If you’ve ever tried searching the web for financial advice, you probably know just how much junk there is out there. Sure, there may be a few diamonds in the rough, but oftentimes the best results go to the finance ‘experts’ who are good at SEO – not the ones who know what they’re talking about. Investimonials is a new site launching this week that’s looking to offer an unbiased view of the variety of financial brokers, services, videos, and books out there. And to do that, it’s turning to the site’s community to submit their own reviews (it’s essentially a TripAdvisor for financial goods).
The new site was founded by Timothy Sykes, a controversial financial expert who was named to Trader Monthly’s 2006 “Top 30 under 30″ and had a once-successful hedge fund that shut down in 2007 after taking heavy losses. Since then, though, he’s mounted a comeback and is now one of Covestor’s top ranked traders (though some people aren’t fans of his tactics). → Read More
Video game online network Machinima.com has raised $1.7 million in funding from previous backer MK Capital. According to reports, this is being considered an add-on to Machinima’s previous round in November, with the possibility of upping the amount to $2.5 million if needed. → Read More
I have something to admit: I’ve never been a big extension guy. When I was still using Firefox, I liked them, but the downside, browser bloat, turned me away. But now that we’re starting to see the first steps of true extension support in Chrome, I think I could be swayed.
While people have been developing extensions for Chrome for a little while now, none were officially supported. But now that Google is reaching out to developers to start making these for real, we’re already hearing about some good ones. One such one was sent to us tonight by Aviary, makers of browser-based creativity tools. → Read More
Unless your gloves are made of human flesh, in which case oh my god, then you probably have to take them off when you need to make a call or launch an app on your fancy iPhone or myTouch. I tend to use my nose when it’s too cold to take off my gloves, but only when no one’s around. I suppose I could just sew in a couple strands of conductive thread, as described in this little project, but then… oh, wait. There’s no downside at all. → Read More
You wouldn’t think quieter cars would be a problem, but then again, you’re probably not blind. Hybrids and electrics make so little noise that they pose a serious risk to blind people, who often use the sound of a car passing to determine whether it’s safe to cross the road. Nissan’s Leaf, it was announced, will make a “beautiful and futuristic” noise at low speeds so that unaware pedestrians won’t get run down.
Good, but any noise, however beautiful, may become a bother if you hear it all the damn time. So Chevy has stated that its noise, “a series of low horn audio signals,” will be driver-controlled. I have to say, I’m glad of that, because “a series of low horn audio signals” sounds like it’d really bug me. → Read More
Black Friday is just two days away. If you have what it takes to wake up at the crack of dawn, brave the crowds, and spot the best deals, there are plenty of savings to be had. Here’s a quick list of some of the best deals from the most popular product categories being offered by brick-and-mortar stores, followed by a few prestigious awards that have been given to various retailers. → Read More
There are few things more terrifying to me than the idea of going anywhere near a shopping establishment on Black Friday. But if I lived in New York City, I think I would this year because Google, Verizon, Reuters, and R/GA are teaming up to take over the largest displays on Times Square to allow for a giant Google Search by voice experiment/Droid advertisement.
What does this mean? On Black Friday, anyone who calls 888-376-4336 and does a Google Search by voice, will see their results displayed on either the Reuters sign or the NASDAQ sign in Times Square. So, if you say something like “new Jonas Brothers CD,” the display will come up with a giant Google Map complete with signs showing you where you can find that. Also included is the embarrassment that everyone in Times Square has just seen what ridiculous thing you are searching for. → Read More
Another week, another Zero Punctuation. Not surprisingly, this week has Yahtzee taking on Modern Warfare 2. In a nutshell, he finds the gameplay a mixed bag, co-op fun as hell, and the plot and controversy beyond ridiculous. That sounds about right. → Read More
The nostalgic gamer — you know the type. Maybe you are the type (I’m definitely the type). The nostalgic gamer is in his or her late twenties to early thirties, was brought up on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and sometimes longs for the good old days when controllers featured only a few buttons (at most). Here’s a list of gift ideas for the nostalgic gamer. → Read More
Last month we saw the launch of TechCrunch50 winner RedBeacon, the startup that lets you book local service providers directly from the web. Today it’s getting some strong competition from a new startup called Thumbtack, a local service booking engine that’s looking to offer both a comprehensive directory of providers and a greater degree of trust than you can find elsewhere.
Featurewise, Thumbtack is a mix between RedBeacon, Yelp, and OpenTable. Like RedBeacon, it lets you sign onto the site and issue a request for a service, which service providers can then bid on. CEO Marco Zappacosta says this portion of the service is nearly identical to RedBeacon, complete with a bidding engine for providers to set pricing. → Read More
We like to keep an eye on the adoption of mobile video broadcasting applications around these parts. It’s a mighty competitive space, with Qik, Kyte, Flixwagon, Ustream and a number of others all taking a stab at what is essentially the same idea. While the idea as a whole has yet to really take off as something that everyone does, its one that just about everyone seems to appreciate once it’s explained to them. Therein lies the challenge: how do you tell people that such services exist? One approach is to get it on the handsets right out of the box. If it’s hard to get them to come to you, why not go to them? → Read More
Black Friday is almost here. It’s a great time to score some deals, but don’t go at it willy-nilly. Follow these 5 simple Black Friday rules to avoid the scams and wasting time. → Read More
[UK] Business social network LinkedIn has hit a milestone in the UK, surpassing 3 million registered users in these parts. Kevin Eyres, Managing Director Europe at LinkedIn, announced the feat at a London event last night and on the company’s blog this morning.
LinkedIn founder and chairman Reid Hoffman attended the event as well, and told Reuters afterwards that the company plans to pursue an IPO at some point, but not any time soon. → Read More
The brains behind Yahoo Boss, a young engineer named Vik Singh, is leaving Yahoo to become an entrepreneur-in-residence at Sutter Hill Ventures. Earlier this year, Singh was named to Technology Review’s 35 Under 35 list at the age of 24. Singh is exactly the kind of talent Yahoo should be trying to hold onto, but that is hard to do now that it is ceding search to Microsoft.
Singh is more diplomatic. Contacted for comment he confirms, “I’ll be starting next week actually. I’m really pumped but I’m going to definitely miss Yahoo! It’s been such a great company to work at but I just got this really bad case of the entrepreneurial bug.” → Read More
After a clean OS install, Steam is the third thing I load on the PC, after only Chrome and Photoshop. It has became the center of my gaming life and now Dell has worked a dell with the company to have the digital delivery manager pre-installed on all Alienware systems. Just think, Steam is non-spyware or bloatware software pack that will probably be installed on the Alienware rig anyway. Maybe Dell is starting to get it. → Read More
Apple has been fighting for a permanent injunction against Psystar, preventing the company from selling Hackintoshen and their Rebel EFI software. The company has been accused of “trafficking in circumvention devices.” → Read More
As part of its push to go more social, Google has been attempting to unify its various account profiles into one Google Profile. And now it’s more useful. Google’s Brad Fitzpatrick has just tweeted out that Google Profiles can now be used as OpenIDs.
What this means is that you can sign into any site that accepts OpenID simply by using your Google Profile domain. Luckily, a few months ago Google started allowing these profiles to have vanity URLs, like /mgsiegler, instead of the previous /32090329039402903. Chris Messina, a huge proponent of the open web movement, has just sent out a picture of what signing in with OpenID via your Google Profile looks like (below). → Read More
[UK] Startup Weekend is the 58 hour-long conference where attendees made up of “developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists, and more” don’t just talk, they actually build something. The projects, of which nine were completed at the London event last week, are developed over a very long weekend – presumably sleep is optional – and some go on to form actual companies.
It’s all pretty exciting stuff and makes me hark back to my days at university where we’d occasionally pull an ‘all-night-er’. But this seems much more real as it has the potential to create genuine startups and in turn possibly change lives. It sounds like a lot more fun too. On that note, here’s a quick run down of the projects that this year’s Startup Weekend London produced. → Read More
Remember the iTwinge, that crazy slide-on plastic sheath for the iPhone that would give you a physical keyboard by overlaying real buttons on top of the virtual ones? The 4iThumbs keypad is just like that, except it’s clear, rather than opaque black. Oh, and it requires you to stick a bunch of adhesive crap all over your iPhone. Good idea? Bad idea? I’ll leave that call up to you – I’m too distracted by their waaaay cheesy commercial (starring not-Justin-Long and not-John-Hodgeman) to think about it. Word? Word. One more video after the jump. [Via EngadgetMobile] → Read More
