP - A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has won a 40,000-dollar prize for using social networking tools to identify the locations of 10 large weather balloons in a contest sponsored by the Pentagon's research agency.
We’ve just gotten our first look at Assistly, a new startup that’s looking to provide businesses with a robust platform for engaging customers on everything from Email to Facebook and Twitter. We first caught wind of Assistly back in October when its founding members left AOL in tandem, but until now the company remained firmly in stealth. Today it’s launching a new ’sneak preview’ version of its site at Assistly.com, and they’ve given us a handful of screenshots to showcase some of the features we can expect. The company is also announcing that Mark Cuban and David Liu are officially coming on as advisors.
CEO Alex Bard says that Assistly looking to capitalize on some key trends: first, that more and more businesses are establishing themselves on the web, and that consumers now have louder voices than ever with their presences on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs which makes customer service more important than ever. Bard says that existing customer service solutions are either old and difficult to use, or are new and easier to manage but lack much depth. Bard says that Assistly is looking to provide a platform that combines the best of both worlds, offering a robust customer service with self-service ease of use. You can see some of the upcoming features, including engaging with a customer on Twitter and managing multiple customer service tickets, in the screenshots below.
We still have’t gotten a chance to try out Assistly for ourselves, but the team behind it is enough to make us optimistic about its potential. The site was founded by Alex Bard, Gary Benitt, Jeremy Suriel, and Brad Birnbaum, each of whom previously worked together in building customer service-based companies back in the 90’s. The first, called eShare, was acquired in 1999; the second, called eAssist Global Solutions, was eventually acquired in 2004 after stumbling through the dot com bubble burst. Following the eAssist acquisition three of the team members left the space to start Goowy, a Flash widget maker that later sold to AOL. Now all four are reuniting as they return to the customer service space.
Bard says that Assistly is targeting an early 2010 public launch.
Other startups looking to help businesses interact with customers via social media include BuzzGain, PeopleBrowsr, Viralheat, and Scout Lab.
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Here's Suzanne Nolen singing about a casket sale at Walmart.
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Ned Desmond has gone fishin’ and he wants you to Go FISHn too. Today, Desmond launched a fishing site for the Facebook age. You can sign in with your Facebook ID, share fishing stories and photos with your friends, ask questions to fishing pros and the community, and review all the gear in your tackle box.
Go FISHn is an enthusiast site for people who love to fish—and there’s an estimated 30 million recreational anglers in the U.S. alone who spend about $45 billion a year on gear, supplies, and trips. “Nobody has done a good job in enthusiast sites,” says Desmond, who is the former president of Time Interactive and was once my boss (we launched a magazine together).
There is something deeply satisfying about seeing an old boss of mine from my mainstream media days embrace niche media. Go FISHn is the first site from his new company, Go SPORTn, which will take the same model and create communities for different enthusiast groups much in the way magazines like Field & Stream used to do. “I think a mass audience is the ability to address a lot of niches within a category,” he says. Hmm, where have I heard that before (cough, nichebusters)?
What’s even more satisfying is to see him do it so well with a bootstrap budget, five engineers in India, and a few other contractors. The whole site was built on Rails, MediaWiki, and the Sphinx open-source search engine. I’m obviously biased because Desmond is my friend, but judge it for yourself.
There are other social networks for fishermen such as Angling Masters, Fishing Files, and the Fishing Network where people can share fish tales and photos. But they seem to be modeled more after MySpace than Facebook. Go FISHn isn’t trying to create a new social network. “People fish for the challenge, but also for the companionship,” says Desmond. Go FISHn starts out by connecting you to your fishing buddies on Facebook (and, yes, it has a Facebook Fan page as well).
Once you join, you can add fishing-related status updates, longer blog-post-length stories, and fishing photos and videos to your Go FISHn data stream and share those with your friends on Go FISHn as well as on Facebook and Twitter. The site is also designed as a social marketing tool for guides, charters, outfitters, lodges, and other small businesses. They can have their own version of fan pages which are more likely to show up on Google than their own Websites, and it gives them an opportunity to connect with potential customers. For instance, there is a Q&A part of the site where anyone can ask or answer questions, with the best answers being voted to the top. Pros can get in front of potential customers by providing the best answers to the fishing questions they are expert in.
Another section of the site is the reviews. Anyone can write a review about their favorite piece of gear. These products are linked to affiliate sales via Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s.
Underlying the site is a database of about 100,000 fish species, lakes, rivers, fishing gear, guides and outfitters which helps to create a consistent taxonomy throughout the site. So whenever you post a report or ask a question and start to tag it, an auto-complete suggests the names of species, gear, and so on. Anyone later searching for those topics will be able to find your updates. The taxonomy also makes possible an online fishing encyclopedia seeded with licensed content, built on MediaWiki.
Desmond thinks the same model can be applied to many other outdoor enthusiast activities such as hunting, gardening, surfing, backpacking, even classic car rebuilding (is that a sport?). His criteria: “There has to be big enthusiasm, lots of small businesses, and a narrative that attaches to it in a daily, ongoing way.”
But first, he has to prove the model with Go FISHn. The bait has been cast. Will anglers bite?
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Section: Audio, Gadgets / Other, ebooks
Those who have vision problems, or are partially dyslexic can still take comfort in knowing the text of books can be read aloud to them in their Amazon Kindle device. For instance, some people only need the text to be slightly enlarged in order to enjoy reading without the need of it being read aloud. The Kindle allows users to make the text into large print, but come the summer of 2010, the Kindle will allow users to use a super size font, that will be double the size of the current largest font.
Such an improvement is great for users who just need a slight enlargement of the current text size, but some people are completely blind or dyslexic so much that they cannot understand the text without it being read aloud. Up to this point in time, the Kindle supports text-to-speech of the book or text stored on the device. But what about menu options? Is there any way blind users can completely navigate the Kindle solely based on their sense of hearing? Also in the summer of 2010, Amazon will be installing a minor improvement to the Kindle that allows it to read aloud menu options, fulfilling the complaint listed above.
Many have found the Kindle to be revolutionary for users who cannot turn pages, read the text, or see the text clearly. It fosters a love of reading in young kids, and allows older people to enjoy their hobby of reading even if they cannot always see the text, or turn the pages.
Again, expect these updates in the Kindle by next summer.
Read [Amazon]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
The next wave of media stars is supposed to rise up from the Web, but so far examples have been few and far between (how’s that Fred movie coming along, by the way?).
But here’s another Internet success trying to make the leap into the big time, which is still, like it or not, defined by traditional media outlets: Bobby Miller, whom some of you may know as the host of Next New Network’s “Reel Good Show,” is going to try to dazzle the judges at Sundance, where he’s gotten a short film he directed into next year’s festival.
Even winning an award at Sundance is no guarantee of anything, but it’s by far the highest-profile festival in the country, so showing up certainly can’t hurt your chances. And getting “TUB” into Sundance is an achievement itself, since only 70 shorts were accepted out of more than 6,000 submissions.
Next New Networks, which is supposed to be both a production house and distribution outlet for cheap, quick video, is also trying to make the leap from money-burning start-up to success story. But that’s a different story, and at some point, maybe not-so-newish CEO Lance Podell and I should chat about that.
In any case, here’s wishing Miller the best of luck. But it will be interesting to see when, if ever, a Web star who’s made it big in cyberspace turns down an opportunity to cross over.
Meantime, here’s an example of what Miller has been up to so far (note that he’s chatting up College Humor’s Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld, who are also working on the Web-to-something else leap)
And here’s a preview of “TUB.” The 23-second trailer has some Kevin Spacey/“American Beauty”/shower scene action, which may or may not be safe for work. Nothing explicit, though:
TUB – TubMovie.com from bobbymiller on Vimeo.
Stop to think about this for a minute. Your GPS is on your car’s windshield and your garage-door opener is probably on your visor, right? You also probably have the Home location programmed as, well, your home. But what’s stopping someone from breaking into your car when you’re obviously not home and stealing both of them, which will not only give the crooks turn-by-turn directions to your house but also let them enjoy the privacy of your garage? Are you really trusting Paul Blart and mall security that much?
A pair in metro Detroit were just nabbed for using that very tactic. They are accused of stealing property from 17 cities in lower Michigan and one in Ohio. The 23-year olds were caught only after their pawn activity was flagged as suspicious.
You’re better off if you program your home as a local restaurant or major cross-street in the GPS, somewhere well out of range of a garage-door opener. Chances are you probably know how to get home from the local McDonalds anyway, right?
FROM GAMERTELL - There’s only one day left on getting a discoutned DSi and Xbox 360. Fortunately, Dell offers a few other deal as well…
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Short Version: To put it simply, I didn’t know that I needed the Back case until I had one. The idea of a case with a built-in kickstand seemed worthwhile, but I didn’t think it was something I’d find myself using often. I was dead wrong.
Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>
Short Version: To put it simply, I didn’t know that I needed the Back case until I had one. The idea of a case with a built-in kickstand seemed worthwhile, but I didn’t think it was something I’d find myself using often. I was dead wrong.
Slightly longer version:
I don’t use phone cases.
Sure, I buy them. I’ve probably bought two or more cases for each phone I’ve ever owned. But after 2 or 3 weeks, I stop using them; the phone goes into my pocket bare-chested for battle against keys and coins, and the case sits in a drawer somewhere. That’s not to say that there was anything wrong with any of these cases – I just get annoyed by the bulk or the silent benefits and take them off and forget.
With that said, I don’t see this case leaving my iPhone any time soon.
The BackFlip case is unique in that it provides functionality to the iPhone beyond simply protecting it. You see, the back side of this case has a small fold-out leg, not unlike that of a photo frame. Flip it out, and bam – your iPhone is standing on its own at right around a 45° angle, ready for hands-free viewing. It’s essentially an iZel (or any other iPhone viewing stand, such as the Movie Wedge) combined with a standard silicon case – and that’s exactly why it rocks.
The trouble with these aforementioned standalone stands is just that – they’re standalone, separate entities. For them to be useful, you’ve gotta remember to bring them along. You’ve already got the handset, the Bluetooth headset, the power charger, and whatever other accessories you’ve got to keep track of. Perhaps I’m just forgetful or terrible at preparing, but I find myself thinking “Wow, I wish I had my iPhone stand with me” right now more often that I actually get to use it. The BackFlip stays on my iPhone, thus solving that issue.
I’m honestly quite surprised at how often I’m finding myself using this thing. I’m propping my iPhone up at coffee shops to keep an eye on texts, on airplanes to keep my hands free and my neck-unkinked, and on my nightstand as an alarm.
Even with all that use, I’ve only found a few things not to like about it. The stand is slightly tougher to get back in place in the case than I’d have imagined, though it’s by no means unreasonable and you’ll get the hang of it within one or two attempts. Additionally, there is a small gap between the edge of the case and the edge of the kickstand when it’s in its closed position. I expected this to let in a good amount dirt and grime. While a fair amount of pocket particles did work their way in, it was considerably less than I expected; it was a bit more than you’d get with a standard silicon case, but not enough that it’d be an issue as long as you pop the case off once a week for a quick wipe down.
In a world of $5 silicone cases, the $29.95 BackFlip may seem pricey; consider that it fully supplants the $25 iZel, however, and the price seems just right.
What we like:
What we didn’t:
Product Page: BackFlip iPhone Case with kickstand
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Tomorrow could be a very big day for World of Warcraft fans. (And aren’t we all WoW fans?) Yes, players from Tokyo to Toledo, from London to Lima, are terribly excited about the possible release of the latest, and last, patch for Wrath of the Lich King. It’ll bring the game to version 3.3, and, more importantly, bring about the demise of Arthas. Boo, Arthas!
Right, well I mention this on the off chance that the patch might not even drop tomorrow—Blizzard has said it will release the patch provided there’s no last-minute glitches. No such glitches have been reported thus far, so it looks good from the outside looking in.
What can players expect? The big “get” is Icecrown Citadel, the final instance of Wrath of the Lich King. With this, players will link up with their guild mates to down the Lich King himself. (That’s the last “boss” of the game, if case you’re unaware.)
The downing of the Lich King brings an end to the storyline of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
Which means Cataclysm can’t be too far away…
Section: Features, Gadgetell Announcements
A little while back you may have seen the post that mentioned we were looking for a few new bloggers to join the team here at Gadgetell, and since then you may have noticed a few new names showing up on the site.
With that, we brought on three new bloggers to help round out the Gadgetell crew and now that they all have a few posts under their name I suppose it is time to officially welcome them here on the site.
Anyway, without further adieu, please welcome Andrew Kameka, Hunter Clarke and Greg Billetdeaux.
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Web, Websites, Google
In this day and age, we want to know things right when they happen. RSS feeds and live updates on Facebook are some examples. But now Google is bringing this power to its search engine with real-time results. Amit Singhal, the Google representative, described it as,
“It’s Google’s relevance technology meeting the real time web.”
Singhal demonstrated this by doing a search for “Obama”. The results came in in real time, including a twitter update about Obama from one of Google’s people in the audience. Google says that this is the first time any search engine has implemented real time results into a standard page.
This real time search ability will work on Android and iPhones immediately. Google claims that there are over a billion real time documents a day that it will be looking at; including tweets, blog posts, and information from MySpace and Facebook.
Now, when you load Google (on some accounts) you will see a new “Latest” option when you click “Show Options.” You will also be able to filter out certain results like if you don’t want to see every Twitter status about health care.
This is a big deal for search engines and is just another step up for Google compared to every other one on the market. Last week, Bing had the spotlight with Bing Maps but Google has done it again and stolen the spotlight back for itself. Who knows what we will see next. Real-real-time results like in Google Wave where you can see them typing it? I hope not…
Read [TechCrunch]
Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
When Microsoft laid off Microsoft’s Director of Business Development Don Dodge last month we called it a huge mistake. He was Microsoft’s “ambassador” to startups and largely responsible for the success of the Bizspark program (the Bizspark program gives Microsoft products for free to startups, and also funds a number of tech blogs through sponsored posts).
Eleven days after Dodge was let go he was a Google employee.
Now Microsoft is looking for his replacement, it seems. From a job listing (we’re trying to confirm with Microsoft now that it’s authentic):
DEVELOPER EVANGELIST(707969 -External) Permanent
Overall Scope/Impact Startup partners are a critical element in Microsoft’s overall strategy in delivering Microsoft based software solutions to customers and growing platform share and revenue especially in the fastest growing underpenetrated Startup market segment. As related to evangelism, Startup partners needs extend beyond just creating best of breed services and solutions. Customers are demanding an overall approach that embraces creative design, development, delivery and maintenance. The Startup Developer Evangelist needs to understand the Startup partner business dynamics and be keen on how Microsoft can help increase platform share and increase the utilization of Microsoft tools and technologies while improving Startup partner satisfaction with Microsoft. This is an opportunity to innovate by engagement, grow the Startup partner base and directly impact Startup partner satisfaction, platform and tools adoption for Microsoft. Qualifications: To qualify for this position, you must be prepared to demonstrate a passion for technology and previous experience in showing developers ?how to?. You should also possess a current technical background in both Microsoft and competitive platform and tools technologies (eg Windows 7, Azure, Silverlight, IE8, WPF, Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008, Sharepoint 2010, ASP.NET and JAVA, Flex/AIR, LAMP, MySQL, PHP). You should also have an extremely good grasp of the Startup partner business practices, exceptional skills creating
Location: Boston, MA Reference: JS707969 Company: Microsoft Corporation Contact: Microsoft Corporation Posted Date: 12/7/2009 2:32:15 AM
This is very nearly an exact description of Dodge’s job, although it may be a more junior role. The job is also based in Boston – Don was based there, too. Did Microsoft let Dodge go to hire someone younger and cheaper? Seems like a penny wise and pound foolish decision to me. Startups loved Dodge.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
With all of the news surrounding Google’s newest additions to its search technology, Google’s latest upgrade to Google Analytics has been overshadowed. Analytics is the search giant’s free software product that allows website owners and publishers to get detailed statistics about the number, whereabouts and search behavior of their visitors (and much more). Today, the product is being upgraded to become even more customizable.
The most noteworthy new feature is the ability to leave annotations or notes within in analytics charts, helping to explain sudden spikes or drops in traffic. Annotations lets analytics users to leave shared or private notes right on the over-time graph in an effort to let users bring intelligence to data.
The beauty of Google Analytics is that it is customizable to collect the specific data that is important to a user or business. While users have been able to define multiple custom variables when it comes to receiving data (for example, visitors, page views), users can now see these variable across all data in their reports. Previously, you’d have a separate report for custom variables, but with this feature, users can create an advanced segmentation of data and see it across all reports.
Google also made it easier for users to track data across multiple subdomains, mobile sites and more with a new tracking code setup wizard. The new technology will automatically generate the appropriate code for specialized tracking without the user having to input it manually.
Finally, Google is going to be making a significant upgrade to its Analytics API, which launched in public beta earlier this year, to include advanced segmentation and new data metrics features that were announced in October.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
FROM GAMERTELL - The trick with these sales is that you need to purchase the site’s Platinum Premium membership and the deals are randomly offered throughout a small time chunk…
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking
Twitter is now looking to boost the users for its service by creating a new feature to the API. This new feature is allowing people to sign up for Twitter off-site. Although this new feature has not been released publicly, Citysearch, the popular online local guide, has already gained access to the sign-up feature.
Earlier this year, Twitter saw explosive growth as celebrities and news networks from around the US and the world started joining the service. But, for the past couple of months, it seems as though Twitter had finally hit the limit on amount the amount of users it could attain.
With this new sign-up feature, there is no doubt that Twitter could boost its numbers and see growth once again, but they could also think of the business opportunities available to them if this new update is successful.
Read[Mashable]
Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
![Screen shot 2009-12-07 at [ December 7 ] 12.46.25 PM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Screen-shot-2009-12-07-at-December-7-12.46.25-PM.png "Screen shot 2009-12-07 at [ December 7 ] 12.46.25 PM")
Just one month after the release of the Motorola Droid, the first software patch has arrived. Verizon has just begun distributing the OTA update – so if you aren’t seeing the update alert already, you should be seeing it before too long.
First things first, make sure your device is up to at least a 40% charge (or 20%, if it’s currently plugged into a power source), as you won’t be able to upgrade otherwise. After that, it’s just a matter of waiting around for the update to land on your device – or if you’re feelin’ antsy, try manually updating (”Home” > “Menu” > “Settings” > “About phone” > “System updates”).
Check after the jump for the change log.
Whats new:
x OS stability is improved.
x Battery life is improved.
x Camera auto focus functionality is improved, and time between shots is reduced.
x Enhancements for three-way calling.
x Audio for incoming calls is improved.
x When receiving a call on call waiting, the speakerphone now remains on.
x Bluetooth® functionality is improved; background echo is eliminated. x Improved Bluetooth phone book transfer of contacts to in-vehicle
Bluetooth solutions.
x After closing a GPS application, the GPS icon will now automatically be removed from the notification panel.
x Users can now receive SMS and MMS messages after an EMS message is received.
x SMS and MMS may now be sent to seven-digit addresses. x Google® contact merging has been updated to accommodate
seven-digit numbers. x Visual Voice Mail notices now arrive instantaneously. • The corporate calendar widget user interface is updated.
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
As the old mantra goes, “Cheaters never prosper”. In this digital age, it may be time to revise that saying. Granted a veil of anonymity by the Internet, cheaters surely prosper from their cheating; it’s just that when they get caught, they go down hard. Alas, “Cheaters may temporarily prosper – but if they get caught, they’re totally boned” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Such was the case earlier today, when the development company behind over 1,000 iPhone applications was busted scamming the review system. In a flash, the developer — and all one thousand of their applications — have been pulled from the store.
On Saturday, a friend of the iPhone photography blog Iphoneography reached out to the blog for a bit of help pooling details on what he believed was a review scam. While looking through the applications offered by Molinker, he noticed that as many as 90% of the reviews on some of their applications appeared to be written by a group of people who only reviewed Molinker applications. On Molinker’s “NightCam Pro”, for example, 42 of the 44 5-star reviews appeared to be fake.
Once they’d managed to accumulate enough data that the tomfoolery was almost undeniable, iPhoneography and the original sleuth both sent a 5+ paragraph report of their findings off to Apple’s VP, Phil Schiller.
At first, there was no response. Had their complaints gone unheard? Was Phil Schiller’s inbox but a brick wall in disguise? Then it happened; in the blink of an eye, all trace of Molinker was gone. Not only had the reviews been pulled, but the entire catalog of Molinker’s 1,011 applications had disappeared.
Schiller later responded via email, saying “Yes, this developer’s apps have been removed from the App Store and their ratings no longer appear either.” (There’s gotta be some joke here about Phil Schiller doing away with a mountain of shilled reviews, but I’m not going to be the one to write it.)
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a developer with many hundreds of applications in the store feel the crush of Apple’s banhammer, but it’s the first time to my knowledge that Apple has ever made a huge blow against review fakers.
[Via Giz]
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
CrunchPad, the touchscreen tablet that was declared dead a week ago by its impresario inventor Michael Arrington, is back. A Singapore-based company, Fusion Garage, announced plans to introduce the device under a new name: JooJoo.
JooJoo will have a 12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, 4 GB solid state drive, an accelerometer that will allow it to switch between landscape and portrait modes, Wi-Fi connectivity and a battery life of up to five hours. It will run a custom-designed operating system that will allow the machine to boot in nine seconds and access the internet near-instantaneously.
But instead of the initial price point of $200, JooJoo will now cost $500.
Hands-On with the JooJoo
The JooJoo is an interesting gadget only if you buy into the premise of a completely web-oriented lifestyle. Though it seems to have the hardware design and form factor right, the list of what it can’t do, for now, outweighs what it can.
Check out our impressions of the JooJoo tablet’s user interface, hardware and limitations.
“It’s a product whose death has been greatly exaggerated,” says Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan, CEO and founder of Fusion Garage, which until last week was working with Arrington to design the device. Rathakrishnan showed the device, seen above, in a web conference Monday, and will be following that up with hands-up demos to the press later in the day. (The green hue of the screen is caused by the video camera used, Rathakrishnan claimed.)
Fusion Garage will start taking pre-orders for the device December 11th, and will deliver it in 8-10 weeks, says Rathakrishnan.
The launch of JooJoo is yet another twist in the strange tale of a tablet device that first surfaced last year. Arrington floated the idea of a tablet in June 2008 when he talked of a touchscreen device that would run Firefox and Skype on top of a Linux kernel. The tablet would have low-end hardware — a power button, a headphone jack, speakers, a microphone and a built-in camera for video. It would come with Wi-Fi, 512 MB of memory, a 4-GB solid-state hard drive and no keyboard. All this for $200.
The idea seemed promising, especially because other major PC makers including Apple and Dell are reportedly working on tablets due for launch next year. The notion of a tablet capable of showing large, interactive text and graphics has excited magazine publishers, including Wired’s corporate parent Condé Nast, which is among several companies planning tablet-based magazine apps. Time Inc. also recently showed a slick tablet concept video for Sports Illustrated.
But after repeated delays, Arrington declared the CrunchPad project dead last week. Arrington accused Fusion Garage of cutting him out of the deal. Based on pressure from shareholders, Fusion Garage had decided to move forward and sell the device directly without TechCrunch’s involvement, said Arrington, who has said he will pursue legal action against Fusion Garage.
Rathakrishnan says his company cut Arrington out because Fusion Garage “designed, funded and developed the product,” with Arrington failing to deliver on any of his promises.
“There are dreamers and there are doers,” he says. “Fusion Garage is the only actual doer in this story.”
Rathakrishnan says he reached out to Arrington in 2008 after he read the latter’s post about the need for an inexpensive web tablet. Arrington, in turn, offered to introduce Fusion Garage to hardware designers, and investors, he says. Ultimately, TechCrunch wanted to acquire Fusion Garage.
“But nothing tangible came out of it,” claims Rathakrishnan. “Michael was unable to deliver.”
“There’s talk and then there’s action,” he says. “We completed development of our OS, hired the expertise to make key hardware design decisions, develop the platform and a new finished prototype. And we secured our own funding.”
That’s why Fusion Garage owns the IP to the product and can introduce it without having Arrington or CrunchPad associated with it, says Rathakrishnan.
Meanwhile, Arringon has threatened to file a lawsuit against Fusion Garage. But so far, no case has been filed. Rathakrishan claims no contracts were ever signed between Fusion Garage and TechCrunch around the CrunchPad.
When Arrington first talked about the project, critics pointed out that its projects $200 pricetag and aggressive timeline were unrealistic, given the ambitious features Arrington had planned. Production costs and a challenging retail environment would eat into profit margins, they said.
And they were right, says Rathakrishnan.
“There are dreams and there are hallucinations,” he says. “Arrington’s dreams of $200-$300 are as real as his claims of IP ownership. Nothing worthwhile can be delivered at that price.”
So far Fusion Garage has raised $3 million in funding and is set to announce an additional round of investment shortly, says Rathakrishnan.
As for marketing muscle that TechCrunch or Arrington could have provided, Rathakrishnan says its something that Fusion Garage won’t really miss.
“Writing blog posts is not marketing,” he says. “If marketing was only about talk, we would have seen a successful tablet years ago. Microsoft has been talking about tablets for years. TechCrunch’s marketing capability is defined to a blog.”
Arrington did not reply to a request for comment.
See Also:
Photo: Screenshot of the JooJoo tablet
[This guest post was written by Peter Farago, VP Of Marketing at Flurry. Flurry is an analytics platform that has been weaved into over 3,000 applications across the iPhone, BlackBerry, JavaME, and Android platforms, allowing developers to track and research usage and sales trends. You can read more of Flurry's findings over at the Flurry Blog.]
Consumer spending during the holiday retail season, beginning with Black Friday, is among the most important predictors of U.S. economic health. Since the late 90s, tracking online sales of websites like amazon.com on the first Monday after Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday, has become a second important barometer. The National Retail Federation, the world’s leading retail trade group, extrapolated that total spending for this year’s Black Friday “weekend,” Thursday-to-Sunday, was up 0.5% from a year ago. Additionally, Lazard Capital reported Cyber Monday sales were up strongly over last year, by 35%.
As we enter the holiday season, downloads in the iPhone App Store can also serve as an indicator of consumer spending. While App Store sales are small relative to online and retail, Apple’s September announcement that the App Store surpassed two billion downloads demonstrates how quickly this digital market is growing, having doubled in just the last four months. Further, according to Admob, the App Store is already generating over one billion USD in annual sales. Finally, the iPhone OS installed base, which sold more than 12 million units world-wide for the quarter ending September 2009, is reaching meaningful critical mass. Flurry estimates that, life-to-date, more than 34 million iPhone and iPod Touch devices have been sold in the U.S. through the end of September 2009. This equates to roughly 10% of the U.S. population.
Monitoring application downloads tracked by Flurry over the last six months, we observe strong patterns of seasonality and an aggressive ramp toward the holiday season. Note that because the iPhone installed base grew so dramatically between last year and this year, we have selected a time series trend analysis versus a year-over-year comparison. The chart below reveals three phases: first, strong summer downloads; second, a dip in September Flurry attributes to back-to-school; and third, strong growth over October and November leading up to the holidays. Specifically, October downloads exceeded September by 30%, and November further grew over October by an additional 16%.
Historically, the week after Christmas has been the strongest for data downloads to mobile phones, since consumers load up after receiving new handsets as holiday gifts. With download growth at its current rate, Flurry predicts that December downloads will exceed November by at least 20%, making it a strong season for Apple.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
If HTC’s trying to keep their device releases top-secret, they’re not doin’ a very good job. While individual leaks seem to be rare, they seem to be making a habit out of bundling up all their upcoming releases into one big presentation, which in turn leaks all over the internet. It happened right at the beginning of 2009 and, sure enough, it looks like the first half of 2010 has already been locked down and leaked out.
User B3ler3fonte of the infamous XDA-Devs forum managed to get his hands on a brochure that was presented to attendees of a meeting in Vienna way back in October. After a night of scanning, the document has found its way to the Interwebs.
HTC’s Leaked 2010 Roadmap:
Legend
Say hello to the followup to the HTC Magic/Hero, the Legend. The frame, which they’ve shaved down to 11.4mm, is completely metal. As the presence of the “chin” on the body indicates, it’ll be running Android — hopefully with HTC’s Sense UI. Down near the bottom will be an Optical Mouse. Look for this one around March 2010.
Salsa
It’s HTC-Made, it’s apparently running Android – but surprise! No chin. The Salsa is a candybar QWERTY phone, coming in at a sickly-thin 8.6mm. Expect a bunch of pre-installed social networking features when it hits in June 2010.
Tide:
Touchscreen yes.. keypad yes.. keyboard.. no? Is that a first for Android devices? It may well be. The Tide is another Android-based social-networking-focused handset. I’d imagine this one would come in relatively cheap when it launches in April 2010.
Buzz:
HTC just can’t get enough Android. The HTC Buzz seems to be a higher end version of the HTC Tattoo – they’ve kept the swappable covers, bumping the screen up to 3.2″ and the camera up to 5MP with autofocus and flash. Look for it around May 2010.
Bravo:
This is the beast of the bunch, the one thus far referred to by the rumor mill as “Passion” or “Dragon”.
We’ll let the specs do the talking: 1 Ghz, 720p video capture, 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED Screen, either 256 or 512 MB ram (brochure says 256, source says its been bumped up to 512 since), a 1400mAh battery. According to the brochure, it’s coming in April 2010.
Photon:
WinMo 6.5, 3.2″ HVGA screen, 256MB RAM, 5MP camera, Snapdragon CPU clocked at 600Mhz. Look for it in April.
Trophy:
The Trophy looks to be HTC’s followup to 2009’s HTC Dash. QWERTY keypad, 5MP camera, 1400mAh battery. Oh, and that 3.0″ display? It’s a capacitive touch screen.
Tera
It’s like a Touch Pro 2 mini – albeit only slightly smaller. They’ve bumped the screen size down from 3.6″ to 3.0″, and loaded it with WinMo 6.5, 256MB of RAM, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and a 1300mAh battery. If the Touch Pro 2 was too big in your pocket or too heavy on your wallet, this one should be a little bit better on both fronts.
[Via AndroidAndMe]
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Steve Jobs once referred to the iPod Touch as “training wheels for the iPhone,” but it’s no novelty to Apple. An analytics firm estimates Apple has shipped about 24 million units of the iPod Touch, which represents about 40 percent of the devices running the iPhone operating system.
Mobile analytics firm Flurry claims it made the estimate based on a sample of 3,000 applications, 45 million consumers and four platforms. Apple provided a figure of 58 million devices running the iPhone OS, and of that total, Flurry believes 24 million are iPod Touch devices.
Flurry speculates that Apple’s iPod Touch is crucial for the company to retain and expand its market share in the mobile OS space.
“While it is clear that the iPhone has significant short-term revenue value for Apple, Flurry believes that the iPod Touch holds more long-term strategic value for Steve Jobs and team,” Flurry wrote in a blog post. “As all industry eyes look to the iPhone, the iPod Touch is quietly building a loyal base among the next generation of iPhone users, positioning Apple to corner the smartphone market not only today, but also tomorrow.”
That’s a believable number, because the iPod Touch caters to a broad market segment including gamers, teenagers (who presumably can’t afford the iPhone’s ~$100 monthly bill), Verizon customers avoiding AT&T and more.
The numbers also signify healthy growth for Apple’s iPhone platform. In September, Apple claimed it had shipped 40 million units of the iPhone and iPod Touch worldwide. In just three months, that number has increased 18 million — about 30 percent.
See Also:
Photo: Mike Rohde/Flickr
Heavy Gmail users know that keyboard shortcuts are the key to mail productivity: I can power through an inbox full of spam and PR come-ons with nothing more than the J, K, X, Shift-3 and Y keys.
For $20, you can put those shortcut keys onto their own, external keypad, with color-coded buttons to make it easy to press whatever you want. The Gboard would be handy for those who have trouble remembering Google’s many shortcut keys (for instance, I had no idea that there were enough to fill out the Gboard’s 19 separate keys). And for power users like me, it might make it even easier to delete messages, much as an external numeric keypad makes it easier for accountants to add up your deductions.
Gboard product page (thanks, Betsy!)
Until today, my iPod Touch (and your iPhone) has lacked a proper notes application. There are approximately one gazillion note-taking apps in the iTunes Store, but none of them has yet managed to make it easy and simple to create, search and - most importantly - sync notes with your computer. With a new update, and some rather well chosen partners, Simplenote has just fixed all that.
Simplenote as an iPhone app has been around for a while. It launches fast, and ignores fancy organizational features and other cruft in favor of simplicity. You click the plus-sign to make a new note and you type in the search bar to whittle down the list, one letter at a time, just like live-searching in iTunes. It would even sync to a web page so you could access, search and make notes from any browser.
The problem was this web app. I use Simplenote on my iPod Touch, but I have given up on the sync. The login is flakey, and browsers never get triggered to save your username or password, something that every other web login does. Worse, there is no way to scroll the list to see all the notes — you have to use arrow buttons to page through your notes a few at a time. Finally, resizing the window (so you could have a small note-window open at all times) doesn’t resize the actual list so you end up cutting the sides of it off.
These problems are still there. But a new version of Simplenote, just released, adds a few features that paradoxically make it easier to use, and also plays nice with not one but two real desktop notes applications. This last is what now makes it the killer note-taking app for the iPhone.
The new in-app features are nice. There is iPhone 3.0-style in-app emailing, support for links, email addresses and phone numbers (tap to navigate, mail or call, respectively), an option to chose how the list of notes is sorted, and auto-sync upon close. Those using the iPhone version of Textexpander will be happy to see their typed abbreviations expanded into full snippets.
But while these are welcome improvements, the syncing to desktop is the big deal. The semi-official partner application (Mac-only) is called JustNotes, and does exactly the same as Simplenote. Create, search and sync. You have keyboard shortcuts to create and navigate and the pretty HUD-style window pops up when you need it and then gets out of the way. A search bar will narrow the entries, just like Simplenote, and syncing, although not automatic, is done with a single click or keystroke.
Simplenote also has an option for a premium subscription at $10 (the app itself runs at $2), which buys a year’s worth of RSS feeds and the ability to mail notes into Simplenote from anywhere. JustNotes, the companion application, is free. And in bonus news, fans of the ultra-simple note-taking application for the Mac, Notational Velocity, will be able to use it in sync with Simplenote in a futuer (and not-too-far-off) update.
If you are a heavy note taker on the iPhone, you should check this out. And if anyone has found other applications that work with Simplenote, especially for Windows, let us know in the coments
Product page [Simplenote]
Simplenote for iPhone [iTunes]
JustNotes [Selfcoded]
You knew this was coming. Someone’s driving a car. They’re talking on their cellphone, too. The car crashes. It crashes into another car. The driver of the other car dies. And now the family of the killed driver wants to sue someone. That “someone” just so happens to be the wireless provider and the manufacturer of the phone.
Linda Doyle, 61, died on September 3, 2008 as the result of injuries sustained in a car crash. Her car was hit by Christopher Hill, 20, who says he ran a red light because he was distracted by the ringing of his cellphone.
And now a lawsuit has been filed against Sprint and Samsung. Sprint, for providing the cellphone service, and Samsung, for creating the phone itself (the UpStage).
A similar suit was thrown out of court in 2003, when judges ruled that the car crash was caused by a distracted driver and not a cellphone. (Yes, it’s a bit like “guns don’t kill people.”)
What’s going to happen with the lawsuit in question? We can only guess. A lawyer chimed in with, “[The case] deals with the widespread use of a product we now know is involved in significant risk and deals with the ultimate question of who should contribute in minimizing the risk.”
To expand that a little further, yes, I should hope by now we all recognize that it’s extraordinarily dangerous to talk on the phone or text while driving; don’t do it. At the same time, there are plenty of dangerous activities that people engage in every day—driving in and of itself is pretty dangerous when you think about what’s going on—that don’t generate this type of lawsuit.
Once again, technology has evolved faster than our capacity to utilize it well.
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Physical buttons that you have to press down - clunk! - and analog dials that indicate numbers without actual digital numbers: The children of today would be utterly lost trying to use the Mint Cube. They would also very probably risk a sprained knuckle.
Those young fools can suck it. We love the retro-styling of this combination MP3 player and FM radio, which somehow manages to evoke the clean 1960s lines of Kubrick’s 2001 along with the over-the-top design of 1970s “music-centers” and 1980s Walkmans.
While the box itself is wonderful, the thinking behind it is as retro as the design. To summarize, women pick music players because they are elegant and can be shown off to friends. Men, on the other hand, only show off their gadgets when taking them out to skips tracks, and because they wear suits, they have to keep the players hidden in a bag or pocket for fear of looking “unbalanced”.
So, this line of “reasoning” continues, if the man is already hiding the gadget in his bag, why not make it bigger? It’s as illogical as the addition of Bluetooth, which is there because the player is “designed exclusively for men”, but in this case we don’t care, because the result is as awesome as it is impractical.
Three dials read out VU, radio frequency and battery capacity, and should jiggle and jump as delightfully as the needle-dials of old. The switches need a shove to get them to budge, and you even get a function from old CD players in there — the A-B interval repeat, to play a section of a track over and over. And over.
Because there is no real digital readout, you’ll have about as much control over your music as you get with an iPod Shuffle, but who cares? If Mint gets around to actually making this (and it might: Mint is behind the real-world renderings of software calculators we saw last month), then I shall be getting in line. And there’s no way this will be hidden in a manly bag. I’ll be getting all girly and showing this thing of to anyone who will look.
Mint Cube [Mint Pass]
The Wall Dock wins a space on the G-lab pages partly because it looks so very sleek, and partly because it shows just how great the US power-plug design is - it may use flimsy, cheap and confidence-sapping prongs, but those things are so tiny that pocket-sized chargers are easy to build.
The Wall Dock is as simple as an iPhone/iPod dock could get — a plastic block that plugs into the wall and has a protruding dock connector up top. This connector rotates, hiding when not in use and allowing the iPhone to tilt back against the wall when charging. Apart from a soft, padded top surface to pamper your ‘pod, that’s it. But what it leaves out - cables, clutter and blinkenlights - is at least as important as what it puts in. $25.
Wall Dock [DLO]
See Also:
The 12 Lunar Modules that went to the moon cost a total of $2 billion, or almost $17 million apiece. This full-sized replica, from Space Toys, cost just $90,000, making it a bargain.
We imagine that the manufacturing tolerances are less important if you don’t have to actually get the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) to the Moon, but the custom builds are promised to be authentic and can be customized “match a specific lunar lander Apollo Mission”, all of which were different.
Upgrades cost extra, but given that the computers in these landers were outclassed by the average cellphone, just throwing in a PS3 is a significant upgrade. It would also make this the ultimate nerd’s gaming den.
Full Scale Apollo Lunar Lander [Space Toys via Geekologie]
The National Geographic’s Ultimate Factories series keeps on giving. The videos show us the inside workings of factories around the world, and the results are both bite-sized and fascinating. This week, we see how New York’s subway cars are put together. Did you know that the bodies are welded by hand in Lapa, Brazil? Or that the roofs are formed much like those of a warehouse or even a garden shed, with beams that support the corrugated panels? Or that the front face of the car is called the “bonnet”, which is the British name for the hood of an automobile? Me neither.
After the car is finished (but still unfurnished) it gets even better. The car is tested for leaks in an artificial thunder storm, and finally the shell is, amazingly, shrink-wrapped for shipment. Time from steel to shipping? Two months.
Ultimate Factories [National Geographic]
See Also:
Those of you following along at home may remember that the Lady is fundamentally opposed to wheel-along suitcases, on the grounds that they make men unattractive. So of course I had to call her in for an opinion on what I foolishly thought was an awesome mashup between a suitcase and a scooter, the Trolley Scooter
Me: What do you think of this?
The Lady: No. Oh my god. No.
Me: What’s wrong with it?
The Lady: Everything. Everything is wrong with it.
Me: Like what?
The Lady: You won’t get “desired”* if you use that in an airport.
Me: Maybe traveling in an airport is just about traveling, and not about getting “desired”.
This earns me a withering stare. I feel like a five-year old who just asked to borrow the car keys.
The Lady: Everything is about getting “desired”. You drink Coca-Cola to get “desired”. Tell me, if you saw a girl riding that, that thing in an airport, would you want to “desire” her?
Me: Erm…
The Lady: Would you?
Me: No?
So there you have it. What at first seems like a simple (and carry-on compliant) way to have some fun in the terminal is in fact a highly complex sexual game, like - it is now evident - every product ever sold. Somebody needs to get on the phone with the co-conspirators of this design prototype, Samsonite and Micro Mobility (maker of those yuppy-favorite fold-up scooters), and tell them how things are. And if you want to know what bag you’ll need if you want to get “desired” by the girls, it’s the Ortlieb Velocity backpack, which is the Ldy’s favorite.
*Not the actual word she used.
Trolley Scooter von Samsonite und Micro [Styl.in Rooms via Oh Gizmo!]
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The iPhone officially went on sale in China at the end of October and in Japan in summer last year, but many people in one important Asian market were still waiting for it the whole time: Korea. After getting the official government approval in mid-November, the country’s number two mobile carrier, KT Corporation, started rolling out the iPhone on November 28. And it can be happy about a pretty successful roll-out.
Between 60,000 and 65,000 iPhone 3GS were reportedly pre-ordered in the first week. This is pretty impressive in a country, which is as over-saturated with high-quality domestic phones as Japan (where the iPhone sells pretty well, too) and where the percentage of smartphone users is said to stand at the one percent level. In fact, media reports suggest KT Corporation was totally overwhelmed by the interest and couldn’t handle the pre-orders properly.
Koreans have to pay $340 for the 32GB iPhone 3GS, provided they agree to the $39 fee for the cheapest monthly plan KT Corporation offers for it. The 8GB model costs $115 under the same condition and can be free when users sign for more expensive monthly rates. Every Korean iPhone customer will be able to use KT Corporation’s 13,000 Wi-Fi spots all over the country for no cost.
I am really wondering how the iPhone renders Korean websites though (many of those are Internet Explorer-only).
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The Invision LD 3D-Modeler printer has been discontinued and is being sold off for $5,000 a throw -- it uses Laminated Object Manufacturing to produce low-rez 3D models. It's not going to let you print other printers, AK47s, high-grade pharmaceuticals, picture-perfect edible omelettes, but, as the news story notes, "this is a great system for schools or hobbyists since the cleanup process is entirely physical with no heat or chemical based secondary processing required. At $5,000 you can't do better."
