Though they’re the 6th largest carrier in the US, U.S. Cellular isn’t really known for offering brand spankin’ new mobile technology. They’ve always had plenty of phones, mind you — they just tended to go for phones that were perhaps a bit older, or a bit less flashy. That all started to change back in April, when U.S. Cellular announced that they were getting the HTC Desire. Months later, they kicked things up a notch again with their own Samsung Galaxy S variant, the Mesmerize — and now it looks like they’re going to try to ride the cutting edge with the latest and greatest trend: Tablets. Their first? The Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab. → Read More
The Parents Television Council, parodied by WWE with its Right to Censor stable back in the day, says that 19 percent of kids between the ages of 12 and 16 are able to buy M-rated video games at stores. Shock! → Read More
A quick disclosure: readers of my last book will be familiar with the story (which you can read here) of London-based entrepreneur Michael Acton Smith.
Smith co-founded boy’s toys e-tailer Firebox.com straight out of university, before moving on to launch an interactive puzzle start-up called Mind Candy. By the end of the book, Mind Candy had gained success with its ambitious Perplexcity alternative reality game (ARG) but hadn’t quite tipped over to the mass-market.
Michael is a friend – and a fellow Brit – so, obviously, I was really rooting for the company to deliver on its potential. I was one of the first to write about Mind Candy when I was at the Guardian and I promised that, when the company finally tipped, I’d be the first to write a follow up.
And yet… → Read More
Remember several months ago when both Google and Facebook decided to get into the URL shortening game? We wondered if Bit.ly, the market leader, was fu.kd? And we were hardly alone.
But nearly a year later, it seems like they’re doing more than fine as neither Facebook nor Google seemed to take their shortener too seriously for much of that time. It was only just about a month ago that Google opened up their goo.gl product to more directly compete with Bit.ly. But it looks like Facebook, which runs fb.me, has sort of gone the other way. They’re actually now working with Bit.ly. → Read More
We’re one month away from Thanksgiving, and therefore Black Friday, so prepare yourselves for all sorts of sales and deals. There’s probably no better time to look for games, movies, and various equipment. (I’m looking to add a discrete sound card to my PC, for example. Should I go with Asus or Creative?) Amazon’s festivities begin tomorrow, so you can expect all sorts of discounts on things like TVs, Blu-ray players, games, speakers, etc. You know: things you care about → Read More
Last month, Yahoo SVP David Ku, who headed the company’s advertising products group, left the company. Yahoo has been hemorrhaging talent lately — including some high ranking executives — and Ku was an especially big loss because he’s been with the company since 2002. Now we’ve confirmed Ku’s next move: he’s joining Microsoft as Corporate Vice President, Online Services Division New Initiatives, effective October 29th, 2010.
We initially heard that Ku would be working directly on Bing (which is part of Microsoft’s’ Online Services Division) but a Microsoft spokesperson tell us that he’ll be involved with a range of initiatives across the division. → Read More
Did you know there is a Viper remote starter out right now that can be controlled with an iPhone for $500? That seems kinda pricey and dull on extra features. What if you wanted even more control of your car, right on your iPhone’s wonderful interface? Meet AutoBot, the answer to your call. → Read More
We’re just about two weeks away from the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops, and besides the fact that it’s yet another Call of Duty game (which usually means a decent multi-player mode, and a campaign of varying quality), there’s not a whole lot of “heat” surrounding it. Yes, it’s setting all sorts of pre-order records, and the critical reaction is already largely positive (PSM3 magazine calls it “2010′s top shooter” in its December issue), but there’s no real, I don’t know, excitement surrounding it. That’s my perception, at least. Could it be that Medal of Honor, with its Taliban-infused multi-player, has already exhausted this country’s supply of outrage? → Read More
With Amazon having built Kindle applications for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry, you probably could have guessed that they had plans for a Windows Phone 7 app. Sure enough: this morning, Microsoft and Amazon are announcing that the Kindle application is on the way, with an always-helpful launch date of “soon”. As far as we can tell so far, the Kindle for WP7 app will tout just about every feature that Kindle fans know and love, from automatic page syncing to the ability to purchase books right through the app. The only thing missing? A little tiny man who can convince me that reading books off a tiny screen isn’t a terrible way to read. (Ba-dum-cha!) → Read More
IK Multimedia released an update to their AmpliTube iOS app today in the iTunes App Store. We reviewed the first version of the app and its necessary iRig hardware dongle back in July. It’s a worthy and early entrant into the emerging arena for native app-based recording on touch-enabled mobile devices. Version 2 of this iOS app is a free upgrade for previous installs and offers a plethora of new features and functionality. However, not every new component is free in the upgrade. See below for the details on which ones require an additional in-app purchase. New features include: New 4-track recorder with insert effects and 3 master effects (not free) 5 new pedals/effects (not free) New speedtrainer for slowing down/speeding up backing tracks (free) Greatly improved sound with DSP now derived from desktop versions (free) Now backing tracks are imported directly from iTunes on iPhone/iPod (free) New recording export using iTunes shared folders on your computer (free) New recording sending by email (free) New preset naming (free) → Read More
The Boxee Box will hit retailers and livingrooms with in the coming weeks and because of Vudu, it will be a bit more versatile thanks to the addition of Vudu. The service provides 1080p movie streams with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound for a reasonable $2 for two nights of viewing. This isn’t your average HD-lite movie, either. It’s a high-quality stream that will probably satisfy most viewers.
Plus, seeing how it’s owned by Walmart, Vudu tends to have first run movies right away making the Boxee Box a legitimate contender in the media streamer pageant. The service should hit the platform within the coming weeks. It’s not clear if it will launch alongside the Boxee Box, but it will be available this November according to the press release. → Read More
The Vermont Energy Company attracted a $260,000 seed investment a new SEC filing revealed to grow their environmental-minded gas station and convenience store business.
Currently, the company operates a flagship store and four-pump gas station in Burlington, Vermont. According to a company spokesperson, they hope to become a leading supplier of alternative fuels… → Read More
After much hullabaloo, Google and the Federal Trade Commission have kissed and made up. This, only a few days after Google admitted to “accidentally” collecting people’s private data with its Street View cars. Google had promised, in so many words, that it would never do that (collect people’s private data) again, a promise that satisfied the FTC. And, scene. → Read More
Facebook is now allowing you document all of your interactions on the network with particular friends on designated pages. Called ‘Friendship Pages,’ the pages contain all public Wall posts and comments between you and a designated friend, photos in which you are both are tagged, events you’ve RSVP’d to together and more. You’ll be able to see other’s friendship page if you are friends with one of the people and have permission to view both people’s profiles.
The brainchild of Facebook engineer Wayne Kao, Friendship Pages aren’t designed for all of your friends. It’s purpose is mainly for the friends who you interact with most on the network, via wall posts, events, photos and more. → Read More
Facing a dubious IPO and downward pricing pressure, First Wind announced on Thursday that it will put its plans to go public on hold.
The wind energy company, which first signaled its intention to go public way back in 2008, was expected to IPO this week but several analysts and media reports questioned investor demand, citing a heavy debt load, a lack of profitability and broader challenges in the sector.
Amid growing concern, the company dropped its pricing forecast to $18 to $20 on Wednesday— a 25% cut from its previous range of $24 to $26. Now, after shaving its expectations, First Wind is pressing pause on the entire IPO and has not indicated when it will resume plans to go public. → Read More
Make it bigger in case you really want some attention: that’s what Sharp must have thought when they thought of this 330-inch (8.4m) digital signage display. The company announced [JP] this monster will be installed in Tokyo station (one of the biggest stations in Tokyo) tomorrow. → Read More
A mainframe in China running a number of NVIDIA GPUs in parallel just hit 2.5 petaflops, a number that places it in the number one slot in the list of the world’s top 500 supercomputers. The Chinese machine, called Tianhe-1A, looks like it will be the fastest supercomputer for at least six months and experts are suggesting that we could see the waning of the great American supercomputing empire. → Read More
Cloud-based storage and sharing application Box.net is making a big data storage upgrade to its free and paid plans today. The company is increasing the data storage amounts for its personal, business, and enterprise plans.
Box’s personal subscription plans now come with 5GB of free web storage. Box’s business plan is being adjusted slightly so that companies don’t pay by the individual user (businesses were given 15GB per users previously). Now businesses will automatically receive 500GB of data storage, tripling the amount of storage the average business subscriber has access to. Enterprise customers will have access to an unlimited amount of data storage,, says Box.net’s CEO Aaron Levie, allowing companies to manage terabytes of data in the cloud (Box charges enterprise customers $35 per user per month). → Read More
Clearly this Clerc watch has a spacey look. A lot of their more “ambitious” pieces tend to have a style that looks like something out of a sci-fi movie prop bin. This one is actually a bit more down to earth compared to what I have seen in the past. As though Clerc is calming down a bit and realizing the world is looking for more subtle avant garde style cues these days. If you make a watch that looks like a time machine – it better damn operate as one. Wow, I just realized how utterly ironic that statement was. → Read More
Google TV, more an internal project than a real business unit, has been moved under YouTube manager Salar Kamangar. This means little in terms of real change to the platform but it will give Google TV, thus far plagued with refusals by many content providers to allow streaming over the device, a bit more leverage with stations and studios. → Read More
