Remember those issues Seagate was having? No, not those issues; everybody has those right now (except Apple and Google). I’m talking about the thousands upon thousands of drives that have been freezing up due to a firmware issue. Seagate released a “fix” a while ago that took fixed the problem by bricking the drive, which was, needless to say, poorly received. → Read More
Although we were a little underwhelmed at what Fusion actually turned out to be (it got a lot of hype), the good news is that it’s helpful anyway, and it’s not bound to hardware. AMD doesn’t want you to do this of course, and the usual caveats of “at your own risk, etc” apply, but there is a way to make Fusion work on your Intel or (I should think) even VIA processor. → Read More
With tax season rapidly approaching, the prospect of digging through receipts for business expenses and tax deductions is looming large. Shoeboxed, a site that helps manage your purchases by scanning your receipts and posting them to the web, is looking to make the process a little easier.
We last covered the site back in November 2007, when it experimented with a social shopping feature that the company abandoned after about a week. Now it’s concentrating on helping users mange their receipts online. To get started, users mail in their receipts which Shoeboxed then scans and enters into its web-based software (the company can handle multiple receipts at once, with an estimated wait time of 2-3 days to get a boxful online). The site also recently began accepting business cards. The service runs around $10/month, with more expensive plans for heavy users (over 50 receipts a month). → Read More
Remember when we were all excited for like three years when Spore was being developed? I remember watching that first GDC video of Will Wright demoing Spore, and nearly falling out of my chair when he went interstellar. How things have changed. → Read More
Check out this clear shot of the in-progress netbook OS Jolicloud. There’s more info on its history and usability over at TechCrunch, but this screenshot was just too sweet not to post.
Keep an eye on the Jolicloud Flickr page for more. → Read More
Apple is doing something right because every other company, including Microsoft and Sony, is laying folks off but Apple is paving the halls with gold. Didja hear? Apple made $10 billion last year and their simple product line is the key. Look at it. There really aren’t that many products: One cellphone, four iPods, three notebooks, and three desktop computers. Now look at HP’s, Dell’s, or even Garmin and TomTom’s product lines. Apple does something different and hopefully others are taking notes.
Apple has a history of finding niche markets and making products to fill that void. However, slowly after Steve-O took over, the product lines condensed into distinct segments geared for a different buyer. You want a basic Macintosh computer? Buy the Mini. The iMac is available for all-in-one solutions and the Mac Pro is truly for the professional. The same thing follows into the notebook and iPod realms showing vastly different strategy than other companies. → Read More
Just a quick head’s up to the gamers in the audience that WB’s F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin demo is now live for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC owners. The Xbox 360 demo should be live now and the PS3 demo will be up later today (depending on when you read this it might already be up). The game ships on February 10th if you’re willing to wait and not spoil all the fun.
I had a private demo of this game late last year and it was quite fun. Alma is a total freak, though. If you’re interested I’ve included notes I had about the game. It might not make any sense but it’s been so long that I can’t decipher it either. → Read More
Holy crap, look at this deal. CompUSA has the 22-inch ViewSonic VA2226w LCD monitor for $139.99 after $100 instant savings and a $50 mail-in rebate. → Read More
If you’re a fan of the Casio G-Shock Riseman, you might not want to watch this. It’s brutal, and bloody. It even made me throw up a little. Mainly because of the poor lighting and video quality, but also because I like G-Shock watches. → Read More
Vudu‘s iPhone app is now available from the App Store. You can now browse, purchase and rent movies from your iPhone so when you get home you won’t have to wait around. That is all.
This is a pretty awesome idea. The Bulb-Sound-Speaker, designed by Castiglione Morelli, is, as you might guess from the name, a light bulb that’s actually a speaker. It’s powered in the same way bulbs are, via the screw-in bit there, and then there’s a Bluetooth transceiver and Altec Lansing speaker. You plug the other part of the unit into your iPod and there you have it, sound coming from your light fixture. → Read More
UK-based Tweetdeck, probably the best desktop application to date for tracking your Twitter feeds, has completed the funding round hinted at recently. The funding will come it at just under $500,000. As expected, Betaworks is leading the investment into Tweetdeck. The announcement caps a great story, whereby lone developer, Iain Dodsworth, came up with the Tweetdeck idea just a few months ago. He told me “It’s enough to turn this into something that generates revenue. Betaworks came to me, we spoke about where I wanted to take TweetDeck, discussed what level of funding it would take to get there. I was aware of Betaworks already via Summize and bit.ly and it is such a good fit working with them.” The other participants are a mix of London and New-York based investors: • The Accelerator Group, the most active early stage tech Angel in London. • Taavet Hinrikus, one of the first Skype employees, now based in London. • Gerry Campbell, an experienced Internet/media executive and former President of Reuters’ Search and Content Technologies group. • Howard Lindzon. An entrepreneur, and creator of Wallstrip and Stocktwits. • Roger Ehrenberg, early stage investor. CrunchBase Information TweetDeck Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Netvibes founder Tariq Krim sent me a new screenshot of Jolicloud, the Linux-based Netbook-optimized operating system he’s building (we first covered Jolicloud last December).
The screen shot, which is significantly evolved from what we saw in Paris, shows a set of featured applications that mixes desktop and cloud software – Facebook, Skype, Meebo and Youtube, among others, are shown with large icons that make it easier on Netbook users, who have to make do with smallish screens.
Jolicloud will eventually support touchscreens, Krim told me. We’re trying to get a copy and install it on our CrunchPad prototype to see how it does, and share video. → Read More
You know what’s the most annoying word in this whole technology song and dance? The word “revolutionary.” It’s a word that should only be applied to certain items. In the official CrunchGear chat room, we decided that we’d use the word to describe the iPhone (first mass market touchscreen smartphone), the Wii (it prints money) … → Read More
TechCrunch Europe Announcement: I’ll be heading up to a Northern Startup 2.0 event on January 28 in Manchester. There’ll be some chat from myself and others and then a pitch competition ominously entitled “StartUp4Slaughter”. I’d heard they were pretty hard in The North, but… Here are the details: Thriving as a Tech StartUp in an UpStart economy – Beating the economic blues “With the last three years of the emergence of web 2.0 startups with no clear focus on revenue generation, the current economic climate is forcing these startups to think otherwise. The startups with the right strategy will emerge, grow and have the opportunity to acquire struggling startups.” PROGRAMME: 18:00 Registration and networking 18:30 Introductions to 2009 and partners 19:00 Speeches 19:45 Break 20:00 Panel discussion 20:40 StartUp4Slaughter: 5 mins presentation by a tech startup highlighting a specific problem it has. Through rapid Q&A, audience attempts to find answers within 10 mins. SPEAKERS: Mike Butcher, Editor, TechCrunch Europe Ed French, Venture Capitalist, Enterprise Ventures James Brocket, Managing Partner, CalibreOne Dr. Zoe Lock, Technology Strategy Board → Read More
I’ve been exchanging e-mails with HP for the better part of the day and we have the final word on the supposed Mini 1100 series with an ExpressCard slot. It doesn’t exist and it was mistake made by the Web team. This is straight from horse’s mouth, people. → Read More
Tripwolf, an online travel guide that also offers some social features, has closed a $2.5 million funding round led by European travel publisher MairDumont Group along with investor Dieter von Holtzbrinck, a German entrepreneur who headed the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group for over 20 years.
Tripwolf offers comprehensive travel guides comprised of a mix of professionally written material and user submissions (the site lets members keep travel blogs, upload photos, and leave reviews for individual attractions). Since launching in June 2008 the site has grown to 15,000 members; a modest number but one that will probably grow as the site’s repository of information does. → Read More
Santa Monica, California based Zag, an auto-buying service that lets people buy cars at a discount through affinity organizations like AAA, has raised a monster round of financing – $32.4 million. The round was led by USAA, a financial organization for U.S. military personnel with 6.4 million members. Existing investors Anthem Venture Partners, GRP Partners and the Skoll Fund co-invested in the funding round.
USAA has been an affinity partner of Zag’s since 2007 – 22,000 USAA members have purchased cars through the Zag service, the company says, saving them $115 million v. MSRP.
Zag was founded by Scott Painter, a long time auto-industry guy. Painter also founded True Car, which launched at TechCrunch50 in 2008. → Read More
Oh man, how awesome is this? I’ll always be a mouse man for FPS games, but since L4D is such a shared experience, it makes sense to make it as physically involving as possible. This resourceful gamer has hacked a Wiimote input program for XP to pass the sensor data to Left 4 Dead as joystick data. So you can play co-op with a friend right there, screaming and crying as you leave him out there with the horde. You can adjust the sensitivity, shake the controllers for different effects, and I’m sure you could add a few lines in there to config or add functionality in whatever form if you’re code-savvy. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
