Skype users with any sense of aesthetic justice are pretty much in unanimous agreement that the user interface for Skype 5 for Mac is a disaster. Between the useless coverflow way of scrolling through Contacts, the using of “recently talked to” instead of “online” as a hierarchy for listing Contacts and the irrational hogging of onscreen real estate in the most recent update, I’ve now began to shudder every time I see the message “There is a new version of Skype available.”
I am not alone in thinking that the ability to video chat with multiple people isn’t worth the rest of Skype 5 for Mac’s UI hassles. Software Engineer Lucas Matis just wrote a nearly 2,000 word missive on how the new Skype is too confusing for the casual user, and not complex enough for someone more advanced (And why can you no longer send links while in video chat mode?). → Read More
Back in early December of last year, we first reported that Google was toying around with the name “+1″ for an upcoming social product. At the time, we were told it was sort of like Google’s version of the “like” or “retweet” button. Today it officially launches as a way to share Google Search results that you like with your friends and the broader web in general. Oh, and also a way to inject social into Google Ads.
To be clear, the version of +1 which is beginning to roll out today is not the toolbar version that we first got a glimpse of in December, that’s apparently a different version that was being tested. This version of +1 actually launching is a small button that will reside next to each and every Google Search result. If you like the result, you click the +1 button and it gets shared with your social circle — and the public (more on that in a bit). → Read More
Here’s the live stream from the GeeknRolla conference for European startups:
And follow the action on twitter on the hashtag #GKNR
We’ll be updating this shortly with the startups that launched today.
Here’s the agenda → Read More
During CES, Samsung said the WiFi-only Galaxy Tab (P1010) would come out Q1 of this year. Well, Q1 is almost over and we haven’t heard, nor seen anything about a price or shipping date. Those across the pond have recently found the P1010 up for pre-order on Amazon UK with an estimated ship date of March 31 and price of $477.
What about the US? → Read More
The Blu-ray edition of Star Wars: The Complete Saga now has a release date: September 16 of this year. Amazon lists the collection for $90, so start saving your pennies. → Read More
TechCrunch Disrupt is back and in a big way. The conference we launched last year in New York and San Francisco and is coming back this year and this time we are going global by adding another destination – Beijing. All three conferences will be packed with the best new startups, all-star speakers, free WiFi, and after parties. The first Disrupt will take place in New York City on May 23rd to 25th, right after our Hackathon on May 21st to 22nd where developers come together to create a product in 24 hours.
Like we’ve said before, anything can happen at these events. During Disrupt last year, we launched two dozen startups (the winner was international startup, Soluto), Charlie Rose kicked off the event by interviewing legendary VC John Doerr, Carol Bartz told Michael Arrington to *ahem*, and we even had a real company emerge from our Hackathon, GroupMe, which later went on to raise $10.6 million. You can read about co-founder Jared Hecht’s experience at Disrupt here.
If you are building a company or a product that you feel is going to make a huge impact and change the world, we want you to apply. There are no fees to apply or compete, and startups from around the globe are welcome to submit their company or product for consideration. But the deadline for submissions is looming. We will be accepting submissions through Sunday, April 3, 2011 at midnight PST. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Please submit your application HERE on our Disrupt application site powered by Producteev. → Read More
Top Gear fans? Remember the episode from a few years back where the crew tried to flog the Tesla Roadster? Yeah, it didn’t end so well for the Tesla after Clarkson started off praising the little electric supercar. The entire segment is embedded for your viewing enjoyment after the jump, but the skinny is that the Top Gear testers sort of died prematurely — a few times. The first car’s battery’s ran out only after 55 miles. Then another car’s motor overheated. When they went back to the original car, something was up with the brakes. So yeah, one of the most watched TV programs in the entire world didn’t exactly portray the Tesla Roadster favorably. Enter the libel lawsuit. → Read More
Crysis 2 and Total War: Shogun 2 have come and gone, so that leaves only a few big PC releases left this year. What you see here is the latest Battlefield 3 trailer, “Get That Wire Cut.” → Read More
We don’t get to blog too often about robots made in Europe around here, which means the appearance of REETI, a new desktop robot developed by France-based robot venture Robopec, is quite a nice surprise. The REETI is designed to be a combination of a communication robot and a “multi-media tool”, according to Robopec. → Read More
After talking to Conan a few weeks ago, and CNN’s Piers Morgan last night, Biz Stone made an appearance on another mainstream media show today: Howard Stern. You can access the interview here.
Unlike many of Stern’s interviews, this one was mostly PG-rated. One of the most interesting tales revealed in the interview was the backstory behind Facebook’s offer to acquire Twitter back in 2008 (the story is at the 16 minute mark in the interview). As we know, Facebook reportedly offered Twitter $500 million to acquire the company in the fall of 2008. Biz tells Stern that he showed up at work one day and Twitter employee Jason Goldman (who is no longer with the company) told him that fellow co-founder Evan Williams was waiting for him downstairs in a car. → Read More
In this week’s episode of Fly or Die, we cover two big launches—Amazon Cloud Drive and Color—and a Quirky DIY pocketKnife called the Switch. Just yesterday, Amazon launched its Cloud Drive, which is a general storage service in the cloud which is being pushed as a media locker, starting with music
Color is the $41 million photo app nobody can figure out. Is it the future or is it a dud on arrival? CEO Bill Nguyen joins us as our special guest and explains how his team is going to “solve the loneliness problem.” (Video after the jump). → Read More
Back in February 2010, Google announced its plans to build out a fiber-optic network for a city in the United States, promising connection speeds around 1Gb/s — 100 times faster than the broadband most people are used to. The announcement led 1,100 cities to apply, and today Google has just announced the winning city: Kansas City, Kansas.
For you lucky Kansas City residents, Google has launched an informational page outlining what their plans are (it also provides some background about Google itself). The site’s FAQ says that Google hopes to begin building the network by the end of the year and that service should begin in the first quarter of 2012, with plans to roll out to all communities in Kansas City. → Read More
Google’s about to step up its use of “interest-based advertising.” The company has announced that it will change the way it uses the information that it gathers from your scanned Gmail messages. (Or did you forget that Gmail scans every single one of your messages in order to show relevant advertising?) The big change is this: rather than scanning your email on a per-message basis, Google will now begin building a profile about you based on all of your emails. It’s this profile that will then be used to deliver advertising to you. → Read More
Super Mega Worm, the best game about worms that eat people and jewels and dirt, is now free on the Mac App store. It’s only available for a limited time and it’s not quite appropriate for the littlest members of the gaming community but if you like to destroy cows, birds, airplanes, and trucks painted like the General Lee, this is the game for you.
Yet another example of why even the savviest of Internet users need to keep their anti-malware software current and fully working. Spotify, the popular European streaming service, discovered that it was inadvertently serving ads that were laced with malware. → Read More
Last night I caught up with Intuit founder Scott Cook and Aaron Patzer, the founder of Mint who know runs Intuit’s personal finance group. I whipped out my iPhone and did an impromptu interview. Cook and Patzer talk about where growth is coming from at Intuit, how it tries to encourage entrepreneurism, and the “payment graph.”
Cook is really excited about SnapTax, the TurboTax iPhone app that lets people do their taxes by snapping a picture of their W-2 forms. The same OCR technology will soon be baked into the company’s upcoming GoPayment apps for accepting checks via photo. Patzer came into Intuit through the $170 million acquisition of Mint. Cook knows the value of injecting entrepreneurial DNA into the larger organization, and he tries to foster that spirit throughout Intuit.
Since Intuit bought Mint, it’s kept on growing from 1.7 million to 5.6 million users, and gradually it is being connected with hooks into Intuit’s more established products like TurboTax and Quicken. Off camera I asked why doesn’t QuickBooks offer a similar service to help businesses visualize and organize their expenses like Profitably does with QuickBook’s APIs, and Patzer agreed, “That is something that should be in QuickBooks.” (That is just his opinion, he doesn’t run QuickBooks). → Read More
FuzeBox, the developer of an online meeting software, is launching its multi-party HD video conferencing technology for the iPad 2 and Android devices. Previously released in private beta, the software had been updated with support for more devices, an improved user interface, and more multimedia sharing and annotation options.
As I’ve written in the past, Fuze’s video technology provides a WebEx-like conferencing service that allows users to share screens and run meetings online. As opposed to its competitors, Fuze promises a sleeker more lightweight interface that incorporates HD video. I’ve tested the technology out multiple times, and not only is Fuze easy to use, but there is little to no latency and features high video quality. → Read More
Microsoft has had its share of executive departures lately. The latest one to exit the software giant is Mich Mathews, senior vice president for Microsoft’s Central Marketing Group and one out of only two women on the company’s senior leadership team, reports AdAge.
Here’s why this is rather big news: Mathews has been with Microsoft for 22 years and currently oversees more than $1 billion in ad spending and marketing efforts for consumer brands such as Windows, Bing and Xbox. → Read More
Friend: So I’m thinking about cutting the cord.
Me: Oh yeah? You should buy a Roku then.
Friend: I don’t know what that is. I only buy my gadgets from big box stores.
Me: Well good news. Best Buy, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Fry’s Electronics and RadioShack now carry it.
Friend: How much?
Me: About $80 for the XD.
Friend: Oh great, glad to hear Best Buy is going to carry it. I wouldn’t have known what a Roku was if not.
Me: Yeah, I don’t shop at Best Buy. Make sure you turn down their $99 Geek Squad in-home setup.
Press Release after the break. → Read More
