Japan-based security company ALSOK has developed an adorable robot [JP] that fulfills not one but a number of different functions. The so-called An9-PR can be used as a guide to help people in shopping centers or office buildings, an autonomously moving digital signage system or for surveillance. It’s the big brother of the An9-RR, which was introduced back in March.
It features a simple electric bulletin board that’s wrapped around its head and a total of three LCD screens built into its body (one 19-incher is on the front and there are two 12-inchers on the back). People can view ads, information on buildings and other information on these (touch) screens. → Read More
In what could be a first for us I’m going to talk about G-Force, the new Jerry Bruckheimer Disney movie. To be clear: this is a movie for kids. I have a kid. So I saw it. Anyway. Where to begin: this is a movie about guinea pigs with special powers who can talk and fight against forces that will destroy our great nation. In this movie they fight against a nefarious consumer electronics maker that seems to be a cross between Philips and Sony. But there’s a twist! I won’t spoil it for you but rest assured you’ll have to explain it to your three year old in very precise terms, ensuring that you don’t slip up and say something wrong. Think Bambi. → Read More
NewsGator Online, one of the first online RSS readers I used back in the day, is being tossed in the deadpool by its parent company in a move that signals its newfound focus on desktop applications and social computing tools for businesses.
Users of the online feed reader are kindly requested to migrate their subscriptions over to Google Reader before August 31, and NewsGator will provide step-by-step instructions and in-product reminders to make sure all goes smoothly.
Speaking of NewsGator’s desktop RSS readers, which include FeedDemon for Windows and NetNewsWire for Macs, they have both been updated to a new version. Users of the software programs are asked to download the updated versions in the next 30 days, and in another testament to the company’s friendly relationship with Mountain View it is mostly touting the new synchronization feature with Google Reader as a selling point. → Read More
You guys gotta hear this. There’s a 78-year-old woman who, for whatever reason, hates the president so much that she has decided to sell her two TVs! (What’s more impressive is that the woman even has a working TV post-digital transition.) → Read More
This picture, taken at the John Wayne Airport by Matthew Olivolo of MobileEdge shows one of his ScanFast backpacks being inspected by the nicest TSA lady I’ve ever seen. What does this suggest? That perhaps those checkpoint friendly backpacks are finally gaining some traction. → Read More
You know those idiotic commenters on Digg? Sure you do. You know, “FIRST”, “LOLZ”, “URGAY”, etc. Yeah, those guys. Well Digg took a step today that could possibly make them at least 10,000 times more annoying: Email alerts.
Now, let’s be clear: This doesn’t mean that people who post an item on Digg will get alerts every time someone comments — that would be awful. Instead, this means that if you leave a comment on an item, you will get alerted when someone comments on that. And this will occur only for top-level comments and not nested ones.
And while that may not sound so bad, it’s no secret that Digg, like many big sites, has a comment section that is almost completely run by trolls. It takes actions to combat that, such as the burying and promoting of certain comments, but this new email alert system will bypass that. → Read More
Lolligift solves a pressing problem in most offices. You know how when Maurice in accounting or Lydia on the dev team breaks a hip or has a birthday? And how Sarah in HR goes around collecting cash for a present for them? And how you have to fish out a ten-spot, the same ten-spot you were planning on using for lunch and now you have to use the ATM which isn’t your bank and costs $2 to use? And how you’re all like “Maybe tomorrow” and Sarah is all like “OK. I’ll put you down for tomorrow but I have to go to get the Bed, Bath and Beyond gift certificate tonight so don’t forget.” And you’re all like “Wait, here’s ten.” And Sarah thinks you’re a freak?
Well, Lolligift solves all that. By sending your co-workers a single link (I will totally laugh if anyone donates to Nik’s fund) they can begin sending cash. You then collect the funds via Paypal (less $5 and Paypal’s cut) or request a free mailed check or Visa Check Card. You can overnight the check for $19.95. → Read More
The conventional wisdom out there on Web video advertising is that most advertisers don’t want to risk being associated with user-generated videos (i.e., the vast bulk of videos on YouTube). It is only the professionally-produced stuff on portions of YouTube and Hulu and Blip.tv where the advertising dollars are going. This is the conventional wisdom because it is mostly true.
But YouTube wants to change advertiser’s minds (because the vast bulk of its videos are audience-produced, did we mention that?). So in a blog post today, YouTube trots out a told-ya-so case study about the “JK Wedding Entrance Video” (embedded below) that has been spreading around like crazy. Since it was posted on July 19, it has been watched more than 12 million times. → Read More
I mailed a birthday card out yesterday to a family member who’s birthday was, in fact, last week. I’m such a bad relation. I had the decency to include a check and a witty comment, but I know it’s going to be too little, too late. If only I could go back in time to yesterday, knowing what I know today. See, I just found out about cake in a jar! Boy howdy, would the lateness of my gift be forgiven and forgotten when they opened up that box to find a delicious, moist cake in a jar waiting for them! → Read More
Online travel services group Expedia has reported its results for Q2 2009, and the financials aren’t looking spectacular, but they are not as bad as expected.
Although the number of booking transactions handled by the company actually saw a small uptick, gross bookings decreased 5%. As a result, revenues went down 3% (from $795 million in 2008 to $770 million) and operating income decreased a staggering 33%.
On the upside, Expedia’s flight and hotel bookings rose 10% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter following some expense-cutting measures and airline fare cuts. The company’s second-quarter profit was $41 million, or 14 cents per share. → Read More
As a reader of CrunchGear, I can only assume that you’re familiar with a recent invention called “television.” It’s truly a remarkable thing: it transports lights and sounds from the four corners of the planet, and brings them right to your living room. It’s like you’re actually at the big game! A recent upgrade, called high-definition television, improves the quality of the picture. Samsung, which is a company based in far-away South Korea, has a new line of high-definition televisions called the 8500 Series. It uses something called light-emitting diodes (“LEDs”) to light up the image—no more replacing tubes! → Read More
Put your iPhone in a lead box and step away from it, people. Someone is going to send you a text message with a square in it and then destroy your life a la that one movie with Will Smith in it when he goes into that warehouse and there’s some dude in there inside a Faraday cage and he asks “Can they really do that?” or some permutation thereof and the guy in the cage says “Yes they can” or whatever and then they take over his bank account and Will Smith has to run around and solve like a mystery or something and it turns out it was the GOVERNMENT. Seriously! → Read More
Hey hey, look at that. Apple finally updated the Time Capsule by doubling the storage capacity of the $500 model to 2TB and dropping 1TB model down to $300. Everything else is the same, but it’s about time that Apple gets with the program here. In case you haven’t noticed, hard drives are cheap now and $500 for only a single terabyte was a little ridiculous – even for Apple. → Read More
JVC knows what’s up. It’s good to see that not every set of headphones outed by A/V companies lately are in-ear models. Over-the-ear cans are not only so much more comfy, but they generally sound better than in-ear ones too. These two new models come to us under the Black Series label – whatever the hell that means. → Read More
The LG Chocolate is now official. (That sound you just heard is the sound of millions of people breathing a sigh of relief.) The specs are, in fact, the same as those found in that leaked promo video from a few days ago. → Read More
The consolidation process in the Japanese home electronics business goes on and on. Today former rivals Sharp and Sony said [JP] they reached a final agreement to launch an LCD panel joint venture in Osaka, after having failed to ink the deal last month. In March already, Sharp said it wants Sony as a partner for its plans to boost the production of LCD TVs. → Read More
Creative made a small splash the other day when the Zii project broke cover. It very well could be the first, real iPod touch competitor thanks to Android and impressive hardware. Here’s two more videos showing off the Zii. The one above is an impressive game demo that demos the accelerometer and the one after the break gets into the nitty-gritty about the hardware. → Read More
At first glance, Redux has a very appropriate name: It looks like it’s just another version of the aggregation and conversation service FriendFeed. But a new feature is fairly awesome. “TV” allows you to easily share video clips, just as you would share links on FriendFeed or Redux’s main Stream area.
Officially, Redux says it’s a “personalized entertainment guide to the web.” But really, that’s what most social sites are these days. We need new features to distinguish them. And solid usability. And that’s what Redux offers in this video area.
The main problem I have with online video is that there’s way too much of it. I visit YouTube, but I have no idea what to watch. If I try to browse random videos, most of it is crap, and really, it’s just a waste of my time to do that. Most of the videos I consume, friends send me, and that’s exactly the idea behind Redux’s video area. But because it’s an actual video player, the sharing and watching of videos is seamless. → Read More
Google Voice has been making a lot of headlines lately, but not for the reasons you’d hope. The service is already running into frustrating opposition from Apple and possibly AT&T (depending on who you believe). Today, it’s getting opposition of a different kind: 3jam, a company that until now has primarily offered services that revolve around SMS messaging, is expanding to offer telephony services that will be going head to head against Google Voice.
3jam offers many of the same core features offered by Google Voice, including the ability to have one phone number ring multiple phones, as well as an online interface for managing voicemail and text messages, though there are some more advanced features that it lacks (more on that later). But it does have a few features that Google Voice doesn’t, like the ability to receive calls on Skype, AOL, and Yahoo Messenger (why waste minutes when you’re sitting in front your your computer anyway?) → Read More
We’ve all seen the ads and screenshots that pop-up when you hover over keywords on blogs. For the most part, they’re annoying. But what if those pop-ups had actual useful information in them? That’s the idea behind Panels Network.
A key feature of these overlays is that they’re not just about links, they also pop-up over ads. So, for example, when you hover over a 125×125 ad on TechCrunch (see an example on this demo page), you can find out information about the advertiser. Think of them as kind of like an excerpt from Wikipedia about the company. → Read More
