Mobile search and general Web search are two different beasts, especially when it comes to voice search, which is becoming increasingly popular. The list of the top ten mobile voice searches below by mobile voice app startup Vlingo confirms that people are much more action-oriented when they are on the go. The top search, curiously, is “YouTube,” which suggests more people than you might think are watching videos on their phones. But the next two, “Facebook” and “MySpace,” are social networks, suggesting that people want to stay connected to their friends on the go, which is what phones were originally intended to do. “Twitter” is No. 6 on the list.
Facebook and Twitter are also on Google’s list of top searches for 2009, but that list is dominated more by news, entertainment, and celebrity related searches such as “Michael Jackson,” “New Moon,” and “Lady Gaga.” The Vlingo list is dominated by more specific, action-oriented searches such as “Weather” (Is it safe to go out?), “Movie Times” (What can I see right now?), “Yellow Pages” and “White Pages” (I need to call someone right now and want to avoid 411 fees). → Read More
A few months ago, Apple finally released a Genius feature for the App Store — something it had needed badly ever since the number of applications available spiraled into the tens of thousands (it’s now at around 120,000). The new Genius feature recommends applications that Apple thinks you’ll like based on your past choices, but it isn’t perfect. And Appsaurus, a new iPhone app launching today in the App Store for 99 cents, thinks that it can outsmart Apple’s built-in Genius.
Co-founder Luke Iannini says that Apple’s Genius for Apps doesn’t really have many advanced algorithms working in the background to determine what users will like. Instead, he says it’s based on a straightforward metric: when you choose an application to use as a seed, it takes the top ten applications other users who have that app installed are most likely to have. → Read More
Over the past 120 years, National Geographic Magazine has been one of the most important publications ever printed. From the insightful articles to the brilliant photography, NatGeo has been the benchmark that other magazines compare themselves to. Now, you can own a copy of every single issue without having to build a new addition to your house to store it. → Read More
On deviantART, the site for anyone who thinks they are an artist, member submissions are known as “deviations.” The site’s been around since 2000, attracts 33 million monthly visitors (comScore), and just recently passed its 100 millionth deviation. It is, appropriately enough, a short story about gay sex.
I could quote from it, but it is more of a deviation from good writing than anything else. I might as well just show the “Blizzard” drawing above featuring some sort of black unicorn frolicking in the snow with an arctic fox. How should I put this? There are some creations which are better left in a drawer and maybe shouldn’t be shared with the world. Seriously, would you pay $150 for a print of this drawing? → Read More
Forget the Academy Awards and the professional movie critics. Flixster users reviewed movies 55 million times in 2009, says the company, and they’ve released the top movies based on those ratings. At the top is Avatar with a 92% like rating (compared to 83% for the critics). Second is Star Trek with 91%, and The Blind Side comes in third with 90%.
The year’s lowest-rated movies were Whiteout (35%); Year One (32%); Dragonball Evolution (30%); Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (30%); and Transylmania (25%). I’d add Transformers 2 to that list of terrible movies, which is the top grossing film so far this year.
Here are the top ten: → Read More
So you’ve got a company without an all-that-recognizable name, and you really want to ramp it up. What do you do? Well, if you’re jWIN you buy some street cred by striking up a deal with Polaroid, making your products have a connection with a legacy of creativity and innovation that you had nothing to do with. → Read More
http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/897ed5ed Sit back and enjoy a trailer that shows a bit of gameplay of Borderland’s next DLC expansion, Mad Moxxi Underdome Riot. [via Joystiq] → Read More
Looks like 2010 is turning out to be the year of the e-book reader. I’m not sure at what point these are going to stop being news, but here we go again. Insdream is launching the SX601 which seems to borrow some significant design ideas from another rather popular e-book reader. The Insdream does use a different type of screen from the source material (can you say Kindle), but looks pretty much the same otherwise. → Read More
You remember OnLive. The service, which lets you play any game remotely on a distant server, has produced much skepticism and much interest, and is now in public beta. We got a good look at it back in March when we were at GDC, and it appears that things are much the same. However, the combination of crowd noise and my bad playing made for a less-than-optimal viewing experience. This video is much clearer and much longer (it’s essentially a guest lecture at Columbia), so if you’re still interested in the OnLive thing, it may be for you.
This video deals with some of the technical issues that have been brought up. I haven’t watched the whole thing (skipped around to get the interesting bits) but he does address some of the compression and packet loss issues they have to deal with. → Read More
So there’s actually two things to tell you about here; for one thing, you can play Tekken 3 on your HTC HD2 phone. That’s cool and all, but the big story is the emulator used to play it. The emulator, named FPSECE, not only supports the Playstation 1, but the touchscreen as well. → Read More
What do Thomas Siebel, Condoloeeza Rice and $26 million have in common? They are all connected to stealth energy startup C3, which may be entering the business of managing carbon cap-and-trade systems for corporations. In the past two weeks, C3 has filed three Form Ds with the SEC disclosing financings totaling almost $26M. Very little is known about the company publicly, and the company declines to comment on its future plans (or anything else). But from other publicly-available sources, an interesting story can be pieced together.
C3 is the brainchild of Thomas Siebel, former CEO of Siebel Systems which was bought by Siebel’s previous employer Oracle for $5.7 billion in 2005. Seibel has brought in a lot of familiar talent, including former Siebel Systems and Oracle executives Patricia House and Edward Abbo. House is a star, serving on a number of boards and in the past being named one of Fortune’s 50 most powerful women. Abbo is the former CTO of Seibel Systems, among other positions. The holdover team from Siebel, including its CTO, points towards enterprise software.
Also among the C3 board of directors are former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Senator and Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. Both are powerful Republicans, which comes as no surprise as Siebel played a role in introducing Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin to California. → Read More
Earlier this evening Gizmodo published leaked images that apparently show off the pricing details for Google’s upcoming Nexus One phone. The Nexus One comes in at a hefty $530 for an unlocked device, or $180 with contract on T-Mobile — pricing that’s pretty standard for a smart phone. But even still, it’s a very big deal. It also looks like Gizmodo’s screenshots may have included clues hinting at a previously unannounced feature for Android: automatic backup of your data.
Under the section for Optional Accessories, the Nexus One will apparently have a docking station available (as did the Droid). The description for the dock is as follows: “Charge your phone while streaming music and backing up your data“. → Read More
http://player.motionbox.com/VideoPlayer.swf? It’s not clear what level of approval this leaked video has from Microsoft, but my guess would be that there is plenty of testing like this going to to determine the feasibility of FPS games on Natal. If anything, it looks more awkward than playing with dual analog sticks, but given the right game design, it could work well. Something where precise movement is less important than intuitive interaction (the Penumbra series comes to mind) might just make this fly. → Read More
After our earlier post on the Nexus One, there was a lot of debate surrounding how much the thing would cost. It appears that this information is out there now. According to some leaked documents sent to Gizmodo, the Nexus One will be $529.99 unlocked and $179.99 if you sign up for a two-year T-Mobile contract (which runs $79.99 a month). This information is not 100% confirmed, but it looks and sounds pretty accurate.
So what does this mean? Well, at first glance, it’s pretty standard, really. For example, you can buy an iPhone without having to sign up for a contract, but it will cost you $599 or $699 depending on the storage size of the device. With a contract, those models run $199 and $299, respectively. The difference is that those phones, and many of the others you can buy without a contract, are still carrier-locked. That means that even if you buy them without a monthly contract, you will eventually have to sign-up for some kind of plan through that carrier, if you plan to use that device. That is, unless you plan to manually unlock it, something which in most cases voids the warranty — if it works at all. → Read More
It’s almost January 1st, 2010 and we’ve been mulling over our favorites of 2009 – and the previous decade. Here we present another installment of our “Of the Decade” lists. Winner Loser: Brick and mortar stores Once consumer trepidation regarding e-tailers wore off, it was really only a matter of time before physical stores with limited stock and pushy salespeople bit the dust. Among the fallen we have Circuit City, CompUSA, and Gateway stores among others. Sure, for sundries, your Wal-Mart and Big K are doing just fine, but they also sell sweaters and apples. Best Buy is doing all right, but they’re really the Alamo of tech retailers. Poor bastards know what’s coming to ‘em, too. → Read More
Two weeks ago, Apple opened the floodgates for video recording apps on the iPhone, ending a longstanding ban. Nobody was waiting longer for the change than mobile video startup Qik, which tonight is further building out its collection of iPhone apps with the launch of the Qik VideoCamera. The new app allows the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G to locally capture video — something that only the 3GS has been able to do until recently.
Qik has, of course, made its name building live streaming apps that allow users to broadcast their video directly from their phones to the web. Their live streaming app, which is called Qik Live, was released less than a week ago. → Read More
Cydle is launching their new in-car multimedia system at CES this January. Previously only available in South Korea, the Cydle P29 is a portable multimedia player with HD radio and subscription-free Mobile DTV. → Read More
Poke fun at this vintage computer sale all you want, but it’s actually not that bad of a deal for the right person. Think about it. What you’re getting for only $60 is a near-mint IBM PS/2 Model 60. Hook this puppy up and record your life just like the original blogger: Doogie Howser, M.D. Big pic after the jump. → Read More
A few of you may already know that Team Fortress 2 didn’t always look like Toy Story más violence, but for the unawares: it did. So, proof! A certain Curits Lassam, friend to all, found an old PC Gamer preview fromthe year two-thousand that described the game in its old, Counter-Strike-like art style. Yuck. → Read More
