Here are some stories from the past week: Möbius-style LED desk lamp is tasteful, yet Galactus-like 3D Tetris on a screen made of water? Yes please Video: RoboCar helps to create more intelligent cars in the future New Adidas Wings 2.0 shoes are the next best thing to actual flying kicks Pivot Power: The fantastic electrical outlet that changes shape to save space → Read More
As soon as everyone got to actually see the unreleased Google Desktop application in action, they wanted to have it.
The only problem is this isn’t just about waiting until Google finishes it off and ships it. There’s a real possibility that Google will never release a Skype-like soft phone for the desktop – they clearly want to build these types of applications in the browser. But the experts… → Read More
E-commerce continues to provide a rich seam of businesses for European tech investors and this is represented today by a series A funding in an online retailer of ‘affordable’ designer fashion. My-wardrobe.com today announces a $9 million Series A investment round led by Balderton Capital, the first institutional investor in the company, supported by existing angel investors.
Dharmash Mistry… → Read More
Since the iPhone 4 has come out, there’s been reception problems. People have blamed everything from sweaty palms, to carrier problems, to antenna placement. Apple has been fairly quiet about what the root cause is, but now it looks like they might have a simple solution to the problem. Turns out, it may be as easy to fix as a software patch. The solution looks to be as simple as an error in… → Read More
I’m writing this as my charcoal is currently burning-down in my handy Weber charcoal chimney. The steaks are well-salted, the corn shucked and the beer is chilled. It’s almost dinner time, which in my humble opinion is the best part of the Fourth of July — Alton Brown’s unconventional, but highly effective, grilling technique bumped fireworks to second place. Seriously… → Read More
In the past week or so that the iPhone 4 has been available, there’s been one major thing holding people back from from getting one. No, not the antenna issue. Instead, more people I talk to say they’re simply waiting for the white one to come out. Sadly, that’s not happening until the end of this month. But if you have cash to burn and don’t mind taking some risks, you can get one right now. Sort… → Read More
Last Thursday, Google placed a major $700 million bet on a new strategy. It announced an agreement to purchase ITA Software, a leading provider of flight information (fares, schedules, availability) to most of the key online travel sites, travel search engines, and airlines. ITA’s existing customers include Bing, Orbitz, Kayak, Expedia’s Hotwire, Continental, US Airways, American Airlines, and… → Read More
Niche-subject or audience focused mail newsletters, such as DailyCandy and Thrillist, have actually proven to be a successful model. Of course, both of these examples have been graced with the midas touch of Bob Pittman, who has been called “most successful investor in newsletter space.” One of Pittman’s more recent ventures, Tasting Table, has flown under the radar, but has seen significant… → Read More
When Blippy was looking for a little help creating an overview video for their service, I recommended that they take a look at Mountain View based Transvideo Studios. I know executive producer Rico Andrade there fairly well and have seen some of the work they’ve done for Gmail (another), Box.net, Facebook, Mint.com (very dramatic) and others. It’s high quality stuff, and can be aimed at users… → Read More
SafetyWeb, a service that lets parents monitor their children’s online social activities, has made its first acquisition – Colorado based Odojo. The companies are not disclosing the terms of the deal other than that it is an all cash transaction.
In June SafetyWeb announced a $8 million funding round from Battery Ventures with First Round Capital, and the company has raised a total of $8.75… → Read More
It took only two days since my last post for word to reach me that someone is about to release a new product (the same product that I was hoping someone would create), which will make individuals and/or brands lives a lot easier under Facebook‘s roof.
I can already hear you thinking, man, Facebook Pages again? Yes. Again. But there is a reason why we’re talking about them constantly. Beside the… → Read More
Ok, this is a couple of days old, but it’s too cool not to share. There’s a company that makes custom motorcycles, and they are currently building a total of 5 functioning TRON light cycles. They are expensive as hell because everything is custom of course, but you have to admit – pretty damn cool. → Read More
Regular readers will know that recently I’ve liked to state my bias in the title of my mobile device reviews: I love the iPhone. Some will call that being a fanboy, and that’s fine. But really, it’s just my opinion that the iPhone is hands down the best mobile device out there. If there were a better one, I would use it. But there’s not. So I use the iPhone. And that’s the angle I take towards… → Read More
Earlier this week, Boy Genius Report published an email exchange that reportedly took place between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a frustrated iPhone 4 customer named Jason Burford, who sent some heated messages to Jobs over the phone’s antenna issues. BGR initially attributed one particularly condescending message to Jobs, then updated to say they were mistaken and that it was Burford who wrote it. … → Read More
In the literature of watch geekdom we often bump up against watches that cost well into the six figures, some even in the seven. I take a populist stance on the purchase of watches and encourage the intelligent watch collector to purchase what they can afford or, better yet, save up for a nice watch they can wear forever. I also, for the most part, scoff at any watch over, potentially, $20,000. A… → Read More
Anybody out there remember the Rockman? It was this little personal guitar amplifier, about the size of a Sony Walkman (adding “man” to anything portable was all the rage in the 80s, you know).The Rockman let you play distorted guitar through headphones and it curiously made everything you played sound like BOSTON. The AmpliTube iRig combo for the iPhone is kind of like the Rockman… → Read More
As you recall, some guys did a music video entirely on an iPhone. They claimed to be the first. However, these guys claim they are first. Who’s right? Who cares? The music is pretty good and the video is funny. Also, what kind of name is Doctor Pants? And who drinks sarsaparilla anymore? Click through to see a making-of video. → Read More
Editor’s note: Guest author Steve Cheney is an entrepreneur and formerly an engineer & programmer specializing in web and mobile technologies. His last guest post was on Why Mobile Innovation Is Blowing Away PCs
The success of iPhone 4 has been astonishing to witness, despite the antenna issues, proving once again that Apple has a unparalleled ability to differentiate around design and… → Read More
In a speech at the American University last Thursday, President Obama highlighted the incredible economic rewards that America has gained from its immigrants. He spoke of new waves of immigrants—from places like Ireland, Italy, Poland, and China—challenging the generations before them, and consequently being subjected to “rank discrimination and ugly stereotypes”. Yet they kept coming to… → Read More
“On Monday, federal prosecutors accused 11 people of being part of a Russian espionage ring, living under false names and deep cover in a patient scheme to penetrate what one coded message called American “policy making circles.””
They weren’t particularly good spies, apparently. They were directed to gather information on nuclear weapons, American policy toward Iran, C.I.A. leadership… → Read More
One of the big announcements at this year’s Google I/O was that a new Chrome Web Store was being built. Think of it as Apple’s App Store or the Android Market but for web apps. In it, you’ll be able to purchase (or download for free) and install apps that can run in Google’s Chrome web browser. Google would only commit to the store and apps being ready “later this year,” but work on app… → Read More
You may remember the Arc Mouse, an attractive and portable little thing (marred in my opinion by the sensor placement) I reviewed back in ’08. It’s a nice design, perhaps one of Microsoft Hardware’s best, and now there are signs pointing to a touch-based update — perhaps using one of the technologies I saw on my visit to Microsoft Labs. → Read More
Just a friendly PSA: after facing a tidal wave of customer complaints and bad PR, Apple has opted to waive the 10% restocking fee incurred on customers returning their iPhone 4s. I doubt this is any sort of admission of faultiness from Apple — they’re addressing the reception problem partially by making the bars bigger — it seems more like a tactful placation of their angriest… → Read More
What does Yammer’s David Sacks have to do with Apple’s reception hiccup? And what does DoubleTwist’s Jon Johansen have to do with Google Me? To be honest, not a whole lot. But we had both founders in on Friday morning, for our fifth episode of TechCrunch NOW.
For those who are unfamiliar with the program, TechCrunch NOW is a daily show (Monday-Friday, 3 PM PST) where we combine an assortment of… → Read More
So I’m a design nerd for loving this lamp by Naama Hoffman for its simple beauty, but I’m also a regular nerd for instantly recognizing its similarity to Galactus’ summer home, where he stays when he’s not devouring planets. Seriously, look at this picture from Secret Wars: → Read More
A patent application has been filed by Nintendo for a system of delivering and navigating Wii games via hard drive. It’s really simple, actually: the game disc is ripped to a DVD image, which image is given its own partition and loaded on demand. Essentially, they’re doing what pirates have been doing for the last decade or so. The question is whether this system is actually a consumer product or… → Read More
On the face of it a good idea: four days in the beautiful Tuscany shooting the breeze about tech and entrepreneurship between European and US delegates.
However, try organising that from the U.S., not locking down the sponsors so they couldn’t pull out at the last minute and then telling the delegates the event is officially cancelled, but so late that some of them have already arrived in… → Read More
We’ve seen water-based screens and tech before, and in fact the “illuminated drop” technique specifically has been used to good effect probably for years. Some researchers saw some potential there outside of parlor tricks, and have created a functional display that works by firing images on three separate sheets of drips, with precise timing to allow for synchronization between the “screens.” → Read More
http://g4tv.com/lv3/47171 By now you must be familiar with Isaiah Mustafa, the man from the Old Spice commercials. You know… the man. After the last commercial hit, dissecting it second by second was a fun pastime until Leo Laporte talked it over with the creators and we were all slightly flabbergasted at the amount of craftsmanship that had gone into it. The same thing has happened now with… → Read More
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