It’s not like Microsoft is going to be disappearing any time soon, especially with the success of the Windows 7 beta, but its death grip on the PC industry is being eroded on multiple fronts and it’s a good exercise to imagine what it might be like if MS were to take the French leave.
It’s important to note that the question of what happens after Microsoft doesn’t need to mean “what would happen if Microsoft left the picture entirely.” Mostly because that’s not going to happen: they’ll be a part of the post-Microsoft world too, because “Microsoft” is more than a company, it’s a way of thinking about computing. → Read More
Somewhere out there someone needs this 360 degree speaker. Sure, JVC and others make off the shelf solution but that’s no fun. → Read More
UPDATE: Well they did indeed discuss Twitter at reasonable length (well, 40 seconds is a long time on TV). Ross says he’s been following Fry on somethiing called Twitter which is “a bit like a message board”. Fry says Twitter is “much mocked” by those who “don’t get it”. Ross likens it to mobile text messaging. Fry describes it as Microblogging in 140 characters. Fry says he has lots of “nice people” following him, though those who mock say Twitter is just about telling the world what you had for breakfast. Ross says he notices from his Twitters that that Fry has been doing a lot of walking. Ross then turns to Tom Cruise and asked if he ever Twittered… {also posted to YouTube) [Original story, before and after show]: Twitter could be about to break significantly into the mainstream of Internet users. TV talk show host Jonathan Ross, who has built an underground following on his Twitter account during his suspension from the BBC, is poised to discussed Twitter with comedian/author/presenter Stephen Fry. His show used to get 4 million viewers a week but numbers are likely to be well up during tonight’s show – that means a lot of people in the UK suddenly curious about Twitter. Fry confirmed they discussed Twitter during the pre-recorded interview on Thursday (below), but whether it makes the cut remains to be seen and the mention of Twitter did make the cut, according to Ross (above). The question is, what did they actually say? Check back on this post after the show tonight on BBC 1 at 10.35pm for more details. → Read More
The evolution of the computer as an art form has been interesting. From the original “any color you want as long as you choose beige” to the current trends of steampunk and case modding, it goes to show that almost anything can be turned into an art form. A design studio based out of Munich has taken this to the next logical step, and created an art exhibition based on USB technology. → Read More
Venture capital firms tightened their purse strings in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the latest MoneyTree Report released by the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The total dollar amount invested in venture financings was $5.4 billion, down 33 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 (when it was $8.09 billion) and down 26 percent from the third quarter of 2008 (when it was $7.3 billion). For the entire year, the total venture capital invested into startups was $28.3 billion, down 8 percent.
The decline in investing mapped the decrease in exit options, even though VCs are supposed to have a 5 to 7 year investment horizon.
More money continued to flow into later stage deals. And broken down by sector, venture dollars going into Internet deals fell 26 percent quarter over quarter as well to $787 million across 170 deals (a 20 percent decline from the third quarter). Even investments in clean tech startups dipped 14 percent sequentially to $909 million across 62 deals. For the year, Internet financings were pretty much flat at $4.9 billion, while the dollars going into clean tech deals increased 52 percent to $4.1 billion. → Read More
Doubles is a unique new instrument that really brings out the “performance” in performance art. It reacts to acceleration and centrifugal force to create sound. Read on to see a video, and learn a little more about it. → Read More
Thanko, the Japanese purveyor of oddities such as USB powered mittens and USB necktie has come up with yet another. This one is only mildly useless though, a USB powered lunch bag. → Read More
Despite the continuous stream of layoffs, CrunchBoard this week has the most diverse job listings I’ve seen yet. There’s both a range of job types–from marketing to technical–and a wide variety of job locations, from New York to Dallas to San Francisco to Portland, OR.
Want to work as a social media planner in Philadelphia?
Or a product manager at Newsweek Digital in New York?
Or maybe in the online marketing manager with a SEO focus at Match.com in Dallas?
(Here at TechCrunch, we’re looking for a Rails Developer.)
Some other jobs currently on CrunchBoard: → Read More
Richard Waters writes in the FT about how far Sony has fallen. Back in the day, a Sony product meant something – the only real analog to what they once were might be Apple (good products at premium prices that actually sold remarkably well). Buying Sony was like buying from Cuisinart: you were guaranteed something that not everyone had and that you would definitely enjoy. They had brand loyalty, charisma, and high tech wrapped up. Remember Auto Focus? All Sony gear.
Now? Not so much. → Read More
Whoa, whoa, whoa… what is going on at CompUSA.com lately? That’s two aggressively priced 22-inch monitor deals in two days. The one from yesterday looked like a downright steal at $140 after a $50 mail-in rebate, but this one today looks even better. → Read More
An anonymous programmer made something called the Sound Grenade for the App Store and gave it away free. It took him all of an hour to write – it’s just a button you press to make an annoying sound – and put it up for all and sundry. How he’s seen 100,000 downloads and is basically making $200 an hour using an in-app advertising system. → Read More
Youtube has officially enabled High Quality in embedded videos. The new embedded player sports a little HQ button, which is strangely absent from Youtube’s on-site player.
One can only assume that they decided they were ready for the blast of traffic that will certainly result from the huge amount of embedded high-quality videos to come. Doubtless the stream pipe has to be a lot fatter for the HQ videos, but advances in compression efficacy have ensured that doubling the image quality doesn’t double the size of the video. → Read More
Rockstar just opened up its sitefor the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV DLC, The Lost and Damned. There’s two new video for you to check out, one of which I’ve embedded here, and a bunch of screen shots. → Read More
We’ve all read the stories about kids playing games like World of Warcraft till they keel over, but did you know that, generally speaking, gaming is bad for your social and family life? A proper academic study says so, so far be it from us well-adjusted (I think I just qualify as “well-adjusted”) gamers to suggest otherwise. → Read More
TechCrunch Europe is hosting a couple of afternoon panel discussions at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and we’d love you to come along and join us for some great discussion and evening networking with mobile startups and the investment community. *** GET A TICKET HERE ***. In addition, I’m happy to announce that TechCrunchTalk Mobile 2.0 in Barcelona kicks off a series of TechCrunch events in Europe this Spring and Summer, all focused on bringing together and networking the European tech community. Outside of the below dates I will be attending ad-hoc European tech events and, following my speech at Le Web on Europe’s startup scene, I’m also available as a speaker on this subject. This is really important: If you wish to be on the mailing list for information about all the up-coming events, sign up on our Amiando account here. Regarding content and opportunities to be on the panels please contact the TechCrunch Europe Editor, Mike Butcher. We have a few sponsorship opportunities and demo tables available for companies to show off their products. If you are interested in supporting the Barcelona event or any of the other forthcoming events, please email our event organiser Petra Johansson of TwistedTree. If you are a member of the press wanting to cover the Barcelona event or any of the forth-coming events, please email Rassami Hok Ljungberg of rassami PR. The up-coming TechCrunchTalk events are scheduled for: 19th February – Barcelona 25th February – Paris 19th March – Warsaw – Central European event for tech startups & VCs 21st April – London 27th May – Nordic and the Baltic states event in Stockholm 10th June – Berlin TechCrunchTalk Mobile 2.0 in Barcelona 2009 promises to be the year many of the predictions made about the rise of mobile may start to come true. Startups in the space are poised to take advantage of affordable mobile Internet access and sophisticated handsets like the iPhone. The question is, can they do it? That’s what TechCrunchTalk in Barcelona will seek to tease out from the assembled entrepreneurs and the venture capitalists that back them. Here’s the press release we just put out: TechCrunch Europe will be hosting a TechCrunchTalk event in Barcelona on Thursday 19th of February, 3pm-6.30pm followed by drinks and networking in conjunction with the GSM Mobile World Congress. Where: Hotel1898.com, La Rambla, 109 (Entrance on Pintor Fortuny) – 08002 → Read More
I knew I lived here for a reason! Seattle has moved to the top of Forbes’ annual “most-wired” American cities list, displacing Atlanta (of all places) and further cementing its unofficial title of Most Awesome. → Read More
If you’re a European startup then you need to check out Plugg organised by long-time Web 2.0 consultant, blogger, entrepreneur and now TechCrunch contributor Robin Wauters. The event will take place on the 12th of March in Brussels, Belgium, and will feature a host of top speakers from the continent, and a startup competition. Registration for the Plugg Start-ups Rally, which is free to enter, is now open, and the deadline for registration has been set to Wednesday 4 February at midnight (CET). Any European early-stage company with a maximum of only one round of institutional funding can sign up for the competition by entering details about their team, concept and business model until Wednesday the 4th of February at midnight on this dedicated mini-site. All submissions that fit the criteria will be carefully evaluated by a professional jury of pundits and VCs, and twenty will ultimately be invited to pitch at the audience from the main stage at the conference. → Read More
This enormous picture, taken by David Bergman, was stitched together from 220 images taken on a Canon G10 mounted on a Gigapan panoramic imager system.
Easter eggs inside! → Read More
As Brownlee notes, this is a “bog-standard” robotic chess board whose automatic movement feature is loud and grinding. But don’t you want do own it? After all, it’s being endorsed by a strangely disquieting man in a Phantom of the Opera mask. → Read More
How bad is the economy? In an effort to raise money for his rent, one man named Victor is trying to sell his Digg account on Craigslist for $650. It’s not because Victor is a power user on Digg. The name of the account is “youtube” His post on Craigslist reads: → Read More
San Francisco, CA
