File this one under “future toys.” A patent by Microsoft, filed last year and recently made public, describes a system by which a texture or shape could be created by activating micro-tiles built into a display.
These tiny things are light-activated, and could conceivably be used to create a physical keyboard built into the display… but more likely would be used to provide simple feedback or at most braille lettering. → Read More
Industrious Briton Ben Marsh is turning the epic ten inches of snow forecast in the UK this weekend into a way to bring his fellow citizens together. On his site UKSnow, users who tweet about the weather in realtime can now have their location coordinates and snow descriptions plotted on a map, as well as streaming in a sidebar. Many are including photos (like the one above) for an even richer experience. → Read More
Oh Alienware, how could you do this to me? My favorite Alienware sub-compact laptop (the M11x) comes out on sale just when my wife expects me to spend money on gifts for the family. That’s right, the 1GB Nividia driven 335M 15″ gaming laptop that Devin wasn’t a complete fan of, but that was before they fixed the video chipset. The M11x starts at a quite reasonable $599, and then goes up depending on the additional goodies you want to add (like that that Alienware branded backpack). Now how to find $599 without telling the wife. → Read More
It’s Black Friday, which means that many of you woke up this morning at the crack of dawn, shrugged off your Thanksgiving food comas, and made your way to the dreary parking lots of electronic stores across the country. Right about now, you’re probably just waking up from your recovery nap — and there’s nothing better to get your sluggish mind back on track than this week’s episode of OMG/JK.
This week, we talk about The Daily, an iPad-only newspaper from News Corp that will reportedly be launching soon. We also discuss the latest iOS software release, which adds a slew of features to the iPad just in time for the holidays, including the aptly-named AirPlay. → Read More
If you’re looking for the best price on a HTC Surround or LG Quantum, look no further than your local Microsoft Store. They’re giving them away for $0.00 with a new AT&T Contract. If you’re on T-Mobile, you can get an HD7 for $100 with a new contract as well. I’m not sure which is more inviting. The deal is not in fact a Black Friday thing (like the buy-one-get-one-free deal), but lasts through this weekend (until Sunday at 11PM), so if you’re tired out from all that shopping, you’ve got time to relax before heading out for a quick round two. → Read More
Get a jump of Cyber Monday kids, the Roku XD is going on sale today for a quite reasonable $79.99 $63.99. The sale started this morning as 12:00am, and is good though the end of Cyber Monday (11:59 on 11/29). Go pick one up now from the Roku website, and keep in mind that the XD is the model that offers 1080p streaming, enhanced remote, and the addition of WiFi N. Oh, and you can stream content from Netflix, Hulu Plus, NHL, MLB, Pandora, and all of the other custom channels you can get through Roku XD. Note: Due to an overload of cranberry sauce, my math was a bit off of on exactly what the deal was. This has been corrected. Apologies to those who were confused. → Read More
Ten years ago, most VCs refused to invest outside of Silicon Valley. Now, most of them have funds in Israel, Europe, India or China– and lately many of those Chinese funds are outperforming the US counterparts. But August Capital is still sticking with the kind of local venture capital that built this industry, and David Hornik explains why in this week’s episode of Ask a VC.
But, Portland? Yeah he’d invest in a Portland company and answers a reader question about what the local ecosystem needs to do to get his and other venture capitalists’ attention.
Hornik also (sort of) answers one of the best reader questions I’ve gotten in a while: What’s the dumbest investment he’s seen recently in Silicon Valley? (Hint.) → Read More
Remember back in 2008 when there was a lot of talk about how the iPhone would flop in Japan? 91 percent of Japanese would not be buying the device, said one survey. By 2009, that talk inevitably turned to how it had already flopped. With some even writing about how the Japanese people “hate” the device. Then something funny happened. That kind of talk abruptly stopped. And for good reason. As it turns out, the iPhone is actually a massive success in the country.
Much like it did in the U.S., the iPhone is transforming the mobile landscape in Japan. Two stories today highlight this. The first, talks about the Japanese iPhone “craze” and details how app developers are rushing to get into the potentially huge market for Japanese iPhone apps. The second story notes how NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile carrier, is turning to marketing to make up for the fact that they don’t have the iPhone (it’s sold there by rival Softbank). Marketing involving yes, Darth Vader. → Read More
Well at least one former Digg engineer out there that had a happier Thanksgiving. We’ve gotten word that John Quinn, former Digg VP of Engineering, will be joining luxury discount marketplace Gilt Groupe as VP of Engineering come next Monday. Quinn will be working in the Gilt Groupe New York office under CIO Steve Jacobs.
Prior to Gilt Groupe, Quinn had spent three years at Digg and before that was VP of Engineering at Squaretrade. According to our sources, Quinn was instrumental in the Digg v4 redesign and its problematic move over to a Cassandra versus MySQL database. → Read More
It’s been less than one month since Facebook launched its new deals service on top of its still-nascent Places platform. But that hasn’t stopped it from lining up some of the US’s biggest brands in time for the holiday season. A few minutes ago, the social network posted a note that shows just how many companies have already climbed on board to offer deals over the holidays. Note that some of these have already been announced (including the charitable Southwest Deal that donates $1 per check-in to the Make-a-Wish Foundation), but seeing them in one place makes it easier to gauge how much traction the feature is getting.
So why is this important? As we’ve discussed before, these location services are in a race to snap up deals with as many national brands as possible, in addition to the longtail of local businesses. → Read More
Just in case you’re unaware of our affection for singer/songwriter Jonathan Mann, see here, here, here, here, or here. But the relationship didn’t start out so friendly. Initially, we ripped him for the Bing jingle song he wrote to win a competition. And Mann responded by writing a song about me. But it’s all good. We’re BFF now. And Mann keeps cranking out the hits. Now he’s trying to see if his song-a-day success can transfer to an iPhone app.
Songatron is an app that Mann and developer Iliya Yordanov dreamed up so that anyone could have fun with the songs Mann writes on a daily basis. Essentially, it’s a lot like Mab Libs, but for music. You load up the app, say a word, and pick a song you want to apply it to. The song then plays (complete with Mann singing and playing the music) with your word inserted in key points. → Read More
It looks like we can expect some more leaks from Wikileaks in the next few days. The site, which has had quite the year, is expected to release information that could “embarrass” certain foreign governments by exposing their less-than-noble actions. Turkey aiding al Qeada in Iraq? The US supporting the PKK in its efforts against Turkey? It’s a diplomatic nightmare! → Read More
HopeLab is a nonprofit video game lab founded by Pam Omidyar, wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. That’s right, I said non-profit video game lab. It seeks to make the world better through video games, and it’s hoping it has a new hit on its hands with Zamzee. Zamzee combats sedentary behavior by giving kids and teens points for moving more throughout the day and those points can be used to buy virtual goods or exchange for gift cards.
Early research shows a whopping 30% jump in activity when people play Zamzee– the equivalent of running a marathon every month. HopeLabs has decided to spin the game out into a for-profit company to help commercialize the game faster. Richard Tate of HopeLabs joined us via Skype to talk about the game that may be a solution if your kids ate too much Turkey yesterday. → Read More
Still waiting on the edge of your seat for a Symbian^3 device worth buying that truly blows your mind? Take a gander at the puppy up above, folks; if nothing else, the fact that it looks like it’s from Space should garner it a few months. That’s the X7-00, which the rumor mill is sayin’ ought to be the next shiny electronic horse out of Nokia’s Symbian^3 stable. There’s a video floating around the web, but it doesn’t seem to be lasting very long on any one mirror. Watch it after the cut before it’s gone! → Read More
Social products are an interesting bird. For even the most experienced product designer, social products prove an elusive lover. While there are many obvious truths in social products, there are also alot of ways to design them poorly. Especially when you are deep in the moment making pixel-level decisions trying to remember what’s important, things may not be so clear.
The only magic I’ve found in designing compelling social products that have the best shot at breaking through the noise and capturing people’s time and money is in being extremely clear on how your social product meets a few key design principles. → Read More
Well here’s something to freak you out as you brave the Black Friday crowds today. (Remember: Matt wrote a nifty little survival guide for today’s insanity.) A local TV station in Florida has warned its viewers to be on the lookout for so-called electronic pickpockets. Using “a credit card scanner attached to a battery pack,” an evildoer can quite easily obtain sensitive credit and debit card information—without you even knowing! Yes: it’s yet another warning about the dangers of RFID. → Read More
Every year, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) releases a hit list of the best robots the country has produced and gives their makers an award. And yesterday, the METI announced who will get the Robot Awards in 2010 [JP]. What follows is a list of all the robots that made the list. → Read More
CAT IS NOT FOR SALE Our good friend Phil Torrone sent us this list of cool homebrew deals on Chumby devices, Adafruit boards, and other goodness. Fist, you’ve got some Chumby-powered devices that are actually little Linux PCs. The Infocast, for example, is $129 on Best Buy. This thing has an 800MHz processor and small screen and can be used either as a little info monitor or as a fully-fledged Linux device. → Read More
Get thee to the Applery! Apple’s Black Friday deals are now up and you can grab: $101 off Macs including the iMac, MacBook Air, and MacBook $41 off of the iPad and the iPod Touch $21 off of the iPod Nano Free shipping on all Apple goodness A few more deals after the jump. → Read More
Welcome to Death/Star, a new show we are testing on TechCrunch TV. It’s a product review show with a twist. My co-host, CrunchGear editor John Biggs, and I give our opinions on three hot products. In the inaugural episode we cover the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tablet, photo-sharing app Instagram, and the Boxee Box.
To spice things up, we try to go beyond the traditional thumbs up/thumbs down to predict whether each product will end up in the graveyard (in which case we mark it for death) or become a bona fide hit (in which case we give it a star). Hence, the name: Death/Star. A surprise guest appears at the end and punks Biggs (the look on his face is classic). → Read More
