There’s nothing truly special about the Eee Keyboard beyond the fact that Asus did it first. Sure, it took some fancy configuring to get the PCBs, RAM and everything in there, but if you were a dedicated DIY computer guy, you could do something similar. And this guy did — no touchscreen, no wireless HDMI, and it’s not as fast, but hey, it’s a computer in a keyboard! → Read More
Remember that quote from Sony’s CEO about not lowering the price of the PS3 because they’d lose money on every one? Not exactly the truth. In fact, since the statement was made just a few weeks ago, it actually seems that the man was telling an outrageous lie.
I mean sure, when it was introduced almost three years ago, it cost a bundle, but according to new Sony statements, manufacturing costs gone down by nearly three quarters since then. And yet the cost to you hasn’t changed! Weird. → Read More
On Tuesday next week, along with a few other journalists and bloggers, I’ll be visiting SpinVox HQ in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. SpinVox will be demonstrating their technology to us and they will be taking questions about the recent scandal surrounding the company’s speech-to-text technology. Here’s the invitation I received from them today: How Does SpinVox Convert Voice to Text? I know you are interested in finding out more about how the SpinVox Voice Message Conversion System (VMCS) converts millions of voice messages to text, so I am pleased to invite you to our Marlow Headquarters for a technical briefing where you will see the VMCS in action and get to try it for yourself. → Read More
Asus dropped word last week that they would be coming out with the world’s first USB 3.0-capable mobo, and I was itching to make it the basis for my next PC. But then Asus had to go and spoil my dreams by cancelling the P6X58… and why was that again?
Not for any particularly interesting reasons.
God, thanks for clearing that up, Asus! → Read More
Bethesda’s third-person shooter, WET, is slated for a September 15 launch on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It’s voiced over by the lovely Eliza Dushku, if that makes a difference to you. On a mission to find the man that left you for dead, you’ll master the controls that will allow you to create the most incredible fight sequences – limited only by your own imagination. Once you are able to chain together a number of moves, including sliding down ladders, running on walls, jumping and flipping, you will be rewarded with auto-lock and slow motion advantages. Featuring the perfect mix of humor and violence, WET is a third-person shooter experience unlike any other. WET → Read More
It doesn’t look like much, but if it does its job right, and you really love to speed, it may pay for itself after a few close calls with the Highway Patrol. I was just on a road trip and the radar detector we had was not entirely reliable — but for less than $30, you can’t expect too much. This thing, though, is supposed to detect potentially harmful police radiations up to 13 miles away. → Read More
My, how the tables have turned. Earlier this week, we learned that Apple had suddenly begun to pull third party iPhone applications for Google Voice, citing the unconvincing rationale that they “duplicated” some of the iPhone’s functionality. We then broke the news that Apple had also rejected Google’s own official Google Voice application submitted six weeks prior, sparking a din of complaints from developers and users alike over the arbitrary and possibly anti-competitive restrictions being imposed by Apple. AT&T, too, has been a target of frequent criticism as many of us believe it may have also played a part in the decision. Of course, nobody really knows who is to blame — AT&T has hinted that it was ultimately Apple’s decision, and Apple continues to remain mute on the issue. But now we may get our answers: the Dow Jones newswire reports that The Federal Communications Commission is looking into Apple’s rejection of Google Voice, and has sent letters to AT&T, Apple, and Google to find out what’s going on. We’ve obtained copies of the letters and reprinted them below. → Read More
Years from now, people will look back on the year 2009 as the year A) Apple lost the goodwill of a sizable chunk of the Internet audience; and B) when a high school kid sued Amazon because it remotely deleted an illegal copy of 1984. The kid is suing because he annotated the copy of the book, and now is without said notes. So of course, sue right? → Read More
Facebook’s legal woes just won’t stop coming. Last November a company called Leader Technologies, which makes business communcation tools, filed suit against Facebook alleging that the social network had infringed on a patent that “relates to a method and system for the management and storage of electronic information.” The case is still ongoing, and it sounds like it has some legs — earlier this week Facebook was ordered by a Magistrate Judge from the District of Delaware’s District Court to give Leader Technologies access to its entire source code. As reported at Law360, Facebook has until the end of this week to hand over a hierarchical map of the source, and has until August 21st to share its entire codebase with the company.
Of course, Facebook is going to fight tooth and nail against this, and is sure to appeal the ruling.
Facebook has given us the following statement regarding the case:
While we respect the magistrate judge’s opinion, we disagree with it on this point and plan to appeal. Generally, this suit is without merit and we will continue to fight it aggressively.
Image search is an area of intense competition between Google, Yahoo, and now Bing. Today, Google Images added some search options to make it easier to filter a search by color, type (face, photo, clip art, line drawing), and file size.
Most of these filters were available before in advanced search, but now they are available in the left-hand column. (A similar option column was introduced to the main search page in May, 2009). You can choose more than one option to automatically narrow down your search. Another option Google could add is sorting by images with a Creative Commons license. It already does this in its advanced search options, but it is hidden there. → Read More
The first Twitpocalypse was one of those events that you’re going to tell your children about one day. I remember where I was when it hit: On my way to Napa Valley with some friends as we heard sirens race by, likely signaling the end of the Twitter world as we knew it.
Okay, it didn’t end up being that bad. But it still was a pain in the ass for many third-party developers, especially the iPhone Twitter app developers, who had to wait in the App Store line like everyone else for their fixes to go through. And now it’s set to happen all over again! → Read More
Go and update your iPhone! 3.0.1 is out and it fixes the SMS vulnerability that’s been whipped up into a security frenzy over the last couple days. Hopefully we’ll be hearing less about how impregnable Apple’s OSes are after this little event. → Read More
Wikimedia We’ve been getting requests from various citizens to feature their respective cities in our new Geek Weekend feature here on CrunchGear, so when a request came in for the Twin Cities, John asked me to write it up and I thought, “Oh, great. More work.” “Perfect! I grew up there! I know where geeky stuff is located!” → Read More
TechCrunch co-editor Erick Schonfeld appeared on Charlie Rose last night to discuss the Microsoft/Yahoo search deal alongside Steven Levy of Wired and Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal.
The group talked about the initial deal Microsoft offered Yahoo last year to buy Yahoo outright, the complicated nature of this new deal, Microsoft Bing, Yahoo walking away from the search fight rather than engaging, how this was the worst of the deals that Microsoft had offered so far, the Bartz/Ballmer reaction, what this means for Microsoft versus Google now, and the possible antitrust implications of all of this.
Watch the part of the show that featured the discussion below. → Read More
A Japanese company called Furniture Design Agra has created the LEDSAURs [JP], a number of different dinosaur-shaped desk lamps. The dino skeletons feature LEDs in their heads and spine. And they look pretty cool.
Agra offers four different versions of their Tyrannosaurus Rex, which are all made of stainless steel. Owners can bend the dino’s joints to change its pose and switch the lights on and off via a remote control. → Read More
A CrackBerry reader sent in this AT&T in-store ad for an E71x that mistakenly has a BlackBerry interface. I don’t know why I find this amusing but I do. Maybe because of the fact that a Nokia employee I know of recently took some dumb Twitter/Facebook survey about ‘What dumb phone am I or whatever?’ and he ended up being a BlackBerry. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
