We are hearing reports that Facebook is weeks away from launching a new, redesigned dedicated gaming portal. Details are sparse at this point, but the portal will present a new, more feature rich way to both find games and play games within the social network. We are told that Facebook will launch the portal with a number of game publishers as partners.
With 200 million Facebook users playing games on the site monthly (or 40% of its userbase), it’s not surprising that Facebook is ramping up its gaming initiatives. The company alluded to launching a new dashboard at its gaming press event held in September, with the social network’s product manager for the games team Jared Morganstern telling the press that there will be a wave of innovation around the dashboard. At that time, Facebook announced changes with gaming applications in relation to the news feed and bookmarks. → Read More
It’s pretty easy being green if you’re a Silicon Valley notable apparently. We just got word that Paul Buchheit, creator of Gmail, Friendfeed and now a Facebook employee, has surpassed Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz’s 70K contribution to the Yes on Prop 19 campaign. → Read More
“[W]ebsites and hosting services should not be ‘fads’ any more than forests and cities should be fads – they represent countless hours of writing, of editing, of thinking, of creating. They represent their time, and they represent the thoughts and dreams of people now much older, or gone completely. There’s history here. Real, honest, true history.” And thus did the Archive Team set out to save the entirety of Geocities. → Read More
Bryan Hansel, chief executive of Smith Electric Vehicles U.S., spoke with TechCrunch this week about how he is convincing American corporations to try electric trucks, and some of the challenges the company faces as it scales to meet the demand it’s been working so hard to create.
But the CEO almost disdains the word “green.” His company, headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. sells all-electric trucks for medium-duty commercial and industrial use. It competes against brands like Ford, Peterbilt and Hino. Its technology is constantly compared to traditional diesel, gas and alternative fuel combustion engines.
Instead of strictly environmental benefits, the CEO emphasizes… → Read More
It’s that time again, folks: it’s time for Good News, Bad News! Bad News: If you own a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 handset, you’ve been waiting a pretty friggin’ long time for an update. But you already knew that, so I suppose it’s not really bad news. Hell, it’s probably not even technically news. Good news: The wait is, at long last, over. Android 2.1 will start hitting X10 handsets beginning this weekend. → Read More
Well this is peculiar. It looks as if Microsoft has tried, in effect, to use some of its influence to prevent Asus and Acer from creating Android- and/or Chrome OS-based devices. It’s doing so by tacking on royalty fees for Taiwan-based manufacturers (such as Asus and Acer) in order to use some of their patents relating to e-mail and multimedia. HTC, the other big Taiwan manufacturer, has agreed to the new licensing regime. → Read More
It’s true. AOL is planning to launch a new homepage design next week. There have been reports, but no screenshots. Until now. A source close to AOL (but not, you know, us) provided the screenshot above.
As you can see, it maintains a consistent look and feel with the current homepage (below). But there are a few major differences. It’s going from a two-column to a three-column layout, with more splashy feature items above the fold. Instead of a single main column with rotating features at the top and news sections below, now the whole middle column will become featured items with bigger photos. The search box at the top is also more prominent, with tabs for web, image, video, maps, and news search. → Read More
Probably should have mentioned this yesterday, but Sony will release a standalone 320GB PS3. The new SKU is shipping now, so it’ll be in you local shop in the coming days. → Read More
I’ve had my eye on this watch for a while now, despite the goofy name, and it looks like its finally available for pre-order for $1,500 for the GMT version on a steel strap and about $1,000 for the standard version on a rubber strap. Trimix GMT with stainless steel bracelet $1495.00 Trimix GMT with diving strap $1295.00 Trimix with stainless steel bracelet $1295.00 Trimix with diving strap $1095.00 → Read More
Google Ventures has invested in Austin, Texas based HomeAway, a vacation home rental service, at a $1.4 billion valuation, we’ve heard from a source. The New York Times first broke the story, but doesn’t have details on valuation or amount invested.
Our source says Google Ventures invested somewhere around $25 million in the company.
Google Ventures bought stock directly from existing shareholders and the money isn’t being injected into HomeAway. The valuation was set in the last round of financing, a massive $250 million raise in 2008. → Read More
Google gets a bad rap for missing the boat on social. You know, all that stuff Facebook and Twitter do with friends, followers, and activity streams. But many of its products have had social features for a long time. YouTube reminds us of this fact by pointing out that people have subscribed to other people’s video channels more than one billion times. They are even celebrating the milestone on the YouTube logo today.
If you think about it, the subscribe button on every YouTube video is very much like a follow button on Twitter. By subscribing to another user or video producer, you get all of their new videos in your personalized homepage stream when you are logged in. And you also get an email notification. It’s not quite the same as a status update, but one billion emails a week is quite a lot. → Read More
Asus seems to be taking the exact opposite of Apple’s tablet strategy. Instead of throwing everything behind one model like the iPad, Asus is developing multiple tablets in the 7-, 9-, 10-, and 12-inch form factor. The 12-inch is said to run an enhanced version of Windows, co-developed by Asus and Microsoft, while some of the smaller models will likely be Android and Tegra 2 powered. Confused yet? Yeah, just wait until these thing drop alongside dozens of other tablets at CES 2011. → Read More
Are your Wii controllers far too large for your minuscule hands? Are you dwarfed by the Wii nunchuk? Are you a tiny elf-man, unable to flail at your TV without your strap sliding up your arm, over your shoulders, and down to the floor around your feet? Man, has Power A got something for you.
When I saw these controllers for the first time I was a bit confused. The average person doesn’t specifically need a smaller Wiimote. However, once you pop this $49 out of its bubble pack you kind of realize that yes, you occasionally do need a smaller Wiimote, especially a tiny one that is Motion Plus compatible. → Read More
This video should dispel any doubt about Microsoft’s target demographic for the Kinect. Well, that is if the spot on Oprah and the Mom to Mom ad didn’t already do just that. Not that this tactic is a bad thing. Microsoft’s primary goal is to make money and housewives might turn out to be an untapped gold mine. → Read More
Omega’s game of cat and mouse with the present and past continues. The last several sport watches they released seem to have at least one leg (from a design perspective) in the past. This new Speedmaster Broad Arrow Co-Axial watch isn’t that much different. It is like a modern man in a vintage Armani suit that still looks pretty good today. The Broad Arrow Speedmaster watch has been around for a long time. The point of the name? Well compared to your standard Omega Speedmaster Professional watch the Broad Arrow has…. well, it has a broad minute hand and an arrow hour hand. And to think that Broad Arrow just sounded like a cool name for a Speedmaster. → Read More
To celebrate cashing in multiple DJ MAG Tech Awards Native Instruments has a deal until the 31st of December. The deal is that you get Traktor Scratch, Duo and Pro for 50% off the original price. That’s a pretty fair price for the Traktor systems. Apparently they are of the best. Here’s the deal. → Read More
News just got out about a serious management transition over at Take-Two Interactive Software, the major US-based publisher, developer, and distributor of video games and video game peripherals.
Chief exec Ben Feder has decided to step down, effective January 1, 2011, in order to pursue plans to travel in Asia with his family for an extended period. Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two’s Executive Chairman, will take on the additional role of Chief Executive Officer. → Read More
NetworkWorld confirmed that 89,000 Microsoft employees will get Windows Phone 7 handsets, thereby forcing MS employees to eat their own dog food. → Read More
AOL, our new owner, this morning announced that it has entered into an agreement for the sale of four office buildings it says it no longer utilizes, in addition to two undeveloped parcels of land on the East side of its Dulles campus. The buyer is CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust, who’s taking over AOL’s corporate park for $144.5 million in cash.
AOL says this means it has approximately $750 million of cash on hand as of October 29. → Read More
Groupon is accelerating pretty fast. It’s signed a partnership deal with eBay recently and there continue to be rumours of a Yahoo acquisition.
However, just as Mike Arrington confirmed in the above analysis piece, we’ve heard today that Yahoo is in the process of implementing a global distribution deal with Groupon, not an acquisition. → Read More
