Oyez, oyez. ScottEVest, purveyors of all clothes technological, is offering CrunchGear readers a special deal until May 14 on Performance Polo and Performance Pullover shirts. Type in the coupon code 2SAVE20 and get 20% off those items. I can personally vouch for SeV’s cooltasticness. I wear the Performance shirts on almost all the flights I take and the Tactical jacket I got a few years ago is still servicing me mightily in my travels. Great stuff. Pullover Polo → Read More
I am at the annual Outcast CEO Dinner event – Brad Garlinghouse (Yahoo SVP Communications & Communities) and Stewart Butterfield (Cofounder Flickr) are sitting at my table and told me that they will announce the closure of Yahoo Photos tomorrow. The actual closure will occur over the next few months, they say. The service will be shut down in favor of the newer and more social Flickr, which they acquired in March of 2005. There has long been an issue at Yahoo where newer services have competed with older services, and Yahoo has finally taken some strong action to getting their house in order with a consistent set of product offerings. Garlinghouse has been one of the stronger proponents of this strategy. Yahoo is not forcing transition to Flickr – instead, users are being given the option of choosing among a number of top photo sharing sites. If you are a current Yahoo! Photos user, you will be given the option to export all your photos into Flickr (a one-click process) or you will be able to export to a few other services such as Photobucket, Snapfish, Kodak Gallery or Shutterfly. Most of these services have built special tools to transition users, Butterfield said. Users will also be able to download full sized original photos, or order CDs and prints at a discount to the normal price. “We have no interest in forcing anyone to switch to Flickr” Butterfield said. “We want happy users.” Yahoo Photos is currently the largest photo sharing site on the Internet, with around 2 billion stored photos. Flickr, by comparison, has around 500 million photos. But Flickr is also growing much faster than Yahoo photos and coincidentally has just exceeded Yahoo! Photos in traffic, according to Comscore. The first graph below shows only U.S. traffic for Flickr and Yahoo. The table below that shows March Comscore numbers for the worldwide audience. Site Unique Visitors(M) Yahoo! Photos 31.1 Flickr 28.5 Photobucket 28.1 Facebook Photos 23.5 Butterfield also confirmed that Flickr will “soon” allow users to upload videos in addition to photos. → Read More
One of, if not the favorite toy of geeks and Makers everywhere is Legos. The small plastic snap-together bricks can be used to make about anything. In fact, Lego is considered by some to be the most popular toy in the world. So popular, in fact, that in Denmark there is a theme park dedicated to the bricks. → Read More
OK, contest over, give this guy the Best. Mod. Ever. award. It’s a Zelda Nintendo DS mod that brings Awesome (yes, as if it were an entity that could be brought) to your hands. Painted gold with a really intricate shield on the back, the mod pretty much just made my day. It even lights up behind the shield. Back shot after the jump. → Read More
PR Newswire has announced a partnership with Umbria, a market intelligence company that specializes in blog research and consumer generated media for a new product by the name of “MediaSense Blog Measurement”, that allows clients to assess the impact of online conversations about their company, products and brands. The new service builds on PR Newswires existing relationship with Technorati, and provides a graphical assessment of the conversational tone and participant demographics. “Bloggers are thought leaders and opinion-shapers, so tracking who and how quickly they pick up on various news items has become critical for brand and PR professionals,” Howard Kaushansky, president of Umbria said in their media release. “If it’s positive, you want to know. If it’s a mushroom cloud of negativity, you definitely need to know. This partnership gives that knowledge to PR Newswire clients”. Whilst the continued growth in companies tracking consumer generated media is a positive indication of the continued maturity and acceptance of one of the most important drivers of Web 2.0, the question must be asked: why? Why do PR Professionals need a service to find out what bloggers are saying about their clients by a third party? Media monitoring services still play an important role in supporting PR, but this old school model comes from a day before the Internet where national media monitoring via a third party was essential, simply because there wasn’t an alternative, and in many cases, for print, radio and TV there isn’t an all inclusive alternative today. And yet blogs and consumer generated media are the children of a new age, an online age where information is accessible online anywhere in the world at the touch of a button. Many PR Professionals contact and read TechCrunch so perhaps we can get some answers: is it that some PR Professionals cant type “Insert Clients Name here” into Technorati or Google Blog Search? How difficult is it to set up feeds from services such as Google News, Yahoo News and Topix which deliver results based on corporate brand names? Isn’t the whole point of engaging with and participating in a Web 2.0 world one to one communications, removing the middle tier of information dissemination? Having said that, if you’ve got a full corporate expense account and prefer your information spoon fed, then these sorts of blog tracking services are ideal. → Read More
Israel-based internet company, E-learning Knowledge Solutions, recently launched SuTree.com, a video aggregation service where users can add and categorize instructional videos from across the web, providing a directory of video that would often be buried under the weight of competing content on sites such as YouTube and MetaCafe. The service is similar to Scouta, in that instead of being primarily machine aggregated content, users on both services are encouraged to add the content themselves, tag or categorize it, comment and add to a larger directory to be shared by others, although SuTree does lack at this time any ability to automatically suggest video. The site has over 5000 videos indexed across a broad field on interests, ranging from Kids through to Pets, Electronics, Food and Business. I was particularly impressed with the variety of source material, its not just the usual collection of YouTube videos that a prevalent on many aggregation sites, but from a much broader field including video from specialist content providers within each area of interest. It would be easy to bag the site in terms of it Web 2.0 credentials, navigation is very much old school and doesn’t jump out and hit the casual visitor with a flurry of Ajax and DHTML goodness, but for its target audience of beginners, mothers, those with hobbies or seeking to learn something new it provides a nice rounded package that utilizes user generated inputs for the delivery of some great knowledge to many. → Read More
Look, someone’s taken the GameBoy micro, removed all the fun, and added a slot for SD cards. The PMG-250 portable media player from Plezo, a company I’ve never heard of either, has a 2.5-inch screen and two probably terrible speakers. It does support 8-bit and 16-bit video game emulation (NES, GameBoy and others with third-party software) so I suppose it does have a leg up on the average PMP. Its only video support—AVI—is kind of a let down, but this was never going for any sort of “best in show” award anyway. Plus, it’s Korea-only, so you’ll never miss it. Product Page [Plezo via Aving] → Read More
Growing up in Louisiana, there was never a shortage of grass to be cut. It’s nearly a year round chore, pausing only briefly for February frosts and then resuming promptly in March. As a kid I remember bemoaning the endeavor to no end and while cutting the grass, my mind would wander to thoughts of little robots that would do the chore for me while I sat around and played video games. Ah, the future. Well it seems that today my wait is finally over (granted I have no grass to cut anymore). The LawnBott is it an automated grass cutting device that can mow for four hours before returning to its dock to charge. It cuts quietly, so it’s ideal for chewing up your lawn at night. The coolest part though is that it can be run by remote control. I guess that kind of negates the purpose of having an robot to cut your grass, since you’re still controlling it, but there is something decidedly cooler about commanding a grass cutting robot via a remote than pushing an old and busted lawnmower around the yard. Plus when you get bored, you can always flip it back to automated mode and let it do its thing without supervision. The LB2000 model is available now for $1,749. Maybe I’ll get one for my parents. Product Page [via Sci Fi Tech] → Read More
The CrunchGear HiFi Reader Response has one day left! Two winners will walk away with a brand new Sansa Connect from SanDisk. To enter, all you have to do is make as many compelling comments as you can possibly muster. We’ll select the best two commenters from the entire week and they’ll each receive a Sansa Connect from SanDisk. Winners will be announced tomorrow (for reals this time). You absolutely must leave your email address in the commenter info field. No comments without valid email addresses will be considered. I emphasize this, because there is always a great comment that I’d like to reward, but it lacks an address. Everyone say thanks to SanDisk for providing the Connects for the competition. → Read More
Tron is 25 years young and Disney Interactive Studios is doing the younglings of my generation a great service by re-releasing Tron and Discs of Tron for Xbox Live Arcade. Excuse me while I go and change my underpants because this is awesome news! I’ll finally be able to derezz Sark, hopefully. I couldn’t as a kid because I was, like, a year old at the time. I’ve been reliving the good ole days with this lamo flash version, which I will continue to play regardless. If that wasn’t enough to whet your appetite each game will include the original version as well as enhanced versions with modern day graphics and audio. There will also be four different online modes for your gaming pleasure. Look for it on Xbox Live Arcade this summer. → Read More
The secret startup Guy Kawasaki has been working on will be called Truemors, a source tells us. The site is currently password protected, but Kawasaki has recently posted on his blog saying he’s looking for “people who are in the flow of interesting and true rumors.” The service will be a “rumor reporting bulletin board with twitter-like capabilities.” Look for a launch later this month. A screen grab of a cached version of the site (more here): → Read More
Suggesting that not everyone wants (or even needs) to spend hundreds of dollars for an Apple iPod, RCA has introduced a new line of digital media players. This affordable series carries the Gem Line brand, and includes the versatile RCA Opal music and video player ($75), which can store up to 680 songs or 8 hours of video. This player is compatible with music download and subscription services including eMusic, Yahoo! Music, Rhapsody and Napster. The Opal’s built-in rechargeable lithium battery will run for up to 15 hours on a single charge. The rest of the Gem Line includes the compact RCA Pearl ($49), which is being touted as a combination USB thumb drive and music player, and the rugged RCA Jet player ($69) for the gym, as well as the RCA Jet Stream (Price TBD), which will add wireless headphone functionality when it arrives later this year. RCA → Read More
Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.tv posted a cute video to Geoff Smith’s HD DVD code song featuring the lady herself hanging with Diggsters and then flipping out the magic numbers one at a time like a sporty, nerd-friendly Bob Dylan. It would have been great if they could have gotten Rose to hang out, Allen Ginsberg-like, in the background, but we get so little closure in our lives. Digg the Code [GeekBrief] → Read More
Contactify is a new service to create a simple “Contact Me” form that let’s people send you emails without knowing your email address. Create an account in a few steps and get a URL back that points to the contact form, which contains a captcha to reduce spam. It works well, but it would be nice if they widgetized this to allow people to add it to their MySpace page or blog without sending people off to the Contactify website. There also appears to be no way to turn the form off, so once people know the URL it’s almost as good as having your email address. The privacy policy for contactify is also too generic. They need to make a statement that emails collected will not be used for any purpose, period. → Read More
The PS3′s not even done tanking yet and Sony already has designs on a PS4 of sorts, here within the next 18 months. The always credible Smarthouse Web site says that Sony will take the innards of the PS3 and stick them into a gray box, making the next system, if you can call it that, more geared toward home entertainment use than the PS3 proper. Not that the PS3 has many good games for it as it is, mind you. Folks are quick to draw parallels between this expected “PS4″ and the PSX media center that was based on the PS2. That didn’t do so hot, either, so I have no idea why Sony would want to try it again. It must really want Blu-ray to succeed. Now where’s my trusty grain of salt? Next PlayStation Version Could Arrive Sooner Than Expected [DailyTech] → Read More
I have a hard time wrapping my brain around why or how the Chinese are getting WinMo 6 smartphones before anyone else in the world. It’s not because I want a WinMo 6 phone or any WinMo phone for that matter, but how does that all work out? The T-Mo Dash is the first to receive the the new OS, but the phone isn’t that great, so I’m not heartbroken or anything. But I understand that there are people out there who actually like the WinMo OS, so I’m asking these questions for them. → Read More
At Microsoft’s press conference during last year’s E3 Xbox exec Peter Moore happily announced that Grand Theft Auto IV would be making its debut on the Xbox 360. And a year later the game is still scheduled for an October arrival on the 360 as well as the PlayStation 3, but things are apparently going slower than Rockstar expected. GameDaily is reporting that Rockstar creative vice president Dan Houser has spoken up that developing the game for the Xbox 360 is actually more challenging than the PS3, in part because there is no guarantee of a hard drive in every unit and furthermore because the disc space is limited to DVD rather than Blu-ray. Houser added that both the 360 and PS3 have their own “pleasures and plains,” and both systems offer “enormous challenges.” GameDaily: GTA IV Development Limited by Xbox 360 → Read More
We’ve long thought that the OLEDrific Optimus keyboard was vaporware. While we still haven’t seen anything more than a prototype, it now has a release date and price tag, both features vaporware rarely has. We’re happy to say we were wrong. We’re unhappy, though, about the fact that we can’t afford one, and you likely can’t, either. The pre-order date was rumored to be May 12, but it’s actually May 20. We’d heard of it being affordable. That was wrong. If you’ve got a spare $1,500, and don’t mind sending it to a totally legit Russian company, you yourself can have a 100% customizable keyboard as early as December. Granted, the Optimus could have been more expensive. For the technology involved, it’s not a bad price. That being said, we’ll wait for the $200 Optinus Keyz Chinese knock-off. Optimus Keyboard [Product Page, via Tekenstein] → Read More
Observe exhibit A, one long-ass video about an aluminum laptop case. Sure it’s adjustable so it can fit basically any laptop you can cram in it, but does the video really need to be five minutes long? My attention span is good for three minutes tops, so if you’re like me here are the details on this RhinoSkin Universal Aluminum HardCase. Because it’s “universal” (though models will come in three sizes: up to 13 inches, up to 15 inches and up to 17 inches) the company used specially designed locking devices to prevent any laptop movement when the case is opened or closed, making for a tight, custom fit regardless of size. Ventilation allows your notebook to stay cool while in use and still inside the case. The double hinges on the back let you position it a few different ways (flat, raised and angled and raised). Plus, it’s made from aircraft aluminum so it should be lightweight, but sturdy. Anyway, if anyone gets their hands on one of these things (look for them around June), make a shorter video and I’ll give you a prize or something. → Read More
[Used car salesman voice] Do you own a Mac? Do you use it to generate Web content, like publish blogs or upload video? Then you’re not alone! A study from Forrester research indicates that Mac users are twice as likely as Dell users to generate such content. Hot dang, ain’t that a hoot?[/Used car salesman voice] Just over 20 percent of Mac users are said to participate in the generation of Web content. Some 55 percent of Dell users, on the other hand, don’t generate content, post comments or do anything fun. Maybe those Mac ads are right after all. → Read More
