One of the speakers here at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam this year was Timothy Ferriss, who famously wrote the bestseller “The 4-Hour Workweek”, a semi-autobiographical self-help book.
Unbeknownst to some, Ferriss is also quite an active Silicon Valley angel investor and startup advisor. Some of the companies he’s invested in and/or acts as an advisor for are Digg, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Posterous, SimpleGeo and DailyBurn.
Ferriss and I had a chat about his angel investment activities. → Read More
The US’s first offshore wind farm approved, to be located off the coast of Cape Cod Custom stand actually holds your microphones in place Wind-powered knitting machine produces infinite scarf This Art Lebedev mug shows your caffeine power level You need to play Super Mario Crossover right now → Read More
Google today announced on its blog that they have upgraded the mobile Image Search on Android 2.1 and iPhone OS 3.0+ devices.
It’s a typically Google update, in that the revamp will provide more speed and less clutter — two things that are always welcome. → Read More
If you are a regular TechCrunch reader, describing a product as a SaaS hybrid of Quicken + Zoho + SalesForce, would paint a fairly clear picture in your mind of the product. And this is pretty much what Soho OS is. Thing is, the odds that their target user bases, small and micro-business, are regular TechCrunch readers, are slim.
But let’s push the ‘how to succinctly describe the offering’ issue aside, because Soho OS really does offer a well-rounded package of small business management services, from CRM, to invoicing, to VOIP. And it comes at an unbeatable price: it’s 100% free, with a commitment to remain so forever.
Soho OS is giving out 1000 access invites to TechCrunch readers. Get yours here: http://www.sohoos.com/welcome/techcrunch/ → Read More
Greatest thing of all time? It’s at least in the running. Some very dedicated Canon lover (and DIYer) has put the guts from a modern Canon digital into the a hollowed-out AE-1, one of the wonderful old metal bodies from the early 80s. I learned to shoot on its elder sibling, the FTb, and I still love to just hold it my hands as a reminder of how things were once built. If only I could have both… like this thing. → Read More
Over the last two weeks countless blog posts and articles have been written about the Gizmodo/iPhone leak and the subsequent police investigation. Few have been as scathing toward Apple as a segment that aired on tonight’s Daily Show. And while Apple has long made a habit of mostly ignoring what the press and media says about it, you can be sure this will get their attention.
In the segment, host Jon Stewart lambasts Apple for the police raid on Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s house, and the fact that Apple employees showed up on the doorstep of the guy who originally found the phone. Stewart’s report glosses over some important points in the case and gets a few details wrong. But ultimately that doesn’t really matter — Stewart’s audience probably doesn’t care if there’s a chance a crime was committed here. To them, a guy found a phone in the bar, photos of it were posted on the Internet, and Apple responded by siccing the authorities on them. → Read More
This is one of those products that I look at and cringe. I do realize though, that some people just can’t live without this type of thing. If that describes you, you can get an emoticon stamp to “share your emotion to your lover in real world with a secret”. Apparently this is a “Kaoiro” which means facial expression, and you can buy one in Japan or order one online for 2,700yen. Each one is hand made, and has seven belts which enable you to make over 2000 different combinations. [via Today and Tomorrow, and thanks to Ashley for the tip] → Read More
Oops! Looks like someone spilled the news about HP’s new Mini 210 netbook. The new netbook (if the site is to be believed) will be running the new Intel N455 chipset, the successor to the N450. The N455 runs at 1.55GHz, and is expected to support the newer DDR3 RAM. → Read More
Nice. The latest version of Cyanogen’s modded ROM (version 5.0.7) brings Android 2.1 support all the way back to the G1 and MyTouch. Being a G1 owner I can say I’m pretty pumped about this: check out the video above, it seems to work perfectly well. The only thing we’re waiting on is to get the package size down to G1 size — if he can’t trim it, we’ll probably see a holdover release for MyTouch users, though. Expect a news post over at CyanogenMod when it’s cooked all the way through. → Read More
MSI just announced their latest, the GE600 gaming notebook, is now available for purchase. Built around an Intel Core i5 processor and the ATI Radeon HD5730 GPU, the GE600 is billed at MSI’s lightest gaming notebook yet at 5.9 lbs, and this latest addition to their stable is also DirectX11 capable. → Read More
When it comes to designing a website, you can do all the tweaking you want, but you won’t know that your design actually works until people start using it. That’s where UserTesting.com, a startup that launched back in 2008, comes in. The service lets you quickly get usability feedback about your site by offering to pay people to complete certain tasks while recording their on-screen actions and voice. The site has recently added some key new features, and launched a new homepage to mark the occasion.
Previously, UserTesting only had a fixed set of standard questions that it would ask all testers after they had evaluated a website. Now, it allows you to specify exactly which questions you’d like to ask in your post-test questionnaire. In addition, the website owners can now ask the testers follow-up questions after the video and initial response questions are complete. Users don’t get paid extra for answering these followup questions, but they’re often happy to do it anyway (the site is also considering adding a ‘tip’ feature that would let you pay especially helpful users a small bonus). → Read More
Another headline for the ages. This… I don’t know what it is exactly, but it creates a tube scarf as long as you’ve got wind and yarn. It’ll keep on going as long as both hold out, producing (potentially) a scarf long enough to keep the moon warm. The creator noticed that in cul de sacs, the wind tended to blow only in one direction, and decided to make a machine that would take advantage of that. → Read More
It ain’t that new, but this thing looks like fun. They call it “motion-controlled,” but unlike the (far more expensive) Parrot AR Drone, it doesn’t use a remote motion sensor. No, you control the Vectron by using your hand to change the way its thrust goes. The closer your hand to the bottom, the more resistance the rotors get, and it rises up to equalize the… well, just watch the video. → Read More
Short version: Harman/Kardon makes great speakers, and this set is no exception. If you’re looking for a relatively inexpensive home-theater speaker system, you can definitely do much worse then the HKTS 20BQ. This is a complete 5.1 system in a box, and includes everything you need to get your system rocking. The speakers have great response throughout the range, and the 8 inch powered subwoofer will definitely shake things up. → Read More
Any band can buy a regular mic stand. But getting one custom molded as cool as this? That’s a whole new level of awesome some seriously deep pockets. → Read More
A reader forwarded the email below from Yahoo announcing changes to their disposable email address. The only problem is that he couldn’t figure out what it’s trying to say. And after reading it a handful of times, I can’t figure it out either.
Yahoo’s disposable email product lets users give out, well, disposable email addresses. If spam starts to hit that address, you just turn it off.
We asked Yahoo if they know what it means – they say they’ll get back to us. Meanwhile, if anyone else got this, please let us know. And a free TechCrunch tshirt to anyone who can explain what it means. → Read More
I’ve been bearish on Palm as a standalone platform since they launched last May and today the sadness-tinged chickens have come home to roost: Palm is now part of HP and, like the iPaq before it, the Pre and Pixi will slowly be subsumed into the company’s line-up. In fact, I couldn’t be happier for Palm. A recent perusal of HP’s line-up including their new Envy line of laptops show that, unlike Dell, they can produce a beautiful and powerful product at a nice price. Palm, in short, needed out of the hardware business and this gave them that chance. → Read More
HP didn’t just drop $1.2 billion on Palm to simply sit on the assets. There have to be major plans in the works to leverage webOS and slam out some killer consumer devices. This could be huge for not only both companies, but for you and me. → Read More
If you enjoyed taking your favorite Italian plumber into space the first time around, you’ll have even more fun with the sequel. Scheduled to be released May 23rd, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is anything but a rehash of the original. Nintendo was kind enough to give us a demo of some of the new goodies you can expect. You know, if you’re into that sort of thing. → Read More
Earlier this month when Twitter bought Atebits, aka Loren Brichter, the maker of the best iPhone Twitter client, Tweetie, they promised that Tweetie wouldn’t die. Instead it was to be turned into Twitter for iPhone. That update now appears to be coming soon.
In the final update to Tweetie 2 (2.1.2) that just went live in the App Store, the “What’s New” notes tell of a “Suprise!” The surprise is that when you pull down your tweet stream to refresh, you’re greeted with a new slot machine graphic. Hold it down long enough and the slot machine starts spinning. If it comes up with the right combo, you get a message that reads, “Coming Soon! Tweetie will be Twitter for iPhone (Look for the next app update)” → Read More
