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
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
If your Windows Phone 7 handset was one of the unfortunate few that got bricked by Microsoft’s little-update-that-couldn’t, you’re going to want to get that fixed quick. At the very latest, you’re going to want to have things all patched up by April 6th. Why? Because it’s Angry Birds Time! Update: Maybe not. More after the jump. → Read More
Following the Thunderbolt-centered Intel and Apple announcements, we fully expect that the accessory makers will be coming in droves to support the new protocol. LaCie was among the early adopters of USB 3.0 when that was new, and so it’s no surprise that they’re in the front line with supporting Thunderbolt. Their first entry is this Little Big Disk, featuring the new connector and SSDs on the inside. → Read More
I have the Motorola Xoom here in my hot little hands and I put it through its paces over the past few days and I’d love to demonstrate and explore the device with your questions in mind. What I’m planning is a 12pm Eastern/9am Pacific LIVE STREAM for one hour TOMORROW Friday, February 25, answering the questions you have about the device and going through some of the screens. You’ll also be able to ask me questions via chat and Twitter. → Read More
Repost: This post got buried after going live yesterday and since it’s more important than silly new Macs, it desevers a bit more time on the front page.
Tomorrow Today will be the last time the space shuttle Discovery launches into orbit. And, we’ve got the places for you to watch it all go down live. → Read More
Remember MySpace Music? It was supposed to put online music streaming on the the right track. But with all the layoffs, shrinking audience and turmoil at parent MySpace, MySpace Music is singing the blues. According to comScore, only 17 million people in the U.S. visited MySpace Music in January, 2011, which is down 46 percent from the previous year. Pandora is now bigger on the Web, with an estimated 20.3 million monthly U.S. visitors.
Today, MySpace Music president Courtney Holt is stepping down. He joined two years ago from MTV. But with MySpace itself on the wane and Rupert Murdoch looking to unload it, MySpace Music can no longer hold its own. → Read More
