If you’ve been holding off on purchasing your very own chainmail coif because you think chainmail prices have gotten out… of… control, you’ll be delighted to hear that ThinkGeek is selling chainmail coifs starting at $35. → Read More
When Nokia launched its Ovi Store for mobile applications a month ago, it was clear that – despite its less than stellar launch – it would be a mistake to simply dismiss the Finnish mobile juggernaut’s efforts as meaningless. The company may be struggling to stay relevant on the software and services side, but with a reach like Nokia’s on the handset distribution level I think it goes without saying that a lot of eyes are firmly fixed on Nokia’s initiatives in the field. → Read More
Aardvark’s social search service has been allowing beta users to invite friends since March. But if you don’t already know someone on the service, you’ve had to wait in line. That wait ends today, though, at least for Facebook users. You can now create an account via Facebook Connect and start using the service.
The service, which we described a couple of months ago, lets users ask questions of their friends and friends of friends like “What’s the best place to go hiking in Marin?” But it only works well, the company says, when your friends are already on the service. That’s why people who weren’t able to get an invitation from a current user had to wait in line until now:
Aardvark is a way to get quick, quality answers to questions from your extended social network. You can ask questions via an instant message buddy or email. The questions are then farmed out to your contacts (and their contacts) based on what they say they have knowledge of. If you ask taste related questions about music, books, movies, restaurants, etc., they’ll ask people who tend to show similar tastes as you in their profile.
This post is a bit different from the technology news that we generally cover here at TechCrunch. But it’s something that I think needs to be said.
Last night I got word that my parents had witnessed a tragic accident while driving in Northern California. I won’t get into the details, but suffice to say one person was killed and others were left bleeding, in various states of unconsciousness. Thank God my parents were not hurt in the accident, but they witnessed it first hand, as well as the disturbing aftermath.
Immediately after the accident, my parents and other witnesses began trying to dial 9-1-1. Attempt after attempt resulted in a busy signal. This isn’t unusual in the event of an emergency, as multiple dialers often tie up the lines to report the same incident. Except it seems that nobody managed to get through for far too long: emergency personal didn’t arrive for 20 minutes. The first officer to arrive at the scene said it took him two minutes to get there from the time he got the call. Which means that it took approximately 18 minutes for the news to reach him in the first place.
During a conversation with my father following the accident, he said one of the most profound things I’ve heard since I arrived in Silicon Valley: “Why is it that I can pull out my cell phone and call France or browse the Internet whenever I want, but I got a busy signal for 9-1-1 for 20 minutes?” I wish I had an answer for him. → Read More
When Nokia launched its Ovi Store for mobile applications a month ago, it was clear that – despite its less than stellar launch – it would be a mistake to simply dismiss the Finnish mobile juggernaut’s efforts as meaningless. The company may be struggling to stay relevant on the software and services side, but with a reach like Nokia’s on the handset distribution level I think it goes without saying that a lot of eyes are firmly fixed on Nokia’s initiatives in the field.
There was some criticism about the lack of content on the Ovi Store at launch day, particularly because of the fact that a lot of big names were lacking, but I figured I should give it at least a month to see if and how many developers would flock to the platform. Now, I think it’s time to take a look at where they stand after that month, and I thought I’d start by comparing the content offering to that of Apple’s App Store. → Read More
Do venture investors with the biggest and best networks end up producing the best returns? An academic paper from a few years ago by Yael Hochberg, Alexander Ljungqvist, and Yang Lu titled “Whom You Know Matters: Venture Capital Networks and Investment Performance” (embedded at the bottom of this post) suggests that is the case. They looked at historic venture returns and found that “better-networked VC firms experience significantly better fund performance,” as measured by how many of the companies in their portfolios exited via an IPO or acquisition.
A venture firm’s network in the study was defined as being made up of all the other venture firms who co-invested with it in funding rounds. The more co-investors a venture firm has, the better its network. The better its network, the better its overall returns. The correlation between the size of a venture firm’s network and its returns may have something to do with better access to deal flow, talent, advisers, potential customers, and potential exits.
If this is true, then who are the most connected venture firms and angel investors today? Vijay Dondeti, a graduate student in bioinformatics, applied the analysis in the Hochberg paper to about 2,700 investors in CrunchBase who participated in over 3,300 startup funding rounds between 2006 and 2008. He scored each investor based on how well connected they are to other investors as well as how well-connected their co-investors are to other investors. “In summary,” says Dondeti, “to get a high score, you need to co-invest often with others that also co-invest often.”
So which venture investors have the best networks? → Read More
Yesterday we posted about Glam Media contacting Twitter app developers concerning an upcoming ‘Twitter-powered ad network’, and requested more information from CEO Samir Arora as the e-mail we were forwarded by one of the developers was rather scarce on details.
He came through earlier this morning to confirm the accuracy of the scoop, and also provided a statement from his team in order to shed more light on the imminent initiative. As we suggested, the new solution is tied to GlamApps, the company’s application platform. → Read More
An engineer at Microsoft has ballparked the cost of the 16GB ZuneHD at somewhere between $250 and $280 (for reference, a 16GB iPod Touch is $300). That’s a little bit higher than I’d have guessed, but considering OLED screens are still expensive, to say nothing of flash memory, it’s a solid estimate. Trouble is, where are they going to get people to take it for a spin? Apple’s got a great spot for iPod discovery — maybe it’s time for Microsoft to do the same. → Read More
It’s been a while since we last took a look at Swoopo, the “entertainment shopping” site that’s one part auction-house, one part virtual casino. Since launching in late 2008, the site has closed a $10 million funding round led by August Capital, and has grown to over 2 million members. Now, the site has quietly expanded to launch a Canadian portal, and is also beginning to test a ‘buy it now’ function on its German site that allows users to apply the costs of their previous bids towards the purchase of an item.
For those that aren’t familiar with Swoopo, here’s how it works: the site uses a unique pricing model that invites you to purchase virtual “bids” for 75 cents, which can then be used to bid on goods ranging from video games to high-end televisions. Whenever you bid on an item, its price increases by fifteen cents and an extra 20 seconds are tacked on to the duration of the auction. Oftentimes items wind up selling substantially below their market value, but this lower price comes with some risk: if you bid on an item, you don’t get that 75 cent bid back when the auction concludes. → Read More
There are more than 10,000 games on the App Store, according to Apptism. That’s 20% of all apps released on the store: how the hell do you decide which one to buy? We can’t help you there, but we can keep serving you up reviews of recently released games so you can decide for yourself. We spent the week fumbling around with 5 of them: Tradewinds 2, Castle Of Magic, Archon, Jungle Bloxx, and Pocket Gold. Read on for our impressions → Read More
While a nice, toasted brown color signalizes a perfectly done marshmallow to yours truly, it’s a bit alarming when it’s streaked across the back of an iPhone 3GS. Now, we knew that the 3G could get pretty warm, and would even warn you when it was getting dangerous.
But the 3GS appears to have a different strategy: let it get so hot that it burns the paint. → Read More
There’s some buzz right now about the iPhone 3G S and other phones being capable of 720p recording, or perhaps even 1080p if they use the newest sensors. Wow! The future is here! 720p video built right into your phone! But here’s the thing: would you rather have HD video recording implemented very badly, as it must be with the limitations of mobile phones, or would you rather not have it at all and have space for more battery or RAM? Because there’s no way that video is going to be watchable, except as a low-bandwidth stream, and if that’s your idea of 720p… I feel sorry for you. → Read More
It’s raining for perhaps the 900th day in a row here, so we might as we learn something while we’re all stuck inside all day illegally downloading Michael Jackson songs. The Amazon Kindle—I’m sure you’ve heard of it. What you might not know is that it represents perhaps the last piece of tech gadgetry that I actually enjoy. Well, would enjoy—at $350, it’s still a tad expensive for me. In any event, Fast Company has a fun cover story this month, written by an old professor of mine, about how Amazon is trying so, so hard to make e-books the new hot thing, just like how Apple did a few years ago with digital music downloads. → Read More
Apparently there is a single guy who is intimately acquainted with the internal doings of both Microsoft and Sony. Double agent? Contractor? Seducer? Nobody knows but Ars Technica, who enjoy exclusive access to his oracular expectorations. Er, his tech predictions.
It looks like both the PS3 and 360 are due for a price drop, via the Tetris effect, which I have just now invented. It’s where products are stacked on top of each other, and once you score on the bottom, that row of products disappears and is replaced by the one above it. Apple does it year after year with the iPhone, and now it looks like console makers are about to do it again as well. → Read More
Well how do you like that? It seems Sony was in town here in New York showing off the PSP Go. (I refuse to use that dumb exclamation point anymore.) Of course, CrunchGear wasn’t invited to play with it, to my knowledge, but let’s not complain about that today, on this very sad day for us all. Anyway, Cnet got to play with the device, and put together this snazzy video. Let’s watch it! → Read More
As we wrote about a couple weeks ago, Someecards, makers of hilarious online greeting cards, are delving into doing video cards. The first batch are now online. And yes, they’re quite good.
The cards feature the same solid color backgrounds that are distinct on Someecards, but rather than black and white drawings, they have actors acting out short video skits. The first ones feature comedians Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter, who are promoting their new Comedy Central show, Michael & Michael. → Read More
UK tech site T3 is doing its yearly gadget awards, powered by votes, and I think we need to make our presence felt. CG readers are a hardy bunch, kind of like techno-Vikings, and it is our prerogative to make sure our opinions are reflected in any and every online poll and discussion — especially British ones. → Read More
You guessed correctly (I assume)! It’s a lightsaber. Well, let’s be honest: it’s a glowing rod that projects from the end of your Wiimote and makes lightsaber noises. And, geniuses that they are, the makers decided to make sure this thing didn’t support the MotionPlus add-on. Sure, the game they’re going to bundle it with (Republic Heroes) doesn’t support it either, but come on, just make the bottom end extend a little more. → Read More
