So what is this all about? Well the first planned watch from the new VicenTerra brand is the GMT-3. Large and tonneau cased, it will sport a steel case (not sure about the size) with a uniquely modified Swiss ETA 2892 automatic movement. The modifications will give it the time, retrograde date display, second time zone in GMT format, a day/night indication disc at the top of the dial, and a rotating globe that is meant to have the “lit” side of the Earth facing the dial. There are pushers all over the case to operate the various functions. Seems elegant enough given the good quality base movement. → Read More
Adobe is strengthening its product portfolio with its intention to acquire Swiss firm Day Software, which makes Web content management systems aimed at marketers. Adobe announced an all-cash tender offer for Day’s shares. The purchase price is approximately $240 million.
Many of Adobe’s products, such as Illustrator and Photoshop, are used already to create marketing materials for companies. Moving into Web content management is a natural step since as many of these marketing materials are consumed and distributed online. Day allows marketers to manage digital assets for online marketing campaigns and set up marketing blogs and other social media outreach. → Read More
By this point everyone and their mother knows that Google is trying to make a Facebook-type social networking service. It’s been confirmed by Quora’s Adam D’ Angelo, given an ETA by a source internal to Google, and a name, “Google Me” by Kevin Rose.
And now the The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is trying to get a piece of the Facebook pie, the filling of which is primarily composed of social games, hence the rumored discussions with the new Disney acquisition Playdom, EA and as well as Google’s recent $100 million investment in Zynga. → Read More
Panasonic, not content to only release new still cameras and normal camcorders this week, has revealed the 3D camcorder we’ve been looking forward to for some time now. It’s called the HDC-SDT750. Catchy! → Read More
Among the many advances in military technology, perhaps one of the most unwelcome was the “Active Denial System,” a super-short-wavelength radiation weapon that caused intense pain in whoever it was aimed at, be it enemy combatants, protestors, or geese. Enemies of the technology cited its ripeness for abuse when calling for it not to be deployed, but it was sent over to Afghanistan anyway… until just recently, when they took it back. → Read More
This morning when I wrote a post about Apple’s new Magic Trackpad, I knew it would be a little controversial. After all, I basically said that it was the beginning of the end of the mouse — a device that everyone reading the post probably still uses for a good chunk of their computing on a daily basis. But I didn’t expect what I said to be that controversial. To the point where we have to declare the comment section to be a war zone.
I mean come on, it’s a mouse. Does anyone really think it’s going to be the main way we interact with computers in the future? It’s a 50-year old technology for Chrissakes.
Let me be clear: I’m not saying trackpads and other multi-touch surfaces are going to replace the mouse overnight. Of course they’re not. I’m also not saying that the Magic Trackpad specifically is going to kill the mouse. Of course it’s not — it’s Mac-only, that’s still a small percentage of overall computer users. What I am saying is that the Magic Trackpad is the device that is signaling the end of the mouse era.
It’s a harbinger, if you will. → Read More
When the Playstation Move was announced, we learned the basic prices: $50 per controller, $100 for a controller plus the Eye and a game, or $400 for a fully kitted-out PS3 with Eye, Move controller, and game all included. Seemed a decent deal, but they didn’t mention how much storage you’d be getting in the console package.
New information (shocking new information) has come to light, though. → Read More
I recently reviewed the Toshiba Camileo H30, a functional camcorder with a traditional body style, and concluded that these would continue to sell for a few more years just on the strength of being familiar objects. The Flip-style camcorder is gaining popularity (as well as embedded imagers in phones and such), and the flip-out LCD home camcorder’s days are numbered. Panasonic is hedging their bets, announcing models of both types. Let’s see what they’ve got. → Read More
On Monday, the Toshiba Storage Device Division released a new line of 2.5” mobile drives. These 7200 RPM SATA drives are designed for the more demanding user and are optimized for “demanding performance, power consumption, and durability requirements.” Excellent; bigger and better notebook drives are always nice to have. → Read More
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=13648673&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=ff9933&fullscreen=1 I doubt anybody is going to keep this Firefox plugin installed for very long (the point is made after a few minutes), but big red boxes and airhorns blasting you in the face are a good way of saying “HEY. Your information is being transmitted to Google.” You can get the no-airhorn version, but it’s not quite as exciting. BWOOOOOOOOOO [via HardOCP] → Read More
Facebook may be in the middle of negotiating a deal to acquire the check-in service Hot Potato, but that didn’t stop most employees from stopping by the cafeteria at the headquarters in Palo Alto today to see hip hop artist Kanye West freestyle.
West, dressed in a suit, appears to be standing on a table as he lets loose. First, he raps a bit about getting laid. But then, cheered on by the crowd, he comes back to freestyle about a number of others things — and if you listen closely, you can even hear him diss Facebook rival Twitter (I’m not even sure those in the audience picked up on it). → Read More
Back in the dark ages, it used to be if you wanted a computer, you built it yourself. And I don’t mean order the parts and put them together, I mean soldering the chip sockets into a breadboard and assembling all the bits by hand. For whatever reason, computer enthusiast Matt Sarnoff misses the halcyon days of the Altair, and decided to build his own PC the old fashion way: with a hot piece of metal and some lead wire. Despite the fact that I’m pretty sure this makes him crazy, he’s quite good at it. Check out the video after the jump. → Read More
9to5Mac posted a video of the Magic Trackpad. Their Zapruderesque exegesis looks at the device from all sides, ensuring us that I will be bereft of a single thing when I line up tomorrow at the mall in order to be one of the first to own the strange, distended trackpad known as the Magic Trackpad. → Read More
We’re expecting to get official word on the D3100 next month; Nikon is currently planning a press event the week of August 16th-20th in Europe, which is pretty typical. It’s expected that there will be two events, one to announce the launch of new Coolpix cameras, and one to announce the launch of the previously rumored D3100, as well as some new lens. More details after the jump. → Read More
When we last left the intrepid research scientists at Intel, they had managed to hit 40Gbps throughput using something called the Avalanche Photodetector. It’s been two years since that report (yeah, this has been in development for a while), and the gang at Intel have not been idle, let me tell you. They’ve managed to improve the field of photonics to achieve throughput of 50 Gbps! While not as much of an advance as one might like to see in two years, this is still a respectable achievement. → Read More
We’re hearing from sources close to the deal that Facebook is in late stage negotiations to buy Hot Potato, the social activity service. The deal is not yet finalized from what we’re hearing, but could be at any moment.
Terms of the deal are likely still be negotiated, but it’s believed that this would largely be a talent acquisition for Facebook. Yes, another one.
Hot Potato raised a small $1.42 million Series A round late last year, so it should not be too expensive for Facebook to buy such a company. It would undoubtedly be much less than the supposed $50 million in cash and stock they paid for FriendFeed last year, for example. Hot Potato’s About page currently lists 8 employees. → Read More
Created by Jason Baptiste, PadPressed is a Wordpress plugin that makes any Wordpress blog look like a native iPad app when accessed from iPad. Bestowing upon your humble blog the iPad features we’ve come to know and love such as “swipe to advance” articles, touch navigation, accelerometer positioning and home screen icon support when you’re really jonseing for that authentic app feeling.
While Baptiste started with WordPress because 8.5% of all websites (including our own) are Wordpress but has grander aspirations, “We did Wordpress first because it’s the largest thing there is next we’re doing Tumblr, Posterous, Moveable Type, and then custom CMSs.” Exciting! → Read More
No idea if this is an actual licensed product, but it certainly looks cool. I’ll admit, when then the Canon mugs came out last winter I was jealous. I’m not a Canon guy, so I just resigned myself to the fact that I’d probably never have one. Then some popped up on ebay, but in a really limited run. I missed out on those too. → Read More
Apple must make a big, juicy target to lawyers trying to cobble together class-action lawsuits. They make promises in plain English that, as is the case with almost all advertising, don’t exactly pan out, but usually allowances can be made. Does Old Spice make you “smell like a man”? If you think a man smells otherwise, can you sue Old Spice for false advertising?
Similarly, when Apple says reading on the iPad is “just like reading a book,” are you going to sue Apple because unlike books, the iPad can overheat and shut itself down? It’s a free country, I guess, but someone’s going to have to pay those legal fees when the case gets thrown out amid uncontrollable laughter. → Read More
We’re releasing our final batch of 100 tickets now to our July 30 summer party at August Capital.
Before that party we’re also hosting an all day event – the Social Currency CrunchUp. You can see the full agenda here. Ron Conway and Paul Graham kick off the morning, and then lots of great product discussions will follow. We’ve also lined up a half dozen different local retailers to share their own experiences using social currency in the wild. Combo tickets for the conference and the party are here. → Read More
