Some months ago, before the company was worth a billion dollars, I shared some thoughts on Airbnb.
Specifically, in what some mischaracterized as an attack on the company, I criticized those whose worship at the altar of Disruption is so unconditional that they don’t think Disruptive companies should be hidebound by the law. If Disruptive entrepreneurs are so clever, I argued, they’ll find a way… → Read More
Although we recently heard tell of a touchscreen-based test platform called Seaboard running Chrome OS, Google isn’t in a hurry to acknowledge that its browser OS is coming to tablets. I can’t blame them, either — with Android numbers increasing and Chrome OS unproven, it’d be foolish to dilute the market with a second tablet ecosystem. So they’re officially limiting it to Chromebooks for… → Read More
Apple did something really odd today. Something they almost never do. They pre-announced the agenda for the keynote of one of their events, WWDC, taking place next week. Yes, they probably did this in an attempt to set expectations — read: no new iPhone coming — but in doing so, they also managed to do something even stranger: they outed a completely unreleased product. iCloud.
So what is… → Read More
More details have emerged since we originally reported on Twitter’s photo-sharing service, namely that Apple’s new iOS 5 will probably come with a baked in Twitter image sharing feature.
A tipster informs us that one trigger happy Apple iOS designer has already released a test link into the wild (which we’ve seen but are not replicating here). The tipster clued us into a… → Read More
This is just a new color variation on an existing model from Suunto, but damn is it a looker. The all-black casing and negative display make for a stealthy look, and it retains all the sweet functions of the other, less handsome designs. The Terra has an altimeter, barometer, 3D compass, and a number of other features useful for mountaineering. Not that I’m going to be mountaineering any… → Read More
Every technology era has its four horsemen driving growth and innovation. In the 1990s it was Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, and Dell. Today, there is anew “gang of four,” as Google chairman Eric Schmidt puts it. They are Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Google (of course), and they are behind the consumer revolution on the Internet today. Not only are all four companies “growing at incredible… → Read More
Today during a keynote interview at AllThingsD’s D9, Google Executive Chairman (and former longtime CEO) made a key announcement: Google has recently renewed its partnership with Apple over mapping and search. In other words, don’t look for a new version of Maps on iOS at next month’s WWDC.
So, why is this important? Apple has long shipped every iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad with a Maps… → Read More
PunchTab, a startup that offers a social loyalty platform for consumers and publishers, has raised $850,000 in seed funding from Mohr Davidow Ventures, Embarcadero Ventures, and angels Venky Harinarayan, Anand Rajaraman, and Nick Sturiale. PunchTab is the brainchild of YouSendIt founder Ranjith Kumaran.
PunchTab allows publishers to give reward points to users who check in to a site or blog every… → Read More
Although I can picture a battalion of shield-faced riot police wielding these against a terrified populace, the concept really is too “life imitates sci-fi” to pass up. The BodyGuard is an armored gauntlet with a 500,000-volt stunner protruding from the back of the hand, with room for any number of other weapons of self defense. → Read More
You may know Vudu as the startup bringing high definition movie rentals and rent-to-own services to set-top boxes like PlayStation 3 and the Boxee Box. And most TVs and Blu-ray players. Vudu recently became the second streaming service to receive its own dedicated button on Vizio’s remote controls, following Netflix.
You may also know Peter Gabriel, the British rocker who was inducted into the… → Read More
The transparent display wars are yet to begin, since everyone is still prepping their devices, but that doesn’t stop the big guys like TDK and Samsung from throwing a little PR party every once in a while to let you know they’re still on the task. Today TDK released info on a new display, the UEL476, that’s a bit different from the rest. → Read More
If you were among the first wave of people to buy an iPad last spring, there’s a good chance you spent a lot of time playing one game in particular: Plants vs Zombies. PopCap’s smash hit was one of the first games on the iPad and it did extremely well, and it’s also seen a lot of success on the smaller iPhone/iPod Touch form factor. Now, some 16 months after its release, the game still ranks #27… → Read More
Social gaming giant Zynga is launching its latest game tomorrow—Empires & Allies, the company’s first strategy combat game. Zynga is going big with this launch, debuting the game on Facebook in 12 languages (CityVille only launched in 5 languages). Zynga says this is the gaming company’s most social title to date.
Empires & Allies, which is the company’s first title to be launched… → Read More
The popular virtual magazine marketplace Zinio has arrived on Android 3.0, bringing its stable of titles (including Rolling Stone, Popular Mechanics, and Us Weekly) to the likes of the Xoom and Galaxy Tab 10.1. The Android tablet market may not be anywhere near the size of the iPad’s, but they’re getting in there early and putting their foot in the door. As a tablet-warming gift, you… → Read More
Despite Samsung’s ongoing patent tiff with Apple, the South Korea-based manufacturer had good reason to celebrate this Memorial Day weekend, as its long-awaited 5.5-Gen OLED display factory is starting production. Many thought that factory production would be delayed after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March, but Samsung managed to get its new factory up and running… → Read More
There were a lot of stellar startups at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC last week, and unfortunately, there could only be one set of finalists and one winner. Of course, that doesn’t mean that those companies that didn’t make the final heat aren’t worthy of some love.
The Daily followed the entrepreneurs behind three Disrupt NYC battlefield competitors, SpotOn, Spenz, and Madbrook Publishing through their… → Read More
Along with an aluminum roll pad laptop protector, a USB-ported alien doll IM notifier, and of course, Intel’s new Ultrabook notebooks, the Computex trade show in Taipei also gave us our first look at ViewSonic’s new ViewPad 7x tablet. As with any unannounced device, we’ve heard a few rumors surrounding the ViewPad specs earlier this month, but now we have a full run-down on ViewSonic’s… → Read More
It’s something that Dave Morin isn’t too quick to talk about, but it’s impossible to ignore: his new startup, Path, is becoming quite the gathering ground for ex-Facebook employees. Of course, Morin’s reluctance to establish the connection probably has to do with the fact that he used to be the head of Platform there, and still has close ties to the company. But the small startup just hired its… → Read More
The World Health Organization has just released the findings of a major literature review by leading scientists in the fields of cancer and radiation. Their conclusion? We need more data, but it’s looking as if wireless communications are, at the very least, not not carcinogenic.
The only positive data were too “limited” or “inadequate” to permit the group to say there’s a definite link, though… → Read More
Yesterday, we first reported that Twitter was on the verge of launching their own photo-sharing service. That report has since been confirmed by Liz Gannes, who happens to work for All Things D, which is hosting a conference where Twitter CEO Dick Costolo was planning to announce this news. So, yeah. “Sources familiar with the matter.” Confirmed.
And now we know a bit more.
First of all, this… → Read More
Remember back last year when HP recalled overheating and exploding batteries? No? Here’s our coverage. Apparently a series somehow escaped the net and now HP is recalling another 162,000 notebook batteries. These batteries were included on laptops sold between July 2007 and May 2008, which according to the CPSC, “can overheat and rupture, posing fire and burn hazards to… → Read More
Last October, Kleiner Perkins launched the sFund, a $250 million initiative designed to make strategic investments in entrepreneurs building social services and apps. The partners contributing to the fund include Facebook, Amazon, Zynga, Comcast, and more. The first startup to receive investment from the sFund was Cafebots, which received $5 million in series A from Kleiner shortly thereafter.
At… → Read More
As originally promised last week, the Motorola Droid Pro will be receiving updates starting today to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. According to users, Android 2.3 Gingerbread comes in the form of an OTA update, where the Droid Pro will notify you once the update hits the device. → Read More
YouTube is now showing approximately 3 billion videos a day. A growing proportion of those are shown with ads—more than 2 billion a week—and YouTube as a business is expected to pass $1 billion in revenue next year.
But when it comes to making money, some videos do better than others. For YouTube, it is all about scale, and networks of loosely aligned online video producers scale better than… → Read More
According to Neilsen’s May survey, not much has changed by way of smartphone operating systems in the past month. Android, iOS and BlackBerry OS are at a standstill, posting the same market share numbers they did last month. Android still controls 36 percent of the market, with iOS trailing at 27 percent, and BlackBerry OS rounding out the top three with a 22 percent market share. Down at the… → Read More
There’s a button war going on around us. Google, Digg, Yahoo, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn — they’ve all been angling to get their buttons in prime real estate on big websites. But two players loom larger in the space than anyone else: Facebook and Twitter. And Twitter just escalated the war a bit today.
Twitter has just unveiled the Follow Button. This follows their Tweet Button which is already in… → Read More
VMware has acquired social communications platform Socialcast. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Socialcast, which raised nearly $10 million in funding, combines a corporate activity stream that ties into CRM and ERP systems with social bookmarking, Outlook and SharePoint integrations, mobile (iPhone and Blackberry) and desktop (Air) apps, and analytics. Co-workers can share knowledge… → Read More
As sad as it is to think about, cyberland gets more and more dangerous each year. Identity theft and random acts of hackery are now everyday concerns to most people, or at least a tiny fear that looms in the back of every head staring at a web page. Both the United States and United Kingdom armed forces are realizing the vulnerability within this particular patch of battlefield, and have finally… → Read More
Acetate is the high-gloss material used to make glasses and other wearables. Tokyoflash has taken the material to interesting new heights with the Kisai RPM, releasing multiple versions of their “handmade” watch for $159. The links, case, and buttons are all hand finished and assembled and the odd limited edition colors look pretty darn cool.
This watch is powered by a rechargeable batter so… → Read More
Fitim Blaku is a Software Engineer and Web Designer based in New York City. He specializes in creating immersive web designs and applications. His consulting group WebHD focuses on maximizing web revenue through increased user engagement.
Technology moves fast. Flat screen TV’s are everywhere, touch screen phones dominate mobile, and video games are pushing the graphical boundaries into… → Read More
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