You’re now looking at a pair of Nike Air Force 1 sneakers. But these are special in that they have the classic PlayStation logo on them. You’ll be the coolest kid in Long Island City, the new new Williamsburg. → Read More
Google has just acquired voice messaging startup SayNow, according to a blog post on SayNow’s homepage.
SayNow’s platform allows voice messaging, one-on-one conversations, and group calls to be integrated into Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Android, or iPhone applications. The startup has built a number of applications, which have over 15 million users, with this capabilities, including SayNow Phone, SayNow Broadcast, Big Call and Chit Chat. → Read More
Today at the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco, Inside Network’s Justin Smith sat down with Facebook CTO Bret Taylor. The two talked about a bunch of things going on with the company. But to kick things off, Taylor offered up a bit of an overview about how 2010 went with regard to the Platform.
In 2010, Facebook’s focus was on user experience, Taylor said. He noted that while everything we growing “like gangbusters”, they had to do some things that weren’t taken as purely positive from a developer perspective. One big thing there is obviously the removal of what Facebook considers to be spam. “There was a lot of spam,” Taylor noted. But this past year they were able to cut spam by 95 percent. → Read More
Verizon’s still being pretty hush-hush about when they’ll be launching the HTC Thunderbolt, outside of the totally non-specific “sometime in the first half of the year” window they gave us at CES. While it’s by no means concrete, the above listing for some Thunderbolt accessories pulled from Best Buy’s inventory system (as obtained by DroidLife) might narrow that window a bit. According to the inventory, the Thunderbolt accessories should start rolling in around February 19th. Accessories have a tendency of showing up a bit before the actual handsets, but not by too much. The rumor mill’s currently pinning the Thunderbolt launch at the end of February — throw this evidence in, and that’s looking more likely than ever. In the mean time, check out our video demo of the Thunderbolt here. → Read More
Sure, it kind of looks fun, but to quote one commenter, Bullett00th: i’m a fan of MTG and this looks awesome, but i don’t think i’ll be getting it. for me MTG has always been about a round table, a company of friends and a ton of laughs → Read More
3D overkill: If you thought Toshiba’s 20-inch naked-eye 3D TV is cool, think again: Japan’s NICT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology) has developed a projector system [JP] that makes it possible to produce 200-inch 3D pictures that can be viewed without having to wear 3D glasses. → Read More
PeopleBrowsr’s recently launched Twitter analytics and search platform ReSearch.ly is debuting a new feature today: the ability to search from 1,000 days of Twitter data.
ReSearch.ly is essentially a high-powered Twitter search and analytics platform that allows users drill down by keyword, demographic, location, and more. ReSearch.ly also sorts Tweets by sentiment, and by community (i.e. Mommy Bloggers, Reporters). For the past four years, PeopleBrowser has indexed Twitter for social search and as mapped social connections, and today is launching the fruit of these efforts. → Read More
Our Notion Ink Adam pre-order is nowhere to be seen. But that’s okay. I have the Internet and so do you!
Notion Ink’s first tablet started shipping last week and is slowly making its way to anxious owners. Notion Ink curiously curated a crazed following of fans with nothing more than constant blogging from the CEO coupled with swanky user interface screenshots. The company managed to sell out of its first round of pre-orders without even showing a picture of the final product. The first live demo hit days after sales started. Well, those who bought-up the first batch are just getting their tablet now receiving their units and posting their impressions to fan sites and forums. Spoiler: It’s mostly bad news bears. → Read More
Google’s $6 billion bid for Groupon didn’t work out, but it wasting no time preparing its own competing Google Offers local advertising product. The first hints of Google Offers came out last week. Google confirmed it, calling it a “test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program,” but offered no further details.
Well, we have further details, courtesy of Google’s very own search engine. (When PR fails, just Google it). There is a very simple way to get a list of active Google Offers coupons. It is kind of a back door, but if you do a search for “coupons site:maps.google.com intitle:Google Offers,” you can see almost 42,000 results, most of which link to individual active coupons. For example, here is one for a free yoga class in Chicago (Groupon’s home turf) or another one for 50 percent off lunch at a vegetarian restaurant in Watertown, Massachusetts. You can also add an Offers gadget to your iGoogle home page which shows offers near you. → Read More
Wow. Remember a few months ago when thousands of e-mails had leaked from ACS: Law’s computers, ACS: Law being the anti-piracy firm that was tasked with going after illegal file-sharers? Of course you do. Well now it seems that one lawyer from ACS: Law, Andrew Crossley, has given up the fight against said illegal file-sharers, but not for any altruistic reasons: “I have ceased my work…I have been subject to criminal attack. My e-mails have been hacked. I have had death threats and bomb threat,” he said. Nice. → Read More
If you were just all like “That can’t be a monitor!” then you’re wrong! It is a monitor and it’s quite handsome. The Samsung 27-inch 950, shown here, displays 3D content while the cheaper 750 is 2D only. They also come in 23-inch variants and all have 1920 x 1080 resolution with a 2ms refresh rate. → Read More
It isn’t often that I get to write about a smartphone app that’s actually going to save lives. Which is why I’m so excited about this story.
Right now in the San Francisco suburb of San Ramon, California, a press conference is being held to launch a new version of the somewhat generic sounding iPhone application Fire Department. In attendance are Fire Chief Richard Price, International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) President Jack Parow, Workday CEO Dave Duffield (who also cofounded PeopleSoft), and Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media. It’s an interesting mix, and it may be the start of a very important campaign that could save many lives.
Here’s the gist of the app: you launch it, and it prompts you to ask if you’ve been trained in CPR and would be willing to help a stranger in the event of an emergency. If you accept this, then the application will take advantage of the iPhone’s location monitoring to get a general sense of where you are (a new feature enabled with the most recent update allows this with a minimal amount of battery drain). → Read More
Last week, after nearly two years of waiting, Google Voice finally enabled number porting — the highly requested feature that lets you transfer an existing phone number to Google’s powerful telephony service. And then, just as everyone was getting excited, the feature disappeared. But now it’s back.
Turns out last week’s number porting launch was just a test (which is why Google didn’t announce it). Given the logistical hurdles involved it’s not really surprising that Google wanted to kick the tires first, and now it looks like they’re pleased with the results. Google Voice number porting is going live today for all existing accounts, and new accounts will be able to use number porting in the next few weeks. → Read More
Just a quick PSA for all our readers rockin’ the Verizon Fascinate: the recent over-the-air update (DL09) introduced a bit of a nasty bug. You know that little “Emergency Call” button that shows up at the bottom of the screen on the pattern unlock screen, so you can dial 911 without unlocking the handset? Yeah, that button doesn’t work. Samsung’s comment on the matter: It has come to the attention of Samsung Mobile during the recent DL09 OTA (Over-the-Air) update for the Samsung Fascinate that some users utilizing the Pattern Lock are finding that the Emergency Call shortcut is not automatically launching the dialer. However, unlocking the device will allow the user to make calls as they normally would, including emergency calls. We apologize for the inconvenience and are continuing to evaluate the issue, including if the issue is linked to the update. [Via Android Central] → Read More
Bloomberg has an interesting report tonight, but they have the headline all wrong. Apple Plans Service That Lets IPhone Users Pay With Handsets — is technically correct (assuming the report is true, of course), but it completely downplays the potential ramifications of what Apple is apparently attempting to do. If Apple can nail Near-Field Communication (NFC) and tie it directly into their already-established iTunes payment system. It could change everything. It could transform Apple from the biggest technology company in the world, to the biggest company in the world, period. By far.
Granted, that’s a very big “if” in the above statement. And there are many unknowns from this report, which I’m simply extrapolating out. But there’s also a lot that makes sense, if you think about it.
First of all, Bloomberg’s Olga Kharif reports that Apple will build NFC chips into the next iteration of the iPhone. That should be absolutely no surprise — in fact, we reported on it months ago. Plus, given that rival Google has already done this for the Nexus S Android device, it has gone from a no-brainer to a must-do. → Read More
The enterprising boys over at xda-developers are a fun bunch that are generally looked upon as the best modders in the Android community. Their latest exploit ports the Eden interface found on the now-shipping Notion Ink Adam to the Viewsonic gtablet. Funny thing is, I actually trust these forum members to develop the Android overlay more than the original creators at Notion Ink. That’s not hate; that’s the truth. → Read More
The face of a patent troll After winning a hefty $100 million from Echostar/DISH, TiVo decided to sue AT&T/UVerse for patent infringement. Not to be outdone, Microsoft countersued on behalf of AT&T, citing their own patent that describes: a system that displays programmable information and a secure method for buying and delivering video programs. → Read More
Truth be told, I never heard of FRANCK MULLER before, but the (apparently quite famous) watch brand from Switzerland has designed a special case for the iPhone 4 that can now be pre-ordered in Japan. And as FRANCK MULLER is a luxury brand, each case will set you back a cool $1,270 [JP]. → Read More
A little less than a year ago, Google launched its very own app store for enterprise apps, the Google Apps Marketplace. Using a set of APIs, third-party apps could deeply integrate their products within Google Apps and offer these free or paid apps to the productivity suite’s users. For Google, the marketplace was a way to add additional layers and productivity to its business products. Over the past year, the marketplace has grown to include over 200 apps from startups like Zoho, Aviary and Socialwok. Today, Google is creating additional categorization to the app marketplace by adding a new segment for education apps.
Aimed for Google’s 10 million Google Apps for Education users, the category offers over 20 applications from 19 vendors including specialized apps for schools and universities such as social learning game Grockit, grading software LearnBoost, math teaching tool DreamBox, design apps Aviary and more. → Read More
Fast-growing video communication and messaging platform provider Tinychat, which started out with disposable chat rooms back in early 2009, has just raised $1.5 million in funding, TechCrunch has learned.
The startup has confirmed the financing round, a convertible note, which included capital injections from angel investor Naval Ravikant and A-Grade, the investment vehicle of Madonna manager Guy Oseary, actor Ashton Kutcher and billionaire Ron Burkle).
As if that wasn’t enough, Sean Combs (yes, Diddy) also put up some cash, as did other undisclosed individual investors, some of them also famous artists. → Read More
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