By the time Palm announced the Pixi Plus and Pre Plus at CES earlier this month, there wasn’t a whole lot left to reveal. From the names, to the specs, all the way down to the carrier the handsets would launch on — just about everything had made it into the realm of public knowledge by way of the rumor mill.
However, there was at least one feature that Palm managed to keep hidden up their sleeve: Mobile HotSpot. With the flick of a switch, the Mobile Hotspot application turns the Pre Plus or Pixi Plus into a WiFi router for up to 5 users simultaneously, fueled by Verizon’s 3G network. We’ve spent the last few hours tinkering with a pre-release copy of Mobile HotSpot – read on for our impressions. → Read More
Up until now, talk around HTML5 has largely focused on its promise, without many major sites actually implementing HTML5-specific features as anything more than tech demos. Today, YouTube is taking steps to let users work it into their everyday browsing experience: you’ll now be able to watch some of the site’s videos without a plugin, using the video and audio playback support included with HTML5. No, you certainly won’t need HTML5 to watch any videos, but if you’d like to try viewing the site’s videos without Flash, you now have the option. You can activate the feature in the YouTube TestTube. To get the new player to work, you’ll have to be using Chrome, Safari, or ChromeFrame on IE. Note that YouTube is currently pushing the feature out, so it may be an hour or two before you can turn it on. → Read More
[UK] Digital Mission returns for a second year to dispatch some the UK’s leading digital/tech companies to the US.
Organised by Chinwag and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), 39 ‘digital’ SMEs have been selected to attend South by South West interactive (SXSWi), the well regarded conference for interactive media which takes place in Austin, Texas. This year’s event runs from the 11-17th of March. → Read More
Short version: These designer speakers have a unique design and excellent sound. Their appearance may not be for everybody, and the lack of a subwoofer affects a portion of the bass, but apart from that these are a true high-fidelity audio solution. → Read More
What more can be said of this Google-China feud? Google wants to run its local search engine, google.cn, there without having to deal with Chinese censorship. China is like, really? Why should we give a damn what you want, Google? Google phones have been delayed, bitter words have been exchanged, and now Google’s other, non-search activities in China may be threatened by its saber-rattling, to use a metaphor that’s not really relevant. Here’s a new one: Google v. China could be seen as yet another chapter in the expected United States of America v. China feud, one that could determine which country will be the top dog this century. → Read More
It was only five years ago that kids between the ages of 8 and 18 “only” spent 6.5 hours online. Today, these same kids (well, the same age group) now spend some 7.5 hours online per day between the computer and their mobile. That may not sound like a much until you ask: where did these kids find an entire extra hour to mess around online? It’s even crazier when you consider that many of these hours are spent multi-tasking—watching YouTube while listening to iTunes, for example. If you think of it like that, then you can say that kids today are cramming 11 hours of media consumption per day into that 7.5-hour window. Remember: it was only a few years ago that these same kids would have been working in the textile factories of Manchester, so let’s not feel too bad for them. → Read More
Google has a funny little blog post today on the Gmail Blog. Apparently, they’ve decided to change the way they’re serving advertisements in Gmail. Why? They say it’s in the name of serving ads that are more relevant to users. But really, it’s fairly obvious that it’s about serving ads that will bring in more money.
In the example they give, Google says that if you previously read an email confirming a hotel in Chicago, and were served an ad about flights to Chicago in Gmail, you might see that same ad when you’re reading an email wishing you a happy birthday. The thought is that there wouldn’t be a good ad to serve you related to this birthday message. That’s probably not true — instead, it’s probably an ad with much lower click rates (and CPC rates) that makes Google less money. → Read More
[UK] Flirtomatic, the mobile social network that lets users “flirt, meet new people and have fun”, says it sold 28,000 virtual gifts in five days over the Christmas break, between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve. In total the company says it shifted over 1 million virtual gifts in 2009, selling around 82,000 virtual gifts in December alone.
This would tally with a wider trend that saw Brits reportedly spend over £500 million on virtual goods last year.
Unsurprisingly, Flirtomatic’s Christmas Stocking was one the FlirtShop’s best sellers, despite being one of the most expensive gifts, selling over 16,000. Other top items included Candy Canes (just under 9,000), Mistletoe (around 8,300) and Rednose Reindeer (over 7,000). The company’s PR were also keen to let us know that Snowwomen outsold Snowmen by almost 2-1, although we’re not sure why this is significant. Either way, the pointless and trivial nature of these gifts does provide compelling evidence that virtual gifts and mobile micropayments have come of age. → Read More
We’ve all been anxiously awaiting how Twitter will turn on advertising in its microblogging platform. We know Twitter is going to be incorporating advertising of its own this year and is currently in talks with advertisers, but we don’t know what this will look like yet. In the meantime, other startups have emerged with advertising models for Twitter, including Ad.ly, Assetize, SponsoredTweets, and Magpie. And last November, Robert Scoble presented us with a compelling model for advertising on Twitter, called a Super Tweet.
Now, startup 140 Proof is entering the mix with its Twitter-based ad network. The network bypasses Twitter’s site completely and allows 3rd-party Twitter clients sell space on the network to advertisers. The ads appear in third-party Twitter clients who use 140 Proof’s API to serve and measure their ads. Ads are served within users Twitter streams on these clients (mobile, desktop or web) and clearly marked as ads. → Read More
There you go, right on the living room wall. A big, fat Death Star. I’d personally cut off all the fluff at the bottom there. It’s the Death Star. Not the Death Star, sponsored by Star Wars and a couple Fathead logos. It’s not some stadium with naming rights and all that. → Read More
How is it possible for a company to build a $170 million business selling text-message games on mobile phones? As I wrote in a post on Monday, Snackable Media claims to be pulling in that much revenue selling $10 monthly subscriptions to text-message games such as Predicto and Deal or No Deal. It’s an eye-popping number, but like most things that sound too good to be true there might be a catch. In fact, some complaints about the way that Snackable Media signs up new customers through affiliate partners paint it as a Scamville for mobile phones.
As several readers mentioned in comments to the original post, the way Snackable Media signs up customers at the very least looks fishy. There are many complaints on the Web from consumers who say they never signed up for Predicto or were tricked into doing so. There is even a class action suit (embedded below) against Predicto and cell phone carrier Alltell for recycling “dirty numbers,” a practice whereby a phone number of a previous subscriber is assigned to a new customer who continues to be billed for the service that the old customer signed up for. And this isn’t the first lawsuit against Snackable Media’s founders. They have a history of similar complaints when the company operated under different names (including NextWeb Media and the Email Discount Network) and even settled one with the attorney general of Florida (also embedded below), a settlement which Washington state and others joined .
According to a former employee of the company I spoke with who requested anonymity, here is how the alleged scam works. → Read More
What to make of HP’s “Wall of Touch”? The Wall Street Journal has a nifty little write-up of the technology, and comes away like it just shook hands with Brock Lesnar’s doctors. “Thank you so much, doctor!” The fact is, despite the fact that you don’t actually touch the Wall of Touch, the idea of touchscreen interfaces is no longer foreign and exotic. We’re several years after Jeff Han’s big demonstration, plus there was that iPhone thing. → Read More
MySpace has cut three senior tech executives from its staff, we’ve learned. We’re hearing that those affected are VP of Media & Entertainment Technology Kevin Freund, VP of Engineering Lucas Buck (who writes on his LinkedIn page that he was one of the original programmers who built MySpace), and VP of Engineering Sheetal Patel.
We’ve confirmed that those individuals are no longer with the company. MySpace provided the following statement:
“Our intent is to foster an environment of innovation and nimbleness that is centered on our user and our product. Today we’ve realigned our technology team against specific product lines to make it more efficient and allow us to bring new experiences to our users faster.”
We’re hearing that the cuts are part of a restructuring of technology and product that’s being conducted by Chief Product Officer Jason Hirschhorn and Chief Technology Officer Alex Maghen. → Read More
Earlier this week, Skype offered up a few bucks of SkypeOut credit to anybody in Haiti; shortly thereafter, Google announced that any calls made to Haiti via Google Voice would be free of charge. Now, Verizon Wireless has joined the effort to connect people with their Haitian cohorts, without charging a dime. Verizon Wireless has just announced that any fees accrued for long distance calls made to Haiti until January 31st will be waived. Taking it one step further, they’re retroactively waiving any charges for calls made to Haiti from the day the earthquake hit (January 12th) until today. The only catch: you’ll need to be on a monthly bill (in other words, not prepaid) for Verizon to be able to waive the charges; we’re guessing that’s more of a technicality than it is Verizon’s choice. For more details, check out the press release here. → Read More
Fresh off the Twitter… um… trolley. Sphere? Obelisk? River? Whatever it is that carries twats around. Best Buy is running a buy two, get one free deal on Xbox 360 Platinum Hits games. → Read More
Google has an unfortunate history of buying companies — and then running them into the ground. Sometimes, this leads to a bit of ill-will between the Internet giant and the companies’ founders. We saw a perfect example of this when Dodgeball’s founders (including current Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley) quit Google in a huff. Today, the co-founder of another acquisition, Panoramio, is out as well, but he insists the company is happy under Google.
In a post today on the Panoramio blog, co-founder Eduardo Manchón, says that after four and a half years working on the service, it’s time to leave. Google acquired Panoramio in mid-2007 and Manchón has been there ever since, running the service. He notes that, “Acquisitions can be complicated, and the private nightmare of a founder is the site not surviving the process, but after some time Panoramio feels very comfortable at Google.” → Read More
Thanko, the Tokyo-based maker of all things USB, sometimes produces gadgets that aren’t silly. Today, the company announced the Micro Sport MP3 Player [JP] that’s supposed to be especially suitable for people who want to listen to music while doing sports. The only drawback is that the thing doesn’t look to be designed for this purpose at all (but maybe that’s just me). Integrating one earbud into the main unit might lead to problems. → Read More
It seems that Apple may be inviting Microsoft’s Bing into the iPhone, at least according to BusinessWeek. In what could be some sort of bluff by Apple, Microsoft is apparently in talks to make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone, supplanting Google’s current position on the phone deck.
This does not mention if they’re moving away from Google Maps and YouTube, but by giving Microsoft the default search spot Apple could get a bit more revenue from traffic thrown at the provider. → Read More
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