Live streaming is hardly new on the web. And a lot of startups are focused on it. One of them, Mogulus, now hopes to simplify the process, while upping the quality and adding new options.
Mogulus’ is launching a new desktop application tonight called Procaster. On the front end, it’s a simple app that offer one-button streaming of video out to the web. But behind its simple exterior, the tool has the ability to stream high definition quality video that isn’t possible when encoding on the fly over its current web-based Flash player. → Read More
In the midst of the recession, consumers are either cutting back on spending or actively looking to reduce expenses. And with retail sales plunging during March, decreasing by 1.1% compared to February, it looks like retailers are in for the long haul when its comes to the virtual drought in consumer spending. What better time for AOL to completely overhaul the design of its comparison shopping site, AOL Shopping, to promote recession-friendly deals, coupons and sales to consumers across its site. Coincidentally, Yahoo’s comparison shopping site, Yahoo! Shopping, has the same features, but wrapped up in a different interface.
AOL Shopping’s homepage showcases a “monthly specials” slideshow, featured prominently above the fold of the site. Users can click on to a “monthly specials” page with the best deals of the month, up-to-date coupons and sales, or they can flip through the slideshow to see AOL’s recommendations for what products have the best deals. For April, AOL says televisions, appliances and cookware are your best bets. Also, each page on the site displays coupons to the right side of the page, which are fairly random and don’t correspond to what you are looking at on the page. For example, I was doing a search for “Tory Burch Flats,” and was shown a coupon for pet supplies at Petco. → Read More
Everyone loves solar power, right? It’s basically an infinitely renewable resource — at least for as long as any of us care — and it’s free. FREE! Why, I remember making and using solar powered hot dog cookers back in Boy Scouts; and people a lot smarter than me have been planning things far more sophisticated than a hot dog cooker. Take Solaren, for example. They’re hoping to work with Pacific Gas & Electric to create space-based solar energy collectors. → Read More
We’ve covered Honda’s walking assist devices pretty extensively in the past, but we’ve never had the opportunity to see them in person until now. Hopefully we get that chance next week when Honda demos two prototype devices in Detroit at the 2009 Society of Automtoive Engineers World Congress. Actually, we’re trying out the W.A.D. right now and we’ll have video later today!
With over 130 patents, Honda hopes to help the geriatric and those with impaired leg muscles walk again. → Read More
For the last few months Apple has been running ads telling us that no matter what we need to do with our iPhones, “there’s an app for that”. More often than not, they’re right – the App Store is loaded with gems that really can make life that much easier. Unfortunately they’re not always so easy to find.
Such is the case with ‘ATM Hunter‘, a free iPhone application built by MasterCard that allows users to quickly find the ATMs closest to them. The app, which was released late last month, has a measly 15 reviews despite being ranked as the 11th most popular app in the App Store’s finance section (which apparently doesn’t see too much traffic). → Read More
Ironiclly, this spoof on Microsoft’s Laptop Hunter videos is the closest video to the truth. A shopper admires a Mac, but it’s a tad out of their price range so they slump to the world of PCs only to discovery Windows Vista, anti-virus software and plastic. They end up buying a PC ’cause, well, there isn’t any other options. Yay! It’s a PC. → Read More
Walmart has a pretty aggressive rollback on the Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit for Xbox 360 at only $99. The same getup is going for upwards of $190 at various retailers, so make sure to get it while it’s hot. The full band kit contains the GHWT game, wireless guitar, wireless drumset, and wired microphone. Guitar Hero World Tour – Band Kit [Walmart via Slickdeals] → Read More
Me, “Biggs, yo. Buy me this. Love ya.”
UP FOR SALE E.LEITZ WETZLAR (LEICA) ORIGINAL LUFTWAFFE ARTILLERY RANGEFINDER. USED AT THE SOUTHERN RUSSIAN FRONT IN 1942. 100% WORKS, NO CRUCKS ON THE LENZES. COMES WITH AN ORIGINAL WOOD AND METAL MILITARY BOX, SIGN ON THE SIDE E.LEITZ WETZLAR. THERE IS ABOUT 10-16 SMALLER PIECES COMES WITH THE RANGEFINDER,- BUT NOT SURE IF THE WHOLE ITEMS IS A COMPLIET PACKADGE (SET)- SMALL ELECTRICAL CABLE IS MISSING FOR SURE. I PUT LUFTWAFFE IN THE DESCRIPTION, BECOUSE THEY USE TO COMUNICATE AND SUPORT LUFTWAFFE AIRPLANES FROM THE GROUND, ASWELL AS ARTILLERY FIRE.
A couple more pics after the jump. → Read More
After earlier reports that Skype‘s founders were trying to buy back the company from eBay, the company has now released the news that it plans to spin off Skype as a separate company and file for an initial public offering. The IPO is intended to be completed in the first half of 2010.
As we reported earlier, eBay has been having trouble finding ways of using Skype across its other products (which CEO John Donahoe admits in a quote from the press release). eBay removed Skype co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennstrom in October 2007, reportedly due to frustration at the financial performance of Skype. Ebay also negotiated down the huge earn-out due to Skype stockholders and took a $936 million one-time loss around the transaction.
Last year, Skype generated revenues of $551 million, up 44 % from 2007, and eBay recently announced that it expected its subsidiary to top $1 billion in revenue in 2011. Registered users reached 405 million by the end of 2008, up 47 percent from 2007. Skype now accounts for 8 percent of all international calls by one estimate, and that number is going to keep on growing.
More after the jump → Read More
Every quarter UK-based executive search company Calibre One, which works with VC and PE backed tech companies, releases some research into tech investment. Now obviously one has to take this with a pinch of salt – it’s a PR exercise for them after all. However, it’s not in their interest to get the research wrong and it makes for pretty interesting reading. Plus, they have released it to TechCrunch Europe first. The heads-up on this quarter’s report is essentially this: investment in the “early-stage” technology sector seems to be weathering the global storm better than most. That’s not to say it’s all rosy of course, and their definition would probably be around $500k and upwards. And Europe is not doing that great – like we didn’t already know this? According to their figures tech investment in the US is slightly up (from $1.28Bn in Q4 2008 to to $1.48Bn in Q1 2009) which may or may not mark the end of the downward trend. However, while investment levels in $ terms in Europe as a whole kept reasonably stable at $0.76Bn, the number of investments was down over 25% (from 204 in Q4 to 142 in Q1). In other words, European tech investing is way down over concurrent quarters. The UK especially had a very weak Q1 with only $112M invested compared with $294M the previous quarter. Government bailouts are reducing cost of investing in exciting growth technology companies, but this would really only apply at the top end of the scale. The average size of investment in the UK, for instance, went down to its lowest level since Q2 2007 – $5.6M. This is a problem we’ve highlighted this week. Since Europe tends to lag behind the US by 12-18 months, this could mean 2009 will as bad, though there may be some uptick in growth towards the end of the year. It’s pretty much anyone’s call at this point of course. The Index is downloadable in PDF format from Calibreone.com I’ve pulled out the raw text about Europe to make it more Google friendly, click more for this → Read More
Man alive, 300 people huddled together in a single room (granted, a big room) playing games like Quake and Team Fortress 2. Is this the Nirvana that Buddha had promised us? → Read More
It’s easy in these dark economic times to wallow in misery and wait for a handout from the federal government. Whatever happened to that “Can Do!” American spirit that put a man on the moon, and bacon in pre-wrapped packaging? Thankfully there are some keeping the flame of invention alive, and working to make an honest buck along the way. Witness Newsoap<, bringing you new soap in recycled packaging. → Read More
Shock! Outrage! Whatever! All words that are totally appropriate forthis here story. Get this: a six-year-old boy gets a brand new Sony PSP from Wal-Mart. He turns it on for the first time, and bam! A naked lady is set as the PSP’s screensaver. Now, in our book that sounds like a win, but the boy’s mother wants a pound of flesh. → Read More
Given that Microsoft’s new “Laptop Hunter” ads do little else but play up the fact that you can find PCs that are cheaper than Macs, it was only a matter of time before the parodies started rolling in. The first one, dubbed “Homeless Frank,” is a solid effort.
In 63 seconds of pure mockery, the videos creators, LandlineTV.com, are actually able to show off some of the holes in Microsoft’s argument in these ads. “Windows Vista Home Premium? This is bullshit,” Frank notes while checking out a PC. Sure, it’s a crude way of putting it, but a lot of users are not happy with Vista, and Microsoft fails to mention its software at all in its ads. → Read More
Brando’s got a humdinger of a whatsit in this cubic card reader. Do you have room for it on your desk and enough cards of various formats to make use of it? Oh, you’ll also need $12. → Read More
It’s perhaps of passing curiosity to pure Internet startups, but it’s interesting to note that Belgium-based startup Specle has secured first round funding of £150,000 in an investment lead by Avonmore Developments, which has previously invested in UK Internet startup GroupSpaces. Avonmore is joined by entrepreneur brothers Simon and Dale Murray, with the former joining Specle’s board. Steve Daykin, CFO of 7 Publishing, publishers of Delicious and Sainsbury’s Magazine, also joins the board. Specle’s “Specle Create” software is aimed at cost savings in the production of advertising for magazines and newspapers. Specifically it works with the Adobe InDesign program to help operators prepare ad layouts to the exact page size and requirements of publications. It uses using Adobe XMP metadata to saves time in production by eliminating the need to gather publication specifications from publishers. It’s already had some success in Belgium with agencies and publishers so the investment with a UK-backer implies it’s launch in other regions. Tom Beckenham is managing director of Specle. The take-away from this is that if you can create something that saves businesses money, you can likely win investment. → Read More
Looks like President Obama wants to see some change in our Cuba policy, and not merely change affecting only Cuban-Americans and their relationship with the country. American telecommunication companies will now be allowed to, among other things, establish satellite links between the two countries and—Opie and Anthony may soon be heard in Havana! → Read More
One of the reasons that Internet music streaming services Pandora, imeem and Last.fm have been able to build large audiences is because they are run by people who have a passion for music. Or should I say, a passion for music beyond pop music. With Goom Radio, I’m not so sure.
Not only is Goom clearly trying to play the popular music card with a website littered with the likes of Coldplay, Kanye West, Beyonce and Britney Spears, but it promises to have “passionate programmers” and DJs. I don’t know about you, but I had two core reasons that I stopped listening to tradtional radtio long ago: Crap music, and DJs. Goom, apparently, sees those as strong suits. → Read More
Not a day goes by without hundreds of mentions of Twitter on blogs and TV (we’re as guilty as anyone), which naturally leads those still puzzled by the service or simply curious to learn more to search for it in Google. Those searches have been growing at a faster rate than even the service itself. In fact, the term “Twitter” seems to be one of the fastest growing search terms of all these days.
How popular is it? More popular than “britney.” Twitter surpassed “Britney” a few months ago, and has even caught up to “Obama” (actually it is slightly ahead right now), according to Google Trends. That is remarkable, given that Britney was one of the most searched for words of all last year. Still, maybe the switch says more about her than about Twitter. (Obama’s popularity as a search term has come down to more reasonable levels after huge spikes last November and during the inauguration). → Read More
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