Sports Illustrated and others are reporting on an Android app that lets people “feed, water, train and fight their virtual dogs against others.” The app is created by Kage Games. The outrage is reminiscent of the early days of Grand Theft Auto and other violent video games.
Retired dog fighting enthusiast and occasional quarterback Michael Vick is taking a firm stand against the app: → Read More
Here is a nice new piece from Bremont that you can’t get – at least not now. That isn’t to say the watch isn’t ready (because it is), but rather that you need to be among a select group of “pre-selected” military personnel to get one. The pieces will be highly limited as well. Each Bremont C17 Globemaster will be limited to just 50 pieces, and it comes in a few versions. → Read More
With no real statement from Apple regarding the present consolidated.db tracking file furor, the obvious next step is to take it to the courts. Actually, the next step should be a rigorous federal investigation into whether or not Apple has broken any laws. Then, if it has, sue away. And if it hasn’t, sue anyway just in case. Vikram Ajjampur and William Devito are a little impatient… → Read More
CampusLive, a college-focused startup that’s part Groupon, part free ‘Offers’ provider (more on that later), has closed a $3.1 million funding round led by Highland Capital Partners and Charles River Ventures.
CampusLive is all about showcasing special offers to students to help brands increase awareness and engagement. But the site differs from Groupon and other deal sites because no money… → Read More
Sharon Waxman over at The Wrap has a story about a Video On Demand service about to be launched by YouTube that would be a “full-bore challenge to Apple’s iTunes service.” What the article fails to mention is that YouTube already has a Video On Demand service, YouTube Movies. Those interested can rent movies like Zombie Diaries, Ronald Reagan: An American Journey and The Dogfather right now on… → Read More
Whoops.
Looks like The New York Times has a little embargo breaking situation on their hands. (Which we love — chaos!) They’ve just put up a story with the URL: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/latest-rival-to-groupon-livingsocial-facebook-embargo-till-midnight/ (bolding mine). That page is obviously no longer found, but it was live for a bit. And it is a big one: Facebook’s… → Read More
Our love affair with Yammer is pretty hot and cold. On one hand, they launched at and won TechCrunch50a few years back. And they seem to be kicking ass on the business distribution front. On the other, the apps they put out there (which we use for TechCrunch day-to-day business) are often very buggy and more or less infuriating day in and day out. iPhone, Android, Web, AIR — they all have… → Read More
It’s been a good day for Y Combinator. Hot on the heels of news that YC portfolio company Wufoo landed a $35 million exit, YC alum TalkBin has just announced that it’s been acquired by Google — less than five months after the company was founded.
TalkBin offers a platform that lets customers give immediate feedback to local businesses (users submit their opinions and critiques via mobile… → Read More
As Gigaom notes Netflix’s (global) subscriber base is now bigger than Comcast’s national one, a happenstance that should send fear into the hearts of cable providers everywhere. The numbers came from an earnings call today. → Read More
This wild printable clock doesn’t have a working escapement yet (that’s in the works) but it does prove that you can build complex mechanical objects using MakerBots. → Read More
Netflix just announced its first quarter 2011 earnings and they’re cause for optimism, with earnings at $1.11 a share on revenue of about $719 million, out-performing analysts expectations of $1.08 per share on $704 million in revenue. The company doubled its profits, at $60.2 million versus $32.3 million at the same time last year.
The company is hedging its future on its streaming subscription… → Read More
Fresh Pioneer Corporation docs just landed in the FCC database of a so-called AppRadio, or as it’s named in one document, iPhone Control Receiver. The unit, SPH-DA01, has a whole host of testing documents in the database but only two are are all that interesting. The user manual names this device AppRadio and then there’s an unflattering picture that shows a center-mounted iPhone… → Read More
Amazon has an Android App Store. They also have a brand new section of their site, AmazonWireless, where they sell, amongst other things, Android phones. Realizing just how well those things fit together, Amazon is running their first cross-promotion between the two. From this morning until 11:59 pm on May 1st, any Android handsets purchased through AmazonWireless will come with a giftcard good… → Read More
Good news, Internet. Russian police pulled off what sounds like a legitimate Hollywood kidnapping rescue and rescued the kidnapped son of Kaspersky Lab’s co-founder, Yevegny Kaspersky. The short story is the 20-year was returned safely, but the long story is much more interesting. → Read More
How many apps does it take to recharge a vehicle? Apparently, one is not enough. Several companies offering mobile apps to drivers — to help them find a place to charge up or refuel in an environmentally sustainable way — made product and milestone announcements around Earth Day. Here’s the run down.
ECOtality (NASDAQ: ECTY) — a San Francisco company that’s building electric vehicle (EV)… → Read More
Ready for another shameless marketing video for the iPad G-Form Extreme Sleeve? Last time the encased iPad survived a 12lb bowling ball. This time they’re dropping an iPad 500 ft. from an ultralight aircraft. Does it survive? EXTREME PROTECTION, BABY! [via TUAW] → Read More
It is rare to find a gaming accessory so ham-handed and ridiculous that you just know this is going to be a patent troll situation where they start suing Microsoft Kinect for stealing their “gaming standing up” idea. But you have to hand it to this guy for his tenacity. There are plenty of YouTube videos up showing him showing it off and the real money shot is where he’s brought in a “real… → Read More
Launched at SXSW, social music app SoundTracking has announced its quarter of a million milestone today, surpassing 250K downloads in just six weeks after launch on the iPhone. With 100K downloads taking place in the app’s first two weeks of existence, SoundTracking is experiencing rapid growth for an iOS app without without a previous app or website to drive installs from. Another music sharing… → Read More
Netflix just released its first quarter earnings. Earnings per share were $1.11, up 88 percent (3 cents above the consensus estimate of $1.08). Revenues came in at $719 million. And Netflix added 3.3 million U.S. subscribers in the quarter, plus another 290,000 interantionally, to end at 23.6 million. The 3.6 million new subscribers is slightly below the 3.7 million analysts were hoping for, but… → Read More
The iPhone rumor mill has been all off-kilter for the past few weeks, primarily stemming from the idea that there may very well be no new iPhone at WWDC this year.
And yet, the rumor-mill continues to churn. According to whispers over the past few weeks, Apple’s busy toiling over a handset that looks very much like an iPhone 4, but with a few lil’ tweaks to its guts — namely, it’s purportedly… → Read More
Nothing like a calm opening title sequence to settle the soul and quiet the mind. Sure, it’s just remake of Ocarina of Time for the 3DS, but this movie brought back such good memories that I’m ready to replay the game. [via Joystiq] → Read More
Never mind Alienware’s upcoming overclocked M18x, the Origin EON is shipping today and can be configured with a variety of overclocked Sand Bridge Intel Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs. The mad computer builds at Origin will even overclock and warranty the systems up to 4.5GHz. Your credit card limit is really the only barrier between you and a mobile powerhouse as the system can be configured with 2GB… → Read More
Facebook’s increasingly ubiquitous ‘Like’ button is getting a new friend: the Send button. Click on a webpage that has the Send button integrated, and you’ll be prompted to share it with any of your Facebook Groups, your Facebook friends, or any standard email address. In other words, where the Like button is designed to let you quickly share content with all of your Facebook friends, the Send… → Read More
This morning, an SEC filing revealed that Gary Flake, a former Overture vet who went on to found both Yahoo Research Labs and Microsoft’s Live Labs, raised $1.39 million in funding for a stealthy new startup dubbed Clipboard (I’m not the only one who noticed).
Flake informed me that he wanted to avoid any publicity for now, but since Geekwire already posted on this: Flake is the sole founder of… → Read More
It was only a matter of time until Lenovo broke into the Honeycomb party. The company’s upcoming Tegra 2 tablet is reportedly set to hit this June with an iPad-ish WiFi/3G and storage pricing scheme starting with a 16GB WiFi-only model. Not that exciting, right? You’re probably saying it’s more of the same ol’ Android nonsense. → Read More
It’s not every day you find $40 phones for the aged. This odd-looking piece of kit has huge buttons, echanced loudness settings, and a big orange SOS button. It also has an LED flashlight on top for spotting your keyhole in the dark. → Read More
Remember back in July last year when we reported that Google quietly invested $100 million in Zynga in preparation for a new product dubbed Google Games?
They even recruited gaming industry vet Mark DeLoura (formerly of Ubisoft, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Nintendo and others) as developer advocate for game-related products, though he quit after only 4 months on the job (he’s now a VP at… → Read More
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a 360° camera! Although I personally think it looks a little like a funky speaker/sound system…
Equipped with three 10 million pixel sensors and 3 fish-eye objective lenses covering 180° each, the Girocam is the new 360° camera produced by Lille-based company Giroptic. Contrary to most traditional solutions that use a spherical mirror, this new product… → Read More
MP3s are so last century. As we’ve previously reported, Apple is moving iTunes to the cloud and is slowly signing on record labels to supply content. The latest company to fall is apparently Warner Music. The company signed a deal with Apple last week. → Read More
Does founding a non-profit organization require the same skills as founding a traditional start-up company? Are the most successful social entrepreneurs as skilled in personal reinvention as the top Silicon Valley entrepreneurs?
Yes and yes. Take, for example, charity: water, the meteorically successful non-profit organization founded by the charismatic Scott Harrison. Four years ago, Harrison… → Read More
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