According to a recent comScore report, Canada has beaten out the US, the UK, France, and everyone else in the world in various metrics relating to broadband and internet use. While the conspicuous absence of the likes of Sweden, a perennial leader in these categories, fills me with suspicion, the numbers are still fun, and slightly surprising.
One statistic calculated to both please and terrify is that, by comScore’s measurements, just over half the population of Canada is on Facebook. That amounts to about 16 million people — a drop in the bucket with Facebook’s user base — but it’s the proportion that matters. US usage is around 40% by some estimates, which is of course significant, but it’s fun that Canada has passed us up in this race. I’m guessing it has something to do with the weather up there. → Read More
Fire up the funeral march, folks. This morning, another device has joined the Microsoft Kin on the ultra exclusive list of devices that were both born and killed off in 2010: the Clear iSpot. Total lifespan: 147 days. The device had a simple enough (if a bit wonky) premise: it would act as a 4G-fueled WiFi hotspot… but only for Apple’s iOS devices, like the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. That limitation wasn’t too bad though, given that the device itself would only set you back around $100 bucks, and the unlimited monthly plan was only $25 — plus, you could totally hack out those limitations with nothing more than 30 seconds and a fistful of Google-Fu. Clear’s not saying exactly why they’re killing it off (the hackability, perhaps?), but have said that once the retail stores run out of their current inventory, these things are gone (outside of a small batch kept aside for warranty replacements). If you want one, you best get to your nearest Clear dispensary on the quick! [Via Engadget] → Read More
I’ve never really liked the idea of satellite internet access, maybe because of the limited uplink, but I’m lucky enough to have lived in an urban area most of my life, and have the option of high-speed cable and DSL. There are cities, towns, and regions all over the world where satellite is the only way to get more than a few hundred bits per second, and demand is going up.
European company Eutelsat has just launched a new high-capacity satellite that they say could provide high-speed internet to 20 million Europeans. Welcome to the future! → Read More
The Chicago based Centro has just raised a whopping $22.5 million (rounded up) in equity only funding from FTV Capital in order to expand its sales force and bolster its digital media buying software Transis. Listed on the SEC form are Centro CEO Shawn Riegsecker and FTV Capital Partner Eric Byunn who will be joining the board as director.
Centro is a digital media and technology services company founded in 2001, serving over 350 ad agencies world wide . The company’s recently launched platform Transis automates and centralizes the media buying and selling process across 10,000 national and local sites. Transis has already been adopted by more than 50 top ad agencies including Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Boelter + Lincoln and Burrell Communications Group. → Read More
A proposed French law (well, an expansion of an existing law) has supporters of Android and other non-Windows operating systems slightly upset. The law would make it so that France’s private copying levy applies to all non-Windows tablets, that is, Android tablets and the iPad. The private copying levy was first introduced several years ago and adds a “copying fee” to several forms of recordable media, including blank audio CDs and portable media players of a certain size. The question becomes, what’s so special about Windows-based tablets that would exempt it from the law? → Read More
Back in October, we heard from Amazon that Kindle users (on all platforms) would soon be able to lend their books to each other. It was one of the features the Kindle lacked that Barnes & Noble really liked to shove in consumers’ faces, but as of today that’s no longer a problem. The loan program is now live, and the process looks pretty simple. → Read More
Some of these are pretty good. AT&T, for example, genuflecting at the feet of Steve Jobs to ensure the iPhone remains exclusive to them (fat chance). → Read More
According to a recent comScore report, Canada has beaten out the US, the UK, France, and everyone else in the world in various metrics relating to broadband and internet use. While the conspicuous absence of the likes of Sweden, a perennial leader in these categories, fills me with suspicion, the numbers are still fun, and slightly surprising.
One statistic calculated to both please and terrify is that, by comScore’s measurements, just over half the population of Canada is on Facebook. That amounts to about 16 million people — a drop in the bucket with Facebook’s user base — but it’s the proportion that matters. US usage is around 40% by some estimates, which is of course significant, but it’s fun that Canada has passed us up in this race. I’m guessing it has something to do with the weather up there. → Read More
I’ve often wondered if the early Web pioneers had it all to do over again if Web companies would have put less of an emphasis on free.
People have been conditioned against paying for services or content on the Web, and the Web elite only have each other to blame. For all the talk of Web companies getting users first and “figuring out” how to make money later, the only two jaw-droppingly, multi-billion-dollar, innovative new ways to advertise online have been Google’s paid search ads and Groupon’s solution to unlocking local ad dollars on a mass scale. Those who win big–like Google– just perpetuate the cult of free content and services as a way of spoiling would be competitors. Witness a big disconnect between popularity and money. Exhibit A: Yahoo.
But on the mobile Web it’s a do-over, and it’s a totally different playbook from FREE! → Read More
There’s a new threat in town. And by town, I mean China. Malware authors have created a bit of code called Geinimi that hitchhikes on existing apps when they are redistributed on third-party markets. At the moment it doesn’t do much but lurk, but its capabilities resemble that of a botnet server, according to Lookout, a company that makes antivirus software for Android. → Read More
Darn shame that none of us thought to attend the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin. Why cover fun stuff, right? Thankfully PSGroove made it out there, and came away with video of a video game console security discussion. The Wii has been “broken” (hackable, in other words) pretty much since Day One; the Xbox 360 has been hackable for a few years now (JTAGing is the way to go these days); and the PS3′s security is dead as disco. This, despite all of Sony’s huffing and puffing, particularly with regard to its stance toward Linux. In other words, Sony’s security can now be considered an “epic fail.” Note to self: do not get on the Linux’s community’s bad side. → Read More
We’ve reported before about how the escalating war for talent in Silicon Valley is effectively creating a kind of arms race between tech companies.
For example, Google is offering employees a 10% pay increase for 2011; companies like About.me are getting acquired days after launch; and job postings in the IT industry are shooting to astronomical levels. Even Google’s Eric Schmidt has admitted to this battle.
Facebook, Google, Zynga and Twitter are hiring like crazy – and this insatiable desire for staff is likely to spill over into other countries. And perhaps the obvious first target outside of the Valley is London: English speaking, and a magnet for existing tech people in Europe working for US multinationals. And the latest to consider extending its reach there is Twitter. → Read More
Give this video demo a chance. The first part looks a little antiquited — almost like an old version of MS Streets & Trips — but the party begins once the route is executed and the virtual trip is started. It seems Mireo traditionally only does European mapping and mainly in their home country of Croatia, but perhaps the mapping software is compatible with other provider’s maps. Still, if nothing else, it shows that Adam is capable swanky software outside of the homebrew apps. → Read More
CNNMoney published an interesting piece by David Goldman this morning entitled, Google: Your new phone carrier? In it, Goldman lays out what he sees as the preliminary steps Google has taken to become a wireless carrier themselves down the road. He also gives some reasons for why they would and would not want to do that. In my mind, the concept is much more straightforward. Goldman ends the title of his piece with a question mark — but it should be a period.
It’s not a question of “if” Google will try to become a carrier. It’s just a matter of “when” they’ll try to.
Now, to be clear, that doesn’t mean I think they’ll actually be able to become a carrier. The biggest hurdle there has nothing to do with the technology needed, the money needed, or the expertise. Rather, the major issue would be the government. Would they allow Google, already one of the biggest corporations in the United States, to enter a new area that could extend their control (particularly in the advertising space)? Probably not. Actually, I have a feeling it might have more to do with Verizon and AT&T lobbying dollars influencing the government to block Google in such a cause. → Read More
It seems, at least at first blush, that we are out of the slimy gullet and into the potentially less dangerous teeth of this recession. Joblessness is still high but folks I know who are working in IT and CS are in high demand. People are hiring, but not out in the open, and shoppers, as evidenced by this year’s holiday season, have a little bit of cash. But CE manufacturers, back in 2008, pulled into their turtle shells and haven’t come out. The past few years have passed in a slothful haze and I’m worried that 2011 will be another year of negative innovation.
Consider what happened this year: we saw a load of Android phones, we saw an iPad and a new iPhone, and saw some tablets. That’s it. 3D TV was a flop, most other product lines saw little or no improvement, and generally CE industry sat this year out. CES, if all portents can be believed, will be a bust as well.
People ask me every year what my favorite gadget is. That’s almost impossible to answer. Sadly, for me, it’s like asking a proctologist about his favorite patient: they all sort of blend together and none of the experiences are very nice. So what is my favorite gadget? The gadget that truly stood out?
It’s the freaking Parrot AR.Drone. That’s right. A toy. Here’s why, and here’s what manufacturers can take away from this toy. → Read More
Developer Roberto Martinez wanted an easy way to see what was popular on any given social content site on any given day so he built Rrrewind, which lets you see what was hot on Delicious, Digg, Hacker News, Reddit, Hulu, Yahoo Videos, YouTube, Dribbble, Flickr, Amazon and Yahoo Buzz for any day in 2010 and some in 2009.
Like a snapshot in virality or a Popurls with a history focus, Rrrewind allows you to go back in time and see an archive of the most viewed items on the Internet. Says Martinez, “It is NOT a social, local, deal related, disruptive app, just a damn useful site that let you go back in time and see what was popular on some sites. I built it because I hate to miss hot stuff on Delicious (snif), Hacker News, etc.” → Read More
2010 was a great year if your name was Amazon (whereas it was merely an average year if your name was Roy Hodgson). The new Kindle seems to have done quite well for itself, and now there’s word that people were quite happy with Amazon during the holidays. A new report from ForeSee Results shows that Amazon earned itself an 86 (out of 100) in customer satisfaction this holiday season. That’s the top of the heap, mind you: it, along with Netflix, were the two most satisfying electronic retailers of the season. → Read More
TechCrunch50 demopit company Image Space Media (formerly Picad Media) has raised $1 million in new funding according to an SEC filing.
ISM’s ad network, which recently launched an analytics offering and a self service tool, helps publishers monetize images on their websites with ad overlays. Its proprietary technology allows for audience targeting and matches ads to the most appropriate images available. → Read More
Trusting in TorrentFreak’s numbers, Call of Duty: Black Ops was the most downloaded (read: pirated) game of 2010. You probably could have predicted that, but there’s something far more interesting in the Xbox 360 numbers, and it’s that Black Ops was only the fifth most pirated game of the year. The number one Xbox 360 game on this ignominious list is Dante’s Inferno. That’s an odd one. → Read More
