Foursquare and Loopt have put location-based social networks on the map, and have potentially created a viable business model as well. Now there’s a new kid on the block, called Stalqer, which best described as a Foursquare on steroids. The iPhone app, which will be free, should hit the app store in the next few hours.
In theory, Stalqer is very similar to Foursquare in that it tracks your and your friends’ locations and broadcasts this information via the application and through push notifications. But one of the key differentiators is the fact that Stalqer updates the location in the background, which Foursquare, and most other apps, don’t do at the moment. This is because the device does not allow third party apps to run in the background. But Stalqer has found a way to record your location without you having to actually open up the application. So how does Stalqer do it? → Read More
As the endless brouhaha ringing from all corners of the Internet has proven, AT&T (or Apple, or whoever takes the blame in the end) really dropped the ball on this Google Voice thing. Whether it was rejected outright or shelved indefinitely, competing parties have been quick to play on their delays. First, Palm essentially put third-party Google Voice dialer gDialPro on its shoulders and carried it across the finish line by ensuring that it was one of the first (and still one of just a few) applications to land on the webOS App Catalog. Now, Sprint has come along and done something rare: they’ve dropped long-established fees. With Google Voice’s new keep-your-number feature in mind, Sprint will be doing away with the call forwarding fees associated with third-party voicemail services come mid-November. → Read More
Even cameras with mechanical shutters, it seems, aren’t immune to sensor carryover issues. It seems that when you’re doing that famous 8FPS continuous shooting, it’s possible under certain circumstances that a ghost image will be present in the next image shot.
Canon says it’s “barely noticeable,” but someone must have noticed anyway because they’re having to issue a fix. It doesn’t occur in single shots or movies; I’m guessing it’s just a timing issue where the sensor isn’t completely reset before the new exposure begins. → Read More
We just got a BFG Deimos in today, and it is big, shiny, and competing against Alienware’s M17x. So far, I can tell you that it’s a bit lighter then the Alienware, but (unscientifically speaking) about equal as far as speed. We’ll be doing a full review in the upcoming weeks, but I wanted to share some pictures and first impressions with you today. → Read More
In the interest of bringing Ron and Fez‘s fantastic radio show topics to a more tech-minded audience, I propose the following: games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, while fun and, generally speaking, “good,” will not save rock music. Rock and roll, for all intents and purposes, is dead. Bear with me for a minute, I’ll make this relevant to CrunchGear. → Read More
Peek, the tiny non-smartphone smartphone dedicated to email and messaging, is now available at Blockbuster stores across the nation. Peek buyers will also receive one month free of Blockbuster Total Access, a Netflix-like service that lets you rent DVDs and BR disks by mail or in-store. You can also refer a friend and get a $15 Blockbuster gift card. The Pronto costs $59.99 with $14.99/month service. The Classic costs $19.99. → Read More
I don’t know how you could forget, considering we’ve been posting Droid updates just about every day, but according to our calculations, tomorrow is October 28th: the day Droid drops. Now, we don’t expect the Droid to set the mobile world on its head exactly, but we’re pretty sure that it’s going to be the premier Android device — until the next premier device comes out. → Read More
Samsung has just announced a pair of LCD monitors with built-in TV features that promise to “eliminate the line between work productivity and HD entertainment,” according to the press release. And speaking of that press release, it appears that Samsung has also eliminated the most basic and important spec from the products’ list of features. → Read More
VC investment in Europe has recovered after a record low in the second quarter but we’re not out of the woods, says Dow Jones VentureSource. Investors put $998 million (€730 million) into 201 deals in Europe overall. This is a 23% increase from the previous quarter, which was the lowest on record since Dow Jones VentureSource began reporting on the region in 2000. The UK was the No. 2 destination for venture capital behind the U.S. in Q3 with $393 million (£240 million) spent on 67 deals. France had its worst quarter of 2009 and dropped 58% from the same period last year (55 deals), while in Switzerland, investors put $80 million (€59 million) into seven deals, on par with the previous quarter but still down on a year ago. Capital investment in Germany plummeted. Sweden had its best quarter of 2009 though venture investment was down 22%. Spain saw a dramatic 86% drop from the same period last year. Investment in the Netherlands rose 41% from the same period last year. It seems Amsterdam has startup fever. → Read More
Intelius is trying to dip its toes into the public market again. Last year we wrote about their business, which combined for-pay people search information with a post transaction marketing scam. After purchasing people information, users were encouraged to take a survey for $10 cash back. In reality, if users clicked yes the $10 was never mentioned again and they were signed up for a nearly impossible to cancel $20 monthly credit card charge.
The IPO never happened. But last week the company quietly filed a new registration statement with the SEC, indicating their attempt to try the markets once again.
Little has changed with their business. They are still selling people information that you can find on other sites like WhitePages.com for free. And during and immediately after the transaction, users are asked if they want $10 cash back. If they click yes, they are signed up for a $25/month credit card subscription.
Consumer complaints continue to flood the company. 1,159 consumer complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau in the last 36 months. There are another 214 complaints on RipoffReport. And they have had to deal with class action lawsuits in both Washington and California. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. → Read More
Flixster, a social networking site for movie fans, is doing pretty well for itself in the mobile space. Name any smartphone platform, and there’s a good chance that the Flixster app has spent some time on it’s top download charts. iPhone? Yep. BlackBerry? Yep. Android and Palm webOS? Double yeps.
Earlier today, the company shared with us the news that they’d crossed over a fairly monumental landmark, along with the details surrounding updates for their apps on both Android and BlackBerry OS. → Read More
I hear (via John’s review) that Astro Boy is a fine movie. I doubt I will actually see it until my boy catches wind of it in a few years. but I tell you what, this Astro Boy netbook is geek chic and I sort-of want it. The specs are standard fare with an Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, and XP home, but it’s the special edition lid that I can appreciate. It’s notebook art done right; clean, simple but yet slick. So here’s what you do. → Read More
As any member of the Greg Kumparak Fan Club (Hey! It exists. They have T-shirts. And buttons.) should know, I was a bit of a Helio geek prior to jumping on board with the Crunch family. My interest weened pretty quickly once Helio got snatched up by Virgin Mobile, as it seemed like their efforts with the property would be few and far between. I wouldn’t have wagered, however, that they’d be taking steps backwards. That’s exactly what they seem to be doing, however. We’re not sure exactly when this happened, but it was recently brought to our attention that the Helio Ocean 2 — which just launched back in February — no longer appears on Virgin Mobile’s list of available phones. If you want an Ocean, you’re stuck with the now ancient original. → Read More
Playing guitar with your hands is so 4 years ago. So this team of DIYers and soccer football players crafted the first ever, wall mounted, full sized, football hero. The control pads are large piezo sensors controlled with the Arduino electronics platform. But let the video do the talking. → Read More
Today’s a pretty big day in gaming, ladies and gents. You’ve got DJ Hero, Tekken 6, and Forza Motorsport 3 all coming out today. (Incidentally, I’ll have like a mini FM3 “review” tomorrow, and we may have some fun Tekken news this week to share—stay tuned!) So I decided to go around some of the big gaming sites, and take select quotes, completely out of context, and share them with y’all here. Let’s go~! → Read More
With the Holiday Season nearly upon us, we at TechCrunch thought it would behoove us to share with everyone a definitive list of the best smartphones currently available (or launching shortly), so as to help with any possible purchasing decisions which may occur in the upcoming months.
In making our decisions, we looked at these phones from the standpoint of the consumer. Thus, developer struggles, business security, and other such problems were not taken into account. Instead, functionality, price, and the overall usefulness of various smartphones made up the criteria which we adhered to during our reviews. These phones can be found on a multitude of carriers, operating systems, and continents. → Read More
If that BigDog robot from Boston Dynamics didn’t amaze and/or horrify you, maybe its human-like big brother “PETMAN” will catch your attention. → Read More
Facebook has just launched a new portal at peace.Facebook.com that highlights the site’s desire to promote “peace by building technology that helps people better understand each other”. The site appears to be part of a larger Peace dot movement that’s launching tonight, with the participation of some “impressive organizations” (we’re not sure who else besides Facebook is involved quite yet).
Peace.facebook.com is fairly simple at this point, with a handful of graphs and a widget that lets Facebook users share what they think of the site. The most compelling portion offers a series of graphs depicting “Friendships of Facebook”, which shows how many members of historically hostile groups are becoming friends on Facebook. These graphs include stats from Geographic, Religious, and Political pairings. There’s also a graph that shows the results of a daily poll conducted by Facebook on whether or not World Peace is possible in the next 50 years (over 35% of Columbians think so, but only 7% of users in the US are optimistic). → Read More
Perhaps you find yourself in the overlapping section of a Venn diagram consisting of a circle called “People who like Macs,” a circle called “People who hate digital photo frames but are okay with computer-themed standard photo frames,” and a circle called “People who have at least $25.” Sound about right? Then here’s the $25 image.jpg Photo Frame from ThinkGeek. → Read More
[UK/Sweden] Streaming music startup Spotify has confirmed that its CTO has left, effective today. Andreas Ehn tweeted about his departure this morning, in a move which has taken observers by surprise. The company is currently prepping a big launch in the U.S., a watershed which would normally suggest that this is a moment to have all hands on deck. Losing your CTO right now is probably not the best timing, to put it mildly. However, a Spotify spokesperson has told me that they’d “like to thank Andreas for all his brilliant work” and “everybody at Spotify wishes him well in the future as he seeks out new and, no doubt, extraordinarily complex challenges!” I’m sure this isn’t meant to sound back-handed but Ehn’s tweets paint a slightly less rosy picture. → Read More
