Powermat is looking at making an improvement to their tech that would combine the wireless charging capability with near-field communication, allowing for low-bandwidth communications while you charge. Sounds kind of weak at first, but really it’s a good match. They both emphasize that wires are, like, so 2010. → Read More
WTF WTF WTF. Watch this video. This is a real game. German, yes — but nevertheless, real. → Read More
It was only just released, but the Motorola Xoom has already been made moddable by Seattle hacker @koush, who installed his ClockworkMod Recovery ROM manager on the device with no problems. Kind of a 180 after all that hullaballoo about the Droid series having highly protected bootloaders. → Read More
Sony made a surprising announcement today in Spain, saying that all future models of its Alpha line of DSLRs will feature beam-splitting translucent mirrors. This is an alternative to the standard fully-reflective reflex mirror in most DSLRs that swings out of the way to expose the sensor. Instead, the light mostly passes through the mirror and can be captured without waiting for the reflex module to get out of the way. → Read More
Social ads on Facebook are supposed to be cheap. In fact, they are one of the cheapest ads on the Web in terms of cost per thousand impressions. So imagine Facebook advertiser Joshua Niamehr’s surprise when he logged into his Facebook ad campaign and saw the following notice:
There is an outstanding balance of $8,804,978.14 USD on your account. Your ads will not be displayed until your account is settled. Please enter a valid funding source. When you submit that information, we will charge your funding source for $8,804,978.14 USD.
Needless to say, he did not click “Make Payment.” Niamehr’s credit card had expired, which is why his account was delinquent. But his actual outstanding balance was $58.07, not $8,804,978.14. (He was placing ads to market his site LaundryLocal). → Read More
We just got word that the Nikon D4 will be the first DSLR to support Thunderbolt. The rumor became known a few weeks ago, but it wasn’t until the other part of the rumor (the new Macbooks) came out that the Nikon rumor appeared more valid. → Read More
Earlier this week, CrunchGear’s John Biggs sparked controversy (within TechCrunch ranks at least) with a post entitled “Alibaba And The Curse Of Chinese Manufacturing“. In the post Biggs wrote (amongst other things) that…
“Many decry the sad state of American manufacturing but these [Chinese] companies still sell billions in janky garbage that washes up here in huge containers and is sold throughout our 50 great states and, more important, the rest of the developed and developing world.”
Gosh. → Read More
Google made a substantial revision to its search algorithm today, the company says. And while no one in particular is being called out, it’s clear that the big losers are content farms and related spammy-content producers who have been having an absolute field day on Google over the last couple of years.
11.8% of search queries have been “noticeably” updated, says Google – meaning there have been changes in the top 2-3 results.
Google is also making it clear that they have not used user data from a recent Chrome extension they released which lets users block specific sites in Google results that annoy them.
Google is saying they’ve compared the data they’ve collected from that extension to the sites most impacted in the new search rollout. 84% of the most blocked sites via the Chrome extension were impacted, they say. → Read More
With regime change in Tunisia and Egypt, and Libya’s uprising continuing apace, a growing number of commentators are hailing the influence of Facebook and Twitter in helping world-be-revolutionaries coordinate their actions.
Earlier this week, SGN founder and angel investor, Shervin Pishevar tweeted that “Twitter and Facebook are shields against future genocides. Like new antibodies in the body of humanity” – which is pretty damn profound. So profound, in fact, that I brought him into the TechCrunch TV studio to explain himself.
Video below. → Read More
Today in SXSW jockeying … Introduction service Hashable, which has the pretty ambitious goal of ridding the world of business cards, is announcing its Android offering and a slew of features just in time for the Interactive party event to end all Interactive party events, SXSW. In case the message wasn’t loud and clear, its also got a fancy SXSW set up on its site, so I guess its hoping to win the app Super Bowl or some other stupid sports analogy pertaining to being the app with the most SXSW usage.
Aside from it now being available for nerds Android users (I kid! I kid!), the Hashable product team has taken a long hard look at what extra features would be useful to the drunken professionals at the conference and has bulked up its core functions of facilitating introductions through Facebook and Twitter, allowing you to search for them by tag, and plotting your progress on the Hashcred leaderboard. → Read More
Intel’s new Thunderbolt interface, which made its debut this morning in an upgrade to Apple’s MacBook Pro line, may be effectively an Apple exclusive for quite some time, according to Intel. At their press release, held shortly after Apple’s update when live, Intel noted that the developer kit for the interface would be provided to other computer manufacturers this spring, and that they didn’t expect OEMs to ship with Thunderbolt until 2012.
It’s not exactly an exclusive, but it’s close. That’s a pretty big coup for Apple — assuming Thunderbolt catches on faster than USB 3.0, and has no problems and plenty of applications. It’s actually a lot to assume, and although Apple is definitely a winner here, there are also some risks involved. → Read More
If you’re in need of a sexy sleeve for your new Sandy Bridge/Thunderbolt MacBook Pro, you might consider picking up one of these from Acme Made. I reviewed a couple of their bags a while back and I know them to be pretty solid, with nice materials.
These two new entries are available only in Apple Stores, though, so you’ll have to move your feet around to get ‘em. → Read More
Powerline may be one of the most underrated wireless technologies available for the home. Basically, it’s a home networking setup that uses the electrical wiring in your house to connect different devices. And now, Devolo is expanding its line of Powerline AV to include a USB extender, a world’s first. → Read More
Thunderbolt is out, and the Thunderbolt-equipped peripherals are coming fast. LaCie has their Little Big Drive coming this summer, but if you need more than 500GB of space, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere. Pegasus has you covered with their new R6 and R4 direct-attached storage units. Need to have 8TB of storage streaming at 800MB per second? Probably not! But this sucker can do it anyway. → Read More
Storific, the French startup that lets customers place orders in restaurants, bars and hotels via an iPhone, has raised $200k in a seed round financed by Kima Ventures.
The company offers a paid-for subscription service via a browser-based interface where businesses can provide full menus, list their tables and receive notifications from customers ordering by an iPhone. Whilst the consumer-facing iPhone app is, of course, free. → Read More
Madvertise, the Berlin-based mobile ad network, has launched a five million Euro fund for mobile app developers. Only it isn’t really a fund and it certainly isn’t €5m. This one takes a little time to unravel so we’ll save you the effort.
What they’re actually offering is to wave their commission on any ads sold for mobile app developers who apply to the program until a total of €5m in ad revenue has been generated via those apps or until 12 months are up (whichever comes sooner). → Read More
Besides the radical new interface, one of the bigger features of Internet Explorer 9 is its “do not track” feature. At the name suggests, it lets you decide, either manually or by subscribing to a pre-compiled list, which sites you exclude from tracking your Web browsing. So if you visit a site that employs a third-party ad service that tracks your every move—why is that necessary?—you can enable the anti-tracking feature. Try to track me now, jerks! The point is, it’s a handy feature, and it’s one that’s poised to gain greater acceptance. → Read More
ESPN 3D will show this year’s NBA Finals in, yes, 3D. This is the first time the NBA Finals will be in 3D. → Read More
Editor’s Note: The following guest post is by Matthew Prince, CEO of a CloudFlare, which came in as a close runner-up at the last TechCrunch Disrupt. We asked him to give us an update on the startup since Disrupt.
It’s hard to imagine a web performance and security service “going viral,” especially one Mike Arrington described during the Disrupt awards ceremony as “Muffler Repair for the Internet,” but a glance through our Twitter feed gives credence to one of Silicon Valley’s axioms: if you make a great service that solves a real problem, users will come.
And come they have! While I have to confess our engineering team was initially bummed about losing to a demo of a website that could read Wikipedia articles aloud, I’m happy to report that they’ve channeled any frustration into building an incredible service that improves the lives of millions of web users every day. A quick snapshot of the four months since our Disrupt launch: → Read More
Barcelona, Spain
New York City
San Francisco, CA
