Chances are you’ve never heard of Netbiscuits – I sure hadn’t. But the company operates one of the world’s largest B2B web software platforms enabling thousands of publishers to create, manage and generate revenue from mobile websites.
Netbiscuits serves the mobile Internet programs for brands like Yahoo, MTV, and eBay, and well known digital agencies such as Razorfish, Isobar, and ad networks like Google-owned AdMob. To give you an idea of its size: globally, Netbiscuits claims to deliver more than 1.5 billion mobile page impressions on a monthly basis.
This morning, the decade-old company announced that it has partnered with Universal Music Group to help the music company expand its line-up of direct-to-consumer mobile content and services. → Read More
Most of Tokyo-based Thanko’s USB accesories are utterly useless, but I don’t know what to think of their latest creation, a 80-port USB board [JP]. Yes, they put 80 USB ports on one board. You can’t transfer data over the ports but only charge your gadgets though, it’s not a USB hub. → Read More
“Millions of people now own Kindles,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com yesterday. That surprised analysts, who thought that Amazon would sell 2.5 million or so of the devices by the end of 2010, nearly a year from now.
We’ve checked with our sources, who have been amazingly accurate on the number of Kindle’s sold over the last couple of years. The total number of all types of Kindles out there in users hands hit 3 million sometime in December, says a source close to Amazon. And that was before the new model with worldwide data hit. And before Amazon started offering free Kindles to select long-time customers. → Read More
Obviously, yesterday was all about the iPad. Actually, today is too. There have been thousands of stories already written about the device (including something like two dozen on TechCrunch alone), but a few points seem to be completely overshadowed by the glow of the iPad itself. Let’s revisit those.
The A4
While only a few people really picked up on it, in my mind, the biggest news yesterday was not about the iPad itself, but rather about what powers it. Apple has created a new processor, the A4, a customized ARM A9 processor. Never mind that it appears to match the specs of the Snapdragon (the chip inside the Nexus One), the key point is that Apple is now in control of their processors. Is there really any doubt that these Apple-designed chips will end up in the next iterations of the iPhone from here on out? → Read More
I’m going to keep this post short and sweet because no one likes a blogger who says “I told you so.” But, Spotify fans: Paul Carr and I told you so.
StrategyEye reports that less than 4% of users of Spotify—the gorgeous online music app with a troubled business model—are paying subscribers. StrategyEye quotes Universal Music International digital VP Rob Wells who says the company needs 10% to 12% of its users to subscribe to be a sustainable business. It’s only at the 10%-12% threshold that Spotify is able to ink revenue share deals with labels, until then, it has to pay for music by the stream, driving its costs up substantially. → Read More
Computer voice-to-text technology has come a long way, and every time it gets better, new applications open up. It is still not 100 percent accurate. Hell, it’s not even 90 percent accurate. But it is accurate enough for automated voicemail transcription services to become increasingly available and good enough not to have to listen through 15 voicemails to get the gist of what they are about. Of course, voicemails are often translated incorrectly, sometimes to comic effect.
In a study comparing the accuracy of four different voice-to-text technologies (Google Voice, Preview in Microsoft Exchange, Ditech’s PhoneTag, and Yap) the one which came out on top was PhoneTag, which is now part of Ditech Networks. PhoneTag showed an 86 percent accuracy rate in translating 500 spoken messages into text. Google Voice was only able to achieve an 82 percent accuracy in its voice-to-text translations. The study only evaluated purely automated voice-to-text systems. Here’s how all four fared: → Read More
Yes, Mitsubishi. We’re all very impressed with your 149″ OLED TV (even though it runs at a ridiculous 1024×640), but we also know that thing is one-of-a-kind and proves nothing. Why don’t you skip the showboating and put out a couple sweet displays people might actually want to use in their homes? I know they’d be expensive, but someone would buy them because they cost less than infinity dollars. And you can fit them through doors. The pic above is a non-real OLED display from last year, and still the only OLED in my possession is in the Zune HD. [via OLED-display.net] → Read More
Working from home can be a good gig, but as any of us bloggers can tell you, there are real challenges. Lack of regular human contact, for instance, can make a wild animal out of anyone. My neighbors can testify, having occasionally to disengage my teeth from the calves of FedEx guys who come to my door. I’d chase them outside, but it’s so bright! And with no appearance standards to live up to, hygiene can become a problem. This is the beard of a lazy man, my friends, a lazy, lazy man. But I try to keep the birds out of it, at least.
But enough of that. You know what I’m talking about, homebodies. Luckily for us, a Mr. Gordon Wu has introduced a series of products that recreate the office environment at home. Like the Eleva-door! Who wouldn’t want to wait for an imaginary elevator to come to your “floor” before being allowed to enter your work area? → Read More
Unless your whole home is decorated with weirdo technology scraps, these lamps, cool as they are, will probably look out of place. But! Do you work in an office that values design and decor? These would be perfect for the copy room. Am I right? → Read More
We’re taking a short break from our normal coverage to bring you breaking news about the environment.
If you’re a tech company sending out irrelevant press releases to journalists and bloggers, think again, you are killing the planet! Please, we implore you, watch this video.
For all our sakes.
An Inconvenient PR Truth from RealWire on Vimeo.
As is to be expected of any device that the masses get excited about prior to it actually existing, the iPad has torn the Internet in two. Some love it, seeing it as the first iteration of an eventually world-changing device; others just don’t see a point. “It’s just a big iPhone,” they say, “and I already have an iPhone!” These iPhone owners are exactly who should be the most excited about the iPad – even if they don’t plan on buying one. Even before its release, the iPad has heralded a number of changes on the way for iPhone OS – and presumably, the iPhone itself. → Read More
The iPad? What were they thinking? Didn’t they consider the implications of people mocking the name? “How will Twitter react?” Doesn’t Apple have a social media ninja on its payroll? → Read More
This particular DIY project makes sense. It’s been proven that in order to increase the MPG on your motorcycle (or scooter in this case), all you need to do it add a cowling. Cyclists use this concept in increase speed, the solar powered cars use this, it makes sense. That still doesn’t mean that you should do it, at least, not in this color. → Read More
Samsung announced recently that they will be mass producing 3D HDTVs. They are the first manufacturer to actually come out and say so, but I doubt they will be the last given the sheer volume of 3D technology we saw at CES. Samsung stated they will be producing three sizes initially, in 40-inch, 46-inch, and 55-inch screens. All three sizes will support the current 3D Active Glasses, which is currently the industry standard. → Read More
[France] Following controversial moves in which its CEO went missing from a major conference and initially appeared to have been ousted, the streaming music startup Deezer, has finally clarified the company’s new structure.
In a terse press release, the startup announced the appointment of Axel Dauchez as CEO, replacing former CEO Jonathan Benassaya. Dauchez was the CEO of leading European animation group Moonscoop for nine years. See our previous story for all the juicy background.
Dauchez has his work cut out. There is a viable business model still to be found for the company, which has been struggling to monetize the Deezer Premium and Deezer HQ paid-content models that it launched in November 2009. With over 12 million members, the company has seen fewer than 15,000 register for either of the paid options. Thus, Benassaya will continue to be part of Deezer’s board but will have to yield all strategic responsibilities to Dauchez. → Read More
There have only been a few games that I’ve been more excited about that Command & Conquer 4: Half-Life 2, Day of Defeat: Source, and Command & Conquer Red Alert 2. That’s it. C&C 4 should launch on March 16, 2010, but follow this quick guide ASAP and you’ll be able to see a bit of the game early through the beta program. But you better hurry. There is limit to the amount of keys they are giving out. → Read More
As we noted back in December, VeriFone wasn’t just going to sit back and let Square, the new startup by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, dominate the iPhone/iPod touch payment space. Unfortunately, their announcement of PAYware Mobile looked rushed (and Photoshopped), and Dorsey himself didn’t seem too worried. Since then though, VeriFone was nice enough to send us the hardware they are going to use to accept payments on the iPhone — it’s very real.
Today, the other key part of the equation has just gone live in the App Store, the PAYware Mobile app. This free application, when paired with the hardware, allows you to use your iPhone to easily accept credit card payments, just as Square does. Still, as Dorsey noted in the original video we took with him (second video below), Square is being aimed at a broader market of people who may not have merchant accounts but still wish to be able to accept payments. Also, while VeriFone’s hardware is clearly better designed for use with the actual iPhone, Square’s method of using the headphone jack is so that it will be able to be used with other mobile devices eventually (Square is currently working on an Android app, for example). VeriFone promises support for other platforms as well, but this particular hardware unit will only work with an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS. → Read More
One of the small surprises of the iPad announcement was that it was running on Apple’s own custom silicon. Well, that’s true to an extent, but it’s not like Apple actually invented the processor in-house. It’s just not OEM hardware. In fact, other guys are running with many of the same parts.
The A4 is a custom implementation of the ARM A9 processor, also found in Snapdragon (running the Nexus One) and Tegra (running the Zune HD). The difference is there is a GPU mated with the A9 in Apple’s design, probably to help offload the graphics work and keep the interface smooth. → Read More
So you own the New Jersey Nets and you have a few billion in assets. And you’re Russian. What do you do next? You start a line of $12,000 city cars designed to look sort of like the Smart car but more Slavic. The oligarch, Mikhail Prokhorov, is investing $141 million in the Yarovit Motors plant and will create a hybrid or electric vehicle. → Read More
