Now that Android and the iPhone (when it works) are all over the place, you question the wisdom of someone developing a service that works with neither. I’m referring to Fox Mobile’s new subscription service BitBop, which only works with BlackBerry. The BlackBerry is still probably the premier e-mail device out there, but I’m not sure I want to watch episodes of “24” on my Curve. Well, my imaginary curve, as it were. → Read More
I just walked into my living room to find the iPhone 4 face down on the wooden floor like a murder victim. I suspect my children had something to do with it, but luckily there was no shatterage or breakitude, so all was well. → Read More
It’s been a long time since I’ve had to fill out an expense report, but I remember clearly what a hassle it always was. Keeping receipts, and manually entering all that data: what a pain! Today’s smartphones make the tedium of expense reports a thing of the past. Simply install ProOnGo’s new mobile expense report app, and you’re on your way to a happier life. → Read More
Japan has a long history of producing bullet trains, and now, the country is about to get yet another one. East Japan Railway recently tested the so-called “Hayabusa” (“Peregrine Falcon” in Japanese) between Shichinohe-Towada and Shin-Aomori stations in Aomori prefecture (Northern Japan). → Read More
The twee little Mini-e ER1402 is a $300 computer with a big heart. The fella weighs a mere 9 pounds and has HDMI out and AMD Athlon II NEO Processor, NVIDIA GeForce 9200 graphics and 2GB of memory, just enough for a walk in the park and a wee snoot of brandy at the local after.
The shape? Not my absolute fave but when you have so little work with, you kind of take what you can get. Very, very cute. → Read More
What’s more sad: the very fact that the iPhone 4 is completely unusable if you’re left-handed—President Obama is left-handed!— or that Apple fanboys are doing everything in their power to divert attention away from the issue? Check MacRumors. It’s a fine site, yes, and one I read every day, but to call it an “Apple fan site” would be like calling the Sun hot. “Upset that your brand new iPhone 4 doesn’t work? Don’t be: other phones do this, too!” Because that’s what you want to hear: your phone may be a piece of junk, but so is the other guy’s phone, so it all works out. Um, no. It doesn’t work like that. → Read More
In response to a patent lawsuit filed by Microsoft last May, Salesforce is countersuing with its own patent infringement claims. But a mere countersuit isn’t enough for CEO Marc Benioff. He is also bringing a big-gun lawyer to the knife fight, Microsoft’s nemesis from the antitrust trial of the 1990s, David Boies.
During Salesforce’s last earnings call, Benioff obliquely referred to Microsoft as an “unnamed patent troll” and “alley thugs.” → Read More
We think Toy Story 3 is great, it’s a huge box office hit in the US, and it’s poised to replicate the success over here in Japan. Reason enough for Sony Japan to come up with a Toy Story 3-themed Walkman S [JP] for the local market. It’s not as cool as Sony’s Metal Gear Solid Walkman W, but it’s certainly cuter. → Read More
In response to a patent lawsuit filed by Microsoft last May, Salesforce is countersuing with its own patent infringement claims (complaint embedded below). But a mere countersuit isn’t enough for CEO Marc Benioff. He is also bringing a big-gun lawyer to the knife fight, Microsoft’s nemesis from the antitrust trial of the 1990s, David Boies.
During Salesforce’s last earnings call, Benioff obliquely referred to Microsoft as an “unnamed patent troll” and “alley thugs.” → Read More
Nokia is having a rough month.
First, it saw itself forced to cut its outlook for the second quarter and the full year, and now The Register reports that the Finnish company has lost one of its top tech brains.
Charles Davies, former Symbian CTO and notably the first employee and later managing director of Psion, is leaving the mobile juggernaut to take up an unknown role at navigation giant TomTom. → Read More
[Copenhagen] Danish VoIP technology company Vopium has received a $16.5 million capital injection, expanding its group of owners with telecom investor Raghuvinder Kataria, one of the early backers of what is now Bharti Airtel (one of the world’s largest telecommunication service providers).
With the investment, Kataria now owns the majority of shares in Vopium, which will use the funding to expand internationally in an effort to challenge VoIP juggernaut Skype. → Read More
When Alex Karp needed funding for a young start up named Palantir in 2005, dozens of investors said “No.”
He was trying to sell them on the idea of a high-powered analysis platform that could scan multiple databases simultaneously— a tool that government officials and corporations could use to tackle complex problems.
“Enterprise is a dirty word and that’s the business we’re in, and government is also not very popular in the Valley, [we combined] both,” Karp says.
Today, funding is not an issue. Palantir, a team of 250-plus engineers nestled in downtown Palo Alto, has raised $90 million in Series D financing at a $735 million valuation— the company exclusively told TechCrunch. → Read More
Last March, Adobe and Google jointly announced that Flash Player would soon come built in to the latter’s Chrome browser, eliminating the need for users to download, install and update it separately.
On Thursday evening, Google released Chrome 5.0.375.86 to the Stable channel on Linux, Mac, and Windows, with a fix for a number of security issues. More importantly, the integrated Flash Player has now been enabled by default. → Read More
The top four iPhone 4 hardware issues so far That’s one elegant bike basket Clean your monitor with a hamburger? Don’t forget the bacon! Pepsi’s new extra-carbonated “Strong Shot” asks you to wait 15 seconds before opening Electrolux will clean the oceans of plastic debris, then make vacuum cleaners → Read More
One thing Silicon Valley doesn’t have enough of are solid product visionaries. The problem is the really good ones tend of start their own companies. Or whoever they work for locks them up so tight that no one can pry them loose. But there’s one guy I’ve kept my eye on for the last few years, Eckart Walther, who seems to be in play. I wonder for how long.
I first met Eckart when he was at Yahoo as a group vice president of product management for search – that was back in the day when Yahoo was still the no. 2 search engine behind Google and had no plans to relinquish that title. Prior to Yahoo he was at Tellme (acquired by Microsoft). And way back in the day, at Netscape. Most recently he parked himself at LiveOps doing God-knows-what. → Read More
Biking around with just a little bit of stuff is annoying. Say all you’re carrying is a book and your phone. If it’s nice out, you don’t want to wear a hoodie or jacket for their pockets, and bringing a bag or pack along for just one or two objects seems like overkill. Yet you have resisted the bike basket because, let’s face it, they’re dorky. This thing, however, might be right up your alley. → Read More
Chances are, you’ve already heard of Pearltrees - possibly because the company caught attention when it sponsored LeWeb in Paris or more recently the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. And if you haven’t, now is the right time to acquaint yourself with the service: the French start-up founded in 2008 has just scored another €1.3 million in funding to change the way you navigate the web.
The social book-marking and navigation start-up – which allows users to organize and share their favorite websites via a system of digital “pearls” – has raised roughly €3.5 million to date. The inital €1 million raised was in June 2008 followed by €1.2 in June of the following year (in addition to some public funding from the French government). As the company seems to have a rather consistent annual funding pattern, we only hope that the valutation or shares aren’t being compromised. → Read More
Non issue. Just avoid holding it in that way. – Steve Jobs, on the iPhone 4 reception issue. → Read More
What’s that you say? An online marketplace has realized that ridiculous alternative currencies are not, in fact, the way to consumers’ hearts? And they’ve allowed for normal credit card transactions? Impossible! Yet Zune has done it. In a way. Well, Bing has, actually.
Confused? You should be. This memo from Microsoft should clear everything up for you. → Read More
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