iBooks just received an update that adds dictionary look-up of words as well as quick, closer views of in-line images, and updated PDF controls for quicker browsing. Generally, it adds a number of features missing both from iBooks and the iPad Kindle app. → Read More
When I saw the first trailer for the Facebook movie, The Social Network, I was a little bit ashamed to admit that I thought it actually looked pretty good. Sure, it has David Fincher directing, Aaron Sorkin writing, and Trent Reznor composing. But still, it’s a movie about Facebook. But the trailer was a homerun. Well, except for one little part.
The trailer is set to Radiohead’s “Creep,” as… → Read More
This morning, MobileCrunch’s Greg Kumparak delivered his pre-review preview of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. The soon to be released mobile operating system is far from finalized, as Kumparak explains, but it is a grand departure from 6.5 and represents Microsoft’s best mobile effort to date.
In this video, we explore the operating system’s key highlights, including its clean design, swift… → Read More
Curse, a startup that offers a variety of gaming-related resources, tools, and news sites, has added a new property to its arsenal: the company has just acquired MMO-Champion, a very popular site that follows news for the hit massively multiplayer game World of Warcraft. Curse is acquiring the site from Major League Gaming and is not disclosing the terms of the deal, other than to say… → Read More
Online learning site Grockit, which launched at TechCrunch 50 in 2008, has integrated educational videos from YouTube EDU to enhance the learnings experience for its users.
Grockit is an online learning community that adds game mechanics to helping high school students prepare for standardized tests such as the GMAT and SAT. The startup, which just raised $7 million in funding, is also moving… → Read More
If you’ll be so kind as to open up your Software Update, Mac users, you’ll find that iTunes 9.2.1 has been released, improving and speeding up sync support for iPhone 4, iBooks, and so on. Bugs are fixed as well, though I haven’t run into any of these bugs because I started using Songbird right after I wrote this post. → Read More
It’s summer here in the Northern hemisphere, and that means the solar-based industry in the US is in top experimental gear (to clarify: the company in question is British but the test flight is in the Arizona Desert). A few more months and they’ll hibernating or relocating to their Australian headquarters, but in the meantime, we’re getting a lot of solar-related news. It… → Read More
During their press conference on Friday, Apple made the case that the so-called “death grip” isn’t unique to the iPhone 4. In fact, they showed the same symptoms on three other phones: the HTC Droid Eris, the Samsung Omnia 2, and the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Apple also created a website to show how the death grip affects each phone (and their own iPhone 3GS as well). Not surprisingly, none of those… → Read More
Palmpad, eh? That sounds nice and could signal a sort-of departure from the normal slate business model. HP might be prepping more than one tablet product line. Perhaps the Windows 7 Slate project isn’t dead after all. We all know the story. HP bought Palm for a billion dollars, partly for the webOS mobile phone platform. Said operating system will soon be found in other HP devices… → Read More
When Twitter bought Atebits in April, a lot of us were excited about the possibilities. After all, Atebits (aka Loren Brichter) was the company behind Tweetie, the best iPhone Twitter client and arguably the best desktop Twitter client as well (though Mac-only). Developers, however, were not as enthusiastic. Many wondered what it meant for the state of the Twitter third-party ecosystem.
So far… → Read More
While poking around for pictures of those Swirl earbuds I posted a few minutes ago, I saw this headset teased at Aiaiai’s site. It’s been around here and there, but I haven’t really seen much attention given to it — so I thought I’d post it up, because this is one of the most gorgeous pieces of industrial design I’ve seen in a long time. → Read More
We just posted our first thoughts on Blekko, a new search engine preparing to launch to the public. We’ve also taken a screencast of the search experience on the site and have a short video interview with cofounders Rich Skrenta and Mike Markson. → Read More
These headphones, made by Kilo Design for Aiaiai, are pretty normal except for a few little details. There’s a built-in kink at the end of the cords that lets you hook it over the back of your ear, instead of having it hang from the front. And there’s that little coil on one cord, which I couldn’t figure out until… oh yeah, it’s just so you know which is left and… → Read More
It takes a crazier than average entrepreneur to go after the search market. There’s an entrenched player, Google, with 65% market share. Google is so powerful the second player, Yahoo, just bailed out of the market. And third place Microsoft is throwing billions of dollars around just to get in the game.
We’ve seen Wikia, Cuil and other well backed startups try and fail at search. Now Blekko is… → Read More
Real time search engine OneRiot is now tapping into Google Buzz. So now, content shared on Buzz will now be indexed in realtime search results available through OneRiot’s API and the the third party developers who build apps on top of the search engine’s API.
Realtime search results will now be incorporating what is being shared most by Buzz users. This also means that the 150 partners that… → Read More
A short time ago, HP applied to the USPTO for a trademark. “Palmpad.” I can’t be the only one who just gets a good feeling from this.
We knew that HP was going to get their money’s worth from Palm when they nixed their Android plans and downplayed their Windows 7 tablet. While reports still have them making the latter in at least some form, statements from HP and Palm indicate that webOS is going… → Read More
The UK broadcaster Channel 4 has appointed Richard Davidson-Houston in a newly created role of Head of Online. Previously he was Head of Online Products, and with this promotion is being given responsibility for “all Channel 4’s online propositions and commissioning”, which will also see 4iP, the broadcaster’s digital media fund, reporting directly to him. → Read More
Amazon’s Kindle eReader has long been a great device. Unfortunately, for much of its life, it has been far too expensive. And now with Apple’s iPad out there, it seems a bit too, well, monochrome. But Amazon did a smart thing recently, they slashed the price of the device, down to $189. As a result, growth is accelerating once again, Amazon says.
In fact, in each month this quarter, the Kindle… → Read More
IBM reported steady second quarter earnings today, with net income rising 9 percent compared to the second quarter of 2009, to $3.4 billion. Big Blue’s diluted earnings increased 13 percent to $2.61 per share compared with diluted earnings of $2.32 per share in the second quarter of 2009, beating the street estimate of $2.58 per share.
Total revenues for quarter came in at $23.7 billion, a 2… → Read More
In front of me right now there’s an enormous 27-inch screen with another 24-inch screen connected to it for use as a second monitor. This massive amount of screen real estate is nice for everything from blogging to watching streaming movies. And yet, I find myself using this set up less and less and instead favor my 15-inch laptop. Why? Simply because I prefer using a multi-touch trackpad to… → Read More
Appstream, a simple visualisation tool to help iPad owners discover new apps via a matrix-style wall (perhaps inspired by Apple’s own efforts at its World Wide Developer Conference), appears to be resonating with users.
It’s currently hovering in the top 50 of free iPad apps in the U.S. App Store, while in France (the iPad’s second biggest market), it’s doing even better, currently sitting at… → Read More
UK real estate startup Zoopla has launched an iPhone app which rather puts the competition in the shade with an Augmented Reality option. Main competitors Rightmove and Findaproperty have apps, but all they do is For Sale and To Rent searches. Zoopla by contrast offers all the data its has on every UK home with a number of features you won’t find in the average app. The app has map-led search (map… → Read More
Biofuel producer Solazyme delivered 1,500 gallons of its algae-based jet fuel to the U.S. Navy’s testing and certification program today, helping the military reach its goal of switching half of its fleet to clean fuel by 2020. The Navy will use the fuel to power jets.
Solazyme produces fuel by fermenting algae to create oils and biomaterials including fuel, skin care, chemical and animal feed… → Read More
Once again, Penny Arcade nails it. Even when it comes to the future of porn. → Read More
Do you have the need to work with, I don’t know, the entire raw Google Earth data in real time? Or maybe you job requires you to run Autodesk 3ds Max, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, and MASSIVE simultaneously while you’re away from your cubical. If so, let me direct you towards the recently-updated Dell M6500. This boy will soon be available with 32GB of DDR3-1333MHz RAM.
Update: Click through for… → Read More
One year ago, in July 2009, Tumblr was going strong. They had 255 million pageviews that month. By November of last year, that was up to 420 million pageviews. But some new stats which Tumblr is releasing today show an explosion in growth since then. Tumblr is now at 1.5 billion pageviews a month — their Quantcast data confirms this.
For the first time, Tumblr is now a top 50 site in the U.S. → Read More
When a momma Droid and a daddy Pre love each other very, very much, they get trashed and make sweet, sweet handset love like the sun won’t rise tomorrow. Nine months later, the awkward Pre-esque Droid Mini love child is born — and if we’re really lucky, someone will be there on the scene with a camera slathered in butter, waiting to take the blurriest photos in the history of… → Read More
I know, you live a busy life, and you can’t spend every minute of your weekend reading CrunchGear. No doubt you were stuffing quarters into the washing machine at the laundromat to wash the three pairs of clothes you own. Well, you’re out of college now, so you’re a grown man and it’s time to start dressing like one. CrunchGear has you covered! Enter our $500 ShirtsMyWay.com giveaway for a chance… → Read More
Remember back when people thought their Toyotas were trying to kill them? And then the company issued huge recalls after a bunch of people peeled into traffic, blaming stuck accelerators, floor-mats, and computers? And then, quietly, the National Highway Traffic Safety Association basically said the crashes were caused by “pedal misapplication” i.e. some doofus holding down the… → Read More
Remember a few months back when I recommended Vaja’s gorgeous iPad cases? Yeah, I totally rescind that endorsement. It seems the company can’t handle their business and are unable to make good on the orders placed for their very expensive iPad cases. Worse yet, their customer service does not reflect the bespoke-type product they portray. How a company expects to get away with this in the age of… → Read More
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
Boston, MA
