The future, as William Gibson once said, is already here. It is just unevenly distributed. You can find the future in new technologies and the people who wade into them early on—people like Nick Bilton, the chief blogger for the New York Times. (His official title is lead technology writer because the New York Times doesn’t like to admit it employs bloggers, I guess). Bilton, who previously worked in the R&D department of the New York Times, has a book coming out titled, appropriately enough, I Live In The Future & Here Is How It Works.
Apparently, that future does not include Apple’s iBooks, the digital books Apple sells on the iPad. The book will be available in September in print, digital editions for the Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s eBooks, but not for the iBook. Bilton’s publisher, as a division of Random House, does not make its titles available in Apple’s iBook store. But no matter. There will be an accompanying iPad app, iPhone app, and mobile website. I caught up with Bilton a couple weeks ago, and he showed me a preview of the mobile website, which he explains in the video after the jump. → Read More
Fresh off the heels of launching a slew of new products yesterday, Apple this morning debuted Safari 5.0.1, switching the flip on Safari Extensions and formally introducing the Safari Extensions Gallery, a directory of available extensions across categories.
The company had introduced extensions support in Safari 5 last June, giving developers the opportunity to start creating browser add-ons using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript standards. → Read More
Not so tiny after all: Tinychat, a simple text, video and audio communication platform, is growing by leaps and bounds.
First launched in February 2009 as a simple way to create Web-based chat rooms, Tinychat today is a full-blown chat system with lots of bells and whistles.
And the service is gaining traction, fast. → Read More
Online payments company eWise has raised $12.1 million in funding led by Balderton Capital with Total Technology Ventures, and Allen & Co. participating in the round.
eWise develops an technology, called Secure Vault Payment, to allow users to automatically deduct a payment from their bank account without disclosing their personal information to online businesses. Payments are processed via a login and password to the bank’s site. eWise expects that this payments technology could reach 400 million uses within 5 years. Clients include Citibank and First Direct (part of HSBC) in the UK, Ping An in China and Westpac in Australia. → Read More
Samsung’s Galaxy S isn’t due for an upgrade to Froyo until September, but the pre-release builds have already begun to leak onto the ‘net. Now, this isn’t the final build, so don’t expect this to be bug-free, but if you like to live dangerously, then you can get it here. Usual disclaimer applies: it aint my fault if you brick your device. Not much else to say, really. Wait! There is! Don’t, whatever you do, try and install this on a non-standard (eg any of the US variants) Galaxy S phone. The universe may explode. No joke reality. [via Samsung Hub] → Read More
European VC funding has bounced back. That’s according to Q2 figures produced by Dow Jones VentureSource which reports that investment is up by 50 percent compared to the record low of this time last year. €1.1 billion into 289 deals against 252 deals, which raised just €735 million.
But specifically, says Dow Jones, the Information Technology (IT) industry, which apparently accounted for much of the venture market’s losses during the economic downturn, was the “star performer” in the most recent quarter. IT saw a 69% increase in investment from the second quarter last year to €334 million, as well as a 13% increase in deal flow to 90 completed deals. For the first time in two years, the report notes, IT was Europe’s largest industry for venture investment, taking 31% of overall investment.
Here’s a few more interesting tidbits quoted from the report: → Read More
Search engine marketing startup KENSHOO has secured an undisclosed late-stage round of funding from Sequoia’s Growth Fund, the Israeli company announced this morning.
This marks the fourth time Sequoia Capital has injected capital into the company, which claims it is now profitable and has doubled in valuation since 2009. → Read More
Replica Nikon Lens Mug Now Available Playstation logo licenced for clothing, “lifestyle” products ChouChou: Amazing robot butterfly in a jar (videos) Voilà! Apple’s Magic Trackpad Appears. Multi-Touch On Any Mac For $69 Apparently, You Can Still Solder Together Your Own Computer If You Really Want To → Read More
PayPal, the eBay-owned electronic payments company, continues to run into operational issues in India. Earlier this year, the company had to suspend personal payment transactions from and to India, albeit temporarily, when the Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) concluded that PayPal was not in compliance with all relevant regulatory requirements.
This morning, an email was sent to Indian users, notifying them that they would (very) soon be removing the ability to withdraw funds from accounts electronically. → Read More
Along with the other announcement Panasonic made today, they also told us about a new lens for their LUMIX G camera. You’ll remember that the LUMIX G is their micro 4/3 line, of which we reviewed the G10 back in May. The new lens is first to give the ability to take a 3D image using a camera with only one CCD, by using a stereo optical system in the barrel of the lens. Details are sparse, but keep in mind that splitting the image and using smaller lenses will really limit the amount of light coming in. We expect the lens to be available before the end of the year, but that’s about all we know. Also keep in mind that you’ll have to have a 3D display to view the images. You can read the full press release after the jump, if you are interested. → 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
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
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