Designed to battle internet addiction, the Support Radio concept from designer Joe Malia is aimed at “partners, parents and kids struggling to cope with the non-involvement of an excessive computer user in the home.” The idea is that, for instance, if your spouse is addicted to Facebook and/or Twitter, you record a message into your radio and then someone else on the other side of the world can hear your messages and respond back with advice. → Read More
They’ve got a point on the cost to feature ratio of Macs v. Windows machines in this new Microsoft ad. I have to say, these things are getting a lot better over time. And the price difference is the key weak point in the Apple product lineup. Mac fanatics couldn’t care less. But to a recession-beaten regular computer user, this message is right on the money. “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person,” the actress says after visiting an Apple store and not finding any laptops in her price range.
See our coverage of other recent Microsoft ads here, here, here. → Read More
Om Malik (he puts the Om in GigaOM) is reporting that “a very reliable” tipster told him “that Skype is almost ready to launch [an] iPhone version, perhaps as soon as next week.” Next week being the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas, where the big wireless companies get together to pat themselves on the back for stuff like fixing mobile broadband pricing at $60 per month for 5GB of data. → Read More
With the end of the first quarter of the 2009 almost here, even the strongest companies companies are making last-minute layoffs to shave costs. Today, layoffs were announced across the tech sector, from IBM to Google to Amazon. The biggest layoffs came from IBM, where 5,000 people are losing their jobs in the U.S.. Amazon cut 210 people at three distribution centers in Nevada, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Google also announced layoffs of 200 people from sales and marketing (so far, engineers have been spared). In all three cases, the job cuts amounted to roughly one percent of each company’s global workforce. The New York Times also announced a 5 percent cut of its newsroom business operations, or 100 people.
It is not as if the payroll reductions will help save the quarter or even have a material impact on it. But the companies can point to the measures during their conference calls with investors and analysts and project the savings going forward.
We’ve added the job cuts to our Layoff Tracker. To see who is hiring, check out our CrunchBoard. → Read More
Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi’s weirdo follow-up game has made, well, not exactly waves in the game community, but perhaps expanding circles of confusion. Guiding your stretchable “boy” around a bizarre world, the goal is to become as long as possible in order to help your girlfriend (who is much bigger) grow out to the outer planets. Sound weird enough? Well, now you can get your Noby Noby dose on the go, because they’re bringing it to the iPhone. The pricing and date aren’t set, but after he showed it to the audience at GDC, Takahashi said he’d like to release it for free. We’ll see about that — but I think a buck or two is probably a fair price for the amount of nonsense fun this game will provide on subway and plane rides. → Read More
Losing your garage door opener sucks. And it can be really frustrating to try and find a replacement. But if you’re from the “DIY” school of thought, it can be an opportunity. Now what could you possibly turn into a replacement garage door opener? → Read More
The California legislature is considering regulating the color of cars and reflectivity of paint to reduce the energy requirements to cool them. A presentation on the proposed legislation by the California Air Resources Board is below.
The problem isn’t the color per se, but the reflectivity of the paint overall. And dark colors just don’t reflect well, so they are likely out. “Jet black remains an issue,” says the report.
Anyone who’s ever entered a very hot car knows that it can be cooled down immediately by driving a few feet with the windows open, effectively neutralizing any color-caused heat issues before engaging the air conditioner. But whatever, black is evil.
The new regulations would be phased in beginning in 2012, so if you want that black car, you better buy it soon. More on Autoblog and CrunchGear.
And you thought that black Toyota Pious you bought made you such a good person. Think again, you tree hating energy slob. Luckily, black websites are still ok, even though they, too, use more energy. → Read More
Twitter has just announced that it has restored full SMS functionality to customers in the UK who are using Vodafone. While any Twitter user can submit updates via text message, for months only users in North America have been able to receive them (a key part of the service if you don’t have a smart phone). Other countries used to have this functionality, but Twitter began to cut them off after reporting that a single heavy UK user could cost up to $1000 in fees per year.
From Twitter’s blog post:
Vodafone UK has signed an agreement with Twitter allowing customers to send and receive SMS updates at no additional cost. Sending tweets from your mobile will be part of your normal text messaging bundle with Vodafone—there will be no extra fees. In fact, for the first few weeks, sending tweets won’t even effect your bundle. Receiving tweets via SMS on your mobile is totally free. Vodafone loves Twitter!
For more on the new UK deal, check out our post on TechCrunch Europe.
Also worth noting is the latest chapter in the story of Twitter’s mysterious sidebar box that may-or-may-not be an ad, some day. → Read More
This odd controller lets you make music with your tongue. I can’t quite figure out how it works – it appears that the tongue can be sensed inside and outside of the mouth and Make ponders why the music isn’t “jerky,” which could be a comment on their own technique. However, this could be a great way for the handicapped to make beautiful music and video displays with limited mobility. → Read More
YouTube EDU launched today, an educational hub “volunteer project sparked by a group of employees who wanted to find a better way to collect and highlight all the great educational content being uploaded to YouTube by colleges and universities” according to a short blurb on the YouTube blog. The official announcement is apparently tomorrow.
The site is aggregating videos from dozens of colleges and universities, ranging from lectures to student films to athletic events. Some of this stuff is solid gold (the Stanford and MIT lectures are really good). Other content, not so interesting.
Just a couple of days ago we covered Academic Earth, a site that aggregates useful educational content (“Hulu for education”). Both of these sites are great ways to spread learning. → Read More
Microsoft’s Steven Martin has ironically blown the whistle on an attempt at an “open” coalition that freezes out certain companies. Ironic in that Microsoft and IBM played this game years ago with the WS-I, an industry standards group that pointedly stonewalled Sun Microsystems’ involvement before caving under media pressure. In a Google Groups post Introducing the Open Cloud Manifesto, Rueven Cohen describes an effort involving “several of the largest technology companies and organizations” to “draw a line in the sand.” We are still working on the first version of the manifesto which will be published Monday, March 30th with a goal of being ratified by the greater cloud community. Given the nature of this document we have attempted to be as inclusive as possible inviting most of the major names in technology to participate in the initial draft. The intention of this first draft is to act as a line in the sand, a starting point for others to get involved. That being said this manifesto is not specifically targeting any one company or industry but instead is intended to engage a dialogue on the opportunities and benefits of fostering an open cloud ideology for everyone. As inclusive as possible? Not targeted at any one company? Engage in a dialogue? What a load of crap that is. It’s the same back room cigar-smoke-filled scam of the good old days when Web Services first began its inexorable move to reshape computing. More than anything, the attempt to lock out Microsoft seems destined to backfire on those who are running this operation. The best way of pinning the tail on this donkey is to try and get quotes on the record from the possible partners in this effort. Is Google participating? No comment so far. Amazon? Apparently not. IBM? Bob Sutor, what say you? If cloud computing follows the dynamics of the social media buildout, it’s likely we’ll see an Open Social-like alliance of vendors around an open architecture. Unfortunately for the Microsoft haters, Redmond has built considerable momentum on its own around open fundamentals for Silverlight, Live Mesh, and the incipient Azure Services. The analogy that may serve best is Facebook’s Connect, where the company stumbled earlier, adjusted and optimized, then rolled out changes to its core portal strategy that leverage the social graph API and UI tools while attacking at the heart of the monetization model pioneered by Twitter. That’s → Read More
Yup, WWDC will run from June 9-12, more or less as that one guy predicted a few weeks ago. It’s at that Moscone West place, where Apple usually likes to hold its big rally-round-the-flag meetings → Read More
You can get a free Sidekick 2008 from LetsTalk.com when you sign up for a new two-year contract with T-Mobile. Or, if you need to extend your contract you can get one for $49. T-Mobile is selling the device directly for $99, so you can save a little moolah with this deal. T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 [LetsTalk.com via dealnews] → Read More
Imagine this is an analog to the BLAPP Store. Each jacket is an app. Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of RIM, will be announcing the BLAPP World at CTIA this year, adding one more app store to an already healthy app-store market. BusinessWeek calls the BLAPP store “much anticipated” and explains that it will be “chock-full of software programs.” Yes, that’s right: they described BLAPP world they way you’d describe rocky road ice cream and its attendant peanuts and marshmallows. → Read More
Are you one of the eight people who actually uses iGoogle? Good news for you, then, as Google is working with video game publishers, like Nintendo, Capcom and Activison Blizzard, to produce custom themes for the site. (Two minutes pass.) I just turned on this Street Fighter IV theme, and the chances of me using iGoogle just went up by 100 percent. So, job done, Google. → Read More
Everybody panic! IDG is reporting that MS might charge users who send 5 or more mobile apps to the Microsoft Mobile App Bazaar in one year or update their apps too often. Why? Maybe the depression? → Read More
Thenew iTunes pricing scheme is set for an April 7 launch, says the Los Angeles Times. They do good work over there. Apple hasn’t revealed this date publicly, but April 7 is supposedly what Cupertino is telling record labels. Remember: prices now top out at $1.29 for popular songs. Think Britney Spears—she’s still popular, right?—Lady Gaga, anything with Auto Tune, etc. This country, I swear. (Although, let the record show, I do like Taylor Swift, which makes me a complete hypocrite and a half-idiot. And I’m not even talking about, “Wow, she’s hot,” I actually mean I enjoy her music.) → Read More
Just because your bank account might be light is no reason to cancel your vacation this year. There are alternatives to expensive hotels. Expensive summer home rentals. Actually, renting someone’s vacation home for two to three weeks is usually cheaper than a fancy hotel and you get a lot more room to spread out. But finding a vacation home to rent out can be a real chore. Sites like VRBO.com have great inventory, but they are not easy to navigate or search. You have to know the exact town you want to stay in because there is no way to search listings on a map.
Enter Hotpads, the real estate site that is all about maps. It just added a “vacation” tab to its site, which lets you search for 20,000 vacation home rentals across the U.S. Results are plotted on a map, which is really convenient when you want to know how far away from the beach or the ski slopes the property is. Results can also be sorted by price and availability, which show up when you mouse over any given house icon. For instance, here is a search for Lake Tahoe vacation homes on HotPads (screenshot above), and here is what you get on VRBO (below). It is just alist of towns. Not very helpful, especially if you are traveling to somewhere you are not familiar with. → Read More
