Seagate are the hard drive guys. They make some of the best HDDs out there but they’ve never gotten into the SSD game. Why is that? Everybody’s doing it, right? Yes, says CEO Bill Watkins, but nobody’s making any money and nobody’s making anything that different from one another. Why get into a business where there’s no money or reputation to be made? He said the same thing eight months ago, and although there are many solid-state notebooks around, they’re still a micro-minority, so I’d say he was more or less in the right. They are planning, they say, on having a limited entry into the SSD market in mid-2009, but they’re banking on other technologies as well, which may end up taking a bite out of solid-state’s market share over the next couple years. Not this stuff though, probably. → Read More
And it seems to me, you lived your life, like a Egghead in a mall. Never knowin’ who to cling to when same store sales began to fall. → Read More
BODIES AS SHIELDS!!! This won’t be a complete review because I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. Like you, I’ve been waiting since I completed the first Gears of War, so instead, I’ll tell you what’s different. Cool? But I can tell you that it’s everything I could have ever hoped and dreamed for. The reviews that came out earlier this week were spot-on with the scoring. It’s amazing, but there are a few things that are worth noting for the hardcore Gears fans. → Read More
It was only a few days ago that we tore into the 20 dollar IM+ application for being overpriced, buggy, and lacking anything that justified that 20 dollar price tag. At the tail-end of that review, we expressed our hopes that an IM app done right would come along soon. Enter Meebo for Android, brought to you by the same people behind the awesome browser-based IM application of the same name. It’s got a clean interface, is dead simple to use, and best of all: it’s FREE. Game over, IM+. → Read More
You may have seen these nerdy little pillows around back in the day, but until now they haven’t really been readily available. I’ve already resorted to using a big sharpie on my own blank pillows, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Especially when the guy has launched a real live site and store → Read More
http://static.escapistmagazine.com/media/global/movies/player/FlowPlayerDark.2.2.4-tm.swf?config=%7Bembedded%3Atrue%2CplayList%3A%5B+%7B+%27url%27%3A333%2C%27linkUrl%27%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.escapistmagazine.com%2Fvideos%2Fview%2Fzero-punctuation%2F333-Dead-Space%27%2C%27linkWindow%27%3A%27_top%27%2C%27name%27%3A%27Dead%2BSpace%27+%7D+%5D%2CsplashImageFile%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.escapistmagazine.com%2Fglobal%2Fcastfire%2Fsplash%2F333.jpg%27%2CshowVolumeSlider%3Atrue%2Cpid%3A%27html_test%27%2CinitialScale%3A%27fit%27%2Cloop%3Afalse%2CautoPlay%3Afalse%2CautoBuffering%3Afalse%2CusePlayOverlay%3Afalse%2CautoRewind%3Atrue%2CbufferLength%3A15%2CmenuItems%3A%5Bfalse%2Cfalse%2Cfalse%2Cfalse%2Ctrue%2Ctrue%5D%7D I don’t find it to repetitive at all, actually. I’m quite pleased. I don’t find it to repetitive at all, actually. I’m quite pleased. → Read More
One of the featured events at this week’s Web 2.0 Summit was the Launchpad, a showcase of six companies that were each given 5 minutes to pitch a room full of VC’s, entrepreneurs, and other notables in the tech industry. The companies were judged by a panel of venture capitalists, consisting of: Chris Albinson (Panorama Capital), Patrick Chung (New Enterprise Associates), Michael Goguen (Sequoia Capital), Erik Straser (Mohr Davidow Ventures), and Todor Tashev (Omidyar Networks).
As soon as the presentations were concluded, the audience was asked to vote on its favorite company using an instant-SMS voting system. After only a few minutes GoodGuide, a TechCrunch50 finalist, emerged as the crowd favorite and took the top prize.
Below are profiles of each presenting company, along with some of the input offered by the VC panel. → Read More
One thing’s for sure – the cream rises to the top in a downturn. And San Francisco/Israel based iSkoot, which has built technology that lets mobile users access Skype via normal mobile handsets, look like it’s the cream. The company has raised a third round of financing – $19 million from new investor Vision Opportunity Master Fund. Existing investors Charles River Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Jesselson Capital Corporation and ZG Ventures also participated in the round. Total capital raised by iSkoot is now over $32 million.
iSkoot is best known to U.S. consumers as the company that brought Skype to the Android phone. But their core business to date has been to build technology that lets people use Skype on their mobile handsets in a way that doesn’t threaten carriers and doesn’t overwhelm the handset’s hardware.
iSkoot moves the heavy processing to servers that they or the carrier controls. When a user wants to make a Skype call or chat, they use a thin client on the phone that appears to work the same way as it would on a normal computer. But iSkoot then makes a normal voice call to their servers, and transmits the Skype data over the Internet from there. The result is a great user experience, and the carriers rack up those valuable minutes. → Read More
MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe and Warner Music Group’s Edgar Bronfman take the stage with John Battelle at the Web 2.0 Summit this evening. The topic: The Future Of Music.
The time is ripe. MySpace has launched it’s new MySpace Music initiative; Facebook continues to explore its options.
Our live notes are below:
John Battelle starts things off by noting that MySpace Music continues to not have a CEO (they’ll announce it shortly). DeWolfe says they’ll make an announcement shortly – it isn’t coming this evening. → Read More
Although the utility of having Photosynths integrated with Live maps is questionable at the moment when compared with Street View, it’s only a matter of time before the map is a little more saturated with user-generated content. Imagine if a rooftop restaurant put out an official, well-done synth of the view from their deck — that’s really great exposure if it pops up when you type in “downtown seattle restaurant patio” or something like that when you’re looking for a scenic outdoor bite in the summer. Microsoft should be sending interns to offices and bars all over town with cameras, building this service up. I feel Microsoft has a long record of making cool things available but not pushing them or giving them the exposure they need. Photosynth and the underlying tech is fun and cool, but unless people have it staring them in the face, they’re not going to care one way or the other. They also need to integrate it more with the Live maps experience; at the moment it pops up to the Photosynth site, why can’t it be a little virtual window? → Read More
http://www.viddler.com/player/df3b72de/ Short and sweet: Kidz Gear Headphones for Kids are just that: headphones for kids. The cans fit little ears, and the swivel mounts allow for comfortable positioning. Volume control on the cord, reasonable sound quality, and an affordable price make these a pretty good buy for Junior. → Read More
Just a few minutes ago, we started receiving tips that T-Mobile and Nokia had decided to recall the 5610 XpressMusic phone, but T-Mobile dispelled the rumor almost immediately. According to our T-Mobile representative, they’ve temporarily halted all sales of the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic due to a defective component causing the LCD to go on the fritz, but the problem is limited enough that a mass recall is not necessary. Read more at MobileCrunch >> → Read More
It’s been eight years since Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy franchise has launched a new title and today the World War III RTS EndWar is available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The neat thing about this game is that you can play by just barking out orders into your headset. It’s kind of the ultimate lazy gamer’s game. Hit the jump to watch the FragDolls in case you’ve never seen this title in action. → Read More
Everyone’s favorite third-party peripheral company, Mad Catz, is getting in on the Rock Band craze. Early next year, the company will begin producing a bass guitar and a “portable percussion set” for the Wii version of the Rock Band franchise. I’m not sure how well a bass guitar would go over (not saying it won’t) but the idea of some sort of foldable, collapsible, hide-able version of the drums would be much appreciated by my wife. Apparently the Rock Band drums with the duct-taped bass pedal “don’t look cool” in the middle of our living room when we have company over. → Read More
Every year at the Web 2.0 Summit, Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker gives her view of the world, the Web, and the technology industry by quickly going through about 50 slides that illustrate the major trends she is tracking. Last year, she zeroed in on the China Bubble. This year, she talks about the root causes of the current economic downturn, the outlook for Web businesses, and where she still sees major growth (mobile and emerging markets).
She singles out the mobile industry as the one where both the most opportunity will be found and disruption will occur over the next five years. Moreover, she suggests that the U.S. is poised to lead the transition in mobile to a Web-centric model. (I totally agree). Interestingly, she points to the introduction of the first Android phone by T-Mobile, not the launch of the iPhone, as the key inflection point for the coming era of the mobile web.
Meeker’s full presentation, which she gave yesterday, is in the video and slides embedded after the jump. → Read More
New York City
San Francisco, CA
