Those special PhysX-enabling drivers and demos we told you about a couple days ago are now live on NVIDIA’s site. If you have a GeForce card of any recent vintage (think 8-series and higher), go get set up now! I can’t from my MacBook Pro, but as soon as I get home I’m going to throw down on a little Warmonger; the new Red Faction whetted my appetite for destruction and this game (and the fluid simulator) looks like it might hold me off for a while. → Read More
When reception is low, the first one up on the ranter’s chopping plate tends to be the carrier. Such is the case for AT&T; since the iPhone 3Gs launch, much flack has been sent their way over lackluster 3G signal, slow speeds, and dropped calls on the device. Thing is, AT&T doesn’t seem to be the one we should be pointing a finger at. Complaints of poor 3G reception have been ringing in from users around the globe, on a multitude of carriers. Pop your SIM card into another 3G device. If you have the same experience we had, your signal oughtta notably improve. That eliminates the signal output as the source of the problem, leaving only that which lays on the input side of the equation: the hardware itself, the software running within, or a combination of both. After seeing a small improvement in 3G signal following the 2.0.1 update, I’m hedging a hopeful bet on it being an issue fixable via software updates. → Read More
Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes. For $22.99 you can charge four USB-powered devices plus another regular DC-powered device in your car. It’s only $22.99 – roughly the cost of one or two device-specific DC adapters. Since just about everything charges via USB nowadays, this is a pretty obvious choice for any gadget fiend who spends a lot of time on the road. Car Charger with 4 USB Ports and 1 Cigarette Socket [usbfever.com via Ubergizmo] → Read More
http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?umid=251271 You know, the new Lara Croft that we told you about yesterday. Enjoy… → Read More
Photo Credit: Indophile.net Remember this guy from The 40 Year Old Virgin? Haziz? From the very Circuit City-like Smart Tech store? Apparently he’s been arrested in connection with the attempted murder of his girlfriend. His name is Shelley Malil in real life and he’s being held on $2 million bail after hopping on a train from Los Angeles to San Diego in order to meet with his lawyer. Friends and family members apparently finally convinced Malil to turn himself in. His girlfriend was found on Sunday night. The two had apparently just broken up. As of yesterday, she was in critical condition after being stabbed more than 20 times. ’40-Year-Old Virgin’ actor is suspect in stabbing [SFGate] → Read More
Today at Yahoo’s Brickhouse, a team of developers, press, and Yahoo execs including co-founder David Filo converged for the release of Fire Eagle, Yahoo’s geo-location platform. Fire Eagle allows allows developers to include positional data in their applications with a minimal amount of work. The platform was originally announced in November, and has since been deployed by a number of select partners including Six Apart and LightPole. Today’s release extends availability to anyone. Fire Eagle allows users to syndicate their positional data to any partner service after updating from a supported device or website. This means that after sending a Pownce message with a geo-tagged photo, I could have Fire Eagle automatically update my current location on my blog and social network profile. Users can opt to disable updates whenever they’d like, and for the especially paranoid, you can even lie about your location. Included in the announcement were demos from partners Six Apart, Pownce, and Outside.in, each of which already features integration with Fire Eagle. Six-Apart’s Moveable Type plugin has actually been available since March, and allows users to go-tag their posts and include a frequently updated map on their blog. Pownce, which is launching Fire Eagle support today, allows users to geo-tag nearly anything on its file and message sharing service. In the future, Pownce will also allow users to browse other users’ messages by location. One of my biggest concerns with Fire Eagle (and one that Yahoo is well aware of) is the lack of a standardized way to remove location updates from partner services. While users have full control over their current Fire Eagle status (which only includes their current position, and keeps no log), the partner services they’ve signed up for may continue to display their location history indefinitely. Fire Eagle says that as part of the Terms of Service, partner services must agree to let users delete their messages, but this will be impossible to enforce. Ultimately, it will be up to users to selectivity give their information to the services they trust. That said, Fire Eagle’s ease of use and relativity low barrier to entry (you can use your existing Yahoo ID) stands to make it a hit for developers and users alike, especially given impending rise of proximity-based social networks and services. → Read More
Advanced Micro Devices is apparently getting set to split up into two companies, according to TG Daily. There are two fluffy, happy, candy-cane strategies currently in place, one called Asset Light and one called Asset Smart. It looks like each may become more than just a strategy, though, as they’re expected to split into two distinct companies in a matter of weeks. The two companies are rumored to be a development company and a manufacturing company. It’s speculated that the development company will be run by new CEO Dirk Meyer and that former CEO Hector Ruiz might be tapped to run the manufacturing company. Ruiz recently stepped down as CEO but remained on AMD’s board. Grains of salt, here, as nothing’s been set in stone. We should know more in the coming weeks, though. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to ATI as well. → Read More
Here’s some more info about the new Dell Latitude notebooks that were just announced. We’re looking at four main categories that Dell’s trying to hit with these things; Ultra-portable, Mainstream, Essential, and Semi-Rugged. The Ultraportable line, to me, looks the most enticing with the E4200 at 12.1-inches and 2.2 pounds followed by the E4300 at 13.3-inches and 3.3 pounds. If Dell offers a higher-resolution screen option for either of these (higher than the standard 1280×800), I’ll probably buy one if the price is right. That travel weight is too sweet. [UPDATE: Apparently the E4000 series will start between $1,300 and $1,400] → Read More
So long-o, Vongo. The $9.99 per month unlimited movie streaming site is no longer accepting new subscribers. The service will instead be replaced by the $5.99 per month Starz Play offering, powered by Verizon. Starz ran Vongo so it’s not really huge news either way – kind of a lateral move, except four bucks cheaper per month. While the idea of unlimited movie watching for one low monthly price is certainly a good one, the selection of around 2,500 movies leaves a bit to be desired: Bad Boys, Click, Daddy Day Camp, Gone Baby Gone, The Mummy, Spider Man 3, etc. Plus, you have to install special software to watch the movies, which can be a turn off for some. Still, $6 a month for unlimited (albeit older) titles isn’t too bad if you really love movies. [via NewTeeVee] → Read More
Bungie’s Halo 3 received the Edge Award for Interactive Innovation at EIF and Luke Smith revealed some exciting new things for their upcoming project in the video acceptance speech. I won’t spoil anything for you guys, so just watch and drool. → Read More
Which map above is a better representation of regional interest in TechCrunch? Before you answer that, first some background. Some blogs are putting up posts today based on maps and data generated by Google Insights for Search, a service that was launched a week ago. Just like with Google Trends, you can put in any keyword and Google Insights gives you a deep dive into search activity around that term around the world. For instance, Pingdom used it to generate global popularity maps for different social networks based on how often people search for them in different regions. And Andrew Chen created U.S. popularity maps for Digg, Facebook, MySpace, Netvibes, Skype, Techcrunch, Twitter, and YouTube. You can see Chen’s maps in a post he wrote titled, “Early adopters vs the Mainstream: Google Insights points out websites only used by Silicon Valley nerds.” Now back to the maps above. Some of the sites Chen created maps for show a very limited appeal. For instance, Twitter only registers in a handful of large states, and the only people searching for Netvibes or TechCrunch seem to be in California. Or at least, that’s what you’d think by looking at his maps. The TechCrunch data made me do a double take. I know that we are not a mainstream site (and we don’t try to be). But I also know that we have a lot of readers all over the world. So I went to Google Insights and generated my own maps, which looked quite different. The first map above is Chen’s TechCrunch map. But the second one is the map I came up with when I searched for “techcrunch” on Google Insights. It shows that California is indeed our strongest market, but it’s not the only market. People in Washington, Massachussets, New York, Texas, and other markets are also searching for us. That seemed more reasonable. Then I tried Twitter. Here’s Chen’s map showing very limited interest in Twitter in the U.S.” But here’s what comes up when you search for “Twitter” on Google Insights: Based on this data, there actually seems to be pretty broad-based interest in Twitter across the U.S.—with the possible exception of Wyoming. So what gives? It turns out that Chen included the “.com” at the end of each site’s name when he created his maps (“techcrunch.com,” “twitter.com,” etc.). I can see why he might have done that— to → Read More
New York City
San Francisco, CA
