There is a war being waged by TV makers. A war against set-top boxes. See, TV makers like LG and Sony don’t want you going off and buying a Roku, or iTV, or what have you. So over the last couple years, they keep adding features to their TVs — apps, internet, weather, that kind of thing. LG’s latest, which it will be showing at IFA this next week, doesn’t look terribly different from the stuff we’ve seen from others, but the new control scheme might be fun. → Read More
One of the best games from the Dreamcast is finally getting a proper sequel: Bangai-O! Those who played it remember it fondly; a version for Nintendo DS was released, but (despite being pretty good) it didn’t really have the same savor as the original. I have a feeling this new one is going to be the sequel I’ve been hoping for. It’s called Bangai-O HD Missile Fury, and the developers promise “sensory overload of thousands of missiles.” It should debut at PAX this weekend. Hell yes. → Read More
Meet the iPad Orchestra, brought to you by the brand spankin’ new to the iPad App Store Seline HD. While I usually hate to be the thorn in the side of progress, if this is is what the future of classical music looks like then I would like no part.
Because I’m actually into watching the fat guy with the gong awkwardly squirm all symphony long just to hit his instrument once. Somehow an iPad multi-touch tap doesn’t have the same resonance, literally.
Amidio’s Seline HD, which sells for $5.99, makes this alien-like abstraction of an orchestra possible by allowing you to choose from 20 instruments voices — flutes, reeds, bowed strings etc — and nine corded synth paths. → Read More
T-mobile continues to bring the latest update to their 3G network to more cities today, with the “4G-like” HSPA+ speeds now available in Boston, Mass; Erie, Penn; Fresno, Palm Springs and San Diego, Calif; Miami, Fla; Richmond, Va; Spokane, Wash; Topeka, Kan.
This brings the total number of HSPA+ cities up to 55, with 100 million lucky Americans now basking in the warmth that only high-speed 3G radio waves can bring*. → Read More
Perhaps you’ve heard: Apple is having an event tomorrow. Normally, this means that a sea of tech bloggers descends upon the Bay Area to cover it live for those sitting by their computers at home. But this time things are a bit different: Apple is actually streaming the event live — something they haven’t done in a very, very long time. Cue Double Rainbow: what does this mean?
It’s been so long since an Apple event has been live streamed that no one can seem to agree when the last one actually was. The consensus seems to be that it was a Macworld keynote (which IDG put on but Apple produced) back in the 2003 or 2004 timeframe. But what’s interesting is why Apple streamed one of these last ones: as some recall, it was at least in part to show off their then-new streaming technology — QuickTime Streaming Server. Might that be a hint about the intentions for tomorrow’s event? → Read More
Good news for any contract-a-phobic smartphone fans out there: several leaks today pointing to a high likelihood that Verizon will soon offer most of their Android line up (including the Droid series, as well as the yet-to-be released Samsung Fascinate), a healthy dash of BlackBerries, and both the Palm Pixie Plus and the Palm Pre Plus, on their Prepaid Monthly Talk and Monthly Talk & Text plans.
Interested in pricing? Well, sadly, there is no pricing on the actual handsets just yet, but all the phones will need a $30 unlimited data/email package tacked onto a minimum $45 per month voice plan. Not pad for a pay-as-you-go from Verizon, I believe. → Read More
Gamestop (damn their eyes) has a deal right now where if you buy Metroid: Other M, you can pick up a MotionPlus bundle for $20 off. Total cost: a billion dollars. Well, more like $85 plus tax, but it’s still a fair chunk of cash. Of course, it’s better than the $105 you would have paid yesterday for the same thing. Man, this is why I play Super Nintendo. → Read More
YCombinator-funded Adioso today launches its third iteration as an online destination for adventurous travelers who want to take vacations but are not constrained by specific days or even places. Yes, the online travel space is saturated, but the more mainstay search services like Kayak and Sky Scanner only let you find specific dates and destinations, failing if your desire is more vague.
In contrast, Adioso allows you to search flights with complete flexibility, like if you want to go somewhere in Europe in November but are not committed to specific area or time. Examples of the natural language-enabled broad or open-ended searches specific to Adioso: → Read More
If you’re interested in what Apple’s got cooking for tomorrow’s big event, Apple has just announced you’ll be able to watch it live at Apple.com (where else?), starting at 10AM Pacific. As a veteran liveblogger, I have to say I am a bit disturbed at being phased out after only a year or two of use. In fact, most events worth writing up as they happen are now offering free live streams — not that it’s a bad thing. And of course we’ll be reporting it live anyway.
Apple doesn’t often do this, though, so either they’ve just upgraded their servers and feel like inaugurating them with a hundred thousand concurrent streams, or they’ve got a very interesting show planned. → Read More
Strange things happen when you get two designers collaborating. Case in point: Yuri Suzuki and Oscar Diaz teamed up to make the rec & play pens. These devices allow a person to “record” a drawing using a special type of ink (and the record pen), and then play the drawing back as a sound using the playback pen. The recording pen actually uses ink that is similar in composition to cassette tapes, meaning that you can record a drawing, and then play it back over and over again. I’d consider this to more of an experiment showing the convergence of sight and sound, rather then anything practical. If you want to see the pens in person, they’ll be on display at the kk outlet in London starting on September 3rd. [via Design Boom] → Read More
Including access to Netflix on the rumored iTV seems like a no-brainer at first — every set-top box worth its salt has it. It’d be suicide not to, right? But then you start thinking about how Apple would probably like nothing more than to launch a full-scale competitor to Netflix in the form of 99¢ rentals. Chances are it was actually a difficult decision to make: it’s like acknowledging that Netflix has something Apple needs, and I’m sure you can imagine how much they like that idea. → Read More
Tel Aviv-based Attenti announced today its acquisition by 3M, most notably the makers of Post-Its, to the tune of $230 million in cash. Formerly Dmatek, Attenti is the world’s leading supplier of remote people-tracking technologies such as ankle bracelets, voice recognition devices and alcohol monitoring technologies.
The purchase, which will benefit 3M by providing the company with GPS and radio frequency technology, is the second in a line of security-related acquisitions this week; 3M bought fingerprint ID company Cogent Inc yesterday for $943 million.
Yoav Reisman, Attenti CEO on the sale:
“3M’s culture of innovation fits well with our own and its R&D capabilities and global reach will help accelerate the growth of our business.”
Francisco Partners and the Israeli branch of Sequoia Capital jointly invested in Attenti in December of 2008, the sale represents a hefty exit for both. → Read More
I’ve heard from two sources close to the Digg CEO search that there were a glut of good candidates. That’s something companies always say, and I frankly found it hard to believe.
I don’t necessarily mean that as a knock on Digg. I was surprised there were a ton of “great” CEO candidates to run any company in the unsexy critical-mass-but-not-flavor-of-the-month category—period.
Both sources told me the same thing: The existence of a secondary market means that top talent is churning through startups faster than ever. While Digg’s eventual hire was Matt Williams formerly of old-man-of-the-Internet Amazon, sources told me that potential candidates were also coming from hot, pre-IPO Web darlings.
I’ve asked around and had a few entrepreneurs and VCs confirm the trend: The secondary market is upping the talent churn to levels not seen in the Valley since the late 1990s. → Read More
You hit a site; it’s down. You immediately reload; it’s still down. You start to freak out. “How the hell are they down again!? Is anyone in charge over there?! WTF?!” But quite often, it’s just you. And you look like an ass for your rant that you just spewed on Twitter (or on Facebook when it’s Twitter that is down). Thankfully, it looks like Chrome can now potentially save you from that embarrassment.
Tech geeks are very familiar with sites like Down For Everyone Or Just Me (which was incidentally created by a then-Twitter employee and sold earlier this year). You go there, enter a URL and see if others people around the world are having trouble accessing the site as well. But the latest version of Chrome appears to do the same thing for you now, as the blog Rudefox pointed out today. → Read More
How many of you out there have the scratch to pay a grand for your headphones? Raise your hands. None! But let’s be honest here. Look at your headphones. Now look at the picture to the right. Now back to your headphones — now back to the picture. Sadly (if you’re as poor as yours truly) your headphones probably will never be the Reference Monitors pictured. But you can dream. And of course Ultimate Ears has less expensive models. → Read More
At the risk of flogging a dead horse: Chatroulette is currently down. Again? Yes, again.
This time, no promises of an updated and redesigned version launching ‘tomorrow’ or ‘shortly’. If you’re lucky enough to even get the website address to resolve, you’ll be looking at a nice ’403 – Forbidden’ or ’500 Internal Server Error’ page, or some freaky nginx Web server landing page. → Read More
Spil Games, the casual gaming portal, has rolled out mobile versions of its games based on HTML5, making them accessible on a range of Android handsets, as well as the iPhone and iPad. Additionally, the Netherlands-based company is launching a developer contest to help fuel new HTML5 games, with prizes totaling $50,000 for the best new titles.
Claiming to be ranked as a top 60 most visited online property (citing comScore Media Metrix), Spil Games currently sees 130 million unique visitors to its array of casual gaming sites, which include games.co.uk (for families), agame.co.uk (for teens), and GirlsGoGames.co.uk (for girls). In total the company offers 47 localized online gaming destinations in 19 languages, although, until now, these target desktop web users only. → Read More
Just when you thought you were safe from tablet news for a day… Archos strikes. The new Archos line of tablets has just been revealed, and there’s something for everybody, as long as everybody wants some kind of Android device. → Read More
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