Whether you love the Sims franchise or not, the PC version is $30 (today only). That’s $10 off just about everywhere else. My particular household is in a love/hate relationship with the game. I hate that I get sucked into it and my wife loves to make fun of me for playing it. → Read More
When Twitvid.io launched back in May, it was amid a mad rush of startups trying to become the “TwitPic of Video” for Twitter. This included another startup, Twitvid.com, which caused a lot of confusion among users. It also apparently brought out the cease and desist orders from Leo Laporte, who has the rights to the TWiT (This Week in Tech) name. Needless to say, the timing was right for a name change for Twitvid.io, and so they’ve done that. They’re now Vidly.
But the change is about more than just removing user confusion and clearing up legal issues, it also represents a shift away from a sole focus on Twitter. Vidly’s new goal is to be the most convient way for people to share video on the web, no matter what service they use. And they’re going to start that by launching an iPhone app that will allow users to easily upload videos they take to a range of services including yes, Twitter and Facebook. → Read More
There are few things more coveted in the iPhone developer world than the top spots on the App Store sales chart. Sure, there’s only one way to go once you’ve hit the top; but while you’re there, you’re riding high. You get to sit back, relax, and watch as Cupertino’s little talkbox prints out money. But how much are those spots worth, exactly? How much do these top Paid Apps bring in? → Read More
Slouchers on Twitter (you know who you are), take note: IBM is apparently working on technology that would enable you to blog or tweet straight from the remote control of your TV. The company has filed a patent for said technology with the USPTO, reports BaltTech.
The interesting part of the patent filing, which was submitted by IMB engineers last year but only surfaced online a few months ago:
(after the jump) → Read More
Second time this Summer we write about Elance, a service that allows for companies and individuals to hire and pay independent professionals and contractors online, and once again it’s not good news but another security issue. A registered user of the service, Salma Jafri, tells us she has been receiving dozens of private messages that were erroneously sent to her account, on occasion even containing confidential information and sensitive data such as login details for Elance accounts and third-party servers.
The company has been alerted to the problem by members since the security breach became apparent a couple of hours ago, but Elance has apparently not dealt with it yet nor responded to any inquiries, says Jafri and numerous others in the website forums. We’ve contacted the Mountain View company as well but haven’t heard back so far. → Read More
J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!
Even if you’re not into sports, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard that chant before. And there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be seeing a lot more of it if Gary and AJ Vaynerchuk get their way. That’s because they want to start a trend that every New York Jets fan uses the #J_E_T_S_JETS_JETS_JETS hashtag on Twitter before games and after every touchdown. And guess who is behind the idea: The New York Jets. → Read More
A 15-year old Belgian by the name of Salvatore is the latest victim in a series of mysterious iPhone explosions that have captured the attention of France’s and the European Commissions’ consumer affair watchdogs. Details are scarce for the moment, but according to local news reports the teenager was holding his iPhone in his hand, about to make a call, when the device suddenly ‘imploded’. The incident didn’t cause any serious injuries but reportedly gave Salvatore a headache for a couple of days. He has been promised a free replacement unit by Apple but hasn’t yet received a new phone.
There have earlier been numerous reports of exploding iPhone devices in the United States, United Kingdom and France, with most recently about ten cases having emerged in France where the official competition, consumer affairs and fraud watchdog DGCCRF has now launched an investigation to find out whether the popular Apple smartphone could pose a threat to consumers. Apple, which has sold 26 million iPhones and 200 million iPods to date, said it had been informed of the French cases, but would not comment until it had closely examined the damaged phones. → Read More
A group of well known venture capital and large private equity firms are pooling resources to make a bid to acquire eBay-owned Skype, according to a source close to the deal.
Investors in the proposed purchase may include newly-formed Andreesen Horowitz, Index Ventures (who were early investors in Skype before the ebay acquisition), and one or more multi-billion dollar private equity firms.
eBay, which announced earlier this year that they would be spinning off the company in an initial public offering in 2010, is said to be looking for $2 billion or more for Skype. Companies quite often talk about IPOs (and even actually file) to generate acquisition buzz. → Read More
Spotify, the legal streaming music startup that has wowed even Mark Zuckerberg, has now had its iPhone app approved by Apple, and now awaits an appearance on the App Store. How did they get an app approved which streams thousands of music tracks on demand and which potentially competes with iTunes? The short answer is no-one is saying quite how, but it’s pretty easy to surmise that iTunes won’t be affected since the app will only work for paying Spotify subscribers (who currently pay a premium subscription which currently stands at €10 a month in Europe). In which case Apple’s policy of blocking apps that duplicate native apps (like iTunes) would not apply. The green light from Apple now leaves the way open for Spotify to launch in the US, as it’s been planning, and attempt a massive change in the music industry for the record labels that have invested in it. No mean feat. → Read More
Just as our sister site MobileCrunch wrote about yesterday, Chinese telecom giant China Unicom has just officially announced that it has reached a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in China. They did so as an aside in their earnings announcement, which you can find here.
Some details not revealed yesterday include that this is a 3-year deal between China Unicom and Apple, and that the first iPhones will ship sometime in Q4 of this year (the report yesterday had said October, which is certainly a possibility). Not stated is whether this will be the iPhone 3GS or the older iPhone 3G. Recent reports had indicated that either way, the device would not come with WiFi functionality (which had supposedly long been one sticking point between Apple and the Chinese carriers). → Read More
Everyone knows that Facebook has become absolutely massive, but it’s easy to lose sight of just how big a number like 250 million is. Buzzpoint, a social media marketing firm based out of Los Angeles, has put together an impressive visualization that shows off just how large Facebook has grown. The company has estimated the current and past Facebook usage statistics using available data and plotted a number of graphs tracking its progress over the last three years. I’ve broken the image (which is quite massive on its own) into a few chunks below, and you can download the whole thing here.
Among the more interesting stats: as of July 15 2009, Facebook had 250 million active users, which would make it the fourth most popular country in the world. Facebook’s top two traffic contributors are the US (by a large margin) and the UK, but in third is Turkey, which didn’t even have a localized version until last year (though English is fairly common there). → Read More
Big news from Japan’s mobile phone industry today (Friday afternoon Japanese time). Various Japanese media are reporting that NEC, Hitachi and Casio are in talks to merge their cell phone operations to become Japan’s second biggest manufacturer, following Sharp.
Reportedly, NEC plans to integrate its cell phone business into a tie-up that already exists between Hitachi and Casio. According to rumors, NEC wants to take a majority stake in the new entity, which would then control about 20% of the Japanese cell phone market. → Read More
OpSource, which provides SaaS and Web applications for on-demand companies, will be launching a Enterprise-targeted Cloud solution, called OpSource Cloud, that hope to achieve the flexibility of the public cloud with the security of the private cloud. Here’s how it works: OpSource Cloud lets each user create a “Private Cloud” within the public Cloud, allowing the client to determine their own degree of public Internet connectivity. OpSource Cloud, which will be unveiled to the public in October, features uber-customizable security settings, giving the user full control over firewall settings. Other security features include level logons and passwords, operational permissions and departmental and sub-department reporting. OpSource says it will be using VMware for virtualization and application portability between the Cloud and clients. I demoed the the product from sign-up to basic implementation—OpSource is incredibly easy and quick to set up. You can pay by hour usage, ensuring you are only paying for time that is being used, similar to other public cloud offerings. OpSource Cloud also offers APIs for additional integration. Of course, OpSource faces stiff competition from the giants in the public and private cloud space like Amazon, Rackspace, IBM, HP etc. But OpSource’s CEO says that the company wants to give enterprise clients the best of both worlds when it comes to the private and public cloud. It will certainly be interesting to see if this can actually be accomplished. CrunchBase Information OpSource Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
We just saw the Xbox 360 drop in price today, and according to my “Tetris effect” hypothesis, there has to be something to fill the gap left by the now-$299 Elite. Lo and behold, Amazon.de shows a listing this very day with the new item! It’s a 250GB 360, packaged with the upcoming Forza game. My my, 250GB. What would you do with that? → Read More
If you squint, you can just barely make out some PSP Go components on the far side of those watermarks. Yes, an enterprising Chinese gaming site has gotten their hands (and tools) on a PSP Go, and have taken it apart with relish. Unfortunately the page is in Chinese and the Google translation is, as expected, hilariously inaccurate. → Read More
Give a robot repairs, and it will operate for a day. Teach it to repair itself, and it will touch off a Robocalypse. Luckily, this is just an art project. Cool, but rather sinister-looking, wouldn’t you agree? [via Reddit] → Read More
This post was written by Frank Gruber, who cofounded TECH cocktail, a startup that looks to help people involved with technology connect at events, which it throws around the country. Tonight’s event is being held in Washington DC, where nine startups are presenting to tech enthusiasts from throughout the region.
Though situated in the heart of Government 2.0, the private sector in Washington, D.C. has been a wellspring of new startups each quarter. TECH cocktail, a community building organization, looks to help entrepreneurs by giving them a place to share their latest creations with the local technology community. The first couple of TECH cocktail events in Chicago were covered here in July and October 2006. Since then, TECH cocktails have been guzzled down like dirty martinis quarterly in D.C. and Chicago and annually in Boulder, Boston and other smaller technology communities. → Read More
1up just had a little developer roundtable about the upcoming motion controllers (and, uh, the “leading brand” as well).While these guys are bound by diplomacy not to say stuff like “Sony is rubbish” or “Nintendo is going down,” they do make their feelings felt in slightly more polite terms.
The consensus seems to be that each has its own strengths (I know, boring) and that innovation is going to be slow in coming. → Read More
OneRiot, the real-time search engine, has just announced a new $7 million Series C funding round led by Appian Ventures, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, and Spark Capital. The company blog has just posted more information.
While the real-time search space is particularly hot at the moment, OneRiot has been focusing on opening up and expanding its APIs to allow others to tap into its data. Partners include Yahoo and Microsoft, who of course, will also soon be much closer in the search space. Meanwhile, search titan Google is said to be very interested in the real-time space and is exploring its own way of doing things. And then of course there is Twitter which currently offers search based on its Summize acquisition, but is also said to have something bigger in the works. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
