In this decade the Internet replaced television as our primary mode of disseminating culture. Many people are more familiar with Antoine Dodson’s “Hide your kids/Hide your wife” than any catchphrase currently on television (Remember the days of being able to say stuff you heard on TV like “No soup for you” or “Don’t have a cow, man” and have other people actually get what you mean?).
There’s only so many times you can write posts around the theme “Hey, the Internet is now important” without inciting commenter revolt or a punch in the face. But the sheer number of meme round-ups found online today is testament to the fact that the web has won. So instead of making a list of my favorites, I’ll post some of the best lists of memes out there. Because I can and because it’s the only way to win. And because, like any connoisseur of memes knows, you can’t have viral culture without recursion. → Read More
There’s a scene in Iron Man 2 in which Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) shows off the mechanical soliders he has been working on — his would-be “Iron Man-killers”. Unfortunately, while they may look somewhat impressive, his machines malfunction and the demo goes horribly awry. His knock-offs are junk. This scene reminds me a lot of what the first Android phone, the G1, was like when compared to the iPhone. Luckily for Google, things have improved substantially since then — and without the help of a Russian Mickey Rourke. Well, presumably anyway.
We’ve already done a big, comprehensive review of the Nexus S, the latest and greatest Android device. But as I like to do (see: the bottom of this post), I’m going to look at it from the angle of an iPhone diehard. After all, this is widely considered to be the best Android device yet. So will it be enough to make any iPhone user jump ship? And since this is currently the only device running Android 2.3 “Gingerbread”, what’s the overall state of the OS?
First of all, the Nexus S is a great smartphone. I’ve been using it for a little over two weeks now and I think I can safely say that in a world where there was no iPhone, this is the device I would use. While I like a number of fundamental things about Windows Phone more, Android is more mature. And more importantly, the ecosystem is far more built-out. Plus, the Google apps on the device are enough to entice anyone. → Read More
There are rumors going around right now that Sony is going to make a play for IMAX. Since IMAX is a major (so to speak) venue for 3D films, it makes some sense, and the sale would put Sony in control of a large amount of high-profile theaters around the country. How does that sound to you? Not so good? Yeah, same here. → Read More
Lots of companies are getting in the flexible display R&D, but few have actually shown anything but prototypes. That’s not likely to change at CES this year, but we may see a few new items; Samsung is now showing off a 4.5″ AMOLED display that’s both flexible and transparent. Nice! → Read More
A couple of days ago Reddit user Jeff Ubelhor was talking to his friends about something or other and Space Jam, the movie starring Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan, came up (he swears they weren’t stoned). They checked on the website and realized that it hadn’t been touched since 1996. “From there I decided to post it on Reddit,” says Ubelhor “Because I thought it was hilarious, not only the design, but just how different Internet marketing was 14 years ago.” → Read More
A few hours to go until 2011, and I’m busy drawing up my list of New Year’s resolutions. A major one: to stop writing about TechCrunch commenters. After all, to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, it’s like wrestling with a pig: you both get dirty and the pig enjoys it.
Still, that leaves me just enough time – eight hours, and counting – to sneak in one last journey over to the dark side. And perhaps it’s fitting that the final salvo in my war against trolls has a happy ending. A Christmas miracle, even. → Read More
The Olympus E-PL2 is due to hit retailers soon, and we’re starting to see pictures of the accessories that will be available. Sure, there’s the standard fisheye, macro, and wide angle lenses; but what other camera has lights on flexible arms? → Read More
Facebook just released some raw statistics from its progress this last year. They pretty much speak for themselves. This was a random 20min snapshot from one point in time. But what stands out perhaps is in one 20 minute block there were 1,851,000 Status updates (just status updates, not comments). In other words, that would be not too far ahead of Twitter’s realtime status update stream which we understand is near 100 million updates every 20 minutes. Here are the rest: Relationship Statuses in 2010: 43,869,800 changed their status to single 3,025,791 changed their status to “it’s complicated” 28,460,516 changed their status to in a relationship 5,974,574 changed their status to engaged 36,774,801 changes their status to married What 20 minutes on Facebook looks like: Shared links: 1,000,000 every 20 minutes Tagged photos: 1,323,000 Event invites sent out: 1,484,000 Wall Posts: 1,587,000 Status updates: 1,851,000 Friend requests accepted: 1,972,000 Photos uploaded: 2,716,000 Comments: 10,208,000 Messages: 4,632,000 Likes: 7,657,000 Most Liked Celebrities: Lady Gaga – 24,712,169 people like this. Eminem – 23,729,700 people like this. Megan Fox – 19,575,080 people like this. Vin Diesel – 19,425,325 people like this. Rihanna – 18,903,844 people like this Barack Obama – 17,229,885 people like this. Bob Marley – 17,168,034 people like this. Lil Wayne – 17,004,850 people like this. Justin Bieber – 16,779,874 people like this Shakira – 16,520,790 people like this. CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
It’s time for a special New Years-themed edition of OMG/JK, and we’ve really gone all out with our costumes. From shiny hats to incredibly cheap kazoos, we’re ready to ring in 2011 with a bang. Oh, and we’ve got some technology to talk about.
Because there hasn’t been much major news in the tech world this week, we decided to spend most of the show discussing some of the big trends that are inevitably going to make headlines throughout 2011. From Apple’s likely push to the cloud to the consumer launch of ChromeOS and Android’s arrival on tablets we’ve got a lot to look forward to — and we’re not afraid to make some predictions. → Read More
Been hoping to play a little Xenogears or Vagrant Story, but don’t want to drag out your old PS One? Well, you’re very lazy and should be ashamed of yourself. But soon it won’t matter, because these classics are coming to the PS3 as downloadable PSN games. → Read More
The State Ministry of Industry in China has “outlawed” VoIP calling, suggesting workers use good old China telecom for their important calls out into the Capitalist wilds. According to a report, the ministry suggested that 30 million current users are using “illegal VoIP operators” and they have been given a number to call to report use of VoIP in their neighborhoods. → Read More
After the last two epic Star Wars prequel reviews, you know what you’re getting into: an at-length breakdown of everything that went wrong with Episode III. Watch it before you go out tonight so you can be the one who’s seen it. Because that’s cool, or something? Why would I recommend that? [again via Metafilter] → Read More
It’s New Year’s Eve, and there’s nothing that compliments a glass of celebratory champagne better than reflecting on the past year in technology news (really, it’s a blast). One of the best roundups just went up over on Techmeme, which has posted its annual “quasi-objective” list of the top 50 stories based how many links and citations each post received.
The top five stories shouldn’t come as a surprise, but they’re a good reminder of what’s gone on this year (apparently people like to write about Google and Apple):
At this point, Verizon’s upcoming 4G-friendly Android phone, the HTC Thunderbolt, is about as secret as my undying love for oxygen. While its gone by different names over time (from the Incredible HD, to “Mecha”, to the current Thunderbolt moniker), we’ve seen leak, after leak, after leak with this thing. One thing, however, has managed to remain elusive: the spec sheet. In some sort of belated Christmas miracle, it looks like that might have just made its way out. → Read More
It’s New Year’s Eve and you know what that means — an adult beverage or two might be had by many people around the world this evening. That includes many TechCrunch staffers. And while drunk blogging is generally frowned upon, it would be interesting to see what the site would look like if everyone wrote while intoxicated. (Yes, yes, insert the NOT THAT DIFFERENT joke here.) Luckily, Zaraguza Digital has created a web app to allow us to see such a site without any of the risk (or the hangover).
Simply visit this link and start moving the slider along the bottom to set the blood alcohol level. Obviously, at 0.0, things look normal. At 0.5, things look fine for the most part with a few more typos. At about 1.5 to 2.0 things start getting fun. And clearly, our developers would be getting in on some hardcore drunk coding action as well. → Read More
Duke Nukem Forever has popped up on Amazon and GameStop with a May 31, 2011 release date. Considering both pre-order pages are linked from the official Duke Nukem Forever Web site there’s probably a good chance that the game will be spinning inside your 360/PS3 on (or by) that date. → Read More
It’s easy to understad Roger Ebert’s position that games aren’t art when you realize that he once became addicted to TMNT on the NES, arguably one of the hardest and, I believe, worst games on the platform.
In this video clip from the Siskel & Ebert 1989 gift guide, Ebert reported that he “started playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with it. And after a while, after a week of this, I’d find that every time I had a spare moment and every time I came home, I was in front of the set playing with these mutant turtles.” You see, for a week, Ebert was basically a 12-year-old boy. → Read More
If you start a company, it will probably happen to you someday. Maybe it will be your VC or a board member. Maybe it will be your co-founder.
Sooner or later, they’ll try to fire you.
I’m an investor in or advisor to dozens of startups, and at least once a quarter, I get the call: “Chris, they’re trying to fire me.” (The other urgent call I get is when they’re negotiating a financing round, merger, or sale. I much prefer those calls!)
Most entrepreneurs are surprised the first time their investors or co-founders try to fire them. They can’t imagine being banished from the company that they created. Maybe they were the only employee of the company for years. Maybe they recruited and courted the very person who comes to carry out the execution.
The sad fact is, founder firings are the rule, not the exception. → Read More
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