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
The Motion Picture Association of America says [PDF] the movie industry had its biggest year ever last year. This, despite the fact that folks like the “US Copyright Group” have gone after people for ruining said industry. Down is up, black is white, and the New York Mets are a well-run organization. → Read More
The following probably only applies to people with plenty of extra cash laying about. It’s the Arcade Tables Stealth, a home arcade table that’s loaded up with 60 games. The Germans designed it, so at the very least you know the build quality is solid. → Read More
Though you’re probably hearing about it for the first time now, Intel’s been working on a new interconnection technology for the last few years. “Light Peak”, as it was called up until it was rebranded “Thunderbolt” today, promises a new world of screaming-fast data transfers. The claims are spectacular: 10 gigabit per second transfers (both upload and download!), dual protocol support, and power over the cable. Light Peak… excuse me, Thunderbolt, is truly the interconnect of the future.
The technology launched today on Apple’s latest MacBook Pros, but Apple is just one of a bunch of companies with plans to support Intel’s technology. Thunderbolt devices will slowly trickle out of major industry players over the coming year.
It’s going to be an uphill battle for the standard — the USB horde won’t go without a fight. If you’re going to throw your support behind just one camp in this silly battle (first person to get a Thunderbolt tattoo wins!), you may want to give Thunderbolt a long look. It’s good. → Read More
Outdoor Technology has just come out with some dog-tag-like Bluetooth headphones called OT Tags. You can get them in either black or red and when not in use they hang down like dog tags – see what I mean? The Bluetooth headset offers stereo listening from any Bluetooth device and if the connected device is a phone, then you can also make and receive calls. → Read More
Glam Media, one of the largest publishing and advertising networks on the Web, is revealing its third branded content channel today: health-focused Bliss. Bliss, which will be a content hub of health and wellness sites, joins male-focused vertical Brash and womens entertainment, style and fashion channel Glam.com. Glam’s networks currently have a total reach of 90 million people a month in the U.S and 200 million monthly visitors globally.
Glam says that traditional health and wellness sites (i.e. WebMD) have more narrowly focused on more medical and condition-related topics and are missing the opportunity to reach a wider audience with the prevention and wellness angle. Bliss’ content will include information about diet and nutrition, empowerment, alternative healing, green living, exercise, fitness, parenting, pregnancy and more. → Read More
It really is kind of amazing that Instagram has shot past two million users in just a few months with only an iPhone app. No Android app, no website, no real third-party support. But starting today, that changes as they’re finally ready to unveil their API. And they already have some pretty nice implementations right off the bat to show what it can do.
Co-founder Kevin Systrom says that it would have been easy enough for them to implement a simple API early on, but they didn’t want to do that (that’s why you may have heard about one developer getting unofficial access shut off). Instead, Instagram decided they wanted to make an API that was both massively scalable and provided a realtime feed of everything going on across the service. Today, they’re unveiling this realtime API for four different elements of Instagram: user photos, tags, locations, and geographies. → Read More
Launching today is 140Fire.com, a Y Combinator-backed platform that allows advertisers, publishers, and media buyers to create interactive ad content and polls to overlay on streaming or pre-recorded video.
What does this mean? As you can see in the image above, 140Fire’s real-time editor allows BMW (in this case) to create and serve questions based on what’s happening in the video. Here, in the depths of March Madness, Brian Zoubek has just stepped to the line to shoot a few free throws, so the ad asks viewers “how many free throws will he make?”
Like most video ads, the ads will appear as a small bar on the bottom of the screen, but unlike those of its ilk, they allow viewers to remain in the content, answering polls while continuing to watch the video. According to Founder Jason Wilk, this allows brands to collect data on what viewers are thinking in real-time and monetize those high-interest points in video content. 140Fire can then serve up post-roll ads based on viewers’ responses to the polls. → Read More
This year marks SteelSeries 10th anniversary, and the accessory maker has decided to celebrate by giving away a fair number of prizes. It is, in fact, the largest such giveaway in SteelSeries’ history. How do you enter, and what do you stand to gain? → Read More
Last time we checked in with PayPal, it, along with MasterCard, Visa and others had blocked its services with regards to donations to WikiLeaks foundation.
Today it is being reported that PayPal has taken further action against another WikiLeaks-related fund, in freezing the account of the Courage To Resist foundation which, in conjunction with the Bradley Manning Support Network, gives donations to the Bradley Manning legal defense fund.
In a phone call earlier today, PayPal representative Anuj Nayar told me that this action is not WikiLeaks related and that PayPal has only temporarily restricted the fund, “This has nothing to do with WikiLeaks.” → Read More
Would you like to be a Product Lead for TechCrunch? How about a Sales Marketing Manager? Maybe an Executive Assistant? We have positions open and we are currently looking for qualified applicants. If you would like to work for TechCrunch, please find current job listings below: → Read More
Vizio has been one of the top selling LCD brands the last few years. It seems Vizio and Samsung are constantly leap-frogging one another as the top dog. Well, Vizio’s back on top. The company just posted an iSuppli report indicating the brand reached a 18% shipping marketshare for all of 2010 in North America and a 21% level for just the US. Both Vizio and Samsung saw increased shipments while Sony’s numbers fell. It was Vizio that saw the largest increase therefore claiming the title back from Samsung. It’s good to be king. → Read More
Samsung just can’t catch a break this week when it comes to updates. First the Windows Phone 7 update mysteriously bricks a bunch of Samsung handsets, and Microsoft pretty much lays the blame on Samsung’s lap. Now they’re having issues with getting the Sprint Epic 4G updated to Froyo. → Read More
Sony is said to be working on a “hack-proof” PS3. So saysa rumor attributed to an anonymous source—the best kind of rumor, of course. The new PS3 would replace all currently existing PS3 SKUs. Whether or not the new SKU sees the light of day depends on how Sony’s lawsuit against George “Geohot” Hotz fares. → Read More
Today, social fundraising platform Fundly announced that it had closed a $2 million seed funding round led by a group of Silicon Valley investors. Using AngelList, a marketplace that makes it easy for startups to connect with angels, Fundly assembled a laundry list of reputable investors, including Mitch Kapor and Stephen DeBerry of Kapor Capital, Trevor Kienzle of Correlation Ventures, George Zachary of Charles River Ventures, and Jeff Fluhr of AngelHub.
Fundly, formerly known as BlueSwarm, adds to the $800,000 it raised back in July from a group of individual investors, including Harvard Business professor Clayton Christensen. You can read our coverage of the initiation of the first round (and watch TC’s interview with CEO Dave Boyce) here. → Read More
Earlier this month Google launched the web version of Android Market, which lets you purchase applications from your web browser and have them beamed directly to your phone or tablet (it’s very slick). Now, Google has some good news for you bibliophiles out there: The Xoom’s Android Market application includes Google Books, and now the web version does too. You can find it right here.
Buying a book on Android Market works just the same as buying an app — you click on the price (or the ‘free’ label), choose a method of payment, and your new book will show up the next time you fire up the Books application on your Android device. → Read More
We expect perfection from companies in Silicon Valley. The general consensus is that Yahoo is one of the worst run tech companies in the world, never mind it’s still profitable, cash-rich, and one of the largest media assets in the world. We get outraged and hit the BUBBLE! panic button when valuations of startups like Facebook, Zynga and Twitter get in the double digit billions, never mind their growth rates, user engagement and (in the case of Zynga an Facebook) actual revenues.
So how can we be so apathetic when we see true abysmal fiscal neglect, especially when it’s that of a pseudo-company in which we all essentially own shares?
That pseudo-company is the United States government and in a thorough report issued today, Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker has taken all emotions, politics, spin and manipulation out of the issues, to present a steely-eyed view of just how hosed our financial situation is. Spoiler alert: It’s not pretty. America is gripped by a new red menace and this time, it’s not the commies– it’s a sea of red ink.If politicians reported to voters the way management reports to shareholders, no one would finish out their terms. → Read More
NEC today announced it has developed the industry’s first contact-less biometric authentication system that can read both fingerprints and finger veins. According to the company, the “HS100-10 Contactless Hybrid Finger Scanner” is extremely difficult to deceive and makes it possible to authenticate people with close to 100% accuracy. → Read More
Oh, rumor mill — how you tug at our heart strings. Early this month, the ol’ mill was promising that iOS 4.3 would be hitting our iPhones and iPads on Valentine’s Day. Alas, while Valentine’s Day brought plenty of things (cheap chocolates for some, lonely hangovers for others), iOS 4.3 wasn’t one of’em. Weeks have passed since, and 4.3 is still nowhere in sight. According to BGR, the iOS team is wrapping things up right this second, with plans to release things in finalized form (be it to everyone or just developers isn’t clear right now) next week or so. How conveniently timed! Want to know what’s new in iOS 4.3? Here’s our list. → Read More
A new DSiWare title gives users the ability to create computer programs using the BASIC programming language. Not only can users create their own programs, but it also comes pre-loaded with a few simple games that demonstrate the raw power of the language. → Read More
