Not everyone agrees that the DSi XL was a necessary step; after all, the original DS and DS Lite were the best selling game things on the market with their little screens and limited brightness.
But when you hear about parents and grandparents enjoying a game of Picross or Professor Layton, you start to remember that yeah, there are other people in the world. And maybe they could use a device more suited to their needs. → Read More
If you’re looking for a nice, functional, portable mouse, Microsoft has your number. While their high-end mice tend to lose their luster in the face of cooler gear from Logitech and Razer, Microsoft’s mobile line has always been comfortable and functional. They’ve just expanded it a bit with a few new compact models so you’ve got more than ever to choose from. Let’s see what we’ve got here. → Read More
hi5, one of the world’s most popular social networks, has been actively remodeling its site to cater to the gaming industry. Last fall, the social network launched a totally revamped site that places a much stronger emphasis on games and virtual currency, along with a new avatar system. Today, the company is furthering this strategy with the acquisition of social gaming developer Big Six. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. See the full release below.
Big Six’s founders, Kevin Gliner, Monty Kerr and Chad Hansing, will join the hi5 management team. Hi5 says the deal will boost the social networks efforts in developing in commerce platforms and payment processing offerings. Right now, gaming is a central part of hi5′s strategy for growth so it makes sens for the social network to acquire innovative technologies and talent. The games section of hi5′s site accounts for around 1/3 of the site’s traffic, and direct user payments through the game already account for 15% of hi5’s revenue. → Read More
Now, before we enter the breach, I think it bears repeating that MobileCrunch and indeed the rest of the TechCrunch network in no way condone software/application piracy. Developers work too hard for responsible members of the tech community to give them the shaft like that. That said, while cracked iPhone app repositories like apptrackr continue to operate with impunity, we’re surprised to see that the big Android equivalent has been forced to shut down first. Jesusxxx’s Blapkmarket, which provided paid apps free of charge to its users, was just recently shut down by his hosting company. The justifications for maintaining a collection of pirated apps are many, and they generally seem to address legitimate grievances with the whole app purchase process. Blapkmarket, for example, allowed users to “test” applications outside of the standard 24 hour grace period laid out in the Android Market program policies. Perhaps more importantly, it allowed Android users in other countries to access and use apps that for one reason or another weren’t available in their home markets. Jesusxxx has even gone on record saying that foreign customers “provide[d] the highest number of requests for paid apps” in an interview with Android Guys. → Read More
What’s your yearly calendar budget? Five bucks? This $80 perpetual calendar will pay for itself in just 16 years! Think of all the calendar money you could save over the course of a lifetime. The amount is truly mind-boggling. → Read More
A bill introduced today in the Senate by Democrat John Kerry and Republican Richard Lugar proposes a new type of visa for immigrants who create startups and jobs in the U.S. A similar proposal is part of an immigration reform bill in the House. The Startup Visa has been controversial and will no doubt draw fire from anti-immigrant forces and xenophobes. But if we are going to be giving away visas, giving them to people who will help build the U.S. economy and create jobs is hard to argue against.
The Startup Visa Act of 2010 would create a two year visa for immigrant entrepreneurs who are able to raise a minimum of $250,000, with $100,000 coming from a qualified U.S. angel or venture investor. After two years, if the immigrant entrepreneur is able to create five or more jobs (not including their children or spouse), attract an additional $1 million in investment, or produce $1 million in revenues, he or she will become a legal resident. → Read More
According to the FCC, about 93 million Americans don’t use fast, broadband Internet, citing cost and complexity as a factor in their refusal to enter the 20th century. The study, below, found that 80 million adults and 13 million children either still use dial-up or don’t use the Internet at all at home, suggesting that either the survey methodology might be flawed or we’re in serious trouble. UPDATE – Also, one American doesn’t know how to use apostrophes. Fixed. → Read More
Given that past leaks have been indicating as much for a few weeks now, it doesn’t come as any surprise that the HTC Incredible is heading to Verizon.
Still, it’s always nice to see new, unannounced handsets make their debut in a carrier’s inventory, as the Incredible just has. → Read More
The Lower Merion School District (motto: “We’re Building the Future Police State”), caught using a remote monitoring service on school-supplied laptops while the kids were at home, had some pretty creepy rules on the books to ensure compliance. To wit we find, thanks to strydehax, these gems:
* Possession of a monitored Macbook was required for classes
* Possession of an unmonitored personal computer was forbidden and would be confiscated* Disabling the camera was impossible
* Jailbreaking a school laptop in order to secure it or monitor it against intrusion was an offense which merited expulsion
Is your boss clamping down on the hours you spend playing Farmville on Facebook? Are you blocked at work from accessing 4chan and your other favorite websites? You can use something like Try2StopMe, one of probably thousands of website proxy services that allow you to access your favorite destinations through a middleman. Don’t expect this service to remain accessible long: like most proxy services the various content filtering subscriptions used by corporate firewalls find and block these things pretty quickly. Plus, you have no assurance that the middleman isn’t keeping a copy of everything you send — like your Facebook login credentials — for its own nefarious use later. → Read More
These days, APIs are a must for just about every web service. It’s no longer enough to simply be a web site, everyone wants to be a platform, and APIs are the hooks that enable that by way of data. Since 2006, Mashery has existed as a company to both enable APIs for companies and manage them. And today that vision is being rewarded again with a $5.5 million Series C round of funding.
The round, led by Cisco, is also being participated in by existing investors, Formative Ventures, First Round Capital, and 406 Ventures. Cisco, which is a key player in networking, video, mobile, and cloud services is a good investor for Mashery to pick up as the web continues to evolve to new devices and move towards the cloud. The Cisco investment should also help open new businesses to the idea of using Mashery’s services. → Read More
Remember the time when Apple added an “Explicit” category to the list of app genres that developers could submit to? You should, because it was only a few hours ago. Well, it’s gone. The option has been pulled from the submission page, and the developer who spotted the backpedaling says a quick call to Apple confirmed that it has been pulled, and, while they’re considering an “Explicit” section of the store, its not likely to happen any time soon. [Via Giz] → Read More
There hasn’t been a whole lot of advancement in the salt and pepper industry – UNTIL NOW!
Yes, the “Pump and Grind Salt and Pepper Mills” cost $20 apiece and allow you to season your favorite foods with one hand. → Read More
I’m a big VFF fan so I wanted to share this real-life VFF tryout with you but oh my sweet merciful fates the dude’s website is called My Achilles Rupture which is pretty much the most disgusting thing ever, especially when he shows the scars from his freaking rupture. A rupture! Gah! On his tendon! GAH! → Read More
I don’t know how to begin this, so I’ll get right to it: A Japanese company called K’s Japan is offering an “electric guitar” [JP] that’s just made to get destroyed. And, after you smashed the thing to bits, you can recycle it. So what we have here is a “destroyable price and recyclable system” (K’s Japan’s official tag line), which is ideal for guitarists who want to look cool without sacrificing their real instrument. → Read More
I think I speak for everyone when I say, “IT’S ABOUT TIME!” I mean, where were you the first time you wished for a machine that could predict someone’s age range just by emitting a mosquito buzzing sound that only people in certain age ranges could hear, thus alerting you to that person’s true age? I was so young I can barely remember when I first wished this would become a reality. Now that it’s here, I can hardly believe it! All these emotions! It’s like falling in love, getting your heart broken, and going to a funeral of a coworker you never actually met but exchanged e-mails with a few times, all in a split second! → Read More
If you’re reading this, chances are pretty good that you’re not on a 4G connection. Why? Because outside of a handful of cities, 4G connections just don’t exist yet. Take Sprint’s WiMax network, for example: as of right this second, it’s still only available in about 27 cities [coverage map], primarily in Texas and the East Coast. That’s about to get a little bit better, with Sprint announcing today that they’ll be rolling out to 8 more cities by the end of this year. → Read More
My buddy Rich tweeted a terse message yesterday afternoon: “Happy Birthday Apache Web Server, started 15 years ago today!” I had meant to write up the story then, but forgot it about it. Consider this my “Happy belated birthday” card. → Read More
Out here in the fields
I fight for space meals
I get my back into my monkey
I don’t need to fight
To prove I’m right
I don’t need a carabiner. → Read More
After eight years of operating in quasi-stealth, Bloom Energy came out with a bang today at an event in Silicon Valley attended by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Colin Powell, Larry Page, John Doerr, and executives from eBay, Walmart, Coca-Cola, and FedEx. All of the big-name companies, including Google, are beta customers of Bloom’s distributed energy fuel cell technology (which was the subject of a 60 Minutes profile on Sunday and various other stories since then).
Doerr, the Kleiner Perkins VC who backed both Bloom and Google, said today: “This Is Like The Google IPO.” Except without the IPO part. Doerr was referring to the fact that, like Google, Bloom has kept its business close to its vest until it actually could show some progress in terms of customers and products. Five Bloom energy boxes about the size of a parking space each now provide 15 percent of the power at eBay’s campus. Walmart is testing the boxes in two locations where it is carrying 60 to 80 percent of the energy load of an entire store. Google co-founder Larry Page calls the technology a “very big deal” and looks forward to the day that it can expand the number of Bloom boxes Google uses to the point where it can power one of its data centers. → Read More
