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
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
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
Piryx, a white-label fundraising platform that helps automate online political contributions is reporting record amounts of money raised in this quarter for political candidates. Piryx says that money raised will exceed $4 billion this political cycle
Piryx attributes the surge in online contributions to the strength of Barack Obama’s online campaign that first showed the power of online fundraising in 2008. Many of the current fundraising efforts are being driven by anti-establishment, insurgent candidacy led by tea party candidates. → Read More
Early in April we heard reports that the beautiful but mind-bogglingly expensive Plastic Logic Que e-reader would ship in June — specifically, June 24th, which would be yesterday. However, that is not happening, and pre-orders are all canceled. Is this the end of the line for the sexiest e-reader out there? → Read More
Aviary, the startup that makes a suite of impressive web-based creative applications, including editors for images, vector graphics, and audio recordings, is targeting a new class of customers: school teachers and their students. Today the company is launching Aviary Education, a product that allows educators to encourage creativity on Aviary in a safer (and easier to manage) environment.
Cofounder Michael Galpert says that Aviary has been popular at schools for quite a while. The appeal of Aviary’s apps are obvious — they’re free, and they offer more than enough functionality for most common media creation tasks. But Aviary.com has a few features that aren’t ideal for students. For example, it offers a section for popular creations made with its products, and some of these user-submitted contributions aren’t exactly ‘G’ rated. → Read More
There was a minor flap yesterday when it came out that Google had used their remote kill ability to delete apps from a few users’ phones. I’m not going to restate my thoughts on that here, but in the interest of getting the complete story out, I thought I’d give a link to Jon Oberheide, who created the apps they removed. He’s a security researcher and was evaluating the risk associated with malicious apps, and when Google disappeared the apps off his phone, he checked out the method they used. → Read More
Foursquare is “growing like a weed,” co-founder Dennis Crowley tells us. So fast, in fact, that they’ve had to expand their office space. Foursquare will soon take over the upstairs floor of the office they’re currently reside at in New York City. That’s great — Foursquare undoubtedly needs more room as they’re now over 20 employees. The question I have is, how on Earth are they paying for it?
The answer, of course, is likely that they’ve either gotten or are about to get more funding. A couple weeks ago we heard that Andreessen Horowitz was the big winner in the race to put more money into the location-based service. With all these new employees coming on board, and the new office space, Foursquare simply has to have more money coming in, as they only raised a $1.35 million small round (back in September of last year) so far. → Read More
PayPal haters now have another option to pay for junk online. It’s called payclick (all lowercase = money), and it was developed by Visa. They’re marketing it to teens and their families—“Safe & Secure purchasing for the family.” Basically, instead of using PayPal or directly using your credit card, you set up a payclick account then go to town. → Read More
With all of the hubbub about HP buying Palm back in April, you may have thought the whole deal went down months ago. In actuality, there’s a fairly hefty, many-months-long legal process that has to be followed before all is said and done. During that time, HP’s not even allowed to hint at how Palm should be doing business. Said process, it seems, is just about over. → Read More
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