If you’re constantly glancing at your G1 to check if T-Mobile has graced your handset with the oh-so-slow-to-roll-out RC29 update (“By November 11th”? Pah!), you might be glad to find out that there’s now a way to expedite the process. A user over at xda-devhas worked it all out. All you need is a computer, internet connection, a way to transfer the firmware to your Micro SD card and half a brain. Find out how to do it over at MobileCrunch >> → Read More
Just one more little last-minute costume idea. Happy Halloween, Crunchers! Update: ah, here’s that source I was looking for. → Read More
Update: Though this guide is written for updating to RC29, it should work for any official update. We have tested it up to RC33. If you’re constantly glancing at your G1 to check if T-Mobile has graced your handset with the oh-so-slow-to-roll-out RC29 update (“By November 11th”? Pah!), you might be glad to find out that there’s now a way to expedite the process. All you need is a computer, internet connection, a way to transfer the firmware to your Micro SD card and half a brain. Mandatory warning: Updating firmware can be a delicate procedure, so continue at your own risk. Always back up everything. Unless you’re able to check the hash or otherwise verify a firmware’s source, downloading it is your own risk and not the responsibility of anyone else. Whenever possible, download it directly from Google (as you will in this tutorial). Also make sure that your battery is charged so as to keep it from fizzling out mid-update, and that you don’t have the G1 hooked up to your computer while updating. → Read More
If you really like explaining things to strangers, you’ll love having one of these. Because every passer-by will stop, think, and then ask the obvious question. And you’ll have to talk about where you got it and how much it cost and why hasn’t Apple done this yet, blah blah blah. If you’re prepared for that, this looks pretty hot. They’ll take the brand new aluminum MacBooks (not MBPs yet, I think) and turn them into the kind of tablet you wish was already on offer. It’ll cost you $1300 for the privilege, though — and that’s not including the laptop you have to buy. I guess that’s the price you have to pay to be the coolest kid on the block. That is, until the real multi-touch sub-$1000 Mac tablet hits the market. So basically forever. [via the Register] → Read More
For all the complexity of the human mind, when it comes down to remembering what we’ve been up to for the last few weeks our memories are pretty pitiful – you might remember a few notable events, but your day-to-day activities barely make a dent. And while some of us are not prone to such bouts of mental inadequacy, the vast majority of the population probably can’t remember what they were up to last weekend, much less a month ago.
Memiary, a site built by developer Sid Yadav over the course of a weekend, is looking to help you remember what you’ve been doing with your life. The site is a micro-diary, offering a private place to fill in your thoughts and takes only a minute or so to fill out every day. Blogging fills this role well enough for many people, but most of us aren’t comfortable with sharing the most personal details of our day-to-day lives with anyone who stumbles across our webpage. And most of us simply don’t have time to fill out longform diary entries, so the short text snippets work well. → Read More
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We also are excited to announce that LeWeb, in Paris, December 9th and 10th, is offering TechCrunch readers a 20% discount Thank You LeWeb → Read More
Got a few thou lying around? Have an enormous rec room you feel like running rails through? Why, then, this ride-on, hand-cranked kid’s train and tracks should suit your fancy just fine. The tracks run in a 30-foot circle (not sure if you can customize them) and the cars can hold up to 100 lbs. Personally, I’d rather get my kids a sweet Power Wheels ATV for like a twentieth of the price. [via OhGizmo!] → Read More
Quick Version: The Samsung Rant is an excellent phone for text messaging addicts who want to be able to do a bit of light web browsing over a high speed data network but don’t want all the feature overload of a full-fledged smartphone. And at $49.99 with a two-year contract, it’s priced to move. Click through for the full review. → Read More
http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1715915&fullscreen=1 See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. From all of us to all of you, have a happy and scary Halloween. If you have a minute, tweet “trick or tweet” to Greg. He loves it! → Read More
This is completely beyond my abilities as a whatever, but perhaps you’re handy with The DIY? It’s a step-by-step on how to create a USB-based remote control receiver. Or, in English: you plug this doodad into your PC and then you’re able to use a remote control (“channel changer” or “clicker”) to control your media player. The methodology can be applied to Windows, Mac and Linux-based systems. The best part is that the whole setup costs $12 to create. Even I have $12! via Make Blog → Read More
Sprint is diligently patting itself on the back today, having forever changed the way we think about canceling cellphone contracts. Starting on November 2, for every month you stay faithful to your Sprint contract after the sixth month, the company knocks $10 off the early termination fee. The fee, which is $200 at the outset, is allowed to drop to as low as $50. This new policy does not apply to contract entered into before November 2. If you’re already a Sprint customer, you can renew your contract after that date and then you’d qualify for the deal. Now, what phone in Sprintland would be compelling enough for you to switch over there, I have no idea. → Read More
Another day, another diamond-studded cellphone to smash. This time, it comes to us by way of Japan, land of Japanese people. (I got nothing, obviously.) The phone, available on wireless carrier Softbank (they carry the iPhone 3G), is officially the Softbank 823SH Tiffany. It costs ¥12.98 million, or around $131,097. Only 10 such phones will be produced initially. Can anyone answer this question: what is the point of such a phone? → Read More
Nothing like living out your dream of owning a Porsche 911 Turbo than sitting on your couch and playing Xbox. Fantec knows this; Peter knows this; the American people know this. With that in mind, feast your eyes on the Porsche 911 Turbo S racing wheel for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. This little bugger costs a minimum of $250. I say “minimum” because Fantec produced three versions of the wheel, each more fancy than the last. The fanciest version, the Clubsport Edition, costs $400. The wheel, which is totally wireless for the Xbox 360 (but requires a dongle for PS3/PC wirelessness, is that even a word?), has three force feedback motors, used to trick you in thinking you’re driving a real car. The package even comes with two gear sticks—shift, baby, shift! I don’t know, I thought racing wheels for consoles went out of style a few years ago. Color me surprised by this one, especially for that amount of money. → Read More
The Golden Joystick awards were handed out earlier today. (Golden Joystick is a British-based video game award show that, I think, has a little more credibility than Spike Video Game Award, primarily because it’s been around for 26 years.) Anyway, you can watch the entire broadcast online here. In the interest of preventing OMG SPOILERS, you’ll have to click through to see the list of winners. → Read More
It’s fair to say that many folks are cautiously optimistic regarding the prospects of Windows 7. One reason why, I believe, is its improved ability to run on netbooks. (Vista is sorta unruly on netbooks, as you might imagine.) Laptop mag did the heavy lifting and installed the Windows 7 beta (which is easy to find on the usual BitTorrent sites, by the way) on the Asus Eee PC 1000H. Surprise, surprise: Windows 7 works quite well on the little guy. With only a 1.6GHz Atom processor and 1GB of RAM, the Eee PC 1000H was able to boot into Windows in just under one minute—58 seconds, to be exact. All-around performance seems to be good, too: only about half of the netbook’s RAM was eaten by the operating system. Running fancy applications like Skype and GIMP—calling GIMP fancy must be some sort of sin—also worked well. They even managed to play 720p video with only a few bumps and bruises. Not too bad, then. And just think: we’re still at least one year away from Windows 7′s release, which is plenty of time to optimize the operating system’s code. Microsoft, we’re secretly rooting for you. Don’t screw it up. Again. → Read More
SteveJabs writes: I don’t know if I am writing this because I completely and utterly agree with CrunchGear or because I saw my Apple story slipping to the bottom of the feed below What.Cd invites, but this ought to start another fun flame war. Face it folks, Blu-Ray is headed to the pooper can. But don’t get me wrong, I love Blu-Ray. My copy of 2001 on my 1080p 56″ Samsung “son of Jesus” TV looks fantastic. I buy nearly every new movie on the B-Ray and between my roommates and I, I think we have replaced a good chunk of our DVD collection. What is killing Blu-Ray for most people though? Well the answer to that is simple. It’s too f*cking expensive. $300 for a player, $35 for a movie and a lack of selection is cutting off the option for it to take off and blow up. In the current financial crisis that we are suffering in this country no one is going to be dropping that kind of money anytime soon. Gas is $2.65 a gallon because no one is driving. And eBay is falling off the face of the earth because no one has money and is willing to throw it nilly-willy to the wind on a format that honestly doesn’t penetrate that deep (or for other items either). Read more… → Read More
RouteNote is a music distribution startup in the UK which offers unsigned or independent artists from anywhere the ability to get their music distributed to a bunch of online stores. Artists upload tracks to the RouteNote catalogue and select partnered retail outlets that they wish their music to be available through (e.g. Napster, Snocap, Samsung Mobile). There are no sign up fees and the bands keep all rights which are non-exclusive to Routenote. That means it differs from Tunecore (as there are no signup fees) or The Orchard (which takes a cut of revenue). Instead it monetises by taking a small percentage of sales. The percentages vary I gather. I think this model generally works – unsigned or independent labels don’t want to pay money up front with no guarantees of selling anything, but they do want a route to market. Interestingly, Routenote offers bands access to places like the iTunes store which doesn’t deal with individuals or small record labels. This is classic middle man stuff – they are an intermediary. The site differs from the likes of 7digital, which is more a download store which offers artists a storefront to sell direct to punters. The trouble is, just like a blog, people still need to be able to find you. So they distribute to stores including iTunes, emusic, Limewire, Audio Lunchbox and Imeem among others. The latest store is Amazon MP3. Since their launch three months ago, they now have 440 artists and 1250 tracks online. Artists have the option of choosing which individual stores they want to participate with. They also film bands in their recording studios in Cornwall. The team of five is backed by angel funding. CrunchBase Information RouteNote TuneCore The Orchard Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
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