We cover tech news here at TechCrunch, so I was surprised to see a 5 lb overnight shipment arrive from Pepsi containing three half liter bottles of Aquafina water. The reason for the special delivery? The company is launching a new plastic bottle that contains half the plastic content of the old bottles. Less plastic = less landfill weight, less carbon, less bad stuff in general, they say.
I’m concerned that Pepsi decided to promote its new “eco-friendly” product by proactively shipping, via Fedex overnight, 5 lb boxes of the water to press around the country. And then sending a second batch either in error or to reinforce the message. That’s not very eco-friendly (if anyone knows the carbon cost of sending these boxes, let me know, then multiply it by hundreds or thousands of press). It all seems a little wasteful.
Anyway, after all this carbon spending and the general effort involved in sending me six bottles of water I never requested, I thought I should at least put the product to the test. I don’t drink bottled water myself, since it’s less safe than tap water and way too expensive (see the clip from Bullshit below). But Laguna, my 105 lb chocolate lab, loves bottled water. And she loves to chew on stuff. So we brought her in for a special assignment to test Aquafina’s new Eco-fina water in the TechCrunch Lab. She reluctantly agreed. → Read More
There are whispers on the internet, originating from this forum post by a DirectShow developer. He can’t seem to find a way to make his codecs override those built into Windows. The “preferred codecs,” as they’re called, are written into write-protected registry values that can’t even be modified in administrator mode. That sure doesn’t sound right. → Read More
[Update: It's over!] Nintendo was generous enough to provide everyone at their press conference with a copy of Rhythm Heaven (Rizumu Tengoku), a game which is already very popular in Japan and they’re hoping will take off here, presumably with word of mouth from us folks. Of course, I don’t have a DS (I’m still working through the Dreamcast library), so one of you lucky ducks gets to keep my copy of this game — which I should mention isn’t due out for another 11 days. → Read More
Mafia types and limousine drivers take note: according to the latest California Air Resources Board report, dark and black cars could soon be verboten. Why? Because darker colors require heavier air conditioning usage, naturally.
A Mythbusters-type test is in order here but I suspect that the actual difference, internally and while in motion, between a white car and a black car is negligible and as anyone who has gotten into a hot car – any color hot car – that AC is going on ASAP anyway. → Read More
Here we have a GREAT idea in the “Stuff-Your-Stuff Theater Set” from Pottery Barn, an unfortunately-named piece of furniture with an even more unfortunate $1299 price tag. → Read More
While many people in the tech world only make the trek to Austin, Texas once a year for SXSW, the city has a fairly sizable startup community. Now Austin is getting its own Y Combinator-esque program, dubbed Capital Factory.
As with other similar programs, Capital Factory offers entrepreneurs a modest amount of funding in exchange for equity (the program is offering ‘up to $20,000′ in exchange for 5% of each startup). Capital Factory is also advertising ‘$20,000 in free stuff‘, which includes server usage, PR support, and legal help. But the real value from these programs comes from their associated mentors, who work with the startups to help them get on their feet, and help tap into their established networks of VCs and other entrepreneurs. → Read More
Google has cut 200 jobs in sales and marketing, a first for the search giant. According to VWag a tipster wrote:
A friend of mine in the San Francisco office’s AdWords division (who wants to remain nameless) was laid off this morning. She also said there were 200 people total. They are still on payroll for two months and have the opportunity to apply for other jobs within the company. If they don’t have another job at the end of the 60 days they get a severance package.
The CrunchGear mobile newswagon is parked in downtown San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference, and although this is a more industry-orientated show, we’ve managed to find some pretty interesting stuff — and of course, a few of the latest games. Check out some of the highlights inside. → Read More
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
