Conde Nast has been working to fuse its fashion content with technology and social media. Lucky Magazine incorporated e-commerce into its online site and also partnered with Four Square. Today, Vogue Magazine is launching an innovative iPhone app that takes a page from social fashion startups like Polyvore and the Like.com’s Couturious.
The free app, called the Vogue Stylist, is meant to be used by women to do exactly what its name indicates: help style women’s wardrobes. Users can choose one of the trends highlighted by Vogue within the app and upload clothing they already own. Vogue Stylist will then produce stylish outfits from the pieces that reflect the current trend. The catch: Vogue will style outfits only with products from their advertisers. → Read More
A few days ago, I noted that Seesmic Web had perfected the management of Twitter contacts. I was wrong. A new service has been brought to my attention that is much, much better. Actually, it’s a must-use.
While Seesmic Web is great for a number of things (it’s arguably the best Twitter web client out there), ManageTwitter is great at one thing: managing your Twitter followers. To use it, you simply link up your Twitter account (via OAuth) and it lets you know which of the Twitter users you follow aren’t following you back, who is inactive, who is talkative, and who is quiet. Each of these are great gauges for whether you should still be following them or not. → Read More
Couple of things to talk about, Honda just announced that they are going to show off an electric concept vehicle, and a Hungarian company is making a concept car that’s capable of splitting in to two separate vehicles. → Read More
That’s the JVC GZ-HM340, which they say is the lightest and smallest HD camcorder with a built-in drive. Full review will be up later this week, but this picture was too cute not to share. Aww, look at them! → Read More
This guest post is written by Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com.
I quit my job at Oracle in 1999 because I couldn’t stop thinking about a simple question: “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Amazon.com?” Why couldn’t applications be run from a simple website, without software or hardware to install, and pricy consultants to hire? Why couldn’t we just compute in the Internet, or the cloud, and get away from the data center and all its complexity. Simply put, I wanted to simplify the enterprise. It was a pretty straight-forward idea, but from the confines in which I sat, there wasn’t anything close to a straight-forward solution.
That vision led to the founding of salesforce.com. But the enterprise world wasn’t ready for Amazon.com, or eBay, or Yahoo, or any of the innovative services that were changing the way consumers bought, sold, or communicated. I tell this story in my book Behind the Cloud and can’t help but note that the factors at play 10 years ago—an inspiring service, wide skepticism, and phenomenal potential—mirror where we are today. But it’s no longer Amazon that frames the questions or gives us the answers.
In this decade, I’ve become obsessed with a new simple question: “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Facebook?” → Read More
We’re big fans of Infectious, a startup that makes high quality decals and skins that let you customize the look of your iPhone, car, laptop, skateboards, and more. Today, the startup has launched Infectious skins for all current Blackberry models. Infectious now has designs for the Bold, Bold 9700, Storm2, Curve 8520, Curve 8530, Curve 8900 and Tour.
Infectious launched nearly two years ago with large, vinyl decorative stickers for your car, and they released decorative iPhone covers just in time for the 2008 holiday season. The company has since expanded to include laptop skins, custom skateboard decks, and wall prints. → Read More
http://ui.mevio.com/widgets/mwm/MevioWM.swf?r=35870 In this episode we talk about watch repair tips and some classic watch legends. Enjoy! → Read More
March is looking good for Nintendo fans. They just announced that the DSi XL will be shipping on the 28th, and now one of the most acclaimed indie games of all time has been confirmed for availability on the 22nd. If you’re not familiar with Cave Story, you’d do well to pick it up; it’s like 16-bit Metroid-style exploration and platforming taken to perfection. The stuff of legend among indie game lovers like myself, I assure you. → Read More
Flash games on the Web are getting to be so quick and responsive . . . that they can recreate 30-year-old arcade games no problem. And that’s just fine with me because those are about the only video games where I can hold my own. Online video arcade OMGPOP’s latest game is a remake of Atari’s Missile Command on its 30th anniversary.
The OMGPOP version is true to the original except it adds a multiplayer twist. It’s pretty addictive and the social aspect makes it more fun. Just like at the old coin arcades, it was always better when you went with a couple of friends. → Read More
Facebook has been doing background checks, known as due diligence, on the location-based social network Loopt, a source with knowledge of the talks tells us. Generally speaking, due diligence of this kind is only performed when a company is in acquisition or fundraising talks.
Loopt won’t comment on this story, and a Facebook spokesperson says “As a practical matter, we don’t comment on rumor and speculation.”
There is no indication that Facebook has made an actual offer to buy Loopt at this time, and in fact we don’t even have direct information that negotiations are taking place. But it’s clear that Facebook is at least considering acquiring Loopt, and/or others in this space.
It’s also not clear that Facebook is the only company taking a look at Loopt. Google is also highly interested in the mobile social and location space. Their recent launch of Buzz, which allows check-ins of locations via a mobile device, is just one indication of that. → Read More
[UK] It’s probably tricky to time these things to perfection, since Apple pulls the strings.
The UK Spotify competitor, We7, has had its iPhone app approved and is now available to download from the iTunes App Store. The problem is that the associated premium music subscription service, needed to run the app, doesn’t seemed to have launched yet.
Or at least that’s how it looks. → Read More
You know, I actually meant to write this up a couple days ago, but at the time all I could find was the schematics you see below. No real indication of whether this was a product-to-be, a patent lark, or what. Engadget popped it up, though, and someone recognized it.
Apparently it’s been around for almost a year, and was given out as a gift from Microsoft Research Asia. One side charges a MS Laser Mouse 7000, which unfortunately is a terrible mouse, and the other is a microscopic display. It seems they’ve got some work to do on this one, but it’s a cool idea. → Read More
Last week, Yammer, the business-oriented microblogging platform that won TechCrunch50 2008, sent out invites to press inviting them to virtually attend a “major launch event” that will be broadcast through a WebEx meeting tomorrow morning. The company has also posted an invite to its blog, along with a not-so-subtle jab at its competitors: “Forget all that over-hyped chatter and annoying buzz, Yammer is releasing the next wave in Enterprise Microblogging“.
So what exactly is Yammer about to introduce? We’re hearing from one source that the company is planning to start allowing people to create networks that aren’t built around web domains. That may not sound like a big deal, but it would be a major change for Yammer, and one that could open it up to a huge number of new users. → Read More
First Google, now Foursquare. Hot on the heels of Google’s first Search television ad (run during the Super Bowl, no less), the location-based social network Foursquare is gearing up to do the same thing tonight.
In a tweet sent from their main Twitter account, the Foursquare team notes a “rumor” that an ad for their service will be running on Bravo tonight alongside the show Sheer Genius from 9 to 10 PM. But it’s not a rumor, we’ve seen the ad (and have embedded it below for your own viewing pleasure). It’s a 20-second spot made by Bravo for Foursquare to highlight their recently announced a partnership that allows the network to point out locations from its shows that let fans who use Foursquare (or their own Guides By Bravo app) go to them in the real world. This is believed to be one of the deals currently earning Foursquare some revenue. → Read More
The pain and sorrow of Polaroid’s death spiral is… ongoing. Luckily, there’s no rule against switching horses midstream, or whatever the idiom is. If you want instant pictures and crazy colors, go Lomo. Their famously weird lenses produce compelling pictures, and the LC-A+ body is actually capable of doing some ASA and focus adjustments, unlike pretty much every instant camera ever. → Read More
I don’t even want to speculate on the cost of something as cool-looking as this. I’ll just settle for pining away. The idea, I suppose, is to have speakers of every size necessary to reproduce sound perfectly, all attached to the same system. I mean, it’s not an original idea; most tower speakers use the same principle, but did you ever see a tower speaker that made you feel like you were listening to music on an airship? → Read More
Wows! Ten Billions is a lots of songs to sells! CrunchGears extends hearties congratulations, Apples. Yes, friends, even Apple lets slip a typo every once in a while. Seriously, though, that’s a lot. → Read More
Google has just announced via tweet that it’s integrating Facebook Page updates into its real-time search results. Google first revealed that this was coming back in December, when it first started including real-time data in its search results. Other data sources for Google’s real-time results include MySpace and Twitter.
The only problem with the new addition is that Facebook is only granting Google access to updates from its 3 million Pages, which are generally for celebrities, politicians, brands, and local businesses — not your average Facebook user. That information could occasionally be useful, but the power of real-time search comes from having a large number of contributors. → Read More
We’ve been looking at leaked pictures of this thing for a week or so, but there wasn’t much to say without the specs and all that. Besides, the leaked picture was just a little too muddy to show off the camera’s tasteful styling. But check this thing out: not only is the W90 waterproof to 20ft and shockproof from 4ft, it’s got a ring of LEDs around the lens to help with low light photos or movies. How come no one else thought of this? → Read More
