Believe it or not, the current plan for the International Space Station is to abandon it in 2015 and let it crash into the atmosphere in 2016. Sad, right? But the ESA wants to keep it flying for a few more years to allow more scientist access to the zero-gravity labs. → Read More
We occasionally get offers for payments in exchange for posts on TechCrunch. Sometimes we post these offers to let the world know who’s out there trying to pay for coverage. Usually, though, we just delete them.
This is one of those times we’re going to post the exchange. Because Jon Atherton, the guy who created the Wobble iphone application (here’s a (unpaid of course) story we wrote about them last year), just won’t give up. His latest offer is $1,000 if we do a post promoting the new version of Wobble. Update: Atherton, posting under the name ‘The Real Jon Atherton’, says that someone was impersonating him in the e-mail conversation below, and that they’ve done it before. See his full comment here.
Most of the exchange is below. Atherton first offered $300 for a post, then moved it up to $1,000 after we declined. He promised it “will NOT look like a paid-for article” and “if well treated by you on TC i’m willing to make the payment asap.” → Read More
[UK] In case you weren’t already convinced by the level of pent up demand for an alternative to O2′s iPhone monopoly in the UK, more evidence comes from Vodafone today. The mobile operator has begun selling the iPhone 3G and 3GS, including shipping 50,000 units to customers who have pre-ordered.
That’s a pretty healthy number for Day One but it doesn’t look quite so impressive when compared to the number of pre-orders – 65,000 – that Orange is said to have clocked up in its first few days after announcing it would offer the device. It’s likely that Vodafone, initially at least, has been impacted by Orange breaking O2′s monopoly first and, perhaps crucially, in time for the holiday season. Especially since there is little to distinguish all three offerings price-wise. Apple still commands an unprecedented amount of control over the iPhone brand and pricing. The retail monopoly has been broken by the supply monopoly remains nicely intact. → Read More
Shocking news, friends. You know the guy who plays Edward in Twilight, Robert Pattison? (Note: I didn’t know the guy until just this very moment. I don’t watch TV, you see.) Well if Sony has its way he will play Peter Parker in the new Spider-Man 4 movie. You’ll recall that the new movie is going to be a reboot of the franchise (why not just let the franchise die, it had a good run?), and this guy is Hollywood’s new “in” guy, so he’s been tapped to take Tobey Maguire’s old role. → Read More
If you’re an Android handset owner who happens to double as a Rhapsody customer, you might have spent the last few months feeling like you’ve been left out in the cold; more specifically, you might be a bit chuffed that the iPhone has a Rhapsody application while Android phones don’t. We’d heard tales that Rhapsody was all set to launch for Android by the end of 2009, but, as anyone with a calendar could tell you, that just didn’t happen. It may be a bit later than we expected, but Rhapsody took their first big step into the Android-waters just minutes ago by launching the Rhapsody for Android Beta program. → Read More
Way to go, President Obama! Thanks to your bold and forward-thinking policies, the Doomsday Clock has been moved back by one minute! That means Planet Earth is “one minute” further away from utter destruction! Well, destruction brought about by man himself; an asteroid can still smash into the planet and we’d all be doomed. Or, as we’ve seen in Haiti this week, some other cataclysm can strike and we’d have zero control over it. → Read More
With the location-based social networks starting to take off in usage, the next step for them is to try and become platforms. That way, they stand a better chance of continuing to remain as independent properties when the big boys like Facebook enter the location ring. Foursquare got an early start on this by releasing their API in November. And now Gowalla is about to do the same.
In a post on their blog, Gowalla’s Josh Williams notes that the first version of the API is “nearly complete” and that they will be making an announcement about it in the “very near future.” Leading up to that, the service is taking some steps to ensure that user privacy is maintained as third-party services start getting access to their data. To that end, Gowalla notes that if you choose to turn your Passport Privacy on, your check-ins will not register in the public feeds for places and not register in Gowalla’s Top 10 lists. This setting will still be set to off by default, Williams notes. → Read More
This has got to be one of the fastest exits we’ve seen for a while. Simplified online CV builder CeeVee has actually now been sold after only launching into a public beta in July last year. Then again, it was only started by Romania-based and British ex-pat entrepreneur Lee Wilkins as a pet project.
Lateral Romania, a technology software provider, has acquired the site. Terms were undisclosed. Lateral runs sites like Jobberbase.com (open-source job board software) and job aggregators Job-job.co.uk, Jobjob.ro and Jobber.ro (an IT specialist recruitment website in Romania). → Read More
Yahoo has announced that Ernst & Young vet Sue James (real name Susan M. James), was elected to the company’s Board of Directors. James is a financial expert who can look back on a very long career at E&Y: she spent the past 35 years working for the auditor.
James was also named Chair of the Yahoo Board’s Audit Committee. → Read More
Uh oh, Motorola Droid – you better look out! The Nexus One is going to cut you — Wait, no, that’s not right. The Nexus One is going to snag one of your flagship features. I always get those two mixed up. → Read More
March 9 is slowly creeping up on us, which means we’ll all be sitting on our coaches and playing Final Fantasy XIII until the wee hours of the morning. To keep us busy, Square just released a new trailer set to the game’s main theme, “My Hands,” performed by Leona Lewis. (At least I think that’s the main theme.) This trailer features the English voice cast, so put on your headphones and take it all in! → Read More
I’ve personally taken Amtrak’s high-speed Acela line between Boston and New York more times than I can remember. At 3.5 hours, it’s roughly the same amount of time you’d spend jumping through hoops at the airport but it’s a far less abrasive experience overall. The inclusion of free Wi-Fi ought to add yet another compelling reason to choose trains over planes. → Read More
The race to become the hot location-based gaming service is red hot right now. Foursquare and Gowalla dominate the headlines, but another iPhone app, MyTown, has managed to rocket past them in usage in a little over a month with little fanfare. Today, the service has some 500,000 users, co-founder Keith Lee tells us. That puts it far ahead of either of the two more well-covered apps.
So how did MyTown manage to do that? There are a few reasons, but the main one may be the background of the creators. Lee along with his co-founders Brian Morrisroe and Sam Christiansen all have extensive experience in the gaming industry. In fact, all three did significant work for Blizzard Entertainment for a number of years, serving in key roles to build the Diablo and World of Warcraft franchises. From there, they decided to take their expertise to form their own company, Booyah (parent of MyTown), and work on location-based mobile gaming. → Read More
The Samsung NX-10 was just an Internet rumor for half of 2009, but Samsung finally made it official last week at CES. The camera is a lot like the micro four-thirds format with a compact image sensor and body, along with interchangeable lens. But as fototrend.hu’s review shows, the camera isn’t nearly as compact as the Olympus E-P1. But it also has a built-in rangefinder and and flash so I guess it’s a trade-off. → Read More
There are hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of D.I.Y articles on the internet, some more useful than others. I read maybe a dozen or so a day, solely for the sake of expanding my knowledge bank of obscure solutions. Every once in a while, one sprouts up that is just so damned simple, so face-palmingly obvious, that it makes me feel downright stupid for not thinking of it. This is one of those. → Read More
With no fanfare to speak of, Segway Inc, the company behind the gyroscope-powered, self balancing scooters, has been acquired by a UK-based firm. The news was first reported this morning by Mass High Tech, and has since been confirmed on Segway’s official blog. Segway has also confirmed that CEO James Norrod is no longer with the company. According to a forum post, the new CEO is Tricia Laidler.
Segway’s post indicates that the company is now owned by a UK-based firm backed by an investor in Segway U.K., which is independently owned.
Segway Inc. is pleased to announce that in connection with a merger that occurred on December 24, 2009, Segway was acquired by a company that is based in the United Kingdom. The acquiring company is backed by Jimi Heselden, a prominent U.K. businessman and the Chairman of Hesco Bastion. Mr. Heselden is also an investor in the independently owned Segway U.K. distributorship.
Additionally, Segway also received funding that will be used to support the continued growth of the company.
Mobile video advertising startup Transpera has raised $2 million in funding according to an SEC filing. The company most recently raised $8.25 million in 2008, which was accompanied by an undisclosed amount in Series A financing received in July 2007.
Transpera develops an ad platform that enables the distribution and monetization of Web videos on mobile phones. With the so-called Transpera Ad Platform (TAP), the company offers mobile video publishers and carriers a suite of promotional and distribution building tools to enhance the end user experience, and advertisers a way to market their wares by serving targeted ads in the form of interactive display banners, pre-roll videos, overlay ads, post-roll experiences and mini sites. There’s even a spin-off platform tailored specifically to the iPhone, which is steadily gaining traction as mobile web usage skyrockets. → Read More
When I first started using Linux, back in the late 1990s and the Red Hat 5.2 era, the skills I gained weren’t very useful to many employers. I initially hoped that learning Linux would help me spring into some kind of “real” UNIX job. Now, more than a decade later, Linux is more and more common, has replaced a lot of “real” UNIX systems, and the skills required to administer Linux systems are actually helpful when looking for a job. Linux is found in networks and appliances all over, and the monoculture of Microsoft hegemony is slowing fading. According to the Linux Foundation, Linux-related jobs have grown 80% since 2005. → Read More
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