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, however, and have filed a lawsuit against Apple already. Now, I’m all in favor of suing Apple — as soon as the facts are known. Apple gets a chance to defend itself against the allegations (time is running out, by the way), and if it doesn’t do so to our satisfaction, then that’s that. This nearly instantaneous lawsuit (filed April 22), however, seems slightly opportunistic. → 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 actually changes hands — instead, students are given special deals (or are entered into a contest) in return for clicking a brand’s ‘Like’ button, completing a branded game, or signing up for a news letter.
After signing up for the service and picking your school, CampusLive will present you with a main Challenge for the day, along with several additional challenges if you’d like to complete more. Challenges sometimes will offer a guaranteed, small incentive alongside a sweepstakes. → 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 YouTube for around $2.99 each. → 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 Groupon/LivingSocial “killer”.
Okay, it’s hardly a secret that the service called Facebook Deals was close to launching. In fact, the landing page has been up since March. But the NYT early story has some details. → 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 issues.
But issues are one thing. For the past year or so, I simply have not been able to get Yammer to work on the iPad — at all. It would launch and then crash. I tried this on four different iPads (both the first and second generation). Same result.
Today. Finally. They have released a native iPad app. And it works! → 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 applications, and it looks like the businesses can read and respond to them from a web app). TalkBin’s homepage shows screenshots of both Android and iOS applications, but I can’t find them on either marketplace (I’m not sure if the apps were pulled or if they simply haven’t been released yet).
The mostly-stealthy Montain View-based company was founded in December 2010 by Qasar Younis, Michael Ma, and Sunny Dhillon. → 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 services, and called its DVD business a “fading differentiator” in its investor letter. → 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 button. → 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 for $25 bucks on Amazon’s Android Appstore. Think about all you could buy with $25! That’s like a million copies of Fruit Ninja! Or, you know, 25. But still. Not a bad deal, considering that Amazon’s prices on most Android handsets are amongst the cheapest out there. → 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) technology and infrastructure in the U.S. and China— unveiled its Blink Network mobile app (screenshot, above) to help users find and reserve a nearby, available charging station at the Electric Drive Transportation Association conference in Washington D.C. Reservation and status-update features made ECOtality’s app distinct from other charger-finders for about a minute.
On Monday, however, Coulomb Technologies announced an upgrade to the ChargePoint app, including similar functionality… → 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 teenager” to declaim its virtues.
This thing is basically a treadmill with a joystick on it. You run around, turn the joystick, and play PC games. Then, when the joy wears off, you can start using it as a clothes hanger and then, when you’re finally sick of the thing, you can put it out on the street for some other sucker to find and take home. → 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 app, Play by AOL, has also hit 250,000 downloads in half the time on Android.
While founder Steve Jang wouldn’t disclose numbers of daily active users or users, he does tell me that over 50% of SoundTracking users are using the app to share their music moments on both Facebook and Twitter, which might explain the increased signups. It seems like every five minutes or so someone else is following the SoundTrack to my life. → 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 still double the growth from a year ago. Depending on how many subscribers Comcast reports this quarter, Netflix might surpass it to become the largest entertainment subscription business in the U.S. Netflix ended the quarter with 22.8 million U.S. subscribers, exactly the same number of subscribers Comcast reported at the end of 2010.
Net income was $60 million, and free cash flow in the quarter was $79, a 55 percent increase from the fourth quarter. Netflix saw a rise in domestic operating margins to 16 percent, from 14.9 percent in the fourth quarter, largely due to an increase in streaming-only subscribers and price increases on hybrid subscriptions. Margins should fall back to around 14 percent as streaming and marketing costs continue to rise (offset by declines in DVD shipping). → 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 packing Apple’s A5 CPU, and a slightly bigger screen.
Is this it? → 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
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