Flying your pets isn’t fun. A few airlines allow small pets on airplanes if they fit under the seat. But most of the time they’re stuck in the cargo hold and come with the rest of the baggage. The one time I flew my dog Laguna she arrived in Seattle shaking and covered in her own feces. Must have been a blast for her.
If you are rich enough you can bring them on your own private jet. Another trick is to have your animal certified as a “service animal,” (you can even do this online) and I hear you can then take them just about anywhere. It’s a loophole that is sure to be plugged once too many people take advantage of it.
Enter Pet Airways, a new startup launching next month that flies pets and only pets: “With Pet Airways your pet will be safe and comfortable, flying in the main cabin, not in cargo. From check-in at our Pet Lounge, and throughout the flight, our Pet Attendants will be caring and catering to all your pet’s needs. You can even monitor how your pet is doing.” Fees start at $150. Sadly, only your pet can fly, not you (they won’t even put you in the cargo area of the plane). → Read More
Hey! We’ve just received word from out team at the Game Developers Convention that WiiWare will now support launching games from SDHC cards. That’s as of the latest update, which is available for download today. And there’s more from the big Nintendo press conference! → Read More
Everyone get ready to pile into the den and gather around the computer table so we can all rock out together. Guitar Hero World Tour is coming to PC and Mac platforms this summer and will feature wireless controllers, online play, “and a Music Studio feature for composing and editing original rock and roll anthems.” → Read More
We reported it last year in July and Toyota is to deliver very soon: The world’s biggest automaker today announced the newest version of their Prius hybrid vehicle, due out in Japan in May, will be equipped with solar panels. Toyota claims the new model will also come with a brawnier and more fuel-efficient engine (the picture shows a model from last year). → Read More
Mark your calendar(s) for June 7, Final Fantasy fans, for that’s when Final Fantasy Advent Children comes out on Blu-ray. So says the eponymously named Blu-ray.com. What “bonus features” can we look forward to? → Read More
Live video on the Web is starting to take off, judging by the massive jump in traffic that Justin.tv is witnessing. According to comScore, the live video site’s global audience saw a massive jump from 9.3 million unique visitors in January to 15 million in February, which is about the same number of people who went to Veoh and nearly twice as many as visited Hulu.com. Of course, Hulu is only available in the U.S., where it is fourth most popular video site, and its videos are watched on other sites as well. In the U.S., ComScore only shows Justin.tv attracting 1.4 million people in February. So most of its audience and growth is global, with particular strength in Spain, Brazil, Germany, and the UK.
Quantcast, which directly measures all three sites, shows a similar trend. Globally, Justin.tv has 22.1 million monthly uniques, compared to 15.8 million for Hulu, and 11.9 million for Veoh. While the U.S. numbers are 3.9 million for Justin.tv, 14 million for Hulu, and 4 million for Veoh. (Ustream.tv seems to be the second-largest live video streaming site with 6.7 million global monthly visitors and 1.4 million in the U.S.). These are all site numbers, Quantcast also measures “network” numbers which presumably includes videos embedded elsewhere, and those are about double the site stats for each service. Justin.tv itself claims 1,800 percent year-over-year growth in unique visitors based on its internal Google Analytics numbers. → Read More
In case you hadn’t heard, Punch-Out!! will be available for the Nintendo Wii in May. It looks like it’ll be a pretty faithful recreation of the NES classic Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! except that it’ll drop the whole “Mike Tyson” thing and will feature new and improved graphics. → Read More
How I missed this, I have no idea. (Actually, I was at SXSW, that’s how I missed it.) Eurogamer, which is always good for a “think piece” or two, is running an exposé on gold farming, a term used to describe the buying and selling of in-game currencies (and items) in games like World of Warcraft. It’s a four-parter, and part two was just published today. Headline there: there are approximately 1 million gold farmers in China alone. Subhead: conservative estimates put the gold farming industry at $2 billion USD. Yes, that’s billion with a “b.” That’s officially insane. → Read More
Was your heating bill through the roof this winter? Now that winter’s almost over, you can either turn down the heat because you won’t need it or lower your heating bills even more by wearing adult footed pajamas, according to a company that sells adult footed pajamas. → Read More
The Tube-Tech is a neat compressor plug-in for those in possession of either ProTools or PowerCore hardware. You can buy it for two weeks starting today for $370. → Read More
A friend sent me this video today that sparked some interesting lines of thought. I’ve been online since the early 90s, so I often lose sight of just how rapidly things have advanced, and how deeply the Internet — and technology in general — has changed all of our lives. Just think: “If MySpace were a country, it would be the fifth largest country in the world” and “Today, the number of text messages sent and received every day, exceeds the total population of the planet.” → Read More
Let’s be honest. When companies talk about providing “complete” Internet access on their mobile devices, they are really only speaking a half-truth. That is, at least until Adobe Flash comes to mobile browsers. Love it or hate it, Flash has become an integral website component, be it for video playback, games, or interactive animations. Its absence is very noticeable while surfing the Net on iPhones, WinMo / Symbian handsets, and Android-powered devices alike. While Adobe continues to work on an official mobile Flash version (except for the iPhone), that hasn’t stopped other third parties from jumping the gun. → Read More
Initially unveiled way back in September of last year, the “Gametrak Freedom” motion sensing remote control for Xbox 360 and the PS3 has undergone a bit of a makeover and is currently on display at the Games Developer Conference in San Francisco. → Read More
Remember BlockBuster? For you younglings who don’t, it was a poplar retail chain that rented “videos” and “DVDs” to people, in person. It’s still around, but no one really uses it anymore. Anyway, BlockBuster just inked a deal with TiVO, which also isn’t doing too well—it currently has its smallest subscriber base since 2005—to bring BlockBuster-branded streaming movies to TiVo. Movies will cost up to $4 to rent. → Read More
No, it is not April 1st yet. The British government is proposing that Twitter is to be taught in primary (elementary) schools as part of a wider push to make online communication and social media a permanent part of the UK’s education system. And that’s not all. Kids will be taught blogging, podcasting and how to use Wikipedia alongside Maths, English and Science. The draft plans were due to be published next month, but have leaked early to The Guardian. Children will also learn “fluency” in handwriting and keyboard skills, and how to use a spellchecker. Luckily they will still be taught how to spell themselves, rather than rely on Mr Clippy. It’s a big overhaul of current thinking. Children will no longer be absolutely required to study the Victorians or the Second World War, as Teachers get a much freer hand in what goes on in the classroom in the biggest changes to primary schooling in a decade. Traditional education in areas like phonics, the chronology of history and mental arithmetic remain but modern media and web-based skills and environmental education now feature. The plans were drawn up by Sir Jim Rose, the former Ofsted chief, appointed by ministers to overhaul the primary school curriculum, and are due to be published next month. → Read More
Wolfenstein 3D is one of the best games ever made. When I saw it in the app store I felt I had to buy it. After playing the game for 30 minutes, my purchase is justified. Solid controls, original visuals and sound — Nazis, here I come! → Read More
Tel Aviv, Israel— When I moved to Silicon Valley in early 2000, I quickly became fascinated with Israel. A very tight relationship had formed between the holy-land-for-all-things-tech and the actual Holy Land, bolstered by the success of people like Yossi Vardi and Checkpoint’s Gil Schwed.
The rapid pace of liquidity in the late 1990s meant Valley investors couldn’t find enough start-ups to stuff their money into, and unlike dot com fluffiness that was roaming around San Francisco, Israelis were hard-core techies with a work ethic that seemed to defy basic human needs like sleeping and eating. Most of all, Israelis, particularly those in high-tech and cosmopolitan Tel Aviv, had a reputation for living like there was no tomorrow, because when you’re surrounded by hostile neighbors there may not be.
But in almost ten years since the tech crash, has the Holy Land lost its high-tech mojo? → Read More
And so it goes. Last.fm, which just went to a pay-to-play model, is shutting down mobile streaming due to “licensing agreements.” This means unofficial Last.fm scrobbling and streaming apps will now be verboten – although for how long and to what degree are not clear. The service will now cost 3 euros per month to users outside of the UK, US, and Germany and current subscribers will receive a 30-track trial. Interestingly, the mobile changes actually address some non-public API calls that allowed software makers to stream Last.fm content relatively unpreturbed. The company said in a blog posting that these APIs will be closed. → Read More
If all the paper shredders in the world were hand operated like this Eco-Friendly Hand Crank Paper Shredder, it’d save enough electricity to power every building on all seven continents until the year 2096. That statement may or may not be true, but why take any chances? → Read More
DSLReports is reporting (HA!) that Sprint’s 4G WiMax service, called Clearwire, to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Honolulu, Vegas, Philly, Portland and Seattle this year. Then, in 2010, expect Boston, Houston, NY, SF, and DC. Chicago is currently live but you cannot purchase subscriptions in that market. → Read More
