Earlier this month, we pointed out that social shopping site Blippy had pretty much the best 404 page ever. It was a double rainbow all the way. Tonight, Blippy co-founder Philip Kaplan felt like he had some deja vu. Check out Ben & Jerry’s homepage.
Now, do we really think a giant national ice cream chain is copying a small startup’s 404 page? I don’t know. But between the grass, the sky, and, well, the rainbows, they are pretty similar. → Read More
It sounds a bit random, but this could actually be handy if you’re biking and camping. I mean, it’s not some big breakthrough or anything, but a solar-powered LED lantern might just be a handy thing to have on your bike, and it’s a 1-liter BPA-free water bottle as well. Good present for the outdoorsy cyclist type in your family. Git yours for thirty clams over at Sollights. [via Inventor Spot] → Read More
This is an interesting invention. The idea is that this lock lets you lose a key and simply use the next one in a preset series — no need to find the old one, it won’t work once you “pair” the new one. It works by using the new key to knock a little disc out of the way of one of the pins, changing the “combination” required to open the lock. → Read More
In the market for a small form factor PC, but not sure what to buy? Check out Shuttle’s special 3-day sale on Newegg. The box we’re talking about is the Shuttle SX8J3, a LGA 1366 motherboard jammed into a tiny case, all for “sub-$450″. Be aware that the price drop won’t show up until tomorrow (8/26) and only lasts three days. Shuttle products rarely go on sale, and this particular system typically retails for $529.99, so this is a pretty deep discount. → Read More
Waaaay back in June, Sony announced their mid-range Xperia X8, to compliment their top-o-the-line (but in serious need of a software upgrade) X10.
Well, now the diminutive fellow has had his required appointment with the FCC, so release should be on the horizon soon… just maybe not in time for the original “Q3 2010″ release date. → Read More
Do you remember the other day when I told you all about Motorola’s upcoming mid-range Android phone, the MB520 (aka Kobe)? I do. I remember it well.
Well, guess what, Kitten? The early obligatory spy shots of the device are now making their way across the web. And we have copies for you. → Read More
Wikinvest today launches its mobile initiative with its iPhone app, now live in the Apple store. As brokerages and the finance industry in general are usually late to the mobile and Internet game, the Wikinvest app is one of the first that allows iPhone users mobile access to their personal portfolios as well as the latest investment news.
From Wikinvest CEO Michael Sha:
“We’ve amassed an incredibly rich set of portfolio data that, when complemented with our unique user generated content, will provide a much better way to manage your investments than what’s found today on traditional finance portals like Yahoo Finance.”
Wikinvest pulls in user-generated stock info as well as aggregate information from a user’s brokerage and investment accounts. Aside from portfolio specific content, the app will provide market data, quotes, charts, news, and currency info, including that of international exchanges and over 60 brokerages. → Read More
We didn’t get an official announcement, but it looks like Sony is going to be selling their own version of a Netflix and Amazon video streaming netbox. Get this though, the Sony product plays the much wanted MKV and DivX files – something conspicuously missing from other company offerings. The Sony product (who’s name we don’t have yet) runs on wireless N, supports 1080p, has a USB storage connection, and is controlled via Sony’s iPhone and Android apps. Price is expected to be at $130, and Gizmodo says that should see them around the end of September. We’ll update you as more information becomes available. → Read More
Facebook is big — massive, really. But I don’t care if a social network has 100 million users, 500 million users, or a billion users — and I don’t care if there’s a major Hollywood movie coming out about it. You haven’t made it until you have a Turkish pop music video about your service. That’s exactly what “Cilgin” by Ismail YK is.
I have basically no idea what is going on in this video, but it’s awesome nonetheless. It appears to take place in two IKEA showrooms that have been completely whitewashed. In these rooms, a man and woman seem to stalk one another on Facebook, and then start chatting. Are they using WebTV? I’m not sure, but I’m not ruling it out. → Read More
So I’ve been waiting for the new Chatroulette to go up for three days now and no dice. In the meantime I’ve been getting a slew of emails and tweets from people trying to get me to switch over to their to their random “chat with strangers” services (Hi Omegle!). However none have been particularly compelling, UNTIL NOW.
We’ve been running in stealth for the past few months, as we’ve negotiated deals and developed software (that’s done), but it seems you’ve broken the seal on the jar of kind bud, so we’re announcing on TechCrunch … → Read More
Short version: SteelSeries makes great keyboards and mice, but headphones have always been a weakness of theirs. The 7H isn’t bad, really, but considering what’s out there for the same price or less, it’s a hard set to recommend. → Read More
Remember back in June when we wrote about Twitter’s update to their Facebook app that allowed you to see which of your Facebook friends were also using Twitter? Remember when Facebook blocked that functionality about five minutes later? At the time, both sides noted that they were working to resolve the “issue.” Well, two months later, you can forget about that resolution as Twitter has just updated their app once again, removing that functionality.
To be clear, the Twitter app on Facebook still works — it just works basically as it did before. That is, allowing you to post tweets to your Facebook Wall (for both your profiles and pages) and to sync your profile photo.
For the five minutes the friend look-up feature was alive, it was actually a very useful way to find Facebook friends also on Twitter and follow them with one click (though they had to have the Twitter app installed for you to be able to find them). And my understanding is that Twitter was using the Facebook API the same way that any other third-party app might. So the only conclusion I can draw is that Facebook didn’t like Twitter building their social graph on top of their own. → Read More
Is America losing its edge? This was the rather depressing subject of this year’s Aspen Forum, the annual event put on by the DC-based Technology Policy Institute. Attracting speakers as illustrious as former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, Intel CEO Paul Otellini, Verizon EVP of Public Policy Tom Tauke, Intuit CEO Brad Smith, the author the National Broadband Plan Blair Levin and Linkedin co-founder Reid Hoffman, the event focused on the public policy side of technology, addressing the political challenges of making American technology companies more competitive in the 21st century global economy.
It’s perhaps appropriate that the event was held at Aspen’s St Regis hotel up in the breathlessly high altitude of the Rockies. For all the broad public policy challenges facing the technology industry, the persistent issue in many of the discussions here – what Verizon’s Tom Tauke described as the “elephant in the room” – is the unresolved Network Neutrality issue. As Tom Sugrue of TMobile remarked, the network neutrality issue is “sucking the energy out of all the other issues. Sugrue is correct. This issue – defined by the often byzantine and seemingly endless public debate between the carriers, the FCC, Congress, technology companies and the pro network neutrality lobby – is threatening to derail the longer term challenges to American edge in the global technology marketplace. → Read More
SkyFire. Heard of it? It’s the smartphone browser that was chewing through Flash video and other rich media long before any of the built-in browsers were supporting such things — and on a number of platforms, it’s still the only option.
We’ve known that SkyFire Labs was crackin’ away at an iPhone port for some time now — the company confirmed it after Opera got a surprise App Store thumbs up. But when would it be done? More importantly, when would it be submitted for that oh-so-important stamp of approval?
Soon, say our sources. → Read More
Today we find discover, first-hand, the horrors of machine translation. The deal is that Sharp plans to take on Apple (and thus, the world) by releasing an e-reader of some sort. Sharp also plans on releasing 3D smartphones (think Nintendo 3DS, technology-wise). But I dare you to figure that our from Google’s translation of the original story. → Read More
On May 22 this year 300 hackers converged in New York at TechCrunch Disrupt for a day and half long hack day before the conference itself started. At least one of the projects created at the hack day has now become an actual business, and has raised an angel round of funding from top tier investors.
GroupMe launches today. What is it? It’s a dead simple way to create a private SMS group with your friends. Just go to the site and type in your mobile number (U.S. phones only at this point). You’ll then get a text message from a unique phone number assigned to your new group that says “You just created a new group on GroupMe! Now add some friends by replying #add with your friends’ names and numbers.”
To add another person just add them via text message and they’re part of the group. Any text messages any member send go to all other members. And there are a variety of commands to mute groups, change topics, list other members, etc. → Read More
In response on to a question on Quora yesterday afternoon about why the Facebook Places logo looks like it contains a “four” in a “square,” Facebook Design Strategy lead Aaron Sittig confirms our belief that any similarities between the two logos were accidental.
“We sure got a laugh from the news stories, but could only wish we’d been so clever.”
You know what’s cool? That I seriously do post these things to get people to laugh (and think). Rumor has it that a link to TechCrunch’s “Facesquare” post has made the rounds of at least one Facebook Product Designer’s wall, with the note “Wish we could actually say this was intentional.” → Read More
Feel like spending a lot of money on a brand new HDTV? Sony’s got you covered. The new line of high-end Bravias just got announced, and hey, let’s be honest: we all wish we had one of these things sitting in our living room. Let’s take a look at their vitals. → Read More
Silicon Valley-based Vsee has just announced the launch of it’s low bandwidth video conferencing solutions in Europe. The company founded in 2003 and backed by the CIA’s In-Q-Tel now has an engineering team in the Netherlands and a sales team in France.
Obviously the product runs neck-to-neck with competitors like WebEx, Skype, Polycom or Citrix’s GoToMeeting – but Vsee likes to think that it offers even more collaboration tools than the rest; the video conferencing platform currenltly displays up to 12 people at a time, including features like chat, document sharing and the ability to write, highlight, etc. on another user’s screen. You do the math. The platform is only in English for now, but a majority of the functions are really very intuitive. And, like everything nowadays, installation can be done in pretty much a single click from the website. → Read More
What is it with the combination of video games and hot chicks? Oh yeah, they both appeal to young, sweaty men. Playboy.com is getting into the online video game business through a partnership with Bigpoint Games. The first game will be Poisonville, which is kind of like a browser-based version of Grand Theft Auto, except that the characters are “beautiful, Playboy-caliber women.”
Poisonville is a 3D, massively multiplayer game where you are part of a gang of Playboy models who shoot the cops and blow things up. Yeah. Enjoy the trailer below. → Read More
