It’s as though He came down and said to MobileCrunch: “Ask and you shall receive.” We asked for this device just under a month ago and whoopee — ThinkFlood has delivered. Specifically, we wanted a universal remote because why the hell should we be using regular remotes anymore? ThinkFlood’s RedEye remote system fits the bill, works well, and is loaded with features, but it comes with a price tag of $188. The average universal remote is $150 so the price isn’t too bad, but at the same time, it does utilize the iPhone’s touchscreen and hardware to power the remote (read: shouldn’t it be cheaper?). The RedEye remote may be a solid option for those who are already looking for a universal remote and don’t already have one. At the same time, at a lower price point, I could see this going from a nice-to-have for iPhone owners to a must-have, given the quality of the device. I’m still putting the RedEye through a variety of well-thought-out (not) and rigorous (not) tests, so we’ll hold off for a full review. For now, hit the jump for more pictures and impressions. → Read More
You’ll recall that there was a bit of a buzz a few years ago about a fat-fighting robot named Autom designed to sit on your counter and convince you not to eat that last slice of pizza. Well, the old girl is almost ready for production and should be arriving next Fall. Autom, in her first incarnation, looked a bit weird and was basically a fancy computer case. Now, however, this thing is like a fat-fighting Furby with expressive eyes and a cute little mouth that definitely wouldn’t ever eat the last slice of pie, unlike me. → Read More
Well Windows 7 is out, the reviews are in, the service packs are starting to be worked on – that’s the end of it right? Wrong. Microsoft is already looking forward to the next generation of its OS, Windows 8. → Read More
Startup InfoDome has recently launched to help small and medium-sized businesses develop online databases easily and painlessly. True Ventures backed-InfoDome lets users create online databases by scratch or by using the startup’s customized templates.
Users can import data from Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, FilemakerPro, Word and other applications. The browser-based platform lets administrators share forms and reports with specific users and features easy to use drag and drop tools to create forms and reports. → Read More
Developers take note: if you’ve got a mashup built off of Craigslist’s data, don’t even think about showing it to anyone who works there. At least, that’s the lesson learned by developer Romy Maxwell, who says that Craigslist has blocked both his mashup and every single project built on Yahoo Pipes a few days after a friendly Email exchange he had with Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.
Maxwell is one of the developers behind a new mashup called Flippity, which lets you plot Craigslist listings on a map. In a blog post, Maxwell writes that he had been having an Email exchange with Newmark over the last few weeks, during which Maxwell asked if the techniques employed by his project would be acceptable under Craigslist’s restrictive Terms of Use.
Newmark replied that “as a rule of thumb, [it's] okay to use RSS feeds for noncommercial purposes.” Since the project used RSS feeds and was non-commercial, that seemed to indicate that the project would be OK. → Read More
If you’ve been waiting for some way to put your low- to middling-resolution videos onto a big TV, your prayers have been answered. Flip, through their mouthpiece Walt Mossberg, just dumped out a big bucket of howsyerfather and announced the Flipshare for all to enjoy. → Read More
If you’re worried about the amount of energy your monitor is drawing, you’re probably nuts, since your PC draws ten times that, but if you must indulge your inner environmentalist, this line of displays from NEC should suffice. They’re LED-backlit, which I suspect accounts for all the savings. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s the case. → Read More
Short Version: Equal parts backup battery and iPhone dock, Dexim’s $55 P-Flip Foldable Power Dock serves as a nice daily desk accessory and then easily pulls double duty as a portable travelling companion. → Read More
There should be a contest. If you can go to a bar wearing this shirt (or, say, that one Wi-Fi detecting one) and successfully pick up a member of the opposite sex, you get… I don’t know, a better shirt. → Read More
Venture capitalists like to hire well known entrepreneurs and executives as “entrepreneurs in residence.” These are short term jobs, a place for someone to park themselves for up to a year or so after they’ve sold their company or otherwise have moved on. They sit in on pitch meetings, advise partners and portfolio companies, and plan their next move. And the VC generally, but not contractually, gets first dibs to invest in their next gig.
Sometimes people get creative with their titles - Jason Calacanis was called an Entrepreneur In Action during his stay at Sequoia Capital in 2006-2007, but his job was essentially the same.
Bessemer Venture Partners is expanding the idea further, and are adding what they’re calling a Designer In Residence. Jason Putorti, former lead designer at Mint (now a subsidiary of Intuit), is the guy they hired for the job. → Read More
Xirrus, a provider of enterprise Wi-Fi, has recieved $20 million in a funding round led by InterWest Partners, bringing the total investment in the company to $80 million. Xirrus is also backed by August Capital, US Venture Partners, Canaan Partners and QuestMark Partners.
The company aims to replace ethernet in the enterprise, resulting in reduced setup and usage costs for corporate networks. Xirrus has been especially active gaining traction in the university market in the last year. Xirrus constructs Wi-Fi Arrays that improve coverage and performance. → Read More
Aravo, a SAAS supplier chain management tool just raised a whopping $27 million in Series D funding led by Cisco, with other investors participating. In addition, Cisco’s web meeting and collaboration platform, WebEx, will be integrated with Aravo’s Supplier Information Management (SIM) to facilitate real-time collaboration between buyers and suppliers.
This latest investment brings Aravo’s total funding to $50 million. Investors that participated in the latest round Big Sky Partners, Stephen Friedman and William Harrison. Aravo says the new funding will be used to develop new products and to expand sales, marketing, and delivery channels. As part of the agreement, Aravo will work closely with Cisco to power and enhance Cisco WebEx. Aravo’s software includes options to track ISO certifications, sustainability initiatives, and risk analysis. → Read More
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has just written an open letter to Facebook users regarding a privacy overhaul that is due to hit the site in the next few weeks. Soon, users will be able to selectively choose, on a per-post basis, who can see the content they post to the site. Facebook is also going to remove regional networks entirely, largely because some of those networks (like China) consist of millions of users, which makes them useless from a privacy standpoint. If these changes sound familiar, it’s because Facebook actually announced them way back in July. Zuckerberg also notes that Facebook now has 350 million users — it has added a whopping 50 million of them in the last two and a half months.
Alongside the regional network change, privacy controls will be simplified. As Facebook rolls out the new privacy settings, users will be presented with a page designed to walk them through the new options. Depending on your current privacy level, Facebook will make recommendations, though you’ll be able to change them as usual. → Read More
That’s lovely. It’s actually an art installation by Maisie Broadhead, not just somebody’s house, but I’m going to keep it in mind next time I have to snake some speaker wire across the room. [via Curbly and Make] → Read More
Today, the FTC held a hearing on the crisis in the (print) news publishing industry, which gave Rupert Murdoch yet another opportunity to publicly call out Google about its supposedly thieving ways. Google’s response: Hey, we send out 4 billion clicks a month to news sites. If you don’t now what to do with all that traffic, it’s not our fault. (I’m paraphrasing).
But Google also gave a concession to news publishers who have been complaining loudly about the backdoor to subscription-protected sites that is Google News. For instance, you can read WSJ.com stories for free if you search for them on Google News and then click through. News Corp, the owner of the Wall Street Journal, knows this, but allows it because otherwise Google won’t index its site and then it will lose 25 percent of its traffic.
Now Google is allowing publishers to opt into a First Click Free program, which should actually be called the First Five Clicks Are Free. A news site now can limit the number of free clicks from Google News for any individual to five a day. → Read More
http://media.rockstargames.com/products/rockstar/mediaplayer/RockstarMediaPlayer.swf?skin=reddeadredemption/EN/embed&vidID=203&cacheAG=true Things are a little bit crazy here today. The biggest problem is that, oh, 40 percent of our posts aren’t posting when we schedule them to. It’s an aggravation that we really all could do without. But moving on, we have a new trailer from Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption. We also have a release date: April 27, 2010 for North America, and three days later everywhere else. What do I know about Red Dead Redemption? Very little, to be honest. We speculated that East Side Dave would be in the game, but there’s zero evidence to that effect. → Read More
It’s too early to say whether Natal and the PS3 wand are going to be as fun as everyone hopes, but at least it’s not going to be a dry launch. In fact, it seems like developers are lining up around the block to take a crack at the new control methods.
I don’t know about you, but I find that refreshing. Just as long as it’s not Halo Natal. → Read More
[UK] Ipadio has announced that its live phonecasting service – not dissimilar to AudioBoo – will be utilised by a newly launched Facebook app as part of Sport England’s campaign to get more people to play sport in the run up to the London 2012 Olympics.
The new Facebook tool, dubbed ‘Community Sport Hub’, enables sports governing bodies to “engage” with the 20 million plus people who use the social networking site in the UK, and in particular to organise and market grassroots sporting events. Ipadio will be used by the Hub to offer live commentary and other audio experiences, such as opinion pieces and interviews, through the ability to broadcast live from a standard phone over the web or by streaming and/or uploading recordings using ipadio’s iPhone and android apps. → Read More
Experian Hitwise just released its Cyber Monday stats, with Amazon reportedly topping the list as the most visited retail website yesterday, seeing a 44% increase in visits compared to 2008. Amazon received 15.53% of the visits among the top 500 online retail sites. Hitwise says Amazon has been the top visited site on Cyber Monday since 2006.
Hitwise reports that among the top 500 retail websites, the percentage of U.S. online visits were down 9%o n Cyber Monday in 2009 compared to Cyber Monday 2008. Wal-Mart was the second most visited with 9.54% of visits followed by Target with 5.16%. BestBuy was the fourth most visited with 3.56% followed by JC Penney with 2.58 %. Walmart took the top spot for the most visited online site on Thanksgiving Day this year, according to Hitwise but Amazon edged out Walmart on Black Friday. This is the fifth year in a row that Wal-Mart was the top visited site on Thanksgiving Day. → Read More
Available starting today, the $30 Energizer Flat Panel 2X Charging System from Performance Designed Products is an inexpensive, quick, and cool way to juice up your Wii remotes. → Read More
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