Scout Labs, a SaaS dashboard that makes it easy to keep track of what people across the internet are saying about particular topics or brands, has added a new focus group-like feature that is worth a look.
The product, which we first reviewed in December 2007 while still in private beta, now includes a “Quotes” section which pulls in real-time quotes from people who are chattering or Tweeting about a brand or topic on the web. The feature scans the quote for sentiment, and breaks quotes down by positive, negative or neutral undertones. The algorithm that deciphers the quotes also categorizes them as “wishes,” “recommend,” “issues,” or “caveats.” Caveats indicates comments that include the word “but.” For example, a caveat quote would be “I like Netflix but…” And you can filter quotes from Twitter exclusively. → Read More
Can Apple save the music industry again? The rumor is that Apple is currently in secret talks with EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music Group on project “Cocktail.” The major labels are once again looking to Apple to revive the slumping industry with a full-featured tablet that’s a bit of a throwback to the golden era of record sleeves, artwork, liners, etc. → Read More
Straight from the horse’s mouth, friends. T-Mobile G2 Touch available to buy online from tomorrow and in stores over the next few days. T-Mobile UK [Twitter] → Read More
I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of a 256GB SSD to replace the dying Hitachi 250GB HDD in my MacBook Pro, but Western Digital has me thinking twice about going leaner and meaner. WD announced two new 2.5-inch mobile drives this morning in ridiculous capacities. Maybe not ridiculous, but who wouldn’t want a 750GB or 1TB drive in their laptop?! → Read More
AT&T has made even more people than usual angry when it started blocking/filtering parts of 4chan late last night. The popular message board, famous for being able to brew online (and offline) shitstorms like no other web property could, saw portions of its publication – including /r9k/ and the infamous /b/ – blocked for AT&T customers across the United States. Quickly enough, there was a lot of rallying going on, with 4chan members and fans virtually gathering to plot digital riots and all-round mayhem.
An update on the situation as of 8 AM Eastern Time: access to 4chan has apparently been restored, with AT&T reportedly confirming the hours-long block of portions of the site, “following the practices of their policy department.” AT&T went on to say that they contacted (or at least attempted to contact) the owners of 4chan, which Moot vehemently denies. → Read More
How awesome is this? All credit goes to MeetTheBoss for creating this visualization (better quality image available when you click through), but it was too good not to share it with you.
It’s a visual representation of Amazon’s acquisitions and investments from 1998 until its most recent purchase of Zappos for a reported $928 million. → Read More
Breaking Now: Streaming music service Spotify has release 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. → Read More
An interesting report hit the Financial Times today, indicating that Apple is working with all of the major music labels on a way to boost album sales. But the report is confusing in a number of regards, and is propelling new rumors that Apple’s new large form iPod touch, or tablet (which itself is naturally still a rumor, though an increasingly likely one), could be rushed to be out in time for the holidays — this year.
But let’s take a step back for a second here. FT seems to go back and forth between tying this new Apple/music label effort, which is apparently code-named “Cocktail”, with this new device. At first, it indicates that it’s separate (emphasis mine): → Read More
“Archive video has clearly exploded all over the internet, but live video hasn’t. We think it’s because more flexibility is needed that no single product can meet, but an open platform can.” That’s what Justin.tv VP of Marketing Evan Solomon tells us in announcing the opening up of the service’s API.
The API, which has been in closed testing for about a month now, will now be available to anyone who wishes to use it, for free. Justin.tv can do this because they’ve made live video cheap to serve. Their internal network has capacity for some 100 million hours of video viewing per month, we’re told. For some perspective, that’s roughly 2.5% of media giant Comcast’s capacity, but Justin.tv is run at a fraction of the cost. → Read More
Not to be outdone by Gamestop, Walmart is now offering one free Wii title with the purchase of a Wii system for $249. But are the games any good? Hit the jump to find out. → Read More
The internet is all aflutter with stories rolling in concerning the Palm Pre being sold for $99 with a two-year contract at neighborhood Best Buy locations. Although the Pre is nowhere to be found on Best Buy’s website, here’s an in-store photo from PreCentral.net for your enjoyment. Not a bad deal at all, considering the $99 price is out the door — no rebates or anything like that. Looks like you’ll have to actually get in the car and go to the store if you want to get in on this deal, though, but maybe grab the wife and kids and make a day of it! [Pre Central via FatWallet] Update – False alarm, everyone. John Bernier is saying via Best Buy’s Twitter help line – Twelp Force – that the price is still $199. Now, you still might be able to get the deal if your local Best Buy hasn’t had the price changed or is feeling rather gracious. YMMV. → Read More
As if AT&T wasn’t already bad enough. In an act that is sure to spark internet rebellions everywhere, AT&T has apparently declared war on the extremely popular imageboard 4chan.org, blocking some of the site’s most popular message boards, including /r9k/ and the infamous /b/. moot, who started 4chan and continues to run the site, has posted a note to the 4chan status blog indicating that AT&T is in fact filtering/blocking the site for many of its customers (we’re still trying to confirm from AT&T’s side).
Reports of the blocking began to surface on reddit this afternoon, and a number of blogs are beginning to pick up on the story, though it doesn’t seem like any have managed to get a comment from AT&T (we’ve reached out to the company and will update once we hear back). → Read More
A lot of readers were incredulous over last week’s news that Ning raised another $15 million in venture capital from Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $750 million valuation. That comes despite the fact that Ning traffic appears to be flatlining, and revenue to date is likely very small.
A typical comment to that post: “What an ASTOUNDING way to waste money.” Others pointed out that venture capitalists typically invest hoping to at least have a chance at a 10x return – and in Ning’s case, it seems unlikely that the company will be worth the necessary $7.5 billion any time soon. So, why’d they invest?
Marketing. → Read More
So yesterday we saw the new Android version, Donut, get released to developers. Lots of sweetness inside, as we detailed then, but there are just a couple corrections to be observed. It’s not Android 2.0 — the version numbers aren’t just going to jump up like that. I suspect Google is working on having the whole idea of version numbers be secondary to the pastry names. So Donut it is, and no more. Secondly, multitouch is still not implemented. While you can hack it in, as we’ve seen in the past, there are hardware limitations and just throwing it out there might break some apps. However, Donut has some “kernel commitments” in it, meaning that it will be made integral to the OS at some point. Just don’t expect any miracles when they roll out Donut for real. Keep an eye on Cyanogen’s Twitter, it’s been our best source for Donut news. → Read More
I’m skeptical of the early 2010 release date for this thing, since it seems pretty concept-y at this point. And how is it going to stay on your ear?!
The idea is fine, though: in one form it’s a ring that you wear, I suppose, on your finger. When you get a call, the little OLED display lights up and you can answer it by twisting the ring into its earpiece form. Somehow I don’t believe it’ll work as well as they want it to. → Read More
Not sure which question is more appropriate here: why or why not? We’ve already witnessed the renewed interest in URL shortening services with the rise of communication platforms where brevity appears to be the norm rather than a side effect (Twitter!).
It was little surprising to see a custom one pop up that focuses specifically on iTunes links.
iTunes links are inherently long, non-sexy and practically unsharable web addresses that lead people directly to Apple’s media management software program where they can download applications for their iPhone or iPod Touch in a section called the App Store, à la http://ax.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/browserRedirect?url=itms%253A%252F%252Fax.itunes.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewSoftware%253Fid%253D321041850%2526mt%253D8. → Read More
Those little green reweet buttons you see across the web on sites like this one have helped TweetMeme rise in popularity. The buttons are now so ubiquitous that the service has seemingly become the de-facto retweeting mechanism for content on the web. But it looks like it’s about to get a challenger, with a killer name, Retweet.com.
Retweet.com currently only has a a landing page saying that it’s “coming soon,” so it’s hard to know exactly what it is from that. But there are plenty of clues around the web pointing to it being a TweetMeme competitor. The main hint comes from a design contest taking place at 99designs. The prize is over $1,000 to design the site, and all of the mockups look very similar to TweetMeme (which, to be fair, takes a lot of its look from sites like Digg). → Read More
