Bad news, you guys. If you were thinking of dropping $120 on TomTom’s iPhone car kit and then another $100 on TomTom’s navigation app for use with your first-generation iPhone or second-generation iPod touch, it now looks like you’d to run into some compatibility issues.
AppleInsider is reporting “that although the Car Kit dock is compatible with all iPhone models, the TomTom application will only work with the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G – even with the dock connected to a first-generation iPhone or iPod touch.” → Read More
You’ve heard of Borderlands, right? It’s one of the new FPSs out there but forget about the rest, you must play this game. I just started yesterday after beating Prototype (another killer game) and I have to say I’m hooked. So far I’m getting the vibe that the game is kind of like a cross between a western-themed FPS and a RPG with a simple, but robust character development. (I’m playing as Mordecai, the sniper) Anyway, just watch the trailer above and then get the game. It’s on Steam or your favorite torrent site. Oh, and it has a Co-Op mode. Everyone loves Co-Op. → Read More
The rumors were correct. Nintendo was planning a larger screen DSi. Fair enough. So now you’re probably wondering just how big of a difference a 4.2-inch screen is over a 3.25-inch screen. Well, Nintendo is fielding that question with a little interactive page, which trys to up-sell the new, large screen model over the original one. Seeing is believing, after all. → Read More
Ever since Twitter announced it is working on a new Lists feature a month ago, users and developers have been awaiting its broad rollout. Over the past few weeks, Twitter has been expanding the number of people in the Lists beta, but now it appears that a full rollout is under way.
As of yesterday, Twitter employee Nik Kallen reported that “25% of all users have Lists.” And then he Tweeted: “We’re releasing lists to even more people. Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Twitter.”
Judging from the what we are hearing from tapped-in Twitter developers, the buzz on Twitter itself, and our tip box, a full rollout is under way and is expected to be completed either today or tomorrow. (Remember, this is Twitter, so there are no guarantees). → Read More
I’m currently blogging from a boat, rented by Belgian social network operator Netlog to host about a hundred of their closest business partners for a presentation about their freshly redesigned website and a roadmap of what’s in store for the future.
In their presentation, co-founders Toon Coppens and Lorenz Bogaert introduced something other than the newly revamped site. The company has also been developing a separately branded social gaming platform called Gatcha! which was talked about publicly for the first time today. → Read More
Games, both online and on mobile devices, draw such an intense following that often there are fan communities and forums created entirely around a single game. PlayHaven is hoping to empower developers with the tools to create their own online and in-game (for the iPhone only for now) fan communities for free.
PlayHaven has created shell communities around 15,000 games on Apple’s app store, so most developers can automatically claim their community. If their community hasn’t been pre-created, developers can also create their own communities. The transition between online communities and in-game communities are fairly seamless, says Raymond Lau, co-founder and CEO of PlayHaven. → Read More
We just wrote about PlaySpan’s recent study showing positive growth in the exchange and e-commerce of virtual goods exchange. PlaySpan powers micro-payments across over 1,000 video games and virtual worlds and has virtual goods storefronts on Facebook, MySpace, within games and on its standalone site. Today, PlaySpan is announcing a fairly significant deal with Nickelodeon to power payment services for virtual goods and microtransactions for the Nickelodeon Kids and Family Virtual Worlds Group.
PlaySpan’s technology and services will power Nickelodeon’s virtual worlds’ currency, called NeoCash, across multiple payment providers including credit cards and prepaid cards. Through PlaySpan’s subsidiary PayByCash, Nickelodeon will offer users over 80 global payment methods.
This is a big move for PlaySpan, considering Nickelodeon’s vast reach and popular games, including virtual world NeoPets, which has a user base of 45 million gamers. PlaySpan recently acquired micro-transaction app developer Spare Change, which powered micropayments across 700 social networking apps on Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo. Earlier this year, PlaySpan also made deal to power micropayments on hi5. → Read More
Amazon is launching “PayPhrase” a simple way to verify your account to speed up purchasing – a great move ahead of the holiday season when even more people than ever will be shopping online.
It’s simple stuff. You set up a unique phrase like “Axe Murderer” or “Car Lover” or “Honey I shrunk the kids” and tie it to a 4-digit PIN. This is linked to your Amazon account which, of course, is pre-loaded with your credit card and shipping address.
I do have to wonder what was so hard about entering an email address and password, but clearly Amazon’s psychological research unit thought “Fluffy Bunnies”, or some such, was going to be easier for the average Jane or Joe to remember. → Read More
We’ve been saying for a while that ‘local’ is going to be one of those ‘next big things’, and the win by Red Beacon at TechCrunch 50 has been something of a clarion call for this. Now a new study from TMP Directional Marketing has come out with some interesting data to back this up.
The study shows that the web generally, but in particular mobile and social network search, are increasingly factors fueling growth in the overall search market. This grew to 21.9 billion total US searches in June 2009, a year-on-year increase of 31%. → Read More
So the rumors about Nintendo releasing a new DSi with a bigger screen (we reported Monday and Tuesday) were true. Big N officially announced a new DSi in Tokyo today, the so-called DSi LL [JP]. It has a 4.2-inch screen, will be released on November 21 in Japan and is priced at $220. Buyers will initially be able to choose between brown, red and white versions. → Read More
Today, Netlog – the ‘European MySpace’ as they’re often referred to – is hosting a Partner Day at and around their global headquarters in Ghent, Belgium. The most important thing the company will be sharing is a look at their redesigned website, which has been in the works for about a year and is today being rolled out to a number of key countries. I got an exclusive preview of the revamped website from co-founder Toon Coppens, so here’s an impression of what it will look like and where they’re going with the social network.
Netlog currently sees about 250 million visits from 56 million unique visitors on a monthly basis and is handling half a million new sign-ups every week. Its main target has historically been young people (65% of its user base is between 14 and 24 years old) and with the redesign the company is clearly catering to that particular demographic, making the homepage much more visual and far less cluttered. You can see some screenshots of the impending new version below, along with a screen capture of the ‘old’ homepage. → Read More
From Wikipedia: A tributary is a stream or river which flows into a main stem (or parent) river. Facebook wants every site on the web to be a tributary. And it wants to be the main river.
Today, amid the hoopla that Facebook was once again making changes to its site which may or may not make things more difficult for developers, something big was largely overlooked. To me, the more interesting thing was the new API Facebook briefly unveiled: The Open Graph API.
To say details are vague at this point is being overly generous. But, the key idea is in place, and was presented today. Basically, the Open Graph API is a way for Facebook to allow other companies, sites, services, etc to interact with Facebook without having to create a dedicated Facebook Page. Big deal, you might think — isn’t that what Connect is? Yes, to an extent, but it would seem that the idea here is to go way past that. → Read More
Designed to work without a dedicated PC, the new Astak Mole was announced today. The Mole is a wireless webcam that can upload video directly to such sites as YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. It can also record directly to an SD card in the camera. → Read More
Ethanol fuel was always a mystery to me. Really, I never took the time to learn about it until I watched this 3:31 video that shows how a Pennsylvania company, Coskata, converts anything that contains carbon into fuel. Yeah, it’s an infomercial for GM, but it always quickly explains the whole waste to fuel conversion process and so it might be worth your time. → Read More
Zong has seen tremendous growth over the past year from when the company debuted its mobile payments service from the TechCrunch50 demo pit. Zong’s model of billing micropayments to your cell phone bill caught our eye and sure enough, less than one year later, the startup is picking up serious traction, including a partnership with Facebook to power the purchase of the social network’s new currency. And in 2009 alone, Zong has processed mobile payments for over 10 million unique users worldwide. Today, Zong is launching a new feature that not only expands its payment services, but could make a lasting impact on the micropayments field.
Zong is launching Zong+, a extension of the mobile payment startup which lets users bill microtransactions to credit, debit and prepaid cards. We have an exclusive demo of Zong+ by the startup’s founder and CEO, David Marcus, below. So in addition to making online purchases through their cell phone bill, Zong customers will also be able to link any type of payment card to their Zong account through a one-time entry process and continue to purchase goods by simply entering their mobile number and confirming the security transaction code sent to their phone. → Read More
One CD-ROM drive: $18.99
Some wire and electrical tape: $2.50
Installing a CD-ROM drive to use as a CD player in your car: priceless. → Read More
Toshiba just announced their latest advancement in CMOS technology, the BSI (back-side illumination) sensor. The BSI sensor is designed to improve high ISO (or low light) photography by decreasing the amount of noise that appears on images taken under these conditions. → Read More
Initial reports said that hundreds of thousands of people watched YouTube’s Live U2 concert on Sunday night. Then reports yesterday raised the estimate to 2.5 million. Double that, and then double it again. 10 million is the real number of live streams that YouTube did that night, according to Variety.
That’s massive, and it’s obviously the biggest live streaming event YouTube has ever done. But even more impressive is just how smoothly it went. I watched about half of the two and a half hour show, and if there were any interruptions, I didn’t see any. I didn’t even see any hiccups, it was that good. I had the show running full screen on my desktop computer, and it was pretty great picture quality for live streaming video. → Read More
After a decade in Silicon Valley, I’ve learned there’s a difference between what some VCs say and what they do. For instance, there’s the well-worn phrase that nearly every venture firm utters: “We believe downturns are the best time to invest.” And yet, somehow, the investment numbers always go down in recessions.
But University of San Francisco associate professor of entrepreneurship Mark Cannice puts a bit more stock in what VCs say. And to be fair, he’s got some data to prove it. While there are tons of studies that track what VCs did in a quarter, for the last six years Cannice has polled nearly 40 local VCs to ask how confident they feel about the high growth industry in the next six to 18 months. And interestingly, the results almost always presage an upturn or a downturn in exits by a quarter.
USF just released the third quarter numbers and for the first time since Cannice started the survey the measure of confidence was exactly the same as the previous quarter—down to the hundredth decimal place. → Read More
