title stringlengths 2 283 ⌀ | author stringlengths 4 41 ⌀ | year int64 2.01k 2.02k | month int64 1 12 | day int64 1 31 | content stringlengths 1 111k ⌀ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Somebody Named Peter Ha Reviews The iPad 2 | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 9 | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG4Q4yG5PVE&w=640&h=390]
I don’t know who this hippie is, or who he he is, but . He’s recorded this video for a publication called “The Daily,” whatever that is, and uploaded it to some video sharing service. Wait, is that I this guy. Oh yeah, . |
OS X And Safari First Casualty At Pwn2Own Hacking Contest | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 9 | The annual “ ” contest has just kicked off at CanSecWest, and . A fully-patched Snow Leopard machine running Safari was made to launch an application (Calculator) and write a file, just from visiting a specific web page. It didn’t even crash the browser! The exploit is in Webkit, meaning it could potentially apply to iOS browsers as well, though that has yet to be demonstrated. And to be fair, most of the other browser/OS combos will get taken down over the next couple days as well. |
China Switches To Homegrown CPUs For Supercomputers, Cites "Dependence On Foreign Technology" | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 9 |
We’ve had a few editorials here lately regarding China. I wrote about in disapproving of there, and John wrote how the lowest-price-possible culture still extant in much Chinese manufacturing is . Throughout, I think there has always been a sort of grudging admiration for the way that country is capable of single-mindedly pursuing certain difficult goals via public-private alignment, investing billions in infrastructure in order to be a market leader ten or twenty years down the line. One development I wasn’t aware of was their effort to separate themselves from western companies in the computing field. While many of the chip manufacturers and specialized factories used by Intel, AMD, Nvidia, and ARM are located in China, the design work is largely done internally, and in this respect Intel et al. are literally decades ahead of the “competition,” which really is nothing of the sort. This is something China wants to fix — and they’re taking concrete steps towards doing so. They’re now in the process of a big switch to Chinese-made processors in their supercomputers, the kinds of room-filling machines you find at research centers, universities, military facilities, and so on. Currently, the National University of Defense Technology’s “Tianhe-1A” (Milky Way/Sky River) is the world’s fastest supercomputer, and it runs on Intel and Nvidia chips — 21,522 of them, comprising around 2.5 petaflops of data-crunching power. But the new “Dawning 6000” is to be built entirely from “Loongson” chips, designed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and built, ironically, by a European company, ST Microelectronics. It will have less than half the processing power of Tianhe-1A. The chief designer of the new chips, Hu Weiwu, regarding the chip’s origins: “Our information industry was using foreign technology. However, just like a country’s industry cannot always depend on foreign steel and oil, China’s information industry needs its own CPU.” Admirable! But, as I mentioned in Our Great Sin, many in American industries are loath to take this step. The benefits of a global manufacturing economy are too convenient, and the prices too competitive, for us to cut ties. Imagine the US and China are playing with a bunch of toys. The US is mad that many of the toys belong to the China, but we’re unwilling to invest in a toybox as big as the other guy’s. China, on the other hand, sees the toys the US has and starts building new ones to replace them, so if the US packs up and leaves, China won’t have anything to play with. Is this metaphor too much? Probably. This isn’t a recent development, and it isn’t a “hobby.” China’s been making CPUs for almost 10 years now, though it’s only recently that they’ve even begun to approach the level of effectiveness provided by western systems. And even then, Hu cautions that “it still needs another decade before China-made chips meet the needs of the domestic market. Hopefully after two decades, we will be able to sell our China-made CPUs to the US just like we are selling clothes and shoes.” Still, they’re on track to reach their goal of converting their supercomputers to domestically-developed CPUs by the end of 2011. In other words, they may be able to manufacture our chips at a 20nm level, but their CPU design and software are still pretty much in the dark ages. Tianhe-1A runs a Linux-based system (which, although it has largely American origins, should really be considered the first post-national OS) and uses a MIPS architecture that emulates x86. I’ll give the computer scientists reading this a moment to clean the coffee off their monitors. But yes, this is where they’re at, and although they’re a decade from producing a world-friendly laptop or mobile that’s Chinese from processor to case to OS, make no mistake: they’re taking dead aim. The point is they’re cutting the global cord when it comes to CPUs, a very difficult thing to do when the entire world runs on just a few brands, and those brands spend billions every year to maintain market dominance. Splitting off from the majors and declaring independence, no matter the cost. Sound familiar? Yeah, for a long time that was kind of the American way. We still maintain a huge advantage in internet-based properties, IP, biotech, and culture, but in areas we’re trailing, it seems we don’t have the backbone to say “your product may be better and cheaper, but we’re going to build our own, because dammit, ” Perhaps we’re reaching the end of a period of natural Chinese ascendancy (as they emerge from industrialization hell and mobilize their billion-strong human resources on the world more efficiently) and perhaps not, but tech is notoriously difficult to predict, and a few breakthroughs and funding rounds might put the US on top in growing fields like battery tech or low-carbon manufacturing. It’s too late for us to lead the world in the areas China specializes in, and if we’re not careful, their sovereign writs of bootstrapping will only increase the number of those areas. It sounds a bit jingoistic, but it’s really not (though I’m aware my saying so doesn’t make it so); I’d feel the same way if it were France, Brazil, or Canada opting out of the microprocessor hegemony. It’s just that nobody likes the kid with all the toys. : Many commenters seem to think (I don’t know why, it’s not implied by this article) that China is copying or ripping off Intel &c. That is not the case. The latest Loongson processor is the result of ten years of research. We’re not talking about some sweatshop churning out cloned Core 2 Duos. This is hundreds of millions in R&D producing an original product to replace foreign technology China was uncomfortable relying on. [via ] |
Power Pod, A Practical, Pellet-Shaped Power Strip | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 9 |
Let’s be honest for a second. Our power strips are things we chose based on either price or functionality, not elegance or design. That’s okay! They sit behind our desks, quietly and modestly routing electricity and preventing surges. But what if you want one in plain view? Wouldn’t you like it to be… just a bit sexy? Coalesse has you covered. Their is a circular power strip (or power pellet) with room for six grounded plugs. It’s got surge protection, an on-off switch, and it looks nice enough to put on your desk. When not in use, you can use that sectioned thing to make it into a pen and paper clip holder. Maybe it’s just me, but storing metal paper clips inside power plugs just doesn’t sound like a good idea. You don’t have to do that, though, it’s just an option. The Power Pod will be available on March 21st for $99. Yeah, it’s expensive. Good design costs money. Or maybe you should cry about it! [via ] |
YC-Funded Earbits Brings A Twist To Music Startups: Online Radio That Lets Bands Pay For Playtime | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 3 | 9 |
It’s no secret that online music startups are incredibly challenging. It’s tough to build an audience, and even when you do, the licensing fees associated with streaming premium content are often deadly. It’s so difficult that Y Combinator founder Paul Graham asked imeem (and picplz) founder Dalton Caldwell to give at last year’s Startup School. Which is why today’s news is interesting: YC has invested in , an online radio startup with a twist. From the consumer’s perspective, Earbits is an online radio service similar in some ways to Pandora. After arriving at the site, you’ll be asked to choose from one of over 40 radio stations (though unlike Pandora you don’t seed your playlist with a band or song title ). Click on a genre and the music will start playing — a small, attractive player will be nested at the top of the page, and the rest of the screen will fill up with a large photo of the artist, with their bio and other relevant information below. In general, the design is very well done. Once the music starts playing you can thumbs up/down on songs, and you can skip to the next track if you don’t like the one that’s currently playing. In other words, it’s a lot like other online radio sites. But it comes with a big twist: Earbits will allow bands to pay to have their songs played more frequently (which is actually on terrestrial radio stations, unless the station publicly declares that a song is sponsored). But CEO Joey Flores is confident that it’s a model that both bands and users will benefit from. Users, he explains, will be exposed to high quality music they haven’t heard yet, and bands obviously get the exposure they’re fighting so hard to find. At this point the site is free for everyone, including bands. But eventually Earbits will allow artists to pay for airtime and to display additional relevant information alongside their songs — like banners promoting an upcoming concert, complete with links to purchase tickets. Flores says that Earbits wants to make this as easy as possible for artists, so the site will automatically pull in calendar dates from MySpace, ticket information, and other key content. The site is also doing some interesting things to help bands establish an online audience — for example, in order to share a song with friends, you have to ‘Like’ the artist’s Facebook Page.
Earbits isn’t dealing with the big labels (at least, not yet). Instead, it’s forging deals directly with smaller labels and artists, and is negotiating its own licensing terms. So far the site has signed deals with 1300 artists across 90 small labels and says more are on the way. Because Earbits is looking to provide new bands with a way to increase exposure, it’s also offering a self-serve signup form. Bands are asked to submit two songs initially, and after these are reviewed by the Earbits team for quality they are given the ability to upload as many songs as they’d like, which are then sorted by genre and inserted into Earbits’s radio rotation. Earbits was founded in January 2010 and initially launched last September. It’s since undergone a full redesign, which launched last week.
|
So We're Not Using Facebook Comments Anymore | John Biggs | 2,011 | 3 | 9 | I didn’t like them all that well either. We’re due for a redesign in the next few months so we’ll see what happens then. Until then, we’ll suffer with Disqus for a while longer. |
TechCrunch Review — The iPad 2: Yeah, You're Gonna Want One. | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 3 | 9 | In January 2010, shortly after its unveiling, I first got my hands on an iPad. My initial reaction? “ .” And that’s funny because here we are, just a little over a year into that future, and something new has come along that makes holding the iPad 1 feel like holding the past: the iPad 2. A week ago, after its unveiling, I got some hands on time with the new hardware and was that it pushed a device that already had no true competition, even farther ahead. But now I’ve had the chance to actually use the thing non-stop for a week. Is my feeling the same? Actually, it’s even stronger. The original iPad was considered a huge hit — but that was with no real competition. The iPad 2 has some competition — right now, the Xoom, and many more are coming. But I have no doubt that the iPad 2 will be an even bigger hit than the original. Here’s the peculiar thing about the iPad 2: if you’re just looking at it head on, it doesn’t really look any different than the iPad 1. Sure, there’s a tiny camera just above the screen, but you can barely see that. Unless you get the white version, it will be just like looking at the iPad 1. And that will undoubtedly lead some people to conclude that the iPad 2 isn’t that big of a deal. But as is the case with most Apple products, you really have to use it to safely make that assessment. The single biggest change form a physical perspective is the thickness. Holding the original iPad now feels a bit like holding a slightly bulky monitor compared to the iPad 2. The iPad 2 feels much more like holding a clipboard — albeit a mildly heavy one. The move to cut the thickness from 13.4mm down to 8.8mm really makes a huge difference when you switch from holding one to holding the other. And while the iPad 2 isn’t actually all that much lighter than the iPad 1 (about 700g versus 600g — depending on if you get the 3G or WiFi version, obviously), the change in thickness almost tricks you into thinking it is significantly lighter. Overall, the device has a much more fluid design. Apple notes that the body now consists of two parts instead of the three that made up the iPad 1. This makes it feel even more solid, and even more like a natural object instead of a machine. The tapered edges of the iPad 2 feel better in your hands. And those edges also make the buttons on the side and top more pronounced (and a bit easier to use). Of course, the tapered bottom also makes the dock connector a bit harder to use, but that’s a minor nit. Perhaps my favorite small upgrade is the main button. Previously, it was a somewhat heavy and loud click. Now it’s a light and quiet click. As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, the cameras on the device are not great. But it’s hard to imagine anyone using this as a point-and-shoot camera replacement — or even a smartphone camera replacement. Instead, the cameras are clearly meant for FaceTime and to shoot 720p HD movies (with the back camera) that can then be edited on the fly using the new iMovie app (more on that below). The battery life remains excellent. Apple made a point of saying that despite the new thinness, they didn’t sacrifice battery life. From my use this past week, that does seem to be the case. But the biggest changes to the hardware that people will care about are undoubtedly the upgraded processor and RAM. Apple has stated that the iPad 2 uses their new A5 chip, which is a dual-core chip, meaning it’s much more powerful than its predecessor, the A4. They have not said anything in terms of the RAM included in the iPad 2, but it seems fairly obvious at this point that it has double the RAM (512 MB) of the original iPad, putting it on equal footing with the iPhone 4. Do these upgrades make a huge difference? It depends. For more memory intensive apps, obviously the answer is going to be yes. The Daily is a good example of this. It launches and works much more smoothly on the iPad 2 than on the iPad 1. And that’s without any optimization being done on their side. Certain games like Infinity Blade also load faster and generally seem to run a bit more smoothly. App switching as a whole is clearly faster. And you can have many more Safari browser windows open at once before Apple starts reloading them. But the truth is that most of the apps weren’t slow to begin with on the iPad. The real key here will be what developers are able to do now that they know they have this second core and more RAM available to them. I suspect we’re going to see a lot of game-changing apps spring up on the iPad 2 that weren’t possible before. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s exactly why Apple made GarageBand and iMovie — to show developers what they can now do. iMovie iPad 2-only (though it is available for the iPhone 4 as well). And they are awesome (again, more below). Speaking of software, earlier today, Apple unveiled iOS 4.3. It’s the OS that will come pre-installed on the iPad 2. There’s nothing hugely different from an aesthetic perspective from iOS 4.2, but a little digging does reveal some welcome additions. The biggest of these is probably the new Nitro JavaScript engine that comes baked into Safari. Apple is touting huge improvements in terms of speed, and using JavaScript-heavy web apps like Facebook definitely shows a difference. The other big additions are AirPlay upgrades and Home Sharing. AirPlay in iOS 4.3 now includes the ability for third-party apps to take advantage of it. Those apps aren’t out just yet, but hopefully they will be soon — . Home Sharing allows you to play your media from another machine on your WiFi network (just like from Mac to Mac). It works well — but I think we all just wished it worked over the web as well. Soon… soon. For the iPad 2 specifically, two great pieces of software now bundled into iOS 4.3: FaceTime and Photo Booth. Both are iPad 2 only because both obviously require a camera. But Apple says that the real-time rendering for the 9-photo view in Photo Booth also requires the graphical power of the A5 chip. FaceTime on the iPad 2 is particularly nice because the nearly 10-inch screen seems much better suited for the feature than the 3.5-inch screen found on the iPhone. I’m still not a huge fan of the mechanism for initially finding people to FaceTime with (especially because the iPad has no phone app), but once you establish that first connection, FaceTime is a breeze to use. And it remains WiFi-only, so the quality is solid. OS X users will recognize Photo Booth immediately. It’s little more than a fun app, but again, it shows the type of graphical rendering capabilities the A5 is capable of. The real software goods come from the aforementioned iMovie and also GarageBand. Both are sold separately for $4.99 in the App Store, and both are well worth the price. The remarkable thing about both of them is that I like each more than I like their counterparts on OS X. These have been redesigned from the ground up to be useful on the big multi-touch screen that the iPad offers. And it’s amazing how usable they are. If Apple wants to sell a lot of iPad 2s, all they have to do is put them on display in Apple Stores with these two apps installed. When you’re using them, you’ll experience the kind of “wow, I can do this on this device?” type of feeling. Again, I suspect Apple had multiple motivations for making these two apps. On one hand, they’re great apps that people will get a ton of use out of. One the other, they showcase that yes, the iPad is as well as consuming. And with the new chip and its graphical capabilities in the iPad 2, it can do a lot more. These will inspire third-party developers to aim higher. Alongside the iPad 2, I also got to try out one of the new iPad 2 “smart” covers this past week. Simply put: I love this thing. The first Apple iPad cover, in my opinion, was awful. This one is completely different, and has been designed to not only work with the iPad 2, but be symbiotic with it. The cover attaches via magnets. This makes sure it is never mis-aligned. And just as important: this allows it to easily detach as well. And the cover can fold up to double as a stand for either typing (slightly elevating the iPad 2) or watching content (elevating the iPad 2 higher). The coolest thing about it though is that it can put to sleep and wake up the iPad 2. Yes, with the cover you’ll no longer have to hit the sleep/wake button if you don’t want to. That speaks well for the . I would not be surprised if Apple actually puts these covers on display alongside the iPad 2s in the Apple Stores. I have little doubt that nearly everyone who buys an iPad 2 will also walk away with one of these covers as well if they get a chance to play with one. And that’s yet another genius move by Apple because they’re not exactly cheap at $39 (poly) and $69 (leather). This is Apple ensuring that they’re going to make that much more money on each iPad 2 sold. Brilliant. The disappointments for the iPad 2 are largely the same as they were for the iPad 1. I still wish the thing was a little lighter. Holding it in one hand is fine in some positions, in others it gets tiring. I also wish the screen was less reflective. You basically cannot read anything in direct sunlight. Speaking of the screen, there had been a lot of talk about the iPad 2 getting a higher resolution “retina” display. Obviously, that didn’t happen. That would have been nice, but the iPad screen as it stands is already pretty great. The rest of my complaints are largely software-based. I wish there was a way to sync media and apps over the air. I wish the notification system was better, etc. Hopefully Apple will have more to show along those lines in iOS 5 shortly. At this point, you’re probably thinking that the hardware, software, and smart cover all sound great. But you’re still wondering if you should buy one or not? If you don’t have an iPad and want one, it’s the easiest call in the world. Of course you should. This is everything that was great about the initial iPad, but better. If you’re worried about , remember that it’s at least six to nine months away for something which may or may not even come — a lot can happen between now and then. And if it does come, maybe it will be aimed at a slightly different audience. Who knows. But if you’ve decided that you definitely want an iPad, you’ll probably just be dwelling on it over the next several months if you don’t take the plunge now. For existing iPad owners, things are a bit murkier. If you have the disposable income, it’s a no-brainer to upgrade. Again, this is everything you like about the iPad 1, but better. But if you just bought an iPad 1, or you don’t want to drop another several hundred dollars, it’s not like the iPad 1 will be out of date anytime soon. Sure, it may feel like older technology to the touch, but again, it largely looks and acts the same. My advice is just don’t visit an Apple Store or play with a friend’s iPad 2, or you’ll be tempted. If you do decide you want one, deciding between the 3G versions versus the WiFi version is also a bit of a tricky call. If you have an iPhone 4 with the Personal Hotspot (or any smartphone with a hotspot feature), it’s probably best just to get the WiFi version, you’ll save some money. If you plan on taking the iPad out with you a lot or on trips in the U.S., maybe the 3G will be worth it. Then it’s a question of AT&T 3G versus Verizon 3G (yes, there are two separate models). I played around with the AT&T model, and it worked well despite AT&T’s notoriously bad network in the San Francisco area. In terms of coverage, the same rule applies: the Verizon network is likely more reliable, but the AT&T network is faster. In fact, the AT&T 3G version of the iPad 2 has technology built in that the Verizon version does not that will make data speeds faster at optimal connections. In terms of the other competition out there that doesn’t begin with a lowercase “i”, it’s becoming clearer by the day that most don’t yet stack up well against the iPad 1, let alone iPad 2. I’ve only played with a Xoom for a few minutes, and I was generally impressed, but apparently it’s very, very buggy. . The tablets from RIM and HP aren’t out yet, and the pricing details around them don’t sound too promising. (The iPad 2, by the way, starts at the same $499 price point of the original iPad.) Further, the app support for all of the rivals isn’t too promising right now either. That’s one of the iPad 2’s greatest advantages that doesn’t show up on a spec sheet. There are now over 70,000 apps built specifically for the iPad. Obviously, not all of them are great or even good. But if just 10 percent are, that destroys the competition. And given that developers already have experience developing for this platform, they should be able to adjust quickly to make even better apps that take advantage of the iPad 2 hardware improvements. It just doesn’t look too good for rivals at this point. And just for fun this time around, Apple threw in one more choice: white or black? Good luck with that one. Let me sum all of this up in a simple way: the iPad 2, you buy one? Maybe — it depends on a few factors. Will you to buy one? Yes. Use that information wisely. |
Blekko Bans 1.1 Million Spammy Domains Via New Algorithm | Michael Arrington | 2,011 | 3 | 9 | Search engine says they’ve banned some 1.1 million spammy domain names from their search results. The banned domains are the result of a new algorithm the company has developed that looks at both poor quality content as well as the types of ads that the domains include along with the content. It’s part of their ongoing war, they say, against content farm and other very low quality content. It follows an earlier this year where they banned twenty content farms from their results. They’re calling the new algorithm “AdSpam.” “One of the strongest signals that a page is spam is aggressive participation in self-service
online advertising networks,” says the company. When they compare low quality sites (based on existing signals) and see lots of keyword based ads alongside that content, it’s very likely to be blocked. “Domains with low quality content plus keyword ads are “machines that print money,” says Blekko CEO . “Machines that print money will be exploited.” Blekko is processing around 1 million search queries per day and has 500,000 unique monthly visitors, he says. |
Metal 3DS Case Is Metal | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 9 |
Not much to say here except that you just spent a lot of money on your and you should protect it. Sure, you could get some weak plastic shell, but real men use a … while they play with their Hey, real men can play [via ] |
null | Mg Siegler | 2,011 | 3 | 7 | null |
Video: Hack Turns Kinect Into Home Automation Assistant | Nicholas Deleon | 2,011 | 3 | 9 | [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7jeJSdJPpk&w=620&h=355] Ja! A gentleman known to the Internet as Nitrogen has put together a type of do-it-yourself that’s certainly worth a moment of your time. The “hack” uses the libfreenect library to turn the Kinect into a home automation sensor. So, you walk into your room, the Kinect camera sees you enter, then libfreenect turns on your lights. Leave the room, out go the lights. Thankfully, there’s a video that shows in action. I actually think it’s quite neat, not to mention useful, and we all know quick I am to call something silly. |
Pawsley Aims to Become the Facebook, And Groupon, For Dogs | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 3 | 9 | Dog lovers, this one’s for you. , there are 77.5 million owned dogs in the United States, and nearly 40 percent of households own at least one dog. And all of them are TechCrunch readers. Obviously, this is a fairly sizable demographic — just imagine if they could vote. Though these high numbers may not be surprising to the canine-inclined, what may be surprising is how digital dog fans have become. Take this , for example, which estimates that 14 percent of Facebook users have created a profile for their dog. Although the survey sample was fairly small, if we scale that percentage to include the 600 million people on Facebook, well, that means there are potentially millions of pet profiles. What’s more, not only are dog owners social networking, they’re blogging, too. , for instance, has 320 pet bloggers and attracts more than 1.2 million unique visitors a month. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs just as much as the next guy, but isn’t this getting a little out of hand? You don’t see this much digital enthusiasm for turtles. Well, one new startup currently in private beta, called , not only begs to differ, but sees a huge dog-loving market out there that hasn’t yet been given an engaging place to do their social networking — or their shopping. Thus, they created Pawsley, a social networking and shopping site that’s part Facebook, part Groupon, and just for dogs. Co-founders Mike Pacifico (a former investment banker and business consultant for ) and Neda Pisheva told me that the site was inspired by two reactions they had while creating a Facebook profile for their 6-month-old puppy. First, they were surprised by the sheer number of profiles for pets and, second, they became acutely aware of how annoying it is for people without pets to receive friend requests, status updates, and messages from their friends’ pets. As you can imagine, there are quite a few social networking sites for dogs, two of the most popular being and . Yet, while the space is hardly empty, Pacifico said, the quality of the user experience on these sites isn’t great — the monetization strategy has been to employ a host of banner ads at the sacrifice of a clean UI. So, in order to ensure a cleaner site design, Pawsley has opted against using ads and instead gone for a “daily deal” model focused on dog-related products and services. This, Pacifico said, will be done flash-sale style, offering deals at more than 40 percent off, but without the group buy model’s restraint of needing 300 buyers for the deal to go live. The “deal page”, where vendors will offer everything from collars to dog bones, will be similar to Groupon’s, except that a Pawsley deal page won’t expire, and your purchase activity is integrated into your activity field and listed permanently on your profile. Pawsley has also integrated a Facebook app, in which you can choose to have the images and comments you post on Pawsley to show up on your Facebook Wall, as well as a point system, where users earn points for each purchase that can later be redeemed for gift cards and credits. In terms of the social networking aspect of Pawsley, you can create a profile for your dog and connect to other dogs in your neighborhood or, in the unlikely event that you have a dog that travels frequently on business, with other dogs across the country. You can share thoughts, pictures, videos, and find out what kind of activities other dog owners in your area are into. The profiles themselves look fairly similar to Facebook’s personal profiles (as you can see from the image above), so even though this will really be owners connecting with each other, there seem plenty of opportunities for you to brag about Rover and buy him some gourmet treats, Groupon-style. Pawsley has created a landing page and invite code for TechCrunch readers to get an early look at the site, which will go live next month, so check it out . |
Zero Punctuation on Bulletstorm | John Biggs | 2,011 | 3 | 9 | With a name like you know Yahtzee is going to use the word “penis envy.” |
Blackbird's Travel French Press For Good Coffee In The Woods | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 9 | I say if you can’t make the coffee you love while on a camping trip in the woods, you should re-examine your priorities. I’ve been doing for a long time and you should consider it — especially since it means you get a great brew that’s equally available at home or over a campfire. One thing, though: french presses tend to be glass. There are other options, but I like from Blackbird, a local designer goods aggregator. It’s your normal 10-ounce french press in function, but it’s vacuum sealed like a thermos to keep your drinks hot and it won’t break if you drop a tent pole on it. Plus, if you’re around Seattle, people will say “Oh, Blackbird? Nice.” [via and ] |
Facebook Terminated Corporate Development Employee Over Insider Trading Scandal | Michael Arrington | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | Facebook corporate development manager (pictured left in happier days) recently and abruptly left Facebook, and the company then to replace him. It was a curious departure and the chatter around Silicon Valley was that there was a lot more to the story. And in fact there is. Via a scandal that could have far reaching consequences by bringing even onto rampant secondary trading in non-public startups like Facebook and Twitter. Brown, multiple sources have confirmed, purchased Facebook stock on secondary markets (like those ), which Facebook considers insider trading and grounds for immediate termination. Sources say this is well communicated throughout the company. It’s unclear how egregious the trade may have been. We’ve heard the trade was related to knowledge of the Goldman Sachs investment that value the company at $50 billion earlier this year, and we’ve heard from others closer to the situation that it was just a naive mistake and Brown has paid the price and moved on. One source says the trades were made last September, well before the Goldman deal was in the works. Either way, Facebook took it seriously and no doubt the SEC would too. In a public company this would almost certainly violate a number of federal laws. However, say sources, the fact that Facebook is not (technically) a publicly traded company means those laws don’t apply. His actions did violate Facebook’s own insider trading policies, say sources, and he was terminated by Facebook for those violations. Facebook would not comment on this story, other than to say “we don’t comment on personnel matters.” We also spoke with Michael Brown’s attorney, , who confirmed that he was representing Brown but wouldn’t comment further. The size of the trades was relatively small, we’ve heard. But the consequences to Silicon Valley’s newfound love of free-wheeling unregulated secondary market trades may be much larger. Another source with knowledge of the situation says that Brown purchased the shares in September 2010, well prior to any discussions with Goldman Sachs. His termination, says this source, was for violations of Facebook’s insider trading policies that prohibited the trade(s) themselves, and had nothing to do with the Goldman Sachs transaction. We’re trying to verify this, right now we have conflicting stories from sources. We’ve edited the third paragraph above to include this side of the story. |
Audi Gets Into The Bike Game, Presumably To Compete With McLaren | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 31 |
Earlier this week we saw that McLaren got together with Specialized to make their exquisite road bike. Apparently Audi felt left out of the party, and has announced the fruits of its collaboration with Portland bike-maker : the “duo” series. The bikes’ primary differentiating feature is, of course, the wood frames. Audi has built them out of “woods selected to match the look of Audi vehicle interiors.” One assumes they also picked the wood based on its strength and weight, but they don’t really mention that. It comes in three flavors: City, Sport, and Road. The duo has a belt drive mechanism and internal 8-speed Shimano gearing, and the is a more traditional 20-speed. The Sport is… wait, there’s no information on the Sport at all. I’m guessing it’s a more downhill-oriented bike with fat tires and perhaps some shocks At around $6500 for the City and $7500 for the Road, I’d say these are definitely “message” bikes. If I felt like spending that much on a bike, I’d go with the Venge, personally. [via ] |
NYC Announces BigApps Winners Roadify, Sportaneous, And DontEat.at | Erick Schonfeld | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | New York City announced the of its second BiggApps competition tonight. BiggApps is a way to get developers to use city and government data to create useful apps for citizens and visitors to New York City. The prize money was doubled to $40,000 split up among 14 winning apps. The first prize went to , an that crowdsources information about public transport and parking spots. Users can give or get parking spots, realtime updates about buses and subways, or transit schedules. The parking finder is genius. It shows the spot using GPS on a map. I think everyone who has ever tried to park in New York City has dreamt of an app like this. Now someone actually built it. is a geo-location app ( ) for pick-up games that is tied into a database of parks, basketball courts, and other sports facilities throughout the city. You can see proposed games near you, sign up for one, and then get notified when the minimum number of players have been reached. And, of course, there are game mechanics rewarding people who play at certain courts or soccer fields the most. Third place went to , another parking app that maps out parking garages and metered parking spots throughout the city. One of my favorites, however, which won an honorable mention, is , a simple mashup of Foursquare and the city’s Health Department inspection results. Anytime you check into a restaurant that scores above a certain threshold for “serious and persistent violations,” you will get a text message warning you, “Don’t Eat at” that restaurant. Another clever one is |
Mark Cuban Teams With Qualcomm To Bring Augmented Reality To Mavericks Tickets | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | Thanks to the influence of owner and tech entrepreneur , Dallas Mavericks season ticket holders will be able to enjoy a touch of the technological when claiming their 2011 playoff tickets. The Mavericks have teamed with to add augmented reality to this year’s playoff tickets. Augmented Reality — or “AR” for those “in the know” — refers to a display in which simulated imagery or graphics are superimposed onto a view of the real world. In the case of these basketball tickets from the future, viewing on your Android will allow you to play an interactive game. Single-game tickets for the first two Mavericks home games of the first round of the 2011 NBA Playoffs will go on sale April 2nd. Fans that purchase single-game tickets will receive a futuristic, commemorative 2011 Mavs Playoff ticket, and game-day tickets and commemorative tickets will go live when the playoffs begin on April 16th. How does it work? Get your ticket and take out your Android phone. (This season the tickets will only work with Android, but Cuban said that he hopes to expand in future seasons.) Go to the Android Marketplace and download the “Mavs AR” app. Launch the app, point your phone at the front of the ticket, and voila! You’ll be able to play an interactive mobile game, featuring Mavs’ stars Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Jason Terry. You can learn more about the tickets out . We’re glad to see Cuban bringing AR to the sports arena, but when the Mavericks launch AR-capable tickets that offer some sort of practical application, like, say, or , then we’ll really be clamoring for a Nowitzki jersey. |
'Know Your Meme' On What It's Like To Be An Internet Folklorist | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | The website and show “Know Your Meme” were this week by ICanHasCheezburger networks in a seven figure deal, proving once again that Internet memes are serious business. In light of this news, the crew, Internet folklorists Elspeth Rountree, Kenyatta Cheese, Jamie Wilkinson, Patrick Davison and Mike Rugnetta actually performed an episode of their heralded show live on stage today at . The group spoke in turns and seemed to have rehearsed (just like on their show) when describing the process of creating and documenting what many people consider to be “worthless” Internet culture. They likened themselves to music ethnographer Alan Lomax, who according to them was once told as a boy to burn a transcription of cowboy songs by a teacher because they were useless. Lomax later ended up chronicling the songs and lives of artists , and . Those interested in learning more can support the Know Your Meme Kickstarter book |
Play Him Off, Flugelhorn Feline: YouTube Time Travels To 1911 | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 3 | 31 |
Head to YouTube after 4AM local time and you’ll notice that it looks a little old fashioned — and not in a 1999 blinking construction sign sort of way. YouTube is reverting back to what it would have looked like had it been around in 1911, complete with grainy, sepia video footage, no audio tracks (save for piano accompaniment), and title cards in place of the site’s normal comments. Yes, it’s time for April Fools, and the world’s largest video portal is ringing it in once with some video player trickery — a tradition it started in 2008 after all of its users. YouTube has accompanied the gag with a blog post from President Taft, and it’s also put together some 1911-ified memes, featuring the ancestors of Annoying Orange and a certain musically-inclined feline. Even some of the ads are old fashioned. Earlier today YouTube invited me down to their headquarters in San Bruno to talk to some of the team members who put this year’s trick together so that we could get some of the backstory. YouTube says that, as with last year’s gag, the 1911 idea was submitted to a system called Moderator and then voted upon by other YouTubers. Once the idea was chosen, it took a whopping 14 employees to put it together (alright, to be fair, YouTube says the large team size can be attributed to the fact that a ton of people just wanted to participate). The video effects, which include a grain filter and sepia coloring, are being done client-side using the same technology as YouTube uses for its 3D video player (interesting sidenote: relied on an older version of the 3D video player — this one uses the new one). The team ran into few interesting hurdles during the project. Initially, they wanted to have all of the 1911-ified videos play at double speed by adjusting the timestamp in video frame headers. Unfortunately this didn’t make the final cut because the effect was too taxing on CPUs (Macs, in particular, had difficulty with it because of Flash’s poor performance on OS X). The team also wanted to change the thumbnails presented alongside each video to sepia, but this also proved challenging because there isn’t an easy way to do it crossplatform with CSS3. However, it does work for one browser: Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8, and 9 all have a special CSS property that allow YouTube to introduce this effect on thumbnails. As one YouTube team member put it, this is one of the first times a YouTube feature has actually worked in IE. There’s also some neat technology related to the meme videos. YouTube is experimenting with a new system that can identify “interesting frames” for its thumbnails — these typically consist of frames without any blur, and may contain faces or other interesting content. The technology is still a work in progress, but YouTube used it to generate the thumbnails for each meme video (it didn’t work well for one of them — the team hand selected the thumb for the buggy video). Oh, and the YouTube team dropped one other hint: if you look at the 1911 videos, you’ll notice that they include the parameter . Turns out there are a few other years that also work, so try experimenting. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNm8ZCJ7Fx8&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]
|
Crinkled Cup Glass, For Your Modernist Beverage Needs | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | The original has been around for decades, but is, if anything, better. Sure to get lots of comments at parties. You know, , where your friends come over and hang out. You know, your . Oh. Oh, I see. Me neither. [via ] |
Apple Patents: Battery In Charger And Five-Finger Gestures In OS X | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 31 |
Not every Apple patent that comes down the line is worth gawking at, but these two are definitely worth a quick note. First, putting a battery in a charger is a pretty good idea — but I sincerely doubt they’re the first ones to think of this, unless it’s a very specific implementation that requires a patent. Still, it’d be nice to have, though we’ll be paying through the nose for it as usual. The is interesting because it has direct interaction between touches and OS X. Unfortunately, it’s not a “gotcha” moment, though: Apple is careful to add that while the illustrations may be taken as direct interaction with the window or item on a touchscreen, it also could, in other “embodiments,” have the screen and touch surface separate. Still, it’s indicative of the direction Apple is taking with its devices and OSes: a general of touch gestures to mean certain tasks, like zooming out to see all workspaces or multitasking. We’ll see some of this in , but I think there will also be some interesting new gestures in iOS 5. They have to be careful not to overload the user with shortcuts and special swipes, though: the power of iOS is in its simplicity of interaction. [via and ] |
Video Curation Is Growing Up, ShortForm Hits One Million Visitors | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | With to YouTube every minute, the Google-owned video behemoth would be the were it standalone site. Web video has become a powerful medium. But, I think it’s also fair to say that this powerful medium is in serious need of curation. What if you’re just looking for a quick laugh, a short video, and don’t want to wade through billions of videos — what if you want to create your own, personally curated streaming video channel? Hmmm? Thankfully, content curation has come to video: shows it’s here to stay. The San Francisco-based startup allows users to create personalized channels of web video content, easily pulling clips from YouTube and other video sites. You can play videos back-to-back to create a stream of video, not unlike the TV viewing experience. Creating custom channels is simple, and I would say the UI is more user-friendly (or at least more attractive) than that of YouTube. ShortForm curates its own videos, but the real focus is in encouraging its users to become VJs (video jockeys), curating their own channels. And with the recent addition of an embed-able widget, publishers can embed their own video player and curated channel lineups on their site. This means that the channels you create on ShortForm are available anywhere. It’s these kind of additions that pushed the startup past the one million users mark. So ShortForm has all these visitors, but how is it going to make money? The startup is planning to place interstitial ads between videos. The Interstitial ads will be in the camp of video promotions that feel more like content and are fun to watch, ShortForm CEO Nader Ghaffari said, and they’ll be targeted based on channel context, so sports channels will get sports related video promotions. The cool part, though, is that even though the interstitial ad model will be rearing its annoying head, the startup plans to share its ad revenue with its VJs. After all, it’s the VJs who create the channels. “When it comes to mixing the world’s videos into channels, we want our VJs to have all the tools at their disposal to make VJ-ing channels fun and easy”, Ghaffari told me. “We are integrating with Vimeo in the coming weeks, for example, so our VJs can mix YouTube and Vimeo videos, and soon we’ll be adding new features for VJs to further personalize their channels”. ShortForm also has a leaderboard that lets VJs see how their channels are doing relative to other VJs, and viewers can scan it to find channels of interest to subscribe to. ShortForm also plans to provide VJs with more social feedback on their channels, like who has watched, shared, liked, and subscribed, for example, and VJs will be able to add commentary into their channels. But, as you are probably readying your comment for the comment section, I should say that ShortForm isn’t the only video curation startup in the game. lets users share collect and share videos with their friends and allows website publishers to make video channels for their sites. ShortForm differs from its competitors in that it, unlike VodPod, it enables back-to-back streaming, and, unlike Magnify, is focused on the consumer rather than enterprise. The startup is also teaming up with (one of my favorites) this week to launch a best video contest on Facebook, which will allow users to watch and vote for their favorite videos on CollegeHumor. Once a vote has been registered, a leaderboard can be accessed that shows the leading vote-getters. . |
null | Erick Schonfeld | 2,011 | 3 | 9 | null |
Tech CEO Approval Ratings: Schmidt Goes Out On A High, Donahoe Climbs, Bartz Falls | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | A survey taken over the last year by , a jobs and career community that allows users to anonymously share an inside look at jobs and companies, confirms that Eric Schmidt looks better when he’s on his way out. As the Google big whig prepares to step down from a decade of service as chief exec, his employee approval rating is at an all time high. On the flip side of the popularity coin, Yahoo’s Carol Bartz is seeing her honeymoon period come to a close. In what is likely unsurprising news, among tech CEOs, Bartz saw the biggest decline in her approval rating in the past year, compared to the 12 months prior. Between March 2009 and March 2010, she held a 77 percent approval rating among her employees, whereas compared to the following year, her approval rating dropped to 50 percent. Granted, this is still 16 percent higher than that of her predecessor, Jerry Yang. Yang had a 2008 George Bush-like approval rating of 34 percent when he stepped down as CEO. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer saw the second biggest decline among the 12 CEOs evaluated. During March 2009 and March 2010, he held an average 46 percent approval rating, before dropping to 40 percent. Maybe IE9 will be enough to right a foundering ship? Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Oracle’s Larry Ellison both dropped four points during the same period to 83 percent and 73 percent, respectively, while eBay’s John Donahoe went on a hot streak. Between March 2009 and March 2010, the eBay CEO held a 24 percent approval rating among employees, whereas between March 2010 and March 2011, he held a 46 percent approval rating. Go Johnny go. Lastly, always worth noting is that Apple Man Steve Jobs remains as popular as ever, though his approval rating did drop from 98 percent to 95 percent. I’m sure when the iPhone 5 comes out, he’ll be right back on top. As to how Glassdoor CEO approval ratings are calculated, the site takes the pulse of a company’s employees similar to the way in which presidential approval ratings are tallied. Employees are simply asked, “Do you approve of the way your CEO is leading the company?” TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde? 110 percent approval rating. And Aol CEO Tim Armstrong, he’s not too shabby himself. |
Surgical Robot Folds Tiny Paper Airplane | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq-_riKtzsY&w=640&h=390]
You might have heard of the da Vinci surgical robot (or “waldo,” since it is directly controlled by a person) — it’s the state-of-the-art system used by surgeons to operate remotely, and although it’s quite a bulky setup, it’s also nearly as precise as human hands. Seattle surgeon Jim Porter, in order to show off the da Vinci’s capabilities, folds a paper airplane using the system’s little grippers. Then there’s a little twist at the end that took me by surprise. Let’s just say that the piece of paper isn’t exactly 8.5×11″. [via ] |
CrunchDeals: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 For $5 | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 31 |
Wow, this is a pretty crazy deal. Impulse is selling , which the guys tell me is just excellent, . It’s normally around $20, and even in the Steam winter sale, it only got down to $8, I think. I get the feeling it’s today only, and may not even last that long, so get there fast! You will have to download a Steam-like client to download the game, just FYI: I’m getting decent download speeds (~1.5-2MB/s), and the service is legit. Who knows, maybe they’ll have more great deals like this in the future? Also! It was “installing” for like half an hour, so I canceled the installation and it magically changed to “Installed.” You might have to do the same. [via ] |
Movie Studios Approve $30 Rental Plan, Theater Owners Mightily Upset | Nicholas Deleon | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | It must be an absolute nightmare being a Hollywood executive in 2011. Four big studios (20th Century Fox, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros.) have announced plans to introduce , to debut on DirecTV next month as “Home Premiere,” that will screen movies a mere 60 days after their theatrical debut. Renting such a movie will set you back $30. And if you think you’re angry about that, just imagine how theater owners must feel. AllThingsD where the $30 price tag probably isn’t as high as you might initially think, particularly if you’re trying to have a “moment and daddy need to go to the movies alone for once” night. Once you pay for a baby-sitter, parking, movie tickets, a little popcorn and maybe a soda you’re well past the $30 barrier. The studios made the announcement at an industry convention in Las Vegas. Oh: they never bothered to tell movie theater owners about this ahead of the big announcement. The National Association of Theater Owners, or NATO (wow…), the premium video-on-demand model a “misguided adventure,” and that “[i]n the end, the entire motion picture community will have a say in how the industry moves forward.” Sounds to me like the movie theater owners feel like they’re being pushed out. Keep reducing the window between theatrical release and home consumption (Blu-ray releases are sometimes available only three months after hitting the theaters) and sooner or later people will stop going to the movies altogether. “That Adam Sandler movie looks funny. We’ll catch it next month when it hits premium VOD.” That’s , at least. |
HTC Arrive At Wirefly For $25 With Free Shipping | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 31 |
If you’re thinking of picking up , the Windows Phone 7 QWERTY slider of your dreams, now might be a good time. Sprint is selling it at the premium phone price ($199 with a two-year contract), but if you order today from Wirefly you can . With contract, of course. Be sure to put in the coupon code “ARRIVE0331” before checkout to get that extra $25 off. [via ] |
+Like Browser Extension Pretty Much Eliminates The Need For Google +1 | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | Google launched the +1 feature of its social layer and if you’re like most tech journalists you probably to attaching a Facebook Like button to Google search results. Well now someone has gone and done exactly that, no joke. Meet , a Firefox, Safari and Chrome extension that lets you see how many people have liked a specific Google search result on Facebook as well as which of your Facebook Friends have recommended a specific piece of content, whether or not that action took place on Google search. When you “like” something on +Like it gets posted on Facebook as well so you can share content you’re into with your social graph, sort of like what Google is trying to attempt with its Google Profile revamp and +1. Said creator Koby Menachemi, It took Menachemi and co-founder Shmueli Ahdut 3-4 hours using their own framework to make the cross-browser extension. Now Google +1 has key advantage over Google +Like in that you can also use +1 to like Google ads (and presumably monetize them). But seriously if I was Google, +Like would have me shaking in my boots. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftrDuIwmHeE&feature=player_embedded&w=630] |
Video Demo Of Real Photoshop On iPad | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 30 |
Eric over at Photography Bay of Adobe’s in-development Photoshop app for on video. It’s way more full-featured than the Photoshop Express already available — if file management was a little easier, this would go a long way towards making my iPad an actual full-powered blogging station. Look at that layers animation! That’s insane. Is it practical? I don’t know. But it’s definitely cool. There’s no release date yet, but I can’t wait. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear more. |
Boston Colleges Warns Students Against Using Wi-Fi (But Then Retracts Said Warning) | Nicholas Deleon | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | Common sense, for once, has prevailed. For whatever reason Boston College that using a wireless router could be considered a “common example of copyright infringement.” Word got out, the Internet complained, and now the offending bullet point . The note was spotted on the college’s information technology services Web site, and was intended to warn students of the dangers of copyright infringement. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but linking wireless router use to copyright infringement, as if buying the latest Linksys or Netgear automatically makes you a , was clearly pretty silly. The warning had noted that by using a wireless router you could possibly be opening yourself up to who’d like to do nothing more than torrent movies all day long, possibly putting you, the owner of said router, in grave danger. That bullet point has since been removed, and what remains are fairly benign warnings (sharing MP3 files across the Internet could constitute copyright infringement, and so forth). |
Full Trailer: Child Of Eden For Kinect | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 30 |
One of the games for that I’m genuinely excited about is , from the geniuses behind the mesmerizing and . The system seems just perfect for it, and the aesthetic is… well, just watch the trailer. In between the aren’t-we-cool gamer shots and sparkly hands, we have what looks like a straightforward yet hypnotic on-rails shooter. Now just give me that and I can get into it. , by the way. |
Cardboard Pinhole Hasselblad Is Short On Megapixels, Long On Cute | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 30 |
So you want your very own Hasselblad, but don’t want to spend the $40K? Well, this is right up your alley, though some assembly required. It’s a functional pinhole camera, though the dials don’t really do anything and of course you can’t use the viewer. But it will take pictures on 35mm film, and if you’re patient enough to put it together correctly and store it high enough, someone might think it’s the real thing. designed the papercraft camera, and you can . Want a 120 film version? [via ] |
Review: ONA Union Street Camera/Laptop Bag | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 30 |
A good-looking and fairly durable alternative to your usual black-nylon camera bag. Not an all-purpose bag, though — definitely for the photographer who loves waxed canvas, not the gadget guy or world traveler, despite its Indiana Jones looks.
I’m a big fan of waxed canvas. It’s old-school, it looks great, it wears well, and it’s reasonably resistant to the normal dangers of life: rain, dirt, light physical abuse. I’d drape myself in canvas if it were socially acceptable. So I was pumped to check out this bag from ONA. It’s their only “bag-size” bag, and it’s made more for photographers than tomb raiders, but it wouldn’t look out of place in an Indiana Jones movie. The grey and black colors, not so much, but hey. First, let’s establish the size, since it seemed smaller than I expected from their pictures and size is a very important factor when picking a bag at this price. The actual measurements are 16.5″ wide, 5″ deep, and 11″ high. Add an inch or so for strap, bulge, and so on. It’s not petite or extra-large, but it’s bigger than many camera-only bags and a bit more compact than many messenger bags. The material on the outside is the famous Waxwear cotton canvas infused with wax. If you’re not familiar with waxed canvas, it’s got a nice organic feel to it like normal cloth, but it’s also stiff and resistant to day-to-day wear. I wouldn’t call it waterproof; it sheds water, , but it will soak in eventually. Rain, snow, and mud won’t penetrate easily, though. Scratches register easily but rub away, leaving a softer mark. The accumulation of scratches and wear is part of the charm of this material, and of course if that doesn’t appeal to you, this bag is definitely not your style. The clasps and buckles are of a nice warm brass, with attractive studs and visible stitching. I didn’t hear any creaking or clicking, and they seem to be put together pretty well. The fastening method is what they call “tuck-lock,” and it works well most of the time, but if you’re trying to keep the flap on tight, you’ll have to fiddle with them a bit. Fortunately adjusting the straps is a piece of cake. There is one external pocket on the back of the bag, flat and simple, for scrap paper or what have you. Under the flap is a zippered pocket with… not much room, but enough to put your phone, a pad of paper, some pens and such. The zipper itself is plastic, and feels a little out of place, but the inside is canvas with leather detailing and feels authentic. I like these little flaps (above) right at the edge of the main opening, which fold in and protect the insides from splashes, hands, or what have you. It’s a nice little detail and whoever noticed that there’d be a conspicuous gap there without them should be given a pat on the back. The main compartment is lined with a material whose color I can only call “seafoam.” Well, maybe it’s a little more greenish-beige than that, but I find it very incongruous with the rough-and-tumble Waxwear exterior. I asked about this, and the material was chosen because it’s velcro-compatible; more canvas on the interior would limit the configurations for your camera and gear, increase the cost, and wouldn’t be quite as soft and protective. Good points all, and all reasons why this bag should really be considered a camera bag first an a laptop/other bag second, if at all. So the main cargo area has five removable divider pieces: one large one that creates a spot for your laptop, then three medium-size ones for creating lens and accessory compartments, and a small one for supporting your SLR and perhaps stowing some gels or wipe cloths. The velcro on both sides makes them really want to stay in place, and each has a good 3/4″ of padding. Here it is empty, with camera gear inside, and with the dividers removed to allow book and laptop storage:
There’s a medium amount of room in there — it doesn’t stretch or expand at all, and it doesn’t collapse very well. On the other hand, its semi-rigid shape makes it stand on its own quite easily and resist falling: great for setting down on the go and leaving it open for quick access to accessories. My MacBoook Pro fit in with lots of spare room, so if you’ve got a chunkier 15″ laptop (I don’t think 17″ would go) you’ll be fine; and after all you can adjust the space used for the laptop compartment. The most disappointing part of the bag has to be the shoulder strap. Although the strap itself is of nice thick nylon, it’s not very wide, and the leather “pad” that sits on your shoulder is microscopic and provides almost no padding at all. If you’re carrying a laptop, two lenses, a 7D with a lens attached, and a couple other miscellaneous things, that’s quite a bit of weight and you’re going to want something more cushy on your shoulder. The leather didn’t grip my shoulder well, either. The messenger bag had a fabulous shoulder strap — something to think about, ONA. I also could have used a little more ready access on the outside, as a photographer. There are a couple very small pockets underneath the strap attachments, which will hold a small lens cap or a couple pens, but a little more room for quick stowage would have been appreciated. This bag should be on the short list for fashion-conscious photographers. It’s functional, sure, but so are a hundred other bags. This isn’t branded like a photo bag, so it won’t attract attention to you either as a tourist or thievery target, but it will serve perfectly well for a day bag while getting around. I’m concerned that the interior material might fuzz and ball up, but if you get a configuration you like and stick with it, it should be fine. At $279 it’s approaching luxury territory, but the fact is you can’t get Waxwear cheap. There aren’t many bags like this available at all, much less for under $300 (Manhattan Portage has one for cheap, but it isn’t as nice, and Jack Space has some nice ones, but for significantly more). If you’re an adventurous and tasteful photographer, you should definitely give the ONA Union Street a look.
|
BuzzFeed's Jonah Peretti On Why The "Facebook" Media World View Wins | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 3 | 30 | [scribd id=51946168 key=key-3hnmrb2qecfsja34yxg mode=slideshow]
and co-founder Jonah Peretti talked at today about the much misunderstood subject of how to make something go viral (no it’s not all about cats and bacon). Peretti began the talk running through his various early experiments in virality and what they taught him about why content spreads. As part of his theory as to why content that elicits a reaction from users has more of a penchant for going viral, Peretti contrasted Google and Facebook in terms of their approaches to information. The difference between the “Google” and “Facebook” approach is namely that the Google philosophy is that media is about finding information related to queries like “How to stop oily skin?.” On Facebook media is just another way to express your feelings and more importantly a way to do something with your friends. Peretti said, as opposed sharing something trashy or embarrassing like that oily skin thing. A lot of Peretti’s points could be gleaned from the single slide below, which shows “Viral Lift” or user engagement that isn’t from normal site traffic but instead from sharing activities happening on sites like StumbleUpon, Facebook and Reddit. BuzzFeed is designed with this viral lift in mind, and arranges it’s navigation to focus specifically on user reactions, separating it’s content into the Internet-inspired emotions “LOL,””omg,””wtf””cute,””win’ and “geeky” instead of by traditional news topic. But what BuzzFeed does that’s particularly notable is that it extends these devices beyond editorial content to ads, sharing one CMS format for editorial and advertising, and optimizing its ads for viral distribution as well. Features like “Badges” and “Add Yours” where users can create their own viral content allow readers to go beyond reading and further engage and also apply to ads as well. Peretti explained was the key to virality. BuzzFeed is slated to hit 11 million uniques in March. |
On Its First Birthday, WePay Celebrates As Engagement Quintuples In Last 90 Days | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 3 | 30 | Almost exactly one year ago (their birthday is tomorrow), its group payment platform to the public. The goal was simple: give people an easy way to divvy up bills, member dues, and other common transactions with an integrated payment system and easy reminders to nudge those fraternity members who haven’t paid their dues yet. The service is also handy for selling tickets and collecting donations. In light of the occasion, WePay is starting to talk about some of its numbers (albeit vaguely). WePay CEO Bill Clerico says that in the last three months, the service’s engagement numbers have surged from around 5,000 users per week to 25,000 per week. These users aren’t just visiting the site — they’re actually taking substantive action, like sending bills. He attributes this growth to optimizations the site has recently made to its sharing flows on Twitter, Facebook and its emails. He also says that WePay has drawn a lot of new users from referrals. As for the amount of money WePay is actually dealing with, Clerico says that it is currently seeing “several million dollars” in payment volume per month. Obviously WePay only takes a small fee for each transaction (3.5%, with a 50 cent charge to pay with your bank account), so WePay isn’t seeing millions in revenue. But Clerico says that revenue is up 70% month over month. He declined to get much more specific, explaining that he didn’t want to draw apples-to-oranges comparisons with other payment platforms that have different fee structures. In light of the growth, the company is hiring — a lot. Clerico says they’ll be hiring 25 people in the next 90 days, which will be enabled by the they raised last summer. |
null | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 31 | null |
As Gecko Scurries Away, Camino Looks To WebKit To Save Itself | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 3 | 30 | Long ago, before Chrome existed for OS X (so, ) my browser of choice was . You’ll be forgiven if you’ve never heard of it, it’s an open-source project that zero people work on full-time. And it’s only available on the Mac. In fact, if you have heard of it, it may be as the browser Mozilla makes. And its future is now at a crossroads. As the team lays out in a post , a major change is needed to keep Camino going. Why? Because throughout its existence, the browser has been built using Mozilla’s Gecko rendering engine — the one built for Firefox. But now that engine will in other browsers — even other Mozilla browsers, like Camino. This means that they either go forward continuing to support the legacy versions of Gecko — which are already out of date, by the way, with the launch of Firefox 4.0 — or they have to go in a different direction. Obviously, they’re leaning towards the latter. And if they do go that way, the best option is clear: WebKit. WebKit is the engine that powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari (as well as their mobile browsers). It has long been considered to be the hot engine of choice, even though the two largest browsers, Firefox and IE, don’t use it. In other words, it’s a nice fall-back option for Camino to have. And others, namely Epiphany (the native browser for Gnome) have in the past. But there’s still a very big problem for Camino going WebKit: implementing it. Again, Camino has no full-time employees working on it. It’s a true open-source community effort. For a long while, the project was lead by Mike Pinkerton, but he to help build Chrome for Mac long ago (but still contributes to the Camino project). Other contributors are Mozilla employees. These people all have very busy day jobs. Here’s how they explain the problem: Beyond that, the future is unclear. As a purely community-based open source project, no one is employed to work on Camino; all Camino developers are volunteers, working on Camino in their spare time, as a labor of love. While maintaining embedding in a fork of Gecko is theoretically possible, we don’t have the manpower for a sustained effort of that kind. A more realistic option would be to port Camino to WebKit, but while this would be much easier to maintain in the future, it would require a large amount of initial work. While we would like to take that approach, we don’t have the manpower to do it on our own—we encourage anyone who might be interested in adapting the Camino code to a new rendering engine join . In other words, web developers, mount up! Save Camino! |
Roland Introduces V-Drums Friend Jam | Jay Donovan | 2,011 | 3 | 30 | , makers of all things MIDI and beyond, have a new product out called . The software lets you connect your (electronic, MIDI drums) to your Mac or PC with a (not included) and, in the words of the press release, “allows V-Drums users across the globe to interact with each other while improving their drumming skills with play-along MP3 songs and practice evaluation features.” So what does that mean? It means the software lets you: claims “This is a social tool for drummers” which is just begging for a deluge of “drummer” jokes in the twittersphere, however maybe it really will let “electronic” drummers around the world unite and compare notes? If you are a V-Drummer out there with the tools and the talent, let us know in the comments if this thing is ready for prime time or DOA. |
Acer Acknowledges Its Whole Strategy Needs Reassessment | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 30 |
is realizing that the isn’t going to topple itself. While the strategy of just making shells for other companies’ OSes and components has worked for Acer for years, that clearly isn’t an approach that had any effect at all on the iPad’s dominance of the sector. People will get tired of the closed iOS, said Acer, and just spontaneously choose a crappy Android 2.x tablet made by people who truly don’t care. Not so much! Acer’s founder, Stan Shih, , said that Acer needed to take its sights off of being the world’s biggest PC vendor and (presumably) focus on better and more distinguishable products. As part of this transition, he adjusted their first-quarter sales targets to 10% less than last year’s, rather than the 3% growth originally planned. Millions of people around the world would be unable to tell the difference between an Acer laptop and any of the other major brands. You tell me, is that a healthy business model, when your product is indistinguishable from your competition and you’re only making money because your volumes are so big? Hopefully Acer makes a change for the better. The fewer totally anonymous laptop manufacturers out there, the better. [via ] |
Social recruitment site Bright Network secures £300k in Angel funding | Steve O'Hear | 2,011 | 3 | 30 | , the social recruitment site, has secured £300k in investment from a consortium of angels. They include the VC and former chairman of Sage, Michael Jackson, and Zach Miles, a former CEO of , the recruitment company that was acquired for €3.5 billion by Randstad. Both Jackson and Miles will join Bright Network’s board, while Jackson will also become Chairman. The new funding will be used to further develop the social network, marketing and to “attract additional high-quality staff”. Citing , Bright Network claims to be the highest-ranked social recruitment site in the UK. Designed to enable students, graduates and young professionals to connect with employers, it offers members an invitation-only network, exclusive events and one-on-one consultancy. Bright Network currently works with over 50 leading companies including Allen & Overy, Goldman Sachs, innocent drinks, The Mind Gym and KPMG. Furthermore, the company says that 98% of Bright Network members graduate from Times Top 20 or Russell Group universities, 28% of them from Oxbridge, and the average member has 3As at A-level. |
Google Payment VP/Former PayPal Exec Osama Bedier On eCommerce: Major Change Is Coming | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 3 | 30 | My now works for Google. This is especially interesting that Google has partnered up with MasterCard and CitiGroup to test out an NFC payments system. It’s also pretty interesting in light of the fact that Google recently for a “Distributed Electronic Commerce System With Centralized Point Of Purchase”, or what sounds like a mobile shopping cart that wraps ups all elements of a transaction into a process, goes beyond PayPal and actually collects data about what users are buying. Bedier started his talk by emphasizing that eCommerce hasn’t changed very much in 13 years, but then said that it was about to go through a major transition, as the convergence of mobile, local and social will change the industry. He set aside three elements that needed to be in place before the next eCommerce revolution. So what does the future of eCommerce look like? It looks like it did 50 years ago, with a completely personalized experience according to Bedier. everyone has to work together, Bedier said. |
Contest: Want To Win A Mophie Juice Pack Air iPhone Case? Here's how. | Greg Kumparak | 2,011 | 3 | 30 | As , we’ve got a bit of a giveaway goin’ on . Two lucky MobileCrunch fans are gonna be walkin’ away with a brand new Mophie Juice Pack Air iPhone case. Part protective case, part external battery, this thing should keep your iPhone safe juiced up. We’ll pick 2 winners at random from those who followed the steps above on Thursday 3/31/2011 at 11:59 PM Pacific. Winners will be alerted via e-mail by Friday. Good luck! |
The Archos Arnova 10 Trades High Amounts Of Memory For A Lower Price | Matt Burns | 2,011 | 3 | 30 | quietly became the favorite low-cost Android tablet maker of fanboys everywhere thanks to a solid 2010 offering. The company’s Arnova brand builds upon the same formula with even cheaper tablets. The secret sauce? The bare minimum amount of internal memory. But buyers might overlook that little detail especially with the Arnova 10 shipping for only $180. Under the Arnova 10’s 1024 x 600 10-inch screen is an ARM-based CPU running Android 2.1, 802.11 b/g, front-facing camera and an SDHC slot. Archos says there’s enough computing juice to handle 720p video . The only downside is the 4GB of internal memory, but the SDHC slot effectively counters that altogether. points out that the model carries a $199 MSRP but can be found for . |
Reid Hoffman: "Good Internet Companies Never Ambush Their Users" | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 3 | 30 | Today at in San Francisco, LinkedIn founder took the stage for a chat with NetworkEffect’s Liz Gannes. The main point of the discussion was Hoffman’s belief that “Web 3.0” is data. More specifically, the platform part of data. But that’s old news, Hoffman a few weeks ago. More interesting were his thoughts on what Internet companies should do with their data. Or rather, what they do with their data. “ ,” Hoffman said. When Gannes suggested that many often do, Hoffman cut back in, “ .” “ ,” he continued. He also noted that the “open” versus “closed” debate around data is often not based around economic variables, but rather this idea of not ambushing users. This is interesting since Facebook is often cited as a company that perhaps does ambush their users with changes they make — and Hoffman is one of the original investors in Facebook. It’s also interesting given that Google violated user trust with the Buzz roll-out. Neither Facebook nor Google were directly addressed by Hoffman on stage, but he did give some examples of ways that LinkedIn is careful with their user data. And he noted that it’s not just about “open” versus “closed” data. Sometimes there is data that a user may want to share with another service, but it’s not technically “open” data. Users should have the right to share that data under the right circumstances, he noted. Hoffman also cited location as one layer of data that could be be troubling with regard to this “ambushing” idea. “It’s something you have to be careful about,” he said. Hoffman is also an investor in location-based Gowalla. |
Ben Horowitz On Shifting Technologies: "Go Out And Build 'Question Mark' …" | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 3 | 30 | [scribd id=51940495 key=key-1wedu4i5i7uv89h0qzu2 mode=list]
Andreessen Horowitz Founder/Partner took the stage today at to talk about what to invest in and what to build during a technological shift. Comparing our current technological shift to like the platform shift from mainframe to client server, the database shift from hierarchical to relational databases and then the infectious domino effect of applications, operating systems, infrastructure, networks and eventually PCs afterward, , Horowitz said. He went on to reiterate the “sell pick axes during a gold rush” investment and development philosophy, emphasizing this outside the tech industry by bringing up the example of how the innovations in automobiles created the suburbs — and the fast food industry. So what are the resulting things to invest in, according to Horowitz? “Not what we expect”, he said. he ended with. You can view Horowitz’s entire slide deck above. |
Samsung Reportedly Installing Keyloggers On Its Laptops | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 30 |
: Samsung has said they are looking into this: “Samsung takes Mr. Hassan’s claims very seriously. After learning of the original post this morning on NetworkWorld.com, we launched an internal investigation into this issue. We will provide further information as soon as it is available.” So far Hassan is the only person to report this, so it could be any number of things, including a false alarm or a bad retailer. . As it turns out, the \SL folder is in fact the Slovenian language folder, and Hassan’s security program thought it was a keylogger. Are you telling me this so-called security expert didn’t think to check the contents of the folder? Sorry for the false alarm, but with Samsung initially confirming the story it was best to err on the side of… blogging. This is… potentially disturbing. Mohamed Hassan recently purchased a brand-new Samsung laptop, an R525. As part of his normal setup procedure, he ran a complete scan with security software and installed in the Windows directory. Now, Samsung wouldn’t be the first company to accidentally ship infected computers — Asus had such a disaster . Thinking this might be the case, Hassan removed the keylogger (Star Logger in C:\Windows\SL) and went about his business. But after an issue with the display driver a short time later, he returned the laptop and picked up a higher-end R540. Lo and behold, on running his security scan, Star Logger was found yet again! This isn’t some system failure logging utility, by the way. It’s a full-blown keylogger that records every key press. I’ll let Hassan tell the story here: On March 1, 2011, I called and logged incident 2101163379 with Samsung Support (SS). First, as Sony BMG did six years ago, the SS personnel denied the presence of such software on its laptops. After having been informed of the two models where the software was found and the location, SS changed its story by referring the author to Microsoft since “all Samsung did was to manufacture the hardware.” When told that did not make sense, SS personnel relented and escalated the incident to one of the support supervisors. The supervisor who spoke with me was not sure how this software ended up in the new laptop thus put me on hold. He confirmed that yes, Samsung did knowingly put this software on the laptop to, as he put it, “monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used.” So. After denying the software existed, then saying that they just make the laptops, they finally that I don’t think I need to go into the specifics of why this is a shocking breach of trust and presumably illegal as well. We’ll keep an eye out for further developments, but in the meantime, if you have a Samsung laptop, look in C:\Windows for a \SL directory. If you see one, This is totally unacceptable and hopefully we’ll get some satisfaction from Samsung on this point soon. I just don’t understand how they could think this was even close to okay, and even after justifying it, how it could escape detection. Mohamed Hassan and his collaborator Mich Kabay at Network World have contacted Samsung several times for comment, but have received no response so far. I look forward to their answer. Let’s hope it’s all just a big mistake. |
C3's High-Definition 3D City Maps Are Pretty Sweet | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 8 | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br1BqB_Fdqo&w=640&h=390]
isn’t the only company looking into making 3D maps and high-definition content like this. Google is, of course, aiming at mapping the whole world in 3D, though they have a different method. Microsoft’s stuff is related, and very cool, but not quite the same thing. Just watch this video (in HD if you can) and you’ll see what I mean. They’ve been doing it for a while now, but this most recent clip really shows what’s possible. The downside is, of course, that they have to actually get up there in the sky with their special rig to make the pictures happen. And in a place where there’s lots of construction, remodeling, and so on, it’s difficult to make those changes, where as all Google has to do is fire up Maya and make a new model. It’s a little janky up close (reminds me of playing an RTS), but [via and ] |
DailyBooth So Excited About iPad 2 Camera That They Close A $6 Million Venture Round | Michael Arrington | 2,011 | 3 | 8 | , a site where (mostly) teens have conversations via text and , has closed its first big round of funding – $6 million – in a round led by . Previous investor and a number of angel investors also participated in the round. Devices like the iPhone 4, with a front facing camera, are DailyBooth-friendly. The new iPad, also with a front facing camera, is just an enthralling to the company. they say. The service is growing rapidly. 14 million photos have been uploaded, says DailyBooth, and 47 million comments have been published. The company, originally out of Y Combinator, previously raised just over . |
So We're Using Facebook Comments Now | John Biggs | 2,011 | 3 | 8 | Because of a massive issue with Disqus, including a complete outage during the event and a wild comment duplication error that left us with over 300,000 dupes, we’ve decided to give Facebook comments a try. I realize some may complain (I am dubious at best) but thems the breaks.
Incidentally, the plugin sometimes fails in Chrome 10. Refreshing the page should fix things. If this commenting system is overly onerous we ill abandon it for Disqus again. As always, we remain your humble bloggers and friends, so don’t hold this against us. Unless it’s a puppy. Then by all means hold it against us. |
Like The Screencasts In The EightBit Video? Try Sound Stage For Mac | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 3 | 8 | [vimeo 20713468 w=620] Earlier today my colleague MG Siegler about , a new social game and included the above video, with plenty of demo screencasts of the EightBit app. Those screencasts were via for Mac, a desktop app that in addition to recording HD desktop screencaps, hooks into an iOS simulator to take screen captures of iPhone app demos. The app launched its new revamp yesterday and is currently the #1 developer tool in the Mac App Store, just breaking into the top 100 paid apps. Along with its basic functions, it allows you to customize backgrounds and directly upload your videos to YouTube. Sound Stage interface designer Kevin Milden hopes that one day people will be viewing “app trailers” before they take the plunge to buy. The most amazing thing about the app, aside from how intuitive it is to actually use, is that it costs $4.99 in the Mac App store as opposed to $29.95 for the bare bones version of competitor , or $69 for . Also notable: This is the first time anything in the has caught my attention. You can download the app . |
Stack Overflow, Now Stack Exchange Inc, Raises $12M From Union Square Ventures And Others | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 3 | 8 | Vertical Q&A site network has just new funding, in a $12 million Series B round lead by Index Ventures, Spark Capital, and their first investor Union Square Ventures. This brings the company’s total funding to $18 million. It will also be changing its name to Stack Exchange Inc to better reflect its cross vertical aspirations. From co-founder Joel Spolsky’s blog post: I absolutely love the bit about The New York Times having a heart attack when they visited Index Ventures’ Neil Rimer, Spark’s Bijan Sabet and Anil Dash will be joining the board (Sabet as a non-voting member). Congrats guys! Image: |
Review: Razer Ferox Portable Speakers | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 8 |
These tiny speakers are more powerful than you’d think, but still not quite capable enough for anything but casual use around the house. Gamers at the very least will be disappointed, though they’re handy for the occasional TV show or spontaneous music-sharing moment.
^In the corners, there.^ I was excited to check these out when they were first announced, but when they arrived, I was flabbergasted by just how tiny they were. I mean really. They’re very small. As you can see in the photo below, they’re just about half the size of a can of soda. Can these things really produce any sound? Well, yes and no. You need to control your expectations, but they’re quite effective for their size, and combined with the fact that they’re powered and super-portable, this makes them a pretty decent buy. I tested them out on a few tracks from my library, and the sound is clear and quite loud, though the low end is pretty much not there. It’s kind of in that there’s a pretty smooth fall-off from the higher frequencies, so you can work out what it sound like, and I didn’t notice any distortion from the speakers trying to hit lower than they should. We watched , and although of course the lower frequencies of, say, plane propellers and engine noise was only slightly audible, everything else came through loud and clear. Explosions, dialogue, and music all sounded solid, though I think that the mid-highs tended to overpower the rest. The 360-degree sound distribution is sort of a silly feature when you think about it, but it’s a handy way to let your laptop or MP3 player be a quick-setup jukebox in the kitchen, say, or at the beach. The real result, of course, is that half the speakers’ power is being directed away from you, which is just hugely inefficient. There are blue lights that fade in and out while charging, and just stay on most of the time otherwise. Why can’t I turn them off?! What if I’m watching a movie in the dark! The cable is a special one from Razer: it’s USB and 1/8″ audio on one side, and two micro-USB plugs on the other, which plug into the speakers and convey sound and power. It’s a little confusing at first, and of course if you lose the cable, you’re screwed. Fortunately the Feroxes (Feroxii?) come with a cute little carrying case that just fits them and the cable. It’s not pocketable or anything (it’s about pop can-sized), but it’ll easily fit a laptop bag or satchel. These speakers are cool-looking, surprisingly compact, and produce a totally usable sound for some situations. On the other hand, if you’re at all interested in using them for serious gaming or media consumption, you’d be much better served spending your cash on a pair of good portable headphones. You can get the for $70, a great buy. The Ferox speakers are cool, and they certainly aren’t bad, but they don’t really hit the spot they’re aiming for; as a complement to a media player or tablet, they’re nice, but for anything more serious than that, there are better options. (not quite available yet) |
Funny: Promo Image For Viewsonic's ViewPad Shows OS X On Tablet | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 8 |
Ready for a little chuckle to get you over the fact that it’s Tuesday and there are like 10 more days before the weekend? Daring Fireball this little gem from Viewsonic, where their upcoming is depicted as running OS X. Sorry guys, it doesn’t work like that. , though. |
null | Mg Siegler | 2,011 | 3 | 30 | null |
Memolane Launches Its Personalized Internet Time Machine To The Public | Jason Kincaid | 2,011 | 3 | 8 | Back in November we about , a new startup that lets you import and visually browse through your tweets, Facebook updates, Flickr photos and the rest of your content littered across the web. Today, after months in an invite-only beta, the service has gone live to the public, and it’s unveiling a handful of key new features just in time for its launch. For those that haven’t used it, Memolane is a sort of timeline of your online life. After authenticating with any of the 10+ supported third-party services, which include Facebook, TripIt, Foursquare, and more, Memolane will import your content and arrange it in a slick timeline view. It’s pretty cool — you don’t realize just how segmented your online life is until you’ve seen tweets from a recent trip positioned next to the corresponding Flickr photos and Foursquare checkins. So what’s changed? CEO Eric Lagier says that when we first wrote about the service, it had a pretty simple privacy structure — you’d designate your Memolane as either private (accessible only by you and select friends) or public (anyone could see it). But the startup discovered that people often wanted of their service to private, and other parts public. So that’s what Memolane did: you can now designate certain services as being public (your YouTube videos, for example), and others as being private (like your Facebook updates). Another important addition: content appearing in a Memolane will now include a link to ‘view source’, so you can see the photo or update on the site from which it originated. Lagier says that this is helpful if you ever want to delete a piece of content permanently. Other recent improvements include the addition of Instragram and MySpace support. Lagier says the company isn’t sharing many numbers yet, other than to say that prior to going live it had served some 50 million ‘memos’ (pieces of content that have been imported into the service). Since launching this afternoon, they’ve doubled that. |
Twitter Succumbs To Backlash, #Dickbar No Longer Covers Tweets | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 3 | 8 |
Oh poor , we’ve spent about five days how terrible a UI you were and now you’ve been pinned down, unable to roam freely over tweets like the days of yore. Kowtowing to user and blogger , Twitter has updated Twitter for iOS and the Quickbar, or #Dickbar as it was humorously dubbed, now no longer covers tweets but firmly stays put at the dock at the top of the app. Hmm … Sounds painful. Twitter also fixed some bugs, to submitting the app for review on Friday, before #Dickbar became a meme, or at least before our own Dick Bar here on TechCrunch (I’ve included it in this post, for old times sake). So will this appease advertising averse and mouthy users? Well that remains to be seen, but at least the damn thing is staying put, for now. If it’s not immediately visible as an update, search for the new improved Twitter app in your iOS app store. http://twitter.com/#!/parislemon/statuses/45310299355623424 |
Apparently Only eHarmony Is The eHarmony Of eHarmony | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 3 | 8 | As long-time readers are likely aware, from time to time we get legal threats (or potential legal threats) sent our way. But instead of running off to go cower in a corner, we like to post these threats — particularly when they’re ridiculous. And most of them are just that. Take this week, for example. In this past week alone, we’ve gotten not one but emails from two different companies on the same issue: brand and trademark usage in our headlines and articles. The two companies in question, TV Guide and eHarmony, don’t like us using their names as frames of reference for other products and/or services. In other words, they’re saying we can’t use a headline like “XXXXX is the eHarmony of YYYYY”. And they’re also saying that in our articles, we can’t compare other products to their’s (or at least, we can’t use their name if we do it). Yes, seriously. Now, I’m not a lawyer (Mike is, but this wasn’t his field, specifically), but come on — it’s true that companies have to protect their trademarks and brands, but this is just silly. We consider this to be fair use. It would be one thing if said on their site that they’re the “TV Guide for the web”, but they don’t, for obvious reasons. But there should be no reason why we can’t say that. And so we’ll continue to, because such comparisons often help put things in perspective for our readers. Below, find the emails sent our way. Note that only the eHarmony one is actually from their legal department. TV Guide merely “requests” that we “correct” our story. Obviously, we’re not going to do that. Hi Leena, I’m writing from TV Guide to request a correction/update to your earlier post on Clicker.com’s acquisition by CBS. In both the headline and lead paragraph, the TV Guide brand and trademark are used to describe Clicker’s services. I’m hoping you’ll be able to correct this online. Thanks in advance, and please let me if you have any questions. Regards, Leslie Furuta Vice President, Communications TV Guide Network & TVGuide.com Hello, On February 18, 2011, TechCrunch correspondent Leena Rao published an article entitled “ .” While we appreciate the reference to our business and matching technology that were intended to be communicated via the title, I’m sure you can appreciate that such use of our eHarmony brand can lead to genericization of the brand, thereby affecting the goodwill and other intangible trademark rights we have so heavily invested in. From that perspective, we ask that TechCrunch refrain from using the eHarmony brand in any way that would compare other companies’ products to that of ours, especially when it comes to their matching technology or algorithm (e.g. “eHarmony of ___________”). Thanks for your attention to this matter. Best Regards, Steve ———————————————————————————————————— Steve S. Nikkhou || Sr. Director, Legal Affairs || eHarmony, Inc. |
Acer's Media Center Remote Is A Sleek, Touchable Slab | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 8 |
If you use a PC for your media center, you might have had trouble locating a suitable control device for it, if you’re using the plain mouse-based interface. Sure, there are air mice and you can always use keyboard shortcuts, but those are kind of weak compared with It’s basically a big touchpad like that you might use on your laptop, and you can drag, click, and do multi-touch gestures. But here’s the cool part: by pressing one of those buttons there on the right, the controls you see light up and anyone can make the plain play/pause/next and basic navigation commands. Nice feature for handing it over to a kid or parent who might not be as savvy with the HTPC. It’s Windows 7 compatible, has a “G-sensor” inside (accelerometer, I assume), and works over 2.4GHz RF. I look forward to the official release, this thing may have more features we don’t know about. [via ] |
Microsoft Planning Successor To Zune Service? | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 8 |
Some rumblings at Microsoft regarding the future of their music and video services have been , Microsoft sleuth extraordinaire. Something called “Ventura” has been tipped as a new “very large scale project” involved in music and video discovery and delivery. It’s clearly not at the consumer stage, and they are probably just working on unified backend services for Windows, Live, and WP7 platforms, but it’s also entirely possible that this work will result in some new consumer products. The brand and look have been partially left behind; the “Metro” UI has elements from the Zune, but the Zune player itself doesn’t really fit in. Could there be a relaunch of Windows Media Player? would be funny. It’s still very early in development, as indicated by Foley’s sources and a job listing that seems to indicate it’s more or less in the planning stages. We’ll keep our eyes open, though. [via ] |
Beverage Companies Go Sustainable With Biodegradable Plastics, Ramped Up Recycling | Lora Kolodny | 2,011 | 3 | 8 | Coca-Cola ( ) announced plans today to invest $24 million, along with (which will contribute about $5 million of that) to build a new, plastic bottle recycling facility in Lincolnshire, England. In recent weeks, the company also struck a landmark deal to sell its 30 percent plant-based plastic to Heinz, which will begin to use it in ketchup and condiments packaging in June. Another major beverage player, SodaStream ( ) announced today that it will soon ship its flavored syrups in bottles that can decompose in a landfill in five years. Regular plastic bottles take 450 years to decompose, according to general waste industry estimates. SodaStream’s new “Bio Bottles” (image, below) are made using additives from an Albuquerque, New Mexico company in a traditional bottle manufacturing process. The Bio Bottles were designed and will be manufactured by SodaStream. Bio-Tec’s EcoPure additives will be incorporated into the bottles, caps, and shrink-wrap rendering all components biodegradable in landfill or compost (or recyclable). While recyclers, additives businesses, and non-petroleum plastic makers all offer landfill waste reduction benefits, it’s not clear how many more investments companies like Coke, Heinz and SodaStream will have to make before we see a reversal of some of the damages to our planet they already enabled. According to the most recent available numbers provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 2009 about ended up in US landfills. Aside from other potentially harmful chemicals and impacts, most plastics used in food and beverage packaging have estrogenic-active compounds. In other words, most commonly available plastics have the “potential ability to interfere with the body’s endocrine system and produce adverse physiological effects,” according to research funded by the . |
Eyez: It's A Camera In A Pair Of Sunglasses | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 8 |
I’m mad at Zion Eyez, the company that makes, or rather has theorized, these sunglasses-with-1080p-camera-in. Not because they’re late to the party (Lady Gaga at CES and other companies have tried this), but because their site autoplays a video with “epic music,” and when you turn the sound off, it Flash-based websites have always been a pain in the ass, even when they work properly. Don’t do this, people. How about the device? Well, it’s still a concept, but they’re still claiming it will revolutionize social video sharing. The idea is that people don’t share videos because… well, they do, but you have to use a device like a smartphone and you’re limited to watching this event on the small screen. Whereas, with the Eyez, you can watch it the way you’d normally watch it, except with sunglasses on. This way you can record like an hour of video and either stream it or post it later via your phone or computer. Naturally, I’m skeptical. And I don’t look forward to the image quality from such a tiny camera or the blind framing videos will have, since there’s no feedback to the camera operator. We’ll check back with this thing when there’s a real product. In the meantime, and [via ] |
Microsoft's Capacitive Pen Senses Which Way You're Holding It | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 8 |
Here’s an interesting research project . The idea is an intelligent stylus that’s aware of how you’re holding it, allowing it to change function depending on whether it’s upside-down, being gripped at the very end, or towards the back, like a paintbrush. And although there are precious few applications for stylii these days, the project team hopes the tech involved could be integrated with, say, a game controller or other interface device, that would know when it’s being used as a steering wheel, an FPS controller, and so on. The pen itself is one big capacitive surface, and it has an orientation sensor on the end so it can… you know, tell its orientation. The picture obviously shows a research prototype; the tech could be smaller or integrate more closely with the existing chipsets in mice and contollers and such. Hopefully we’ll see more of this thing soon. |
Skobbler brings ForeverMap to Android | Steve O'Hear | 2,011 | 3 | 8 | has ported ForeverMap, its Google Maps competitor, to Android. , the app provides maps for Europe and differentiates itself from Google Maps with full support for offline usage. That’s because maps are fully downloaded and stored on the phone rather than relying on a persistent connection to the Cloud. Curious, however, is Skobbler’s business model for ForeverMap on Android: Two versions exist, a free and . The latter providing faster downloads with the former relying on potentially slower peer-to-peer. That said, the possibility of offering a free version altogether comes courtesy of the do-it-yourself nature of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) data that powers ForeverMap. As previously noted, the ‘Wikipedia of maps’ project relies on volunteers – users – to plug any missing gaps in the maps themselves, which can be a little hit and miss in very remote areas, apparently, although it’s a growing project that’s improving all the time. In addition to those European maps, which can be downloaded independently, ForeverMap on Android offers offline search, location finder, route calculation, along with points of interests. |
Axel Springer Acquires Most Of Mobile Coupons Startup KaufDa For $40 Million | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | is one of Germany’s leading “promotion search” sites. What’s that? It helps you look for the best sales and mobile couponing running near where you live. So instead of retailers needing to send out huge catalogues, Germans have warmed to kaufDa’s targeted nature. Admittedly it doesn’t sound that exciting a business. But today European media giant Axel Springer has acquired a 74.9 percent equity interest in the business for $40US million, thus generated a tidy, and significant, European-style exit for the investors concerned. The story behind the price is that traditional publishing companies are quite simply terrified of kaufDA. It targets the $3bn retail advertising market in Germany, much of which is poised to transfer online, long after classifieds in jobs or car search did so. Some 30% of traffic is mobile already: kaufDA’s iPhone Navigator App has been installed on over 15% of all iPhones and over 20% of all iPads in Germany. |
Disney Opens Cute Cell Phone Store In Tokyo | Serkan Toto | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | Disney exited the cell phone business in the US back in 2007, but the MVNO Disney operates in Japan seems to be doing : last month, Disney Mobile Japan started offering , which is currently being advertised on national TV. And yesterday, Disney Mobile even [JP, PDF] a physical store in central Tokyo. As you would expect, the store looks pretty cute. It’s very small (Disney wouldn’t say small), too, but my guess is the target group over here doesn’t care.
If you make it to Tokyo, and if you happen to be both a Disney fan and cell phone geek: the store is located in Shinjuku ward and open every day. |
LetterMPress Kickstarter Project Is An Early Sign Of The New iPad Direction | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | Perhaps the most beautiful I have ever seen (sorry statue) is a virtual letterpress app for the iPad, created by designer and typographer . Already in prototype, Bonadies is seeking $15,000 in crowd-sourced funding to release the world’s first tablet letterpress envirnoment, aiming for the end of the summer. LetterMPress allows you to arrange type on the iPad much like an original letterpress, using the touch screen to arrange, lock and ink type on the “press bed,” er iPad screen. The app uses virtual cut and ink graphics, copied from actual vintage press sets. And while you can print out your creations using AirPrint or by uploading the files to your computer, part of Bonadies’ plan is to buy actual vintage sets and offer authentic letterpress prints from the designs submitted by LetterMPress users. So why put all this effort into virtually recreating something as obsolete as letterpress printing, other than because you love it? When I reviewed the original iPad last year, I wrote that one of its greatest flaws it And while a year later, on the eve of another iPad launch, we’ve got a ton of light photo-editing apps like PhotoShop Express, there’s as of yet no tool that a creative professional would prefer to use on an iPad than on a Mac. LetterMPress could be the first of these sort of apps, that take advantage of the touch tablet interface’s inherent potential for artistry and creative work. I mean imagine a hardcore Photoshop for touch. As I’m hearing that tomorrow’s iPad launch will increasingly focus on the iPad as a tool for , perhaps Steve Jobs and Bonadies are on the same page, a digital one. Watch LetterMPress in action, below. |
The Real Victims In Apple's Subscription Model: Middlemen | John Biggs | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | The inimitable takes a cold, hard look at Apple’s 70/30 split when it comes to iOS subscriptions and comes away unimpressed by the whiners who claim the fee is onerous. The fact is, the App Store is an all-or-nothing affair. You play by Apple’s rules or you stick to web apps through Mobile Safari. This alternative is no different for periodical publishers than it was (and remains) for app developers in general. A lot of these demands boil down to a desire for more autonomy for native iOS app developers. Apple has never shown any interest in that. What really irks publishers is that Apple can say “You can’t sell for what you want to whom you want.” Publishers have long been able to nearly give away subscriptions just to get circulation up and then sell ads based on that circulation. Now, however, magazines like the New Yorker will have to sell at a sane price and survive on that resulting pittance that may or may not flow in from subscribers. I think what really needs to change in electronic subscriptions in general is the perception that magazines are best read in physical form and, sadly, I don’t think that perception will change in the next five years. It’s almost impossible to read a magazine regularly online, The Daily included, and I’m still not happy with the newspaper experience. However, if anyone can pull of esubscriptions, it’s Apple. Quoth Gruber: The idea with Apple’s 70-30 revenue split is that developers and publishers can make it up in volume — that people aren’t just somewhat more willing to pay for content through iTunes than other online content stores, they are far more willing. The idea is that Apple has cracked a nut no one else has — they’ve created an ecosystem where hundreds of millions of people are willing to pay for digital content. If you want to play on Apple’s lawn, you have to play by their rules. That’s the long and the short of it. Obviously not everyone is happy about that, especially the middlemen who have long gamed the system when it comes to circulation and ad sales. However, those same middlemen aren’t supplying the content people want and Apple knows it. The big guys will pay to play on Apple’s turf. |
Is "App Store" As Generic As Microsoft's "Windows"? | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 1 |
As tech companies fight for ubiquity, it’s no surprise that there should be disputes like this. Using common words for product names is always a risk, as is establishing generic traditions (like Apple’s “i-” prefix) that are difficult to regulate. At stake today is Apple’s trademark on “App Store,” which as I’m sure our readers are aware, was established in 2008 as arguably the first real platform through which independent developers could offer mobile applications, games, and so on. They filed for the trademark at the same time. Since then, however, it has been contended by Microsoft in particular that Apple has no exclusive right to so generic a term, one which arguably could apply to any other mobile application store. It’s as if Kleenex trademarked “tissue” as well. , however, noting that Microsoft itself is maintaining a plainly generic term for its most prominent product: Windows. Windows, as we all know, are both transparent portals allowing light to pass from outside to inside, and a visual metaphor for navigating a computer operating system. It’s a point worth considering. But not the only one. Apple has a strong case: “App Store” was more or less popularized by them. There were no competitors for some time so “App Store” referred only to Apple’s for quite a long time. “App Store” is also (they say) a “double entendre” meant to evoke the Apple Store. That one surely got some eye rolls in the industry. Still, the term wasn’t chosen arbitrarily. And competitors have options, as evidenced by the names the likes of Google and RIM have come up with. Microsoft’s claims are equally rational, though: can you really trademark such a broad term, just by being the first one there? “Any secondary meaning or fame Apple has in ‘App Store’ is de facto secondary meaning that cannot convert the generic term ‘app store’ into a protectable trademark.” In other words, “App Store” didn’t blow up because of Apple, but because it’s the term anyone would reach for when describing something of this type. It’s telling (but not legally obligating) that every similar service could also be called an “app store.” Observe this beautiful Venn diagram: Surely that counts for something? The counter-argument is, of course, that we use that term now because it’s the term Apple us use. It’s a chicken-egg argument of innovation or imitation. Let’s be honest, though, in the tech industry that’s rarely much of an argument. 99 times out of 100 it’s imitation. Apple’s jab at Microsoft over the term Windows has slightly different factors, but it really is remarkably similar. Like Apple, Microsoft popularized but did not invent the “window” of navigating a file system. You’re viewing this in window, though you may not be viewing it Windows. But Microsoft doesn’t go after people who say their application or OS opens a window, though there are equally applicable words: viewer, panel, tab. “windows” are hardly a selling point now for OSes, and of course if Apple decided to change the name of OS X to “Windows OS X” because it has , Microsoft would have kittens. Perhaps Apple can lay claim to popularizing the word “app”? That’s questionable. It’s just a diminutive of the term application, a term in use long before. Furthermore, doesn’t the App Store operate under the umbrella of the iTunes Store? Look, in iTunes there’s an “Apps” section, next to Music and Movies. It’s not a separate store, really, any more than the music and movies sections are separate from each other. iTunes helped popularize online music ownership, yet Apple didn’t attempt to trademark “Music Store.” Isn’t it analogous? There are numerous examples of trademarks common words: Lego, Frisbee, Tazer. But these are nonsense words. They don’t refer to what they do. Apple seems to be attempting to do just this. It’s not clear whether Apple’s trademark is lawful, right, both, or neither. It’s a very nuanced issue. My personal opinion would be that “App Store” was generic to begin with but only had a sort of frosting of originality on it. But it’s a distinction of exceeding niceness, and a little argument might sway me the other direction. What do you guys think? Is this a pot and kettle situation for Microsoft, with its Word and Office trademarks, or is Apple overreaching? |
Angel-Turned-VC Mike Maples: Yes, There’s a Bubble | Rip Empson | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | The dreaded “B” word is on the tip of many tongues these days. Are we or aren’t we in a bubble? Everybody has an opinion. Yes, Facebook’s valuation lingers around $50 billion, Zynga’s is close to $10 billion, and Twitter is valued at $4.5 billion with comparatively tiny revenues. But do these soaring valuations a bubble make? A couple of weeks ago, Eric Schmidt weighed in on the great overblown bubble debate to say that the high rate of valuations . While, in contrast, , compared to late ’90s when every company even remotely associated with this hot, newfangled “Web” was valued higher simply by being associated with it, today’s high valuations are more localized and the companies more deserving. Yet, perhaps the question is not whether this is a bubble exactly like that of the dotcom era, but whether or not it is, simply, bubble. Fellow TechCruncher to say that, while smaller angel investors do seem to be getting squeezed out of deals because early stage valuations are (in some cases) getting ridiculously high, there’s really no sure sign that a Web 2.0 bubble exists. And for hinting that there’s anything remotely bubbly going on in the Valley. In particular, there’s also been a lot of talk recently about a tech bubble. Back in the late ’90s many companies rushed into public markets even when they knew they might not become profitable for as long as two years after an IPO. Yes, Groupon is likely to IPO soon, and yes Pandora and LinkedIn recently filed to go public, but these are healthy companies that need capital for expansion and have a good chance at profitability in the next year or so. What’s more, Facebook even pushed the Securities and Exchange Commission for an exemption that would allow it to stay private. Not something you do if you’re in a bubbling rush, right? Yet, even so, the tech press can’t seem to help itself when it comes to bubble mania. If one is able to pin down an Angel for a conversation, inevitably the “B” word is raised — especially when that Angel was party to the infamous . Today, at the DEMO Conference in Palm Springs, Co-founder and Partner of Floodgate Funds Mike Maples gave the audience his own personal view: “Is there a tech bubble? Rounded off to the nearest yes, yes”, he said. Echoing Schmidt’s sentiments, Maples said that the super-sized valuations of Facebook, Zynga, and Twitter have spawned a host of imitators and that, as a result, there is now a huge crowding effect (read: bubble). “It’s like a soccer game for 9-year-olds, where everyone crowds around the ball,” he said. Like Paul Graham, Maples hinted that the big companies leading the charge ( ) are deserving of high valuations, while the clones, who are not trying to solve big problems or disrupt an entire space and are instead simply copying these companies and pasting their business models into the same space, are the real problem. Because of this, while Silicon Valley may not currently be in a bubble, he said, it’s well on its way. So, if the bubble is indeed growing, what can we do to counteract it? Instead of adding to crowded spaces (and the bubble), Maples encouraged startups to build wacky, unusual ideas, even if at first they don’t seem to have obvious application. “When I first invested in Twitter, before they were Twitter, people thought I was crazy” and that it was a “rinky-dink business”. Not so much. The Angel-turned-VC is known for investing in early-stage, potentially “risky” startups, and much of the time, he said, it doesn’t work out. But when it does, these ideas can change the world. When there’s not a lot of obvious competition in a particular space, and the startup hoping to take advantage sees a big “potential” market, those can often become the true disruptors. And when it comes to looking for the right VC, he advised entrepreneurs to look for someone who knows when to pivot and how not to panic when that time comes. Look for those who are familiar with (and comfortable in) the near-death experience, he said, which you will definitely have — just because “you’re a startup”. |
Learn Your Young Ones To Tazer Fools With This Toy Tazer | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 1 |
People are getting tazered pretty much every minute these days. Could it just be that they’re not familiar with what Tazers are? I think so! Our kids should know the look and shape of a Tazer, so in case they’re hopped up on angel dust and can’t understand what an officer is saying to them, they’ll at least recognize that object and know to hit the deck, hands behind head. That’s why they should all have . The best part? This thing actually works. Yes, like the we had so much fun with all those years ago, this will actually give a little spritz of electricity to anyone on the business end. Hey, they have to learn young. And it’s only $3.40! How can that be?! [via ] |
HeyTell Hopes SXSW Will Become One Big Walkie-Talkie Party | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | About a month ago, we covered , an iPhone/Android app that . Why did it make me feel like a kid? Because it turns your iPhone into a walkie talkie. Yeah. Awesome. But the app is also a serious business. Created by the husband-and-wife team, Steven Hugg and Jen Harvey, they’ve managed to bring in revenues from day one thanks to a combination in in-app advertising and purchases (add-ons, like voice modifiers). And while a month ago, they were going strong with 3 million registered users, things have picked up quite a bit since then: they’re now past 4 million users. While everyone is talking about group texting apps being poised to explode at SXSW, HeyTell is the type of fun app that could sneak up as well. And the service is preparing for that possibility with a fun new feature: public relays. The feature, which is included in the just-released 2.2 iPhone app update, allows you to HeyTell message any other users within your immediate proximity. In other words, it’s location-based random voice chat. But since none of the chats are one-on-one, it could happen with thousands of people at a place like SXSW where everyone will be gathered close to one another. Imagine hitting the talk button and that message being immediately received by every other users around you. That’s the idea. Your HeyTell privacy settings dictate who can message you with this feature. If you have your settings on “Low”, you can get messages from anyone, even strangers. If you have the settings on “Medium”, you’ll only hear messages from friends and friends of friends nearby. And if you have your settings on “High”, only your friends will still be able to reach you this way. The SXSW relay isn’t live just yet, but HeyTell will turn it on in time for the conference. And then we can all get the “party in room 1135!” message together. See you there. You can find HeyTell in the App Store . Or search for it in the Android Market. |
Seriously Scary Android Malware Quickly Pulled From Market | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | Apple’s semi-arbitrary approach to app store management may have , but Android (as much as I love it) is a jungle in comparison. Just tonight Google has pulled an app that, if downloaded, would have essentially rooted your phone and sent off every single detail it could find to a server in Fremont, California. Not only that, but it had the ability to download more code, potentially making it even more dangerous.
Redditor was investigating a suspicious app (Super Guitar Solo) that appeared to be a dupe of an existing app (Guitar Solo Lite), and found that it did indeed contain root exploits. Google pulled the code shortly after posted it, but it looks like at least 50,000 people have already downloaded the app, and there are a bunch more from . It’s the peril of an open app economy, but I have to say there’s rather a mismatch between the mentality behind the app store (essentially that behind the wave of download sites on the web in the late 90s) and the type of people increasingly using the OS. Right now this stuff is pretty limited, but if users get wind of it, or enough of these apps take down enough Droids, people will decide Android isn’t a “safe” mobile phone OS. |
null | Steve O'Hear | 2,011 | 3 | 8 | null |
Former Accel partner Levene formally joins Index Ventures after a year's courtship | Mike Butcher | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | Amongst VCs it was common knowledge that former Accel partner Simon Levene was ‘borrowing a desk’ at Index Ventures’ Mayfair office after leaving Accel . But they’ve finally made it official, in a post on their by Neil Rimer, to “formally welcome one of our close friends, Simon Levene, into the Index family.” Levene will join as a full-time Venture Partner based out of the London office, with special interest in entrepreneurs coming out of “Europe and Israel.” He’s known to have great connections in both. The move is interesting, as at one point we’d heard he might be rasiing his own fund. But it sounds lie he’s decided to camp down with one of the more successful tech VCs in Europe. |
Genomatica Raises $45 Million To Make Sustainable Chemicals, And Greener Spandex (A Good Thing, In This Case) | Lora Kolodny | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | Genomatica, a San Diego based producer of chemicals from renewable sources including sugar, raised $45 million in a new round led by , a fund that has committed $2.5 billion to cleantech. , a venture capital company, joined the round as well with , a large provider of waste management services in North America, and the company’s earlier investors including: Alloy Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Mohr Davidow Ventures and TPG Biotech. Altogether, Genomatica has raised $85 million in venture capital. The company will use its new round to bring its first, commercial product mass market. The product is “Bio-BDO,” a chemical that can replace oil or natural-gas derived 1,4-butanediol (regular BDO) in the manufacture of spandex, automotive plastics, running shoes and more. Bio-BDO is made from renewable feedstocks — a range of sugars— according to the company’s website. Genomatica expects its commercial-scale plant to make Bio-BDO will become fully operational in late 2013. The company will also spend part of its latest round developing additional chemicals from renewable sources. |
CMYKilla Pixel-Pistol Is An 8-Bit Peacekeeper | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 1 |
I don’t know what to tell you other than that this pixel art come to life would be fun to have around the house. Unfortunately it doesn’t fire mega buster or spread shot bullets, since it’s just solid wood. CMYKilla is all right but I’d have called it the “Dirty Squarey.” . There are also . [via ] |
F-Stop Bracelets For The Stylish Photographer In Your Life | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 1 |
I can’t say I would ever rock these personally, but they pretty sweet. They’re based on a from the early 60s that had color-coded F-numbers. Only in the 60s would that fly. Well, maybe in the 80s too. They’re a bargain, I think, at . And if you combine them with one of these , people may even mistake your forearm for a hairy long zoom, until they look closely and see that the focal length ones are based on Canon lenses. I assure you the illusion will last until then. [via ] |
Pure Genius: The Dogbrella | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | If you have a dog, you likely know the dread that enters your heart when it comes time to walk the mutt and it’s pouring rain outside. Sure, you can bring an umbrella for yourself, or wear a hat, but when you bring the beast back in, it’s going to shake everywhere and drip on the floor and jump on the furniture, eugh! Well get ready, because someone has solved this problem. Who? Hammacher Schlemmer, of course! is an upside-down umbrella, with a little hook for your leash. That’s pretty much it. Technically, you could use it as an umbrella for yourself by holding it upside-down, but the strange looks and necessity of emptying out the accumulated water every minute or so suggest this is primarily for your pet. I love the dog’s expression. So dignified! He’s thinking “At last, the treatment I deserve. And I came up with this idea years ago, dolt. Walk! Walk, I say!” [via and ] |
A Mobile Photo Sharing Casualty, Treehouse Hits The Deadpool; Founder Off To Google | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | In terms of hot spaces at the moment, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything hotter than the mobile photo sharing space. , , and all have gotten huge amounts of funding recently. And the latter even offer from Google. So the space is just minting money and everyone is riding high, right? Well, not exactly. It can be easy to forget that despite the early success stories (or irrational hype, depending on how you perceive it), there are many more startups out there that aren’t taking off for one reason or another. And one of the earlier players in this latest wave, Treehouse, is sadly no more. The service has entered the Deadpool. in June of last year as perhaps the perfect app for capturing “bros icing bros”. And while it lasted longer than that trend, Treehouse is now shut down, co-founder has confirmed to us. But it’s not all sad news. One of the reasons Bader decided to shutter the service now is because he got recruited by Google to help them build out whatever it is they’re building in the social space. Bader declined to give details, but says he’s leading an “exciting new project” alongside the Slide team that . “ ,” he says. Treehouse was technically a part of , a Y Combinator-backed startup that had originally set out to be one of the “Twitter for video” plays. They had also been known as Vidly. But Bader correctly predicted that mobile photo sharing was poised to take off, and thus we got Treehouse. The service was well executed, and had that was sort of a hybrid of Path and Instagram. But again, for whatever reason, it just didn’t catch on in the same way. Perhaps Bader will be able translate some of what he learned in the space to whatever Google releases. : In an email, Bader had a bit more to share, looking back on Treehouse and the overall space: We were indeed the first to really identify the market for mobile photo sharing. It all started when we asked the question “What if you could see your friends’ camera rolls?” So many people take pictures on their iPhones that never see the light of day, so by being able to see your friends’ camera rolls, then you can see what your friends are up to. At first, we decided to focus on privacy and creating a comfortable environment for people to share photos without worrying who sees them. Initially we had great traction in small groups, but quickly reached the realization that private sharing is difficult in groups of friends that do not all have iPhones. This is a problem that Path is facing right now. Hyper-privacy does not work and moves against the natural motion of social products now, which is to be more open. I’m happy to see Instagram’s success because it will bring forward the possibility of mobile photo sharing in people’s minds which will pave the way for new apps to have a chance to blow the lid off of the space. We’ve barely scratched the surface of the potential of the mobile photo space, and I’m excited to see Instagram lock-down a long-term vision and watch Path slowly become more open. |
The Pros And Cons Of Facebook Comments | Erick Schonfeld | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | Today, Facebook rolled out a for blogs and third-party sites. We’ve implemented it here on TechCrunch, and after a few hours of the system being live it is obvious that it has its share of pros and cons. Readers have certainly noticed, and there is already a ton debate about whether this is good or bad for the Internet. It is certainly not perfect. Facebook comments logins. It doesn’t yet allow sites to archive their comments to make backups (although an API for that is forthcoming I am told), and switching away from Facebook comments after a few months on the system looks like it will be a hassle (data portability anyone?). Some corporations block Facebook, which kills it as a commenting system for that subset of users. In one fell swoop it could hurt , which is a great startup that’s been perfecting its commenting system for years. And there are lots of little bugs we’ve noticed that hopefully will be fixed soon (we were manually moderating every comment on TechCrunch until a few minutes ago, and you still can’t see a comment count at the top of each post like you could before). On the other hand, it also has some real advantages. Primary among these is that it requires commenters to use their real identities. In the past few hours, most of the anonymous trolls who have come to call TechCrunch comments a second home are gone. Of course, some people don’t want to comment with their real names for good reason (they want to speak freely without fear of reprisals), but for the most part in practice anonymity was abused. It was used mostly as a shield to hide behind and throw out invective. Have the trolls really vanished or will they return? I certainly hope they are gone. We have fewer comments in general on most posts today, but the conversations are much more civil and interesting. The other main benefit is social virality. When you comment on TechCrunch, your comment also appears in your Facebook stream with a link back to the post (unless you opt out of that option in the comment box). It would be better if the link went right to your comment instead of to the post in general, but that is a feature that can be added. It brings in more readers from Facebook who are pulled in to see what their friends said. So what are the results? So far today, Facebook is our No. 2 referring site, after AOL (thank you, ). It is beating out Twitter, which is usually our top source of referring traffic. This viral effect would be twice as powerful, of course, if people could use their Twitter IDs as well. What do you think are the biggest pros and cons? http://twitter.com/#!/ScepticGeek/status/42639759742468096 http://twitter.com/#!/alexia/status/42692023022649344 |
Sony Prepping Monster 4K Cinema Camera For NAB Debut | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 1 |
This news is above and beyond the budgets of our readers, sure, but to be honest it’s also above and beyond the budgets of most major filmmakers. Digital cinema cameras like the one Sony is expected to announce this month at NAB run in the $100K-$300K range, and often aren’t even offered for sale, only for rental at daily costs that would buy you a . But hey, money issues aside, this is going to be a beast of a camera. It’s got a Super-35mm-sized CMOS sensor pulling down 8768×2324 pixels, which makes for a pretty weird aspect ratio. Good thing it’s reducing that to 4K, or else we’d be watching some screen movies in a couple years. Perhaps the more impressive bit is its color space: 16-bit RAW in 16:8:8. That’s a lot of leeway for the editors, cinematographers, and color techs to work with. The rest of the info can be found , which appears quite impressed with the camera. NAB happens in early April, so we’ll update you then. As for big digital cinema’s nemesis RED, Jim Jannard had only to say: “At least people can now stop thinking about 1080p!” Which really is true, even the high-end digital cinema gear has been aimed at 1080p for the last few years. Soon a 4K process may make its way all the way to a theater near you. [via ] |
Facebook Comments Have Silenced The Trolls — But Is It Too Quiet? | MG Siegler | 2,011 | 3 | 6 | As you’ve noticed by now, we’re our latest experiment in troll-slaying with Facebook Comments. So far, the reactions have been very mixed and very interesting. Publicly, many of the reactions were initially negative. But that has been as time has gone on. Privately, most of the reactions have been . But not all of them. We appreciate the feedback. More importantly, is the system actually working? Well, yes — the real question is: is it working ? Since we flipped the switch on for Facebook Comments last Tuesday morning, you’ve probably noticed that the overall number of comments have fallen dramatically. This is completely expected and definitely not a bad thing. Previously, many of our posts would get hundreds of comments (and sometimes more), but at least half of those would be of a quality best described as weak to poor. And of those, about half would be pure trollish nonsense. Simply put: with the previous system, roughly half of the comments were more or less useless. With the Facebook system, the most popular posts are only touching around 100 or so comments (obviously, the ones the commenting system have more). But of those 50 to 100 comments, many of them are actually coherent thoughts in response to the post itself — you know, what a comment is supposed to be. That’s not the case across the board, of course. We’re still seeing a lot of commenters talking about their hatred of the new commenting system. But those are easy to discount as we saw the same comments when we switched to Disqus, and InstenseDebate before that. It’s a symptom of change. Those comments will dissipate quickly, if we stick with Facebook. But the other interesting thing we’re seeing is that whereas trollish garbage used to infest the comment section, now we’re seeing almost the opposite. Many people are now leaving comments that gush about the subject of the article in an overly sycophantic way. It’s quite odd. The cold pricklies have turned to warm fuzzies. Of course, neither is ideal. But nausea-inducing kindness is certainly better than rage-inducing assholeishness. Shortly after we launched the new system, Erick did a post . The majority of those remain the same, though a number of the initial bugs have already been ironed out. So the big question is: are we going to stick with Facebook Comments? It’s still undecided. As with the initial rollout, this is very much a test. And it was a necessary test as the commenting situation on TechCrunch has been for a long time. It was difficult to look at something like Quora, where people leave comments that are engaging and thoughtful, and then switch over to our site where it was a cesspool of bullshit about many of the same topics. We have readers of the highest caliber with a deep interest in the tech space from around the world — there’s no reason why our comment section shouldn’t reflect that. Instead, a handful of trolls were ruining things for everyone. Yes, it was often humorous, but completely worthless. And it’s amazing how quickly the trolls vanished when real identity started to be enforced. That’s not to say that battle is over. We’ve already had some trolls armed with fake Facebook accounts pop back in. But they sure are easy to ban now. I’m sure more will be coming. We definitely don’t like the fact that you have to use Facebook (or Yahoo) to log in, but with Google or Twitter in time to make their logins possible. And if they had, that may have just been another easier way for the trolls to get back in. Long story short, we’re sticking with this comment system for the time being, but that could change at any time. I suspect the number of total comments will begin to rise again going forward — again, we saw this exact thing when we previously switched systems. But if they don’t, does it really matter? It’s the good old quality versus quantity debate. Traffic to TechCrunch has been largely unaffected by the new system, or perhaps buoyed a bit by Facebook, but that’s not our prime motivation here. It’s about making all aspects of our site useful to readers. And killing trolls. |
Love The Twitter #Dickbar? Get Your Own, We Did | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 3 | 6 |
Regardless of what you think about the in the newest version of Twitter for iOS, there’s no contesting that it’s definitely captured imaginations for the past weekend or so. This happened primarily because of general ad aversion but was aided by the fact that influential tech blogger John Gruber catchily the Dick Bar, in homage to both new Twitter CEO and the fact that the “alerting function” is a little obtrusive and a little too hard on ( Promoted Trends, which really aren’t trends at all but ads, costing advertisers around 100K a pop. Riffing off of how some Twitter Trending Topics are inane ( ), developer has created his own Dick Bar, that will let you display Twitter’s auto-overlaying attempts at a viable form of mobile advertising on your own site. (To its credit Twitter has a less obtrusive version to the app store, as to how much less obtrusive it is actually is remains to be seen — Costolo has been about not including a way to turn it off.) Says Beeson on the inspiration behind his creation, I’ve embedded Beeson’s effort, above, to further demonstrate the value of such information for readers. But don’t get too uppity because, as Peter Kafka , Twitter advertising is here to stay. We ain’t seen nothing yet so don’t waste your energy bitching. I guess the only recourse for now is either #dealwithit or #makefunofit or build something better.
|
In Search Of The Internet Kill Switch | Jon Orlin | 2,011 | 3 | 6 | The complete Internet this week in Libya involved a new way to turn off web access for an entire country. Earlier this year, the total in Egypt backfired and emboldened the protesters. China is for blocking Internet services, but it’s . Of course, having the government turn off the Internet could never happen in the United States. We couldn’t condemn the action in other countries while at the same time plan it here. No one would even suggest such a thing, right? Wrong. The topic came up last June when Senators Joseph Lieberman, Susan Collins and Thomas Carper introduced the controversial “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010”. [ ] One vague provision in the bill gave the president the power to “authorize emergency measures to protect the nation’s most critical infrastructure if a cyber vulnerability is being exploited or is about to be exploited.” It became known as the Internet “kill switch” bill even though the words ‘kill’ and ‘switch’ are not found in the bill. When talking about an Internet kill switch, an image of a giant switch in the Oval Office, perhaps next to the “ ,” used to shut down the entire Internet comes to mind. But that’s fiction and gives the bill’s sponsors cover to deny the bill contains a total kill switch. The Internet was originally designed as a distributed network exactly to survive an attack. Egypt was able to turn off the Internet by forcing its relatively few Internet Service Providers to shut down their servers. In Libya, the servers are and the route is open but the traffic is being throttled down to zero. If the U.S government told the major Tier 1 ISPs to close, that’s technically not a single “kill switch” but it would cause a shutdown. In fact, one claims, in the event of a cyberwar, an Internet shutdown would cause more problems that it would prevent. While denying the bill authorized a presidential “kill switch” in a , Lieberman CNN, “Right now, China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in a case of war. We need to have that here, too.” Just because China does it is a laughable argument. It’s also clear he wants a way to turn parts of the Internet off. Lieberman generously suggested the president is “not going to do it every day” (phew), but he did argue “we need the capacity for the president to say, Internet service provider, we’ve got to disconnect the American Internet from all traffic coming in from another foreign country, or we’ve got to put a patch on this part of it.” This sounds a lot like what might have been said inside Mubarak’s presidential palace. The bill met with outcry from privacy and Internet groups but was popular with the public. A commissioned by Unisys last August, before the Eqyptian shutdown, showed a majority of Americans believe the president should have the power to control or kill portions of the Internet if the U.S. was under a cyberattack by a foreign government. The bill was approved by a Senate committee last December and then expired with the new Congress. The legislation was re-branded and revised as the “Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act of 2011.” Note the clever use of the phrase Internet Freedom for a bill that gives the government power over privately owned computer systems. Ironically, it was re-introduced on the same day as the Egyptian shutdown, when President Obama was “the Egyptian government to reverse the actions that they’ve taken to interfere with access to the Internet.” Lieberman his approach: “We want to clear the air once and for all. As someone said recently, the term ‘kill switch” has become the ‘death panels’ of the cybersecurity debate. There is no so-called ‘kill switch’ in our legislation because the very notion is antithetical to our goal of providing precise and targeted authorities to the president. Furthermore, it is impossible to turn off the Internet in this country.” The new bill says “neither the president, the Director of the National Center for Cybersecurity and Coummunications, or any officer or employee of the United States Government shall have the authority to shut down the Internet.” But, it the Department of Homeland Security the power to issue decrees to privately owned companies in a cyber emergency. Surprisingly, the president has the power to shutdown the Internet already. This authority originated well before the Internet existed, in the Communications Act of 1934 that created the FCC. Section 706 gives the president authority, in a state or threat of war, to “cause the closing of any facility or station for wire communication” with no advance warning. [ ] “A station for wire communication” may not sound like the routers that power the Internet. But the Department of Homeland Security has the 1934 Act as one of the powers the president would rely on if the nation was under a cyberattack. Why does our government even need the power to block the Internet? One of the justifications for the bill, that’s even written into the legislation, is the fact that the computer systems of the government are probed or attacked an average of 1.8 billion times a month. Most of these involved infiltrating government workers copies of Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Office. Or, phishing attacks with malicious email attachments, hardly a reason to justify even a partial Internet shutdown. Collins argues the president needs the power to shut down “critical infrastructure” during a serious cyberattack. As an , the sponsors say if a cyberthreat was detected, the president should be able to instantly shut down any infrastructure connected to “the system that controls the floodgates to the Hoover dam.” On the surface, it sounds reasonable. You wouldn’t want 10 trillion gallons of water to cause . But, I checked the Hoover Dam . I couldn’t find a way to control the floodgates and I’d be surprised if that control was connected to the public Internet. [ : The agency in charge of the Hoover Dam says it is not connected to the Internet and has several physical and technological safeguards to prevent the floodgates from opening.] And even if a hacker could control it, the government should be able to cut off the connection without this legislation.
Lieberman says the bill is needed because “the Internet can be a dangerous place with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key infrastructure to government and industrial secrets.” Yes, the Internet can be a dangerous place. It’s also essential to the freedom of its citizens and nation’s commerce. And, it’s pretty good at self-policing. In the case of the private banks, the banks themselves know more about protecting customers accounts than then government. John Dvorak says the senators supporting the legislation “aren’t Internet experts trying to protect the Net from damage. They, to be frank, are clueless about the Internet.” Recall former Senator Ted Stevens, who headed a committee in charge of regulating the Internet, describing the net saying “It’s not a big truck. It’s a .” While TechCrunch and other blogs hosted by WordPress are hardly part of the nation’s “critical infrastructure” (wouldn’t that be great, though), those websites a huge cyber attack this week. , who oversees the blog platform at wordpress.com, says the attack was the largest in its history. 98% of the attacks . The target was a Chinese-language site, but it caused many other WordPress.com hosted sites to fail. Let’s just pretend these sites were critical to the nation. The problem was the sites were shut down. An additional government-ordered shutdown isn’t the solution. Even if the sites were hacked, shutting down routers isn’t the answer. Private industry worked to identify and solve the problem, with no need for additional regulations. |
World Record: The iPad Is The Only Camera With A Lower Resolution Than Its Display | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 6 | I think we can all admit that the iPad’s camera, while welcome, is pretty much just bad. I took issue with the iPod touch’s camera, wondering where Apple can even find such a low-resolution sensor these days, but Jack Deneut at Nelso that on the , it produces a dubious honor: it appears to be the first camera with a lower resolution than the display it’s attached to. Why Apple didn’t spring for a half-decent camera, I don’t know — better sensors only cost pennies more these days. It’s better than no camera at all, and these tiny sensors are , but still. |
800 Swiss ETA Movements Stolen From Watchmaker In Porrentruy | John Biggs | 2,011 | 3 | 6 | Thieves took a a cache of 800 ETA movements from a watchmaker in Porrentruy, Switzerland. They included some 2824-2 and 7750 movements. The are used in chronographs. ETA movements are become increasingly more rare as the company’s owner, the Swatch Group, is cracking down on their international distribution. This cache, while small, could be work up to $800,000 depending on the quality and type of movement. Watchmaker is asking folks to keep an eye out for Buran-branded movements in the wild. |
Fly Or Die: The iPad2, ecoATM, and SocialEyes | Erick Schonfeld | 2,011 | 3 | 6 | Last week was about the , but this week was all about the iPad 2. You’ve read all the and , but will it fly as high as Steve Jobs says it will? And what, if anything could kill the iPad 2? Watch this episode of to find out. Crunchgear editor John Biggs and I also discuss the prospects of two new startups that just this week at DEMO, and . The ecoATM is a kiosk that takes your old cell phones and recycles them for cash. SocialEyes, which I earlier this week, brings your Facebook friends into a multiple-party video chat experience. |
YouGotListings Offers A Broker-Tested Rental Listing Management Software | Leena Rao | 2,011 | 3 | 6 | There’s no question that technology has helped redefine the real estate industry. With the success of Trulia, Zillow and others, it’s clear that there is a huge market for providing the real estate sector with online tools. Y Combinator-backed startup is adding an innovative product for brokers and landlords with the launch of its simple, easy to use rental listings management software. While there are a number of startups who are playing in the space, YouGotListings has an interesting back story. The idea for the startup was founded a few years ago by engineers Gordon Chen and John Li as a way to provide real estate brokers with a listings management platform and landlords with an easy way to market their properties to brokers and consumers. But the startup’s founders quickly learned that the real estate market can be a tough industry to break into without any insider knowledge. So Chen and Li spent a full year as brokers in Boston so they could fully understand how the system works and eventually provide an application that would meet the needs of both brokers and landlords in the rental industry (apparently, they were so good at renting apartments that their former employers are still trying to get them back as brokers in Boston). The software the founders ended up producing after this research is YouGotListings. The SaaS allows landlords to post new listings, which get distributed in real-time to the brokers they’ve selected. Previously, landlords would have to fax or email new properties directly to each broker, which can be a time consuming process especially if a landlord is managing a number of properties. And YouGotListings aims to be a start to finish application for brokers, where they can find listings, publish these listings to consumers, and then also run credit-checks, print rental applications and more. YouGotListings is free for listing distributions, and costs anywhere from $50 per month for a single user to $100 per month for unlimited users. The software also includes tools for syndicate rental listings to general listing sites like Trulia, Hotpads, Craigslist and others. And brokers can use YouGotListings to power consumer-facing websites with available rental listings. Within the software, landlords and brokers can message each other about properties and the startup recently launched an Android app to allows brokers to view listings on the fly (an iPhone app will be released in the next few days). Another useful feature is the ability to create and print itineraries for clients with information about all the rental properties they are seeing in a given tour. While YouGotListings is currently focused on the Boston and Chicago markets (in Chicago YouGotListings has a ten percent marketshare), and plans to move into the Florida and San Francisco markets soon. Chen tells us that each city is different in terms of how rentals are found, and the startup is focused on building relationships in each city with both brokers and landlords as a way to expand use of their software. The model has worked in Boston and YouGotListings says that already have 75% of the market in the city. One of YouGotListings’ main competitors is , which just raised in funding and acquired a competitor, YouGotListings is bootstrapped and has only raised $150,000 via the Chen says that while much of the functionality between the two platforms is similar, he feels that Li and his experience as brokers has helped them “know the business.” “We speak brokers’ language and know their pain points,” Chen explains. “Right now our biggest goal is not to expand quickly but to provide the best support for brokers and help make our customers happy.”
|
Jump Ball | Steve Gillmor | 2,011 | 3 | 6 | As an exercise in futility, I decided to see how long I could go without thinking about the iPad this weekend. So far it’s not going well. It’s not that the iPad is somehow the most important thing since fire or the wheel was invented. It’s that nobody else seems to have used all this free innovation time to come up with anything that comes close. Scoble offers Xbox Kinect as a worthy challenger, but I compare the number of times I see my kids playing with it to the noise cloud surrounding the iPad. It’s 20 to 1 easily. But, Robert would say if I had him sitting right here, it’s amazing, so Minority Report-ish, etc. I’ll admit, it’s cool getting to do the super-secret spy analysis hand wave where instantaneous video from impossible camera angles complete with multiple cutaways are discarded with a gesture. Then there’s circling the shadowy out of focus suspect’s face from satellite orbit and “sharpening it up” until you can see the other conspirators reflecting in the guy’s eye. The technology is great, but it all falls apart when you put your best men on it. Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters? Seriously, how is Kinect going to work in Office? Will we be like Jerry Lewis typing merrily in thin air, keyboard- and clue-less? Will we construct a new sign language with gestures for expletive-laced searches, threads of bodily harm, inappropriate suggestions about where someone should go, frequently-repeated stock phrases (Winning!)? Or new methods of consuming realtime feeds by grabbing tweets and popping them in our mouths to hear read back to us by our favorite media personality holograms? I expect the Scobleizer video is being rendered as I ”type.” No, Kinect is a feature, not a platform. It seems like the future, and it probably is part of it. If only they could replace Windows with it. Instead, Apple is doing it to them. By the end of the iPad 2 launch event this Wednesday, you could see a future without Windows. Not just Office dead, or in the cloud. An alternate universe, a path not taken, a recall of global proportions. As Doc Searls may have said or something like it, dead OS walking. Everything about Wednesday was about what wasn’t yet said. As Steve Jobs moved through the material — the relentless comedy of competitors not quite getting there, of ideas bubbling up from the glass formerly known as a toy, of what was thinner, faster, smarter — the more you could see of what is going to happen to OS X, aka the Mac. The Mac is the new Apple II, it is being revealed. AirPlay is the new surface, push notification the Matrix, the combination of signals the canvas on which magic really is being practiced. In the new film The Adjustment Bureau, there are moments that not so much take your breath away as leave you suspended in midair or mid-joke. You know what’s coming, as our heroes open a door in a long corridor and emerge by the monuments in center field. Not sure whether it’s CitiField or the new Yankee Stadium, it doesn’t matter. It’s funny and effortless, and you could imagine your own jokes — not just space but time, the night you first got lucky, the recording session for Kind of Blue. Nodding at Coltrane and settling to the floor in the corner to stay out of the way. Magic. That’s what they’re bottling with GarageBand. Using the aerodynamics, the laws of gravity, where the beat lies in this new form of blues. I’m not saying they’ve made it possible for anyone to play. I’m saying they’ve cracked the code on providing levers to invent new sounds and rhythms. They’re at version 1 of the new platform, but already you can hear things I haven’t heard in a very long time. Don’t misunderstand me; I’m not arguing that something has been automated or replaced or any of that Terminator stuff. David Sanborn and I were telling stories about Paul Butterfield. We got there via Charlie Sheen, opening one door and then another, shaking our heads with the sad knowledge that sometimes you just have to disconnect for your own good. But then, another door, to a time when Paul recorded In My Own Dream. Paul had this way with a guitar, an acoustic that he turned into this kind of overtone drum, petting it and the muted strings like a velvet hammer. Soft but within this envelope a universe lived and breathed. On stage Wednesday, the GarageBand developer demoed such a sound. It wasn’t the same thing, yet in its audacity it opened a door to some place and time where anything was possible, and often occurred. I think it was what made the Beatles so special, the lightness of being of the group’s humor. Drop the needle at any point and you hear this energy, casual optimism or hilarious darkness, the accumulated resonance of what came before and what would certainly come in the future. Nothing, not even the end, could stop us from playing the track again. It brought the memory of Paul when I played a bass note on a Mini-Moog, a synthesizer Marcus Miller had programmed out in California and I’d brought East to a friend’s living room in Woodstock. Paul’s head jerked up like my dog’s does when he hears my wife’s car coming home on the street. It wasn’t the sound (awesome as it was) or the way Paul’s guitar and voice fed back through the Portastudio and into the room and drum kit. It was all of it. It was funny and expansive and full of possibility. As Jobs conducted the iPad 2 launch, you could tell he couldn’t keep from smiling. I believe that’s at the heart of what people have called his reality distortion field. Nope. It’s the inspiration that comes to us as we see someone or some group or some country seize the possibilities of what has been done, and recognize the signature of what so much more can be done. Who knew what a silly thing like Twitter would bring? Right now we still don’t know, but applying this hybrid of instant and You’ve Got Mail and soapbox and Underground Railway has already shaken the world. Applying a combination of gyroscope and accelerometer and touch and Apple has produced something that is velocity sensitive without that actual capability in the glass. What John Borthwick apologetically calls the Singularity is what I call the Audacity. And its ripples will overturn Windows as surely as OS X is back ported to iOS rather than the other way around. Our suppositions about the applications sitting atop the OS are now a jump ball. Our assumptions about Office: jump ball. Our presumptions about owning versus streaming: jump ball. Steve Jobs described Apple’s edge as the intersection of technology and art. He played the Beatles non-stop at the launch, an audacity that worked because he challenged us to compare. At any moment, the Beatles’ momentum could have been stopped — by over or under reaching, by hubris without saving grace, by standing pat. Even the document of their failure gave birth to the moment on the roof where we see the alchemy of the group on Get Back, topped by just one more thing, the joke by Lennon about how he hoped they’d passed the audition. |
null | Lora Kolodny | 2,011 | 3 | 1 | null |
iBoobs Reborn: Undaunted, The Famous Chest App Comes To Android | John Biggs | 2,011 | 3 | 6 | [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8NCIbSdKvY&w=640&h=390] When Apple in 2008, they struck a blow against freedom what was heard around the world. Some historians believe that the Great iBoobs Reaping of 2008 is the cause of our current economic and societal malaise, and who are we to question their findings? But friends: the times they are a changin’. iBoobs, an app that allows you to shake the mammaries of various female avatars, is back… on the Android Marketplace. That’s right: Google understands freedom and the makers of iBoobs, Mystic Game Development, understand the lure of breasts. Like chocolate and peanut butter, these two great tastes can now taste great together. Mystic writes: We recently decided to do an experiment and create iBoobs for Android, which is now currently available in the Android app market store. We think the fact that it is available on Android does show that the Android platform offers more flexibility and is more open-minded to app developers. Open-minded indeed, friends, and open shirted. There’s a video demo, above, but rest assured none of the great iPhone chest heaving capabilities have been removed from this version of the app. There are two versions, a paid version for $2.00 (maybe they should sell a premium version for $5,318,008) and a free, Lite version. Improvements include 15 achievements to unlock (think of how proud your mother will be when you tell her what you won!) and touchscreen support. Let freedom ring, fellow breastonauts, through the open dells and unfettered vales of the Android Marketplace. |
Seattle Startup Thinkfuse Scores $500k By Hanging Around During Y Combinator Demo Day | Michael Arrington | 2,011 | 3 | 24 | Angel investors gorged on one of their twice-a-year feeding frenzies at earlier this week. Among other things, SV Angel and Yuri Milner finally got to see what they when they made a blanket $150,000 convertible debt offer to all new companies. One smart Seattle startup called took advantage of all that investor focus by traveling to Silicon Valley last week, right before the demo day. And in less than a week they closed their own angel round – – from investors like Ali and Hadi Partovi, SV Angel, Founder’s Co-op, Scott Banister and other angels. The company is still in private trials with select users, but they’re focused on the enterprise space. “If you’re still using email or sharepoint for status reports, we’re here to save you,” says the website. For now, that’s all they’re saying. Other startups were also in town, clearly to jump into the Y Combinator parade. But Thinkfuse happily admits it. says CEO . Brilliant. |
Normancies' Aluminum-Reinforced Laptop Bag Looks Like The Business | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 24 |
I’m always worried that when I put my laptop bag down, I’m putting it down on the corner of my laptop. Bam! Not a problem with these cases from Normancies, which have a band of aluminum making up the handle and protecting the sides. It has a double clamshell design and can handle up to a 15″ laptop, as well as all the little things that go with it — chargers, drives, your notepads, etc. I just like the strengthening aspect of the aluminum band. The smart little removable strap is cool, too, though I’d want to test it out in person before I trust it. How much does it cost? Your guess is as good as mine, friend. It’s Finnish — so probably a lot. [via ] |
Take A Deep Breath Google, Facebook Isn't Doing Search Just Yet | Michael Arrington | 2,011 | 3 | 24 | I can imagine , titled “Facebook Testing Web Search Box At Top Of Site” was flying around Google’s cubicles today. Probably with a few expletives attached as commentary. This certainly wouldn’t be unprecedented. They targeted Microsoft years ago with their online Office competitor, and Microsoft fired back with Bing and seems to be quite willing to invest billions of dollars for as long as it takes to grab search share from Google. Now Google is targeting Facebook with their social efforts. There’s no reason at all why Facebook wouldn’t go into search. For us users, it’s all good. Competition brings better products to the market at lower prices. And Google in search. But…phew! The screenshot that All Facebook got , or the result of third party software messing with a user’s browser (my guess is photoshop is the culprit). So take it down to DEFCON 2, Google, Facebook isn’t launching search just yet. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t coming. A deal with Microsoft Bing could bring in billions, if that from a few years ago is any guide and Facebook doesn’t make the same decision that Yahoo did to not demand guarantees. At the time MySpace had around 100 million user profiles. Facebook has many times that right now. And the combination of Bing search (or Google, for that matter) with Facebook’s social signals may make for quite a search engine someday. See my thoughts . |
Here Comes The Nook App Store (And Flash Support) | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 24 | While the may be a popular tablet for hacking, it’s also just a plain ol’ e-reader — or so they say. Now that they’re adding the Nook Store, a device-specific market for apps, like that on the . These irregular devices can’t access the normal Android Marketplace, so they have to port and redo apps and then offer them via their own service. Sound like fun to you? Me neither. But if you’re not interested in hacking your Nook, this will be a good opportunity to get a little more functionality on there. The information comes , where the April update, as they call it, is advertised as coming to HSN customers first. I’m guessing that means that Nook Color units will ship in April with the update installed, and HSN has the first batch. They mention watching Flash-based video, but don’t mention the Flash version number. I’m sure there will be a more comprehensive look at the update in the next couple weeks; we’ll keep our eyes open. Also! Question! I didn’t notice this before, but how the can HSN get away with this pricing? Retail value, $500? Are you joking? [via ] |
Don't Do This At Home: Flex-Testing iPad 1 And 2 Glass | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 24 | [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4vvQq7BpiE&w=640&h=390]
Kids, this is a really bad idea. I’m hoping these guys at least wore goggles, but considering they decided to break the glass with their bare hands, I don’t think safety was the #1 priority. Questionable methods (and music) aside, that’s pretty impressive. The thinner glass is in fact stronger and more flexible. Of course, it’s extremely unlikely that you’re ever going to be flexing it — I’d be more interested in how hard it can take a hammer strike, or how far it can fall onto a corner without breaking. But that costs $500 per shot, so… perhaps not the best thing for a low-budget video. The guys doing it are from . They are strong. [via ] |
AT&T Broadband Metering Is Shoddy And They Know It | Devin Coldewey | 2,011 | 3 | 24 |
The question of broadband metering is becoming more important by the day. And while there’s much to be discussed regarding the cost of bandwidth, the trends of consumption, the public money involved in the infrastructure, and so on, one basic fact today is this: AT&T wants to put caps on your bandwidth, but they can’t be trusted to measure it correctly. That’s not a situation consumers should take without protest. Readers over at Broadband Reports are noticing between AT&T’s measurements and their own. One user found differences of several orders of magnitude. Now, if AT&T (and of course Comcast and others) are unwilling to allow for wiggle room in their GB caps (fees start the byte over 250GB), why should we allow wiggle room in their measurement? After all, we don’t let grocers use poorly (or maliciously) calibrated scales. If we’re going to be paying by the byte, we need real legal protections against being taken advantage of by companies that have their customers over a barrel. The average AT&T customer would likely recognize if their electricity bill was far more than they expected, and of course at the grocery store, they’d be surprised and concerned to find that a single apple tips the scale at ten pounds. But if they were told that they’d exceeded their bandwidth limit (uncommon today, but bandwidth use is growing as streaming video becomes more accessible), what could they say? Unlike the readers of Broadband Reports, they don’t know how to tell their router to track packets, or set up a software monitor — many would be hard-pressed to access the online meter provided by AT&T. Without a legally standardized, reliable, and understandable way to track the bandwidth we’re using, we’re completely at the mercy of the telecoms. There are legitimate questions as to how traffic should be tracked. Is it before or after the router? Should it require separate hardware? Will there be exceptions for “promotional” packets, overhead introduced by the service, bits we didn’t request, or wijacking? If the service is down, will we be reimbursed? At what rate, and by whose measurements? These aren’t trifling technicalities or rounding errors. They’re that mean the difference between being charged for what you use, and being charged whatever they say. It’s a fundamental conflict of interest that the telecoms are the ones tracking this usage. How best to proceed isn’t really clear, but here’s what I’m thinking: a few pioneering cities or counties (depending on the jurisdiction required) should implement pilot programs with simple, certified, publicly-developed hardware designed to count bits accurately and report them securely (a big university would love designing this). Work out the kinks with a study of a town or neighborhood, make the device (or integration of one into a router or cable modem, or central cable box) required by law, and with luck others will follow suit. Yeah, it’s rather optimistic, and the money will have to come from somewhere, but it’s not complicated and it necessary. AT&T has, predictably, to account for the huge discrepancies by suggesting user error. They’re working tirelessly to ensure accuracy. Yes, but whose accuracy, AT&T? accuracy or mine? : AT&T has reached out with some information, which I include here in the interest of fairness. AT&T was the subject of this post, and their methods of measuring bandwidth may or may not be accurate (they tell us they are, but they would either way), but the criticism in this post is intended for the other companies as well. I stand by my assertion that it is a conflict of interest to have as an impartial observer of usage the same company that charges for said usage, and sets its own rules and measures. Here is the email I was sent, with contact information removed: When I reached out to Karl Bode yesterday, I told him that we’re already addressing ways we can make the labels and information on the online tool more clear for customers between now and May… but assured him that our team is performing checks everyday to ensure accuracy. We believe it’s an accurate system. One reason for any discrepancy could be due to the software the customer is using to measure their usage. Other tools may be measuring different periods of time than we are, and most likely do not take into account the standard network protocols (e.g. Ethernet, IP) that are used to provide applications and content to our customers via the Internet. As you know, this is fairly standard to incorporate when measuring broadband traffic and is applied by other ISPs who measure usage. Worth noting that we factored all of the above into our allowance settings and into our trials – so they are baked into our data that indicates that less than 2 percent of customers should see an impact from the new policy. These changes affect less than 2 percent of customers. From our own year-long trial of this model, we validated that a very small group of subscribers – 2 percent – are using about 20 percent of the bandwidth on our network, which risks driving up the cost of providing service to all our customers. (Our average DSL customer uses 18 GB/mo.) Customers have had direct input in designing this approach. For example, customers said it’s our responsibility to make it easy and convenient for them to know how much bandwidth they use. · We heard them…and will send alerts when they’ve used 65% of their data plan. If needed, we’ll send out another alert at 90%, and then another if they reach 100%. · Customers also can check their use—anytime—on line · If a customer exceeds the allowance a second time, we’ll notify them and provide a grace period. · The third time a customer exceeds the allowance, we’ll alert them, and they’ll be charged $10 for each additional 50 GB. · We also have an informational website – www.att.com/internet-usage — where customers can learn more about broadband usage, how the allowance works, and why we’re making this change. I believe this is what’s called “softly, softly, catchy monkey.” [via ; image: ] |
Podio Is Like A Yammer With Its Own App Store And App Builder | Alexia Tsotsis | 2,011 | 3 | 24 | Like a souped up with its own App store attached, Danish online workspace launches to the public today after two years of being in beta. In the same space as Box.net and 37Signals, Podio aims to be a complete work platform for enterprise — sort of like all inclusive web-based Intranet for companies. Founded by Anders Pollas, Jon Froda and Kasper Hultin, the Danish startup took up Tommy Ahlers (who is best known for selling ZYB to Vodafone in 2008) as a CEO and investor in August, all in all raking in . The principle behind Podio is that all work tasks, from expense reports to hiring, happen within the app — And unlike the more social networking focused collaboration platforms, on Podio, you don’t follow users but Spaces. To create a new Space on Podio, click on New Space, name the Space (TechCrunch, for example) and invite users. Each Space comes with baseline fields for Activity, Contacts, Calendar and Tasks and an Add App link at the top left. Your profile on Podio allows you to see your Frequently Used Spaces, Contacts and Calendar on the right, with an activity stream of all actions on the left. To visit a space you click on its name and you can view all actions in the activity stream, including inline files as well custom widgets that you add with the Add Widget button. While it’s somewhat unwieldy from a design standpoint (It will take you a long time to figure out where every thing is on Podio) Podio’s killer app in a sense is its Add App button at the top navigation bar. What differentiates Podio from the rest of the contenders in the space is this option, which leads to a Podio App store (for a more detailed explanation of why the App Store is a boon, check out Stowe Boyd’s ). In the Podio App store, users can add App bundles for specific workflow purposes like a CRM Management tool, Project Management tool or individual Apps like like Candidates, an app to manage job candidates, Twitter, an app to monitor tweets and Bugs, an app for internal bug reporting. If one of the 200 Apps in the store or a modified version doesn’t fulfill your workflow need, Podio allows workers to custom build their own apps, mixing and matching modules like a status box, fields for notes, and fields to upload images. Already scooping up clients like Greenpeace, InMobi and Rebate Networks, Podio has hit the ground running in terms of appealing to users; InMobi Biz Dev VP Amit Gupta raves. Jeez. The service will monetize on a freemium, and is currently free for companies with 10 and under users. The premium prixing begins at 99.99 a month for up to 25 users. Podio itself currently has 20,000 users, 8,000 organizations registered, and more than 10,000 seats sold on the system so far. iPhone and Android Apps are also available and an Air App is in the works for those that prefer desktop clients. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/podio#p/a/u/2/WrtacwazaAM&w=630] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.