There are a lot of people actively using Google Latitude — 3 million, in fact. But maybe “active” isn’t really a good word for how they use it, since Latitude is a location-based service that’s passive. That is, it is continuously updating your location in the background. You don’t check-in (at least not yet), so there’s not much to actually do. But a new feature today makes this passive service much more interesting.
The new Location History Dashboard gives you a number of ways to view your location history. If you’ve recently gone on a trip, for example, you can see step-by-step where you went and when. It’s a bit like Hansel and Gretel leaving breadcrumbs — only there are no birds to eat them. → Read More
Is the new Prince of Persia movie racist? Almost certainly not, but that’s the accusation being levied by independent film maker Jehanzeb Dar, saying that the part of The Prince “really needed to go to someone who’s Persian.” So, rather than try to find someone of Persian (or at the very least, Middle Eastern) descent, the film’s producers instead went with a well-known Hollywood actor. Is there anything wrong with that, really? → Read More
At TechCrunch Disrupt today, web analytics company comScore announced the free availability of its platform for startups.
The company is making Tagging completely free. “Tagging” means putting a comScore tag (i.e. pixel) on a publisher’s web page so that the company can see the totality of a site’s page views at the census level. This data is blended with its panel-based data for a comprehensive view. Previously, the cost of implementing these tags was $5,000, but ComScore will no longer be charging for that set-up cost. → Read More
Remember SEDs? Those surface-conduction electron-emitter displays were around for quite a while, competing with FEDs (field emission displays) until Sony decided to pull the plug on the latter back in March last year. That gave one company, Canon, enough of a push to continue to believe in SED. Canon even filed new patents on SED technology in the US in May 2009. But that’s over now (we kind of anticipated this as early as December 2008). → Read More
We’ve carved out a corner of TC Disrupt and created our own Little Shenzhen sweatshop complete with DIY MP3 players, MakerBot 3D printer, and a pneumatic robot called Stabby. More videos of each event will be posted shortly but if you happen to be at Disrupt, we’re down by the RedBull lounge. → Read More
Two of the three iPhones released thus far have been launched in June. WWDC, where Apple generally announces iPhones 2-3 weeks before they’re shipping, starts on June 7th. If you had to guess, when would you wager that the new iPhone was coming? If you said “June”, awesome — you’re probably right, and click on after the jump to find out more. If you said “October”… well, I’m not quite sure what to say to that. → Read More
Back in March, Microsoft was over $50 billion ahead of Apple in market cap. That gap was still huge, but it was the closest the two had been in that measurement of value in decades. The trend was clear: I predicted that Apple would pass Microsoft, it was only a matter of when.
Not even I thought it would be this soon.
Today, Apple has just passed Microsoft in market cap. Now, the stocks have been fluctuating quite a bit, so this could change before the market closes. But as of right now, Apple is ahead, and has been for the past few minutes. → Read More
There was a bit of controversy a few weeks ago when Samsung published a note warning people about the dangers of 3D movies. Pregnant women, the elderly, and a whole host of other people were told, in no uncertain terms, to limit their exposure to 3D movies, lest they become sick. What was never explained was why these people, or anyone else for that matter, could become sick when watching 3D movies. Thank God for Bill Nye (and his patrons at VSP, the eye care group). The famous scientist/greatest American ever, in this video, explains why certain people become unwell while watching 3D movies. → Read More
When I was a kid, we used to play on the street in front of my house. Yeah, I know – seems like years ago. Nowadays, with children and families spending more time inside watching TV or playing video games; I feel like there’s nobody outside in my neighborhood anymore. In fact, most people don’t know their next-door neighbors. DeHood, sponsors here at TechCrunch Disrupt, wants to crush that problem. Founded by Babak Hedayati, DeHood is a social network for neighborhoods. They are kind of like a one-stop local social network on iPhone (app available here). The goal is to be a one-stop shop for all the local social networking you need to do. → Read More
Yesterday at TechCrunch Disrupt, Facebook’s VP of Product Chris Cox announced that the social network would be unveiling a set of “drastically simplified” privacy controls today. Facebook has scheduled a press conference call for 1:30 EST to unveil the new settings, which will be presented by multiple Facebook executives including CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
This call comes after a month of serious backlash against Facebook, largely focused around its Instant Personalization feature, default ‘Everyone’ sharing, and its highly confusing privacy control panel. My live notes on the call are below. → Read More
A new lineup of basic consumer LCD monitors has been announced by HP, and they look fine. Juuuuust fine. Nothing flashy here, but the specs look solid (except for the cheapest one) and the styling is very “Apple Cinema Display” – but less chromey. That’s a good thing, in my opinion.
Basically you’ve got four models, at 20″, 21.5″, 23″, and 27″. The 2010i is kind of low resolution, and has a slow response time and (relatively) low contrast as well, so we’ll just strike that one from the running. → Read More
LaCie wants to ensure that your data is safe. Like really safe. The company took its Rugged hard drive line, added a fingerprint scanner and 128-bit AES encryption and in turn, made what might be the Mad Max of hard drives. → Read More
We’ll start with the bad news: according to some early stage testing done by PCMag, the HDMI output on the HTC Evo might kinda-sorta suck. While they haven’t quite pinned down the source of their woes, various TVs are all showing various issues. On the upside: it looks like the HTC Evo is getting a fancy-pants micro-HDMI docking port, making it super easy to blast content onto your TV without having stray cables everywhere. → Read More
Via first showed off its USB 3.0 host controller at CES 2010 and it just broke cover at Computex. The VL800 series chip can handle four USB 3.0 devices simultaneously while providing data rates up to 5Gbps. Via aims to put this single chip solution into desktops, notebooks, servers, and everything else on God’s green earth. → Read More
We have numerous super-light laptops, a plethora of netbooks, and the iPad to choose from. But some companies still produce portable DVD players. One example is Sony, which yesterday in Japan announced [JP] just that, the DVP-FX950. The player has two selling points: a 9-inch LCD screen that features an LED backlight and a battery life of 7.5 hours (up 25% from the previous model). → Read More
As digital tools create communities, how will they meet society and the larger world? That’s the question that an interesting trio tried to answer at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.
This is what Scott Heiferman (CEO of Meetup), Chris Hughes (co-founder of Facebook and now Executive Director at Jumo) and Reshma Saujani, Congressional Candidate for the 14th district in New York, had to say on the topic. → Read More
You really don’t need to know anything about the lens to appreciate it. It’s eff’n gorgeous. Mir.com has you covered just case you want the technical details and whatnot about the lens. → Read More
After wrapping up Tuesday’s panel on the future of mobile with Foursquare’s Dennis Crowley and Facebook’s Chris Cox, Google’s Vice-President of Engineering Vic Gundotra joined us backstage for a brief video interview. We discussed the development of location based services, the challenge of penetrating developing markets, Google TV and of course, Google’s little tiff with Apple.
I pressed him on his Apple “jabs” at this month’s Google I/O, which was well documented by this site and several others. Amusingly, he said his jokes and comments were not “necessarily jabs at Apple,” but rather a way to outline the companies’ distinctions and “done in a spirit of good fun.” It was certainly a lot of fun but come on Vic— you can call it a “jab,” a “swipe,” a “dig,” a “poke” (a delicious dessert treat?) and no matter how you dress it, Google was making clear, well articulated criticisms against Apple.
So what does he think Apple will do? → Read More
BookLover is a $0.99 app for the iPhone for people who love books. It looks at first glance like an iPhone version of Delicious Library, which I’ve never used. You can organize books — complete with book cover art and in some cases a synopsis — on your virtual bookshelf. You can take notes on books you’ve read, or perhaps jot a note reminding you about who you loaned your copy to. You can post your notes directly to your FaceBook wall or email them to a friend. And BookLover can recommend other books for you to read. → Read More
Today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, Scott Heiferman, the CEO of Meetup showed off his newest product with potentially big real world ramifications: Meetup Everywhere.
Meetup, an online way to establish real world meetups, has seen success with its core product. There are now some 50,000 meetups a week going on almost everywhere in the world thanks to the service, Heiferman says. But Meetup Everywhere is a brand new platform — it creates an easy way for an organization, company, or movement to spark a meetup simultaneously anywhere, not just in one location. → Read More
