Remember the Zboard? Remember how Ideazon got swallowed by SteelSeries? Well, they’ve regurgitated the Zboard and it looks pretty nice. I like the typeface they’ve used, although this keyboard in particular appears to be permanently marked up with WoW-related commands. Doubtless the non-special-editions will be a little less WoW-y, but in the meantime it’s BlizzCon out there and… → Read More
The entire stock market is taking another drubbing today, and Google is no exception. Its shares tried to rally in the morning, but are now trading below the $329 they closed at yesterday. That’s a key price level Google employees are watching because a huge chunk of their options (1.7 million across the company) were granted with a weighted average exercise price of $329.78. The options are… → Read More
M’kay. Apple is launching some sort of laptop next week. We know that, but we don’t know the details. Rumers are still swirling and the latest concerns the laptop lid shown in the Apple event invitation. You see, if you take the Apple logo at the standard dimension, a little math and photoshop’n will reveal that the laptop shown is more than likely a 13.3-inch model. According… → Read More
Just in case you didn’t figure it out by now, famed Halo developer* Bungie has reiterated that Halo 3: Recon will be the company’s last Halo game. Don’t worry, though: there’s a map pack scheduled for early next year and another one due for around the time of Halo Wars‘ release. *Perhaps the company didn’t want to be forever pigeon-holed as “the Halo devs”? → Read More
Leaked photos have surfaced showing an absolutely, drop dead sexy HTC handset loaded with WiMax data capabilities. The HTC T8290 runs Windows Mobile and allegedly works on GSM + Wimax networks, with a large 800 x 480 3.8-inch screen and WiFi/Bluetooth enabled. Plus, there appears to be a front-facing camera in the top right to compliment the rear facing one. Yota’s, a Russian WiMax… → Read More
My word, actual innovation coming for a digital audio player. It’s certainly been a while. It’s called the Twinned MP3 player, and its gimmick is that it’s actually two separate players joined at the hips, so to speak. Each half of the player is a fully functional player; both half contains the same playlist of music, a playlist that’s controlled by an online server. So… → Read More
Can’t afford a ticket to China to go visit the Forbidden City? Well, now all you need is your computer. IBM, which is a big believer in virtual worlds, and China’s Palace Museum have created an exact replica of the 178-acre Forbidden City. After working meticulously for three years to recreate every building and thousands of major artifacts, the virtual Forbidden City is now available for… → Read More
When Mahalo launched about 16 months ago, we called it a human-powered search engine and began thinking of it as a Google competitor. But it’s so-called “guide pages” for topics as diverse as the Boston Marathon and Patriotic Drunk Rednecks provide not only links but quick facts, making Mahalo an editor-driven, Wikipedia competitor as well. And with a new site-wide design launching today, Mahalo… → Read More
Fitbit, producer of a sleek little device that clips onto your clothing and tracks your movement throughout the day and night, has raised $2 million from True Ventures, SoftTech VC and several angels in what appears to be the company’s first round of institutional funding.
The device, set to go on sale in early 2009 for $99 a pop, uses the information it gathers about your movement to help you… → Read More
http://blip.tv/play/ih_Sr1+J5FQ I am sorry for the ladies that these Wii videos I took at the Tokyo Game Show are (probably) not as interesting as this one for us guys, but the guy you see is incredible: I saw him early in the morning and he was dancing. I saw him in the late afternoon and he was still dancing. → Read More
Capcom released a new trailer for Resident Evil 5 (which will launch in the US and Japan on March 13, 2009) at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. The company made a huge fuss about the game. I made a video at the TGS (see below) that shows the space Capcom dedicated to Resident Evil 5 alone at their (gigantic) booth. → Read More
Hands on with the RoboDynamics TiLR telepresence robot ‘Aquaduct’ adult-sized tricycle produces clean drinking water, keeps you from tipping over Gallery of public blue screens of death Trap door pool table is a good weekend project USB Mice Wheel: a live measure of your productivity → Read More
In May 2007 I wrote “Times are good, money is flowing, and Silicon Valley sucks” in a post about how, in my opinion, Silicon Valley was ripe for a downturn.
This week, without any doubt, we got that downturn. It was different from the last downturn in that it wasn’t driven by the crazy bullishness of Silicon Valley venture capitalists and investment banks. This time, Wall Street and our… → Read More
I’m no expert in these little home media boxes, but I suspect they are excellent investments for those of you with too much money. Certainly the abilities of a Vista Media Center type setup are enviable, but for $2000 you could have put another 10 inches on that screen and built a media box yourself. But I digress (and am probably wrong). This FUZEbox has up to 2TB of space, does DVR and… → Read More
Yesterday Sequoia Capital and Ron Conway communicated with their portfolio companies to guide them through troubled times. Today Benchmark Capital joins the fray, with what a source says is an email from General Partner Bill Gurley to their portfolio companies (See our interview with Gurley and new partner Matt Cohler from earlier this year).
Like the advice being given by Conway and Sequoia… → Read More
I would caution you all against buying accessories for your Apple laptop now, a week before a major Apple announcement, but this external battery does look pretty handy. It plugs right into the MBP as if it were an outlet and gives (they say) 6-10 hours of extra battery life. Of course, my MBP is so borked that that would mean 6-10 hours of total battery life (thanks Apple), but hey. Two caveats… → Read More
Look at what the cat dragged in. Freestyle Audio (you remember them, right?) has updated their product line with a more rugged MP3 player, the Soundwave. It’s waterproof up to 10 feet, which is perfect for most water sports like surfing except for diving and comes with 2GB built-in, which trumps the Sport’s 1GB of built-in memory. It boasts an 18-hour battery life, FM radio tuner, works with… → Read More
The upcoming NXE update will feature the controversial avatar feature (you know, the one that makes me barf), but you’ve got to have either a HDD or 256MB card installed to take advantage of it. If you’ve got one of those pansy 64MB cards or (shudder) a naked Core system, you’ll be SOL, my friends. Of course, if you’ve just got a Core, how likely is it that you’re the… → Read More
Sorry, people. The dream is over. American Airlines has decided that it, along with Delta (and the flight attendants), does not want porn on its flights — despite receiving no complaints whatsoever. Say they: Based on the feedback of our customers and employees, American Airlines is working with Aircell(R) to implement technology to filter pornographic content over the Gogo(R) inflight… → Read More
A 16-zone Creston system will run you a lot of coin – or you can pick up this chump’s system on Craigslist. I wonder if he used to work for Lehmans Brothers and needs to his McMansion’s mortgage payment. I have a Crestron system currently installed in my house that I would like to sell. All components are in excellent working condition, one Amplifier has two small cosmetic… → Read More
With the economy slipping closer to rock bottom every day now, many of us are going to have to start cutting back on our day-to-day expenditures. Cue Voice2Insight’s The Expense Tracker, an online expense tracking system that makes entering every transaction as easy as calling a phone number and saying a few words.
Most expense trackers require users to input their daily transactions from… → Read More
Private equity fund Mithras Capital, which holds 1.9 million shares of Yahoo (about 0.14%), will propose to Microsoft that they buy Yahoo at $22 per share, Reuters reports. Microsoft would then unload Yahoo’s Asian assets adn non-search businesses, take $3 billion worth of cost savings and some tax benefits, and end up with Yahoo’s search business for $10.3 billion.
Microsoft is obviously… → Read More
Remember Skids from the original cartoon? TF2 is or was filming at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona and one intrepid fan took a few snaps and sent them along to Jalopnik. The rear license plate revealed Skids, but no one knows what the Chevy Trax plate says. Oh, Skids is the bright green one. Bumblebee is still a Camaro if you’re keeping track at home. Check him out after the… → Read More
In case you have an extra USB slot and perhaps an excess of whimsy, this may be the nonsense desk accessory for you. The mouse in the wheel will run faster the faster you type — useful if you don’t want to use how quickly the words appear on the screen as a metric for how fast you’re typing. Now, if I ran a blog, I would just have my office filled with these mice, attached to… → Read More
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1924675&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1 After we wrote about TiLR last week, RoboDynamics invited us down to their headquarters to check one out in person. The idea is simple, straight out of countless science fiction flicks: rather than physically going somewhere, you… → Read More
The Future of Web Apps conference kicked off in London today and almost 2,000 startups and developers hit the East of London for the event. Highlights from the day included Kevin Rose from Digg and a bunch of great speakers. Every year the event changes and there is an interesting pivot point going on as the European scene develops. In his opening keynote Kevin who seemed to imply that the site… → Read More
Novell, the company that markets SUSE Linux, an enterprise-oriented commercial Linux distro, has a lot at stake in the coming netbook wars. After all, the little machines are overwhelmingly running various flavors of Linux (with the notable exception of Eees pre-loaded with XP and the like), and if Novell can get in on the ground floor, that’s not only cash in hand but a hugely increased… → Read More
Look at this environmentally-advanced mama jama. It’s called the Aquaduct, and though many are referring to it as a bicycle, it’s got three wheels. That, my friends, is a tricycle. Forget semantics, though, because the Aquaduct not only gets your from Point A to Point B (and occasionally Point C), but it also filters cruddy crap-water into delicious drinkable water using an onboard… → Read More
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