Seems people really like those all-in-one PCs à la the iMac. Sales this year are expected to grow some 63 percent from last year, to 11.5 million units worldwide. And while that’s good news for computer makers overall, there are winners and losers in the data. The big surprising loser? Yup, Apple. → Read More
I’m not sure if this is an anti-PayPal story or an anti-bully story, but here we go. A guy on Reddit, cerebellum of the Internet, was contracted to build a Web site for an MMA fighter. Not like a big name UFC guy or anything, but a small-time guy, Steve Gavin, whose last fight was in February, 2009, according to Sherdog. So the Web developer builds the fighter a site, then the fighter pays via… → Read More
By now it seems like just about everyone has seen the iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO video (and the rebuttal video). The video portrays an electronics store employee trying to convince a person looking for an iPhone 4 to buy an HTC EVO 4G instead. It’s hilarious — like all good humor, so funny because it’s at least partially true. But you know who didn’t find it funny? Best Buy. How do I know that? Because… → Read More
Is the world ready for a 3TB hard drive? Seagate thinks so and announced the 3TB FreeAgent GoFlex Desk external hard drive a few days back. The FedEx man just dropped one off on my doorstep so let’s see what this thing is all about. 3TB, wow. → Read More
Google is now in the flight information business. The search giant just announced it is paying $700 million in cash for ITA Software, an essential provider of flight information to airlines, travel agencies, and online reservation systems.
Travel is a huge segment of search and online commerce. Purchasing ITA signals Google’s intention to build out its travel search in a major way. A… → Read More
Analytics giant comScore has just acquired the products division of Nexius, a mobile analytics and data networking compant. Nexius’ products provide analytics that mobile operators can use understand consumer behavior, and to build better networks and experiences. The technologies essentially allow mobile operators to make sense of the enormous amount of data available.
comScore tells us they… → Read More
With Facebook’s recent campaign to “fix” its somewhat byzantine privacy controls – or at least the negative PR surrounding them – and an obsession to become more like Twitter, maybe Zuckerberg and co. could learn something from the UK-born Friends Reunited, that old skool social network of the Dot Com era.
The site, which has been through many a revamp itself, most notably after it was sold to… → Read More
Tesla unveiled its newest electric sports car today, the Roadster 2.5, just two days after its IPO. The Roadster 2.0 was released only a year ago, and existing customers will be able to buy upgrades to 2.5 features where feasible.
Pricing starts at $101,500 after a federal tax credit of $7,500.
The company says most of the updates are based on customer feedback. → Read More
Hello and welcome. There’s coffee and cake over by the door there, help yourself. It’s here to be eaten. Bathrooms are down the hall a bit, next to where you came in. Today we’re probably going to get a full house so file on in up front here. That’s right. Everyone’s friends. Welcome to the CrunchGear Death Grip Support Group. We are going to be telling each other… → Read More
Blizzard has begun the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm private beta. What luck, I was not one of those chosen to participate in the beta—at least not yet! You can find out if you’re in the beta by going to battle.net and managing your games. If you see Cataclysm waiting for you, have at it! → Read More
Mixpanel, an analytics-focused startup whose backers include Y Combinator, Michael Birch, and Max Levchin, has hit a big milestone: it’s now processing over 1 billion actions per month. To put that in perspective, a year ago the company had recorded 80 million actions cumulatively.
Mixpanel was built by former Slide employees, who took their experience with that company’s extensive analytics… → Read More
In case you ever wondered what practical purpose robotics as a field of science has, RoboCar [JP] might be one answer. That’s the name of a car robotics platform (and robot) currently in development at Tokyo-based robotics venture ZMP. → Read More
When I release vapor, people clear the room. When Element Cases does it, heads turn every which way. This new iPhone 4 case by Element Case is a 30 gram aluminium frame lined with shock absorbant rubber. It looks absolutely gorgeous and will begin shipping on July 11. Bad part? It costs $79.95 for the basic model and $99.95 for the carbon fiber back plate. But trust me – these cases are… → Read More
An iPhone 4 bumper is to an iPhone as a LeBar is to a vehicle. It looks silly and doesn’t offer any real benefits, although I’m not sure that an iPhone 4 bumper will cause rust. → Read More
iTunes in the cloud. We all know it’s coming, it’s just a question of when, and with what capabilities? A story from Boy Genius Report today appears to answer at least one of those questions, and vaguely answers the other.
If BGR’s “reliable” Apple source is to be believed, Apple’s iTunes cloud strategy will consist of three parts: 1) Streaming content from Apple’s servers to your devices 2)… → Read More
Are you ready to pay $9.95 a month for more TV? Hulu Plus, Hulu’s subscription offering, essentially offers more TV for $10 including full seasons of many shows including Glee and everything else on TV that isn’t Glee.
The program is available for iPad and iPhone and will soon be available for PS3 (with a $9.95/month PSN subscription) and Xbox 360. → Read More
Tapulous has been acquired by Disney. The iPhone gaming startup with several hits on its hands was founded by Bart Decrem, who will join Disney as a senior VP. COO Andrew Lacy is also joining Disney as a senior VP. Disney is very interested in social and mobile gaming, having recently invested in Playdom’s $33 million round.
Tapulous is a hot iPhone gaming startup which has raised only $1.8… → Read More
The real “winner” of the e-book wars is E Ink, the Mass.-based (it was spun off from a project at MIT) company that develops the technology behind the screens of all the top readers, including the Kindle and nook. If you’re holding a Kindle or a nook, congrats, you’re holding the same core technology: E Ink’s display. The company has announced that its next-generation display, named Pearl, will be… → Read More
Eucalyptus Systems, creator of an open source private cloud software, has raised $20 million in funding led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from current investors Benchmark Capital and BV Capital. This brings total capital raised to date to $25.5 million.
Eucalyptus’s infrastructure software allows enterprises to deploy scalable private and hybrid cloud computing environments. → Read More
Clean technology remains one of the hottest areas of venture funding. In the second quarter, cleantech venture investments worldwide totaled $2.02 billion across 140 companies, according to market research firm Cleantech Group and Deloitte. The numbers are in line with last quarter’s $2.04 billion, but 43% higher than one year ago.
Exits for the quarter totaled more than $8 billion globally… → Read More
It’s not the first “women-only” camcorder out there, but JVC’s Everio GZ-HM350 (announced [JP] today) has surely the best specs. It’s not based on an existing model but rather one of three new full HD camcorders JVC announced today (the black and silver models have the same specs as this special version). → Read More
Shortly after covering ProOnGo Expense, the app that lets you take pictures of your receipts for effortless filing expense reports, we’ve received word that two new features have been added. First, users can email receipts to the ProOnGo OCR service, freeing them from using the ProOnGo app to transmit the image of their receipts. Second, ProOnGo is beta testing integration with QuickBooks Pro. → Read More
The iPhone 4 antenna issue is real. The leaked Apple troubleshooting documents and job posting confirms what a lot of iPhone 4 owners are stating. Worse yet, a lot of owners are finding that bumpers — DIY or official ones — don’t totally solve the problem. The world is quickly crashing down around Apple fans everywhere. But Steve Jobs has some advice, “Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is… → Read More
If you want to know why you can never trust a survey commissioned by a company trying to bolster its market position, just look at the slide above. Placecast, which is a text-messaging advertising service, commissioned a survey by Harris Interactive to measure consumer’s attitudes towards, and acceptance of, text-message marketing on their mobile phones.
The survey (embedded below) has some… → Read More
It took a lot of time, but Toshiba is now ready to bring the Classmate tablet PC it created together with Intel to the Japanese market. Rebranded as “CM1″ [press release in English], the goal is to go after the nation’s educational sector. Both companies involved also announced they will launch initiatives to “foster ICT environments in schools” in order to boost IT literacy among Japanese… → Read More
You totally know this is true. The Kinect isn’t going to turn you into Tom Cruise’s Minority Report character or Batman. It’s not going to shape user interfaces for generations to come. It’s about playing silly games while flailing your arms and legs like a Microsoft tool. [via reddit] → Read More
Prepare to cash a check for $2.49 in about four years! The law firm of Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff is hunting down folks who are pretty upset by this whole “pick up your iPhone, bars go away” problem and they intend to sue Apple into oblivion or, barring that, make a nice chunk of change in legal fees. You can drop these shysters a line at their website and moan uncontrollably over how… → Read More
Everyone loves 3D — especially Sony. So much so that the company just outed a firmware for its NEX-3 and NEX-5 cameras that enables a 3D panorama sweep mode. Users only need to sweep the camera from side to side to capture the image as the camera will shoot a bust of photos and then automagically stitch them together. → Read More
eBay has made it fairly clear that mobile is the future for e-commerce. And the numbers only reinforce this strategy- mobile payments are poised to reach $200 billion by 2012, according to Juniper Research. So, of course, eBay is wants to make its crown jewel, PayPal, the leader in the mobile payments space. In fact, PayPal’s mobile transactions have grown as smartphone usage has increased, from… → Read More
Not everyone needs a 7.1 surround sound wireless headset with built-in beer koozies. Some people just need a simple headset for Skype and the like. That’s where these two new Logitech headsets come in. The H530 and H555 might not be all that fancy, but they still have the goods. → Read More
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