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
How insane is this? I guess I can understand the desktop replacement laptop, but at some point you have to say it’s kind of ridiculous. Are they going to start installing wheels and seats on laptops and have them be “automobile replacement” devices? Maybe a kitchen PC with a built-in milk frother!
The gScreen Spacebook has two displays that slide out to form one large one; the displays are 15.4 inches each, so let’s apply the old Pythagorean theorem to find that root (15.4²+15.4²) = a 21.8-inch display. Is that right? (no, it’s not.) → Read More
Microsoft was proud to announce their LifeCam HD last week, the first webcam to support 720p. But its reign (while pleasant) didn’t last for long: Hercules has released the Dualpix HD720p, which they are claiming is the first webcam to support 720p. Guys, in order to be first, you have to come out with the product before anyone else. Still, it’s only a week later and it looks perfectly decent, although I’m skeptical that they can really achieve decent image quality with such a tiny setup. → Read More
MOG, the very popular music portal and blog network, has closed a new $5 million funding round led by Menlo Ventures, with existing investors Simon Equity Partners and Scott Jones also participating. Menlo Ventures’ Sonja Hoel Perkins will join the company’s board as part of the deal. The company has raised a total of $12.5 million since it was founded in 2005.
MOG has been having a stellar year. In April the site launched a completely overhauled homepage, which now includes music news, reviews, a selection of top posts from its blogs, and a variety of other content. The MOG network now sees over 8 million unique visitors a month, with over 700 blogs that generate over 6,000 posts a week. → Read More
“Beaterator‘s gonna change the game, the same way I came in and changed the game.” Modest words from hip-hop producer Timbaland, but when you’ve produced as many hits as he has, well, I think you’ve earned the right to be a little arrogant. The game, if you can even call it that—it’s more like a mini version of Ableton Live —comes out for the PSP and PSN next month, on September 29. → Read More
There is no denying that Bing’s Double Cashback promotion served up some great deals. But apparently they were so good that Microsoft had to end the deal a full four days early — and even earlier for some. Here’s the statement they gave earlier today announcing the official end of the promotion:
“Due to an overwhelming, positive response from our Bing cashback shoppers, we’ve now closed our limited time back-to-school promotion where Microsoft increased the percentage of cashback rewards on behalf of retailers.”
Classy, Apple. Tell people running 10.4 that they need to buy the $169 box set when the $29 upgrade will work just fine. That’s the Apple philosophy in action, isn’t it? As long as you’ve got an Intel-based Mac, $29 is all you need to get Snow Leopard on your computer. And don’t let Apple tell you otherwise. → Read More
In the budding world of mobile advertising, whoever can control the app developers and gain access to the ad inventory on their apps will eventually win the game. Keep that in mind as you try to understand the very strange acquisition of AdWhirl by AdMob.
You see, AdMob is perhaps the largest independent mobile ad network and AdWhirl is a fast growing mobile ad exchange which allows mobile app developers to switch from AdMob to other competing mobile ad networks such as Quattro, VideoEgg, or Mobclix. Although it launched only last April, AdWhirl was quickly becoming the preferred advertising interface for many developers because they could still serve AdMob ads through it, but not be tied to AdMob if a better deal came along.
AdMob didn’t really like this so it threatened to stop supporting AdWhirl’s “mediation layer” and basically pull out of it altogether. That plan didn’t go over too well with the app developers AdMob needs to keep happy, so it quickly reversed itself and decided to delay its decision to withdraw from AdWhirl. Since it couldn’t take its toys and go home, it did the next best thing. It bought AdWhirl. Problem solved.
Except that now, who is going to trust AdMob to maintain AdWhirl as a neutral exchange rather than use it to funnel more of its own ads to developers? Or worse, to track all of the ad impression data of its competitors to improve its own ad products? → Read More
Altec Lansing announced two new devices today, a 200w set of computer speakers and a rather uniquely styled iPod dock with speakers. Sounds like a good idea to me. → Read More
As you have undoubtedly heard by now, Apple has finally made the 3.0 version of Facebook’s iPhone app available in the App Store. We got a build shortly after developer Joe Hewitt submitted it a couple weeks ago, and reviewed it, something which led to a lot of emails asking what was taking Apple so long to approve it. But there’s good news for those of you who were patient: Your version is better than ours.
Hewitt hinted at some changes in a tweet today, and after talking to him, we got the details. “Apple asked me to fix a really minor issue last night, so I sent them a binary with features I’d done in the last two weeks,” Hewitt tells us. So what’s new? The two big features are landscape mode and home screen organizing, we’re told. Sure enough, neither of those are available in the (test) version I currently have. → Read More
Mozilla released Firefox 3.0 in June of 2008, but there’s still a few of you out there who haven’t upgraded, despite, if nothing else, the security improvements. So what gives? Mozilla asked the abstainers, essentially, “Why haven’t you upgraded?” The answer, of course, has to do with Internet pornography. Doesn’t it always? → Read More
What would it be like to have a real testing lab instead of working in the makeshift “lab” that is John’s attic? A blogger can dream. Or we can take a look at an outfit like Cnet.
The boys over at CBS tested the new PS3 Slim against the PS3 Fat using an array of power consumption tests. The verdict? → Read More
Nearly two weeks after submitting the app to Apple, Facebook’s totally revamped 3.0 application is finally live on the App Store, according to the app’s developer Joe Hewitt. You can download it now here. The store currently shows that the app is version 2.5, but if you click the Download button anyway you’ll get the new version.
The new application brings a slew of new features, making it what may be the most useful app on the App Store (be sure to read this post) for our full review. Among the additions are Events, which have frustratingly been omitted from previous versions. Now you’ll be able to look up where your Events are, and you can also respond to them and see which of your friends are attending (for anyone who has ever had to boot up the web version of the site just to look up an Event address, this is a big deal. You can also post video directly to the site if you have an iPhone 3GS — a feature that will likely see the number of videos on Facebook increase dramatically. → Read More
Oh, God. Well, it looks like Global Gaming Foundation X, the company that wanted to buy The Pirate Bay, has approved the acquisition. All the financing is in place (the deal will be financed by GGF itself, which means that nobody else wanted anything to do with the deal), and GGF is ready to roll, officially. Total price: 60 million Swedish kroner, or about $8.3 million. In the immortal words of Greg “Opie” Hughes, “Good luck, bro.” → Read More
