In this week’s episode of Fly or Die, CrunchGear editor John Biggs and I do a special tablet edition where we take on the new Motorola Xoom and the Kno. (Watch the video above).
The Xoom is the first tablet to come out with the Android Honeycomb operating system, which is optimized for tablets. So you can basically forget about all of those other Android tablets that came out in January at CES. Those run the Android OS built for phones. What you want is Honeycomb, and the Xoom is your first chance to get it. Still, with the iPad 2 set to be announced next week, you might want to wait to see if there is anything the Xoom will still have over the next-gen iPad. Check out John’s in-depth review and the video below, which shows its speed and what it looks like in action. → Read More
Here are some nice looking and very inexpensive Italian watches from Fullspot. Certainly designer, certainly fashion-ey, certainly the opposite of most of what you have in your collection. But actually quite fun. How cheap? Not really sure to be honest as there seems to be two prices. The brand’s US site wants $36 per watch, while the Fullspot’s Italian site (both have e-commerce components) wants $24.35. With shipping I am not sure how much they are. So, it is either of the two. → Read More
Every Gillmor Gang begins with a mysterious blend of serendipity and confusion. This episode is no exception, as Robert Scoble attempts to discuss the Motorola VaVaVoom or somesuch. The only problem with that (or any other Android tablet) is that Gillmor himself could care less about anything other than waiting for next Wednesday’s rollout of the iPad II. John Taschek is an Android fanboy, and Kevin Marks used to work for Google and has not yet shaken the mindset off. I am trying to think of things to keep me occupied until Wednesday. → Read More
This guest post is written by Daniel A. Crane, who is Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. He is an expert in antitrust law.
Google’s proposed acquisition of ITA Software, which provides a management system for airfare pricing and shopping services, has become ground zero for the burgeoning coalition of interests intent on stopping Google’s perceived dominance in Internet search. The Justice Department is reviewing the deal and is reportedly preparing to block it if Google does not agree to substantial concessions. Meanwhile, an anti-Google coalition has made stopping the acquisition its Maginot line. The “FairSearch” coalition, consisting of a host of anti-Google forces including Microsoft, TripAdvisor, Expedia, Kayak, and Hotwire, presents the ITA deal as Exhibit A on its website, warning that the deal will bring “consumers higher prices and less choice in travel.”
These claims are overblown. Google’s competitors naturally fear Google’s emergence as a formidable rival in travel search, but that is hardly a reason to block the transaction. Indeed, it’s a reason to approve the deal. The most likely scenario is that Google’s acquisition of ITA would allow Google a quick and efficient entry point into travel search that would expand consumer options and increase rather than decrease competition. → Read More
In mid February, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt expressed pride in Google employee Wael Ghonim’s brave struggle against the autocratic Mubarak regime to establish political transparency in Egypt. “We are very, very proud of what Wael and that group was able to do in Egypt,” Schmidt said in Barcelona. But what Schmidt needs to do now is apply Ghonim’s views about political transparency to Google’s own search business.
With its 70% control of the global online search market, Google’s power to make and break online businesses is unrivalled. So it’s not surprising that website owners want more transparency over the reasons why the often autocratic Google sometimes impose penalties on their businesses. But a report issued last week by the newsnavigator OneNewsPage found a distinct lack of transparency in the search business with 88% of respondents saying that paid search advertising costs lacked transparency, while 24% said that they had experienced large, unexplained falls in site traffic as a consequence of changes in their search engine status. → Read More
Pro Tip: Fruit Roll-Ups Make Solid Flash Gels World’s First Flexible Microprocessor Made With Organic Semiconductors Clock Clock Is A Clock Of Clocks The Creditor Carbon Fiber Money Clip Knife Keeps Your Money Safe Gadg-Art: Love It, But Don’t Really Use It. → Read More
John Crane was out hiking around a few days ago, and came across a sweet ice cave that he felt would look great if he used a green filter on the flash. Unfortunately, he left all his gels at home — but his friend suggested using one of the Fruit Roll-ups they’d brought along for snack time. Lo and behold, it worked. → Read More
This week at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, European researchers showed off the world’s first flexible microprocessor made with organic semiconductors. Right now, processing power is similar to what was found in the 1970′s, but the advantage is that the processor is flexible. What’s so good about the research is that it can lead to fully bendable displays and sensors; something we could begin to see in clothing, gadgets and biomedical applications. → Read More
Yes, it has only been a few weeks since the last time I posted a piece of art with an exploded typewriter on it. What can I say, I love these things and you must love them too. → Read More
This timepiece/piece of art is made by Humans since 1982, a Stockholm design studio apparently composed of people my age, and that seems to specialize in clock-based clocks. I can imagine having this around would be quite mesmerizing, though I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that, since they only are making five.
Check out the video inside. This thing is pretty rad. → Read More
Designed by John Kubasek, the Creditor carbon fiber money clip knife can keep you and your money safe from theft. The minimal design is really neat, and looks great. The material makeup is carbon fiber and titanium. By pressing down on the side of the handle, a 6-inch knife appears. A knife/money clip; great idea, right? Except when you try to make it past the TSA. → Read More
Rebtel is offering us one hot little Motorola Atrix to give away this weekend to one lucky reader. How do you win? Well first you have to be very very nice to animals and the environment and then you need to click through to comment. → Read More
We won’t be getting the 3DS for another month (it hits the US on March 27th), but in Japan, thousands of people are lining up to nab their handheld from retailers across the country. It’s safe to say it’s going to be a quiet, indoors weekend for many in the land of the rising sun. Our Japanese readers are probably waiting in line, and so won’t be reading this, but the rest of you might want to take a few minutes to peruse our 3DS tag and check out the latest news, launch titles, design secrets, and so on. 1UP is also going over the launch in more detail, since they’re… you know, a games site. → Read More
Breakup Notifier creator Dan Lowenhertz should just give up on Crate (his actual job) and just make a whole network of these types of things. After having his wildly popular app Breakup Notifier blocked by Facebook, Lowenhertz has dusted himself off and is back in the game, trying to “turn a negative to a positive” with Crush Notifier.
From his blog:
“So what does the popularity of Breakup Notifier tell us? I believe it’s that human beings, above all else, value relationships. I never knew how many people would end up using Breakup Notifier. → Read More
This has been a thorn in my side for… going on 20 years now.
No longer. → Read More
And we’re back again with our now weekly update on the insanity surrounding Facebook’s stock in the SecondMarket auctions. Last week, the stock saw the beginning of a rally back to $27 a share, good for a $67.5 billion valuation (based on roughly 2.5 billion shares outstanding). This week, the good times continued to roll. Facebook’s stock hit $28 a share, to push the valuation of the company back to a cool $70 billion or so.
This is still slightly off the record high of $28.26 a share (a $70.65 billion valuation) set in mid January, but it’s clear that Facebook’s stock is storming ahead once again, and quickly. This was the 11th auction SecondMarket has done on the stock. → Read More
ABC Television in Australia has put together an excellent program, or I suppose I should say programme, on the MAGIC 2010 competition, which is put on by the Australian Defense Department. I mean, Defence. It’s an open challenge to put together a team of robots that must navigate and map a large course, target “enemies,” and generally function autonomously — and the teams this year have put together some really amazing stuff. Unfortunately I can’t embed the video here, but you can watch it at ABC in glorious 400×220 resolution. It really is a very interesting little segment. And hey, it’s Friday. You deserve it. → Read More
The Galaxy Tab originally launched with a $600 price tag after 2-year contract. Now, the Galtab is priced to sell: $299 after 2-year contract at Verizon. The price drop comes just after the Motorola Xoom released. → Read More
All is right with the world, as genius (and Googler!) Thomas Steiner has made this beautiful Chrome extension that corrects Twitter’s subject/object discrepancy on its “Who to Follow” feature. Grammar snobs (I KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU COMMENT), rejoice!
In case anyone’s still confused about ”Who” vs. “Whom” usage, here’s a quick tip to differentiate courtesy of Shit You Should Know:
“To determine proper usage of who/whom, separate the who/whom clause and pose it as a question. If that question can be answered with “he”, use “who”; if it can be answered with “him”, use ‘whom’.” → Read More
Apple is looking into further de-buttonizing their laptops with this new patent. This one doesn’t have a lot of meat to it — as you can see, the illustration shows pretty much just replacing the battery text button with a less button-y touch-sensitive button. The patent mentions other uses, though, like media control buttons. I can’t seem to pull up the patent at the USPTO, but AppleInsider (who found it) has some more info. Could this tech make it to the iPad as well? → Read More
