Here’s a great concept, take an electronic stethoscope, combine it with an iPod/iPhone, and what do you get? A diagnosis tool that’s portable, and (relatively) cheap. The expensive part is the iPhone and the stethoscope (it’s $279.99), the app is cheap at $69.99. → Read More
By “all” I mean one Vuzix Wrap310 and by “give” I mean “give away in a contest.” What is a Wrap 310? It’s a 16:9 widescreen set of high resolution glasses that you can connect right to your iPhone or iPod touch, allowing you to look totally like Geordi LaForge on the plane. How do you win? → Read More
If you live in Spain that is. University of Zaragoza researchers have been looking into using various forms of solid waste to generate electricity for the nation, up to as much as 7%. What is it lately with all this decaying matter being useful? → Read More
We’ve gotten word of another departure from MySpace in the wake of CEO Owen Van Natta’s firing two weeks ago. The latest to leave is Chris Bissell, MySpace’s Chief Software Architect, who has been with the company for over four years. Bissell was one of the few remaining members of MySpace’s old guard, which has gradually left (or been fired) from the company since the executive shakeup last spring that removed long-time CEO Chris DeWolfe.
Bissell was charged with maintaining MySpace’s backend architecture and ensuring that the site scaled to meet demand. MySpace has confirmed that he is leaving the company. The news comes on the heels of the departure of SVP of User Experience and Design Kate Geminder and stream architect Monica Keller, who both left within a week of Van Natta’s firing. → Read More
Sigma seems to be releasing cameras the way Google releases software: put out something that’s blatantly incomplete and then revise it until it’s competitive (or more than competitive) with the rest of the market. The DP1 is approaching its third revision, the DP2 its second, and the SD15 DSLR is just about to make its debut — and I’ll give you three guesses which is the most attractive to yours truly. If can’t get it, I’ll be very disappointed.
The three cameras share the same sensor and image processor, but the DP1 has a much faster and wider lens — it’d be my choice in a heartbeat. But the SD15 might be interesting once they’ve brought it up to speed. → Read More
For the past two days, Yahoo has been trying to get me to agree to an embargo on some piece of news they had for tonight. As you probably know, we hate embargoes, so I wasn’t about to accept it. Good thing. Not only did the news leak out almost 5 hours early, but actually, Yahoo itself was giving people hints on Twitter all day, and encouraging people to take guesses to break the embargo on Twitter. And yes, the news is a deal with Twitter.
So first, the news: Yahoo and Twitter have reached an agreement to share data between their properties. That’s great. Yahoo is only a few months behind Google and Microsoft (Bing) doing the same thing. And really, I’m not entirely sure why some kind of special deal was needed. For search, Bing is about to take over the data aspect for Yahoo, and that will very likely include the Twitter data. Meanwhile, Yahoo’s frontend elements and services already include Twitter integration, including Flickr. Plus, isn’t Facebook Connect handling all the social stuff for Yahoo soon anyway? → Read More
The European Union has opened an antitrust investigation into Google to look into claims made by three European-based Internet companies. Not surprisingly, this key part of the investigation is said to be about search, which is dominated by Google is most of the EU markets. The Telegraph and WSJ have more details.
It’s important to note that this probe is just a preliminary one, and nothing may come of it. But at least three companies have filed complaints against Google — and notably, one of them is owned by Microsoft. And another one is a member of a group that is partially funded by Microsoft.
This is, of course, quite interesting since Microsoft has famously been involved in antitrust investigations for over a decade now in Europe (and previously, of course, the U.S. too). In fact, this whole browser ballot thing is a result of the ongoing EU attempt to make sure Microsoft is playing fairly. → Read More
L3 Communications has been awarded a $165 million contract from the Transportation Security Administration for the indefinite delivery of an indefinite number of their ProVision millimeter wave security scanners. So, the TSA is sure that they’re going to get some of these, but they don’t know how many, or when. More than 200 ProVision scanners are currently deployed around the world, despite myriad privacy concerns. L3 had more than fifteen billion in sales in 2009, so this agreement doesn’t seem like that big a deal, financially. → Read More
This is has not been confirmed by either party, but we’ve heard from multiple sources that European music startup Spotify has closed a venture investment from Founders Fund. Managing Partner Sean Parker, who was a cofounder of Napster and President of Facebook, led the round for Founders Fund, and we believe he may have take a board of directors seat.
We do not know the size of the investement; however, we believe it may have been a token amount to get Parker’s involvement in the company. The investment was likely done at the same €200 million valuation as the round Spotify raised in late 2009.
This is the first U.S. investor in Spotify, and the service is only available in some European countries. A U.S. launch has been broadly anticipated for months. → Read More
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a room overlooking an airport runway so you can note the planes arriving and taking off in your special notebook.
Two Britons, Stephen Hampton and Steven Ayres, were released on bail after being caught with binoculars and radios. Their crime? Planespotting. → Read More
As if gadget choices weren’t complicated enough, Best Buy might be making your Verizon Android handset decisions a lot more difficult. According to Best Buy’s Facebook page, the DROID is dropping down to just $99.99 with the DEVOUR going for the same exact rate when it’s released on February 25. So many choices, so little time! Need some help? → Read More
Proof that the software that matches ads to content still needs a lot of work: Omaha Steaks pays good money to link their product to heart attacks. Free shipping! Thanks to Jon Finegold at Thinking Screen Media for sending this in. → Read More
Apple thinks of itself as a mobile device company. In January at the iPad launch event, Steve Jobs noted that “Apple is the largest mobile devices company in the world now.” And responding to a direct question today at a Goldman Sachs conference, liveblogged by the WSJ, COO Tim Cook reiterated: “Yes, you should definitely look at Apple as a mobile-device company.”
Cook also pointed out that the majority of Apple’s revenues now comes from mobile devices (including laptops) or content for those devices. Indeed, if you look at the breakdown of Apple’s fourth quarter revenues of $15.7 billion, nearly $12 billion of that came from portable Macbooks ($2.8 billion), iPods ($3.4 billion) and iPhones $5.6 billion). And another $1.2 billion came from iTunes. → Read More
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Lensbaby!
Happy birthday to you! → Read More
Microsoft is doing a complete 180 and reinventing the way it handles its mobile presence. When the iPhone was first announced, Steve Ballmer quipped that Windows Mobile was on hundreds of devices all over the world while the iPhone was one operating system on one handset on one carrier. It looks like he and the gang are thinking differently these days. → Read More
Apparently this has been in development for quite some time, as a mod for a modern port of Doom called Skulltag. It allows you to play as any of the 48 robot masters from the first six Mega Man games. Unfortunately, while you’ll fire the weapons associated with the boss (metal blades, cut boomerangs, etc), they won’t have their respective effects on other guys — they’re all just the basic arm cannon with some modifications. That’s disappointing, but if this blows up (it’s slated for a free 2010 release) maybe we can get it expanded on. [via TIGSource] → Read More
Apple thinks of itself as a mobile device company. In January at the iPad launch event, Steve Jobs noted that “Apple is the largest mobile devices company in the world now.” And responding to a direct question today at a Goldman Sachs conference, liveblogged by the WSJ, COO Tim Cook reiterated: “Yes, you should definitely look at Apple as a mobile-device company.”
Cook also pointed out that the majority of Apple’s revenues now comes from mobile devices (including laptops) or content for those devices. Indeed, if you look at the breakdown of Apple’s fourth quarter revenues of $15.7 billion, nearly $12 billion of that came from portable Macbooks ($2.8 billion), iPods ($3.4 billion) and iPhones $5.6 billion). And another $1.2 billion came from iTunes. → Read More
If you’re reading this post, there’s a good chance you have multiple online profiles scattered across various services, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, and Twitter. And one problem you may face is pulling all of this information together to build a single online identity — be it for personal use, or to create a professional online profile. Flavors.me is a new site launching today that looks to make this as simple as possible, and it does so with flying colors. After a three month long private beta, the site has just launched to the public.
The service is as simple as they come. After completing a basic sign up form, you link your Flavors.me page to any of 15 online services, with options that include Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (as well as any RSS feed). Flavors.me taps into these services via their APIs (you generally enter your credentials using OAuth or Facebook Connect), and within minutes you’re ready to start customizing your site. → Read More
RetailMeNot.com, “a top consumer destination for coupons, discounts and promotional codes for merchandise, groceries, travel and services”, shared some interesting statistics about consumer coupon use for the first month of 2010. New Jersey loves printing off coupons for use in brick-and-mortar stores, while New York prefers online coupon codes. Almost 15 million people visited RetailMeNot.com in January and saved over eight million dollars with online and printed coupons. → Read More
Dutch startup Sellaband, which enabled music fans to invest in their favorite bands, last week on Friday requested provisional suspension of payments in their home country. It was promptly granted by an Amsterdam Court, and was this morning changed into full bankruptcy. The news of the bankruptcy led to a flurry of reports about Sellaband calling it quits for good – or as we like to say, hitting the deadpool.
Now it appears that there’s a chance the startup may live to fight another fight after all. → Read More
