We are getting reports from advertisers that Google Audio Ads have been added as an option to their Adwords accounts, although we can’t confirm yet that everyone now has the feature (please let us know if you do not see it). Google is offering $400 in free advertising to Adwords customers. The service has been in testing since late last year. Advertisers can purchase ad spots on radio stations, paying on a CPM basis. Google will also use professional voice actors to produce your audio ad (most radio stations will also do this for free). Look for the “Audio Ads” tab in your Adwords account. Screen shots below. → Read More
Virtual world Entropia, which combines chatting with friends and blowing up aliens, announced their expansion into China through a deal with Beijing’s Cyber Recreation Development Corp (CRD) over a year in the making. The CRD is supported by Beijing’s Municipal government and intended to promote and develop investment in “cyber recreation” in China. The company says Second Life was also in the running for the deal. The deal is quite ambitious. Entropia currently has over 500,000 registered users, but the new Chinese partnership will permit up to 7 million concurrent users with an overall aim to attract an unheard of 150 million world wide. The company also expects their virtual economy’s bottom line to grow, eventually adding another 1 billion real dollars annually from the partnership. Entropia has already been able to sell a virtual banking license for $400,000. David Liu, CEO of CRD, envisions an Entropia utopia. He expects the partnership to bring 10,000 work-at-home, pollution-free job opportunities to China. Entropia also plans to expand their virtual real estate from the deal by enabling media companies to add their own planets to the universe. They’re currently in negotiations with film, music, and gaming companies for their own planet. Competitor Second Life has made several similar corporate branding deals in their virtual world. Entropia still faces competition from Second Life in China and their own home grown competition from HiPiHi and a TBA world from Shanda Corporation. Second Life’s top entrepreneur Anshe Chung has even been running operations out of China since last January. However, adult themes and continued investigations into illegal activities within the virtual world (child abuse, stalking, gambling) don’t bode well for getting the seal of approval of a government that blocks Wikipedia. → Read More
The long, oh-so-long wait for the BlackBerry Curve is almost over, with RIM announcing that it launches tomorrow, May 31, on AT&T. (Guess that June 13 rumor didn’t pan out… the earlier the better, I suppose.) Most of the reviews on the Net have been positive: Laptop gave it a four stars (out of five) and CNET gave it an 8.0. Now VZW users aren’t the only ones with a shiny new BlackBerry. Press Release [RIM via Teh Giz] → Read More
Oh noes! Have you been mowing lawns relentlessly, saving up for that $499 iPhone that’s about to come out? Well you better get your camping gear ready if you really want one, ’cause word on the (Wall) street is that AT&T stores will be receiving less than 40 iPhones each. Talk about a shortage. WR Hambrecht & Co. surveyed a ton of AT&T stores and found that iPhones are supposed to come in between June 15th and June 22nd. Retail demand for the phone is extremely strong. It looks as if we’ll have another PS3esque camp out on our hands as consumers wait days and nights in a line for a chance to buy Apple’s debut phone. Come late-June, we’ll see the stampedes and fist-fights over the iPhone commence. Most AT&T stores expecting less than 40 iPhones at launch [AppleInsider] → Read More
When this round in the video game console wars first began at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, this reporter’s reaction was that one company was arrogant (Sony), one company was desperate (Microsoft) and one company was clueless (Nintendo). Fast-forward to today, and all three of the hardware manufacturers are looking a wee bit foolish. Each has a chance to win this thing – possibly for good – but all they can do is make mistakes and missteps. → Read More
Just to beat a dead horse into the ground, here are our top ten picks for potential Surface interactvity gadgets, in no particular order. 1. Zune — Clearly the Zune is a no-brainer for the Surface device. You drop on your player, connect wirelessly (for the first time since you bought it, even!) and start caring and sharing your music and movies. What could be cooler? Come on, iPod. Wirelessify yourself! → Read More
At 11:30, Jeff Hawkins, the brain behind the Palm platform, and by extension the Treo line of smartphones, is set to blow our collective minds with the announcement of a new product. Thing is, you don’t want to wait till 11:30. That’s why we’re here, friend. The new product Hawkins is too announce was codenamed “Hawk” by the fanboys, and it’s an interesting device. Palm will call it the “Foleo”, according to a reliable source that owes us favors still. And it sounds kinda cool. → Read More
In the spirit of Web 2.0, this device is named the Slurpr. It slurps up all available WiFi connections in the area via six wireless network interfaces and exports them as one fast connection. Gajillions of ethernet-ports are available so you can share the wealth with anyone you wish, as well as kick the connection up a notch. The box is powered by Debian and includes a built-in load balancer. One problem though. The device is personally made by some genius who is charging 1000 Euros per box and is only taking pre-orders right now. Nice to dream though, right? WiFi slurper grabs up to six open networks and makes one connection [Boing Boing] → Read More
Now that Microsoft is leading us into a strange, table-shaped, and surprisingly dirty future, what does the blogospher have to say about it all? While we all know that this thing will probably never — in its current “cool thing at the mall” form — land in our homes, we’re excited nonetheless. Striding boldly into the chasm between man and machine is not an easy task and it looks like MS might have hit one out of the park on this. Read on for full Surface coverage. But first, a poll! {democracy:13} → Read More
Nintendo of Japan will release Metallic Rose and Glossy Silver DS Lites on June 23. That makes seven colors that you can find the DS Lite in over there. I was a dope and bought the white one when it first launched here, but I had my eye on this one before it went out of stock. → Read More
Just as Microsoft gets done releasing those 3D, photo renditions of major cities on its Live Search Maps, in comes Google to shake the competition up a bit. This new street view Google is offering is only available in parts of NYC, San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, and Miami. Of course in time, most major cities and eventually all of the world will be available at street level. The interface looks pretty decent and conveniently offers the ability to zoom in on objects and look all around you. It’s worth mentioning that the streets are labeled and show which direction they run – extremely useful if you’re trying to get a feel for foreign territory. Bust a move over to maps.google.com and give it a spin. Street View Now Available in Google Maps [Gizmodo] → Read More
The Photobucket and Flektor acquisitions were confirmed by Fox Interactive today in a press release. No details on prices, so we are assuming earlier reports were correct: $300 million for Photobucket (including a $50 million earnout) and $15-20 million for Flektor. We had earlier reported that MySpace made both of these acquisitions; in fact parent company Fox Interactive was the buyer. See Photobucket and Flektor at the Techcrunch Database. → Read More
(Sung to the tune of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s “Karn Evil 9 – 1st Impression (Part 2)“) Welcome back my friends To the show that never ends We’re so glad you could attend Come inside, come inside → Read More
From Venzero, the company you’ve never heard of, comes the Slickr (the Slickr?), a flash-based portable media player where the main attraction is its diminutive 2.83-inch widescreen display. It’s able to display 1.6 million colors, more than enough for the AVI videos you can load onto it. The rest is fairly basic: MP3/WMA/WAV compatible, JPEG picture viewing, voice recorder, etc. Nothing too crazy, but it’s a nice alternative to players like the iPod nano nonetheless. It comes with 2GB of built-in storage, expandable with the use of microSD cards. Product Page [Venzero via dapreview.net] → Read More
I’m hearing that the eBay/StumbleUpon acquisition will be officially announced sometime today – almost certainly at the end of trading. Keep an eye our for the press release. We originally broke this rumor in April when a term sheet was reportedly signed. The Wall Street Journal picked up the story earlier this month. I don’t know if the price will be disclosed, or if the rumors of $75 million are roughly correct. → Read More
Some breaking news just in from the wire. CBS has purchased Last.fm for $280 million in cash. With more than 15 million active users, myself included, Last.fm is well worth the money with all the rich features it offers. CBS has said it plans on turning the site from a content-based site to an audience-based one. What that exactly means is beyond me, so I suppose in time we’ll see CBS’ scheme for things. Last.fm will keep the team currently working for the company, ensuring that quality features and products will continue to be rolled out. The site also recently signed a deal with Warner Music and EMI to offer tracks for playback, though that feature needs an improvement or three. A big congrats to Last.fm and I hope this is just the beginning of a lot of great things to come. CBS buys online music network Last.fm [Yahoo! News] → Read More
The next time you go shopping for a new washer, you may care to inquire about LG’s upcoming washing machine that can play MP3s. LG has just patented the world’s first MP3-playing washing machine and I’m sure anyone who, you know, washes their clothing is jumping for joy. Why such a big deal? Go do some laundry and listen to the machine for a few minutes. That droning, loud, obnoxious sound gets old real fast. LG’s washing machines will have you rocking out to Dire Straits in no time. Too bad the price will probably exceed the $3000-mark. If that’s too expensive for you, grab a guitar and start rocking out in the laundry room. Patent Filing [via Inquirer] → Read More
Sega of America has appointed former Electronic Arts veteran Linda Chaplin to lead the company’s mobile gaming expansion in North America reports GameDaily today. Sega is looking to “become a serious player” in the mobile arena in the West, as the company already has a large mobile gaming business in Japan and Korea. In the last year Sega’s console software business has shifted toward a greater focus on Western markets. Chaplin will serve as vice president of Sega Mobile, and oversee operations for North, Central and South America, including the management of operations that were previously directed by Sega of Japan. These include product development, sales and marketing of existing and future mobile content. Sega Expands Mobile Focus in West, Appoints Linda Chaplin VP of Mobile [GameDaily] → Read More
The start of a DRM-free music revolution has arrived. Well, maybe not a revolution, but at least a new version of iTunes. Version 7.2 brings a new feature called “iTunes Plus” to the table. Purchasing a song with iTunes Plus enabled allows you to purchase DRM-free, 256Kbps AAC tracks from the iTMS. You can set it on or off in your iTunes preferences. Excited? Ease up, Tiger. iTunes Plus tracks aren’t yet available for purchase. I’d say expect to see them hitting iTMS in the next two weeks, as Apple is really going to be pushing this update. Oh, and if you want to upgrade your regular iTunes songs to iTunes Plus, an upgrade option is available. Apple releases iTunes 7.2, with iTunes Plus DRM-free music [iLounge] Update: iTunes Plus tracks are appearing and are now available for purchase. → Read More
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