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World's First Production Hybrid Motorcycle To Hit Market in Indiabluemanlines writes "The Indian company Eko Vehicles has announced the development of the world's first production hybrid motorcycle, called the ET-120. In short time this motorcycle will run on the Indian streets, offering about 280 miles per gallon with a top speed of 40 miles per hour."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2009 | 3:21 am Sex Position iPhone App "to instruct, not titilate"The Sex Position iPhone app made it through the Apple store's approval process because developers used graphical illustrations that are meant to instruct and not to titillate". Comes with a select...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Dec 2009 | 1:29 am Swype vs. Tiki'NotesSwype, the new text input technology that allows mobile phone users to enter text with the "swype" of a finger rather than the traditional tap is being challenged by a French startup called Tiki'Labs...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Dec 2009 | 1:22 am National Disability Lawyer Gets 2010 Social Security Website UpgradeSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Dec 2009 | 1:00 am Passengers praise British Airways for SMS Following Terror AlertPassengers flying to America from London's Heathrow Saturday praised British Airways for ensuring they were not adversely affected by a step-up in airport security following the terror alert. The Daily...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 27 Dec 2009 | 12:49 am TSA Wants You To Keep Your Seat, and Your Hands In SightAn anonymous reader excerpts from an AP story as carried by Yahoo News about changes stemming from yesterday's foiled bombing attempt of a Northwest Airlines flight: "Some airlines were telling passengers on Saturday that new government security regulations prohibit them from leaving their seats beginning an hour before landing. The regulations are a response to a suspected terrorism incident on Christmas Day. Air Canada said in a statement that new rules imposed by the Transportation Security Administration limit on-board activities by passengers and crew in US airspace. ... Flight attendants on some domestic flights are informing passengers of similar rules. Passengers on a flight from New York to Tampa Saturday morning were also told they must remain in their seats and couldn't have items in their laps, including laptops and pillows." The TSA's list of prohibited items doesn't seem to have changed in the last day, though.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2009 | 12:30 am China says discovers tomb of famed general Cao CaoBEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese archeologists have unearthed a large third-century tomb, which they say could be that of Cao Cao, the legendary politician and general famous throughout East...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 27 Dec 2009 | 12:01 am Are Apple Stock Price Gains the Reason for Recent Tablet Rumors? - BetaNews
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 26 Dec 2009 | 11:52 pm Cellcom Israel Announces Dismissal of Purported Class ActionSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Dec 2009 | 11:51 pm Curtain falling on 'Digital Decade'
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 Trend News Agency | Smartphones were the tech story of 2009 Washington Post The change to digital TV was a big deal, but not as big as many had expected. (Paul Sakuma/associated Press) By Rob Pegoraro Considering the time and expense involved, the biggest story in technology this year could have been the largely successful ... Google reportedly planning to launch its own mobile Google Nexus One Invite Only is No Way to Challenge the iPhone Why so few paid Android apps? Blame Google Checkout |
For years, runners have been able to take advantage of Nike+, a nifty accessory that lets your iPod communicate with your shoes to turn it into a personal running coach of sorts. Soon, cyclists will have access to a tool that’s in the same vein as Nike+, but far more powerful. It’s called Pedal Brain, and it allows your iPhone or iPod Touch to receive and interpret data from a variety of exercise devices that use the ANT+ wireless protocol. ANT+ is used by cyclists (including many professionals) to accurately measure and analyze their performance over a ride, but until now there hasn’t been a way to connect these devices to your iPhone.
That’s where Pedal Brain comes in. The bootstrapped startup is making a small device called the Pedal Brain Synapse that plugs into your iPhone or iPod Touch and allows them to receive this data, which is then interpreted by an iPhone app. The application shows you how you’re performing in real-time (you’ll want to mount your iPhone in plain view) and can also use GPS to show the position of your team members. Once you’ve completed your ride, you’ll be able to log on to the Pedal Brain site to get more detailed analysis. The site will also have an integrated platform for coaches, so you sign up to get your own trainer to help plot your future rides and track your progress.
Pedal Brain founder Matt Bauer acknowledges that there are a handful of other cycling applications available for the iPhone, like Map My Ride, but says that these only offer basic data. That’s because they rely on your phone’s GPS for data, which can help gauge the distance you’ve travelled but can’t measure many of the things that ANT+ devices can. Bauer explains that power (in Watts) is a common metric used to gauge your progress, and can’t be accurately determined using GPS alone.
Pedal Brain’s iPhone/iPod accessory, which has already been approved by Apple, will be available through local bike shops this spring. The company is targeting a March release date and plans to sell the device for between $130 and $190. The online service will be subscription based, though users will be able to get a limited version for free (you won’t be able to track your data for longer than a couple weeks).
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One of the highlights of David and my careers as technology journalists was meeting the beautiful Julie Newmar about 15 years ago. (She and Jerry Pournelle signed wooden cheese cutting boards for us).
On Cartoon Retro, Shane Glines posted some screen shots of Julie from "The Monkees Get Out More Dirt" (1967). He says, "Look at the size difference between Julie and Davy Jones! Avatar without the special effects."
Julie Newmar as April Conquest
Section: Imaging, Digital Cameras, Web
The recently announced Samsung CL80 digital camera comes with some pretty nice features and is set to be a high end camera when it is formally released. For starters, it comes with a 3.7 inch AMOLED touch screen, 7x optical zoom, and 31mm wide angle lens.
The idea behind a 31mm lens is to allow photographers to take better pictures of a wider landscape, without having to back up to fit everything into the frame. The 14MP and the 7x optical zoom help to create sharper and better pictures while filling the image with crisp detail. In addition, the camera features Smart Auto 2.0 that helps to take better pictures by analyzing the surrounding environmental elements such as lighting, color, brightness, and motion. When taking these elements into consideration, Smart Auto 2.0 will take a better picture for those factors. Dual Image Stabilization is used in the CL80 to take blur-free images when there isn’t a tripod to use. It combats hand trembles in order to make a clear image. The video recording feature can record videos in HD, a 1280 x 720p resolution at 30 FPS. The HD videos are in H.264 format, which is a high quality HD format for videos. Lastly, the WiFi capability allows you to take a picture and video and instantly upload it or email it to the web.
Unfortunately, there is no word on pricing or availability at this time.
Via [Samsung]
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A weary hello from O’Hare Airport in Chicago, Illinois – the world’s coldest and most inhospitable airport, right in the frozen heart of the world’s coldest and most inhospitable city. That a community organizer from this city would dream of becoming President is no surprise. Chicago is, after all, the only place in the world capable of making Washington DC look like a step up.
I’m trapped here in standby limbo: my original connecting flight to Nashville cancelled due to snow – the kind of freak weather condition that no one in Chicago could possibly have predicted for December.
Still, at least I’ve been awake since 4am GMT, and at least my flight left London an hour late because every single passenger had to be patted down by American Airlines staff at the gate, having already passed through the usual madness of security. And at least by “every single passenger” I mean there unfolded a preposterous pantomime where posh white dudes like me were given the most cursorily of rub-downs in order to keep the line moving while those poor saps who fit the terrorist profile – which is to say, anyone who looked a bit brown – were deep-tissue massaged half to death a gaggle of goons in latex gloves. And at least all of that nonsense was utterly pointless because, as any self-respecting terrorist apparently knows, they don’t dare go anywhere near your groin.
It would be very easy for me to write a reactionary column this week about how technology should have made travel delays like this a thing of the past. About how we have heated soccer pitches, and yet we’re told that heated runways don’t stack up economically. Or how there’s no point in having terrorist watch-lists if people on them are still able to get on flights with bombs sewn into their underwear. I mean, Jesus, we’re days away from the end of the first decade of The Future – 40 years after we put a man on the moon – and yet there are so many areas where technology still lets us down.
But what good would that do me? I’m already stressed – and they say when you’re in a stressful situation you should focus on the positives, not dwell on the negatives.
The fact is, for every major way in which the technology of the last decade has failed to deliver – hoverboards, teleportation – there are half a dozen smaller advances so mindblowingly significant to our day-to-day lives that we already take them for granted.
For a start, the only thing making this six-hour extended layover in the frozen circle of hell even slightly bearable is the fact that I have my laptop, a power-outlet and decent quality wifi. How the hell did we manage before wifi? It was less than ten years ago that hotspots started to appear – considerably less in the case of airports – and yet already the idea of not being able to access the Internet anytime, anywhere is genuinely impossible to imagine. Like trying to recall how we made social plans before mobile phones, or how we identified prospective sexual partners before Bebo.
Whether it be airport wifi on our laptops or oh-just-connect-you-bastard flakiness on the iPhone, the fact that the Internet has become more ubiquitous than electricity in major cities in the past decade is – without any hyperbole whatsoever- a miracle. Sure, it’s destroyed lunch conversation and pub trivia but, in common with anyone who hit their 20s or 30s in the 2000s, I’d happily swap either of those for the ability to book a flight from the back of a cab, or to consult Wikipedia from the toilet.
And, oh, Wikipedia! Sure it’s unreliable as all hell (citation needed) and anything remotely controversial becomes a battleground of edits and bullshit, but there’s still something incredible about legions of unpaid volunteers, hunched in parental basements around the globe, collaborating to produce an encyclopedia of all human knowledge. Like most hacks, I consult Wikipedia at least half a dozen times a day, safe in the knowledge that I’ll be able to find a fact – accurate or not – to support just about any theory my fevered imagination can dream up. A theory that I can write about in a reputable publication and thus, by Wikipedia standards, launder into truth.
And how about Netflix? Or Hulu. Or Pandora. Or Last.fm. Or Spotify. To our kids it will seem as natural as water, but neither you nor I will forget the first time we clicked on the title of a song or a movie, only for it to instantly begin playing with crystal clarity. As I’ve written before, it’s the same feeling you experience when a magician turns water into wine in front of your eyes. With all of our talk of DRM and musicians and directors and – oh yeah – authors losing their livelihood it’s easy to forget how utterly bloody marvelous it is that all human creativity is just sitting in the air, all queued up and waiting for us to press play.
In fact, just sitting here, staring out of the window at the snow, I can think of a dozen more technological advances of the past decade that it would be impossible to imagine the world without. Google. The iPod. Facebook. Skype. YouTube. Online banking. ATM check processing. Celebrity sex tapes. Snopes. GPS mapping for all on cellphones. The Kindle. Trip Advisor.
As if to prove my point, as I finished writing that list, my iPhone started to vibrate in my pocket. It was a friend in San Francisco who had been following my snowbound breakdown on Twitter and had decided to call to cheer me up. At about the same time, another friend – this one in London – instant messaged me with a very inappropriate joke about bombs on planes which also brightened my evening no end. Ten years ago that simply wouldn’t have happened, nor would I be able to distract myself for another few minutes by sending them both a cameraphone photo of all the snow (above).
Indeed, the technology of the past decade may not have helped me escape from Chicago but it has at least given me a mental escape tunnel to prevent me going completely mad. And for that reason alone, I raise a frozen hand in salute the technology of the‘00s and look forward with excitement with what the ‘10s will bring.
I just hope they start with heated fucking runways. Seriously – how hard can it be?
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
(Image: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, at far left, in a photo from his Facebook profile, via NYT.) Here's an open thread for discussing the awesome new TSA in-flight security restrictions that will surely protect us all from future pantsbombers. Just like the war on toothpaste protected us from Mister Sizzly Pants' crotch-launched Christmas fireworks. How'd that loser manage to board a plane in Lagos packing Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), then glide on through to a Detroit-bound Delta Airlines flight? What the hell's PETN? Is it in toothpaste? How did our supposedly tightened post-9/11 flight security system allow this to happen — despite apparent warning?
Incidentally, I took an early morning flight on Delta from Latin America to the US, among the first international flights subject to a TSA security directive issued this morning.
As we boarded, the flight attendants announced that all passengers would be prohibited from getting out of their seats (for instance, to go to the toilet) or from using any electronic devices (phones, laptops, games) or having anything on their laps (even a book or a blanket) during the last hour of the flight. I tweeted about it from the plane. Bottom line, the new rules make your fellow passengers farty and crosslegged (ever try not going to the bathroom during the last part of a really long-haul international flight?), the flight attendants seemed to be just as annoyed about the meritless new rules as the passengers, and we were none the safer. The worst part? None of this would have stopped the pantsbomber.
Bruce Schneier today blogged, " Do we really think the terrorist won't think of blowing up their improvised explosive devices during the first hour of flight?" And as Schneier wrote back in 2008, "Only two things have made flying safer [since 9/11]: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers."
Related: Nigerians are seriously pissed off at the suspect, who is reported to be the son of a prominent Nigerian banker.
* Origin of headline joke is here. Antinous came up with Mister Sizzly Pants, not me.
Section:
No need to scour the interwebs for hot gaming news, Gamertell‘s already done that for you! Here’s a look at this week’s top stories…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
A French design firm has created a series of flower vases inspired by plumbing. They're made of PVC, and really beautiful — I'd love to have a set like this in my living room.
[via Dezeen]
Image by Fred DuMur
Source: Boing Boing | 26 Dec 2009 | 4:04 pm
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks
New Nook owners experience Christmas Day sadness when they have trouble downloading ebooks, and on the opposite end of that spectrum comes the Amazon Kindle.
Based on a recently released press release from Amazon, it seems that the Kindle has become “the most gifted item ever on Amazon.com.”
And as you can most likely guess, that news will only mean good things for Amazon, because that most gifted item will only lead to more and more ebook sales. Of course, it seems that has already begun, because it was also noted that “on Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books.
Read [Amazon]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
FROM APPLETELL - Not sure how to use that iTunes gift card you got this holiday season? It’s okay, we all start somewhere, and we’re here to show you the way.
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Section:
We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does! Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…
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A year ago Apple launched iWork.com in beta, which allowed users of their office suite of applications to publish documents online. It’s a light feature set compared to Google Docs and Office 10 – just viewing and commenting. But a job posting suggests Apple may be creating a true collaborative cloud based version of the iWork apps.
The job posting popped up on CrunchBoard on December 22. Apple is looking for a mid level engineer to “be part of the core development team” and “engage in an area from design to development” of a new javascript rich internet application for the iWork team:
The Productivity team (i.e. iWork) is seeking an energetic, highly motivated software engineer in building a scalable rich internet application. The person will be part of the core development team and engage in an area from design to development of the software system.
Besides exceptional programming skills and devotion to creating great software, we look for one or more of the following kinds of expertise or experience:
• JavaScript language and browser technology – understanding from inside-out, or
• Computer graphics – the mathematics, algorithms and programming, or
• Experience developing scalable rich internet application, or
• Experience developing presentation/collaboration or word processing projectsBS or better in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering
Apple has job postings all the time. But what caught our eye on this one is the language around building an application, from design to development. That suggests something different than just joining the existing team. Apple is putting together a whole new team, for a new project, and they need outside expertise.
Want the job? Apply here.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
FROM GAMERTELL - Best Buy’s after Christmas deals for December 27,2009 through January 2, 2010 include deals on Xbox 360 Arcades, PSP 3000 core units and a large selection of DS, Macs, PCs, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 games.
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Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
If you’re on the hunt for a new job, check out our CrunchBoard. We’ve added nearly 50 new jobs from leading internet businesses in the last two weeks, including three jobs here at TechCrunch. Here’s a quick sample:
As Mike just noted as well, Apple has also posted a job posting for their iWork team.
Also, don’t forget that we’re looking for a Conferences & Events Producer, Account Executive and CrunchBase interns here at TechCrunch!
For job hunters in Europe, check out our Europe CrunchBoard.
Click here to see all the jobs on CrunchBoard.
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FROM APPLETELL - Happy Holidays to all. It seems that developers and the App Store are in the mood for giving the good stuff as you’ll see inside.
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You’d never believe it, you never would know, that Christmas had come, at least not by the snow. All the geeks in the Valley were typing away, forced to take a short breather on this year’s Christmas day. So read on for info, this update, dear friends, as Christmas is over and a new year begins.
In time for Christmas, in technology news, Walt opened his column on product reviews. It seems, I am told, that holiday travel, with two screaming children can make brains unravel. So what could one bring, on a holiday trek, to keep little ones smiling and not cause a wreck? In a guest post by Nick, Wingfield’s his name; we saw the iTouch, the best in the game. He talked PSPs, and Nintendo DSs, but versatile and thin, iPod Touch got the yeses.
At the Mossberg Solution, Katie was typing, a fresh new post to help holiday griping. For if in through your window, this holiday season, a new Mac has drifted, you might have a reason. The keyboard is different, and programs wont close, all those whoosits and whatzits, no one really knows. But Katie was there, she did not take a rest, to show you the way to make your new Mac the best. Remember to “Quit”, on that Mac she said, ‘cause those little red x’s won’t put the program to bed. And one final thought, if it doesn’t seem rude, Katie recommended a new attitude. You see on the Mac, once they’ve been detected, to remove those hard drives, they must first be “ejected”.
It was all about Boom Town, this week in the news, as Kara looked at upcoming interviews. She’s worked much to hard and now they’ve said yes, but the lineup is set for our CES. With Hastings and Rubin and Rubinstien all, we’ll get their big scoops at the big techie ball. If tech shows are cold, with their gadgets galore, Kara posted a post about what’s in store. She traveled to Twitter and talked with Biz Stone, who thinked up some thoughts on how tweeting has grown. He pensively pondered, and stroked his cute chin. Some thoughts on the future, he gave with a grin. Kara was waving goodbye, flying off to the sand, to spend time with her family, mai-tai in hand. But before she got buckled and the jet engines roared, she solved a small mystery while climbing aboard. It seems, oh you see, that she’d gotten some news, about MySpace, Flixter and movie reviews. The two have been talking, oh talking some talk, with Rotten Tomatoes along for the walk. So she boarded the jet, all shiny and tall, waving goodbye to BoomTown for some vacation, if small.
At Media Memo HQ, it was Peter this week, opening the media door and taking a peek. Over at TMZ, they are all talking sports, it seems they are thinking, a new venture of sorts. The connection makes sense, though the idea is small. They might thank Tiger Woods for starting it all. And just when you thought you’d bought all your gifts, Peter covered that thing that’s on every geek’s lists. It seems to Peter, that maybe, perhaps, the new Apple (AAPL) tablet would need giant tablet-sized apps. That’s just what he found, when looking this week; some big app developers had given a tweak. They’ve made everything bigger, for what we don’t know, but whatever it is, the screen sure did grow. Peter covered it all, including abuse. There were gremlins, not elves, about, on the loose. While most new tech startups were shopping for backers, the biggest of bigs were snorched on by hackers. Amazon (AMZN), Wal-Mart (WMT), and more in the cloud, got hit by bad geeks, doing things not allowed. They recovered it quickly, and locked up their gate, making sure all your packages still wouldn’t be late.
So as you relax, and come down from the Yule, whether frozen at home or splayed out by a pool, Weekend Update is here, as is AllThingsD, to keep you informed when you’ve got places to be. Please leave us your comments, thoughts, queries and questions. We’d even adore your most helpful suggestions. And enjoy those around you, this holiday season. It’s friends, family and loved-ones that give our lives reason.
Section: Communications, Accessories
Here we have another day after Christmas deal, except this one can be purchased from the comfort of your home. The offer is for the Jawbone Prime Bluetooth headset and will give you a total savings of $66.01 off the suggested retail price.
The offer is valid at Verizon Wireless (link below) and means you can score yourself the Jawbone Prime for just $63.98 plus tax.
In order to get that price, head on over to Verizon Wireless and so a search for Jawbone Prime (or hit the product link below). Once there, click to add the “Jawbone Prime in Black” to your cart.
From there, click to view your cart, you should see the Jawbone Prime listed and priced at $79.97, just add the coupon code of “ACC20” and click Add Promo. Once that is done you should see the new price of $63.98.
Then checkout and begin to wait for your delivery.
Product [Jawbone Prime] Read [DealMac] Via [TUAW]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Mobile advertising is poised to become a huge growth area, with research firm Kelsey Group seeing the market grow from just $160 million in 2008 to $3.1 billion in 2013. eMarketer projects mobile advertising spending in the US will balloon from $648 million in 2008 to over $3.3 billion in 2013.
While some believe search will account for the biggest chunk of the market, others expect geo-aware advertising, another way of bringing "relevant" ads to users, to have a bright future, too. This is where AdLocal, a location-based, self-service mobile ad platform that (re-)launched yesterday, comes in.
Offered by Sunnyvale-based Cirius Technologies USA, the platform has been around in Japan since 2006, currently commanding the largest share of location-based advertising in Japan's $1 billion [PDF] mobile ad space. And now Cirius is ready to utilize the years of experience the company gained in the world's most competitive mobile market in the US (AdLocal isn't available outside America and Japan at this point).
AdLocal allows advertisers to manage their campaigns and publishers to add their mobile sites or applications by themselves through a Web-based dashboard. By locating a mobile user's physical location via GPS, cell identification and other methods, the mobile ad network can tell when a consumer is close to a specific business address and then serves up ads for that business in real-time.
Before I begin, let me just state that TSA has yet to confirm any of this on its website, so the details aren’t entirely clear at the moment. That said, there are several indications that orders have been issued to cease the use of electronics during international flights. Yes, that means no laptops, no iPods, no Kindles, no CD players, no portable DVD players, no Nintendo DSes — nothing that requires any sort of power on these flights. If this is true, it’s absolutely awful news.
Obviously, this is all in reaction to the Nigerian man who attempted to bring down a plane coming into the U.S. And the TSA is going to do whatever it thinks is necessary to prevent further attacks of a similar nature. But the simple fact is that if the TSA was really this seriously worried about electronic devices, they could have banned them anytime since the attacks on September 11, 2001. Instead, they’re doing it more than 8 years later after a man apparently lit some sort of mixture of powder and liquid in his lap. How that relates to electronics, I’m not sure. This just reeks of a “well, we have to do something” move.
Again, all the details aren’t known yet, and it’s entirely possible that this is just a temporary measure that will be in place during a heightened security time following the attempted attack. Other reports suggest this will only affect planes coming into the U.S. Of course, if you leave the U.S. to go on an international trip, you’re very likely going to have to come back, so this will affect you.
So far, all the TSA is official saying is this:
Passengers flying from international locations to U.S. destinations may notice additional security measures in place. These measures are designed to be unpredictable, so passengers should not expect to see the same thing everywhere. Due to the busy holiday travel season, both domestic and international travelers should allot extra time for check-in.”
Those other security measures apparently include not being allowed to get up in the final hour of a flight (so, no bathroom), being limited to one carry-on bag, and not being allowed to have anything on your lap in this final hour.
We’ll update this post when the official policy becomes more clear, but given the previous policies of no liquids, taking off your shoes, etc, it wouldn’t be entirely shocking for a no electronics rule of some sort to be commonplace. And it comes at a time when air travel was becoming almost becoming bearable thanks to WiFi on a growing number of flights (though domestic for now). Instead, it looks like we’ll have to revert back to the old standards: Books, magazines, and newspapers for these flights. If I were the print media companies, I’d jack up the prices in airports immediately. They may have just found a business model that will save them: Fear.
I stand by my statement earlier: If they take electronics away from us on plane, I’d much prefer to be put into a state of hibernation on the flights like in Avatar. That’s about the only thing that will make those cattle cars tolerable at that point.
[photo: flickr/sundaykofax]
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Mobile advertising is poised to become a huge growth area, with research firm Kelsey Group seeing the market grow from just $160 million in 2008 to $3.1 billion in 2013. eMarketer projects mobile advertising spending in the US will balloon from $648 million in 2008 to over $3.3 billion in 2013.
While some believe search will account for the biggest chunk of the market, others expect geo-aware advertising, another way of bringing “relevant” ads to users, to have a bright future, too. This is where AdLocal, a location-based, self-service mobile ad platform that (re-)launched yesterday, comes in.
Offered by Sunnyvale-based Cirius Technologies USA, the platform has been around in Japan since 2006, currently commanding the largest share of location-based advertising in Japan’s $1 billion [PDF] mobile ad space. And now Cirius is ready to utilize the years of experience the company gained in the world’s most competitive mobile market in the US (AdLocal isn’t available outside America and Japan at this point).
AdLocal allows advertisers to manage their campaigns and publishers to add their mobile sites or applications by themselves through a Web-based dashboard. By locating a mobile user’s physical location via GPS, cell identification and other methods, the mobile ad network can tell when a consumer is close to a specific business address and then serves up tailor-made ads for that business in real-time.
Screenshot: AdLocal ad radius view in San Francisco
Publishers can put advertisements into their iPhone and Android apps through the so-called AdLocal Delivery API and the AdLocal SDK (which is currently Beta for Android). SDKs for other platforms are currently in the works. Advertisers can create ads themselves by using a wizard and then specifying the desired locations, budgets and dates to display their ads (deals, promotions, coupons etc.).
And boosting relevance this way seems to work, at least in Japan. Cirius Technologies claims mobile advertisers using AdLocal saw CTRs growing by 395% after switching from non-local to local ads on a year-on-year basis. Publishers apparently saw their average CPMs jumping 826%. The company is expecting similar results for advertisers in the US. (If you’re one of those, you might want to give AdLocal a spin before their special $50 trial campaign is over.)
There are quite a few companies ready for the location-based advertising gold rush. Startups operating in this space include Acuity Mobile (recently acquired by geo giant NAVTEQ), AppLoop for the iPhone (deadpooled earlier this year), Placecast (which raised $5 million last month for its opt-in solution), AdInfuse (with adInMotion) and Yowza (which is a popular geo-aware iPhone app for coupons).
The following screenshots show a typical AdLocal campaign view and a summary (click to enlarge):
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 al.com (blog) | Ground control to NASA TV: liven up Los Angeles Times Coverage of topics like space exploration and the Earth should be mesmerizing. Instead, there's too much technical detail and silence. NASA TV Executive Producer Fred Brown says the network is far from where it could be. (Tyrone Turner / For The Times) ... NASA and space station alliance on shaky ground Three NASA space missions planned for 2010 Transition phase means a full plate |
 New York Times (blog) | Kindle is most gifted Amazon item, ever CNET News "We are grateful to our customers for making Kindle the most gifted item ever in our history," said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. In another milestone for the e-reader, the company noted that on Christmas Day, for the first time ... E-books spark battle inside the publishing industry Kindle becomes most gifted Amazon item ever Amazon Kindle, The Most Gifted Item Ever |
Let’s just start with the lede:
Inventor Le Trung spent Christmas Day with the most important woman in his life – his robot Aiko.
The science genius enjoyed a festive dinner with his mum, dad and his £30,000 fembot which he designed and built by hand.
Le, 34, from Brampton, Ontario, Canada, even bought gifts for his dream girl, who is so lifelike she speaks fluent English and Japanese, helped cook the turkey and hang up decorations.
Yep. You read that right. Either the Daily Mail is having a larf or this is the craziest thing I’ve seen in all my years as someone who has not had sex with (presumably ambulatory) robots.
Basically Mr. Trung built his own fembot and basically dotes on it. He had a heart attack because he spent so much time working on it. It knows when it’s being tickled. Sadly, we can’t tell if our leg is being pulled.
[Lou, vacuum!]
FROM APPLETELL - Santa was very good to you this year, and under the tree you came away with the iPhone or iPod touch. Here are a few starter tips…
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Section: Computers, Software / Applications
We’ve all been getting quite excited about Boxee recently it seems, without the acknowledgment of that which Boxee came from. For those who don’t know, the popular Boxee came out the XBMC project. While Boxee has been busy with tons of updates and announcements as of late, XMBC hasn’t had too many updates until the latest one today.
The new release is XBMC 9.11 “Camelot,” and is ready for Windows, Mac and Linux. With the new release comes some big improvements, as usual. Possibly the biggest improvement for Windows users is the new inclusion of DirectX support which will make HD video playback easier on the PC and smoother for the user. The Camelot release also seems an improved user interface which looks clean and easy to use. The condensed change log is quite extensive, which should show how much work was put into this new release. Other notable improvements include updated scrapers, new remote compatibility and expanded codec support.
XMBC could be perfect for that now old computer you might have after the holidays. Perhaps an experiment in using an HTPC, or just a computer dedicated to media. Or maybe it could be a replacement for Boxee if you have no use for the apps in Boxee or the social aspect of it. Either way, the new XBMC looks to be a good media application worthy of at least some attention it might lose for releasing the update on the day after Christmas.
Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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 Frontline | Microsoft, Intel to cede tablet market to Apple? CNET News If the Apple tablet emerges as expected, this will be another big device market, following smartphones, that the PC industry cedes to Apple. Tablet: Is this the best WinTel-HP can do? The writing is already on the wall already for ... 10 Strategies Microsoft Should Follow in 2010 Microsoft now stagnant, says former executive Google looking strong |
James Cameron’s visually-thrilling Avatar started out modestly for a mega-Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster, pulling in only $27 million its first day at the box office (compared to $72 million for Twilight Saga: New Moon and $68 million for Transformers). But Avatar is the “iPhone of Movies,” as Michael likes to call it (I think he’s seen it four times already, and that is just what he’ll admit to on Yammer). He is not the only one enamored with the movie, which is now nearing $400 million in worldwide box office ticket sales.
If people who are Tweeting about the movie are any judge, about 75 percent of people are saying good things about it, according to Twitter Sentiment (a site which analyzes the sentiment of Tweets). You see roughly the same numbers on TweetFeel and other sentiment analysis sites.
Twitter is the new word of mouth. Twitter Sentiment counts 111,092 positive recent Tweets with the word “avatar,” compared to 37,434 negative ones. That is a pretty large sample size, and seems to be a fairly good proxy for overall sentiment. Some of these could be Tweets about avatars in general, but if you look at the actual Tweets, they are nearly all about the movie right now. Some representative Tweets:
@steveborn1: Avatar kicked ass. Best movie I have seen this year
@roguepuppet: @katiekillian avatar is amazing. Catch it in 3d if you can
@JuLiWong: Okay i agree with everyone, AVATAR is good. AWESOME actually! :)
@tubamasterj: i love avatar. why cant we live in a simple, beautiful world like pandora
@UzumundyRussuto: Avatar is way better the second time!!
@wam3studios: Avatar kicked ass………. Despite the acting
140 characters is really all you need for a movie review.
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AP - A sign inside the Humming Motors auto repair shop says, "We do the worrying so you don't have to."
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Less than three months after launching its popular iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge 3 as a 99-cent app on iTunes, developer Tapulous made the game free a few days ago. The game was downloaded 300,000 times in 24 hours, overwhelming the Tapulous servers so much that the company had to turn off the online playing feature of the game. Tap Tap Revenge is now the No. 2 most popular free game on iTunes.
Making Tap Tap Revenge 3 free is another high-profile bet on the power of in-app purchases. Tap Tap Revenge 3, which is a Guitar-Hero style game, comes with free music tracks, but you ca also buy new tracks through the game. So far, as a paid app, it’s sold about 1 million songs, but it believes it can sell a lot more by making the game free. The Tap Tap Revenge series of games have been downloaded more than 20 million times, and the company claims 4 million active users per month.
Games do a better job than other categories when it comes to in-app purchases, although nearly all of the top-grossing apps in iTunes are still paid apps. But another iPhone game company, ngmoco, is shifting its entire strategy to from paid to free games with in-app purchases. It is not clear whether Tapulous is moving to this model as well, or launching new apps for 99 cents and then making them free once sales begin to die down. When it launches its next game, Riddim Ribbon, we’ll see if it is paid or free. If it is paid, one advantage of making Tap Tap Revenge 3 free now is that it can flood the market and then be used to cross-promote Riddim Ribbon. The shelf-life of an iPhone app is so short that it makes sense to sunset a paid app early to help push sales of a newer game.
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 The First Reporter | 2009: Year of the Social Network PC World As 2009 draws to a close, it's clear that the year was a watershed for social networks and the firms that own them. In 2009, social networks no longer featured posts with reams and reams of drivel -- like telling people what kind of sandwich you had ... Should Employers Ban Facebook at Work? Social Networking Rising More companies connect with customers through social networking |
AFP - The vice-chairman and executive director of telecoms giant China Mobile, Zhang Chunjiang, is under investigation for breaching party discipline, state media reported Saturday.
The only good thing about the deadline for this week’s TechCrunch round-up falling on Christmas Day is the absolute certain fact that you won’t be reading the results. After all, with the holiday season in full swing, no one in their right mind will be reading TechCrunch. I certainly won’t.
Safe in that knowledge, I can pretty much claim anything I like. That this week’s top story was Mark Zuckerberg being eaten by zebras, for example, or Al Qaeda investing in Twitter. Hell, I could probably claim that Spotify is profitable and it would still pass entirely without remark. Who would know? Just me and Google’s spider.
But I’m a professional – which is why I only missed my Christmas Day deadline by 24 hours – and as such I take seriously my responsibility to bring you this week’s top stories, regardless of whether you care or not. Hell, I’ve even come up with a festive theme in a vain attempt to keep you reading. Even though I know you’re not.
Here we go then…
On the first day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you….
One billion dollar exits
Sarah rounded off her South American research trip by profiling Wences Casares and examining the difference between billion dollar exits and what it means to feel “success”.
On the second day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…
Two out of every ten companies suffering from “stealth disease”
Vivek tells stealth start-ups: Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets.
On the third day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…
Three years of Crunchies
The first tickets to the third annual Crunchies sold out very quickly, but there’s still plenty of time to vote for the winners across 18 categories before voting closes on January 6th.
On the fourth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…
Four screenings of Avatar
Or at least that’s how many Arrington has attended since the movie launched this week and he described it as ‘The iPhone Of Movies’.
On the fifth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…
Five hundred and fifty million dollars
Over half a billion dollars; the price that Yelp turned down when they walked away from selling to Google.
On the sixth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…
Six-ty thousand nooks will be shipped by Barnes & Noble this year
…despite issues with shipping pre-orders.
On the seventh day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…
Seven million more dollars raised by ChaCha
….despite issues with their entire business being a joke.
On the eighth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…
Eight million dollars raised by Livemocha
…in a round led by August Capital to allow the online language-learning community to build new partnership deals and work on product development.
On the ninth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…
Nine ‘rock-star’ names associated with WePay’s new group payments services
Levchin, McClure, Conway, Y Combinator…
On the tenth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…
Ten IPO Candidates for 2010
….and, from Europe, ten disappointing tech stories of 2009.
On the eleventh day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…
Eleven billion valuation for Facebook
Up from the company’s $10billion valuation earlier this year.
And finally. On the twelfth day of Christmas, TechCrunch gave to you…
Twelve (at least) religions that I’ve certainly offended by suggesting that the entire world stops for Christmas. I look forward to the comments. Not that I’ll be reading them – after all, it’s Christmas!
Have a good week!
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