This NES-inspired mouse could probably be the hot-selling Wii of the mouse world if Nintendo ever decided to produce such a thing. I would buy one and you would buy one. Repeat that process until there’s a three-year supply shortage and, boom, the NES Mouse is what all the kids want, ladies and gentlemen. → Read More
Yesterday, we talked a bit about how some companies are clearly trying to capitalize on the Swine Flu craze that is sweeping the nation. Naturally, someone just had to make an iPhone app.
And the winner is IntuApps, which has Swine Flu Tracker, waiting for approval from Apple before it’s released into the App Store. IntuApps’ Barry Schwartz, who is also a blogger, sent along some screenshots of the app. In it, you can see the current Threat Level for the disease, a map showing confirmed and suspected cases, a symptoms area to inform people, and an alert page for breaking news on Swine Flu. → Read More
Game on! Cablevision, a cable company that serves the suburbs of New York City, and whose ISP, OptimumOnline, I use, recently announced that it will offer the fastest broadband in America starting next month. Speeds will top out at 101 megabits per second down, 15 megabits per second up. (That translates to around 12.6 megabytes per second down, 1.8 megabytes per second up. BitTorrent seeding just got a whole lot easier. I mean, what else would you use these speeds for?) But you know who’s not too pleased about this? Verizon, what’s with its competing FiOS service. In fact, Verizon is calling Cablevision’s plan a “parlor trick.” I do believe Verizon is stylin’ on Cablevision. → Read More
Oh man. You better have nothing planned for the next hour, ’cause this photo is addicting. Gigapixel Photography Inc. composed this 1,000,000,000 pixel image and uploaded it to a web service that allows users to zoom and navigate around. I wonder if all the residents of those apartment buildings, including the building in the middle with the chick halfway up, signed a waiver allowing us freaks peeping-tom access into their lives. → Read More
Millward Brown, a subsidiary of the WPP, has come out with its annual list and report, BrandZ, that ranks the most valuable brands in the world. Unsurprisingly, Google tops the list for the third year in a row, with the Google brand valued at $100 billion, rising 16% in value over the past year from $86 billion. Microsoft comes in second, with its brand valued at $76.2 billion, only rising 8% in value over the past year. Last summer, Google had the no. 2 reputation in the world, according to The Reputation Index, and Microsoft didn’t even break into the top 40 (the company was ranked #43 in terms of reputation). In last year’s BrandZ rankings, Microsoft was third on the list behind General Electric, so the company has inched a little closer to Google. → Read More
Here is something cool from Japan for the many vinyl fans still out there: A portable turntable for your old records [JP]. The device, made by a Tokyo-based music and DJ equipment maker called Vestax, not only plays your records but also digitizes them. → Read More
This list is in. Time has released its annual Time 100 list, honoring the most influential people in the world. There are a lot of interesting names including Sarah Palin and President Obama, but let’s focus on the names from the tech sphere.
Moot (the creator of 4chan), Jeff Bezos, The Twitter Guys, Sam & Dan Houser, Jack Ma, Robin Chase, Nathaniel Silver, Nandan Nilekani, and Shai Agassi have all be included. And some of their write-ups are really interesting because of their authors. For example, Moot is written up by the man perhaps now best known for being the “Rick” in the “Rick Roll”, Rick Astley. The “Twitter Guys” (founders Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey) are written up by Ashton Kutcher, the first Twitter users with a million followers. And Jeff Bezos is written up by Bill Gates. → Read More
It looks like all it took for details of Palm’s post-Pre phone to begin spilling out was for us to break the news of it yesterday. Just hours after, a blurry shot of the handset was out. Now, before the next day is even half way over, a decent shot and a full list of purported specs have made their way out. We’re getting conflicting reports of what this thing is codenamed. Some are calling it “Pixie”, while others are calling it “Castle”. As for it’s official name, it’s currently believed to be called the “Palm EOS”, which seems like a horrible name compared to “Palm Pre”. Looking like the oh-so-gorgeous offspring of a Centro and a Pre, all we know is that we’re aching to touch it. Engadget managed to obtain the shot above, along with these purported specs: Dimensions: 10.6x55x111mm Weight: 100 grams 2.63″, 320×400 capacitive touch screen 4GB of internal memory Tentative price of $349 before rebates. Our sources are indicating that the target price point is $99 after all is said and done. 2MP camera, fixed focus, with flash Bluetooth 2.1 w/ A2DP and EDR, USB 2.0 via micro USB 1150mAh battery, removable SMS, MMS, built-in IM client A-GPS WAV, MP3, AAC, AAC+ ringtones, MPEG4, H.264, H.263 video playback. All signs and sources point at this one heading to AT&T. That’s good news for AT&T customers not looking to switch to Sprint just for webOS/Pre – but bad news for Sprint, who was likely counting on just that. CrunchBase Information Palm Palm Pre Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Many of us have been saying it for a long time: location based services are the future. But up until now they’ve been a distant, hazy future, because they’ve been so difficult to use. That’s going to change soon, and it looks like Google is going to be leading the way.
Google has just announced that it has become the default location provider service in Firefox, which means beginning in the latest Firefox Beta (available here) users will be able to update their location from their web browser without having to install an extra plugins or programs through Google. This is big. → Read More
We’ve got more information on the upcoming Palm WebOS device to debut later this year. We broke the news yesterday of its existence. Now we’ve got the internal name for the project: Pixie.
The Pixie will use the same operating system and software as the Palm Pre, but in a smaller candy-bar form factor and a target $99 price point. It will be released only a few months after the Pre in June, so this isn’t an upgrade device. It’s targeted at the lower end of the market.
Yesterday we didn’t know if the device would have a fixed physical keyboard. Today we’ve confirmed that it does. Physically the device will resemble the existing Palm Centro line of phones, but the hardware and software is a clean wipe. The Pixie is the Pre’s little brother. → Read More
After four long months,the Android v1.5 “Cupcake” update has finally been made available to the masses in the UK and USA. As April 29th came to a close, the first reports of update notifications came trickling in, and they’ve continued throughout the morning. As usual, it’s not hitting every handset at the same time. Don’t panic if you’ve yet to see the prompt – you’ll probably see it within a day or two, tops. This one’s a big one, so look forward to some exploration. You’ll have video recording, stereo bluetooth, onscreen keyboards, live folders, new widgets, a brushed up browser, and a slew of performance upgrades and bug fixes to check out. Be sure to drop a comment and let us know when it hits your handset! (Our favorite part: Though “Cupcake” was originally just an internal moniker for the development branch, the name has become official enough that it’s in the update notification.) [via Phandroid] → Read More
Today Aroxo launches an ambitious play, aiming to create a brand new space in between online retailing and the auction model – specifically targeting eBay. This is, put simply, the thousands of years old process of buyers and sellers haggling over price put into an online model. But there is more to it that that, since it also brings pre-qualified leads to sellers who want to offload inventory quickly. And unlike the group-buying models of old, it can dish out instant sales. Unlike on Priceline, buyers can negotiate the price and aren’t initially committed to a purchase. It can be an anonymous disposal system for the supplier, or they can brand the hell out of it with their logo, the works. It’s the sort of site that could well appeal to recession-hit retailers and backyard eBay businesses. → Read More
In a few hours, Facebook will roll out changes to one of its main areas, “Friends,” designed to make it easier and more obvious as to how to add friends, make Friend Lists and edit those lists. This is important as filtering is a key part of the newly redesigned homepage, and up until now it’s been a bit confusing for some users as to how to create these lists.
The specific changes to the area involve moving “Create New List,” “Edit List,” and “Delete List” buttons to the top of the area above your list of friends. Clicking on the Create New List button will open an overlay that allows you to click on friends’ faces to add them to this new list. You can also type in their name and have them show up. Editing an existing friend list is just as easy. → Read More
Take this Internet rumor as you would any other Internet rumor. According to an everythingpre.com tipster though, a UPS plane is current enroute to the companies main hub in Louisville, KY with a shipment of Palm Pre cell phones. → Read More
Viximo, which provides a platform for the creation, distribution, and monetization of virtual goods for social networks and mobile devices, has secured $5 million in a round of funding from North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners. Former CEO Rob Frasca has been replaced by acting CEO Dayna Grayson, who works at North Bridge Venture Partners. → Read More
In case you hadn’t heard, Ikea is on the solar bandwagon. After pumping $75 million into various environmentally-sustainable initiatives, we’re starting to see products trickle out. Aside from solar-powered garden lights — which have actually been availalbe from numerous companies for a while — you can also pick up a $20 solar desk lamp. → Read More
The latest 2009 JD Power Consumer Smartphone Satisfaction Study numbers are in. And the winner is … the iPhone. Apple’s device nearly swept every category, with top marks in operating system, features, ease of operation, physical design and overall satisfaction. In fact, the only device it didn’t receive the highest marks in was “battery aspects.”
Looking at the chart, all of Apple’s rivals in the smartphone field were middling. HTC, Motorola, Palm, RIM and Samsung had mostly 2 or 3 stars across the board where Apple had 5. LG faired second best with 4 stars across the board expect for operating system, where it got 3. → Read More
Those of you holding out for a rugged touchscreen netbook/tablet might want to ask your kids where to find one. This PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop actually looks halfway intriguing. → Read More
Amazon’s Personal Document Service has mainatined a $.10 fee for every document transfered via Whispernet since the device was launched, but the service will now cost at least 50% more. Starting May 4th, Amazon will charge $.15 per megebyte rounded up to the nearest whole megabyte for each document transfered. Basicaly, the base fee will soon be $.15 and it goes up from there. It’s not all sour grapes though. → Read More
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