Microsoft has acquired Seattle based social networking site WebFives. WebFives was initially founded in 2004 by former Microsoft engineer Mike Toutonghi as Vizrea and offers social networking with a focus of mobile media, including video, music and photos. Users are provided with standard social networking profile pages complete with blogging, and have the option of accessing their sites via computer or via a WAP specific page. According to The Seattle Times, Toutonghi told WebFives users that the service will stop at the end of the year because of the Microsoft acquisition, making the acquisition a technology buy as opposed to a community buy. Toutonghi went on to encourage users to sign up to MSN Spaces and/or Windows Live for their social networking experience. Price of the acquisition was not disclosed. → Read More
Looking for an ultra high-end 1080p home cinema projector that you won’t want to hide in a cabinet? Well, Sim2 seems to own this category and the latest edition is now shipping and it looks great. I had the opportunity to check them out and see David Lynch in full HD from his home in California (I think). He loves the Sim2 and picked them out of a handful of other high-end projectors. The C3X 1080 is the smallest and most powerful full HD 3 chip projector available today. It certainly owes a lot to TI’s DLP DarkChip 4 that enables it to output such great video. → Read More
Sure, we know that your cellphone won’t explode and kill you now, great. But what about that pesky, pesky radiation? While the jury’s still out on that one, you can look to snake-oil devices that at least make you think you’re doing something to mitigate their problems. Take the PowerDome, an add-on to your cellphone that supposedly changes the radio frequency your cellphone emits to a lower, and thereby safer level. It does not do this though. If it did, your cellphone wouldn’t work; the cell towers will be looking for it at a certain frequency, and if it’s not there, you don’t get signal. You might as well put your phone in the Black Hole. But if you have some non-tech-savvy hypochondriac on your list, this is a perfect stocking stuffer. Product Page [via Nerd Approved] → Read More
Without a doubt, the most famous video on the Internet this month is the legendary 2 girls 1 cup, something I strongly urge you not to google. What’s amazing, though, isn’t just that it exists or that it’s making the rounds it is, but rather the creation of a whole bevy of “reaction videos” on YouTube. They’re what they sound like: videos of people watching 2 girls 1 cup for the first time ever. The reactions range from the humorous to the disgusting, and they’re all fantastic. This is one of the best trends to hit YouTube yet, and I certainly hope it continues. And don’t worry, most are safe for work, and as far as I can tell none actually have footage of the original video. Find your headphones, though. 2 girls 1 cup reaction videos [YouTube] → Read More
A big thank you to everybody for filling our tips at crunchgear dot com inbox with wonderful, unique, and newsworthy items. Here are five that we just couldn’t get to this week. → Read More
Looks like Netflix subscribers get yet another feather to add to their caps. NBC has struck up a deal whereby flixers can watch episodes of some hit shows like “Heroes” the day after they’re aired on cable. You’ll be able to stream the new episodes, or get ones from earlier in the season on DVDs. Sounds sweet to me, mainly for those who haven’t taken the plunge and gotten a DVR. Interestingly, the guy at Reuters seems to have trouble with his space bar, unless “entertainmentmarketplace,” “timeseries,” and “ourtraditional” are hot new buzzwords I’m too out of the loop to have heard. Netflix and NBC Universal Announce Online Deal for ‘Heroes’ and Other Popular Series [Reuters] → Read More
Google’s Streetview was celebrated at launch, but caught some flack when they were captured the public in some embarrassing situations. Google’s hoping to avoid similar issues when they complete their launch overseas. According to Google’s senior privacy council, Google will begin altering photos to make sure that faces and license plate numbers aren’t recognizable. The move’s more aggressive than how unflattering photos or personal information are being handled in the U.S., where users have to write in for image take downs. But if it’s embarrassing enough, chances are it’s already been plastered all over the internet. → Read More
Jakob Lodwick, the co-founder of IAC owned video site Vimeo, left the company today. The reason? Apparently Lodwick didn’t see eye to eye with the IAC brass on creative issues, and specifically had a run in with IAC chief Barry Diller three weeks ago. That’s not surprising, given the picture Lodwick chose to include with his goodbye post. A source close to Lodwick says “he was let go.” Lodwick’s girlfriend, Julia Allison (who made a scandal at our August Capital party last summer – see video here), wrote a blog post saying “Dear Jakob, I wish I hadn’t found out you left the company you’ve been with for the last seven years from your blog. Love, Julia.” Lots of drama out in NYC this evening. CrunchBase Information Vimeo Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
New figures released by comScore show that YouTube remains the outright leader in online video. Based on videos viewed, Google owned sites (YouTube + Google Video, but mostly YouTube) commanded a 28.3% market share in the United States in September with Fox Interactive Media (FIM) sites (MySpace and others) on 4.2%. The figures (see chart) demonstrate that YouTube doesn’t dominate video viewing as much as would be expected, suggesting that the long tail is alive and well in the sector given the top ten video sites only hold 45.2% of all videos viewed online. The unique viewer numbers for video destinations also show Google leading, but by a smaller margin of 39.4% vs 22.6% for FIM sites. These figures are for people visiting the actual video sites themselves suggesting that much of YouTube’s dominance comes not from YouTube.com itself, but from people embedding YouTube videos (28.3% of all videos viewed vs 4.2% for FIM). Notable in its absence from both top ten charts is the IAC owned Vimeo, who according to this post fired founder Jakob Lodwick today. Clearly Vimeo isn’t performing although it has positioned itself well with support for HD video. IAC usually takes long term positions in companies it owns (Ask.com for example) so it’s not on Deadpool watch yet but you’d expect IAC will be looking at ways of improving its performance going forward. CrunchBase Information YouTube MySpace Vimeo Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
I know I’ve bitched and moaned about Leopard in the last few weeks, but I just can’t handle it anymore. I’m going to search for my Tiger disc and reinstall it over the weekend. Leopard has too many kinks and it’s not worth the headache. It pisses me off that Apple has screwed up so badly. I’d rather go back to XP then use this shit anymore. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? Considering the fact that I’ve been worshipping OS X like it was some higher entity or something. Like I said, Tiger is great and I’ll be going back to it if I can find the install disc or I’ll be scouring the torrent sites for it. Do you have beef with Leopard? I’m sure you do. Here’s why I want it to die. A slow and painful death. Umm. No. I’d rather push it in front of a train if it were a physical being. I guess I could smash the DVD. → Read More
What.cd?, one of the two main OiNK successors, is developing an entirely new set of site code, promising to be faster and more secure than the old TBsource. (TBsource is used by several private BitTorrent trackers and is among the least efficient and horrifying code to look at. So I’m told. I don’t speak programmer language.) It’s going by the name of Project Gazelle, which not only implies speed, but also the inability to outrun big cats. Technical jargon aside, all it means for you, the average BitTorrent user, is the What.cd? will run smoother than ever and smoother than any private tacker out there. Your download speeds, however, won’t increase. In related news, it seems What.cd? just opened its door to more users. First three folks to email me at nicholas at crunchgear dot com get an invite. What.cd To Launch New BitTorrent Tracker Script [Torrentfreak] → Read More
Unsatisfied with current air filtration methods, French designer Mathieu Lehanneur has created this excellent little thing that would look at home in Sleeper or The Jetsons. It’s called the “Bel-Air,” believe it or not, and it uses the natural processes of the plant inside the dome, roots and all, to filter out some nasty household pollutants like benzene and formaldehyde. I know I’ve been trying to get that formaldehyde odor out of my living room since that desiccated corpse came over four weeks ago, so this is just the ticket. But it’s not all French curves – it also has the backing of Harvard “scientist” David Edwards, who is fond of making intelligent statements with “Asiatic” and “Dyson” in them. They’re not expecting to produce them for another year at least, so I guess you’ll have to choke on trichloroethylene until then. Dang, those things do look cool, though. Bel-Air Filtration System Uses Plants to Purify Our Environs [Gizmodo] → Read More
Ok, so beyond poisoning us with lead-filled children’s toys, China is getting ready to blow our GPS satellites out of space. China is claiming that space above its country is its property, and is prepared to say “stay off my lawn” with star wars toys it’s currently developing. The only way that we, as the last remaining superpower, can respond is with bad-ass X-Wing-style fighter rockets and a Top Gun-like training base where we sit in cockpits going “pew! pew!” at each other. Ok, maybe not, but China is just nuts, aren’t they? Now let’s everybody panic. Report: China targeting all ‘enemy space vehicles’ including GPS satellites [World Tribune] → Read More
Holy crap. Here’s an OQO for under $1100 after a $780 instant rebate. Hurry! OQO Model 02 UMPC [TigerDirect.com] via GottaBeMobile.com → Read More
One of the last remaining reasons why some people don’t make the switch to the Mac from a Windows machine is that the have certain apps that aren’t available on the Mac. It’s a hard argument to win from the Mac perspective. Though there are usually alternative programs available, often better ones, some users are really into certain apps. It happens. That being said, the argument may soon be moot. A use on a WINE mailing list has found tantalizing find in the latest version of OS X: hints towards the ability of the OS to handle Windows executables without running Windows. Oh, this is nifty. → Read More
So I finally buckled and added NFL Network to my cable package because I had, had, had to see the game last night. I realized two things. First, the Dallas Cowboys can pretty much score at will. They’re fast becoming the New York Yankees of football. I don’t care for Tony Romo’s boyish charm or his ability to see everything in 360 degrees. Secondly, I realized that the only real reason I subscribe to Comcast cable is for watching football games. And it’s really only for football games on ESPN or NFL Network since I can get all the other games over the air. But football, in general, is the only thing I watch on TV that isn’t previously recorded or time shifted in some way. I could download almost anything else I regularly watch over the Internet somehow. → Read More
This is what happens when we let you people loose on our BFF thing. For shame! Blind Review Lolcatz! → Read More
RapidRepair has posted a full disassembly of the Kindle, complete with helpful tips for getting inside the case. Love it or hate it, it’s still cool to see e-ink in a working product and how they’ve managed to stuff a wireless radio, memory, and readable screen into such a light package. Instructions → Read More
Over on BFF, user Jaxim has posted a really terrific piece for our Blind Review contest on what the Zune could use to make it even better. Not that it’s a dis on the Zune; Jaxim starts by saying that he’d still take one over an iPod Classic, but he makes several good points that the guys at Bear Creek might want to think about. It’s a great read, and not just a good entry in the contest, it’s also exactly the type of stuff we love to see on the sister blog. Thanks, Jaxim, it’s good to have you as a BFF. I don’t own one of the new Zunes that just came out this past month, but my friend allowed me to test his out pretty thoroughly and I was able to ask him what he didn’t like about it. I must say I really enjoyed it. However there are a “few” things that I thought were lacking with the device. Despite these deficiencies I would still purchase it over an iPod classic. Read on… → Read More
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