Google is a big proponent of HTML5, especially for video and rich graphics in the browser. To show off what HTML5 can do, Google Chrome teamed up with the Arcade Fire and director Chris Milk to create a custom interactive video for their song, “We Used To Wait.” The experience is called The Wilderness Downtown and is best viewed in Chrome or other HTML5-compliant browser.
You start by typing in the address of the house you grew up in, then it loads a video of a guy in a hoodie running through the streets. Different windows pop open on your screen, some with graphics, some with videos. Google Maps and Street View images of your old neighborhood are incorporated into the video. All the video is in HTML5, different windows open up triggered by the music, and you even see a fly-over of your neighborhood based on Google Maps’ routing API. → Read More
Google is partnering with U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation (USBCDC), a division of U.S. Bank; to create an $86 million Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) fund. According to a release issued today, the funding will be used towards the construction and operation of 480 affordable rental housing units for low income families and senior citizens in seven communities throughout the West and Midwest.
It’s unusual for a technology company to get involved with these types of loans; banks and insurance companies usually help fund these credits. While the money doesn’t cover the total cost of these developments, these tax credits help them complete a project. → Read More
Media and communications fund Syncom Venture Partners annonuced a series A investment of $3 million in ShowUHow, a San Diego based business that could make the traditional instruction manual obsolete.
ShowUHow provides official online video instruction guides, web-based sales and customer support tools. ShowUHow’s clients make and sell products that are advertised as “some assembly required,” or that general consumers may find complex, initially. → Read More
Internet telephony and chat service provider Skype is officially launching Skype Connect 1.0 (formerly Skype for SIP), to the public (you can see the release here). The service has been in beta since last year.
Skype Connect allows a business’ employees to make domestic and international calls using regular office telephones (PBX systems) instead of using a computer and a headset for VoIP calls. Users can receive and manage inbound calls from Skype users to SIP-enabled PBX systems, enabling them to offer click-to-call functionality on websites. → Read More
Looks like RIM has dodged a bullet in India, at least for the time being. The BlackBerry maker has provided the Indian government with “proposals for local security agencies to monitor BlackBerry service” so that, when necessary, the Indian government can tap into BlackBerry users’ email. And while that may not sound too positive a development, it was either that or risk an outright ban. → Read More
By now, we’ve learned the Japanese have found a number of creative ways to use the iPad. And today we can show you a new one: the iPad as the basis of a sophisticated, yet low-cost point of sale cash register system. Dubbed FLAVIUS [JP], the system is actually being used by several business across Japan already. → Read More
The news page on Digg, and particularly the Technology category, is currently plastered with links to discussions and images posted on rival Reddit instead. That’ll bring Reddit some traffic this morning, but more importantly it’s a bit of an embarrassing situation for Digg.
The Next Web speculates that Reddit is ‘gaming’ Digg, but there seems to be something else at play here, namely Digg users actively displaying their discontent with the recently launched new version of the site by using it to promote links to its competitor. → Read More
Between online video, DVRs, and on-demand cable the amount of time people spend watching live TV (you know, with all of those commercials that advertisers spend $70 billion a year on) is shrinking fast. Only 52 percent of American’s viewing time is spent on live TV compared to online and time-shifting alternatives, according to a new survey of 1,000 American consumers by market research firm Morpace. And that percentage decreases the younger the audience, with the key 18-to-34-year-old demographic watching live TV only 41 percent of the time, versus 64 percent of the time for those 55 and older.
The alternatives to live TV are growing and basic cable is under assault, but no one single competing technology is taking over. People watch DVDs 14 percent of the time, online (including streaming video from services like Netflix) 13 percent of the time, saved programs on their DVRs 12 percent, and on-demand cable 6 percent. The survey breaks down online viewing into video from online sources like YouTube (9 percent) and streaming video from services like Netflix and Hulu (4 percent). For 18-to-34-year-olds, online video makes up 16 percent of their viewing time, and streaming video makes up another 7 percent. → Read More
Cubic Telecom, the TechCrunch40 company behind the traveler-friendly SIM card MAXroam, has partnered with popular European airline Ryanair to slash roaming costs for travelers. Cubic Telecom’s MAXroam allows users to use their unlocked cell phones in over 180 countries, saving around 60-80% on roaming charges.
Starting today, Ryanair will slash mobile phone roaming charges by up to 70% via a 3 year exclusive partnership with MAXroam. Passengers need to purchase a MAXroam SIM card, which will provides one fixed roaming rate across 43 European countries. → Read More
BizArk, a Chinese e-commerce company specialized in international trading solutions, has now made its debut and announced that it has secured ‘tens of millions of dollars’ in financing from IDG Ventures (up to $40 million according to several reports).
The press release announcing the investment is one of the strangest I’ve ever read. → Read More
Yottaa, web analytics and performance platform, has raised $4 million in series A funding from General Catalyst Partners, Stata Venture Partners and Cambridge West Ventures. → Read More
Plex, the Mac OS X media center, has just made all of its competitors obsolete. A new version, dubbed Plex/Nine, will be released today at midnight EDT, and it introduces a number of new features that make it the media player for Mac OS X—and for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. That’s right: there’s an iOS App for that, and it’s pretty awesome. → Read More
I am not sure how many of these will actually get sold, but starting today, the Japanese can lay their hands on Super Mario-branded sweaters [JP]. Buyers can choose between four versions in two colors, and the sweaters actually do look quite nice. → Read More
Twitter search and advertising startup platform operator TweetUp has announced today that its search engine for Twitter will be expanding to include bios and updates posted to other social networks, including LinkedIn and Facebook. Because the company will no longer be solely based on Twitter, TweetUp is changing its name to PostUp.
In April, TweetUp, which was incubated by incubated by idealab, opened registration for its bidded marketplace for real-time search, and in May the company launched its search capabilities on a number of sites at the TechCrunch Disrupt event, including at TechCrunch, Topix.com, and Businessinsider.com. → Read More
Are you in the market for a different smart phone operating system? Sick of the mainstream players? Perhaps you have a fondness for immature OSes that are only supported by one manufacturer?
Well, I’d initially recommend the Wave — Samsung’s original Bada-powered smartphone — but I know you’re a bit more budget minded than that. Who wants Super-AMOLED anyway?
Samsung hear ya, buddy, as today they announced their third-ish (fourth, I suppose) Bada-powered phone: the entry-level S7320E Wave 723 (henceforth known as just the Wave 723). → Read More
Yay! Only a little while ago we reported that the Droid X — despite its self destruct trigger — was able to run a custom recovery, with the prospect of running custom ROMs (the goal of any self-respecting Android power user) following in the not-too-distant future.
Well, consider it the future, baby, as the first videos of a Droid X running a custom ROM — namely the AOSP Sapphire ROM — have surfaced from Twitter user MennoMobile. → Read More
You know Infineon, right? They make those tiny baseband chips inside smartphones (like the iPhone 3G). You know, the chips responsible for communicating with the cell towers on your network. Yes? I’m glad we’re on the same page.
Well, today, Intel bought Infineon’s Wireless Solutions Business — WLS — for $1.4 billion of your American dollars.
Why’d they do it? Well, Intel have been trying to get into the phone CPU market, but are having trouble competing with the likes of Qualcomm and ARM, who are able to offer all the communication options — that is, WiFi, Bluetooth, GSM, 3G, 4G — as well as the CPU/GPU, on a single chip. This makes the chips not only smaller (and therefore easier to fit on a logic board), but also more energy efficient. → Read More
You might say the company’s just a tad late to the party, but Miniclip has finally seen the light and is expanding its casual gaming empire by entering the world of mobile games.
With a self-declared user base of more than 57 million casual gamers worldwide and a library of more than 600 online games, it’s a wonder really that the London-based company hasn’t made the move sooner.
After all, Apple’s App Store for one now offers roughly 250,000 apps, many of which are of course casual games and have been available for years. → Read More
Here are some stories from the past week on CrunchGear: New Display Tech Could Have Eight Times The Pixel Density As Retina Display Immortality Via Valve’s Team Fortress 2 Hat-Describing Contest Now You Wily Terrorists Will Be Subject To Long-Range Skeleton Analysis I’d Live In It. Bufalino Camper Combines Car, Bedroom, Office Science! Viral Batteries To Be Woven Into Clothing → Read More
