The RED Scarlet, if you don’t know, is a compact professional camera being released by RED as a more portable alternative to the more full-featured modular system that’s been brewing for so long. Key word here is professional! Many are under the impression that this is their consumer offering, but RED is not a consumer-oriented company. The Scarlet may be cheaper and more compact, but it is still an extremely serious camera and creates footage that a layperson would have trouble editing. That said, this thing looks pretty bad-ass, and I might have to go halvesies on it with a certain RED owner who’s on a trip to Poland right now. Yeah, you know who you are.
We heard about some of this stuff about a month ago, but these specifics are good to have. → Read More
BillShrink, the startup that looks to help users save money across verticals including cell phones, credit cards, and savings accounts, has just announced that it has grown to 1 million members since its launch in April 2008. Alongside the milestone, the site is also announcing that it has found “$1 billion in savings on everyday bills”.
That second statistic is a little confusing. BillShrink basically means that if its users had signed up for the top matches generated by its cost cutting tools, they would have saved a total of $1 billion. Of course, not everyone who uses the service decides to change their cell phone carrier or credit card, so the total amount of money saved isn’t that high. That said, this is the first time BillShrink has disclosed the size of its userbase, and it’s clear that the site is getting some solid traction. → Read More
So I made a big deal about the supposed $10,000 premium Apple was charging to make an iTunes LP. As it turns out, that wasn’t the case, and Apple responded to the controversy by saying “Hey buddy, we’re going to be releasing all this stuff for free in a little bit anyway. Chill out.” Or something like that.
Well, two months later, they’ve done it: you can now roll your own iTunes LP or Extras, and it costs no more than a click. → Read More
Last month we launched Apps of the Month: a series dedicated to profiling iPhone apps that you should actually buy, instead of the ones that simply got the most hype. This is a tough task, given the 100,000+ apps on the store and the fact that discovery is an absurdly difficult task, even for those who spend as much time as we do playing with iPhone apps. Of course, we scoured our inboxes and the App Store in search of fun, interesting and useful applications. Some will tickle your fancy and others won’t be your cup of tea, but regardless, it’s better to have some recommendations than none. Enjoy. Best Apps of November is our second edition of this series. Admittedly, we still don’t have as many indie apps as we would like, so we’re going to provide every developer with a way to get on the list. To submit an app for our “Apps of the Month” list, send details of your app (and, preferably, a review code) to gaganATcrunchgearDOTcom, and I’ll check them out. To be fair to you, I promise to download and test every app I get. In the meantime, hit the jump to check out this month’s list: → Read More
There’s already been quite a bit of ink spilled over the demise of the CrunchPad but I thought I’d add a few drops. My opinion is this: the CrunchPad was a testament to the power of online media and a fascinating study in the ability of new media to enact real changes on the real world. While the product faltered, it’s fascinating that the project went as far as it did given the forces arrayed against it. Think about what happened: if we reduce this to its component parts you have some dudes in California who talked to some dudes in Singapore and who agreed to work together on a piece of hardware. I’ve seen the prototypes and the thing worked and worked well. Most hardware manufacturers can barely take each others meetings let alone coordinate a massive project while separated by a culture and an ocean. → Read More
Although the concept here is good, I can’t help thinking that if you need a Band-Aid (elastic bandage, sorry) longer than an inch or so, you probably need something more than a Band-Aid. Except for things like grass and paper cuts, injuries more than an inch in any direction generally don’t just go in a straight line.
And what about covering up hickies? → Read More
It’s just as Rob over at BoingBoing says: you don’t have to be mean, negative, or hip to make a good point. The Sun and its ilk are still worthwhile and will continue to be so for at least a few years. Don’t forget what years of experience, local contacts, and a nice big tabloid layout can do for you.
Check out the short video inside. → Read More
If you’re one of the 600,000 people who bought a Samsung Intensity (SCH U-490) or Samsung Trance (SCH U-450): good news! You’ve got an over-the-air update coming your way. One of our sources just came through with the patch notes for both handset’s respective updates, which are scheduled to begin as early as tomorrow. There’s nothing too major on the update list here, so don’t expect to wake up to find your phone magically jam-packed with new features. With that said, a few of the soon-to-be-fixed bugs sound pretty annoying – so at worst, consider it a bit of polish. Find the change lists after the jump: → Read More
Of the hundreds of companies I meet in any given country, I only write about a handful. Sometimes it’s the ones that seem to be copying a US idea, but in reality are building their company in a completely unique—and frequently more profitable—way. Other times, I’m captivated by an idea that’s perfect for an emerging market, but probably wouldn’t work in the US.
But every once in a while I find a company that hits the trifecta: It’s addressing a big problem locally, it’s something I don’t think is offered in the US, and…. I want it. And when a product in undeveloped, chaotic, messy India can make someone in Silicon Valley feel jealous, you know that entrepreneur has come up with something good. → Read More
If you’re going to leave your job at TechCrunch, you better have a good reason. I think Mark Hendrickson actually may have had one.
Hendrickson left TechCrunch in March. After about two years of writing and doing development for TC, he got the startup itch. He formed a company, Worldly Developments, and along with co-founder Jay Marcyes is now ready to unveil their project: Plancast.
As you can derive from the name, Plancast is a way to easily broadcast your plans to your online social circle. But a better way to think about it may be as a “Foursquare for the future,” which is how Hendrickson often describes it. The main idea is that while many people use Foursquare and similar location-based services like Gowalla and Loopt to share where they are, Plancast is about sharing where they will be. → Read More
Google has just annouced the winners of its second Android Developer Challenge, a competition that looks to spur development on the Android platform by offering large cash grants to the winners. Thirty prizes were given out in total, with the top 3 winners from each of ten categories taking home $100,000, $50,000, or $25,000 respectively, with 3 overall winners walking away an additional $150,000, $50,000, or $25,000.
The top winner overall was SweetDreams, an app that helps you send late night calls straight to voicemail and automatically conserves battery power by turning off features like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi at night. Second overall was What the Doodle!?, an app that’s like an online multiplayer version of Pictionary. And third prize overall went to WaveSecure, a security/backup app that lets you track your phone’s current location, lock it down or remote wipe your phone, and backup/restore data. → Read More
I’m pretty sure I wrote the complete opposite story several days ago, but who cares, right? It’s cold and rainy and there’s not much else to talk about. So! As you’re probably well aware, Jay Leno’s new show isn’t doing too well. Why is that? Well, you can try to sit down and analyze if the show is any good or not (note: I haven’t seen the show), or if the show’s earlier time slot isn’t conducive to that type of show. You know, just try to examine what’s going on. That, or you can blame those damn DVRs for ruining everything. Let’s go with that one. → Read More
[Finland/Norway] UK-based MP3 music download service 7digital has opened two new stores in Europe.
As of today, music fans in Finland and Norway can download tracks from 7digital’s catalogue of over 8 million “high quality” (320kbps) MP3s. This brings the total number of countries where the company operates to 16.
7digital won’t be the only one to benefit as its various partners will also now be able to offer downloads in those two countries. One of those partners, of course, is the much hyped music streaming service Spotify, which conveniently counts both Finland and Norway as two of only six European countries where it currently operates. Perhaps this played a part in 7digital’s Nordic expansion? Other partners include Last.fm and AOL’s Winamp application. → Read More
[UK] There were some interesting panel discussion today at the NOAH conference – a new event in London aimed at presented tech companies to the private equity and banking sector – but the plethora of suited and booted attendees were shocked out of their chairs a little when Klaus Hommels, (one of the first angel investors in Skype, QXL and XING and recently a venture partner with Balderton (formerly Benchmark Capital Europe) spoke his mind.
The panel he was on had been beating about the bush on investing in tech startups, until he broke into the discussion to make some salient points:
“Whenever we want to grow we are too reliant on US companies and too reliant again when we want to sell.”
In other words, European companies have to use US platforms and ad networks like Google to ‘get out there’ and US companies to sell to. → Read More
Finally an answer to the age-old question of what can be done to improve skateboards and/or make them more dangerous. Hammacher Schlemmer’s doozy, “The 19 MPH Skateboard” is the answer. → Read More
At the first ever outing of the brand new (and quite high level) NOAH Conference in London a clutch of European companies, most mid-to-late stage startups, set out their wares to a broad range of European VCs, private equity people and bankers. Was it a pitch event? It was hard to say, but among them was a round-up from Shakil Khan, effectively Spotify’s consigliari, who wrapped up the company’s stats and opened the kimono a little on where it’s at.
The headline points from his talk were that we can, as we expected, see a US launch in Q1 2010 as well as a launch in Germany and China in Q1/2 (so no pressure then). Spotify will also extend from its existing handset deals into premium services on other platforms in 2010. They are talking to TV manufacturers about embedding Spotify into internet-enabled TV sets and Khan said they now get “a call a week” from games console makers which want to add Spotify to their service.
He also went through a round-up of its stats and model to date. → Read More
What a coup for Sony’s marketing men. The Royal Navy will be handing out PSPs to its sailors so that they can brush up on their maths and whatnot. The PSP was selected because it’ll work wonders in the closed, confined spaces of Navy quarters. → Read More
http://www.hulu.com/embed/wKIISFIj52iTmgKlYKUhHg James Cameron’s Avatar looks like it will be a fascinating film and this behind the scenes video really gives a good look at the technology behind it. It’s 10 minutes long, but worth it. I’m actually getting excited about this one. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
