We’ve just received word from Google confirming that they are not currently blocked in China and that a server issue was most likely the cause of their dashboard misread. One month ago, Google put up their watered-down engine to avoid being shut down completely in China. Because the Chinese government did not like the auto redirect to Google Hong Kong which was previously in place, the new… → Read More
At Google I/O in May, the search giant indicated that they were about to take their commitment to location to the next level. Sure, Latitude had been around for a while, but everyone knew that Google could do more in the space. The announcement of some new location APIs seemed to a big part of the solution. And now comes the fun part.
Today on their Geo blog, Google is announcing that they’re… → Read More
Panasonic announced today that it will buy out two of its subsidiaries, Sanyo and Panasonic Electric Works, for $9.4 billion.
Sanyo is the largest lithium-ion rechargeable battery producer and 11th-largest solar cell producer in the world with a quickly-growing solar panel manufacturing arm according to company statements. → Read More
How long did Blizzard spend developing StarCraft II? Since 2003, give or take some time here and there when the company needed all hands on deck for World of Warcraft. So you’d think that would be enough time to figure out how to implement anti-aliasing into the graphics engine, right? You see where I’m going with this. → Read More
According to the Mainland China service availability page it looks like Google Web Search, Google Images and Google News are down in China, again. In fact if you parse the chart it looks like just about the only thing still up is Gmail.
However reports on Twitter say other wise, as many users claim that the service is working fine. We also tested Google.com on Webpulse and received a big thumbs… → Read More
With the announcement of the $99 Ocean Reader Copia Tablet we are entering familiar territory. As you probably remember, netbooks went through the same race to the bottom as ebooks and this Ocean Reader is the first of the lot to hit our shores with any fanfare.
While I’m sure a mention in the WSJ is fairly important, the Copia and the Alex and the Farfenugen or whatever is next to ride down the… → Read More
When asked about Google’s partnership with Zynga, Mr. Schmidt said “we haven’t announced it” but “you can expect a partnership with Zynga” in the future. Google’s partnership with Zynga was reported earlier by the blog TechCrunch.
That sure sounds like an announcement to me, buried 13 paragraphs deep in an article summarizing an interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt with the Wall Street Journal. → Read More
Last night, Amazon unveiled the latest edition of the Kindle, which sports a better screen, slimmer profile, and — most important — a relatively affordable $139 pricetag for a Wifi only version (the 3G version still goes for $189). To mark the occasion, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made an appearance on the Charlie Rose show, where he discussed the future of the E-book, and why there’s plenty of… → Read More
Former Yelp VP of Finance/Administration Vlado Herman takes a step up the ladder and becomes, as of today, Yelp’s Chief Financial Officer. The Yelp Blog introduces his promotion with an adorable poem: → Read More
The prices, they are dropping, dropping. Yesterday had Amazon lowering the bar yet again with the announcement of a new, improved, and cheaper Kindle. Today we have news of a 5″ tablet (the same size as the Dell Streak) selling for a paltry $99. It’s called the Ocean Reader, from a company called Copia, and although they’re marketing it as an e-reader, its 5″ LCD screen suggests it’s more of a… → Read More
As you’re undoubtedly aware, location is one of the hottest fields out there right now. Startups, services, devices, and advertisers are all hovering around it. As you’re also likely well aware, Apple likes to be in control of their own devices. So it should come as no surprise to hear that Apple is moving to be in complete control of their own location database.
Back in June, Apple changed its… → Read More
Yesterday, mobile security firm Lookout announced at the Black Hat security conference that it had discovered a seemingly benign wallpaper application for Android that had been downloaded millions of times — and allegedly harvested user data like text messages and browsing history, which was being sent to servers in China. At least, that’s what was reported. Turns out, it looks like the… → Read More
Comic-Con 2010 is all wrapped up. The cosplayers are back in their basements planning next year’s attire. The booth babes are back home waiting for their talent agency to find them another gig. And the rest of us are left scouring the interwebs for trailers and video clips of upcoming shows and movies. Well, good friends, all of Syfy’s trailers are neatly embedded after the jump just… → Read More
Step one: Mod your Android device to play nicely with a Wii Remote Step two: Find a cheap Wii Remote steering wheel Step three: MacGyver an universal mounting bracket or something Step four: Totally disregard your self esteem and use this contraption on the subway. → Read More
Google’s Search Stories campaign is meticulously engineering to be relatable and tug at your heartstrings.
Their latest, “New Baby,” portrays the “joys and costs” of parenting perhaps a little too well, heavy on the latter. So you’re clueless and your wife is pregnant and crazy and you have to sell your precious vinyl collection to be able to afford twins, which are an “expensive proposition”? → Read More
There are few more creative writers than the San Francisco-based Po Bronson . The author of four best-selling non-fiction books, two novels, a book of short stories and many articles for Newsweek, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Bronson’s work has been translated into 19 different languages and his 2005 bestselling What Should I Do With My Life, social commentary about the… → Read More
Finally. That’s literally the only word you can use in response to the following sentence: DirecTV will carry Fox Soccer Channel in HD beginning on August 11. Well, according to EPL Talk’s well-placed sources at the network. And yes, that’s just in time for the new Premier League and Serie A seasons. Thank you thank you thank you! → Read More
You know how we’ll know when we’re living in the future? When user manuals for gadgets start leaking out before that gadget even officially exists. Oh, that’s now. Welcome to the future! If you’re just itchin’ to know all the right places to touch the Droid 2, you’re in luck: the user manual has just leaked out. → Read More
Both Sony and Nintendo reported their financials today. And in a nutshell, things look good for Sony and not so good for big N. As we reported earlier this week, Sony returned to profitability in the second quarter of this year. But we now have confirmed numbers.
Sony reported a net profit of $290 million as of June 30 (it suffered from a $296 million loss in the same quarter last year), with… → Read More
Lovefilm, the Netflix-of-Europe, looks set to beef up its multi-platform play via a newly signed agreement with DRM and adaptive streaming technology provider Widevine.
The deal will see the US-based company become Lovefilm’s “preferred provider of digital rights management and video optimisation solutions”, enabling the video subscription service to continue to break out from its ‘DVDs by post’… → Read More
If you’re familiar with lunchbox technology, things haven’t changed much since Fred Flintstone put his brontosaurus sandwich into that stone lunchbox he used to carry to the quarry. I’ve given my son probably three or four lunchboxes so far and he’s broken every single one including the crazy metal Flash Gordon one and a great Family Guy Star Wars one. It’s getting… → Read More
Amazon announced the Kindle 3 last night, and it doesn’t look too shabby at all. The most important part is the inclusion of the next-generation E-Ink display, previously only found in the too-big-for-casual-use Kindle DX. (The low price, $139 for the Wi-Fi version, certainly doesn’t hurt.) Immediately following the announcement, I saw something that confused me. For whatever reason, it seems… → Read More
BGR just managed to get some pictures of Verizon’s LTE USB modem, which is apparently currently under testing. The modem is made by LG, and uses the next gen LTE SIM card. Because this is a prototype and still in testing, there’s not really any other information available at this time, but the hardware sure looks good. → Read More
MusiXmatch, a “lyrics in the cloud” company, has announced €400k of new seed funding.
The Italian company is tackling the online music lyrics space, and whilst there are already tons of websites offering free lyrics, very few, if any, actually have the rights to do so. Additionally, Max Ciociola, MusiXmatch’s founder and CEO noticed that the word “lyrics” is one of the most searched for terms… → Read More
Jesus. Maybe literally.
Fox News has a long and illustrious history of saying some fairly outrageous things. A story today on FoxNews.com may be one of the best yet — certainly from a tech perspective.
The post entitled “For Apple Followers, It’s a Matter of Faith, Academics Say” argues that while people may joke about Apple being a religion (JesusPhone, etc), to some, it may actually be a… → Read More
You’ve normally got two choices in site heatmapping (figuring out where eyeballs land on your site), you can either buy costly specialized equipment ($40K) or pay a consultant to come into your office and use their own equipment, which costs upwards of 5k dollars. Y Combinator funded GazeHawk has figured out a more pared down and innovative solution: Why not use webcams?
Co-founded by Brian… → Read More
“All I’ve done is compile public information into a nice format for statistical analysis.” So says the man who is being called the Facebook hacker. Ron Bowes, a security consultant who’s also an nmap developer, is under fire from certain sections of the Internet for creating and uploading a torrent that contains more than 100 million Facebook users’ information. The thing is, all of this… → Read More
Tomorrow, Friday, is our fifth annual yearly blowout party at August Capital – the event I look forward to all year. Tickets to that event are long gone, but a handful are left for the all day conference we hold prior to the party, the Social Currency CrunchUp.
Here’s five reasons why you’ll want to attend: → Read More
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