When I was a preschool teacher, I found that my set of rough rare earth magnets were among the kids’ favorite toys. However, management got jittery after those kids ate some elsewhere in the states. I can understand why these Bucky Balls are not for kids — the tiny magnets look eminently swallowable. But damn do they look fun. I can’t imagine that they’d stay in those perfect patterns for long in my hands, but who cares? → Read More
We tend to give away a whole lot of stuff on the TechCrunch network. Phones, DVDs, laptops, TVs – you name it, we’ve probably given it away at some point. That said, I think this is the first time we’ve given away sports tickets.
FuzzyCube Software, the folks behind the iPhone game iQuarterback, just dropped us a pair of tickets to the Dallas Cowboys vs New York Giants game coming up in September. This game is going to be one to remember; not only is it a face-off between rivals, but its also the first game the Cowboys will be playing in their brand new stadium. Even with a few months to go before the big day, these tickets are already going for 200 bucks a pop. Want them? Find out how to win after the jump. → Read More
TriGem has unveiled the feature-laden Averatec N2700, a 12-inch ultraportable with 4GB of RAM and a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU weighing in at just over four pounds for $699. → Read More
I don’t know what kind of drugs the people at Thanko take, but they must be very hardcore. There is no other explanation for the product they are selling now, is there? It’s a transparent PC mouse that houses a plastic tarantula [JP]. Either that or a mini scorpion. → Read More
With the news that Facebook is going to begin allowing developers to incorporate full streams into their applications, developers are scrambling to get their apps up to speed. This morning we got our first look at the upcoming new version of Seesmic Desktop, and now we’ve learned that Xobni, the popular Outlook plugin that helps make Email easier to manage, will be going live with a new upgrade beginning at 6 PM tonight. Because of the way Xobni is built users won’t have to download an upgrade either – all changes will be server side.
Up until now Xobni has included some basic Facebook contact information, including profile photos and status updates, but it wasn’t as comprehensive as your full Facebook news feed (you couldn’t see how your contacts were interacting with each other, for example). Now you’ll be able to see this information at a glance directly from your Outlook mail client, which is obviously far more efficient than having to manually check your Facebook page. → Read More
Heads up, 360 gamers. You can now find Rockstar’s Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne on Xbox Live. Each game costs 1,200 Microsoft points, or $15 in non-spacebucks. → Read More
Apparently it’s embrace the developer community day at Facebook. In addition to the news that they are making activity stream data available to third party developers, they’ll also be making an announcement around OpenID, we’ve heard. And importantly, the announcement is that they’ll become what’s called a relying party, meaning anyone with an OpenID (Yahoo, Google, AOL, MySpace are all issuers, and Microsoft is in beta) can create and log into a Facebook account using those credentials.
Let me take a step back. OpenID is a distributed single sign on solution that allows people to sign into different services with the same login credentials. There are two ways companies/websites can participate in the OpenID framework – as “issuing parties” or as “relying parties.” Issuing parties make their user accounts OpenID compatible. Relying parties are websites that allow users to sign into their sites with credentials from Issuing parties. Of course, sites can also be both. In fact, if they aren’t both it can be confusing and isn’t a good user experience.
All the big guys are now Issuing Parties, which allow their users logging in all over the Internet with those credentials. But none of them accept IDs from anywhere else, so anyone that uses their services has to create new credentials with them. It’s all gain, no pain. There are two exceptions – AOL Mapquest and Google’s Blogger – but for the most part the big guys are issuers, not relying parties. And that has led us in the past to accuse them of exploiting OpenID for their own benefit without giving back to the community. See our post Is OpenID Being Exploited By The Big Internet Companies?
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Short version: An alright set of $99 computer speakers that, while lacking a dedicated subwoofer, do produce good lows as well as good highs. → Read More
Finding and registering an available domain name just became even easier. Now you can do it via Twitter thanks to Tweetname. Founder Philip Kaplan (aka “Pud,” the former CEO and current chairman of AdBrite) argues that Tweetname makes domain purchasing much simpler than going through other domain registrars like GoDaddy, which requires you to actually go its site. In truth, it is not that complicated but Tweetname aims to make domain registering Tweet-simple. You set it up once and then it does all the work for you.
Once you log into Tweetname for the first time, the site uses OAuth to connect to your Twitter account. You fill out your credentials, including name, address, credit card info, billing info and then Tweetname automatically follows you and arranges for you to follow Tweetname.
After this is set up, you can Tweet a potential domain name via a direct message to Tweetname, and Tweetname within seconds will let you know if it is available (“Success!”) or not (“D’oh”), and will purchase and register the domain for you. → Read More
This has been a very exciting year for things-that-could-kill-us. First it was the economy that could kill us all; then it was those Somali pirates who posed a threat to our very way of life; and now we all should fear swine flu. Why should we fear la grippe porcine? Well, it seems to be spreading around the world pretty swiftly, and it’s doing a pretty thorough job of wreaking havoc in Mexico. So, here’s a map! → Read More
Printers are boring! OfficeMax has a color laser printer for $130, though, which is NOT boring since color laser printers normally go for a bajillion dollars. → Read More
Whoa, hey there, looks like not one, but two NFL players are next in line for the dreaded Madden Curse. EA Sports has revealed that both Troy Polamalu and Larry Fitzgerald will appear on the cover of Madden NFL 10, which ships on August 14th this year. → Read More
After heaps of protest, Konami will no longer publish Atomic Games’ Six Days in Fallujah, citing “reaction to the video game in the United State.” Now, Atomic Games could try to find another publisher, but that’s easier said than done. Obviously. → Read More
Sure, it was official this morning. But now it’s real. It looks like someone had a Samsung i7500 tucked away in their pocket, patiently waiting until just after this mornings announcement to share it with the world. Outside of the fact that it’s by no means fingerprint-proof, there’s not much to be gleaned from these shots (obtained by Mobile-Review) that wasn’t announced this morning. From a purely superficial standpoint, we’re diggin’ what we’re seeing so far – but what’s up with the funky continent pattern on the back? → Read More
Ladies and germs, behold the wonders of what’s to come. Someday we will live in a world that is filled with Microsoft Surface-like devices and everything will blend seamlessly together. Our notebooks will become manufacturing facilities and scanners. Shopkeeper’ countertops will be large touchscreens and our desks will be virtual desks. The future, according to Microsoft, will be grand and wonderful.
Watch the two videos after the jump about Microsoft’s vision of XUI – experience user interfaces – to experience the future too. → Read More
