If you are interested in propaganda, you may already be following Propaganda III, a world art tour of the best poster propaganda art there is. The tour accepts entries from all over and doesn’t discriminate as to content. Some exhibits are anti-war, left bent or virally anti-Semitic. The artist can be fascists, communist, or somewhere in between. All entries are based on their merit not content. These fine pieces of art are now available to you on your mobile phone. The Propaganda III Mobile Widget makes political artwork from the World Tour available to mobile devices anywhere in the world, via a mobile content widget that can be added to any website in the world. But be careful, some of the content may be illegal in countries that don’t have strong freedom of speech laws. You don’t want to end up in a political re-education camp! Mobile wallpapers can be downloaded from the Propaganda III Widget for the low price of $1.99. All proceeds go to the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, an institution what will archive the artwork from the Propaganda III tour. Stop wearing your politics on your sleeve. This is the 21st Century. Make a political statement with your mobile phone, comrade. Propaganda III Widget Flickr (to review the art) Center for the Study of Political Graphics → Read More
Who doesn’t love Family Guy? (Well, me, but that’s irrelevant right now.) Starting on Monday, users of Microsoft’s Xbox Live will be able to download episodes from the first two seasons of the schizophrenic cartoon. Notable for having been resurrected following impressive DVD sales, Family Guy represents something of a feather in Microsoft’s cap, as the show isn’t yet available on iTunes. Episodes will cost around $2, converted from Microsoft’s phony bologna online currency. “Family Guy” ties into Xbox Live [Reuters] → Read More
Merciless Cake of the Gladiator The miracle of time known as Digg gives us yet another reason to laugh at our peers. This time, it’s wedding cakes that feature extremely geeky themes. From Homestar Runner to C++ code to THE FRICKIN’ ALLIANCE CREST from World of Warcraft, these cakes couldn’t possibly embarrass you any more than your wedding already did. Hit the jump for more pics. → Read More
Microsoft recently made some postings over at the official Windows Vista Blog concerning Windows Vista Service Pack 1. A beta has now been announced and once SP1 Beta is completed, it will be released so that everyone who has a grudge against Vista can now have less of a grudge. Enough with that chatter though, you want to know what’s going to be included in the release, don’tcha? Specific reliability issues will be addressed, along with more hardware support, IT admin improvements, and enhanced functionality are all big parts of the upgrade, which will be available in the “coming weeks”. Also addressed are a lot of security and performance concerns. To get the entire list of updates included and a rundown, hit the link below. Announcing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta [Windows Vista Blog] Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta White Paper (All updates listed) [Windows Vista Blog] → Read More
Classy and elegant printing Because John prefers his corned beef sandwiches on rye and not just plan ol’ white bread, we’re not covering IFA as hardcore as other sites. But lucky for you, Giz has some sweet info on upcoming Samsung printers that use a radical new design. This piano black model is the ML1630, an 11-cm thick monochrome laser printer. It has buttonless sensors, glowing, ambient LEDs, and they won’t be available for a long, long time. Damn. I haven’t been this excited about a printer since I traded my old one to a homeless dude for upper-level Mets tickets. Samsung’s Printers will Make you Want to Have Hot Desk Sex with Them [Gizmodo] → Read More
One week after the D3 first saw the light of day, Nikon now shows us the Coolpix P5100 (also with Expeed, natch), a point-and-shoot with some of the same features found on its entry level dSLRs. You’ll find 12.1 effective megapixels and an ISO speed up to 3200, which, for a point-and-shoot, is pretty damn good. As far as sharing some of the same features as Nikon’s entry level dSLRs, you’ll find the familiar shutter priority, aperture priority and program modes. You’re even able to hook up a telephoto or wide-angle converter lens. → Read More
Hell, why stop with a phone? According to rumors somebody’s second cousin made up, Volkswagen and Apple are apparently having secret talks about an iCar. The car will be so technologically advanced, that etc. etc….blah blah. You know the deal with these Apple rumors. Several tie-ins with Apple products…draw in the consumer…etc. Thankfully, we here at CrunchGear know this second cousin and have obtained concept renderings that Apple and Volkswagen DO NOT want you to see. See that Jellyfish above? Traction control. The crude rims? 802.11n. If only you knew. Report claims Apple talking with Volkswagen over ‘iCar’ [AppleInsider] → Read More
Bluepulse, a social networking application that was started in Australia, has entered the U.S. market with the help of $6 million from VantagePoint Venture Partners. Bluepulse enables users to communicate and meet new people through one-to-one and broadcast messaging, profiles, picture and video sharing, chat and a wide range of mobile widgets. In its beta phase, it already has over 2 million downloads across 150+ countries and is closing in on 100 million page views per month while adding thousands of new users each day. Juniper Research, a market analysis firm forecasts that mobile operator revenues from user-generated content will increase tenfold over the next five years, rising from $576 million in 2007 to $5.74 billion by 2012. Juniper predicts that social networking service will account for 50% of that total, with the number of active mobile social network subscribers increasing from 14 million in 2007 to 600 million in 2012. “Bluepulse has undoubtedly developed one of the most compelling social networking platforms for mobile. Because the app has been built for the handset from the ground up, it offers a mobile-specific social networking experience, rather than a pared down Web experience on a phone,” said Eric Ver Ploeg, Managing Director at VantagePoint Venture Partners. “We are excited to be investors in a company with such an innovative and global vision for the future of the Mobile Web.” Humans are a social creature. It only makes sense that as mobile computing increases in ability, people will demand social networking applications that keep them connected with their social circles. Bluepulse VantagePoint Venture Partners Juniper Research → Read More
Halo and football. What more could you want? I don’t know, maybe the New York Times‘ readers aren’t “hip” to technology. That would explain why the paper published an article that holds its readers’ hands, demystifying HDTV terms like “refresh rate” and “ghosting.” The crux of the article is that not all HDTV sets are created equal—specifically, if you’re a sports fan or gamer (all of us, right?)—you may want to dig around before settling on an HDTV. → Read More
Handmark, a global distributor of mobile media has teamed up with I-play, a leader in mobile entertainment. Handmark now has the rights to distribute many of I-play’s most successful game titles worldwide for BlackBerry devices, through Handmark’s global distribution channels. Handmark will handle distribution of such popular titles as The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo, which has topped 8 million downloads, and Jewel Quest. Jewel Quest is so popular that it has been downloaded over 40 million times since its debut in 2004. Other titles include, 3d Pool: High Roller, Mahjong Quest, My Dog, and Pillowfight. Other titles are sure to follow. Handmark offers unique distribution through U.S. mobile operators, including on-device client and web portals, as well as both Handmark and operator branded desktop and on-device stores. Handmark distribution also includes on-device and web-based e-stores in Europe through relationships with major device manufacturers. “I-play is pleased to work with Handmark and to be reaching the audience of BlackBerry users with our market leading casual oriented games,” said I-play’s CEO, David Gosen. “Our simple to play, difficult to master game development philosophy is a perfect fit for gaming on the BlackBerry device.” “We are focused on building a robust portfolio focused on the very best mobile content for our customers and partners around the world,” said Douglas Edwards, Handmark co-founder and chief marketing officer. “I-play is a respected and well-known mobile entertainment creator that continues to develop top-quality titles and its products are a great addition to our catalogues.” As readers of MobileCrunch know, the sales of mobile games are predicted to reach the $4 billion mark this year. This amount is predicted to double in the next four years. Big names in mobile software development and distribution are going to create partnerships like the one between Handmark and I-play to feed the need for mobile gaming entertainment. Handmark I-play → Read More
I was so tempted to use “Nano Killer?” in the headline, but A) I hate that sh*t and 2) realistically Apple is the only one capable of killing the iPod in any of its incarnations. That said, awhile back I got a chance to play around with preproduction models of the NWZ-A810 (after the jump) and NWZ-S610 (right) and they are pretty solid competition against offerings from Apple, Creative and iRiver. First off, Sony ditched its own proprietary formats, opting instead to support secure WMA, as well as non-secure AAC and MP3 music formats, plus JPEG files for photos, and the AVC (H.264/AVC) Baseline Profile and MPEG-4 video codecs. They’re also certified PlaysForSure devices for use with Yahoo! Music, Napster and the like. And even though it comes bundled with Microsoft Windows Media Player 11, they’re independent of any player; all files can be loaded by drag and drop. Second, instead of bogging them down with gimmicky features and a crazy GUI, Sony kept them fairly basic and instead concentrated on the LCD and audio quality and battery life. The interface is a standard icon-based grid menu system, similar to what you’d find on an average cellphone. There’s a nice search feature to help you quickly get through large collections and about the fanciest feature you’ll find is the ability to view video horizontally giving you a wider screen. Sony’s claiming 33 hours of music playback for both players, with video at 8 hours for the A810 and 9.5 hours for the S610. → Read More
Roxio Releases Popcorn 3 For OS X Chicago No Longer Getting Citywide WiFi Network TechTravels: Virgin America DHL Is Decadent and Depraved Nokia: Go Play Recap → Read More
Microsoft has announced that it has agreed to acquire Chicago-based Parlano, the maker of the enterprise group chat platform MindAlign. Microsoft said that it would use Parlano’s group chat functionality to improve Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator. Parlano’s platform provides group chat technology “that enables people to carry on topic-specific, multi-party instant messaging discussions that persist over time.” Parlano’s existing clients include financial services companies and call centers. Microsoft plans to offer group chat as part of the standard client access license for Office Communications Server 2007. The terms of the acquisition were not announced. The deal is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2007. → Read More
Scion, a division of Toyota that sells “trendy” cars targeted at Gen Y in the United States, was one of the earliest companies touting its wares in Second Life. In 2006, Scion became the first car maker with a Second Life presence, offering residents customizable versions of the Scion xB. Fast forward nearly 12 months and many of the great and much hyped corporate outposts in Second Life are closing up shop; Scion on the other hand is actually expanding their presence. The company has added additional islands (sims) to its Second Life HQ and the company has now officially launched the second gen Scion xD in world. The Scion xD II launch party saw several hundred Second Life residents visit over a couple of hours. It was also the first opportunity for residents to view and utilize the expanded Scion Island. So what’s so special about Scion’s Second Life presence that sees the company buck the trend? In part it’s a branding statement. Second Life is (according to some) a hip and trendy place from which to target brand wary members of Generation Y; Scion in return trades on this perception in continuing to build a position statement for the Scion Brand. Also in fairness, whilst the viewer numbers are poor compared to a traditional advertising campaign, the costs of maintaining a presence in Second Life aren’t huge, if you ignore the fact that per viewer they are exceptionally high. So does maintaining a presence in Second Life result in increasing brand exposure and car sales? I went undercover again to see whether I could find what the magic ingredient for Scion’s expanding presence in Second Life was: → Read More
Comments are the greasy oil that keeps the blog machine running. Here are three great (and 100% unedited) comments recently posted by your fellow readers. → Read More
Microblogging platform Jaiku has added Jabber-based instant messaging capabilities to its service. The new feature will allow Jaiku users using Jaiku’s Web, iPhone, and Nokia Series 60 smart phone clients to communicate with users on Jabber-based IM networks including Google Talk. Functionality includes the ability to instantly add and read new posts, comments, channel messages, and receive notifications of inbound responses directly. Jaiku already provides a number of extra features that are not currently available on the more popular (and it’s main competitor) Twitter. Jaiku users can choose and receive web feeds from their friends online activities, for example, Flickr photos, updates from specific blogs, Last.fm recently played tracks and others. To use the service, Jaiku users should add jaiku@jaiku.com to their respective Jabber-based IM client. → Read More
SayNow, a service that enables “celebrities to connect to their audience over the phone” will announce $7.5 million Series A funding September 12, in a round led by Shasta Partners. Tugboat Ventures’ Dave Whorton, a SayNow advisor since early 2006, also participated in the round as did Costella Kirsch. Rob Coneybeer, MD of Shasta Ventures will join the SayNow board of directors SayNow connects celebrities using a web based interface and phone messages. The service works both ways: celebrities can leave messages for their fans, and fans are able to leave messages for their favorite stars. The pitch is simple: SayNow believes that voice is the “truest form of communication a fan can have with a celebrity.” In practice, it’s a little like audio blogging. Celebrity messages tend to focus on what the star is currently doing, be that touring, recording etc in an informal manner. The company’s technology is already being put to use by a broad range of well known record labels, including Zomba Label Group, RCA Music Group, Sony BMG Nashville, Universal Music Group (Def Jam Recordings, Island Records), EMI (Capitol Music Group), Hollywood Records, and TVT Records. Artists using SayNow include the Foo Fighters, Mario, Hurricane Chris, MIMS, Tila Tequila, Huey, T-Pain, Bobby Valentino, Papa Roach, Plain White T’s, The Rocket Summer, Kenny Chesney, and Chris Young. → Read More
Crunchyroll is a San Francisco based startup that is a sort of YouTube for anime and other mostly Asian video content. The three founders, who asked to remain anonymous, are all employees of HotOrNot and the company operates out of HotOrNot’s San Francisco offices (although HotOrNot has no financial interest in the company, according to the founders). The site launched in the summer of 2006 and has grown rapidly, particularly since March 2007. Worldwide comscore stats show 1.3 million unique visitors in July, up from 480,000 in March. The company also had nearly 100 million page views in July and is seeing 20% monthly page view growth. That growth was apparently enough to get the attention of at least one possible suitor, Viacom. A source tells us that the company was very close to selling to Viacom for $10 million earlier this year, but the deal fell through when Viacom realized that owning the site, which contains a lot of copyright infringing content, may have hurt their positioning in the billion dollar ongoing litigation with Google. Crunchyroll refused to comment on the deal. All video is uploaded by users and has advertising around it. Premium users who “donate” $6 per month to the site get an ad free version and higher quality video. Rumor has it the company is making $75k/month or so in revenue. Crunchyroll’s business model is unique in that users pay them to view high quality versions of the content, much of which is copyright infringing. That certainly weakens their reliance on the Digital Millennium Copyright safe harbor provision, which protects service providers from liability for content uploaded by users. The safe harbor provision only applies if the service provider “does not receive a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity.” It is arguable as to whether advertising around copyrighted content is a direct financial benefit, but it is even more difficult to suggest that a direct subscription fee, even if it is classified as a “donation” doesn’t trip the clause. Either way, Crunchyroll is certainly pushing the envelope as to acceptable behavior under the DMCA. Stretching The Limits Is Often Lucrative What’s interesting is that some of the worst offenders when it comes to copyright law have ended up doing very well. ALLOfMP3 continues to stay in business despite being sued for $1.65 trillion by the RIAA. YouTube, the king of infringers, sold to Google → Read More
Well, Nokia sure knows how to throw a party. If you’re into Maroon 5 then you would have enjoyed the after party at the Ministry of Sound. I know I missed it earlier, but I try not to disappoint all of you. Hit the jump for pics of everything after hours including the BLACK 5700 XpressMusic. → Read More
BrightSpot.tv offers a newish twist on the get paid to watch advertising model. The concept is nearly as old as the internet. Users must watch advertising in some form or another and then receive compensation for their time. BrightSpot.tv model involves users viewing video advertising, often with the occasional question thrown in to make sure that the user is actually watching the ad, then compensates the user by funding things like a one month subscription to Napster or discounts off subscriptions to XM Canada, MLB TV and Gamefly. It would be easy to dismiss any company running a model like this; BrightSpot.tv on the other hand comes with some interesting backers that might just make it a breakout in the space. Holding company BrightSpot Media has been funded by sports moguls Jerry Colangelo (Phoenix Suns, Arizona Diamondbacks and Team USA Basketball) and Jerry Reinsdorf (CEO of Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox). Other advisors include Paul Schrage (Original CMO of McDonald’s) and Eric Heneghan (Founder of Giant Step and current CEO of Elevation Inc). While a number of the backers don’t have web industry experience, millions of dollars in funding (the company has between $2.5m and $10m) can certainly buy the expertise required to pull something like this off. BrightSpot.tv is not something I’d use myself, but targeted at teens with limited incomes who want access to paid services, it might just work. The company will be leveraging its partnerships with Napster, the NBL and others to promote the service. → Read More
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