Apple’s going to release the new iPhone just in the nick of time, as recent data shows its share of the smartphone market dropped 7.5 percent from Q4 2007 to Q1 2008. That’s a pretty big dip, it has to be said, and one that can almost wholly attributed to RIM’s increase. It went from 35.1 percent to 44.5 percent. But, really, numbers are boring unless you’re playing the market. Why is why we should care. I can think of a few reasons. RIM seems to have increased its marketing the BlackBerry as a consumer device. You know, “It’s not just for for Wall Street or K Street anymore.” You can’t watch “According to Jim” without seeing a commercial for it. Also, I sorta blame the Internet. Every week it’s, “Apple to come out with a new iPhone next month, no next week, no tomorrow!” A few people read that, then tell their friends to hold off on buying an iPhone until the new one comes out. Which should be June 9 Image from Flickr → Read More
As long as one can steer clear of traffic (as the driver in this video does not demonstrate), this little homemade kart seems like a great way to get around. It’s got a battery for propelling itself, and pedals for extra speed, powerless propulsion, or charging the battery (I assume). Modest, low-power vehicles like this are also prime for being solar-powered; imagine if everyone in the US had one of these for trips to the store instead of taking the Range Rover. You could probably burn a hole in the world with all the gas we’d save. In fact, that’s a good idea. [via Treehugger] → Read More
There is an increased need for laptops to be a person’s only computer; consequently, demands for performance are increased at the same time efficiency needs to be controlled &mdash. After all, can’t have your main machine running out of battery. NVIDIA is providing a smart, but probably expensive, solution to this problem as graphics-intensive programs, games, and rich web content begin to take their toll on battery life. Their “Hybrid SLI” approach includes two GPUs: one low power, one high-performance. The low-power one should be sufficient for GUI acceleration, video playing and such, and the high-power one would kick in when you start a game, a hi-def DVD, or whatnot. Like a hybrid car, you’re only burning gas when you need the power, and you end up saving juice in the long run. The question is, will it be cost effective? Look for GeForce 9M branding if you’re interested. → Read More
Want to see how Adidas makes the Europass, the new hi-tech ball to be used in this summer’s European Championship? Yes? OK! Call me [bad name], but do you see this type of innovation applied to baseballs and (American) footballs? Seems to me a baseball is a baseball is a baseball, while Adidas keeps pumping out Futureshock designs. This Saturday, kids. I’ll be watching on ESPN2HD when available. → Read More
Street Fighter IV news, friends. It seems the console edition—yes, there will be PS3, 360 and PC versions—of the game will have full-length anime cutscenes for each character’s ending. They’ll be animated by “famous” anime studio, and won’t be some man-on-the-street hatchet job. And if you had any doubts about the console versions’ authenticity, Capcom has said the game will be “arcade perfect,” a phrase I haven’t seen trumpeted since the days of Street Fighter Alpha 3. Pretty sure home consoles are now just as powerful, if not more so, than arcade units. Allow me to say, “eew, anime.” Not a fan. Sorry. via Computer and Video Games → Read More
I trust JBL to put out some good speakers, and these don’t look like an exception. They’re essentially bookshelf speakers, but instead of the trusty box shape, they’ve mounted the speakers into a sort of quarter-toroid, possibly to make for a more rounded sound (wocka wocka wocka). Really, it’s for mounting in corners and such, helping distribute the sound through a space directly instead of bouncing it around. There are a lot of specifications in the release, including the names of many alloys and such designed to create “outstanding resolution and transient response” and really I have to take their word for it; I’m neither a materials engineer or an audiophile of any expertise. I’m sure they sound great. Trouble is, they’re a bit expensive. At $250 for the indoor version (black) and $270 for the outdoor version (white) you’re going to be spending at least a grand if you want to wire your house up with the things. Well, if you do go in for them, they’ll make for good conversation at your fondue parties. They’ll be available later in the month. → Read More
I think something inside me died. If you think this is clever, however, feel free to read the full review over at robotsrule.com. Now I have to go change my shirt. → Read More
While the Samsung i900 was announced almost a month and a half ago, every shot of the handset released thus far has been crap. The best shot of it was a black and white mock up, watermarked to the point of insanity. Chinese news site pconline.com.cn managed to get a hands on with the device, and they were nice enough to bring back some visuals. The i900 is Samsung’s newest Windows Mobile device, packing single-band HSDPA/UMTS, 802.11 b/g, GPS, internal FM radio, TV-out, and a 5 megapixel autofocus camera. Original reports claimed it would boast an 8 gb hard drive – this has purportedly been bumped up to 16 gb. Not bad, Samsung. Not bad at all. It’s just too bad that we probably won’t be seeing this in the states. Four more shots on the other side. → Read More
Joining forces with Gamefly, the pizza chain is offering up the “Gamer Fantasy Package.” To enter you simply need to order online at pizzahut.com and you’re automatically entered to win a 60-inch LG Plasma TV, all three major consoles, a Bose Home Theater system, a Berkline home theater 3-seat set and a popcorn machine. But that’s not all. Gamefly will throw in a free one-year subscription and Pizza Hut will make you even lazier and fat with free pizza for a year. A one-year subscription to Gamefly will be given to five first prize winners and 500 second-prize winners will get 60-day trial memberships. That’s not a bad deal at all except I live in NYC where the guy on the corner makes a much tastier pizza in his cart is infinitely better than anything Pizza Hut puts out. → Read More
TuneCore, a startup that lets musicians break out of the label world and publish their music directly to online distribution channels like iTunes and Amazon, has been on a tear lately with some excellent and well deserved press coverage. I asked one of our interns, Peter, to email their PR group to get additional background information for CrunchBase and a potential story we’re working on that involves them. Peter did just that, sending a very polite email to “press@tunecore.com” asking for additional information on their funding and, hopefully, starting a dialog. Apparently that email goes to Jeff Price, the CEO (pictured to right). He responded back: Hi Peter Why are you asking. How will this information be used? Who are you? Who funds you? Peter responded politely with a lengthy description of TechCrunch, who he is, and why he wants to have a discussion with TuneCore’s PR group. Price’s response: Hi Peter Thank you for educating me on your site. Here is a link to all of our press releases for more information on TuneCore http://www.shorefire.com/clients/tunecore/ I suspect you might have better luck getting information if you did not cold contact the CEO and state you want to know sensitive information without first establishing a relationship and context As you can imagine, we didn’t expect this kind of response from a simple email to their press group. If anyone out there actually represents TuneCore and is interested in having a civil conversation with us about the business, please contact us. Otherwise, we’ll just go f** ourselves per Price’s request. CrunchBase Information TuneCore Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Writer and soon to be author Paul Carr – in between a recent travelogue of adventures in the US and prior to the launch of his book “Bringing Nothing to the Party: True Confessions Of A New Media Whore” – has come up with a new site. Skewering the Web 2.0 startup scene with a new take on British irony, Haikurious is satire written in the style of Haiku poetry. Think Gaping Void in three line verse (and no cartoon). My favourite so far is below: → Read More
Looks like you’re going to have to earn your phat lootz the hard way. Sparter, an online marketplace for virtual game currencies that launched last year, has effectively shut down. The company has issued a notification stating that no further purchases can be carried out, though transactions currently in progress will be fulfilled. The site, which is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, allowed gamers to sell gold to other players for real-world money in games including World of Warcraft, Eve, and Everquest. This kind of trading has been commonplace on the internet since the emergence of major massively multiplayer games, but it has always been controversial – eBay banned it in early 2007. Such transactions are against the Terms of Service for nearly every online game, and many players believe that they are dishonest and can ruin a game’s economy. So what led to the shutdown? The site almost certainly folded to pressure from game developers, though it may have also had a hard time gaining traction in a space with countless vendors of virtual gold. The site does still leave some wiggle room for its rebirth in the future, explaining: “Going forward, we believe the best course for our business is to focus solely on providing marketplaces with the full support of game developers and publishers. ” For now we’ll be adding Sparter to the Deadpool. Gamers still looking to take the easy way out can head over to competitors like IGE. CrunchBase Information Sparter Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
The Beta of IE8 has been out since March, but that first release was geared towards developers and nerds. From what I’ve gleaned on the Interwebs and our own little CG chat room, it’s been pretty buggy and not very many geeks are happy with it and looking at alternative methods for their browsing needs. Some believe the brand is too tainted and that the final release of IE8 will still be a failure regardless of whether or not it’s improved over the Beta. In the 12 years or so that I was a Windows user, I mainly used Firefox because it was, well, better. Not to diss on IE since I used it for a good chunk of those 12+ years, but as soon as Firefox was stable enough, I switched and haven’t looked back. Today, Microsoft announced that Beta 2 will be released to the masses in August. This release will be close to what the final version will be and as with any Beta release, it will contain bugs. Have you been using IE8? Will you switch in August? → Read More
Today, Intel Capital announced new investments in eight startups totaling $60 million. Below is each company, along with the size of the round they just raised. (Not all would disclose when I asked during the conference call). And while Intel led most of the investments it was not the sole investor, so the total adds up to more than $60 million. Accertify (fraud management for online transactions): $4 million round. Grid Net (energy management and smart grids for consumers): size not disclosed, but GE Capital and Catamount Ventures also invested. HealthiNation (online health videos): did not disclose. Internet Mall (Czech-based online retailer targeting Central Europe): $45 million (28 million Euros). TOA Technologies (mobile workforce management): $13 million Veoh Networks (Web video): $30 million Vostu (Ning-like social network for Latin America): $1.3 million seed round. Vriti Infocom (education marketplace in India): did not disclose. Intel was the only investor → Read More
In a world full of iPod accessories, the Unison i-X5 strikes a nice little balance between price and performance. Manufactured by Australian company Cygnett, the i-X5 speaker system can be purchased here in the states with an MSRP of $249, which is a pretty good deal for what you’re getting. → Read More
How quickly would you reach Time Warner’s 40GB data cap? I’d be finished in like a week. No lie. By now you’re probably well aware of Time Warner’s scheme to charge you by the gigabyte. Arrington wrote a piece yesterday on TechCrunch saying how it would destroy innovation—how can YouTube et al. make money if no one has the bandwidth to watch videos, or whatever?—and all that. But I’m not really interested in whether or not YouTube or some band new social network for left-handed people succeeds or fails; I just download a lot of stuff. For example, yesterday I grabbed the 1080p rip of Cloverfield—horrendous, by the way—in a few hours off Usenet. That’s 9GB right there, or one-fourth of my would-be limit gone in a matter of a few hours. I’m grabbing Semi-Pro right now—that’s another 9GB. And There Will Be Blood should see an internal release in a few days (there’s already a terrible 720p scene rip). Throw in your occasional album and you can see where this is going. In well under one week, I would have shot past my monthly bandwidth limit. I say this just to illustrate how quickly that 40GB cap can be shattered. So to all those who would like to say, “Well, 40GB should be plenty.” Yeah, well, sometimes it isn’t. And $1 per gigabyte? Here, just take my bank account while you’re at it. Photo from Flickr → Read More
With the likely iPhone launch just days away, this new patent filing by Apple is a little odd. It’s for a multifunction device with very iPhone-like menus and a touch screen. Besides the regular goodness, there’s much multimedia suggested, with Quicktime, Flash and even Windows Media represented in the sketches. The device also would have a blogging client, MMS support (finally), voice command, video client, and Java support. And video chat and GPS. Hellz yes. Is it the iPhone 2? Or is it something else coming out later? Or a little of both? Perhaps we’ll find out Monday as we bring the WWDC keynote to you live. → Read More
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