Here’s an interesting modification for a Guitar Hero controller. An anonymous modder posted a project to Instructables showing how to convert a full size controller to a small size. The modder converted his to a smaller size for his two year old daughter, but whatever your reason is, it looks like a fairly easy thing to do. → Read More
Oops! Looks like someone accident let some information out early. AMDs “Thuban” processors will be out next month, and there wasn’t a whole lot of information out there until recently. Turns out that somebody talked. Well, at least someone’s BIOS talked. → Read More
There is a steady stream of tablet PCs flowing out of China recently. Most of them are just the same ol’ thing, but this SayCool tablet stood out from the rest with a 7-inch capacitive screen that’s apparently multitouch capable. Now, the tablet runs Windows XP, which isn’t nearly as touch friendly as Win7, but it certainly can be done with the right cocktail of software and hardware. → Read More
Kudos to Comcast for embracing the year 2009. The nation’s largest—and quite possibly worst—ISP has finally committed itself to deploying 100 mbps broadband beginning this year. That will make the FCC happy, what with the loft goals it set with its National Broadband Plan. It’s also good news for people who know their way around things like Usenet—taps nose like a spy. Will it… → Read More
This year’s MIX 2010 was led by Scott Guthrie, who has emerged from Microsoft’s rank and file to own just about everything developer-related. Where last year’s MIX and PDC conferences were spearheaded by Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, Guthrie’s keynote appearances focused on the progress Silverlight has made in driving the company’s 3 Screens and the Cloud approach to the disruptions going on… → Read More
You’ve probably heard about some quantum this-and-that where it was implied that certain particles can be here and there, or moving and not moving, simultaneously. “Splendid,” you said, disparagingly, as you adjusted your monocle, “that also explains my quantum state of simultaneously reading and not caring.” Oh, sir! How droll that was! You slay me. But you spoke the truth: on a practical level… → Read More
Well, looks like that Canon 5D mk II update that was released a couple days ago has itself a couple faults. Seems that if you set sound recording to manual while using a C* dial setting, then turn the camera off, it’ll render your camera unable to record audio at all. There are two solutions: don’t install the update until they fix it, or set sound recording to auto. We hope you have… → Read More
We’re still going through these recently released YouTube/Viacom litigation documents, and it’s becoming clear that we can’t take everything that’s being said by either party at face value (as if we didn’t know that already). We’ve come across a good example. In Viacom’s document Statement of Undisputed Facts, it presented the following seemingly damning passage that indicates that YouTube… → Read More
This cool Instructable teaches you how to build your own persistance of vision wristband, one of those things that spell a word when you swing it in front of someone fast enough. The device uses a Lilypad Arduino board and about eight 8 LEDs. → Read More
12 cores may sound impressive, but as rumored, it’s likely just two of the latest six-core i7s working in tandem. Actually, now that I think about it, that is pretty impressive. I can’t think of who would need such ridiculous power and multi-threading, but I know my friends in ultra-HD video and effects can’t get enough Hz. I don’t know if programs like After Effects and Final Cut are really using… → Read More
While I doubt you can run Freecell on this thing let alone view YouTube videos, if you’re looking for an uber-small laptop that you can mess around with Linux on, you might want to look at this red hot eCost deal. → Read More
TechCrunch Europe and UK Trade and Investment are organising a series of pitch workshops to help startups hone their pitch. Free ones.
The next on is on 30th March 2010. It is free to attend for qualified UK-based startups, which means any startup in Europe that also has a UK base of course. It gives you a chance to possibly pitch at a forthcoming TechCrunch Pitch session at an event like… → Read More
With a little careful measurement and either some good tools or a lack of concern for aesthetics, you can make a pretty cool freestanding bookcase out of Ikea parts. The idea is that it’s standing on the ground but the poles are telescoping, allowing you to ratchet it up against the ceiling. Boom: instant, stable freestanding bookcase! → Read More
Octopuses like HDTV as much as we do. Who knew? → Read More
This bad boy isn’t exactly official yet, but that’s never really mattered before, right? We hear the Acer Aspire 1825PT notebook will come with an 11.6-inch capacitive touchscreen with a 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. We don’t know the price just yet, but in case the 1825PT is a bit too rich for you, there’s always the lower-end 1825PTZ. → Read More
There are good things about conferences and there are bad things about conferences. One of the bad things is how little the audience gets to participate directly in the content being created. Sometimes there’s a question and answer period at the end of a panel where people line up at a microphone to ask questions. But that’s usually it. Other than booing and applause, and of course the back… → Read More
iBUYPOWER announced today its latest, 4 new “Paladin” systems using the i7 980x processors. These new systems come with iBUYPOWER’s free liquid CPU cooling, and you can request that the CPU be overclocked and tested before being shipped out. → Read More
I’m hopelessly addicted to Push Notifications on the iPhone. Unfortunately, the system is flawed, in that the more notifications you get, the worse the experience is because it can be hard to manage them all. And one reason I always have the iPhone on me, even when taking around an Android phone, is that there’s no good way to get my notifications on another device. A new startup may offer a… → Read More
Plastic Jungle, a marketplace for gift cards, has secured $7.4 million in Series B funding, led by Redpoint Ventures with Shasta Ventures Bay Partners, First Round Capital and other investors participating. This brings the company’s total funding to $13.4 million.
Plastic Jungle lets you buy, sell and exchange gift cards online. Instead of receiving cash for your gift card, Plastic Jungle also… → Read More
Get ready, India. The email-only Peek device will soon be riding on Aircell’s airwaves within your boarders and available for purchase in 1,000 different retail spots. It’s actually quite affordable too with a retail cost of Rs.2999 for the handheld and Rs.299 for the monthly service charge. That works out to be $65 USD and $6 USD, respectively. Interested? There’s a spiffy new… → Read More
When leaks like this become what appears to be a controlled drip, you can be sure there is something interesting on the horizon. Just yesterday we saw evidence of a new, smaller Xbox 360 chassis, and now we’re hearing of a “2010 system update” that will allow you to use your own USB drives as storage for games, save files, DLC, and so on. → Read More
I’m at the NewsMorphosis Conference in Hawaii today locked in a day of debates about the state of news quality and how the hell we find a business model to keep paying for it. It’s a big issue locally– earlier this year three of Hawaii’s five largest TV news stations merged operations and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin is merging with the other daily paper the Honolulu Advertiser, resulting in… → Read More
The last of the four location based social networks I had a chance speak with at SXSW Interactive 2010 was actually one of the early services into the space. You may remember seeing Loopt on one of the many iPhone television commercials to dominate the airwaves in the last year or so. Loopt’s original broadcast model was a bit different than the more pervasive check in model we see… → Read More
Is this the greatest photo in the world? Apparently so! It’s a 26-gigapixel (!), 220-degree panorama of Paris. If it’s not the greatest photo in the world, then, according to its photographers, then it’s certainly the largest. You have to visit the site to appreciate it, obviously. → Read More
Nicholas here, from the past communicating to the future! (The site is all messed up, so I probably wrote these words several hours before you’re reading them. It’s like a Metal Gear Time Paradox or something.) Nintendo has said it will release the DSi XL on March 28 for $190. → Read More
There has always been a vibrant ecosystem around financial data. Financial institutions, such as hedge funds and investment banks, pay thousands of dollars for quantitative tabular data (financial data in spreadsheets). But now, the web has provided a mechanism to distribute and publish large amounts of data, but much of this data is raw (meaning, it’s not built into a spreadsheet format) and hard… → Read More
Who saw The Hurt Locker? Oh, right: none of you. Even if you didn’t you probably are already familiar with the basic concept: a U.S. Army guy whose job it is to disable I.E.D.s sorta goes crazy. That’s the gist of it. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense in the UK has unveiled something called the Dragon Runner, a remote-controlled robot that disables bombs. → Read More
Some people don’t like the idea of Google having any data about them. Unfortunately, if you visit a site tracked by Google Analytics (and chances are you hit several each day), you have no choice. But soon, you might.
Google is testing a browser-based opt-out solution for Google Analytics, they briefly note today on the Google Analytics blog. Specifically, this would be a “global browser based… → Read More
Now here’s a delightful story. A gentleman in Austin, Texas was laid off from his job as a car mechanic. The thing is, he was “pretty good with computers.” So, in order to get petty revenge on his former employers, he used a system to remotely disable more than 100 cars. Fun! → Read More
We’re still poring over the hundreds of pages of documents that were just released in the YouTube/Viacom litigation. One document that offers extensive insight into YouTube’s early operations is Viacom’s Statement of Undisputed Facts, which contains quite a few emails from the site’s three founders: Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim (sometimes referred to as YouTube’s ‘forgotten’ founder). → Read More
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Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
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