The launch of the Palm Pixi might still be more than two weeks away, but the Blue Polo Brigade is already gettin’ prepped. One of our tipsters spotted this third-party silicone case lurkin’ around in a none-too-hidden spot, though it hadn’t made its way all the way to the shelves just yet. If you manage to spot an actual Pixi lurkin’ around any retail spots — or better yet, if you convince them to sell you one early — be sure to give us a shout at our tips line. (You know how you know we’re geeks? Because we get all excited about cell phone accessories being shipped to retail stores.) → Read More
Personal genomics startup 23andMe has just gone through a round of layoffs, we’ve confirmed. The company declined to comment on how many people were laid off, but offered this statement:
We have reduced our staffing levels in a restructuring of our workforce. This was a very difficult decision, but one that we felt was necessary to achieve 23andMe’s long-term business development goals and maintain our strength in the industry.
These cuts, which are a reflection of the current economic environment all companies are facing, will allow us to continue to invest in the growth of our Personal Genome Service and research endeavors.
Not too long ago, Devin reviewed the Sleek SA-6 earphones. He gave them a pretty good rating, but one of the issues (at least for me) was that $250 price tag. Well, good news for me (and for you) Sleek has released that SA-1, a lower priced version of the SA-6 that still uses the removable tip system. → Read More
At major events like CES, thousands upon thousands of little USB sticks are distributed, full of assets, press releases, and so on. Stop by a booth or show, get a USB stick. Usually they’re only 1 or 2GB (and dog slow), so you don’t end up using them more than once and they end up in a drawer or sitting on a table somewhere in Vegas. Here’s an idea: why not use these Boardy USB sticks? Sure, it’s not really clear how big they are or how much they cost, but they can’t be much more in bulk than all those crappy plastic ones. → Read More
Ustream has just started to roll out a new feature for its live video streams that allows commenters to syndicate their thoughts across four of the web’s largest social sites: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and AIM instant messenger. The feature will go live for Featured shows beginning on Monday, and everyone else will have access soon thereafter.
The feature is similar to what Facebook has offered for its video broadcasts (like the one it had for President Obama’s inauguration), where users are invited to update their statuses in real-time as they watch a video. Except with Ustream’s comments, users will be able to check off boxes at the top of the chat window to choose if they’d like to broadcast their updates across multiple services. Each update from the Ustream ‘Social Stream’ box will also include a link to the video you’re watching, which means that the feature can help videos go viral quickly. → Read More
How keen are you on touchscreens? Keen enough to navigate Windows 7 while using such a monitor? Acer has a new one, the T230H, which will allow you to do exactly that. A big selling point is that it’ll increase your productivity, but I’m not so sure. → Read More
Realtime, realtime, realtime — it’s all you seem to hear now with regard to the web. But back in May, it was just emerging as a new trend that looked poised to explode. And one company at the forefront of that was Scoopler, a Y Combinator-backed realtime search engine. Today, being ahead of the curve has paid off, as the service has just raised a seed round of funding from some big name investors.
When we intially wrote about the service (remember, very early on in the realtime search phenomenon), we noted that the presentation of results was impressive, but the results themselves were utterly dominated by Twitter. That really shouldn’t have been all that surprising considering Twitter’s popularity in the space. But the service has since added some new features to make it more robust. → Read More
The Motorola Droid, on Verizon Wireless, is, by all accounts, pretty OK. That’s fair to say, no? Yes, I believe it is. What’s lame, though totally to be expected, is that it’ll cost you $30 for a car kit. And you’d want said car kit in order to make that Google navigation application really fly. → Read More
Writing about patents really ought to be banned, since so many companies file so many patents every year that it’s silly to cherry pick this one or that one, drawing attention to something that may never exist. Be that as it may, today an Apple patent was discovered that shows a wireless headset that includes a media player. Think of it as “a Bluetooth” with a built-in MP3 player. → Read More
Google has just debuted a new form of advertising called AdWords Comparison Ads — a special kind of ad that will prompt users to view a list of sponsored products in a structured format. To get started, Google is running the ads for queries related to the mortgage market, though it has plans to eventually expand beyond that. The ads are in a limited rollout for now, with only some users in some states seeing them.
Here’s how Google describes the new ad type:
AdWords uses a host of targeting and relevancy signals to determine the best ads for each query. However, sometimes a user’s query doesn’t provide enough information for us to confidently predict what they want. Take, for example, users who search for “mortgage.” Do they want a new home loan or a refinance? Do they want a fixed rate or an adjustable rate loan? Comparison Ads improves the ad experience on Google.com by letting users specify exactly what they are looking for and helping them quickly compare relevant offers side by side.
Online restaurant reservation site OpenTable has hit a milestone today, seating one million diners via its mobile apps. And the site says that based on an estimation of a $50 average check per diner, OpenTable believes that diners using its mobile applications have generated more than $50 million in revenue for its restaurant partners.
OpenTable allows diners to find and book reservations at more than 11,000 different restaurants in multiple countries via mobile applications for the iPhone, Palm, Blackberry and Android. Other smartphone users can book reservations through OpenTable’s mobile-optimized Web site. → Read More
It hasn’t been the best couple of months for Nintendo. Profits were down for the six months leading up to September, which the company blames on the strong yen and the Wii’s price cut. Net sales, too, were down, some 34.5 percent. Fair enough, and those reasons are likely to explain Nintendo’s situation, but is there something else going on? I know Pat Buchanan, the older gentlemen that he is, always uses the phrase “the chickens have come home to roost,” and I think it’s applicable here. Perhaps Nintendo’s strategy of selling the Wii to the “casual” crowd (housewives and the like, to simplify this) has finally run out of gas? → Read More
Quick, you have until 2:00 PDT to get Team Fortress 2 for only $2.50. That’s a deal. This could be in fact the best deal of the year. After all, TF2 is one of the very best multiplayer games every created. Period. It’s a fact and you can’t say anything otherwise. So, whip out that credit card and spend the $2.50. It’s totally worth it. → Read More
Great news, everyone. Nintendo will release the large-screened DSi in America early next year. It’s been rebadged as the DSi XL instead of the DSi LL. There’s still no word on the price or exact release date, but at least we know it’s coming. Win. → Read More
I know, I know. Water rocket. Whatever, right? Been there, done that, it’s cool and all, but it’s kinda like the diet coke & mentos thing. It’s been done to death. Well, this ain’t your daddy’s water rocket, let’s put it that way. → Read More
Take this rumor like you would any other Internet rumor. You never know though, some of this info is new and might be true. A French website, Logic-Sunrise, is reporting from a very reliable source within the bowels of Nintendo that an update is played for 2010 and it’s going to be a big one. Well, big for Nintendo and on par with the current offerings from Sony and Microsoft, that is. → Read More
Heads up FPS fans. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl is on sale this weekend on Valve’s Steam store for a fiver. That’s quite the discount off the already quite reasonable price of $20. → Read More
I was Tweeting with Gartenberg last night about all the great Android games. After all, the Android Marketplace has so many great titles like Civilization Revolution, Canabalt, iShoot, and… oh… wait…
All kidding aside, the reason there is such a dearth of great games has to do with some programming choices in Android itself and it’s a problem that can – and should – be fixed before the Droid comes to market this November. → Read More
Facebook’s VP of Communications and Public Policy Elliot Schrage has posted an update to the site’s blog outlining a major rewrite Facebook is proposing for its Privacy Policy. Schrage writes that the new version eliminates the legalese of the privacy policy the company has used up until now, spelling out what the site is doing with user data in more explicit terms. You can find the proposed document here and the current privacy policy here.
The new terms are certainly easier to read, and they also contain some significant changes (including a couple Schrage doesn’t point out). One of these seems to indicate that Facebook may well be releasing location-related features soon (this is the first time any language related to location has appeared in any of Facebook’s policy documents, Facebook has confirmed) :
“Location Information. When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post (for example, it is subject to your privacy settings). If we offer a service that supports this type of location sharing we will present you with an opt-in choice of whether you want to participate.”
I had high hopes for “Avatar.” I’ve seen James Cameron talking about it twice, and interviewed one of the motion capture artists, Reuben Langdon. But what I’m seeing in this trailer is a jumble of cliches and unconvincing, at least on the small screen, CG effects.
Why they picked electric blue cat-people instead of some truly alien species is a mystery to me; with a less humanoid critter, suspension of disbelief is much easier. But our brains are tuned to detect the problems with these almost-human special effects, and the whole thing is going to look fake as a result. → Read More
