Got an old sack o’ crap laptop or desktop gathering dust? Sugar Labs has just made its OLPC-friendly “Sugar” operating system into a USB-bootable version called Sugar on a Stick. You’ll need a one-gigabyte thumb drive and about twenty minutes of spare time. → Read More
A few speed tests done on the new iPhone 3GS pitting it both against the old iPhone as well as its main rivals. So far, these have either been eyeball tests or page rendering/boot time tests that take a bunch of variables into account. Mobile analytics and advertising company Medialets has released numbers for a test that it considers to be the most direct line of comparison for the iPhone 3GS against the iPhone 3G, the Palm Pre and the Android G1. And once again, the 3GS blows everyone away.
In Medialets test, they are specifically testing WebKit JavaScript performance. This makes sense since all these devices have a WebKit-based browser. WebKit offers a JavaScript test suite, SunSpider, which is used to determine the results. And just to make clear how fast the iPhone 3GS’ JavaScript speed is, Medialets set a 2GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook as the baseline.
Compared to the MacBook, the iPhone 3G running the iPhone OS 2.2.1 software had JavaScript performance that was 96 times worse. Meanwhile, an iPhone 3G running the iPhone 3.0 software was on 36 times worse. A T-Mobile G1 running the new Android 1.5 “Cupcake” software was 67 times worse than the baseline. And the Palm Pre was 36 times worse, equalling the iPhone 3G running the 3.0 software. So how did the iPhone 3GS do? It’s performance was only 12 times worse that of the MacBook — three times better than the Pre.
That’s pretty incredible when you think about it. Sure, this is only a JavaScript test, and hardly indicative of everything you can do on the device, but JavaScript is an integral part of the web, and sites continue to use it more and more as websites get more robust. And the rate of improvement that the iPhone is seeing in performance in that regards means that soon we could see a mobile device that handles the web just as fast as an actual computer. → Read More
Oh, look, another limited edition Leica that none of you will ever be able to afford. (I’ll never afford one either, so don’t despair.) It’s the result of some sort of partnership between Leica and Hermès. (Fun fact: Hermès makes a cologne I use. I hope that gets picked up by Techmeme.) → Read More
Phase 4 has launched. Last week we told you about Facebook’s new “everyone button” that lets users who have chosen to keep their profiles at least partially private send the occasional status message or other content out to the public. That feature, which goes hand-in-hand with the recent search engine for public status messages, launched today to a small number of users.
Don’t be fooled by what appears to be a minor change in the user interface. This is another indication of Facebook’s extreme desire to get users to make as much of their data public as possible. Just like Twitter.
This new version of Publisher lets users add content such as photos, videos, and status updates on your home page and profile. Each piece of content can be shared with everyone, friends and networks, friends of friends and friends. Users can also customize the settings further.
You can now control who you want to inform of your Facebook friends when you add any kind of content to the site. This is actually a much welcomes feature—I think its helpful to be able to control who sees different types of content that you publish to the site. On the other hand, Facebook also lets you publish to “everyone,” which lets you make updates visible to anyone (including Google).
Here’s how it works: After writing a status, uploading a photo or creating other content from the Publisher, use the lock icon in the lower-right corner of the Publisher to access the drop-down menu. From there, you can then choose to make the post visible to everyone, friends and certain networks, friends of friends, and a custom list. → Read More
The killer features of FriendFeed continue. Today, the service has just added a way to share files on the service. So now it’s just as easy to share a PDF or text file as it is to share a picture. “You can attach (almost) any file to your FriendFeed posts via the web interface or by emailing file attachments to share@friendfeed.com,” FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor says.
And what’s really great about this is that using FriendFeed direct messaging aspect, you can easily transfer files to certain individuals, or groups of people at the same time. → Read More
It’s hard to believe that anything other than the Logitech MX Revolution could be comfortable in the hand. While I doubt that Belkin is going after that particular mouse they are touting a trio of mice that were designed to “place your hand in the optimum position for working in comfort.” → Read More
HTC may have won the morning, but SanDisk also dropped a bit of news that may interest you. Its got a 32GB SDHC cards, which is due for release this August, that is said to be the world’s fastest, with speeds topping out at 30MB/s. → Read More
LinkedIn had a management shakeup last December – CEO Dan Nye stepped down. Founding CEO Reid Hoffman stepped in again and former Yahoo exec Jeff Weiner joined the company as President.
The hiring of Weiner as President was clearly an interim move, and we predicted he’d move into the CEO role sometime this year: “The addition of Weiner is also quirky, and may explain the changes. Weiner was likely expecting a CEO role as his next job. He’s now second to Hoffman. Perhaps the company is using the interim period to see how he can handle himself leading the company. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Weiner take the CEO job at LinkedIn sometime in 2009, or else leave the company.” It turns out that is exactly what happened.
LinkedIn continues to roll. They are the fifth most valuable social network according to our recent model. The site attracts over 15 million monthly unique visitors (Comscore worldwide, April 2009), up from less than 7 million a year ago, and has 42 million registered profiles. They’ve been ebitda profitable since last year and say they plan to be cash flow positive this year. In February, Hoffman told me “We can go public any time we want to.”
And Weiner agrees, telling me today that their current plan to to build an independent public company, with three key revenue sources: premium subscriptions, corporate solutions and advertising. To date the company has raised over $100 million. The last round, a year ago, valued the company at just over $1 billion. → Read More
I was out for my evening constitutional last night, enjoying the sight of “For Sale” signs on homes throughout my neighborhood, when I spied with my little eye something new and novel. I’ve seen URLs on For Sale signs a couple of times, and always thought that that was a fine way to attract eyeballs to your property. Let’s face it: trawling though MLS listings sucks, so going directly to a property’s URL is a time saver! What I saw last night, though, was even better: a URL specifically geared for mobile phones. “Mobile users, go to prtmobile.com/1908″. → Read More
I blogged Leopard, a robotic office chair, last November when it still was in prototype status. Now, more than half a year later, the chair finally went on sale in Japan. And it might find its way outside this country as well, as both Japanese companies involved in the development of the chair, office equipment maker Oki and furniture company Okamura, are active overseas. → Read More
Google is moving into the mobile ad market with AdSense for mobile apps. Over the past few months, Google has been testing both text and graphical ads with ten mobile app developers, including Shazam and Urbanspoon. Today it is opening the private beta to more developers who meet certain criteria.
These are contextual ads for iPhone and Android apps. To qualify for the public beta, the apps must be free and generate at least 100,000 pageviews per day. The program is only for iPhone or Android apps. Developers must be ready to go live with the ads in four weeks and participate for three months. → Read More
Woot! is selling a refurbished Slingbox SOLO (why do companies insist on capitalizing words for no reason) for $99.99 plus $5 for shipping. This same unit, new, sells for well over $150 elsewhere. → Read More
Got HTC Hero overload yet? Well, here’s the official demo video of HTC’s latest. Enjoy. → Read More
We have now opened voting in The Europas, the tech innovation awards from TechCrunch Europe honouring the best tech companies and startups across the web and mobile scene from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We’ll hold the awards ceremony in London on July 9 for 300 people: you can get a ticket here. There is more information about the awards here.
You can now vote for the nominated companies and personalities from the industry. You can only vote once for one entrant, so make it count. Your vote will be counted towards nominating the five finalists in each category. Voting will close on Wednesday June 2, next week. Thanks to Polldaddy for this voting mechanism. Now go vote now! → Read More
The microstock photography business is growing out of nothing. The leader in the market, iStockphoto, is projecting $200 million in revenues this year. When iStockphoto was bought by Getty Images February, 2006 for $50 million, its revenues that for year were about $23 million, according to COO Kelly Thompson. In 2007, revenues were $72 million, and the company never disclosed 2008 revenues. (Update: Thompson says 2008 revenues were around $150 million). Thompson says iStockPhoto has been profitable since before the acquisition and now represents a “significant chunk” of . (Getty Images is owned by the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman and does not break out revenues formally via audited statements).
The demand for affordable images for use on Websites and in print is catching on and iStockphoto is the main beneficiary. It sells a photo, illustration, or video every second, and pays out $1.2 million a week to the photographers and artists who upload images to the site. There are nearly 80,000 artists in total represented on the site and 5 million images. “Definitely the print side is declining and we are seeing lots of Web usage,” reports Thompson. → Read More
Way back when 2009 was still somewhat fresh, Nokia’s CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo dropped the news that the world’s favorite Finnish handset maker was getting into the laptop biz. With a bit of algebra, logic, and other voodoo, we figured that what he actually meant was netbooks. Some commenters called us crazy, citing a weak economy and low-margins. Turns out, we were right. → Read More
Whenever I tell someone the countries I’m hitting for my new book, they start out nodding, then the nodding slows, then they just get confused. “China, India, Brazil, Israel and…Rwanda.” Then there’s the inevitable question: “Rwanda? Is there even any technology in Rwanda?” Sometimes I even get asked if I have to stay in a tent when I go there.
The answer to the second question is no. There are plenty of hotels, and I don’t do tents unless they have outlets and wifi.
The answer to the tech question two fold. First: Despite the last decade of covering nothing but tech, I actually consider myself more of a reporter who covers entrepreneurs. It just so happens that’s normally correlated with technology, especially in the U.S. But increasingly some of the best opportunities to build the next great billion-dollar company even in markets like India and China are more tech-enabled service and product businesses than classic high-tech plays. And really, are Web businesses even about the sheer technology anymore these days?
Second: Yes, there is technology in Rwanda. And there will be more in the next few years. Rwanda is emerging as an interesting test case on how a digital divide is actually being bridged in a methodical, well-thought-out, step-by-step manner. → Read More
Panasonic’s Toughbooks have legendary strength but I doubt any of us ever considered them tough enough to survive a white tiger or Asian elephant. I didn’t. The last “durable notebook” I tested failed with a 4 foot drop. But the Panasonic Toughbook that Forbes tested took a .22 bullet and still booted after being used as a chew toy. Impressive. → Read More
There have been questions as to whether iPhone developers can make significant revenue from ads on the iPhone, mainly because the supply of advertisers can’t keep up with the demand for iPhone apps. Others say that developers actually can make quite a bit from ads on free apps. Mobile game advertising network Greystripe is in that camp and it is launching a new CPM Protection Program designed to guarantee ad revenue to iPhone app developers.
Greystripe says that the various mobile ad networks, including competitor AdMob, are undercutting each others’ CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) when competing for advertising dollars, thus leaving iPhone app developers with lower CPMs overall. Greystripe’s CPM Protection Program offers to beat any other ad networks’ eCPM by at least 25% for 60 days. → Read More
