Well, I hate to be the one to break this news to y’all, but here we are. You know the “green” movement, where companies try to say things like, “Oh, our products are more safe for the environment than our competitors’ products”? I don’t want to say it’s complete nonsense, but the scientist who devised the Gaia theory—our planet is an organism, and we should do our best to ensure its survival—has just said that there’s no chance in hell that we’re going to save the planet. His advice? “Enjoy life while you can.” So, so amazing. → Read More
There is obviously a lot of excitement around the iPad. Kleiner Perkins is doubling its iFund to launch more companies around the new device. And everyone from existing iPhone app developers and media companies is rushing to create iPad versions of their apps. As the screenshots leaked to us below show, you can add Gowalla to that list. I’ve confirmed the screenshots are real with CEO Josh Williams.
But why would you want geo-location check-in app on a huge iPad. It’s bad enough to have to pull out your iPhone every time you enter a restaurant or some other public gathering place. Pulling out the iPad will be much more conspicuous. → Read More
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/BTRPlayer.swf?file=http://www.blogtalkradio.com%2fCrunchGear%2fplay_list.xml&autostart=false&shuffle=false&callback=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/FlashPlayerCallback.aspx&width=630&height=105&volume=80&corner=rounded Here are some of the topics from today’s podcast… iPad iPad iPad Bags iPad iPad iPad Feel free to call in at (646) 200-4163 to ask questions. LISTEN: Show Link | RSS Feed | iTunes Link → Read More
Netvibes CEO Freddy Mini announced today that the startup founded five years ago has finally made it to profitability. The site has seen a lot of changes since then. It began as one of the original Web 2.0 personalized homepages, became a distributed widget platform, changed CEOs (when founder Tariq Krim stepped down in 2008 to start Jolicloud), then started appealing to enterprises, brands, and advertisers with intranet offerings and social media dashboards.
I chatted with Mini today, who says that the company is profitable on a net income basis. He won’t go into details on revenues, but the company has 40 employees and two offices. Just to cover salaries, it’s got to be pulling in a few million dollars a year. Mini did break down the revenues by product line, however: → Read More
Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with the Keg Stool! Can you think of any better way to enjoy your favorite beverage than to sit upon its very delivery vessel? Only a hundred bucks if you supply your own keg; twice that if you’re fresh out of kegs. No discerning homebrewer should be without one of these marvelous inventions. → Read More
Following Kleiner Perkins’ iFund “Doubling Down” event today, I got the chance to speak with iFund managing partner Matt Murphy. Simply put, Murphy, who also managed the first iFund, thinks the opportunity with the iPad will be huge — potentially bigger than the first iFund. Obviously, Kleiner wouldn’t pump another $100 million into the fund if it didn’t believe that, but Murphy offered some insight into the firm’s thinking.
While much of the focus has been on what the iPad will do as a consumer device, Murphy makes the case for how well it should work as a revenue-generating machine for the companies developing for it. He noted that of the 14 companies that are currently a part of the iFund (3 of which are in stealth mode), four of them are already profitable just two years after the fund’s launch. He attributes this to three main things: the freemium model, Apple’s payment structure, and micro-payments. → Read More
Last week at PAX East, Nvidia showed off for the first time its GTX 480. Reviews were kind, but noted that the card runs at approximately 8 million degrees, and that the performance isn’t as crazy as you’d expect for the $500 you’re going to pay—an ATI Radeon 5870 is nearly as good, for $100 cheaper. So, make your own decisions! That’s part of the fun of PC gaming: spending weeks on Newegg worrying over motherboard combinations and the like. Anyhow, ATI has a new card on the block today, the Radeon HD 5870 Eyfinitiy 6 Edition. → Read More
Social Media is catching fire, and college sports wants a piece of the action. Row27, a company we profiled a few months ago, has just released CrowdCameo. The product is a suite of picture-sharing web and mobile apps which let fans post pictures directly to a college sports-branded web page. Basically, all those drunk idiots (including myself) at college sports games can now spend all day taking crazy pictures of themselves in their LSU gear and see it on the college’s sports site. Better yet, select photos can be shown up on the Big Board (the huge video screen) in college stadiums. Basically, fans take pictures of themselves or others via mobile phone or camera and send those pictures to a generic e-mail address (say fans@lsu.edu). Then, LSU screens those pictures and decides which ones go up on the fan site or on the board during half-time. → Read More
http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.1.5.swf This should be good. Really NSFW like every other Zero Punctuation. → Read More
Google has acquired a company that has created a new process for highly efficient isotope separation, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. The primary use of this technology, say experts we’ve spoken with, is uranium enrichment.
Enriched uranium is a necessary ingredient in the creation of nuclear energy, and one source we’ve spoken with at Google says that this is part of the Google Green Initiative. The company will use the new technology to enable it to design and possibly build small, mobile and highly efficient nuclear power generators. “Google has already begun building an enrichment plant,” says a high ranking IAEA source. → Read More
We haven’t really progressed beyond the year 2004, have we? With respect to copyright news, I mean. The latest: the “US Copyright Group” has filed suit against 20,000 BitTorrent users, with a cool 30,000 lawsuits now pending. If you total all the various different “Hollywood” (you know what I mean) lawsuits, that means that 80,000 Americans now face some sort of traffic-lawsuit. → Read More
Ever tried writing in Japanese? No, right? Well it’s really hard. There are like lines and little circles and things. Well, Google Japan just released their new drum-based interface to type in Japanese. No longer will you be confounded by the spelling of Hari Kari and Toyota! Google Translate tells us: → Read More
Earlier today, we’ve covered Honda’s U3-X, and now we bring you another mobility robot from Japan. What we have here is a robotic skateboard, which was developed by the Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo. And no, it’s not really a fun project. That DIY Segway skateboard is about to get some serious competition. → Read More
[Croatia] With Easter only days away and with it the tradition of egg tapping or egg fighting, the 1337bit team have taken it upon themselves to revive this traditional kids game on – yes, you’ve guessed it – the iPhone.
EggsEggsEggs, which costs $0.99 from the App Store, lets you choose an egg and swing it using the iPhone’s accelerometer. The harder you swing, the better the results.
In single player “skill mode”, you test your strength and try to get the highest score. In two player “duel” mode, you search for an opponent using Bluetooth or the EggsEggsEggs online service (which is free) and start an egg fight. The goal is to break your opponent’s egg before they break yours. → Read More
It can be said that Motorola just got its groove back. The Droid is probably one of the best phones out there, followed by the Devour, and they’re constantly releasing a few good models every few weeks, which is better than some manufacturers can say. They’ve hit on a strong formula: build a nice phone, put Android on it, sell a few hundred thousand. Repeat. While the CLIQ XT isn’t Motorola’s best phone, it follows Moto’s not-so-secret recipe without shaming the chef. → Read More
Monoprice vs Monster Cable – Dirt cheap vs overpriced. It’s a battle for the ages. We know the truth, but do you? Hopefully this infograph sheds some truth on the situation for you. → Read More
To follow up with earlier rumors we’re happy to report that the Zune HD 64GB is now a reality. Microsoft just announced the Zune HD 64GB for $349.99, available April 12, just outside of the event horizon that is the iPad ship date. This new device will run the 4.5 firmware. → Read More
Nice, another sci-fi movie story. ’tis a grand day, indeed. The story is a two-parter: one, there will be an Independence Day 2 and Independence Day 3. That’s insane enough. Two: Will Smith will be in both. Loving the creativity coming out of Hollywood these days. → Read More
[France] Kwaga, which offers a semantic email organiser, has announced that users of its Kwaga Birdseye product can log in without handing over their Gmail password. That’s because the service now supports Google’s newly rolled out implementation of the OAuth standard, a first for a European company, says Kwaga.
The Paris-based startup was a third-party developer tester and worked with Google’s Eric Sachs and team to fine tune the implementation of the protocol for both Gmail and Google apps accounts within Kwaga. The result is that subscribers to the service just need to type in their Gmail address, including Enterprise accounts (Google Apps for Your Domain) where they’ll be redirected to the Gmail dashboard and asked to grant access without ever revealing their password. → Read More
The details are simple: buy a select Dell notebook or desktop and a Sony Reader Pocket Edition ships along with it for no additional cost. It’s actually a nice little deal although it’s only for two days. Of course like with most sales, the actual cost savings is minimal as the sale price is likely inflated to included the cost of the ereader, but that’s fine. Ereaders tend to be something the consumers are curious about and are unwilling to pull the trigger just yet. Getting more ereaders in the average joes that buy Dells might help the whole industry. → Read More
