Get it? Icy? Because Hoth is the ice planet. And like when you’re on that planet you’re so cold that you could die if you didn’t go into the belly of that fish cow thing that they put Han Solo into. Thoughts? Anyway, this game, coming soon from THQ, is probably the coolest thing ever although the enemy sprites look a little childish. Thoughts? → Read More
As we’re postponing The Europas Awards for tech companies in Europe until after the Summer (sign up here to get news on that) we’re instead holding an event we’re calling “TechCrunch Summer Pitch Battle”.
It is on July 14 in London, 6.30pm at the new coworking space for startups, TechHub, Ground Floor, 76-80 City Rd, right by Old Street tube station.
Here’s how it will work: → Read More
Don’t worry, this doesn’t appear to be the kind of hissing explosion we saw happening on previous iPhone models. All signs point to a faulty USB port, which I think we can forgive a couple of when there are millions being made. But fiery iPhones are always worth reporting, so here you go. → Read More
The Onion has done it again. The satirical news outlet is generally great at parodying a wide range of topics — but they always seem to be especially good at parodying Apple topics. The latest victim? Apple’s Genius Bars. According to The Onion, Apple will soon unveil an extension of this idea called “Friend Bars” which Apple users can visit to find someone to “talk at” about their newest mundane… → Read More
System Administrator Appreciation Day is July 30. OpenDNS wants to make sure that you sysadmins get the recognition you deserve. That’s why they ran the SysAdmin of the Year contest. And now they want to remind your boss to say “thank you” to you on your special day. → Read More
Last year, Y Combinator held a special event called AngelConf, where it invited dozens of prospective angel investors to get advice from some of Silicon Valley’s most seasoned veterans. The event was a hit, and this year, they’re doing it again — AngelConf 2010 will be held on July 29 in Mountain View, CA. You can request an invitation right here. We’ll also be covering the event, in case… → Read More
Yahoo just added another former Microsoft executive to its ranks. Bill Shaughnessy, who left Microsoft in during a shakeup in 2008, will join as a senior vice president of product management, reporting to chief product officer Blake Irving, another former Microsoftie who joined last spring. Shaughnessy was a global VP of sales at Microsoft. Now he is moving into product management after taking… → Read More
Foursquare is growing quickly, gaining momentum from mainstream deals, and now they have the money in the bank to keep it up. But the big question remains: can they keep it up in the face of major competition? Twitter already has location features, Yelp recently added check-ins, and soon Facebook will as well. How can Foursquare survive against competitors that have millions — if not tens of… → Read More
Back in the old days, before the Internet, the only way you could relive the fun of Star Wars was through baked goods. To wit: the Star Wars Darth Vaders Activity Book featured this amazing project that involved making a big cookie and then making it look like the Death Star. If I recall, this was kind of a sugar cookie thing with lots of butter and wasn’t very tasty but by God my grandma made it… → Read More
When most people are 16, the extent of their programming knowledge — if there’s any to be spoken of — is pretty much limited to using conditional loops to print an endless stream of obscenities to the screen. These guys, however, are using their programming know-how to jetset around the world, rock competitions, and take home hardware unavailable to just about anyone else in the world. → Read More
If Blizzard wanted to spark a discussion, well, job done. The company’s plan to bring Real ID to its message boards has done nothing if not freak people out. Do keep freaking out. → Read More
If you’re looking to build a website or webapp for your business, there are plenty of options to get started. First, there’s a variety of fully hosted solutions like WordPress.com, which take away the headaches of managing software and server configurations at the cost of reduced flexibility. Another popular option is to get a hosted server from the likes of Rackspace or Dreamhost, which can… → Read More
When I first saw the latest Promoted Trending Topic this morning on Twitter I thought it was a bit odd: “Predators.” Given the times we live in, when I see that term now I tend to think of something more alarming than some kind of an animal or the like. But fear not, the topic is being promoted here simply to showcase the latest movie in the Predator series, called, yes, Predators. But there’s… → Read More
http://revision3.com/player-v6372 Cali Lewis has a new show called GeekBeat.tv, and, because we love Cali we’re sure you’re going to love her show. Check it out. Audi Centers in the UK are having their mechanics wear helmet cams. The Lenovo IdeaCenter A310 got a CPU upgrade. Only 10% of passengers on flights with WiFi are taking advantage of it, so prices may drop, and Dr. Michio Kaku… → Read More
Given that Microsoft nixed the Kin roughly 18 minutes after it launched, it should come as no surprise that the thing didnt, you know, sell very well. But just how bad was it? → Read More
Fax isn’t dead, at least not in Japan. In January last year, Panasonic introduced the “world’s first” paperless fax machine for the Japanese market. And today, the same company announced [JP] the KX-PW821, which is (according to Panasonic) the “world’s first” stylus-compatible fax/phone combo. In other words, it allows users to directly write messages on the 4.9-inch touchscreen and fax them with… → Read More
Facebook is acquiring social travel recommendation site Nextstop, according a blog post on the startup’s site.
The startup, which launched in early 2009, mixes social recommendations with search and adds a reputation system and elements of gameplay. It was founded by a couple of ex-Googlers, Carl Sjogreen and Adrian Graham, who helped launch Google Calendar (Sjogreen) and Google Groups, and… → Read More
A couple of weeks ago, the first trailer for the upcoming Facebook movie, The Social Network, hit the Web. Well lo and behold, a couple of hours ago the second trailer was released (embedded below). Remember, you saw it here first 
The apocalyptic score remains, and the audio cuts from the movie you hear in the teaser are largely the same as in the first trailer, but this time conversations are… → Read More
CNBC is getting a new technology correspondent and losing a controversial one. Jon Fortt, a senior writer at Fortune, will be joining CNBC on July 19th in its Silicon Valley bureau. CNBC’s current tech reporter, Jim Goldman, will be leaving to pursue a career in PR. Some will find this an appropriate career shift for Goldman, who has often been criticized in the past as being a mouthpiece for… → Read More
There will be a Dragon Age 2. Granted, approximately zero people expected otherwise, but it’s nice to get the official word. → Read More
Prolific investor Jeff Clavier has 81 deals to date, with several successful exits in his pocket— including Mint, Truveo and most recently Disney’s acquisition of Tapulous. As the founder of SoftTech VC, he is technically a micro VC, but he prefers the far sexier title of “Super Angel.”
We talked to Clavier on Wednesday on TechCrunch TV, for his take on the pulse of seed stage funding and the… → Read More
TransferJet is a close-proximity wireless transfer technology that Sony introduced back in 2008. The idea is to let two electronic devices, for example a camera and a computer, quickly exchange data just by bringing them close together (touch is possible, too). The problem, until today, was that both devices must obviously be TransferJet-compatible (more info). → Read More
Smart Grid management software producer eMeter announced a $12.5 million Series F round of funding today. The investment comes from Sequoia Capital and Foundation Capital, who have both invested in the company previously, along with Northgate Capital.
The company was founded in 1999 and has raised nearly $70 million in funding. eMeter works with more than a dozen electric, gas and water utility… → Read More
Yes! The Solar Impulse’s flight that I mentioned yesterday was a huge success! It landed safely in Switzerland after a 26-hour haul across the Heavens. The people behind the flight hope that it will prove to skeptics that solar power is a viable form of energy after all. I mean, powering all of life on Earth apparently means nothing to these skeptics, but to see an aeroplane in the air? Money. → Read More
ComScore just released its smartphone market share numbers for March through May, and unsurprisingly the trend continues from previous months. Android phone saw the most significant growth in market share in May, up 4.0 percentage points to capture 13.0 percent of smartphone subscribers. Of course, despite Android’s gain, RIM and Apple dominated, with RIM taking 41.7 percent share of U.S. → Read More
Last year, Aurora Feint launched a comprehensive social gaming platform dubbed OpenFeint that has seen success in attracting independent iPhone game developers to its rapidly growing community. But Android also has potential as a vibrant social gaming platform with its growing community of gaming developers. Today, OpenFeint is announcing a soon to be released platform for Android apps.… → Read More
Don’t new iPods come out every year right around September, after Apple has exhausted its supply of old models with a back-to-school promotion? The following information gels quite nicely, then. UK retailer John Lewis told its partners that a new iPod will be released this September, and that Apple will aim it at the youth market and push it more as a multimedia device. Kids today, with your fancy… → Read More
Remember the Captivate? It’s AT&T’s slightly modified version of Samsung’s Android-powered superphone, the Galaxy S. We already knew about the 4.0″ Super AMOLED display, the 1Ghz processor, and all the other specs. We even went hands on! What we didn’t have: a launch date or a price. Well, now we do. → Read More
Apple, Amazon, and others have worked hard to simulate the experience of reading a book on a tablet computer, device or smartphone. Specifically, Apple’s iBooks iPad application has a page turning feature that replicates the curling of a page when you flip pages in a book. But Microsoft is claiming that it invented this feature in a patent application, according to a GoRumors report.
The patent… → Read More
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