The Interweb is a tizzy over the 3GS unlock/jailbreak and the Dev Teams decision not to release it until there is a new firmware update immanent. Why would they do this? Well, if they release now, Apple can close the hole with the new release, something they’d be loathe to do if the unlock happened closer to launch. While this isn’t very nice, it’s amazingly practical and forward thinking. → Read More
If you haven’t purchased Guitar Hero World Tour by now, chances are you never will. Undeterred by your steadfast determination to not purchase the game, Amazon is selling the full band kit on all systems for $89.98 with free shipping. → Read More
Facebook has just named former Genentech Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman as its new CFO. The news comes three months after Facebook ousted Gideon Yu from the position, citing at the time its desire to find someone with “public company experience” (which was bizarre given the fact that Yu had public company experience).
At the time of Yu’s departure there was speculation that he had been unable to secure investments at the company’s lofty $15 billion valuation established by the Microsoft deal, and that the company was considering an early IPO. Since then, things have changed: Facebook just raised a $200 million investment from Russian firm DST at a $10 billion valuation, which means it has plenty of money to keep its server farms churning and keeping pace with the site’s staggering growth. → Read More
If you were reading a major paper this weekend, you’d notice a striking ad. There’s the Palm Pre resting against an apple core with the words:
The Palm Pre does things the iPhone can’t. Run multiple applications at the same time with real-time updates and even save $1200 over two years. It’s the perfect time to join the Now Network, America’s most trusted 3G network, bringing you the first and only 4G network from a national carrier.
The real call to action was to iPhone users with lapsed contracts – presumably iPhone users who bought the original iPhone two years ago and never upgraded to the 3G – a cohort that I suspect consists of perhaps five Palm engineers and maybe our tech-savvy grandparents. It’s a small number, friends. A small number. → Read More
We’ve been excited about Nvidia’s Tegra chipset making its way to mobile handsets for as long as they’ve been showing off their prototypes – which, to be clear, is quite a while. They’ve managed to jam a beast of a computer down into a itty-bitty chip and sink the power requirements down to less than one watt, all while keeping the thing cheap. In other words, straight ridiculous computing power (games, HD video output) on a handset that lasts, as Nvidia puts it, “days and days”. We’d heard whispers from Nvidia’s crew back at CES that this thing ought to make its mobile debut in Q4, but we had a hard time getting an official statement on the matter. Looks like it has become a sure thing since: in an interview with The Street, Nvidia’s GM of mobile Mike Rayfield fessed up that one of the big five manufacturers should launch a Tegra phone by the end of this year. We aren’t going to take a stab at which of the big five we’re talking about here, but we can make educated guesses as to which platform it’ll run. Last we heard, Tegra played friendly with Windows CE Embedded, Windows Mobile, and Android. If you see us around, pardon the shade of blue that has conquered our faces; we’re not going to stop holding our breath until we get a Samsung-made, Android-based Tegra phone. UPDATE: Looks like our own Peter Ha of CrunchGear nailed out this information in an interview with Nvidia last week. Not only that, but he took it one step further, getting pricing/carrier information; expect Tegra phones to launch in Q4 on AT&T/T-Mobile for right around the $199 price point. → Read More
NEW ROTATION STYLE! MAGIC RUBIK SHAPE BREAKTHROUGH IQ RUMBIK GAME REGGULAR SQUARE CUBE!
The Irregular Magic IQ Cube, the new rotation style, the new format in each face, the new Rubik shape! It is a Break-through of the Traditional IQ Rubik game that is Good Training for your Brain IQ & EQ!! If you are still struggling with the traditional Rubik, just try this new Brain Training Cube. See whether you can make it from an 3D Irregular Geometric Item to be a Regular 3D Square Cube.
The Mole, as Ars affectionately refers to its gaming industry insider, has once again struck with a ‘rumor’ detailing Microsoft and Sony’s plans for their respective consoles this year. In case you’re super busy this Monday morning, I’ll break it down for you real quick. Expect to see bigger hard drives in the Xbox 360 and a slimmed down version of the PS3. → Read More
A lot of people know that hunger is a major problem in Africa, but few people ever think about it, let alone do anything about it. One Twitter account claims to be trying to spread the message with the use of very straight-forward tweets pretending to be from a starving African.
The tweets range from “hungry,” to “really, really hungry,” to “belly. distending,” and variations on those. Whoever is in charge the the account writes in its bio, “Social commentary illuminating the startling gap between the haves and the have nots.” But is this just poor taste? Apparently the 300-some people that follow the account don’t think so. → Read More
CrunchGear, at the movies! Peter’s been talking pretty much non-stop about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for the past few days, and it brings me great joy to say that, despite the horrendous reviews—this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever read—it’s well on its way to becoming the worst reviewed $400 million movie ever. The movie has been in theaters for five days now and it’s already halfway to the $400 million mark. → Read More
Are you into our President? Prove it by carrying this Obama 2GB flash drive from Active Media Products. You’d be pretty hard-pressed to say that this was anything other than a cynical marketing ploy, but whatevs, it’s the POTUS! → Read More
I don’t typically cover apps or widgets that send e-coupons to my cellular phone very often or at all, but I kind of dig the Green Perks app from T-Mobile. It’s the Oregonian in me, I swear. So, what is Green Perks and why should I download it onto my T-Mobile device? That’s what you’re asking yourself, right? Well, it’s meant to send e-coupons from Green Perks partners who offer environmentally conscious products and/or services. Said partners include Method, Jamba Juice, Volcom, Roxy and Quiksilver. Quiksilver, for example, has a collection of Eco Friendly threads. Volcom also carries a line of 100 percent organic cotton duds under the V-Co.logical collection. So, yeah, those coupons might come in handy if you’re out shopping as they’re the POS type. Green Perks is just another facet in the Mobilize initiative from T-Mobile to help their customers be a little more green and eco-friendly. Check it out at T-Mobile Mobilize. → Read More
Dutch mobile startup Nimbuzz is to be preinstalled by O2 Germany, initially on the Toshiba TG01 handset. The application can be set to be “always on”. It’s significant that a Tier 1 global operator has chosen to do this, though terms of the deal were not disclosed. We’ll check if Nimbuzz is paying O2 to go on the handset or if O2 is paying Nimbuzz for the app. StudiVZ, Germany’s most popular social network, is pre-integrated into the app. Nimbuzz is the application that allows mobile chat with the largest German speaking social network StudiVZ (15 million users). Nimbuzz claims 900,000+ sign-ups per month and now operates in 200 countries. It recently partnered with Voxbone to allow users make voice calls without 3G or Wi-Fi connectivity to their contacts over IM and VOIP services, including Skype, by sensing when the handset is out of Wi-Fi or 3G range. iPhone will still have to wait for the 3.0 release of the app. Here’s a video of how it works on the handset. → Read More
Looks like Samsung’s getting into the 11.6-inch netbook game with the upcoming N510. An 11.6-inch screen means a 1366×768 resolution, which in turn means that the machine ought to be able to play HD content, which in turn (in turn) means it’s going to need some extra oomph. And it’ll get just that by using the NVIDIA Ion platform. → Read More
Social Whale is a brand new startup company from Greece which aims to extend Twitter’s abilities by introducing some new digg-like features on the famous microblogging service. At this point, Social Whale is only available as a web based client, however the company’s future plans include also the release of a client based application. Social Whale is build based on Twitter’s layout, which means that it has a clean and familiar interface. Arguably, the most unique feature of the application is the digg-like voting system which appears on the left side of the timeline stream. The user can actually categorize and vote every tweet he thinks is valuable enough, while he can create or join a group which about a specific topic, such as Social Media or Business. When it comes to posting new tweets, Social Whale provides a build in spell check in both English and Greek. Moreover, just like -almost- every other Twitter client it will do image uploading, url shorting and auto refreshing. TCE has 40 invites to give away to you for the private beta period of Social Whale. To get one, leave us a comment below including your Twitter Username. → Read More
Over the weekend, YouTube launched a new channel dubbed Reporters’ Center, which it hopes will prove to be a good way to educate existing and aspiring citizen journalists on how to report news in ‘the digital age’. The new resource will feature a host of top journalists and media experts sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting.
So far, there are 34 videos uploaded to the channel, featuring people like Facebook Marketing Director Randi Zuckerberg providing 8 tips on how to maximize distribution of your YouTube video on the social network her brother famously co-created. → Read More
Formerly known as iSwing, Toyota‘s single-seat personal mobility cars gained worldwide attention back in 2005 when TIME magazine called it one of the ”coolest inventions” of that year. But now Toyota has decided to update the vehicle (by reworking the 4-wheel car into a 3-wheel “chair”), give it a new name (i-Real) and let the Central Japan International Airport near Nagoya test a total of four units on a daily basis. → Read More
In a move that should have been done years ago, the top mobile phone suppliers of Europe have all signed an agreement that micro-USB will be the standard phone charging port. Soon consumers will not have to fret over charging cables as all the phones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Motorola, RIM, Samsung, Texas Instruments, and even Apple sold in Europe will all charge via micro-USB. We’re just curious if Apple is going to finally retire the Dock Connector from the iPhone or produce some sort of micro-USB adapter to comply with this agreement. → Read More
Vodafone, the world’s largest cellular operator, is thinking about buying T-Mobile UK, making the giant even bigger. The plan is under scrutiny right now as it would essentially create a massive Euro-monopoly on the cellular front. Vodafone declined to comment. But people familiar with the situation said the company was examining the case for making an offer for T-Mobile UK, or setting up a joint venture. In February, Vodafone and Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong conglomerate, announced plans to combine their Australian mobile businesses. → Read More
Not only does Google want to organize all the world’s information, it also wants to make all that information available to everyone in the world. For the majority of the world’s population, that means making it available on a cell phone, and not a fancy iPhone or Android with a Web browser either. I’m talking about $10 cell phones with not much more than voice and SMS capabilities. If Google can reach people, especially in developing nations, with SMS, it can reach everyone with a cell phone.
In Africa, it is launching a suite of SMS services today, including SMS search, Q&A-style tips, and an SMS-based marketplace. The first country to get these services is Uganda. → Read More
