Japan loves robots, and Japan loves sumo. So what would be more obvious than robot sumo? The so-called FSI Japan Robot-Sumo Tournament recently took place in the Ryogoku hall in Tokyo (where the real sumo wrestlers have their tournaments, too, by the way) – and we have two videos from the finals. → Read More
Skype is still recovering from its massive outage yesterday, but it is getting back to normal. Instant messages still seem to have a delay (anecdotally, I am noticing that I hear the IM ping, but then it is hit or miss whether any message comes through), but voice calls are working fine. I know because I just spoke with CEO Tony Bates over Skype. He estimates that between 16 million and 17 million Skype users, or about 80 percent of the people who would be on the service right now, can use it. “We are bringing folks back on in a controlled manner,” he says.
Bates priority is to get the service back up and running and to make sure Skype does not lose the trust of its users. To rectify that, he is publicly apologizing to them for the downtime and will offer users some sort of credits, with more details on that coming out later today. (Yes, free calls!) This is the right approach, and reminds me of what Netflix does when its streaming movie service goes down (free movies). → Read More
The iPad 2 is slowly being fleshed out and the latest rumor, while it should be filed alongside the claim Elvis made a cameo in Home Alone, is actually believable. This comes from an unnamed Chinese source by way of the Japanese site Macotakara who states the iPad 2 will get a large speaker on the backpanel like the mock-up shows above. But also the second generation iPad will sport the same size screen as the current, but the bezel will be 3mm smaller. → Read More
A Greek website, DigitalLife, has posted a long hands-on with the Alcatel E66, an Android tablet running at 800×460 resolution with a seven-inch screen. Nothing absolutely amazing, but I do love the woman’s voice demoing it. It sounds like a cross between a British Airlines flight safety warning and a mysterious archeologist heroine in a Dan Brown book. → Read More
Japan’s biggest business daily, The Nikkei, is reporting that Sony plans to double its production volume for image sensors used in smartphones and digital cameras. Big S is currently thinking about buying back a semiconductor plant it sold to Toshiba in 2008. → Read More
Grab ringside seats to the death of optical media with one of three new Blu-ray players complete with 1 year of free Redbox rentals. The folks at Redbox, who are running some other kind of concurrent Blu-Ray promotion, want their business model to remain vaguely viable for at least the next few years so they want to ensure that you and yours are enjoying fine Blu-ray entertainment as streaming moves in to eat their lunch. To that end, we must insist that you read on to find out how to win. → Read More
Astronaut Pro Tip: Shave your head before entering zero gravity environments. You’ll feel like Captain Picard (because you’re on a spaceship) combined with the nearly mind-over-body control of Professor Xavier. Plus, you won’t look like a fool on the annual Christmas card. → Read More
When it comes to getting people to watch online videos from media sites, Google is still the largest source of outside traffic. Search drives views. But the second largest source of traffic is not Yahoo, Bing, or another search engine. It is now Facebook. According to a report on Online Video & The Media Industry put out jointly by Tubemogul and Brightcove, Facebook passed Yahoo in the third quarter to become the No. 2 source of traffic to online videos at media sites. (The study measures videos across the Brightcove network, with a focus on newspaper, magazine, broadcaster, brand, and online media sites).
In the third quarter, Facebook shares accounted for 9.6 percent of online video traffic. Google still towers above Facebook with more than 50 percent of the referring traffic coming from search, but that is down from the second quarter when it was above 60 percent. In fact, across all search (Google, Yahoo, and Bing), referral traffic to videos on media sites is down. → Read More
More hints—if you can even call them that—about a possible “PSP phone,” however that manifests itself. Kazuo Hirai, the top gentleman over at Sony Computer Entertainment, has said that if Sony were to create such a device it’d be very important not to confuse people about its capabilities, or even its purpose. “We don’t want gamers to be asking, what’s the difference between that and a PSP,” said Hirai. → Read More
Video: TalkTorque 2 Robot Will Be A Master In Non-Verbal Communication Fly Or Die: The Nexus S, Barbie Video Girl, And AR.Drone (TCTV) Go Back To The Future Doc And Marty With This iPhone 4 Flux Capacitor Decal What I Want For Christmas: A 16:9 iPad They Got Him! Children’s Cancer Ward Console Thief Apprehended → Read More
In the spirit of my trademark watch this morning:
Earlier this week, Apple filed a U.S. trademark for ‘VOICEPASS’, in the ‘Construction and Repair Services’ category. Bloomberg casually mentioned the trademark filing earlier today, as did one iPhone tips and tricks blogger and Patently Apple.
The thing about the trademark is that while it was pretty easy to find out what it is for, I haven’t seen anyone discussing its impact and potential. So here goes. → Read More
Here is a new watch from Marcello C. called the Hydrox. Yes, it does have (a lot) of IWC Aquatimer influence, as well as a few other popular dive watches, but it really is a nice looking re-hash timepiece. The Hydrox will be in steel and 43mm wide. There will be a polished version and a PVD black version. Marcello C. does dive watches really nicely, so I am expecting good things out of this one. → Read More
Skype users has been experiencing a lot of connection problems in the past day or so, as you’ve undoubtedly noticed. The service is now slowly crawling back into the land of the living.
The Skype team has been doing a pretty good job keeping people informed about the problems, although they’ve been unable to say when service will be restored for everyone.
The company has just announced that an estimated 10 million people are now back online, although they’re unable to obtain an exact figure because of the way the software works. → Read More
Oh man, it’s going to be hard not to let my feminist side shine through writing about this topic, but I’ll try my best! Ladieshoesme is a brand new French dating site, launched officially on December 13th, where ladies pick a man as if he were a pair of shoes…literally.
Members essentially have to identify themselves as a pair of shoes on the platform. That means, when you create your profile, you also have to include a picture of your favorite pair of shoes. Don’t have one? Not to worry, the site has a selection you can choose from. Plus, you have to also include some information in your profile regarding shoes and feet – like “For me, shoes are…(fill in)” or “What I really hate to see on someone’s feet is…(fill in).” It’s kind of silly and kind of fun, but does this whole expressing yourself via shoes business really change that much? → Read More
William Albano checks in to tell us that Facebook is blocking all j.mp links in status and page updates (but not profiles). Sure enough, I tried to post a j.mp link in a status update just now, and I got an error notice saying:
“This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy. Let us know if you think this is an error.”
Grab ringside seats to the death of optical media with one of three new Blu-ray players complete with 1 year Redbox subscriptions. The folks at Redbox, who are running some other kind of concurrent Blu-Ray promotion, want their business model to remain vaguely viable for at least the next few years so they want to ensure that you and yours are enjoying fine Blu-ray entertainment as streaming moves in to eat their lunch. To that end, we must insist that you read on to find out how to win. → Read More
When domain name investor and blogger Patrick Ruddell (aka Chef Patrick) came across the name ScienceFiction.com, he couldn’t resist: he dropped $175,000 to buy it.
The domain name had been held back by a finance company called Domain Capital due to a defaulted loan, and Ruddell contacted two sci-fi geek friends to turn it into a business. → Read More
Earlier this year, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported that Microsoft, not just Google, made a serious attempt to acquire business directory and reviews site Yelp. According to “two people involved in the negotiations”, the Redmond software giant even bid as high as $700 million for the company. Yelp instead opted to remain independent, for better or worse.
Google is attacking it with Places and Hotpot.
And now some information has surfaced that indicates Microsoft could be planning a Yelp rival as well. → Read More
In recent months there’s been growing buzz here in Israel around a small startup called The Gifts Project. Today, the startup is announcing a $1 million financing round led by Gemini Israel Funds. This follows a seed investment back in 2009 by Dr. Yossi Vardi.
With The Gifts Project, online retailers will be able to offer groups of people the ability to chip-in and buy a gift together for a mutual friend, colleague, or family member. A pretty simple idea with a promising potential considering social commerce is going gangbusters. → Read More
