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Bharti offers $10.7 billion for Zain Africa ops: reports (Reuters)Reuters - Bharti Airtel has offered up to $10.7 billion for the African assets of Kuwaiti telecom group Zain , Kuwaiti newspapers reported on Saturday, as India's largest mobile operator makes a renewed foreign push.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 13 Feb 2010 | 3:11 am Ex-Pirate Bay Admin Launches Micropayment Servicespyrochaete writes "Peter Sunde, formerly 'brokep' of The Pirate Bay, recently launched a beta version of Flattr — a micropayment service enabling internet users to tender cash payments to any participating content publisher. Its model enables users to divvy monthly subscription fees as donations awarded to the musicians, bloggers, photographers, or other publisher of their choice. Sunde tells the BBC, 'We want to encourage people to share money as well as content,' and asserts, 'people love things and they want to pay.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 13 Feb 2010 | 2:37 am UPDATE 3-Shinsei, Aozora call off merger - Nikkei* Failure to agree on strategy has led to breakdown - NikkeiSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 13 Feb 2010 | 2:16 am How Google Buzz mobile will change your lifeFrom The San Francisco Chronicle, how Google Buzz will soon become an amazing, indispensable mobile phone app. Google Buzz for mobileSource: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Feb 2010 | 2:05 am Nokia Beta Labs launches 'Nokia Feel'Nokia Beta labs has introduced a new Application called 'Nokia Feel'. In their own words: Nokia Feel helps you discover what you can do with your device in a more spontaneous way. When you tell it...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Feb 2010 | 1:53 am Snowstorms Bring up New Global Warming Debate - Hollywood Today Newsmagazine
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Feb 2010 | 1:21 am Disguised weapons for saleHere's a correspondence between an angry person who placed a classified ad soliciting "disguised weapons" and a chain-yanker who was very funny in response:Disguised Weapons (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)
Previously:
 Source: Boing Boing | 13 Feb 2010 | 1:16 am Disguised weapons for saleHere's a correspondence between an angry person who placed a classified ad soliciting "disguised weapons" and a chain-yanker who was very funny in response: Still thirsty for justice? Try this badass...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Feb 2010 | 1:16 am How Google Buzz for mobile will change your life - San Francisco Chronicle
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Feb 2010 | 1:05 am Obama is looking for an official TwittererThe Democratic National Committees social networks manager job description says the position entails maintaining the Presidents accounts on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. [via Digits] Mia Cambronero,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Feb 2010 | 12:45 am Basic Business Tools Stand in for Missing Apple Hype at Macworld - eWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 13 Feb 2010 | 12:42 am Mobile-Phone Tracking Violates Privacy, Lawyers Tell CourtThe U.S. governments request to track a mobile-phone subscribers usage and possible physical location in a case involving a drug investigation violates privacy laws, lawyers against the proposal argued...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 13 Feb 2010 | 12:21 am Microsoft co-founder Gates tackling climate changeMicrosoft co-founder Bill Gates has broken from philanthropic work fighting poverty and disease to take on another threat to the world's poor -- climate change. "Energy and climate are...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Feb 2010 | 11:54 pm Google Tweaks Buzz To Tackle Privacy ConcernsCWmike writes "Just two days after launching its Buzz social networking tools, Google said Thursday night that it had tweaked the technology to address early privacy concerns. Google said in a blog post that the quick updates makes it easier for users to block access to their pages and eases the path to finding two privacy features. 'We've had plenty of feature requests, and some direct feedback,' wrote Todd Jackson, a product manager for Gmail and Google Buzz, in the blog post. 'In particular there's been concern from some people who thought their contacts were being made public without their knowledge (in particular the lists of people they follow, and the people following them). In addition, others felt they had too little control over who could follow them and were upset that they lacked the ability to block people who didn't yet have public profiles from following them.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 12 Feb 2010 | 11:20 pm Real World Notes: Valencia TonightThis is a view right now from Valencia street tonight in San Francisco's Mission District, shortly after the rain gave way to glowing fireflies playing in the glowing street. The frightful figure is actually...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Feb 2010 | 10:26 pm Astronauts enter space station's newest room - The Associated Press
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 12 Feb 2010 | 10:20 pm Video: Mantis vs. CursorThe human may think he is toying with the mantis, but I suspect the opposite is true. (Thanks, Antinous!) Source: Gizmodo | 12 Feb 2010 | 9:40 pm The Man Behind Every Expat's Favorite Software, Hotspot ShieldAnchorFree's ad-supported VPN, Hotspot Shield, has been on a tear in the last year. The tool, which people use to protect their browsing privacy and also to access web content that has been blocked, tripled...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Feb 2010 | 9:27 pm Biz Break: Microsoft vs. Google vs. Apple: phone OS on Monday, maps... - San Jose Mercury News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 12 Feb 2010 | 9:26 pm Raptor devours cheerleaderVideo link at Mag.ma. Happy weekend, everyone. (thanks, Andrew Baron!)Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Feb 2010 | 9:13 pm Raptor devours cheerleader
Video link at Mag.ma. Happy weekend, everyone. (thanks, Andrew Baron!) Frankenreview: Heavy Rain Your First Look At Fable III In Action New Crackdown 2 Screens Show Off Shiny Preorder Armor More Alan Wake Footage, More Flashlights In The Dark City Of Heroes Gets A Visual Makeover Frankenreview: BioShock 2 The fibers are about 100 times thinner than a human hair, but can generate electrical outputs of up to 30 millivolts. Even better, their piezoelectric properties allow them to mechanical stress and twisting into electricity:
This isn't the first exploration into wearable nanogenerators, but it's the only attempt so far at using an organic material, in this case polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). It's a cheaper, more flexible solution that has a better shot at being productized. If it is, you'd conceivably be able to power your gadgets from your t-shirt. Wait... does that mean the Feel Bright Light Visor wasn't such a bad idea after all? [UC Berkeley] Source: Gizmodo | 12 Feb 2010 | 8:20 pm Are Silicon Valley's Glory Days Over?Hugh Pickens writes "Pete Carey writes in the Mercury News that there are 'clear warning signs' that Silicon Valley has entered 'a new phase of uncertainty' in which its standing as a tech center is at risk and that decisive action by business, government and education is needed if the region is to retain its standing as the world's center of technical innovation. 'It could be that Silicon Valley has a different future coming,' says Russell Hancock. 'It's not a given that we will continue to be the epicenter of innovation.' Among the troubling indicators in the Silicon Valley Index (PDF): 90,000 jobs lost in the last two years; the influx of foreign science and engineering talent has slowed; venture capital funding has declined; per capita income is down 5 percent from 2007; and the number of people working as contractors rather than full-time employees is rising. Adding to the valley's problems is a malfunctioning state government that is shortchanging investment in education and infrastructure."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
THWAP. Hellloooooo, kitty. [DVice via BotJunkie] Source: Gizmodo | 12 Feb 2010 | 8:00 pm MySpace Stream Architect Monica Keller Jumps To Facebook
Keller played a key role in launching MySpace’s Real-Time Stream API, helping to design the Real Time Stream using PuSH and architecting the network’s Twitter Sync Ingest. Keller was involved with the technical aspects of the Stream, and was also involved with the design of MySpace’s developer platform. She’s also represented MySpace on numerous conference panels. While Keller has some nice things to say about the struggling company in her post, she clearly wasn’t pleased with the way some things were handled at MySpace:
This is a loss for MySpace, but it certainly isn’t the end of their real-time and open initiatives (which have been more progressive than Facebook’s). We hear that these are still being spearheaded by recently promoted MySpace co-president Mike Jones, and that Christina Wodtke, who recently joined the company after running the activity stream product at LinkedIn, is involved in running the team’s day-to-day operations. Image by Adam Tinworth. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 12 Feb 2010 | 7:56 pm The Cloud, Activity Streams and Applications That Cut Across the Home and the OfficeRecently, SAP showed us its new, cloud-based enterprise collaboration service called 12Sprints. It embraces consumer services and activity streams correlating to the context of the business use, in particular...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Feb 2010 | 7:29 pm How Buttsecks Works, by gay marriage opponent Rep. Nancy Elliott (R-NH)Rep. Nancy Elliott (R-NH), in the video embedded above, explains why she opposes marriage between partners of the same sex. Snip: Video link (thanks, Antinous!) Source: Boing Boing | 12 Feb 2010 | 7:28 pm Church of Scientology at center of human trafficking allegations, new lawsuitHere's a local LA TV news report on a lawsuit brought against the Church of Scientology, and claims by former members that the religious organization is tied to human trafficking incidents. The "Anonymous" protests and Project Chanology are referenced, and the clip includes b-roll of dudes in Guy Fawkes masks. Video Link (thanks, Mark Ebner)
Previously:
Since I came to New York, my romantic life has been a rollercoaster. A very fast one, with 9G turns. If there is a city in the world to flirt and date anywhere and anytime, it's NYC. You don't need the web to meet people. Every cafe, every bar, every party seems like a huge playground for singles to engage in conversations and start love affairs. However, the web can help while you are meeting people and after, all in real time, and face to face. If you have enough confidence and you are fearless—remember: you have nothing to lose, since you will always have the "no"—any city in the world should be open for the same games. Here are some tips to use technology while meeting people in the real world. The basic rulesTechnology hasn't changed real world flirting. Much. At the end of the day, it all depends on you, how charming you can be, and how much the other person likes you (tip: not everyone has to like you). However, web-based social services like Facebook and Twitter open a door that didn't exist before. They are an opportunity to take the flirting to a new level when you first meet someone in the flesh, all without getting too personal. For some reason, exchanging Twitter or Facebook usernames doesn't seem to be perceived as threatening or serious as exchanging phone numbers or email addresses. After all, Twitter is open and Facebook's friend requests can be denied—or accepted and then canceled. That night was fun. But it's not always that easy. The key in that example is that it happened naturally, and the move matched the rhythm of the conversation. Taking the step to add someone to Facebook in real time is a risky one, so you have to measure yourself and be ready to gamble. That is the basic rule: Never force things, and learn to read the signs that the other person is giving you. If the conversation is playful, wait until you think is appropriate to incorporate something like Facebook into it. Tweeting your pants offAsking for a Twitter name during the conversation is a lot easier than making that Facebook move. After all, Twitter is open to everyone, and direct messaging is a perfect way to flirt—at least for me: I find its 140-character limitation challenging and exciting, and I love when people can be concise and clever in just one single phrase. Once again, the medium is not important except as a way to reach your counterpart, allowing you to snip casually, responding to the other person's comments. Doing it publicly is a very fine art, which can easily end in disaster (especially if the other person already has a lover—although this can be really fun). If you have enough wit and you are sensitive to the other person's needs and circumstances, chances are that he or she will be interested in you, and something may happen down the line, as the play factor increases in your exchanges. Sometimes, this game also happens in real time. One night I met a very pretty—and delightfully nerdy—girl at Delmano, one of my favorite bars here in Williamsburg. She knew Gizmodo and recognized me, so the conversation quickly got into technology. She confessed that she followed me on Twitter, so I asked what her nickname was to add her later. Minutes later, in fact: When she excused herself to the bathroom I sent her the first direct message. After that, we spent the whole night having two conversations, one actually speaking out loud, and the other taunting each with secret tweets. That night was fun too. For sure, that's also an exception, but it's an example on how Twitter can be easy and fun, as long as you keep it natural and in context, just like you would in a real world conversation. The next levelOnce you have established a Twitter or Facebook beachhead it's time to move it to the next level. You may decide to keep the next level in the online world, flirting until you feel comfortable to ask for a date. The alternative is to be a little bit more daring, and use Twitter or Facebook to interact with someone you met before, like you may be doing now using text messages. The difference is that Twitter and Facebook are a lot more useful than text messages, because they give you context. For example, you can learn what the other person is doing without asking for it or without the other person explicitly telling you about it. I used to do that when I was going through my worse digital exhibitionist phase. A couple of times I tweeted or changed my Facebook status saying where I was, and the girl I was flirting with—the nerdy pretty one—sent me messages saying that she was around, wondering if we could hook up for a drink in the most casual way. Likewise, I did the same thing with other people. Of course, this doesn't always work. You or the other person may have other plans in mind. Again, the key here is not to force things, and be as playful and natural as you can. If you pass the initial filters, and your flirting turns into something a bit more serious, you may get an instant messaging nickname or a telephone number. Instant messaging is not very useful for real time flirting situations. Unlike Twitter or texting which allow you to be cute and playful in a parallel line to the actual conversation, instant messaging runs at a faster pace and requires more attention. It's only good in two situations. One may be when you are instant messaging with someone else (cue in lots of trips to the bathroom, stress, and a lot of guilt). Two—which is the only one I've practiced—having a sexual conversations in public, in a crowded place in which you can talk into the ear of your lover. This may also happen with Twitter or text messages, but instant messaging—using your favorite program for your smartphone—is my favorite way to do it. But then again, I am really fast typist. The time it happened it was by chance. She and I started to talk dirty, casually while having dinner in a crowded restaurant, the typical romantic place illuminated only by candlelight and which shall remain nameless because I want to go there again. As our conversation started to get naughtier, we noticed that some people were listening to us, but instead of shutting up, I took up my iPhone and sent her an even racier message using BeejiveIM. Her iPhone vibrated thanks to Beejive's push, she took it out, smiled, and replied back. We kept on talking about other things, with increasing difficulty as the IM conversation got completely explicit and we had a harder time concentrating on actually making sense in our audible conversation. At one point I asked her for something which made her open her eyes wide, giving me that "are you out of your fucking mind?" look of pure disbelief. I grinned and sent her another message. Surprised, she stood up, turned around, and left. The next time my iPhone buzzed—about a minute later—it didn't have any text. I clicked on the incoming file and a photo of her bare breasts appeared. A few seconds later, another one of her black lace knickers downloaded completely, as she was returning to the table from the bathroom. It ended being another fun night. That, sexting, could be considered the top level of all these games, but it's not usual to find someone who may want to do it outside a relationship, much less in a real time, face-to-face situations. When it happens, like it did as part of a larger context and conversation, it can be really fun, Keep your mind openOf course, things don't always happen in this way. The above is not the norm, but neither is it the exception. The fact is that, if the opportunity arises, Twitter, Facebook, IM, or texting could be used as part of the flirting and sexual game not only in the privacy of your home, looking at your computer screen, but anywhere in the "real" world. And I have to say that it's a lot more fun that way. Source: Gizmodo | 12 Feb 2010 | 7:20 pm Snowboarder threads Games rings in opening ceremonyVANCOUVER (Reuters) - A single snowboarder shot through the Olympic rings in a very Canadian opening salvo for the 2010 Winter Games on Friday, a feat made all the more impressive by his...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Feb 2010 | 7:11 pm Porsche Unveils 911 Hybrid With Flywheel BoosterMikeChino writes "Porsche has just unveiled its 911 GT3 R Hybrid, a 480 horsepower track vehicle ready to rock the 24-hour Nurburgring race this May. Porsche's latest supercar will use the same 911 production platform available to consumers today, with a few race-ready features including front-wheel hybrid drive and an innovative flywheel system that stores kinetic energy from braking and then uses it to provide a 160 horsepower burst of speed. The setup is sure to offer an advantage when powering out of turns and passing by other racers."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 12 Feb 2010 | 7:10 pm Gunkanjima: Battleship Island
Photo: Ken Lee + Skorj for Magnesium. A stunning series of photographs shot in the abandoned Japanese island-city of Hashima. (image used courtesy of Magnesium, thanks, Sean Bonner!) This Week in Geek: Hacking Your Wii, New AMD Chips, ATI Cards, and Core i7 Rumors
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 iPhone World (blog) | These tablets do what the 'iPad don't' CNET With apologies to Sega's classic "Genesis does what Nintendon't" ad campaign, there are many tablet and touch-screen PCs that do things the upcoming Apple iPad simply can't. While Apple's tablet runs a version of the company's iPhone ... Apple's 10 biggest problems The business and culture of our digital lives, Four Alternatives to the Upcoming Apple iPad |
In December 2008, Six Apart acquired Pownce, a microblogging service that never managed to attract a large following. Pownce was shuttered after the acquisition, but its two-person team joined Six Apart to help integrate the technology into Six Apart’s blogging services. Today Pownce founder Leah Culver has written on her blog that she’s leaving Six Apart, where she spent the last year working on its TypePad and TypePad Motion products. Culver writes that her next project is developing an iPhone application for Plancast.
Despite reports to the contrary, Culver isn’t joining Plancast full time (at least not yet). Plancast founder (and TechCrunch alum) Mark Hendrickson says that she’s joining on a contract basis to build the iPhone app, but that the long-term future is uncertain. Culver’s blog notes that she might continue working on Leafy Chat, a web based IRC client that’s in private beta.
One thing worth pointing out: Culver and Mike Malone were Pownce’s only engineers, and they were absorbed into the Six Apart team as part of the acquisition. Malone left Six Apart just over a year after the acquisition to join SimpleGeo, and now Culver has left just a few months later. It looks like they had a one-year post acquisition cliff, and given their departures soon thereafter, it’s possible the integration of Pownce’s technology didn’t work out as they might have hoped.
Image by hyku
FROM APPLETELL - This week it’s all about Siri, your new personal assistant. Also, there are to games that are free for today only, so don’t waste any time coming inside.
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Check out the jobs on CrunchBoard. Jobs from New York to San Francisco to Germany. See jobs in Europe here.
In the last couple of weeks we have added more than 50 jobs on CrunchBoard, including a Ruby Developer and student intern here at TechCrunch.
Here is a quick sample of some jobs posted.
uStream,
Account Manager and more – Mountain View
MyWire
Platform Architect – Redwood Shores
isocket
Web Developer – Burlingame
Linkedin
Senior Software Engineer – Mountain View
BookRenter
Ruby on Rails Developer – San Mateo
CollegeHumor
PHP Developer – New York
See the rest of the postings here!
By Yukari Iwatani Kane, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Apple (AAPL) may have decided not to show up at this year’s Macworld trade show, but the show was still abuzz with talk about its new iPad tablet computer, as several companies touted iPad accessories that they plan on offering.
One example: External battery maker HyperMac’s large banner above its exhibit area mentioned iPad as one of the Apple products it is providing an external battery for–even though it doesn’t have one ready yet.
In contrast to some of the criticism by bloggers about the iPad’s lack of key functionality–such as support for Adobe (ADBE) System’s Flash software–many Macworld exhibitors and attendees expressed enthusiasm about the device. Ben Lewis, a sales engineer for Cisco Systems (CSCO), who was demonstrating the company’s WebEx Meeting Center app for the iPhone, said they were excited about the iPad’s easier-to-use interface (“Why do you need to see nested folders in a file structure?”), as well as the bigger screen size which would allow them to add more features. Mr. Lewis said he is personally already planning on buying the $829 iPad 64-gigabyte model with 3G and Wi-Fi.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
Hear ye hear ye hear ye. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have sprung from the pages of history, crossing time and space and the great beyond to talk to us about…gadgets?
Yes gadgets! For Presidents Day 2010 The Father of Our Country and the Great Emancipator tag team to discuss tech that would have made their lives easier in the 18th and 19th century.
Chopping down a cherry tree? Agony with a piddly hatchet but short work for G.W. and his Stihl MS 230 CE chainsaw. When Abe was looking for a non-messy way to succeed his beard from his face, he grabbed a Norelco Turbo Vacuum Beard Trimmer to suck up his errant clippings. Mary Todd was so pleased.
And speaking of domestic quarrels don’t get Martha Washington started on George’s poor oral hygiene. That’s why he’s reaching for the Sonicare FlexCare toothbrush. In addition to removing tooth rotting bacteria from your mouth, it also features a UV disinfectant system for the brush heads. And on the note of preserving one’s head, Mr. Lincoln is no longer taking chances when he visits the theater. His new tactical helmet sends a clear message to would be assassins. We’re looking at you John Wilkes “Better Luck Next Time.”
Wired videos are produced by Annaliza Savage with camerawork by Michael Lennon, editing by Fernando Cardoso, and animation courtesy of Simon Lutrin.
See Also:
Do you see what I’m seeing? That big ol’ column in the first shot is a LASER. A huge, sustained, sci-fi style laser. It’s blasting a missile in midair during a test. And that second shot? Talk about C-beams off the shoulder of Orion.
It reminds me of the bit in The Stars My Destination where the albino girl can see the battle in space when no one else can. Man, maybe I’ll read that book again.
Danger Room has a better write-up than I care to attempt here, so read about the facts and circumstances over there. Or just watch this awesome video over and over again.
Well, pretty much everyone screwed up this story today, so it’s time for some clarification. Despite what you may have read all over the web, Google is not removing Buzz from Gmail. At least not anytime soon.
The confusion stems from Google VP of Product Marketing Bradley Horowitz’s comments to Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan earlier today at TED. Horowitz said that Google was considering separating Buzz from Gmail. But what he meant was that they’d consider making another app that you can use outside of Gmail, not that it would be ripped from Gmail itself, Google has clarified. I mean, it has been out for three whole days, and usage is skyrocketing, did anyone really think Google was going to mute it so quickly?
“No, we’re not planning to remove Buzz from Gmail. Among some of the features we’re considering is building a standalone Buzz experience in addition to the one in Gmail at some point in the future,” a Google spokesperson tells us.
That said, there are plenty of people who want to turn off Buzz in their Gmail entirely. These are users who opted-in to using it, but are now overwhelmed by its noise. But you can do that in the footer of Gmail easily. There’s also no shortage of people concerned about the service’s privacy ramifications. Google already made some tweaks last night to alleviate some problems — expect more of those soon.
So everyone just calm down and keep buzzing. And feel free to follow us there.
[image: New Line Cinema]
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
By now, you’ve undoubtedly seen “Parisian Love,” the Google Search ad that was run during the Super Bowl. Love, it seems, is in the air at Google. And to capitalize on that, the startup GoodCrush has created a new feature: GoogleCrush.
Here’s how it works: if you work at Google and have a @google.com email address, you simply enter your name and that email address, and then enter the email address of up to 5 other people that work at Google that you have a crush on. If one of those people also enters you as one of their crushes, you’ll be connected. If the person you added as a crush doesn’t add you back, your name will remain anonymous.
This timely and humorous addition is simply an extension of GoodCrush, the service which does the same thing as I described above but for college campuses. For it to work, the sender and recipient have to have the same .edu email address. Since its launch last Monday, GoodCrush is available for a couple dozen colleges around the U.S., there are around 6,000 registered users, and some 18,500 crush emails have been sent.
“The ‘CrushFinder’ that you see on the homepage is based on a project that I ran while serving as VP and President of the Undergraduate Student Government at Princeton, we got around 30% of the student body in 24 hours both years,” co-founder Josh Weinstein tells us. “What is unique and exciting about GoodCrush is that it focuses on dense and insulated social networks – college campuses – and we require users to register with their school’s .edu email address. Google’s campuses have the same characteristics as college campuses – so we hope to see the ensuing excitement that comes from GoogleCrush,” he continues.
Cute. And in case you forgot, Sunday is Valentine’s Day, so this is potentially useful if you’re a college kid (or Googler) without a date this weekend. Get on it.
GoodCrush works out of the Dogpatch Labs in New York — the startup workspace affectionately known as the “frat house for geeks.” The company was seed funded by FirstMark.
Do did not cross Mr. Duke. He knew that you screwed up his soundsystem – made a maze of his cables, in fact – and was totally willing to write about your service. If he doesn’t get some support right now he’s was going to… never mind what he was going to do. Just get up here.
via Giz
AP - As it introduced a new social hub, Google quickly learned that people's most frequent e-mail contacts are not necessarily their best friends.
If you haven’t bought a Valentine’s Day gift for your sweetie, this giveaway may be up your alley. Shoes Of Prey, a site that lets you design and order custom-made womens shoes online, is offering a lucky TechCrunch reader a $290 gift certificate to use on the site (that’s the value of the most expensive pair of shoes and shipping on Shoes of Prey). You may remember the Australian startup from this year’s Crunchies, where Shoes of Prey was a finalist in the “Best Bootstrapped Startup” category.
Founded by two ex-Googlers, Mike Knapp and Michael Fox, Shoes of Prey is every shoe-lover’s dream; the site offers the ability to choose a design (ballet flat, pointy toe shoe, wedge etc.) You can then customize your pair of shoes with heel size, design, bows, type of leather and more. Prices range from $180 for flats to $280 for two-inch heels. The startup says that it will be adding more types of fabric and designs this year.
In order to win the gift certificate, retweet this post and make sure to include the short URL link as well as the #crunch hashtag. Please only tweet the message once, anyone tweeting repeatedly will be disqualified. We’ll sort through all of the tweets and pick one randomly for the win.
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Love the shape of hot dogs but hate the way they taste? Hate the shape of burgers but love the way they taste? You’re screwe—NO! WAIT! Pick up the Ham Dogger. It’s eight bucks. Bonus! Use promo code TYLRGIFT to get 15% off.
Pitched as an “ideal way to put extra hot dog buns to use” you can also “stuff the ‘ham dog’ with any number of delicious fillings.” If hamburger’s your thing, though, this apparatus shapes a full quarter-pounder into something that much more closely resembles an actual tube steak than the tube steaks they sell in Canada.
I was in college the first time I had a Canadian tube steak. I was like, “Tube steak?! Sounds delicious! Steak formed into a tube and eaten like a hot dog?!” Turns out it was just a hot dog. A delicious hot dog. I think the fact that it was called “tube steak” made it taste better somehow. Also, it was like 3AM and I was drunk. For all I know, the street vendor selling tube steaks could have actually been a grizzly bear selling me pine cones. Delicious pine cones.
HAM DOGGER [Taylor Gifts via dealspl.us]
Accessory maker FastMac grabbed people’s attention at Macworld Expo 2010 with its shock-absorbing laptop sleeve mighty enough to fend off a hammer.
The Impact Sleeve is lined with with gel pads composed of soybean oil. After placing M&Ms inside the sleeve and smashing them with a hammer, the candies remained intact.
Shipping next month, the sleeves will start at $30 and come in four different sizes: 13-inch, 15-inch, 17-inch notebook or iPad.
Company page [FastMac]
See Also:
Video: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Foursquare is cutting deals with major brands left and right. Everyday, it seems like there’s a new one. Like today, for example, they’ve announced a deal with Conde Nast. And here’s another one with Marc Jacobs. This follows a half dozen or so other ones with the likes of Bravo, HBO, Warner Brothers, Zagat, and others over just the past couple of weeks. But here’s the million dollar question, perhaps literally: is Foursquare making any money from these deals?
Yes.
Though they won’t specifically go into the details of each deal, Foursquare is indeed making revenues off of some of them. “Some are paid, some are exploratory,” co-founder Dennis Crowley tells us. “We’re all about trying a little of everything and seeing what sticks,” he continues. When I pressed him if this means the still-small startup is already in the black, he laughed it off, “Ha, not yet. We’re hiring pretty quick, but it’s not totally unreasonable. There [are] so many deals on the table, it just seems foolish to punt on all of them,” he says.
Specifically, of the new deals, we hear that the Bravo one and the Zagat one are pulling in some money for Foursquare. Earlier, Lucky Magazine (a Conde Nast property) declined to comment as to whether their deal with Foursquare was for money as well, but don’t be surprised if that one is too. Again, none of this is enough to turn a profit, but it says something about the potential of Foursquare’s business model that less than a year after launch, they’re already making revenue.
At first, Foursquare said it wouldn’t focus on revenue and would instead focus on gaining users (they now have over 300,000). But that was still when the business deals were surrounding local bars and restaurants offering free food and drinks to users who became the “mayor” of their venue, or in some cases just checked-in. When the big brands came calling, so did the possibilities of earning money right away.
To that end, Foursquare is working on a set of services and tools, as AdAge reported earlier this month. It seems there will be three tiers of paid services: ones for small (local) businesses, ones for retail chains, and ones for big marketers. With these offerings, Foursquare would offer up analytics packages. “Then, deals could be sold against impressions such as web ads, clicks such as search ads, or a completely new model: cost per check-in,” Kunur Patel writes in the AdAge piece.
With the rate of Foursquare check-ins having doubled in the past month alone, you can probably expect even more revenue-generating deals to come in even faster.
Camera phone pictures could get a whole lot prettier with Samsung’s newest image sensors. The Korean manufacturer has just announced two new CMOS sensors for mobile phones with improved image quality over greater depth of field ranges and HD video. Does it sound a little too good to be true?
Read the rest of this entry at MobileCrunch>>
Short Version: A tiny-but-mighty universal adapter that can power most full-sized laptops.
Review:
The incredible shrinking notebook adapter is a welcome trend. For a while there, portable computers kept getting thinner and lighter while still shipping with massive power bricks. And while notebook adapters will continue to get even smaller over coming years, Kensington’s off to a good start with a universal adapter that’s roughly the length and width of an iPhone at 4.5″ (L) x 2.2″ (W) x 0.8″ (H) yet is capable of replacing a 90-watt adapter.
There are two versions of the adapter available, a $120 MSRP version that includes wall and airplane cords and a $100 MSRP version that’s just for use with wall outlets (you can find them both for cheaper online). The standard version should suffice for most people given that I haven’t seen a live proprietary charging port on an airplane in years. If anything, planes will have standard outlets if they have anything at all. So you’re paying $20 extra for a cable.
And while $100 might be $20 to $30 more expensive than other universal adapters on the market, you’re paying for the shrunken down size (Kensington claims it’s 43% smaller and 32% lighter than standard 90-watt power adapters), a built-in USB charging port, and an almost mind-boggling array of cables and tips.
All in all, you get the adapter, a standard-length wall cord, a handy 7-inch wall cord (no tangling!), a retractable mini-USB cable with micro-USB converter, voltage adjuster (to switch between 14-17 volts and 17-21 volts depending on your computer), and nine tips compatible with machines made by HP/Compaq, Dell, Acer/Gateway, Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony, and Asus.
There’s also a carrying case and, if you buy the Wall/Air combo kit, the airplane cord.
Here’s the section of every universal adapter review where I point out that the fact that there’s no Apple tip isn’t Kensington’s (or any other universal adapter manufacturer’s) fault since Apple’s got a patent on its MagSafe connectors and won’t license it out.
As far as portability’s concerned, that little 7-inch wall cable makes a world of difference. I found myself actually removing it when I needed to stow the adapter and using the included Velcro strap on the notebook connector cable to keep everything together.
Conclusion:
Despite the adapter’s small size, it still puts out enough juice to power most larger laptops. In that sense, the selectable voltage, USB charging port, and included connection options make it a good choice if you travel with a standard notebook or you switch off between, say, a notebook and a netbook. If you’re looking purely for a netbook charger, Kensington sells a $50 adapter that’s even smaller than this one. That’s a good option.
Another super tiny option that still puts out a decent amount of power is Innergie’s mCube Mini. That thing measures just 2.4” (L) by 1” (W) by 0.7” (H) and costs $70 (MSRP). It doesn’t put out as many watts as the Kensington adapter featured here (90 watts versus 65 watts) but it should suffice for smaller notebooks and netbooks.
Product Pages:
Wall Ultra Compact Notebook Power Adapter [Kensington]
Wall/Air Ultra Compact Notebook Power Adapter [Kensington]
Camera phone pictures could get a whole lot prettier with Samsung’s newest image sensors. The Korean manufacturer has just announced two new CMOS sensors for mobile phones with improved image quality over greater depth of field ranges and HD video. Does it sound a little too good to be true?
I’m glad to see that this isn’t just another megapixel pissing contest and that Samsung is actually making strides in improving image quality. The first sensor is the S5K4E2, a 5 megapixel sensor that uses Samsung Enhanced Energy Steering, or SEES technology. It has better noise reduction than most camera phone sensors, if not all, and HD video capabilities. Unfortunately, it’s a choppingly slow 15 frames-per-second at full resolution. With the ability to fit inside a 6.5mm x 6.5mm x 4.5mm module, everything can stay thin and pretty.
The S5K5CA is a 3 megapixel sensor that has has 720p HD capabilities. This sensor is already in mass production, with the S5k4E2 going into mass production late in the first quarter. I’d imagine that coupling sensors like these on capable cameras, especially with the new Bada platform feature phones, would be big hits for Samsung.
[via Unwired]
By Nitrozac and Snaggy
Microsoft will soon be one step closer to becoming the exclusive provider of search on Yahoo (YHOO). Evidently, the European Commission is preparing to green-light the landmark deal. “I expect clearance without any concessions next Friday,” sources familiar with the situation tell Reuters.
If this proves true, regulatory approval in the U.S. is all that stands between Microsoft (MSFT) and the eight percent global search market share it so covets.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Microsoft makes it so hard to like Windows. The company released an update on Tuesday that seems to have borked a number of Windows XP installations. There’s a number of message board threads wherein people are complaining that, since the update, their computers boot right to a blue screen of death. Sigh.
Microsoft has issued a band-aid, which consists of booting from your Windows installation disc—yeah, because the average person knows where that thing is—and running a number of commands from the console.
Needless to say, unless you’re computer savvy, you’re pretty much doomed. Then again, if you’re savvy enough to go on a Microsoft support forum and QQ (with justification, mind), then you can probably figure all that out.
This is a problem I have with Windows in general: all these damn updates. I installed Windows 7 right around Christmastime, and I feel like every week there’s new updates waiting to be installed. How do I know these updates aren’t to totally screw up my installation, the product of several hours of tinkering and tweaking? I eventually just turned the updates off altogether. I’d rather surf the Web (isn’t that even a phrase anymore, “surf the Web?”) at my own risk than have to deal with the constant “THERE ARE UPDATES READY TO BE INSTALLED!”
So yeah, let’s all move to Linux. Someone tell Scott.
MySpace cofounder Tom Anderson supposedly begged to keep his job when the rest of the founding team was shown the door nine months ago. They kept him on, almost as a mascot. He was, after all, the first friend everyone had when signing up to MySpace.
He lost his President title (now shared by Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn). And he is rarely seen in the office. Still, MySpace insiders said he was important to have around as a tie to the old days.
No more, it seems. Tom hasn’t actually signed in to MySpace since January 24, and his last status update was on Christmas day.
But more striking is the fact that Tom is no longer automatically added as a new MySpace user’s first friend. Instead, a couple of days ago, new users were simply given “MySpace Today” as their first friend.
I’m guessing Tom’s days as an employee of MySpace are numbered.
Short Version: Hard drives that claim to do it all are a dime-a-dozen. Finally, however, I’ve found one that delivers on those claims.
Pros:
Cons:
Review:
We’ve seen a lot of hard drives at CG so far. Some of them, like the the IoMega Home Media Network Hard Drive seemed to deliver what they advertised, namely a centralized server for media in the home. However, in my experience I’ve always come away slightly disappointed with the web-based sharing systems many of these hard drives had to offer.
When I opened the Netgear Stora I was expecting the same “meh” reaction. After all, I’ve seen UPnP compatible drives before. However, on hooking up the Stora I was pleased to discovered that things worked as advertised.
First, the drive appears on your computer as a Windows Share, DLNA, and UPnP-compatible storage location. It is literally as plug and play as you get. If you want to get fancy, however, you need to create a login. This will then place the drive on the Internet, allowing you to browse and share files with anyone in the world. For example, you can stick your collection of photos on the drive to share with your family or you can stick on important files that you can then play or download remotely. The Stora has a built-in web interface that is quite robust and useful and, more importantly, it’s quite fast. The software comes from HipServ, a company that has produced web solutions for other hard drive OEMs including Iomega.
The version I tested, a 1TB drive, came clad in a black plastic case and was completely silent. The biggest issue I found was that the front panel, designed to hide the drives inside, popped off far too easily for my liking. If this drive is designed to sit quietly in a corner, that’s fine. However, if you have nosy kids around they could put a sandwich into the open drive slot.
That leads us to the second drive bay. The $229 version comes with 1TB drive already installed. You can add a second SATA or SATA II drive and the drive supports RAID 1 mirroring.
Some problems: the Stora application, which is essentially a launcher, starts itself automatically when you turn on your computer. This is bad. The web portion also includes a 30-day trial of the premium Stora services which include Flickr and RSS support. You don’t really need this, but I suppose it’s nice to have. I also ran into some problems with Flash playback of videos. This is minor, however, as you can easily download the file to view it.
Bottom Line
The Stora just works. It’s not too expensive for a NAS and mirroring makes it a bit better as a back-up solution. The included software and web-based management system will seal the deal for most home users.
Product Page: Netgear Stora MS2110 Product Page
Isn’t it grand that Blu-ray players keep dropping in price. Like this Samsung BD-P1590. First off, it’s a refurb, but you still get a 3-month warrenty on a player that offers so much for the money. I would buy it.
This isn’t a stripped-down model. Oh no, this player is equipped with everything from BD-Live playback to Netflix, Blockbuster, YouTube, and Pandora support. Plus it has the usual HDMI outputs and all the rest. Totally worth it for only $100. [TigerDirect via DealNews]
Oh, Mobile World Congress — how we love thee. You’re still a few days away, and already word of new handsets is trickling out.
The guys at TheUnwired just caught this billboard going up in Barcelona, showing what appears to be the world’s first Bada phone: the Samsung Wave. There’s not a whole lot to be gleaned from the ad, outside of the fact that it’s got a camera, what looks like a touchscreen display, and that it is, of course, running Bada. Samsung’s got a press announcement scheduled for this Sunday – expect to see this one make an appearance.
Be sure to tune in for all of our Mobile World Congress coverage, beginning February 15th.
[ via GSMArena]
I’ll admit that I love me some Skype. I get to call and video chat with all my buddies from overseas without hefty fees, except I was accustomed to doing it only where Wi-Fi was available. While AT&T and Apple have made some recent policy changes to allow VoIP over 3G, it looks like Verizon and Skype are partnering up do to a little of the same.
Verizon and Skype are going to hold a joint news conference at Mobile World Congress next week, but they didn’t reveal any details about the event. The only thing that could possibly be gleaned from this announcement is that the two are working to make the nation’s biggest 3G network that much sweeter. It’s what I’m holding my breath for when John Stratton, executive VP and chief marketing officer at Verizon Wireless, and Josh Silverman, CEO of Skype, take the stage. Although seeing them do a rendition of “Cruisin’” would be pretty interesting, too.
[via Verizon Wireless]
By Sky Canaves, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Recently we reported on a pair of Google (GOOG) knockoff sites–Goojje.com and Youtubecn.com–that sprang up in the days following the U.S. Internet giant’s announcement that it might withdraw from the Chinese market.
The sites, and the savvy Chinese Web users behind them, have garnered a lot of attention from domestic and foreign media, which isn’t necessarily a plus.
Google has sent a “cease-and-desist” letter to the folks behind the shanzhai-style Goojje site, asking them to stop copying Google’s trademarked logo, said a Google spokeswoman, and the company may choose to take legal action if they do not comply.
Goojje appears to be defiant. A page-one story in the state-run Global Times this week reported that the site’s founder refused to bow to pressure from the Internet giant, asserting that Chinese Internet users can clearly see the differences between the two sites.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
Yesterday we broke the news that Aardvark, the social search engine, was being acquired by Google for $50 million. Aardvark confirmed the acquisition to us yesterday (though they didn’t comment on the amount), and now Google and Aardvark have publicly announced the deal with posts to their official blogs, along with some more details about how Aardvark will be integrated with Google.
Unlike some of Google’s past startup acquisitions that resulted in services shutting down or restricting new user signups, Aardvark is going to continue running at full steam. New users can still sign up, and it’s already featured as part of Google Labs (though it hasn’t been integrated with Google search at all — it’s just a link to Vark.com).
As far as changes to the service, a Q&A on the Aardvark blog says that they’ll be able to move faster as Google puts its support behind it (some Googlers will be joining the Aardvark team).
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile
Based on previous confidentiality dates filed on FCC paperwork, AT&T may be selling the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus as early as May. Other Palm devices have tracked similarly through the FCC and launched very close to the end of the confidentiality date. We expect the AT&T versions will follow the same route.
So far, the Palm Pre Plus is available on Verizon. Now that it looks near when the phones will launch on AT&T, it will be interesting to see how a class smartphone with tethering is priced compared to AT&T’s other big smartphone that lacks AT&T supported tethering.
Sprint, the launch partner for the original Palm Pre and Pixi, still does not show any signs of taking in the upgrade featuring more ram and tethering hotspot. Sprint and Palm have been buddy-buddy since the intro of the Pre back last year. Could Sprint the first to gain a touchscreen-only Palm/webOS device? Clearly, this has to be an area Palm’s considered as many of us find the keys on the Pre and even the Pixi to be less than perfect.
Or will an update to webOS be enough? Rumor has it 1.4 is set to drop on Monday and it will bring a video capture and editing application, a host of calendar and messaging improvements, and enhancement to battery life and usability. It is also popular that Palm could announce that, like in the US, it will add more carriers in Europe.
Or will Pre and Pre Plus owners get an update that will enable Flash 10.1? Word is Pixi is left off this one to help differentiate the devices. Our feeling is this is a reach for Palm.
Arguably the slickest mobile OS out there, we expect big things from the webOS as more and more users come to appreciate it. You can check out Gadgetell’s photo gallery of the new Pre Plus and Pixi Plus launched last month at CES.
Read: [SFGate]
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Suspense and anticipation are sometimes far more satisfying than the actual reward, but I’m hoping that’s not the case for T-Mobile. From its official Twitter account, T-Mobile USA taunts us and pokes at what little we apparently know about the HTC HD2. Then it makes us wait a whole week before we find out what the hype is all about.
Of course, we already know that the HD2 is coming to T-Mobile, so that offers us slight reprieve if nothing else. If you’ve been drooling over video footage and galleries of the HD2, or you’ve been lucky enough to somehow manage to temporarily get your hands on one, I can feel your pain. Just remember, patience is a virtue. Or something like that.
[T-Mobile Twitter page via Engadget]
Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.
Google’s Sergey Brin took the stage at the TED conference this morning for a brief discussion about the search giant’s recent declaration that it will pull out of the country if it has to continue to censor results.
Google has been quiet about its plans in China since it said a month ago that it was contemplating leaving the country over a range of issues centered on onerous censorship laws there.
Explaining Google’s “new approach” to China in a Jan. 12 blog post, chief legal officer David Drummond wrote:
“We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”
While not adding a lot more to what has been said, Brin did shed some light on his own and Google’s thinking.
While the Google (GOOG) co-founder would not directly blame the Chinese government for the security attacks on his company, or for others, he did note that the entity was so huge that there was no telling where they came from.
“It might represent a fragment” of the government, he said, although he did not give any specifics, in a short Q&A interview with curator Chris Anderson at TED, which has been taking place this week in Long Beach, Calif.
Brin also noted that he wished all those who underwent cyberattacks, as Google claims it has, would go public.
“If all companies came forward, we’d all be better,” he said.
As to where Google goes from here, after declaring its “intent” to withdraw from China, Brin said the company would definitely not censor political results in the future.
That said–nearly a month after the original statement, Google does continue to censor search results in China.
This will end, Brin seemed to indicate, although he did allow that other kinds of censorship around porn or gambling barred by Chinese law, similar to what Google does in other countries, would remain in place.
Brin said he did not know how the situation would turn out or if Google would come to some kind of compromise.
But he said he is “always optimistic” about some kind of detente with China.
“We want to find a way to work within the Chinese system,” said Brin, but without having to censor political results. “A lot of people might think I am naive and that might be true.”
During Apple’s iPad event in January, CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple now had over 140,000 apps in the App Store (along with over 3 billion downloads). If the numbers by app analytics company Distimo are correct, that number is now past 150,000.
But the App Store is growing so big, so quickly that these milestones alone are hardly noteworthy anymore. But Distimo also offers up some nice data along with the milestone number. For example, of the 150,000 apps, some 75% are paid applications while only 25% are free. This is in stark contrast to the second largest app store, Android Market, where recent data suggests that over 60% of the app there are free.
Something else that’s very interesting is that the highest percentage of apps in the App Store are now paid book applications. In total, there are over 27,000 book apps in the store, and of those 92% are paid apps, according to Distimo’s data. That number bodes very well for Apple’s soon-to-be-released iPad, of which a big selling point will be the new iBooks application. There has been a lot of talk about how the iPad won’t hurt the Kindle because the Amazon device’s e-ink makes reading more enjoyable. And while it’s true that e-ink is easier on your eyes (thank a backlit screen), it seems that iPhone owners simply don’t care — again, great news for the iPad.
In terms of overall app numbers, games still rule, with over 28,000 of them in the store. But a much higher percentage of those are free versus the percentage of free book apps. All told, both games and book are far and away the two most popular categories in the App Store, with entertainment in third with just over 20,000 apps. And the numbers drop quickly from there. Education is the fourth most popular category, but that means only 10,000+ apps.
Barbie, the favorite of little girls everywhere, has been a teenage fashion model, concert pianist, astronaut and even a Miss America. A computer geek was the one missing career in the 124 that this blonde bombshell has had.
But now there’s a new Barbie, with glasses and a Bluetooth earpiece, and boasting of being a computer engineer.
Barbie designers say they worked with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering to ensure that accessories, clothing and packaging were “realistic and representative of a real computer engineer.”
“Geek chic,” as they call it, means computer engineer Barbie wears a t-shirt featuring a binary code and carries a smart phone, a laptop case, and tops it up with some stylish pink glasses.
Overall, the effect is very Elle Woods a.k.a Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. Still, I am amazed it has taken till 2010 to get a Barbie that carries around a laptop. Now the question is, is it a Mac or a PC?
Here’s a full length photo of Barbie, the computer engineer
Photos: Mattel
Nothing against PR folks (many of whom I like quite a bit!), but I don’t tend to write about them getting new jobs or leaving old ones. This is a rare exception: Ed Adler, who has been the chief public relations guy at Time Warner (TWX) since forever, is stepping down.
No replacement has been named, and if Adler has a new gig, he hasn’t announced it yet.
Adler is the kind of old-school big-media gatekeeper/messenger you see less and less of these days, simply because there’s more flux among old-school big-media companies.
Beyond that, he’s of note among us media types for a couple of reasons:
In case you haven't heard already, Final Fantasy I and II are heading for the iPhone. Originally released in Japan in 1987 and 1988, respectively, for the NES, it took a while for the now legendary RPGs to go America, but they did (on various platforms). And now Square Enix is planning special versions for the iPhone/iPod touch, both in Japanese and English.
Section: Audio, Video, Communications, Computers, Gadgets / Other, Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack
Welcome to another Who’s on Crack where we look back with all the power of hindsight and use it have some fun at companys that hit it just off the mark. This week we’ll look at:
Our Natesh Sood writes, “on March 2, 2010, TiVo will be holding an event in New York City presumably regarding some new innovating technology. The flyer they have sent around includes the phrase “Inventing The DVR Was Just A Warmup.” For TiVO DVR enthusiasts, this is definitely exciting news.”
I am a huge fan of TiVo (I’ve got the HD) and if they are not talking about legal proceedings here (they’ve been embattled in lawsuits with DVR providers for years) then this could be big. TiVo created the DVR category, or at least made it mainstream to the point of “just TiVo it” creeped into our language to define a category. What are they up to next?
Many point to the leak of TiVo Premier which would seem to fall short of the hype they are looking to build. Premeire is essentially an upgrade to the UI to handle HD (they are not that late, oh wait, yes they are) and will probably do apps like everything else. Sidebar, I was looking up new apps for my microwave yesterday and…nevermind.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d be psyched for Premier, but will it make inventing the DVR look like a warmup? I think not.
Proving yet again that you can’t believe everything you read, even if it is on Facebook and Motorola’s own support site, as was a pending update of the Droid to Android 2.1 from Motorola. Again our Natesh wrote, “it’s a wonder why details about Android 2.1 were posted not only on Facebook but their support website, which have since been removed. Matt claims people inside Motorola posted information about the release prematurely, probably due to enthusiasm. While it may seem like a little error on Motorola’s part, it definitely annoyed DROID owners because they were on the verge of receiving a pretty nice update. Who knows exactly when the update will become available at this point. “
Whoops-a-daisy. 2.1 looks to be a pretty big update in the way the OS looks with some handy widgets and the like. Let’s hope Motorola gets it together and gets 2.1 out soon.
The rumors again swirl on Amazon purportedly giving free Kindles to Prime members. Our Robert Nelson reports, “the story suggests that Amazon is looking for a way to give ALL Amazon Prime customers a free Kindle. The catch here is that Amazon is said to still be working on a way to do that without losing a bunch of money.”
Amazon finally looks to be thinking about longevity. If they get Kindles in folks hands, they’ve be less like to duplicate the device with, say, an iPad. Then they are locked in to Amazon’s book choices and theoretically, Amazon should profit. We’ve got to wonder just how much Amazon fears the iPad - could they open this offer up to all who seek a free Kindle? How much would that upset the early adapters?
This week, our Andrew Kameka wrote (in a very nice piece, I might add), “Warner Music Group, one of the world’s largest music conglomerates, has said it will stop licensing songs to free music streaming services.” This move will severely impact some of our favorite sites like Pandora, Slacker, Spotify and more.
So I am getting ready to protest Warner Music. Who needs them, I thought, let’s take it to the street (or at least delete channels that have their music). Then I stopped and looked at exactly who is Warner Music. I was stopped dead in my tracks.
A-Ha.
Damn, they got me.There is no way we can live without the Norwegian synth band tour de force that is a-ha. Take on Me is perhaps the finest thing ever to flow out of my computers speakers and is oft compared with the likes of Beethoven and Brahms. But those crackers didn’t have music videos to take music to a new level like a-ha did. Behold the comic book story that hit MTV like a wave of hungry ants over a falling, melting Popsicle stick.
I mean, really folks, look at their hair. Awesome.
Warner’s also go the likes of Twisted Sister, Guns and Roses, Winger and many more popular artists. There is no way we can live with them, ok, mostly without a-ha. Warner knows this and they are going to make us pay in typical music label fashion. Look later this year for the “SAVE a-ha” shirts in the Gadgetell gift shop.
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
The land rush for iPad developers has begun in earnest. In its latest Smartphone Industry Pulse, Flurry Analytics notes that iPhone app development spiked following Apple’s (AAPL) official unveiling of the iPad.
The mobile analysis firm observed that the number of developers adding the iPhone tracking code to new projects rose from 600 in December to over 1,600 in January (see chart below; click to enlarge). Driving that threefold increase: Enthusiasm generated by Apple’s iPad event.
“Historically, Flurry has measured surges in new application starts within its system in anticipation of new device launches, including for the Motorola Droid and iPhone 3GS,” Flurry’s Peter Farago explained.
“As such,” Farago noted, “we hypothesize that excitement generated by Apple’s iPad event in January is driving this growth. For developers who get a jump on customizing their applications for the iPad, there may be an opportunity to stand out early on, and earn more downloads.”
A reasonable assumption–with an important caveat: Developers really haven’t had much time to play with the iPad software development kit, yet.
“I think this data has more to do with iPhone application growth after the holiday break than it does developers ramping up for iPad,” Raven Zachary, president of Small Society and an iPhone evangelist, told me.
“We only had access to the iPad SDK for the last five days of January,” Zachary explained. “Generally, developers don’t integrate analytics at the very beginning of a development project. February and March will be far more representative of new iPad development projects. I would expect a bump specific to iPad then.”
That said, Flurry’s metrics are certainly worth noting because they suggest that developer interest in the iPhone platform is far from hitting a plateau. This is particularly true given the prospect of building new iPad-specific applications that take advantage of the device’s increased screen real estate and that speedy little A4 chip it’s running.
[Image credit: Gizmodo/Akis Alekozidis]
By Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a new study examining Match.com and eHarmony suggests that both have their faults.
Catalyst Group, a New York usability-research firm, reviewed the two popular dating sites with an eye toward how they walk customers through profiles, finding matches and making contact.
The study considered feedback from eight users of each site (four men and four women) who had been a date with someone they contacted through it in the past month.
Among the findings: eHarmony, which markets itself to people seeking serious relationships, “was preferred by people who would prefer a high degree of handholding,” but experienced users find the profiles “formulaic.” Some also bristle at how they see potential matches — as chosen by eHarmony, not by a search of their choosing.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
It’s finally happening. Maybe. According to sources close to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is going to make a pretty big announcement at Mobile World Congress on February 15. After acknowledging that Windows Mobile isn’t exactly where it should be in terms of development and platform progression, Microsoft appears to be ready to announce and unveil Windows Mobile 7. But what happened to WinMo 6.5.3?
Microsoft’s bridge between WinMo 6.5 and WinMo 7 is 6.5.3, but if 7 will be announced and ready to go soon, I doubt anyone will be sore about missing an inconsequential update to the latest version of the OS. After all, according to WSJ, Windows Mobile 7 is a slick operating system that “sports a revamped user interface that resembles the look of Microsoft’s Zune HD music player.” If you’re the impatient type who needs time frames, Windows 7 devices are slated to be released later this year.
Windows Mobile 7 isn’t all Microsoft has up its sleeve. Although we’ve been hearing about project Pink for months now, to the point where I’ve personally given up hope, MWC just might be the venue for another surprise. Apparently, Pink is going to be announced as a youth-oriented device geared toward the Sidekick crowd. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t suffer the same fate that Sidekick users did a few months ago.
Be sure to stay tuned for our coverage of Mobile World Congress 2010!
Who could have guessed that simple gestures like pinch-to-zoom would make or break a phone experience for some people? With Android 2.1 slowly rolling out to most Android handsets out there, HTC decided to step up its game and bring that multitouch action into its own UI. But before you start getting uppity about when it’s coming, do not that this video is coming from Japan on a unit that may or may not have been hacked. In my eyes, it looks too good not to be real; call it wishful thinking. Hit the break for a video demo of the UI.
[via Know Your Cell]
Sagem’s SIMFi is one of those ideas that you wish you had come up with yourself. The concept is pretty straightforward: they’ve created a SIM card with an embedded WiFi radio, so provided you have a suitable data plan, the card itself puts out a WiFi signal instead of relying on the phone. For anyone who’s ever needed internet access on a laptop, with no other tools besides the phone in their pocket, this is a potential godsend. Tethering a handset to a computer for internet access used to occur on a strictly phone-by-phone basis. Have a BlackBerry? Read a few tutorials and you’re pretty much set. Ditto for the iPhone, and most Android and Windows Mobile devices. But where does that leave you if all you’ve got in your pocket is a phone with a cigarette lighter built into it?
Well, provided there’s a SIMFi in it, you’re ready to tether like the big boys, with the added bonus of being able to light a celebratory cigar with your phone. No word yet on availability or pricing, but we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled at Mobile World Congress for any developments.
[Press Release, via SlashGear]
Good news, BlackBerry users! Someday, sometime, sort of soonish, the good people at Research in Motion are going to support Twitter, via their own app.
What’s that, you say? It’s 2010, Twitter is Oprah-endorsed mainstream, and there’s no shortage of Twitter apps that work with BlackBerry?
Well, you’re right, of course. One of Twitter’s core strengths is its open platform, which allows developers to build any Twitter app they want. And there are indeed a whole lot of Berry-compatible apps.
So the fact that RIM (RIMM) is just now–actually, not even now, since the thing is still in invite-only beta–rolling out an officially endorsed client is telling, I think.
And yes, Apple (AAPL), among other mobile platforms, has done just fine without an official Twitter app of its own. But I use both, and I can say with confidence that apps on the BlackBerry are an entirely different experience from those on the iPhone/iPod platform.
Load up an app via iTunes and you can be reasonably sure that it’s not going to crash your phone or chew up your memory. You can’t say that about a Twitter client on a BlackBerry, unfortunately.
So. The good news is that the RIM-endorsed client should resolve that problem. (Right?) The bad news is that this is still a future-tense proposition.
 The Hindu | Amazon may compete with Apple iPad by giving away free Kindles Apple Insider As Amazon's e-book business continues to evolve in the wake of the Apple iPad announcement, a new rumor suggests the company is exploring the possibility of giving a Kindle reader to its best customers. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch ... Amazon considering free Kindles for Amazon Prime subscribers? Publishers, Amazon Grope Toward Truce In Post-iPad World LG will duke it out with Amazon and Apple |
Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Netbooks
What do you get when you put a smartphone’s innards into a netbook chassis? A Compaq Airlife 100, of course! Except that HP decided to call it a “smartbook”, which seems to suggest the smartphone-netbook hybrid nature of the Airlife 100. It is said to feature a Snapdragon processor (rumored), a 16GB SSD, 3G and WiFi connectivity, and a 10.1-inch touchscreen display. It even runs on an Android OS. HP also added that the battery has enough juice for up to 12 hours of continuous usage, and up to 10 days in standby mode! Scary, I know. My cellphone doesn’t even last that long on standby.
For now, it will be rolling out in the Europe and Latin America only. According to rumors, it may be placed under the HP Mini line of netbooks, which is quite a reasonable assumption, when it begins shipping in the US. No words on the price, though.
Via [Engadget]
Full Story » | Written by Cheng Hung for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
By Sarmad Ali, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Wireless-data traffic is expected to double every year through 2014, driven by a sharp increase in the volume of handheld devices as well as mobile video content, according to a Cisco report.
Data use will surge as cellphone makers produce more Web-enabled handsets. Cisco (CSCO) says there could be more than five billion such devices connected to mobile networks in four years.
The company expects smart phones and Internet-enabled laptops to drive 90 percent of mobile traffic within five years, by which time 400 million consumers will access the Internet through a mobile connection only.
India will see the highest increase in smart-phone penetration, which will triple over the same period, and the sharpest uptick in smart-phone users, which is expected to quintuple.
Read the rest of this post on the original site
 Financial Times | Three Industries Apple iPad Will Disrupt Atlantic Online Apple is prepared to start selling TV shows for one dollar to build interest in its celebrated new iPad. Today, television shows on iTunes sell for $2.99, but Apple is hoping that the reduced price will either juice interest in its new shiny hardware ... Kevin Smith tells all at Macworld 2010 Apple Will Sell $1 TV Shows for iPad, Report Suggests Macworld goes on without Apple |
Section: Computers, Gadgets / Other
LG’s CEO KW Kim has recently begun spilling details about an upcoming product. Sadly though, in this case the details are more of just a tease than something to truly look forward to seeing. So far, what we can tell you is that Kim told Emirates Business that they (LG) “will soon launch a new product, maybe by April.” And that the new product will be able to compete with Amazon and Apple.
Based on that one would, and really can only assume that it will be a tablet style device that also serves as an ebook reader. That said, this news, while interesting should not be all that surprising considering LG has been showing off ereader technology such as a solar powered ebook reader and solar illuminated LCD displays for a little while now.
Read [Emirates Business] Via [E-Reader-info] and [Engadget]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Square is an iPhone credit card payment system from Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, and it has just entered public beta. Square lets anyone with an iPhone accept payments from a credit card using an iPhone app and a small card-reader dongle which plugs into the iPhone’s headphone jack. Square is different from other solutions because it is designed for individuals, not big-business. All you need to start is the widget and an account at Square. Check the video:
All you do is enter the cash sum, swipe and have your “customer” sign the screen with their finger. If they are a Square member, too, you can see a picture on-screen to check they really are who they say they are. The buyer can have a receipt sent to them via SMS or email.
It all looks super-slick and even fun (when was the last time you said that about paying by credit card), but the real revolution will come if this goes mainstream. There are more than 40 million iPhones in the world, which is a huge market. Imagine paying the hot-dog guy with your Visa, or having the girl-scouts swipe your card at their lemonade stand. All those small transactions that still use cash are covered.
If you want to try it out, you’ll need to join the line by submitting your email address. Right now, terms and condition (and the cut presumably taken by Square) are still under wraps, but this could be the beginning of the end for cash, in the credit-card crazy USA, at least.
Square [Squareup]
Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks
The last time we heard rumblings about a free Kindle, it was really nothing more than a gimmick that allowed select “pre-qualified customers” to purchase a Kindle and then request a refund should they not like it. The gimmick here was that, once they admitted they did not like the Kindle, they were still allowed to keep it. Strange perk considering you hated it enough to want a refund. Anyway, this latest offer seems to be a little more legitimate. Of course, at this point it is nothing more than the word of a “reliable source” of TechCrunch.
But putting that aside, the story suggests that Amazon is looking for a way to give ALL Amazon Prime customers a free Kindle. The catch here is that Amazon is said to still be working on a way to do that without losing a bunch of money.
As far as Amazon Prime, for those unfamiliar, it it a subscription service that costs $79 per year and allows customers to always get two day shipping for free.
The theory here is that if they give a free Kindle to those customers they can make up for any upfront loss with future purchases. The part that makes me question this is that regular Kindle readers may not need Amazon Prime. Personally, I have been reading about 2 or 3 books per month on my Kindle. By itself that is a decent amount, but I also do not need the free shipping perk that comes with Amazon Prime because I use the Kindle for delivery.
Read [TechCrunch]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Vodafone in the UK has introduced a range of SIM-only tariffs. Hands up if you can guess why. Yes, you at the back there, speak up. That’s right. The iPhone. A gold star for you.
In the UK, you can now get an iPhone from pretty much any carrier, which is good news for new customers. If you already have an iPhone, though, a new handset is little incentive to switch, so Vodafone’s new plans make a lot of sense. There is of course a confusion of different rates and options, but it boils down to this: All plans except the cheapest £10 ($15) per-month option have unlimited texts. Paying anything above £20 also gets you 500MB of data, and you will only be on-contract for thirty days.
Choose to sign up for a year and £25-per-month also gets you a gig of data and 900 minutes of talking. There are more variations, but they’re almost all the same as these.
Those are pretty good deals, although not as good as the almost unlimited data you get from UK telco O2 even on the pay-as-you-go iPhone plan. This is what happens when the market is opened up to competition.
What this also hints at is the future for the iPad. In the US there is already an AT&T deal in place, but as the iPad will come unlocked, we imagine pretty much every GSM provider in the world will be offering up SIM-only, data-only plans. And those plans should be a lot easier to understand: Price and bandwidth limits are about the only differences that count. Here’s hoping there’s a price war.
SIM only plans [Vodafone]
FROM GAMERTELL - MacSoft and MacPlay are gone. Aspyr is around, but they focus largely on PC and console titles. Where does that leave me? Wandering aisles at Macworld 2010 looking for Mac gaming goodness.
MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Doxie is a cheap, simple and easy-to-use document scanner that launched this week at the Macworld Expo. The slim, portable scanner uses USB bus-power to turn paper into PDFs, jpegs or lossless png files, and - here’s the twist - it then sends them directly off to the cloud.
The specs: scans can be done at up to 600dpi in 24bit color, and as fast as 12 seconds per page (if you turn off color and lower the resolution). That’s about it. Doxie shifts all the heavy lifting off to either your computer or the cloud, which is the reason for the small package and the lowish price.
In fact, the internet is the real point here. If you use Doxie’s cloud service, you can store pictures and documents and have their URLs shared or Tweeted automatically for you. Better is integration with existing services like Flickr and Picasa for photos, or Evernote and Google Docs for text (and subsequent OCR scanning).
If you don’t like sharing everything, the companion software will crop and straighten your photos and add them direct to Lightroom or iPhoto, and let you choose what to do with documents, too. In short, if you deal with a lot of paper, this could be a cheap and simple solution. Available late March.
Doxie scanner [Get Doxie]
DIY projects are all about sweat, tears and learning from mistakes. Just ask a group of electronics hobbyists that recently launched a $25 balloon bought off eBay with a payload carrying an Android G1 phone, two cameras and other assorted electronics up to nearly 70,000 feet in the air.
“Fundamentally, we are all space enthusiasts,” says Mikolaj Habryn, one of the participants.”We wanted to see if you can get a balloon up to high altitudes that can be ultimately used for ideas such as mounting a telescope or measuring radiation levels.”
The team successfully launched the balloon and gathered some great photographs but also made some fatal mistakes in their planning.
The entire project conceived and launched in just about a week comes from members of Noisebridge, a collectively operated hacker space in San Francisco.
In just a week, the group bought the equipment and built a balloon. The balloon itself is a military surplus weather balloon that weighs about 5 pounds and when inflated can lift 15 pounds to 20 pounds.
For the payload, the team put two cameras that were tweaked for time-lapse photography. The cameras were programmed to take snapshots every 30 seconds.
“Because we were worried about temperature problems, we put it inside an insulated cooler,” says Habryn.
They also included a ham radio with a position beacon and a GPS that that could work at high altitudes.
With some help from his colleagues at Google, Habryn programmed the T-Mobile phone to send its GPS co-ordinates through text messaging whenever in range of a cellular network.
“We had some custom software that would also record all the data from the phone’s sensors … such as the accelerometers and GPS and save it to the phone’s internal memory,” says Habryn.
This news nugget will have you smacking your forehead and crying “Why didn’t I think of that!?” Sagem and Telefónica have taken a regular old cellphone SIM card, and stuffed a Wi-Fi radio inside. Even the name is obvious: SIMFi.
It works like this: You pop the card into a cellphone, and “SIM toolkit applets”, essentially control software on the card itself, take care of settings and broadcast. The radio inside creates a hotspot to share your 3G HSPA connection via Wi-Fi. It is ingenious.
With the huge Telefónica as part of the partnership, you can expect a big push. And because this will work on almost any phone, and replaces something you have to have anyway - a SIM - there’s no reason that this shouldn’t be in every cellphone in the next couple of years. The SIMFi will be launched at next week’s MWC trade-show in Barcelona, Spain, where we should find out dates and pricing.
Sagem Orga and Telefonica turn the SIM card into a Wi-Fi hotspot [Sagem]
Photo: kalleboo/Flickr
Joby has expanded its line of plucky, bendy tripods to include one for the iPod Touch. The product can be bought either as a kit with a case and a three-legged stand or - if you already own a Gorillapod - just the case, which hugs the iPod touch snugly in soft-touch plastic with cutouts for the dock connector, the home button and the volume rocker.
The best thing about the Gorillapod is that it is so easy to carry. Throw the flexible, pole-gripping ‘pod into a bag and it takes up almost no room, bending to fit the space like a spare pair of socks. I took a small one away last weekend and foiled my father’s lame attempt to stay out of a family photo by whipping the little tripod out and quickly setting up my Panasonic GF1, while my dad was still huffing and pretending he couldn’t find the self timer on my mother’s camera.
The iPod Touch version isn’t for taking photos of course, but it’ll prop the iPod up nicely for watching movies. And if you buy the kit, you get all the tripod screw and sticky-pad accessories to use with your camera. Better still, at $35 it’s only $5 more than the basic version. $35, or $20 for the case on its own.
Gorillapod for iPod Touch [Joby. Thanks, Mark!]
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I started thinking, and We're talking about taking the penis of one man and putting it in the rectum of another man, and wiggling it around in excrement, and you have to think.... hmmm, not sure, would I allow that to happen to me?
In a move that may pay nice dividends, Motorola has decided to split the company into two main divisions. With each division focusing on its strengths, Motorola should be able to effectively produce better products all around and contribute to the overall wealth of the company. Yesterday, Motorola confirmed the split of the company would take place in the first quarter of 2011. So while it is not immediate, it is definitely on the horizon and I’m sure they will start making decisions with the split in mind. 
This is what it looks like in motion. You still have to use the traditional iPhone control scheme of putting your left thumb over 1/6 of the screen, and your right thumb over another 1/6. But still, it's not like this is an action game where you need to see everything on the screen at once. And that's why it'll theoretically transition well to the iPhone, letting you pick up the action whenever you've got a free second, but being able to save/pause when it's your turn at the post office. [
Boring eBook
Boring Sergey
Microsoft’s latest security patch has left XP users with BSOD’s and unusable systems. The company’s support forums have been flooded with complaints from angry users since the release of MS10-015. 
