The UK Sun, famous for its Page 3 smut, has named the $35 Star Wars Clone Trooper Voice Changer Helmet as this year’s top tech toy. (Parents: Get one now before the holiday shopping season kicks in.) By toy, we really do mean toy, as in a child’s plaything, and not toy in the 60-inch plasma sense. The helmet changes the wearer’s voice to that of a Storm Trooper, as you might… → Read More
He’s upset for other reasons Do you suffer from “mobile phone dermatitis”? It’s a rash that develops on your ears and cheeks that’s the result of prolonged cellphone use. It’s not a huge deal, but it exists, and doctors have been advised to keep it in mind when they see patients with otherwise unexplainable rashes. What causes the dermatitis? Try nickel. The metallic… → Read More
http://www.qik.com/swfs/qik_player.swf In a rather monumental move in the mobile livecasting battle, Qik has announced that they are the first to have ported their streaming application to the J2ME platform. Why is this important? It opens the doors to feature phones – that is, handsets that wouldn’t fit under the smartphone/PDA umbrella While the application will still have to be… → Read More
It’s so interesting how many social networks, struggling to monetise what they do while trying to scale (Facebook natch) almost always miss virtual goods and digital gifting as a model (an exception to this rule is Flirtomatic). So I guess if they won’t do it other will do it for them. Thus, it’s interesting to see that London-based TagText Tagtext has secured £1 million funding… → Read More
Announcing FederalContractor.us, a social network for federal contractors. Yes, you read that correctly. You know, when reality TV started getting really big, many thought that it’d only be a matter of time before people started realizing that they were watching the same premise over and over and over again. However, it seems that there’s no end in sight for reality TV. Every week, there’s… → Read More
Following the sale of Welovelocal.com to GCap, the guys over at Econversions.co.uk – who use the revenues from their affiliate marketing company to spin out startups – have created far more credit-crunch oriented startup. Vouchercodes.co.uk is designed to “help people save money shopping online by bringing together the best deals, discounts and money saving voucher codes for the… → Read More
We knew something was up. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (pictured left) has stepped down, and co-founder Evan Williams moves from the Chairman role to CEO.
Williams talks about the change in a blog post: “While the board of directors and the company have nothing but praise for where Jack has taken us, we also agree that the best way forward is for Jack to step into the role Chairman, and for me to… → Read More
Circuit City isn’t the only brick and mortor retailer stuggling as Tweeter might soon be shutting down. The retailer’s CEO was replaced by a restructuring firm exec and sent out a nice little letter to all the employees. “in light of the current extreme economic conditions and the company’s recent performance,” and that the move “is in the best interest of the… → Read More
Fire up iTunes and you’ll find, for the first time, TV shows from the four major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) in HD. It’s still $2.99 per HD episode, and that includes a standard-def version of the TV show for your iPhone or iPod. HD shows now include hits like Lost, CSI, 30 Rock and The Office. But we all know The Shield is the best show on TV now, so whatever. → Read More
Google just released third quarter earnings. It reported revenues of $5.4 billion (about $4 billion after traffic acquisition costs are taken out, which is what Wall Street looks at) and profits of $1.3 billion. The $4 billion in revenues is right around what investors were expecting, and non-GAAP net income of $4.92 a share was well above the $4.79 consensus. Better control over costs… → Read More
Oh, HTC Touch HD. Regardless of your Windows Mobile core and the fact that we’ll never see you state side, I still love you. I’m pretty sure our gadget geek cohorts in Europe will as well, so we’ve got a bit of good news for them: according to Unwired View, Europeans will be able to nab one of these lovely little beasts as soon as November 6th. This 3.8 inch screen rockin’… → Read More
Harmonix just confirmed on its message board that Wii Guitar Hero III controllers will work just fine on Rock Band 2, which is due to be released on November 18. Note that the opposite—using Rock Band 2 guitars in Guitar Hero—isn’t confirmed. via Wii Fanboy → Read More
Windows 7 might be on its way sometime soon, but Vista should get SP2 before the new OS drops. According to some ZDnet sources, Redmond is aiming to update Vista first so it will be interesting to see if any new Windows 7 features come with it. Details should drop from Microsoft about the upcoming service pack within the coming months but there isn’t any firm release date as of yet. → Read More
Try out Xtranormal, a 3D movie building startup that launched last week, and there’s a good chance you won’t get any work done for the rest of the afternoon. As Ouriel Ohayon reported on TechCrunch France last night, the site allows users to quickly build their own 3D video clips out of a variety of models and backdrops using an intuitive drag and drop interface.
To begin creating a scene, you… → Read More
We’re still trying to get exact details, but there is some kind of major shakeup happening at Twitter. May be a leadership change and/or layoffs. We’ll update here shortly. → Read More
Not a huge surprise here, since a Panasonic exec basically leaked the $799 MSRP for the Lumix a few weeks ago, but here it is officially: The Lumix G1 will have an MSRP of $799. Ta-dow. It’ll be available in mid-November. Also available at the same time will be an optional 45-200mm lens for $349. → Read More
Stevie didn’t announce a low priced MacBook the other day, but since he did launch new hardware, the older, but still capabile, models are dropping in price. Take this 13.3-inch MacBook for example. It only has 2.1 GHz Core 2 Duo, 1 GB of ram and 120GB hard drive, but what else would you expect for this low of a price? Throw some more RAM in there and you have a great deal. A $75 rebate… → Read More
How exciting! I’ve always been skeptical of the actual popularity of netbooks, but I think this makes them out to be actual successful products and not just industry darlings. I don’t think anybody is surprised at the new MacBooks being on the top 10 in computers and hardware, but I am surprised that the white ones and the last-generation MacBook Pros are still selling better. I… → Read More
The UK startups that aims largely at the US news market has, rather contrarily, signed a deal with a UK newspaper. Prediction market HubDub, which lets users turn news articles into an attention-drawing gaming market, is partnering with the The Independent newspaper to allow their users to predict the outcomes of news stories. HubDub’s content is almost wholly about US news sources right… → Read More
Did John and Cindy McCain use their telecom industry connections to have a cellphone tower built right by one of their many houses in order to improve signal strength? That’s what the Washington Post implies. It seems the McCain’s Sedona, Ariz. ranch didn’t have the best cellphone reception in early 2007, so Cindy—what was that word John called her? Begins with a… → Read More
The holidays are fast approaching and if you’re looking for great stocking-stuffer ideas, don’t forget about this $3,500 atlas that weighs almost 70 pounds. It’s simply called "Earth" — 576 pages, 154 maps, and 800 photos along with four six-feet by four-feet fold-outs make up the contents of what Millennium House, the book’s publisher, is calling the… → Read More
If this thing doesn’t make Time’s Best Inventions Of The Year list, I’m gonna burn this place to the ground. It’s right up there with the worms-to-ex-girlfriends pill from Brain Candy ("This is a drug… for the world… to give worms to ex-girlfriends.") except without all the nasty side effects. This is a sign… for your car… that gives other… → Read More
Kaixin001, the latest newcomer to the Facebook clone wars in China, is China’s fastest growing social network having amassed a staggering 7.5 million users in the first 5 months since it launched in May 2008. The site tripled Twitter’s traffic reach in the month of September alone and is currently the 250th most popular site on Alexa worldwide.
Compared with rival incumbent Xiaonei, which… → Read More
Alltel is now selling the LG Rhythm in two colors – white and black — for $119.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and two-year service agreement. Features include a 1-inch circular (?) touchscreen, 1.3-megapixel camera, MP3 player plus an FM transmitter (nice), GPS, support for web videos, and Bluetooth. Oh, and you also get a big intangible with any Alltel product — one of the dreamiest… → Read More
Each month, AdMob, a mobile advertisement marketplace, analyzes their ad request/impression data to look for trends in the mobile world. This morning, they released their Mobile Metrics Report for September of 2008. As their first report was for September of 2007, this release grants us the first opportunity to compare statistics with those of a year ago. To clarify, these statistics are generated… → Read More
Once again, the render looks better than the actual product. Specifically, this render for the PSP 2—I emphasize, it’s an unofficial render—looks better than the PSP 3000, the latest revision of the lost-in-this-world PSP. The render, designed by one Tai Chiem, uses a flexible OLED display at the system’s base and works from there: two nubs, stereo speakers that also… → Read More
http://blip.tv/play/ih_T1QuJ5FQ Japanese electronics company Elekit is selling a model tank that is operated via a wireless remote control and fires off infrared “cannons”. Up to four of the so-called “Battle Titan” tanks (size: 150×90×165mm) can be controlled simultaneuously, engaging each other in battle. When firing cannons, the battery-powered tanks recoil and make a… → Read More
Google’s startpage, iGoogle, is spreading its wings. Today it is rolling out a new design that shifts tabs to a column on the left so that more Google gadgets and sources of content can be accommodated. But the biggest change is the ability for content partners and developers to expand each gadget to take up nearly the whole page.
Partners that are launching with expanded gadgets include the New… → Read More
The new 13-inch MacBook wasn’t designed specifically for gaming but with the somewhat impressive NVIDIA 9400M at the graphics core, it should suffice for occasional gaming. The Obsessable chaps installed Warhammer Online through a 32GB Windows XP partition and came to the conclusion that the notebook does a fine job even with a modern, graphic intensive game. Still, with the screen… → Read More
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