Meet LaterLoop, a new bookmarking tool that was recently featured at Google’s I/O conference. LaterLoop’s core functionality is very similar to Instapaper, which we reviewed last January. After adding either a Firefox extension or a Bookmarket to their browser, users can click “Save For Later” whenever they come across an interesting site that they don’t have time to read. These pages are saved in a list of temporary bookmarks on LaterLoop’s site, which can be accessed at a later date from a normal browser or from a mobile device (the site currently supports Blackberries, Nokia smartphones, and iPhones). The site has also just implemented a download function that allows users to save all of their bookmarked sites into a .zip file. This will be handy for people on the go looking to catch up on their reading during a flight. Unfortunately this doesn’t work on the iPhone yet, though we can probably expect to see something once Apple’s official application store launches. LaterLoop isn’t exactly a novel application – similar functionality can be found from toread, Firefox’s Read it Later extension, PhoneFavs, and a number of others. But it has very intuitive interface, and Google’s endorsement of the app at their I/O conference speaks volumes. LaterLoop is the latest offering from developer Gregor Hochmuth, whose other ventures include FlickrStorm and Mento. CrunchBase Information LaterLoop Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Back in the day, a laptop’s resolution was a big deal. The transition from SVGA to XVGA screens was a big one, but now of course they come in all kinds of shapes and resolutions. And now that HD-DVD is dead and there’s a clear next-gen disk format standard you’ll be seeing a lot more Blu-ray enabled laptops this year. But what good is having an HD optical drive if your display can’t show movies at their highest resolution? Acer’s your bet. Enter the Acer Aspire 6920-6422 notebook. Not only is it thin and light, it features a native 1080p 16-inch display so you can watch features at full HD resolutions. It’s also got 4GB RAM standard, a Core 2 Duo proc, and a generous 250GB HD. It’s a thin monster, like an Olsen twin with HD, and we like it. It’s also not half bad looking. → Read More
Heard of Ingenic Semiconductor? Us either, but they’ve apparently started shipping a new processor for UMPCs called the Jz4740. They’re appearing in 3K’s new RazorBook 400 series UMPCs and are apparently ultra low-cost and low-power. The $299 RazorBook 400 was discussed yesterday, but we didn’t have the detail we do now. The proc is new and could — in theory — run Windows. Until we get more information, though, it’s just another mystery chip doing cool stuff for cheap. → 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 a few that we missed. RE: RE: Braces Article Gets You Into BracesReview.com Directory FREE ($299.90 VALUE) Hi Doctor – For the next 2 weeks we will be accepting articles from Orthodontists/Dentists on any related dental topic. In exchange for the article, we will list your site in our directory and also include a link directly to your site within the bio of the article. → Read More
This is a little out of left field, but it could also be interesting. Time Warner Cable is planning on releasing a set-top box to its customers with a built-in cable modem to allow them to watch “Internt TV” on their televisions. The thing is, there’s no additional information on what this might be. Time Warner already has set-top cable boxes with full digital and HD capabilities, so what this additional device will give customers in addition is a mystery. And why they don’t just build the capability into future standard cable boxes is as well. We’re guessing it’ll be some sort of DRM-friendly BitTorrent streaming box, but until we get more information, we can only guess. → Read More
It’s for sure a sign of the rise of digital music and casual gaming when it’s reported that one of the greatest bands of all time — Motley Crue — has sold more copies of its new single through the Rock Band downloadable store than it has through iTunes. In fact, Rock Band has almost five times more sales of the track than iTunes, an interesting feat. Of course there’s a lot less competition in the Rock Band store than there is in iTunes. Rock Band members are hurting for new content, wanting the good stuff every week, whereas iTunes literally gets new stuff every day. Still, it proves that as a money-making idea, in-game distribution might actually be more profitable than traditional digital sales. Now if only I could get it from my Xbox to my iPod I’d be happy. → Read More
You may have seen our review of the Kingston DataTraveler HyperX high-speed thumbdrive. If so, you’ll remember how it proved itself far superior to the peasant drives I put it up against. Well, it’s far from the only high-speed USB key on the market, so we got our hands on a couple other leading offerings from Corsair (the Voyager GT) and SanDisk (the Cruzer Contour) and have evaluated them thoroughly. Find out which of these handy little things comes out on top by reading on. → Read More
It’s all over, folks. Fortune is reporting that the state of New York’s sales tax on goods purchased at Amazon.com starts this Sunday, June 1st. Peter’s already been enraged about it here and here and I’m guessing he’s not going to be too thrilled about this post either. He’s pretty excitable as it is, so hopefully he won’t read this. The state’s justification, you may remember, is that since Amazon has an affiliate commission program and since some of those affiliates might be based in New York, all sales on Amazon.com that get shipped to anyone in New York should be subject to sales tax. Sounds pretty dumb to me. Scary, too, as I bet other states use this case as precedent to start taxing online sales as well. Amazon, to its credit, sued the state but it looks like it didn’t help much. → Read More
http://progressive.playstream.com/playstream/progressive/flashplayers/FLVPlayer.swf Is this the alien everyone’s talking about, everyone’s waiting for? From the Rocky Mountain News’ liveblog: The film shows a window, reportedly 8 feet off the ground in a rural Nebraska town in 2003. In the enhanced version of the video, a creature pops up in the window, looks around, and pops back down, again and again. “It looks like the quintessential Gray, right out of E.T.,” Scheiber [a skeptic] said. Audience members wanted to know why the creature traveled all those light years just to peep in a window. I, too, would like to know why. Hoax much? UPDATE So it turns out that this video is a hoax. The Rocky Mountain News now reports that a Denver man created the video in a couple hours for a grand total of $90. That said, a screengrab of the actual video, from the press conference earlier today, is now making the rounds. This is it: As I said in our chat room, to think that our dumb planet, our dumb blue rock, is the end-all, be-all of Life is patently absurd; we still get excited over multi-touch for Pete’s sake. But I reject and denounce the idea that all aliens have to look like Mars Attacks. → Read More
This is pretty cool if you’re an active retro gamer. Canada’s arm of Nintendo found a cache of old NES and SNES video game carts, sealed in packaging, in their old warehouse. Instead of just trashing the deprecated games, they’re auctioning them off, with the proceeds going to the United Way of Canada. They’re going in lots to collectors, and you can get in on the action by hitting up the eBay page. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re nostalgic and rich, then happy bidding. → Read More
Before I write this gem of a post, let me attempt to absolve myself of all legal responsibility: I’m merely doing what I was told to do. That should hold up in court, no? My second charge this fine Productivity Week is to teach y’all how to pirate movies, music, video games, etc. more efficiently. On what planet is this type of advice is both approved of and encouraged I don’t know, but here we are. I’ll divide this into two parts: helping make the most of your BitTorrent experience, and doing that Usenet thing as painlessly as possible… while you still can! Oh, man. The fun, it never stops here. BitTorrent is for poor people or jerks who either cannot afford to pay for Hollywood works of art like that hilarious Zohan movie, or who think they’re being righteous and thumbing their nose at The Man by downloading. I fall into the first category. I’m not about to pay $30 for the Blu-ray version of Rambo, but I’ll sure as hell download it, watch it and then delete it, then forget I ever watched it. But how to use it smarter? That’s what everybody (nobody?) wants to know. → Read More
Katalyst Media founders Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg were in Silicon Valley today. They stopped by TechCrunch HQ (aka my house) before heading off to more important meetings with Dan Rosensweig at Quadrangle Group (and the former COO of Yahoo) and YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley. The reason for the visit? They are preparing to launch new interactive web content (with an emphasis on the interactive part) and are doing a bit of a road show to see what Silicon Valley thinks of their ideas. I had a chance to see some of the content and hear their monetization strategy. And while I can’t say much yet, this is clearly going to be really entertaining stuff. Advertisers in particular are likely to flock to the platform. The two decided to focus on the web after a trial run with AOL that began in 2006. That partnership eventually fizzled – rumor is the content was a little too racy for AOL’s taste. The new content isn’t just entertaining, it’s highly engaging with users and they definitely have a monetization strategy that goes beyond display and pre/post roll ads. And Kutcher won’t be trying to lock people into interacting with content under their rules. “If people steal our stuff, it’s fantastic” he said. Suddenly Katalyst Media is doing more than producing video, they’re now building software. That means they need to hire more developers. Their most important hire is a new CTO, Kutcher said. Prepare your resumes. Sorry for the teaser on this. More to come. CrunchBase Information Katalyst Media Ashton Kutcher Jason Goldberg Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Robert Scoble just finished a half hour interview with Twitter Founders Evan Willams and Biz Stone. The two are surprisingly candid about the scaling problems the service has had since, oh, it launched two years ago. “The fact that people are frustrated is a sign that we built something people care about,” says Williams a few minutes in. I agree, but that’s no way to run a business. Stone also says that Twitter doubled in size in March/April this year. http://qik.com/player.swf?streamname=09d3697718de4dbeac445797784d0fe9&vid=90546&playback=false&polling=false&user=scobleizer&userlock=true&islive=&username=anonymous CrunchBase Information Twitter Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Well, will you look at this — a nice-looking iPhone/iPod Touch dock plus alarm clock with an equally nice-looking price. The iH41B from iHome will be available in July but can be pre-ordered now if you’d like to avoid the rush. It’ll work with most dock-able iPods (and presumably, the iPhone) but is “specifically designed to take advantage of the iPod Touch’s variable aspect screen.” You can also use other audio devices by plugging them into the device’s line-in jack. Product Page [ihomeaudio.com] via DVICE → Read More
Can video games save the music industry? Probably not. But video games are emerging as a powerful distribution channel for digital music downloads. Players of Grand Theft Auto IV can buy the songs they hear in the game from Amazon by making their characters dial a number on their cell phones. Now the rock band Mötley Crüe (yes, they are still alive) is getting in on the action as well. They released a single from their latest album, Saints of Los Angeles, both in the video game Rock Band and as download on iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere. In the first week that the digital single was available for sale (the physical album won’t be released until June 24), it was downloaded 47,000 times on the Xbox alone compared to 10,000 times on iTunes and other digital download stores on the Web. Maybe people who play Rock Band are just naturally drawn to the Crüe. Or maybe video games are just a better way to sell music. You get to hear the whole song as part of a more immersive experience. And if you just scored high in the game, you are probably more receptive to shelling out some cash for the song that helped you get there. All those feel-good endorphins have to be channeled somewhere. → Read More
Windows 7 is coming out in 2009. It is supposed to be amazing, which multi-touch, surfaces, and small parasites that with eat dead skin from your back while you sleep. It sounds great. What won’t it have? WinFS. WinFS was supposed to me Microsoft’s super fast file system that enabled amazing search on your desktop. When Apple launched Leopard, however, WinFS was still a glimmer in Ballmer’s eye and MS engineers were amazed at Leopard’s speed. At the June 2004 WWDC, Jobs blew away the MSFT engineers in attendance by demonstrating lightning fast Spotlight searches on Tiger (OSX 10.4). The court-released MSFT emails show how flabbergasted they were, and the imperative of getting the Tiger preview DVDs back to Redmond for reverse engineering. Comments by MSFT’s Jim Allchin and Lenn Pryor were priceless. Here’s Pryor: ” You will have to take Vic’s disk…I am not giving mine up. Tonight I got on corpnet, hooked up Mail.app to my Exchange server and then downloaded all of my mail into the local file store. I did system wide queries against docs, contacts, apps, photos, music, and my Microsoft email on a Mac. It was f*cking amazing. It is like I just got a free pass to Longhorn land today.” Here’s Allchin: “Yes. I know. It is hard to take. I don’t believe we will have search this fast.” Come on, guys. Let’s do this thing. I’m a die-hard Mactard because day-to-day Windows use became grating rather than easier. Win me back. → Read More
Because of the Wii’s rather silly amount of storage space available (512MB), developers have been loath to plan on downloadable content for the system. But Vicarious, the developers for the upcoming Guitar Hero 4, understand that to make the most of the Wii market may be the difference between a success and a smashing success, so they’re doing it anyway. They’re not revealing how they’re going to store all those songs; the Wii won’t access them if they’re on an SD card and 512mb would fill up mighty fast. So what’s a developer to do? Allow me to speculate wildly: a gig or more of space built into the next-generation Guitar Hero controller. Why not? You can get 1GB SD cards for five bucks these days, and in bulk they could probably include a couple gigs of space for less than $10 extra on top of the controller price. Mark my words, it’s gonna happen. → Read More
Nearly a year after it was bought by Google for $100 million, FeedBurner is finally going to roll out Google’s AdSense as an advertising option for blogs and Websites that use its service to publish their feeds. FeedBurner will start with a few select publishers next week, and then expand the option to all of its customers soon afterwards. What took them so long? That seemed to be the whole point of the acquisition. FeedBurner intersperses ads in blog feeds between every few posts. Integrating with AdSense will allow for publishers to tap into contextual ads for their feeds, in addition to the ads that FeedBurner already sells. Hopefully, Google also found the time to integrate its automated back-end payment system into all FeedBurner accounts. Until recently, FeedBurner was still sends out paper checks to publishers participating in its ad network. At least, that’s how TechCrunch gets paid. CrunchBase Information FeedBurner Google Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
We know that Apple will add an app store to iTunes very soon so that people can buy and download new applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Google’s going with a similar solution for Android, and is said that it will create a central storefront for commercial apps for handsets running the search giant’s new Linuxy OS. More interestingly, Google has said that handset makers using Android will have full access to the guts of the OS, meaning they can pull stuff they don’t want out or put stuff that’s not there in. That means that phone makers can customize every part of their phones while keeping interoperability. That compromise is what gives Android an edge, and what makes it a real threat to Apple and the iPhone. → Read More
