Earlier this year, mobile developer TuneWiki raised over $7 million to expand beyond the namesake lyric-centric music player that put it on the map. Today sees the company’s first major expansion with the launch of a new iPhone game called Lyric Legend, which combines lyrics with the rhythmic gameplay that made Tapulous’s Tap Tap Revenge a massive hit.
Playing Lyric Legend is pretty straightforward: fire up a song and you’ll see a series of bubbles appear on the screen, each with a different word on it. The song you’ve selected will start playing in the background, and it’s your job to tap each word as it’s sung. → Read More
Ksplice, the technology that allows Linux kernel updates without a reboot, is now free for users of the Fedora distribution. Using Ksplice is like “replacing your car’s engine while speeding down the highway”, and it can potentially save your Linux systems from a lot of downtime. Since Fedora users often live on the bleeding edge of Linux development, Ksplice makes it even easier to do so, and without reboots! → Read More
Digg has hired Amazon exec Matt Williams to be their new CEO, we’ve confirmed. This ends a months-long process that began with the ouster of former CEO Jay Adelson in April. Founder Kevin Rose has run the company since then.
Williams has been with Amazon for more than a decade – since 1999. He is currently the GM of Consumer Payments. But he has held a variety of jobs – GM Webstore, Director Tech Alliances, Director Community & Cross-Merchandising and Director, Auctions and Marketplace. → Read More
For the longest time the Kindle was only available via Amazon. It’s actually a wonder that it did so well without a brick and mortar presence, but a few months back, Target started displaying and selling the ereader within its stores. Soon, Staples will be the latest to hawk the best-selling ereader device in 1,550 of its stores. Participating Staples locations will begin selling all three Kindle models sometime this autumn. → Read More
IFA is upon us; think CES but bigger. The showfloor doesn’t open until September 3rd, but most of the news should drop this week as companies try to steal 15 minutes of fame before the flustercuck begins. And this year it’s all about Android tablets and 3D TVs. I know, exciting stuff.
You could almost feel the excitement at CES 2010 back in January. It felt like the whole CE market was on the verge of something big. Tablets and 3D TVs were the buzzwords but only the big players where showing off prototypes and first-gen models. All the mid-level consumer electronics makers had ereaders instead of tablets. But IFA should be a bit different now that the Chinese OEM factories are already pumping out slates and 3D TVs are commonplace. But you might not wanna get too attached to any of the products announced in the coming days; they might not be for you. → Read More
Kansas City-based startup Neighbortree checked in to tell us about their efforts to grow a fledgling network of hyper-local neighborhood community websites operated by residents. The company has just raised $120,000 from an undisclosed regional angel investment firm, notably a mere month after launching its service.
Neighbortree provides free, interactive neighborhood websites to any type of residential community, including traditional neighborhoods, subdivisions, condominiums and apartment buildings. Think of it as a sort of Ning for neighborhoods. → Read More
There’s sure to be a deluge of tablets coming out of this year’s IFA show in Berlin. I know I’ve written about the Samsung Galaxy approximately 8,000 times in the past few weeks! So, here’s another: the Viewsonic ViewPad 7. She’s an Android-based tablet, as so many are these days, and she has a 7-inch, 800-480 display. Why are these things popular again? → Read More
Udemy, which aims to democratize learning on the Web by basically letting anyone teach and school themselves through online courses, has raised $1 million in seed funding from a host of top notch investors to ramp up hiring efforts.
The Founder Institute-incubated startup received funding from an impressive list of angel investors such as Keith Rabois, Rick Thompson, Russ Fradin, Benjamin Ling, Larry Braitman, Jeremy Stoppelman, Naval Ravikant, Paul Martino, Josh Stylman, Mark Sugarman‘s MHS Capital and Dave McClure‘s 500 Startups fund.
Proud disclosure: the company was co-founded by TechCrunch / MobileCrunch writer Gagan Biyani. They grow up so fast. → Read More
Do you own an iPad, iPhone, iPod, Sony Xperia, a Nintendo DS, or other mobile devices? Do you need a power source when you use these gadgets on the go? If yes, then the mobile chargers Sanyo announced today might do the trick for you.
There will be two versions: one, the so-called “eneloop stick booster” (pictured above) comes with adapters (licensed by Nintendo) to power your DS and the other mobile devices mentioned above on the go. The other (dubbed eneloop mobile booster/pictured below) is not compatible to the DS – as is one of the stick type boosters, actually. → Read More
As competition in the e-books device market heats up, Borders is cutting the prices of its leading eReading devices, the Kobo and Aluratek to $129 and $99.99 respectively. The Kobo was previously priced at $149.99 and the Aluratek was priced at $119.99.
Borders is also announcing that Velocity Micro’s Android-based Cruz Reader R101 and Cruz Tablet T103 are now available for preorder on Borders.com for $199 and $299 respectively. Borders is currently offering 1.5 million titles through its e-book readers. → Read More
Slow and steady wins the race, right? Wrong. Not in the mobile world. In the mobile world, where next month’s software patch is all the rage before it’s even announced, slow and steady gets you tromped all over. Alas, until HP/Palm really get into their post-merger swing, slow and steady is all they’ve got.
This morning, that slow and steady pace brings a minor update (1.3) for webOS’ Facebook app. So, what’s inside? → Read More
Is there any other RTS out there that could as easily be made into a movie as StarCraft? Probably not, no. What’s slightly more pie-in-the-sky? Getting James Cameron to direct it. It’s a nice idea, certainly, and especially considering that the man only directs smash-hits, but do you really see James Cameron taking time out of his post-Avatar world to direct a video game movie? I mean, isn’t he busy planning an Avatar sequel? → Read More
Don’t get your hopes up too high, Android fans. Contrary to what the watermarks over there might imply, that’s no Android phone. It’s the Windows Phone 7-powered LG E900 — the very same one that Microsoft self-”leaked” last week.
This time, though, it’s actually a picture of reasonable quality — oh, and it comes with video and specs to boot. → Read More
Not the biggest story in the world today—it is transfer deadline day, after all—but it looks like the big Sony PS3 modchip courtroom smackdown has been delayed by a few days. The judge who was supposed to preside over the case didn’t show up today (it’ 9pm in Sydney as of this writing), thus the hearing has been moved back to Friday, September 3. → Read More
Oh, you thought we were lying about the Samsung Epic 4G launching on August 31st? One of these days, friend, you’re going to realize we’d never lie to you. Because we love you. → Read More
I’m still not entirely sold on Samsung’s Bada operating system — but if Bada gets your boat a’rockin, more power to you. Just yesterday, ol’ Sammy announced their third (or is that fourth? We’ve lost count.) Bada phone: the Wave S7320. Built for the lower-end, what it lacks in Super-AMOLED displays and insanely fast CPU clockspeeds it makes up for in its (currently unannounced, but presumably low) price and not-at-all-tacky leather case. Some 24 hours after its official debut, it’s already managed to get some hands-on time. → Read More
Exactly one week ago, Canon unveiled a pretty impressive 120 megapixel sensor, and today the company followed up with the announcement of “the world’s largest” CMOS sensor. Sized at 202 x 205 mm, the new sensor is 40 times bigger than the Canon CMOS sensors out there now. → Read More
Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies (DST) today formally announced the acquisition of Russian social network Odnoklassniki.ru, which we reported on last week.
DST has bought out out the minority shareholders in Forticom Group Limited – which it now fully owns – and Odnoklassniki, and interestingly transferred its interest in the Polish social network Nasza-Klasa.pl to the previous minority shareholders of Forticom as part of the deal. → Read More
Endorse for a Cause is launching today to allow you to raise money for your favorite charities while making purchases online. Some online retailers allow you to do this through their own sites, but Endorse For A Cause is hoping to allow consumers to give back at any online retailer.
Once you register on the startup’s site, you can access your favorite stores on EFAC’s site. EFAC lists the percentage of your purchase that will be donated to the organization (which ranges from 0.7 percent to 8 percent). → Read More
As competition in the e-books device market heats up, Borders is cutting the prices of its leading eReading devices, the Kobo and Aluratek to $129 and $99.99 respectively. The Kobo was previously priced at $149.99 and the Aluratek was priced at $119.99.
Borders is also announcing that Velocity Micro’s Android-based Cruz Reader R101 and Cruz Tablet T103 are now available for preorder on Borders.com for $199 and $299 respectively. Borders is currently offering 1.5 million titles through its e-book readers. → Read More
