The MSI X-Slim X600 tries so hard – so very hard – to be a full-size, Windows MacBook Air. It has the looks, it has the specs, hell, it even has the same shape. But one huge flaw keeps will keep it from becoming the de facto slim Windows notebook: the trackpad. It’s that bad. → Read More
What happens when your Windows 7 party gets a little crazy? People start talking about things like “boot sectors,” “man-on-man DIMM insertion,” and “[beep].”
There is absolutely no shortage of Twitter apps available for the iPhone. But in my mind (and the minds of many others) one stands above all the rest: Tweetie. And while the app has undergone several small tweaks since it was first released last year, a big time revamp is about to hit: Tweetie 2.
We’ve been testing out of the app for a few weeks now, and I’m happy to report that it’s the Tweetie you know and love, but better.
Maybe you’ve seen some tweets from users in recent weeks labeled as coming from “Bigbird”? Yeah, that’s Tweetie 2.0. Some may recall that this was also the code name for Tweetie for the Mac right before it launched. The reason for the nickname is that Tweetie 2 is built on top of the Project Bigbird core, which Atebits developer Loren Brichter first developed for Tweetie for Mac. This means an iPhone Tweetie that is “faster, slimmer, and much more powerful,” as Brichter puts it. → Read More
Google has been aggressively marketing Google Apps to schools, recently launching a centralized site designed to recruit universities and colleges. Now, Google is tweaking Google Docs, which is a part of Google Apps’ productivity suite, by adding a few student-friendly features.
Google Docs has added an equation editor so students can actually complete math problems within a document, allowing students to not only write papers that include numbers and equations but also take notes from quantitative classes using Google Docs. Google has also added the ability to insert superscripts and subscripts, which can be useful for writing out chemical compounds or algebraic expressions. → Read More
As I was perusing my hand-picked collection of websites that may or may not contain wonderful gadgets to write about – a ritual I perform Monday through Friday after breakfast and before my 10AM “good, healthy cry” – I came across this game on Hammacher Schlemmer’s site: Skittle Pool. What in the hell is Skittle Pool? → Read More
http://g4tv.com/lv3/41561 It’s a PSP go disassembling video. Enjoy. → Read More
Uh oh! Looks like the Motorola Sholes isn’t the only Android-totin’ kid hanging around on Verizon’s block. According to BGR, Verizon’s cracking away at an HTC-made Android handset called Desire, which they plan to launch shortly after the standard approvals and regulations are dotted and crossed. And what do you know? Both the FCC and the Wi-Fi Alliance just gave it the thumbs up. Expect more news sooner than later. → Read More
Livebookings, European-based restaurant reservation service, has secured $16 million in a new funding round from Germany/Pan-European VC firm Wellington Partners. Niklas Eklund, Livebookings’ CEO says Livebookings is “at a point” where it clearly sees itself scaling globally. It’s also clearly benefiting from credit-crunched restaurants now switching to online reservations to fill their tables, something Livebookings says has risen by 91% this summer compared to last, but there is plenty of growth left in the market. Only 7% of restaurants currently use online reservations, according to the company. The move follows a previous $12 million injected from Balderton Capital and other investors over 2008 and 2009. Livebookings will also build it’s network of affiliate partner websites. → Read More
Let’s see… a robot that responds to the thoughts of its master (is “master” the right word here?). Pretty sure that we (humans) will bring about our own downfall, either by blowing each other up, or by inventing a robot that says, “You guys are idiots, so we’re going to kill you.” → Read More
Fresh off their new $100 million funding round, Twitter continues to scoop up talent from around the web to expand operations. The latest catch is Mark Trammell, who had spent the last two years working on user experience for Digg. Trammell will start his new job at Twitter in a week on the design team working to build a user research program.
Trammell is the latest in a series of long-time employees to leave Digg in recent months. In May, former lead architect Joe Stump announced he was leaving to do a new mobile location startup (now called SimpleGeo) with former SocialThing founder Matt Galligan. A couple of weeks ago, Digg’s design lead Daniel Burka, announced he would be joined Tiny Speck, the new social gaming startup led by former Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield. → Read More
Genius! The Mountian Hardwear Refugium Jacket is simply genius. The winter jacket has a battery pack by Ardica that – get this – heats the coat and can charge your gadgets. Amazing! Too bad it’s eff’n expensive. → Read More
So finally the official word is in, with a very short blog post by CEO Marko Ahtisaari: Dopplr has been acquired by Nokia.
Update: Nokia’s press release
Update 2: Dopplr angel investor Martin Varsavsky on the deal: ‘Nokia as a force of good in the European start up scene’
No word on price, but when Michael Arrington broke the news last week on TechCrunch, he wrote that Nokia had picked up the fledgling company for between €10 million and €15 million ($15 million – $22 million based on current exchange rates). → Read More
In Japan, Nintendo has been experimenting with offering content other than just games for quite a while now. Japanese DS owners have been able to download anime movies and digital manga for over a year. And in May this year, Nintendo teamed up with the world’s biggest ad agency, Tokyo-based Dentsu, to introduce a video distribution service for the Wii. Needless to say, this service is Japan-only, too. But that will change soon. → Read More
With more and more developers building services on top of Twitter, more and more are also using Twitter’s avatars as the primary icons for their services. That’s great because for the user it means one less image to upload to yet another service. The problem with this is that if a user changes that avatar on Twitter, it could break it on the new service without you realizing it. So former Digg lead architect and current SimpleGeo (formerly known as Crash Corp). co-founder Joe Stump has created a simple service to get around that problem.
Called Tweetimag.es, basically the service allows developers to replace their calls to Amazon’s S3-hosted Twitter images and instead use a shorter img.tweetimag.es URL that will always pull your most recent Twitter avatar. So something like this: → Read More
Now, now. Don’t get too excited. Verizon tends to put stuff into their inventory months and months earlier than they need to. You can, however, get a little bit excited: this more or less confirms that the low-end (but still Wi-Fi enabled!) BlackBerry Curve 8530 is coming to Verizon.. you know, eventually. In fact, it look like it’ll be coming in two colors: one black, the other lavender. [Via CrackBerry] → Read More
Electronics retailer Newegg plans to raise $175 million for an IPO, according to an SEC filing. The online retailer sells IT products, including computer hardware and software; and consumer electronics through its website. In the filing, the retailer says that it has been profitable every year since 2001 and posted sales of $2.1 billion in 2008.
Newegg’s net income increased 55 percent in 2008, to $28.4 million. Sales increased 13 percent to $2.1 billion in 2008, and have just more than doubled since 2004, when sales were $982 million. As a retailer, NewEgg’s's profit margins are slim. It was only 1.4% in 2008. Amazon’s profit margins are around 3.3%, which is double Newegg’s margins. Reaching a 3.3% margin may the best Newegg can hope for. And while Newegg is seeing decent revenue growth, retail is tough, especially when your biggest competition is Amazon. → Read More
Given how much people depend on their mobile phones these days, it’s pretty much catastrophic when they stop working. Most these days don’t have a traditional land-line, so when your phone stops working, you lose touch with the world. So which carrier has the best customer service? Who can you depend on to help you in your hour of need? → Read More
Good then. Netbook manufacturers will be able to preload any version of Windows 7 onto their machines – not just Windows 7 Starter Edition. And while we found out in May that the arbitrary three-application limit had been removed from Windows 7 Starter (thereby making it virtually indistinguishable from Windows 7 Home Basic), the lack of other features like not being able to change your desktop wallpaper or use some of the cooler Aero stuff felt more than a bit underwhelming. → Read More
There’s not too many gadgets out there that I’d spend money on. There’s the Zune HD, which, while totally unreadable in direct sunlight, is still otherwise a fine portable media player. So that’s one. Another one would be that Philips Wake-up Light (though that will have to wait till next month; stupid Zune HD was expensive!) I bring this up only, and I do mean only, to segue into a brief discussion of this here video of the Philips Lumiblade OLED, um, thing. Get it, Philips, lights, OLED, etc. Very high-concept. → Read More
Victor JVC seems to finally have realized how well the Flip sells over in North America. The company has now announced the Picsio GC-FM1 [JP], a mini camcorder recording video at 2.03MP and shooting pictures at 8MP. The Picsio offers 1080p output at a 4:3 ratio (1,440×1080, 30fps). Alternatively, you can go for a 720p, VGA or QVGA mode. → Read More
