Hot off of the presses from CENS, comes news that Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Co., Ltd (now the largest electronic manufacturing service IN THE WORLD) will ship a CDMA version of the iPhone to Apple come 2011. The manufacture of the device has reportedly been split evenly with Hon Hai’s buddy Pegatron, who will cease his duties saving the planet from evil robots, just so you can enjoy an iPhone on an operator other than AT&T. He’s such a great guy, Pegatron. Speaking of operators, the article also states that “Apple will launch the phone in early 2011 in cooperation with a couple of telecom companies as Verizon and China Telecom”. So there you have it, more fire for the rumour that is the Verizon iPhone. Not long now, it seems. Not long now… Hon Hai are planning to ship 15 million units in 2011, but between his helping old ladies cross the street and destroying ninja-bots, Pegatron expects to only ship 10 million. [via Mac Daily News] → Read More
When can you really declare your game a smash hit? When it cracks through 10 million downloads? Eh. When you’ve got a full line of plush toys coming based on its characters? Sure, I guess that’s alright. But here’s the real challenge: dig your game deep enough into the hearts and minds of your fans that you’ve got people dressing up like the characters for Halloween. With that in mind: Congratulations, Angry Birds. You’ve (sling)shot your way into a VIP area generally reserved for the likes of Master Chief, Mario, Samus, and other gaming legends. That’s right: you’ve got cosplayers. → Read More
You know, it’s one thing to use subjective and entirely unscientific terms like “feels” or “seems” when it comes to reviewing computers, but there’s something to be said about actually running benchmarks and comparing the numbers to other comparable computers. Numbers don’t lie. So kudos to MacWorld for actually taking the time to see just how impressive, or not, the new MacBook Air is. → Read More
Yesterday, both the New York Times and Robert Scoble unveiled publicly for the first time what a company called Kiha Software has been working on for about three years in stealth now: a piece of software called Aro Mobile. With $20 million in backing from the likes of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, they’re obviously getting a lot of buzz. And that should continue when they fully show the system off in a few weeks at Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. But for now we have a video sneak peak of it in action, and 1,000 exclusive beta invites for TechCrunch readers to try out the software themselves.
So what is Aro? Currently, it’s a piece of software that runs on top of Google’s mobile Android OS. But it’s not just another layer like some of those awful skins that OEMs design for Android. Instead, it weaves itself into the OS and uses AI and machine intelligence to make sense of what you’re doing with your phone. It natively ties into your email, phone, calendar, address book, and browser to make them potentially much more useful to you when you’re on the go. → Read More
Like other hot startups there is a healthy secondary market ecosystem for Twitter stock. The current street value of a share of any series of Twitter stock? At least $7 per share, say multiple sources with knowledge of transactions. With 225 million shares outstanding after a three for one stock split earlier this year, that’s a $1.575 billion valuation.
There aren’t nearly as many early Twitter employees with sizable amounts of stock to sell compared to Facebook, but the demand is there for those that are in the market. There are even a few funds that have been created with the sole purpose of buying stock from Twitter employees and investors, and the Twitter board of directors generally doesn’t interfere by exercising its right of first refusal.
The $7/share valuation is generally considered the “fair” price for larger transactions of at least $1 million. Smaller transactions, which can attract a more robust number of potential buyers, are sometimes closing at higher valuations, we’ve heard. → Read More
Sencha is making a big bet on HTML5. The company, which was formerly known as Ext JS, raised a hefty $14 million round led by Sequoia Capital in June. Since then it has been perfecting its HTML5 framework Sencha Touch — a framework that lets you build mobile web apps for iOS and Android that feel almost native and are also cross-platform. And today, the company is adding another big addition to its product suite: Sencha Animator.
If you’ve used Flash before, Animator should be fairly easy to pick up. It’s a tool for creating CSS3-based animations that will work on WebKit browsers — drag a few objects and images onto the screen, set up some keyframes, and you should be off and running. → Read More
Lomography’s latest camera is a bite-sized guy with a panoramic lens and, of course, manual film advance. It’s called the Sprocket Rocket, and it’s about as simple as cameras get these days. The lens is extra-wide-angle to capture extra-full-bleed on the film (i.e. you can print the sprocket holes and numbering), and there are two knobs, for forward and backward film scrolling. → Read More
It’s very apparent within seconds of sitting in the 2011 Ford Edge Sport that it’s different. It feels like the future. There are two LCD screens flanking a lovely analog speedometer, flush mounted inductive-type controls on the center stack and of course, a large infotainment screen. It’s like a car from the future! (It’s not) Inside is the latest generation of Ford’s in-vehicle system. Dubbed MyFord Touch, it’s reach and capabilities are unlike nearly anything else in the same price range. But this system isn’t just stuck in the center stack, tasked with the job of controlling the climate and radio. The MyFord Touch is also in the dash cluster in the form of two LCD screens. This is where it gets interesting and validates its place in Ford’s future. → Read More
This morning Pinterest co-founders Ben Silberman, Paul Sciarra and Yashwanth Nelapati woke up to a barrage of tweets, “So @myspace has completely ripped off @pinterest. It really pisses me off when an old, tired hack tries to undermine hardworking inovators. [sic]“Myspace revealed its new redesign last night and Pinterest users quickly picked up on the similarities between the two site aesthetics, leading to an intense Twitter debate. → Read More
Once again, mad props to Ron & Fez for bringing the following story to my attention. It’s called Bear Scratch, and it pretty much makes the new MacBook Air look like a pile of garbage cans. Bonus: the guy in the video is Balloon Dad. Surely you remember that Balloon Boy nonsense? → Read More
Earlier today, Apple’s 10-K form was released for their 2010 fiscal year. The long document is full of tidbits about the state of Apple’s business. One thing of note is just how much Apple ramped up their advertising spending in 2010.
For 2010, the company’s advertising costs were $691 million. That’s up from $501 million last year. And it’s the first huge jump for Apple in recent years. In 2008, for example, they spent $486 million. And in 2007, they spent $467 million. In other words, in previous years, the ramp up in ad spending has been about $15 to $20 million. This past year? A $190 million jump. → Read More
How much do you love Star Wars? Enough to stick Yoda or Darth in your ears? I thought so. → Read More
Yahoo has hired Ross Levinsohn, the former President of Fox Interactive Media, as EVP America’s Region, we’ve confirmed. AllThingsD first broke the news that he was close to taking the job.
Levinsohn will replace Hillary Schneider. Yahoo announced Schneider’s departure last month.
Levinsohn will take control of Yahoo’s Americas business, including content, advertising and partnerships. Some 2,000 employees will report into his organization.
This is also the first high profile executive hire at Yahoo since bringing in Chief Product Officer Blake Irving earlier this year. → Read More
Want an alternative to the Amazon Kindle/Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader duopoly? Kobo is always a choice, and now there’s word that you can newspapers and magazines on there, “there” being the Kobo Wireless eReader device as well as the iOS Apps. → Read More
At the beginning of this year, I was very excited. You see, at Google’s launch event for the Nexus One, they made one thing clear: they were going directly after the dominating carrier lock-in model that had held everyone in the U.S. captive for years. Then Google chickened out. And things are now getting just as bad as they have ever been. Unless Apple has the cojones to do what Google wouldn’t, that is.
To be clear, the report today from GigaOM’s Stacey Higginbotham isn’t about the U.S. She notes that Apple is working alongside SIM-card manufacturer Gemalto to make a built-in hardware SIM card that could work with many carriers across Europe. Essentially, this would allow customers to jump from carrier to carrier as a better deal came along or as they were traveling without having to swap SIM cards. → Read More
CRM and cloud giant Salesforce.com is shelling out $170 million to fully acquire its Japanese subsidiary, Salesforce Japan, from VC firm SunBridge and other stockholders. The subsidiary was formed in 2000 as a joint venture between Salesforce and SunBridge. Until now, Salesforce has the majority control (with 73 percent) but is purchasing all outstanding shares from the VC firm and other stockholders. Salesforce says the joint venture agreement has subsequently been terminated with the acquisition.
It appears that the reasoning behind the move is financial. Salesforce says that Jaapan is the largest revenue contributor in Asia Pacific for Salesforce, and “acquiring full ownership in Salesforce Japan allows Salesforce.com to further benefit from the growth in the Japanese cloud computing market and integrate and align its financial and operational functions.” In the first half of 2010, Asia Pacific sales accounted for 14 percent of Salesforce.com’s revenue, which is an 11 percent increase from the same period in 2009. → Read More
Since the Yankees are not in the World Series this year, my allegiance shifts to the San Francisco Giants. And, yes, while I may be a fair-weather baseball friend, I am willing to go to bat for my new favorite team, at least through this series. What better way to show my support than to “beardify” my Facebook photo with the Brian Wilson Beardifier app? (You can become a fan of his beard on Facebook too).
Brian Wilson is the Giants relief pitcher with the 95 mph fastball and pitch-black beard. He intimidates his opponents, who have learned to “fear the beard.” → Read More
In typical hyperbolic Apple style, the company has just announced the launch of Apple.com.cn, the Chinese hardware as well as the Chinese version of the “legendary” App Store (yes, they actually used “legendary.”) The store includes all the standard goodies like engraving and Mac customization. → Read More
Americans exporting renewable energy resources to the Middle East? It’s not opposite day.
A Mountainview, Calif. company, SolFocus, announced a deal with a major construction company in Saudi Arabia— Advanced Vision Electro Mechanical Company (a.k.a. Vision) — that is building a new, commercial solar power plant in Bahra.
The plant will be the first in Saudi Arabia to use concentrator photovoltaic solar power systems, or CPVs according to a joint press release from SolFocus and Vision. In general, CPV systems consist of solar cells and optics that concentrate sunlight onto the cells increasing their power output… → Read More
Let’s face it: Call of Duty: Black Ops will sell more than a few copies. ¡Gran día! In fact, Amazon tells me that the incoming data indicates the game is being pre-ordered at such a pace that it has overtaken other big media items, including Halo: Reach and Red Dead Redemption. It’s even outpacing the DVD release of Michael Jackson: This Is It. Michael Jackson was a famous musician, I think → Read More
