Good news iPhone 4 users; despite being being told that the free bumper (or case) wouldn’t be shipping for 3-5 weeks, word on the internet is that many people are starting to receive shipping notifications. So heads up if you’ve already ordered your free case or bumper, and a gentle reminder to go and do so if you haven’t already. Apparently this isn’t an isolated incident either, as TUAW reports that multiple iPhone 4 users have reported the same thing happening. → Read More
I’m not a skateboarder, but I’ve been in the world long enough to be skeptical of designs that leapfrog existing ones in weird ways. This one, for instance, trades the ability to flex the deck for a number of extra wheels, supposedly making it possible to carve at a lower angle than on a traditional board. Can such a design really be practical? → Read More
A new option has just appeared in Twitter’s “Settings” menu called “Twitter Media.” This appears to indicate that inline image and video sharing is making its way to Twitter.com shortly. The option appears on my account, but checking the box does nothing so far. [update below]
If this is indeed the case, Twitter is once again emulating some of the functionality third-party sites are building on top of Twitter. For example, one of Brizzly’s main selling points right now is the ability to show photos and videos inline in your tweet stream (though, to be fair, they go beyond that with other features and have Facebook integration too). → Read More
It’s interesting to see pictures of areas of your city or town from the past, and it can be even more interesting to try to reproduce those pictures. Typically, it’s very difficult to get everything to line up exactly right, but researchers at MIT are developing software to automate the process. → Read More
There’s a new mystery on the web today. In an otherwise boring video about “Google Lookup in Google Docs,” the search giant appears to have inadvertently revealed a new Google Docs product called “Punch.” So what on Earth is it?
The blog Google Operating System (which spotted the feature) has its guess: “Maybe Google Punch is a free-form document that lets you combine data from other documents, spreadsheets, presentations and forms.” ReadWriteWeb expands on that a bit for a similar guess: “Perhaps a Punch is a mix of functions and content intended for collaboration, more than for posting publishing like Google Pages is.” Both sound plausible, but we have another guess. → Read More
Today’s adjustment of the DMCA has far-reaching legal implications, which will only be evident after a few weeks, months, or even years as various parties exploit them however they can. I’m going to let the experts play in that sandbox. But one of the new rules seems to have had a specific target in mind: Apple. To wit:
“(2) Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.”
The language is a bit confusing, but the end result is the legalization of jailbreaking your phone and side-loading apps. Not that it was ever illegal, although some Apple store employees thought otherwise. Now that it’s been made official, however, one might reasonably expect a bit of give from Apple on this point, since they have taken such great measures to prevent such actions. But I’m pretty sure that apart from a little lip service, Apple will continue with the exact same policies, with the sort of blithe arrogance that simultaneously compels and repels consumers. → Read More
When the Transition, one of the world’s first flying cars intended for consumers, had its maiden flight, I suggested they could get the function down first, then make something cool-looking later. Yeah, not so much. → Read More
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/22881388001?isVid=1 One of the unexpected hits at E3 this year was Child of Eden, a spiritual sequel to the mesmerizing classic rail-shooter Rez. Unfortunately, few videos exist of it actually being played. This one showed up Friday but we missed it; it looks great, very Rez-like, and although the lag of the Kinect-based controls is evident, I can say from my experience with the peripheral firsthand that you adapt pretty quickly to it. → Read More
The Internet has been quietly turning out Apple rumors over the last few weeks. Something about new Mac Pros here and new iMacs there and a multi-touch desktop trackpad thingie. It might all come to the surface tomorrow if John Gruber of the Internet is believed. → Read More
The Chevy Volt is slowly and surely creeping towards dealers and GM is set to unveil the price tomorrow. At 12:00 pm ET Joel Ewanick, VP of US marketing, will make the announcement at the Plug-In 2010 Conference in San Jose, California.
Of course a lot has changed in the three year span it has taken the Volt to hit production. Nearly every major car company either already sells a few hybrids or there’s one coming soon. There are even a couple more pure electric vehicles that will compete for the same marketshare now. But saving any major manufacturing hurdle, the Chevy Volt should be the first mass-produced Extended Range Electric Vehicle to hit the streets here in the States when it hits dealers later this year.
The last big question should be answered tomorrow. What’s the price? → Read More
Earlier today on the Ron & Fez show on Sirius XM, the great Ron Bennington made an astute point: Comic-Con may be too big for its own good. It used to be a place where geeks and nerds could get together to talk about storyline inconsistencies in the latest Batman series. Now? It’s just as much about A-list-ish celebrities “being seen” and hawking their trash as it is celebrating the spirit of nerdiness. Maybe it’s time Comic-Con split into two parts: you Hollywood jerks have a mini movie fest in Los Angeles, fawning over how great you are in the process, and leave the comic books and video games to San Diego. → Read More
It looks like Yelp is looking to cash in on the local deal craze. As the folks over at deal aggregator YipIt first noticed, Yelp has recently been testing time-limited local deals in a select number of pilot cities.
The proof lies in a comment thread that began June 23, when a Yelp user noticed a deal running for $20 for $45 of services at Papillon salon. The user wrote that you can purchase the deal through Yelp with your credit card. Yelp employee Olivia L. responded to say that Yelp was “testing it out for fun to see what kind of response it generates”. → Read More
Google has long been touting the deployment of its productivity suite and Microsoft Office-killer Google Apps to the City of Los Angeles. The City planned to equip its 34,000 employees with Google Apps, replacing Novell’s GroupWise system, the e-mail technology provider that LA had previously been using. But unfortunately, the process of transitioning the government entity over to the cloud-based system has seen a few speedbumps to say the least. In April, LA City administrators began questioning the move thanks to productivity, security and slowness issues with Google Apps. During that time, there was also the possibility of a delay in the full deployment of the system to employees because of these concerns.
On Friday, we learned that this delay became a reality, and Google missed its June 30 deadline to deploy Apps to all 34,000 employees. But today, at the launch of Google Apps for Government, a specialized version of the suite to meet government security needs, Google said the situation was in fact overblown. → Read More
The airline industry is pretty much the worst offender in terms of being amenable to change, hence the large user experience holes filled by market distruptors like Virgin America, JetBlue, and Southwest. Aside from cloning Richard Branson or crossing your fingers in hopes that skunkworks will change things internally, what’s an old school airline executive to do? → Read More
The electric sports car scene is heating up with Porsche‘s confirmation of a new all-electric sports car based on its Boxster. The company is conducting daily tests of three research cars to study battery systems and electric drive components.
Porsche President and CEO Michael Macht said in a statement that Porsche will “definitely be offering electric sports cars in the future,” but that the performance and cruising range must be comparable to existing sports cars. Greater efficiency and lower emissions are the company’s goals for the new vehicles. → Read More
Earlier today, we noted that an update to Google Maps for Mobile was the clearest sign yet of Google going directly after Yelp. But it’s actually even more interesting than we thought.
Key to the new Google Maps for Mobile is Places, the new establishment-centric area which Google has been building up for about the past year or so. Places is basically an evolution of Google Local, which had been around for some time to pull in the best content for various local businesses. Previously, with Google Local, Google was using content they licensed to populate their review excerpts area. But apparently, that’s no longer the case. Google doesn’t have such an agreement with Yelp and yet Yelp content is appearing in Google Places.
And not only that, Yelp data often constitutes a lot of the review content. → Read More
It’s like I’ve been shot in the heart. → Read More
It’s a trend that is highly unlikely to happen in the US due to its ubiquitous privatization of, well, everything. However in good old Europe, where control of the media is often under the hood of governmental institutions such as the BBC in the UK, or ARD in Germany, on the one hand, and in the hands of private media companies on the other, problems can arise.
More recently this has happened to a highly respected and, in German speaking countries, well known property called “Futurezone“, which is operated by the Austrian Broadcasting cooperation (ORF) – an institution comparable to the BBC. A few months ago the Austrian parliament passed a law that limits revenue generation from online properties that derive from ORFs online activities. Futurezone has not only been a cash cow, but is also a highly respected media outlet covering a wide range of tech topics from Startup stories to privacy and overall web trends. → Read More
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