Want to blow some horns and play the timpani on your guitar? Bill Ruppert posted a how-to using only EHX pedals and his own, specific obsession with making his crazy sounds come out of his electric guitars. → Read More
So the new Steam UI just went live today, and soon we may be seeing that Mac version everybody’s been chattering about. I’m looking forward to it, and hoping the 9400M in my MacBook Pro will be able to handle Portal 2. Other, more practical people are putting together comprehensive “all we know” lists about the program, widely anticipated (in vain) as savior of gaming on the Mac. I don’t know, I’m thinking that a couple years from now we’ll look on Steam for Mac saying “remember that time Valve released its games for Mac and then nothing else happened, ever?”
The news is mostly good. List inside. → Read More
Music streaming startup Spotify is going social. Today it unveils new features under the unpronouncable title of ‘Spotify Music Pro@ile’. Essentially it’s creating a true social network inside the Spotify service, but at the same time integrating Facebook Connect features. It is wil also now synchonise your existing music collection with your Spotify account. The update will roll out to Free and Premium users from 9am GMT today.
This update from Facebook is a major one. The trouble is what we really want to know is, having launched in several European markets and talked for the last five or six months about launching in the US… when will it launch in the US? No news on that front yet.
Meanwhile, the main new feature is the ability to share playlists and musical tastes outside Facebook. This will be good news for Spotify users, but for the startups which have been building out services around sharing playlists it’s going to be a potential new problem. → Read More
According to some commenters, this hack has been around since the ’40s. It’s older than that, in fact — I imagine since the dawn of domesticated grass-eating animals, the old stake-and-rope trick has worked wonders. Goats never did it quite so neatly, though. It looks like a UFO landed there. Bonus: no goat poop. [via Hack a Day] → Read More
If the volcanoes in Iceland keep pumping out ash, we may all need to start wearing face masks to protect our delicate lung tissues. Of course, standard fabric or paper masks aren’t enough for some people, as physical filtration may not be enough in some cases. So you have this concept face mask from designer Robert Ortega. → Read More
Amid all the media attention given to the iPhone, Android, and other ‘superphones‘, it’s easy to forget that the vast majority of the cell-phone toting population is carrying something decidedly less exciting. But many of these more generic phones, though they lack touchscreens and flashy graphics, are still quite capable. Enter Snaptu,a platform for mobile phone applications that is compatible with the vast majority of phones available, including newer Windows devices, Nokia, Motorola, BlackBerry, and more. In short, it’s meant to be an app store for phones that don’t have app stores. And now it works on AT&T.
The company, which recently raised a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital, was founded in 2007. Its Java-based application platform has been installed by over 6 million users, with strong distribution internationally, including Asia and Europe. However, up until recently users in the United States were having issues using the application platform on AT&T. → Read More
Look, I love my kids as much as they next guy, but do we really need a tub enclosure that fits right over your old, big tub designed to ensure that your wee ones are easier to grab when they’re all lathered up?
This $2,200 “tub extender” was part of a bathroom fixture trade show, a show that I believe CG should definitely cover next year. Basically it helps you by bringing the wee ones a big higher out of the tub but why not just wash them in the sink if you’re having that big a problem? → Read More
It was inevitable. First we had pay-per-post, then pay-per-tweet, and now we have pay-per-video. As personalities on YouTube start attracting larger, and more loyal audiences, they are increasingly seen by marketers as an effective advertising channel. MyLikes, a social marketing network that already matches influential bloggers and Twitterers with advertisers, is now moving to YouTube. For instance, blogger Chris Pirillo, who has 120,000 subscribers to his Lockergnome YouTube channel, produced a sponsored video for the iPhone app Siri which shows him doing a demo of the virtual personal assistant. → Read More
Maybe you haven’t noticed, but there’s a serious race going on once again for the right to be Twitter most-followed user. Ever since actor Ashton Kutcher beat CNN to the one million mark, he’s been in the lead — and now has some 4.8 million followers. But pop star Britney Spears is quickly catching up, with nearly 4.8 million herself. So the race to 5 million is on. But if one revoluationary has his way, those two will have company at the top.
Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, has announced his intention to join Twitter. Considering that Chavez reguarly writes a newspaper column, and has his own radio show, the fact that he would use this newer mass communication medium isn’t that surprising. But what is surprising is his apparent goal. “I’m sure he’ll break records for numbers of followers,” Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s head of communications told Bloomberg today. → Read More
While we have our own ideas about what should constitute a slow motion film, I guess this one from NASA is okay. I mean, if you like explosions and enormous hulks of metal rising into the air, and flames.
Okay, okay, it’s totally freaking awesome. → Read More
I love this device. It’s always bothered me that if you lose a USB key, you lose the data as well. The Lok-IT secure USB device makes it so I don’t have to worry about losing it. Well, other then the purchase price. The technology is pretty cool in that the computer can’t see the drive until the PIN is entered, so it’s not easy to hack. → Read More
Yammer CEO David Sacks dropped by TechCrunch today to talk about corporate and sales milestones. The “Twitter for enterprise” startup, which won TechCrunch50 in 2008, continues to grow nicely.
Yammer now has 70,000 corporate clients, and 800,000+ total seats (users). At least 1,000 of those companies are paying for the product, and Sacks says 10%-15% of seats are converting to paid. 70% of Fortune 500 companies are using Yammer, says Sacks. Paying customers include Cisco, Nationwide, AstraZeneca, Alcatel-Lucent, Sungard and Molson Coors. → Read More
Denon is jumping into the the 3D market with both feet, bringing two new Blu-ray players to the market. Both feature 5.1 audio, BD Live, Netflix, and YouTube Streaming, and (my personal favorite) 1GB of on-board memory. → Read More
Earlier today news broke that police had raided Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s home in connection with the iPhone leak last week. Authorities got a search warrant and removed four computers, two servers, and more. However, in light of claims by Gizmodo’s attorneys that Chen should be protected by California’s Shield Laws, we have just been told that the authorities are not yet looking through this evidence.
I just spoke to Stephen Wagstaffe, Chief Deputy at San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, who told me that nobody has yet been charged in the case, and at this point it is “just an investigation”. He says the investigation is “looking at any hand that touched or had something to do with this phone” but that the investigation is not currently targeting either Gawker or the person who originally found the phone — rather, police are collecting every fact they can to present to the DA, who will then make a decision. → Read More
This is the final version of the WePad, and it’s currently earmarked for a July release. We’ll see, of course. Anyhow, the device was shown off to the press in Germany earlier today, and several videos demonstrating the interface are now online for our viewing pleasure. It does look mighty slick, but you wonder if that’s enough to take on Cupertino’s “magical and revolutionary” device. → Read More
Wow. Last week, Gizmodo published a massive scoop when they got their hands on what is mostly likely the next iPhone. At the time there was plenty of talk about the legality of Gizmodo’s actions (as they admitted to paying $5000 for the device). Now Gizmodo has just published a post saying that editor Jason Chen had four of his computers and two servers confiscated by California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, who entered the house with a search warrant.
Gawker’s COO has responded to the actions by citing California Penal Code 1524(g), which states that “no warrant shall issue for any items described in Section 1070 of the Evidence Code”, which protects information used by reporters. → Read More
People love arcade games, and have since the 50′s. Some of the earliest games were based off of other recreations, like for example bowling. I remember playing one of these in the arcade in town during my youth, but it never held the attraction to me like Battle Zone or Asteroids did. → Read More
Denon just announced its 2010 lineup, which includes a crap-ton of new A/V receivers. The company totally revamped its entire lineup, releasing ten new A/V receivers at each price point from $249 to $7,500. The whole line got some fine upgrades, too. Every model now rocks 3D-friendly HDMI 1.4, audio return channel and Consumer Electronics Control support. Analog-to-HDMI conversion and HD Audio decoding from Dolby to DTS is also included, although not in $249 entry-level model. Most models will hit retailers in the coming months so it might be best to hold off your next A/V purchase until the model in your perspective price-point launches. Wouldn’t want you to get buyers remorse. → Read More
Just a handy reminder to all you PC gamers out there that Valve has fully released the new Steam Client UI update. → Read More
Denon has released a new set of headphones, bringing the company’s total number of headphone models to 14. These new headphones, while exciting from a metaphysical standpoint (Questions can me asked, including “Does Denon really need to sell 14 different headphone models?”), are also interesting from a practical standpoint. The two in-ear models are iPhone and iPad compatibvle while the AH-NC800 – price TBD – are noise canceling.
Click through for the press release. Because we weren’t sent images I’ve placed an image of Burt Reynolds here instead. → Read More
