Yahoo has had a busy day. Not only did they announce a new cross-branding deal with Nokia, and struck a partnership with Match.com, and had their CEO spar onstage with Mike, but they apparently made an acquisition too. It’s a location-based service. No, not that one. It’s called Koprol. Basically, it’s the Asian Foursquare.
Koprol, based in Jakarta, Indonesia focuses on the “intersection of location, community expertise and mobile experiences.” With it, people share photos and reviews of locations using their mobile phones. And yes, it allows you to “check-in” to a location → Read More
Last week at Google I/O, we got our first glimpse of Google TV, a new product due to launch this fall that combines the best of the web with television. Thing is, as anyone who has set up an HTPC can probably attest to, the web isn’t exactly tailored for the so-called 10 foot experience — it’s hard to use an Internet browser when you’re sitting on the other site of the room. So how does Google plan to work around that when Google TV launches?
I asked that question during a press conference held immediately after Google TV was first unveiled. The answer, which primarily came from Google Senior Product Manager Rishi Chandra, is that we’ll probably see something akin to what happened with mobile sites, where websites create versions that are optimized for Google TV and similar products. → Read More
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is joining Khosla Ventures, the VC firm. He will join as a senior adviser. Khosla is putting about $1.1 billion into clean technology companies and and tech companies right now.
One of the companies is Calera, a UK company which has a process to sequestrate carbon emissions in cement, while another, Kior, turns wood chips into biofuels.
Mr Blair said: “I am increasingly and crucially aware of the fact that the answer to these twin challenges — climate change and energy security — lies in developing the technological solutions of the future.”
It’s clearly a win for Khosla which will now get access to his significant global network. → Read More
There’s a campaign brewing on Twitter that really ought to be highlighted, if only because it shows the power (well, potential power) of the site. Dave McDonald, a producer on the Ron and Fez show on Sirius XM (and part-time inventor), needs a raise. He needs a raise because he has a growing family to support. But let’s not even bring up personal reasons. The man deserves a raise because he’s a fantastic asset to the Ron and Fez show and to Sirius XM as a whole. Without a raise, Dave will have to leave the show, which is incredibly disappointing. He’s a producer of the highest caliber—competent producers don’t grow on trees, otherwise terrestrial radio might not be as dead as it is today—and yet he earns little more than an intern. If this were 20 years ago we might see picket lines forming outside the Sirius XM studios in New York, but because this is 2010, fans have turned to Twitter to send Sirius XM management a very clear message: Save Dave, Pay The Man. → Read More
A gaming retailer’s promotion brochure may have just outed the Playstation Move release date — or at least narrowed it down. Its release was previously pegged at September 1st, but this just-after-E3 date might make more sense. Strike while the iron is hot — assuming a near-exact copy of the Wiimote heats the iron to begin with. → Read More
I’m not sure if this device is really a waterproof flashlight with a video camera or a video camera with a bright light. Either way, it records video at VGA quality on a 4GB internal drive and sports a 1W LED flashlight. There’s a USB port, rechargeable battery, and everything else that’s supposed to be in a camera. But then it’s shaped like a flashlight so I’m still not sure. All I know is with a price tag of $192.99, I really don’t care. Click through for a video demo. → Read More
This young lady is eight years old and produces something she calls Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Maker Show. Today she made a Drawdio, a pencil that plays music when you draw things. Mark at BoingBoing found her at Maker Faire and she seems to really enjoy what she’s doing and she has great production values, which is a big plus in videoblogging. → Read More
There clearly isn’t enough computer speaker options available and so iLuv has three new solutions coming out. There’s a speaker bar, cube speakers, and even a mini clip speaker that features a clip for you know, clipping. → Read More
We covered AppMakr a few months ago and found that they were a fairly cool way to make simple iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch apps with a minimum of fuss. They’ve just announced that they hit 1 million downloads onall of their custom apps and have also announced a number of improvements to the service.
The service, to recap, allows you create simple apps consisting of RSS feeds and other pieces of data. You create the app online and “publish” it either privately or with their help. → Read More
Bad news, Yankees fans. Apparently the winningest team in the history of sport doesn’t want you sitting inside the stadium with an iPad on your lap. That’s right: the iPad is banned at Yankee Stadium! So says a poster on one of the IGN messageboards. The Bronx is burning. → Read More
Has Twitter killed instant messaging? That’s one possible explanation for the sudden and precipitous drop in instant message traffic in the past few years. A recent study shows that Britons spent an entire 14 percent of the online-time instant messaging back in 2007. Now? That number is a paltry 5 percent. Is IM dead, dying, or merely going through growing pains? → Read More
Have you ever wondered how they rate gaming laptops and desktops? Well, aside from a bunch of hand-waving and pseudo-intellectual discussion, most hardware reviewers depend on a few important benchmarks, including 3DMark 11. 3DMark traditionally pounds graphics processors and CPUs with all kinds of great stuff – I remember running 3DMark in 2001 and seeing some amazing graphics including a fun space battle scene that pre-dated Halo 2 – and then it spits out a number. FutureMark is releasing a new version of the software that will attack PCs with DirectX 11 graphics including new tessellation techniques to add amazing depth and detail to newer games. The new software will appear at Computex and will be available for use in Q3 2010. A free version will also be available for stay-at-home amateur hardware pundits. → Read More
Today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, we had a panel entitled “Does The iPad Change Everything For News, Or Is It Still All About The Web?” The New York Times’ David Carr moderated the panel which included angel investor Ron Conway, Huffington Post CEO Eric Hippeau, and Bloomberg chief content officer Norm Pearlstine. The common theme? The only thing that can stop the iPad is Apple.
While that may sound confusing (since, of course, Apple makes the iPad), everyone seemed to agree that Apple’s restrictions could end up hurting the device in the long run. Apple is in control right now because they’re the first to market with a killer product, but others will emulate them, reasons Pearlstine. He believes a lot of the content on these type of tablets will eventually be web-based rather than app-based (similar to an argument Google co-founder Sergey Brin made last week). → Read More
Intel is ready to take on the Apple A4 CPU and will show off its solution at the upcoming Computex conference. The chip maker is apparently almost ready to unveil a silicon meant specifically for tablets. Who knows if Intel PC Client Group VP actually had the green light to reveal the upcoming announcement, but that’s exactly what he did. → Read More
Mac users may get a kick out of this, the elgato EyeTV HD. It’s a DVR solution that works with your cable and satellite channels, sending everything to your Mac instead of a plain ol’ TV. From there you can watch or edit whatever you’ve recorded. Easy as pie. → Read More
Pioneer is taking a big step in bridging the two landmasses of Internet radio and vehicle entertainment. By utilizing a free iPhone app, Pandora Link, the company is bringing Pandora to two of its latest systems, the Pioneer AVIC-Z120BT and AVIC-X920BT navigation systems. Simply run the app and connect the iPhone to head unit with the USB cable; the in-dash radio system will then displays all of Pandora’s trademark functions like thumbs up and thumbs down formatted in Pioneer’s great-looking interface. → Read More
Earlier this year, we covered the launch of Flixtime - an Animoto-like slideshow generation platform developed by Franco-American online stock photo giant Fotolia. When Flixtime first came out, the service naturally seemed basic in comparison to Animoto – which has been in the slideshow space since 2006. However, only a few months into its existence with over 50,000 free videos created on its site, it seems Flixtime is already throwing punches at Animoto with some new features that will go live on the site today.
So, for anyone that’s still in the dark on what exactly the service entails, Flixtime allows users to generate short videos and slideshows from photos. Users can either use photos from Fotolia’s database or upload images of their own. Slideshows can be automatically synchronized with music – either a song of the user’s choice or selected from AudioMicro‘s catalogue. And now with the new additional features, even more personalization options will be available.
Some of the latest additions to Flixtime – 7 of them to be exact – include some rather standard functionalities, like image highlighting, sharing capabilities, video presentation speed control and text integration onto video stills. Oh, and then there’s ulimited copies. However, there is one new feature in particular that definitely makes it seem as though Flixtime is trying to get a leg up on Animoto: voiceover capabilities. → Read More
Dost thou love Diddy? Then do not squander Diddy, for that’s the stuff life is made of. Monster has just announced the avilability of the Diddybeats earbuds in black, white, and pink for $179. Best of all? Les Diddybeats includes a free track from Diddy’s latest album, Last Train to Paris. But wait! There’s more. Actually, that’s it. They’ll be available at Best Buy and, because they didn’t mention much about the audio, expect these things to be a little bass-heavy and actually fairly good, although the price is a bit high. Although folks complain about Monster all the time, I’ve been impressed with the Dr. Dre Beats, so these should be on par with those. → Read More
Android 2.2 might already be rolling out to the Nexus One — but what about it’s nearly-identical European brother, the HTC Desire? If a random HTC customer service rep is to be believed — which we generally wouldn’t recommend — the Desire should be seeing Android 2.2 in all of its Flash-packin’, performance-boosting glory within the next month. → Read More
Back in January, Google announced it was removing Google Docs and Sites support for older browsers such as IE6. Starting June 1, it’s doing the same for its popular Google Reader product. And that’s not the only thing they’re removing — gone as well is Gears support. But to make up for those loses, they have added something in their “Spring Cleaning” — a simplified social structure.
To be clear, IE6 isn’t the only browser getting the axe. Firefox 1.0 and 2.0, Safari 2.0 and 3.0, and even Chrome versions 1, 2, and 3 are all being pulled. “This will allow us to spend our time improving Reader instead of fixing issues with antiquated browsers,” Google writes. Again, this will happen June 1. → Read More
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