That is all. Enjoy the rest of your day. [via reddit] → Read More
Editor’s note: The following guest post is by Krishna Subramanian, co-founder of mobile ad exchange Mobclix.
Mobile search is still one of the big unclaimed prizes on the mobile web. Everyone from Google and Yahoo to Apple is going after it, but Microsoft’s Bing may stealthily become the king of the castle by aggressively promoting Bing through mobile apps. Let’s look at each player’s mobile search strategy.
During the Apple keynote in April, Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone 4.0, iAd and a few other features even he didn’t seem too excited about. Out of the many mediocre features, Mr. Jobs happened to squeeze in a declaration that, “ On mobile, search hasn’t happened. People aren’t searching on their phones.” During the keynote at WWDC this month, Mr. Jobs declared that iPhone 4 users would have the opportunity to select their search engine from among Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Out of the three, Bing got a special endorsement from Mr. Jobs.
Is Mr. Jobs trying to blindside the other players in this space by making them think he is not concerned about search? I’m sure all of the search traffic he is sending to Google is driving him nuts. Meanwhile, Google has happily—and quite beautifully—optimized their search results page on the iPhone to make it extremely convenient for local searches by incorporating phone numbers, maps and more within the Safari window. → Read More
Short version: The H30 represents the final and most refined form of the traditional family camcorder. But with HD cameras appearing on every device, is a traditional camcorder something you need? → Read More
Dear Fifa, Please wake up and smell the coffee: we need goal line technology, and we need it now. England’s Frank Lampard just had a 100 percent legitimate goal stricken from the record by some dunderhead linesman. DOES HE EVEN HAVE EYES? The integrity of the sport is at stake here. I’m not asking for instant replays for outfield play or anything, but we need a camera on that goal line, or a chip/sensor in the ball, and we need it now. And look at that: Fifa supremo Sepp Blatter is on Twitter. Maybe we should let him know how we feel about goal line technology? → Read More
This is a guest post by Gang Lu, a Shanghai-based blogger and consultant. His blog mobinode.com covers the Chinese and Asian Web industry, and he also co-founded OpenWeb.Asia workgroup and KUUKIE.com.
Twitter hit $1 billion valuation within 3 years. Facebook reached equal valuation with 2 years. It only took Groupon a year and a half. In April, a consortium led by Russian investment company DST invested $135 million on Groupon, making the valuation of Groupon shoot up to $1.35 billion.
The excitement has lead to many Groupon-clones in China. This market is already overheated and much crazier than people expected. Reports say there are between 100 and 200 Groupon-clones in the market already. Some of them already raised a large bucket of money, and several deals are around $5 million. RenRen, the leading Chinese social network, launched its own group purchase site called Nuomi, and it only took hours for 152,095 users to buy an offer for 2 movie tickets, 2 cokes, 1 box of popcorn and 1 Häagen-Dazs ice cream.
But what are the odds of survival for the Chinese clones? → Read More
Like most of you, I too LIKE Facebook, and ever since my last TechCrunch post (How to Build Engaging One-of-Kind Facebook Fan Pages), I’ve been exploring and trying to find new ways to improve the creation process of a Page. This time, I’d like to focus on a how-to for the musicians among you. → Read More
I turned 40 in March. I didn’t think of it much, and I don’t plan on buying a convertible sports car or otherwise engaging in a mid life crisis. These age milestones just aren’t as meaningful for most men as they are for some women. Besides, I still have the maturity level of an average teenager.
But one thing I am very aware of is my growing skepticism of some of the crazy startup ideas I see. Five years ago when I started TechCrunch I still had real enthusiasm for any entrepreneur trying to build a company. I know from experience that starting companies is psychologically hard, even in the U.S. There are always lots of critics to tear you down. Sometimes all an entrepreneur needs is a few credulous people willing to say that they have a chance. That gives them the psychological boost they need to fight on for another day.
I have always been that guy, looking for the positive in any startup situation. Even if you fail you’ve just had the best on the job training possible. Paul Graham says it best: “So, paradoxically, if you’re too inexperienced to start a startup, what you should do is start one. That’s a way more efficient cure for inexperience than a normal job. In fact, getting a normal job may actually make you less able to start a startup, by turning you into a tame animal who thinks he needs an office to work in and a product manager to tell him what software to write.” → Read More
Nearly everyone has something to say about BP’s oil spill, and from a public relations perspective, the company is floundering. Both its stock price and brand value have taken a deepwater dive, and it is struggling to make its own voice heard.
When you Google “BP PR” or “BP public relations,” the top organic result is @BPGlobalPR, a parody account on Twitter with more than 175,000 followers. In contrast, BP’s official account, @BP_America, has only 15,000 followers. The satirical @BPGlobalPR is dominating the online conversation. It is an object lesson in how social media can shape and control a company’s message during a crisis. The fake account has gone viral for its scathing impersonations of the company with tweets like: → Read More
Strikeforce, the mixed martial arts promotion that’s the focus of the upcoming EA Sports MMA video game, has an event tonight headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum. Normally I wouldn’t mention that here on CG, but there’s a fairly neat tech angle that’s worth mentioning. Not only is there an Internet pay-per-view option at $24.95 (the event otherwise airs on Showtime here in the U.S.), which, in and of itself isn’t exactly breaking news (WWE, the world’s most technophobic company, has been running Internet pay-per-views for some time now, and even smaller promotions like Ring of Honor have jumped aboard the iPPV bandwagon), but there’s a clever “choose you own camera angle” gimmick that may interest you. → Read More
Yesterday, Microsoft communications head Frank Shaw put up a post on The Official Microsoft Blog rattling off some numbers regarding many of Microsoft’s products. The intention was obviously to lend some perspective to some of the negative coverage Microsoft has been getting recently. There’s no way around it, the numbers are impressive. And I think it’s smart for Shaw (and Microsoft) to do things like this.
That said, I wish Shaw would just come out and say what he really means, rather than literally letting the numbers speak for themselves. Sure, most major company executives will never directly call out their rivals in such a public forum. But as we’ve seen recently with things like Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ Thought On Flash, speaking more directly about an issue can rally your base. (And, to be clear, Jobs wasn’t as straightforward and frank as he could have been either.) → Read More
Skype continues to get lots of love from random sources. Last week Google was dropping Skype into translations about free calling, although they later said it was an error.
But there’s no question about this endorsement of Skype by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. They suggest people use VoIP providers like Skype when traveling to avoid heavy mobile fees: “Use VoIP, like @skype, to avoid excess international charges on your cell phone bill. For more http://bit.ly/bDXABN #FCCworldtravel” → Read More
Viliv is at it again. This time around the Korean manufacturer is going after the clamshell market with the N5. The self-described Ultra Mini Mobile PC is really just that — a truly mobile PC. This form factor isn’t exactly new as I just looked at the main competitor, the UMID mbook bz, just a few months back so I’m actually curious if the N5 brings anything novel to the niche market. I’ve only had the handheld for a few hours now so what follows are simply my first impressions. I’ll post a full review once I put some serious time in with the device. These type of devices sometimes take a while to appreciate and understand so it’s not exactly fair to judge its potential right out of the box. Anywho, click through for a few pros, cons, and pics — including comparisons against the mbook bz. → Read More
Sitting here watching Uruguay’s Luís Suárez bury the ball into the back of the net (his second goal = !!!), I’m thinking to myself: “Boy, he sure didn’t seem to have any problem controlling the Jabulani.” But never mind, for FIFA, world soccer’s generally inept governing body—remember, this is the same body that refuses to allow goal line technology!—has finally come out and said it: “FIFA is not unreceptive about what has been said about the ball.” The organization now plans to talk to players, team officials, and the ball’s manufacturer, Adidas, after the tournament. The question is: is the ball crocked? → Read More
Meena wants to become a computer engineer. She believes that if she works hard enough, she can build her own “big business”—maybe a Google. So she is determined to complete her schooling and earn an engineering degree. Young girls like Meena, just 16 years old but with the ambition and confidence to enter the tech world, are a rare commodity even in Silicon Valley; but Meena lives in a slum in New Delhi. Her father works as a day laborer. He used to spend half his income on alcohol, and would come home drunk every night and make so much noise that Meena could not do her homework. He considered Meena a liability, saw no value in her education, and had nothing to be optimistic about.
Sana Azmi too lives in a Delhi slum. She is determined to become a lawyer. Sana has long had this ambition, but her unemployed father had made the decision to withdraw her from school this year, when she turned 16. His plan was to get her married as soon as possible, and he believed that if Sana received too much education, it would be difficult to find a suitable groom in their socioeconomic community. Moreover, they simply couldn’t afford to educate her. Sana begged her Dad to find a way; she told him that without higher education she would be like an “empty room”. → Read More
As you’re no doubt aware by now, some iPhone 4 owners have been reporting poor reception and even dropped calls when holding the device by its metal frame, which doubles as the device’s antenna.
Now TechCrunch reader Philip Gradwell checks in to tell us that Orange UK has delayed the delivery of the iPhone 4 he had ordered earlier this week because of the antenna problems.
It’s just one call, one rep, and one user report, and we have a yet unanswered inquiry into Orange. But if it’s true that Orange UK is holding back distribution of the new iPhone because of said issues, that could mean Apple has a larger liability on its hands than originally thought. → Read More
HP’s buyout of Palm may have won them webOS, but it doesn’t seem to have won them many friends within the company. There are only so many names within Palm that are so oft-mentioned that I could name them off hand — and of those, the talent seems to be disappearing left and right. First to go was interface mastermind Matias Duarte, followed shortly thereafter by Rich Dellinger, best known for coming up with webOS’ incredible notifications system.
And now, they’ve lost another; I’m hearing from an unshakably solid source that Lynn Fox, Vice President of Public Relations, left the company earlier this week. → Read More
It was only a few days ago that I mentioned that Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, now ready to face Spain in the next round of the World Cup, was about to re-launch his Web site, bringing together content from his various online, um, presences. Photos, video, and tweets from the likes of Facebook and Twitter, etc. Well, it’s now live! → Read More
Cat with prosthetic legs! This poor fellow (Oscar) was in an accident with a combine, losing his legs. An ambitious veterinarian took him to a neuro-orthopedic surgeon, who crafted little peg-legs for Oscar and embedded them directly into the bone. The skin and bone, led by injected cells, have grown right over the cat side of the pegs, sealing against infection, and Oscar can now walk almost normally. The cost was enormous ($3000 not counting the surgery), but the little guy is mobile again. Happy Friday. [via Doobybrain] → Read More
I’ll believe this when I see it: there are reports that the death grip phenomenon is actually the result of a software error. I’d heard this going around yesterday, but the more specific issue seems to be that the device goes to no signal mode when it should just be switching frequencies. And holding the phone in the “wrong” position aggravates this tendency. However, I’ve also heard that there may be a coating missing from some of the first batch that would have prevented shorting the antenna array. And I’ve also heard, from Steve Jobs, that this is a non issue and that we’re just holding it wrong — even though that’s the way he holds it. So. Let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Apparently a bit of tape works nicely. → Read More
