New iPods usually come out in September, right? There or thereabouts, at any rate. Well then maybe we should look into this report that says Toshiba will “ramp up” production of flash memory chips during the month of Auguest. Word on the street is that Toshiba is doing so to fulfill a big order from Apple. So, new iPods on the way? Speculate away! → Read More
The Internet got in a bit of a tizzy this weekend when it was reported that Twitter was banned from being accessed from inside the White House. What is this, Iran, some wondered? But have no fear, despite what White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told C-SPAN, Twitter is apparently not entirely blocked and they’re working to open it up more, Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton told Mediaite today.
Here’s where the confusion apparently comes from. Access to Twitter’s website is blocked on most White House computers, but that’s only for security and recordkeeping reasons for the time-being. Apparently, the White House is working with the White House counsel and the Office of Administration CIO “to review and relax these restrictions,” Burton says. And, more importantly, it is apparently not official policy of the White House that staffers are not allowed to tweet, and some do so from their own web-connected devices. → Read More
Admit it: you’ve been thinking about learning a foreign language. Maybe you’ve been planning a trip to Mexico or were considering taking over a small, French-speaking colony in the Maldives. Regardless of your interest or your armaments, it’s always nice to know a foreign language.
Until now the traditional online teaching methods have involved simple flash-card-like exercises and animations aimed at getting you acquainted with a language or, at the very least, CDs running you through the traditional “I would like to buy some hashish” and “My hovercraft is full of eels” rigmarole we know all too well from learning languages on tape. Rosetta Stone aims to change all that will their new TOTALe live language lessons and activities. → Read More
Samsung is now getting into the e-book game. It has developed its very own e-book reader, which will first be available in Korea for around $270. It’ll be Korea-only for a little while yet. → Read More
Three new cameras from Panasonic inbound.
Finally, someone besides Samsung is claiming a world’s first. Claiming the hat today is Panasonic with the Lumix ZR1 digital camera. The latest Lumix features a 0.3mm thin ashperical lens, which is a world’s first. Other notable features include a 25mm ultra-wide-angle, 8x optical zoom Leica DC Vario-Elmar lens and a start-up time of 1.1 seconds. The ZR1 will be available in September for $280 in black, blue, silver and red. → Read More
Jeremy Wright has stepped down as CEO of b5media, the blog network he helped co-found, mostly for unspecified personal reasons.
While Wright will remain a board member and shareholder of the venture-backed startup, he already has a replacement: Elaine Kunda will take over the reins as CEO from this point forward.
The decision apparently stems from the beginning of this year, when Wright took a short vacation and went offline for about 10 days. He writes: → Read More
Averatec is testing the aluminum notebook waters with the 13.3-inch N3400, a 3.8-pound ultraportable with a $799 pricetag. → Read More
It hasn’t even been 24 hours since we wrote about the impending launch of TweetMeme competitor ReTweet, and already TweetMeme founder Nick Halstead is threatening ReTweet with a lawsuit. He takes being king of retweets very seriously.
It is not so much the apparent flat-out copying of TweetMeme’s Website design (ReTweet has not even launched in private beta yet), that bothers him. After all, TweetMeme itself was highly “inspired” by another news aggregator, Techmeme. What bugs him is what he claims to be almost exact copying of code. Halstead writes on the TweetMeme blog: → Read More
This is probably the last piece of the puzzle concerning the iPhone suicide incident. The NYT is stating that Foxconn gave the man’s family more than $44,000 and his girlfriend got an Apple notebook. That’s all, folks. Come up with your own conclusions and/or morbid jokes. This sad event makes us sick. → Read More
Breaking Now: Streaming music service Spotify – born in Sweden but currently taking the UK and the rest of Europe by storm – has released a video of the iPhone app which they’ve just submitted to Apple, which means it could be out in a few weeks. They’ve also revealed more of their business model – mobile access on any device will require a premium subscription. Interestingly, you’ll be able to use the app when there is no wireless connection. The application has an offline mode that allows users to temporarily cache playlists to their phone for use when there is no connection. The video shows how this works. Keen observers will note that since Spotify allows access to millions of music tracks, why would Apple allow this app to go into the store and potentially compete with iTunes? Apple has allowed the Last.FM app into the store but this is more like a radio station – Spotify behaves like a jukebox, bringing up exactly the song and artist you want with one click. → Read More
Part Two of our series on tech start-ups in the North East of England will look at the quality of institutional support and resources available to start-ups, and whether some well-intentioned development programs are doing more harm than good to the local digital economy. We need you to tell us about your experiences with Business Link, Codeworks, One North East, North East Finance, NorthStar and everyone else. We want to know everything: the good, the bad and the hideously ugly. And we want you to tell us on the record (your name will printed next to the comments you make). Are you an internet start-up CEO in the North East of England? Have you worked in technology in the North East for a while? Do you know the sector well? Do you have experience of starting out, trying to get funding and asking for help and support? Do you have a story to share – good or bad – about any publicly-funded bodies in the North East? Do you have an opinion about the level of support and access to expert knowledge in the region? Drop us a line by email or leave a comment below if you’d like to help. Feel free to tell us about your experiences anonymously (Chatham House rules) or off the record (in which case we won’t repeat them at all) as well, but please indicate which you’d prefer at the top of your message, or break your message into clear sections. → Read More
Fact: cash is very hard to get for Italian startups. This has been the major problem of the Italian innovation ecosystem since the dawn of time, there simply isn’t money. Investors prefer to rely on non-risky businesses such as constructions, pharmaceutical and clothing. Web startups are facing a real hard time, but there might be hope. We already reported Google’s Italy country manager resignation to create a Venture Capital fund, but now there is a a new €55 Millions fund for startups. → Read More
Friendster, one of the oldest social networks, is actively looking for a buyer and has hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to find a party interested in acquiring the company or at least some of its assets.
According to documents obtained exclusively by TechCrunch, it looks like Morgan Stanley is shopping Friendster around in Asia, which makes sense considering almost its entire user base is located in the Asian-Pacific region. In the main document (embedded below), it says that 75 percent of its registered accounts are in Asia. The docs come from a credible source, are time-stamped ‘July 2009′ and carry a number of interesting nuggets about the influence Friendster still has in the social networking sphere, even if mostly in Asia. → Read More
I am drowning in e-mail. Like many web workers, my life is in my e-mail. Everything – work schedules, meetings, personal appointments – is in my e-mail. Those who follow my tweets know that I basically work from my inbox. I’ve been looking for a solution to help me organize my life and e-mail. Maybe I’ve found it with Kwaga. As Philippe Laval, Kwaga’s CEO, explains in the video below, Kwaga is a semantic organizer that automatically parses out your e-mail and helps to organize it. For example, its automatic algorithm will read an e-mail mentioning a meeting and automatically post it on your calendar. It will track requests – for example, a request to send a file. Of course, this could still get messy but it is definitely an improvement over tools we have today. Kwaga uses semantic search technology, of which the founders of Kwaga are experts, having developed an enterprise-breed semantic search engine before. → Read More
Panasonic sure knows how to market their stuff. First the company made its cute Evolta robot hoist itself up a 500 meter-cliff at Grand Canyon last year to show off the power of the Evolta batteries. Now the little guy (Mr. Evolta) turned into a tricycling robot and is ready to take on [JP] the famous Le Mans 24 Hours circuit in France. → Read More
