California SB 242, proposed by Sen. Ellen Corbett, would force social networks like Facebook to allow parents access to their child’s account(s) and, more importantly, force all privacy settings to their maximum level by default. Parents can request that images or text be removed from any social network page “upon request … within 48 hours upon his or her request.”
Here’s the interesting part… → Read More
You’re out at a restaurant, and your phone rings. You don’t want to be that chump blabbing to himself into a headset — but if you take the call outside, your risotto is going to get cold. You’re knee deep in the middle of a first world problem, friend — what’s your move?
Apple, it seems, feels your pain. The tech giant recently filed a patent application for a text-to-speech/speech-to-text… → Read More
In its last earnings report, AOL revealed that it poured $40 million into its hyperlocal news platform Patch in the quarter. It’s no secret that AOL, Arianna Huffington and CEO Tim Armstrong have high hopes for Patch. And today, the company is announcing that that Patch will launch 33 new sites in New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina —the first three states to hold primaries in 2012. In… → Read More
Oh noes! Just a few weeks back, Samsung told the press that they were going to be announcing something come May 24th. We guessed that “something” was the Galaxy S II’s US launch details — and, given that the Galaxy S II is one of the finest pieces of Android we’ve seen so far, we were pretty excited. Consider our bubble burst. Samsung just hit us up to let us know to… → Read More
The first name that comes to mind when we talk about social games in Europe is probably Wooga. But the German-based social games publisher has a number of local competitors dispersed throughout the continent. In France, one of the names that has gotten a lot of attention is Kobojo, who is behind PyramidVille and Goobox.
Well, now there is a new kid on the block: Pretty Simple. And the company has… → Read More
WD today announced the launch of its 2.5 TB and 3 TB AV-GP SATA hard drives, targeted towards AV professionals and hobbyists alike, and set to ship immediately. The 3.5-inch hard drives offer low power consumption and more storage than you’ll find on any other hard drive, which could come in handy for you AV geeks who use hard drives for storage-intensive purposes like the use of video… → Read More
For the third set of interviews from last week’s excellent SFMusicTech event, I talk with David Hyman, the current CEO of MOG, the co-founder of Addicted to Noise, former CEO of Gracenote and one of the smartest and most experienced pioneers of the digital music revolution.
Hyman’s MOG is one of the most interesting and important contemporary start-ups. Like Pandora and Spotify, MOG is… → Read More
This is a guest post by Monty Munford, blogger at Monty’s Outlook and freelance Mobile/social consultant is (also a Bollywood actor, next movie out April 2011). He tweets @montymunford.
Eighteen entrepreneurs from around the UK recently spent a week on the West Coast of the US as part of Webmisson. As part of the visit, the group attended the TechCrunch offices in San Francisco and were part of… → Read More
Yep, it’s a USB camera specifically designed and marketed as a scalp checker with handy Twitter sharing tool! Because, you know, Twitter is the foremost site for sharing pics of your dandruff. $84 at USBFever. → Read More
This is kind of goofy but interesting. A company called Kingsoft sued a company called 360 WebShield for forcing users to uninstall Kingsoft’s software on installing their own software. A small window would pop up to warn the user and they’d click a button to automatically run the install. Needless to say no one needs two anti-virus programs running at once, but 360 saw it as an unfair… → Read More
Datameer, a startup that offers a big data analytics solution built on Apache Hadoop, has raised $9.25 million led by Kleiner Perkins with participation from Redpoint Ventures. Kleiner partner Ellen Pao will be joining Datameer’s board. This brings the startup’s total funding to $12 million.
Datameer’s Analytics Solution, which integrates the data mining power of Hadoop with a spreadsheet… → Read More
Ask.fm, a European Formspring competitor, has added video answers to its conversational Q&A service.
Rather than answering questions in text, the browser-based feature lets anybody with a webcam record and upload an answer in video to questions sent to their Ask.fm profile, which can be from other Ask.fm members or submitted anonymously. It’s pretty straightforward, with the ‘Record video answer’… → Read More
Swiss publisher Tamedia has acquired a 49% stake in Doodle, the Zurich-based online service that enables users to schedule meetings and appointments.
Described as a “partial exit” by Doodle CEO Michael Näf, the deal also sees German VC firm Creathor Venture sell its share in the company, although terms are not being disclosed. → Read More
Google has finally made good on their promise to deliver Chrome OS to the world this summer. Or they will, on June 15 when the first Chromebooks are available. Considering that I’m potentially the perfect type of user for such a machine — that is, nearly everything I do these days is in the browser — I’ve been very interested in the OS/product development. Last week, I got my hands on one of… → Read More
Barnes & Noble just announced that Nook Color users have downloaded over 1 millon apps so far, including Angry Birds, Drawing Pad, and Pulse. Obviously 1 million apps in comparison to the numbers downloaded (notice they didn’t say “sold”) is fairly paltry but it’s a great start.
This bit of news confirms what we’ve been saying for a while: the Nook is kind of a stealth Android device and… → Read More
The Velocity Micro Cruz 7-inch tablet is no iPad killer, but it’s only $80 on Woot today. The 7-inch 4:3 screen should display all the wonders of Android 2.0 wonderfully. Sure, there isn’t a lot to love about this little tab, but once again, it’s only $80. It doesn’t have access to Android Market and doesn’t come with Google Apps. You know it’s only $80, right? → Read More
The Space Shuttle has been called the pickup truck of space. Well, for the Endeavour, today is the last time it will make the journey to its awesome work site. Like any truck it just wants to get the job done and blasted off minutes ago for one last trip to the ISS. This last trip into space isn’t a joy ride for the Endeavour. It’s set to deploy the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS)… → Read More
Expense reports are a pain. And, as if tabulating the amount you’ve spent on each trip wasn’t enough (not to mention keeping track of all the receipts), many businesses have archaic systems that make submitting a report even more arduous. Fortunately there are a few services looking to help make things easier — and some of them make it as simple as taking a snapshot with your phone.
One such… → Read More
Through new official partnerships with Facebook, Twitter, and NY-based startups Foursquare and Tumblr, New York aims to become America’s next, top digital city.
New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the city’s first, chief digital officer, Rachel Sterne, presented their Road Map for the Digital City, today.
Before formulating the plan, Sterne led a comprehensive 90-day review of the city’s… → Read More
If you own a Playbook, you’d best check your serial number. There is a very minor issue in some Playbooks that cause it to freeze or fail during an initial software update. → Read More
As one professional network puts its IPO plans on hold, another is readying to go public on Thursday. Reuters reported this morning that Viadeo, the world’s second-largest professional network, is putting off its IPO plans to focus on growing its core business. Professional social networking giant LinkedIn is set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange this Thursday, under the symbol… → Read More
According two Gerald Clerc, the founder of Clerc watches, there are two types of watch brands: those that sell watches due to large marketing and lifestyle campaigns, and those that sell watches due to originality and quality. Clerc is one of those latter brands. I have admired their work from afar since I learned about them a few years ago, and was happy to do this hands-on review of their… → Read More
I had a beautiful Rilakkuma iPhone case a few months ago but mine did not have ears. I am concerned that I missed out on something special.
However, this one costs, inexplicably, $19 when the old version, without ears, cost $12. I’m no economics scientist, but ears don’t cost $7. → Read More
Netflix and its customers saw a big win today, as movies like Clerks, Cold Mountain, and Good Will Hunting will soon enough make their way into Netflix’s Watch Instantly portfolio. The movie streaming service is jumping into bed with Miramax, and it seems to be getting pretty serious, as the couple signed a multi-year agreement allowing the streaming of movies from Miramax’s library of films. → Read More
Those of you who’ve been anxiously awaiting the launch of Samsung’s sweetest smartphone may have a few new names to memorize. Before any carrier announcement, retailer Wireless Xcessories Group leaked the new names of our beloved Galaxy S II in a phone case listing. According to WXG’s page, the Android 2.3 Gingerbread-powered smartphone will roll out as the Samsung Galaxy S II Attain for … → Read More
Let’s just say it: The Lenovo X1 is real, m’kay? It’s not even a leak anymore. A full-fledge stream of info has been pouring out of Lenovo about the upcoming notebook. Last week it was an X1 ad spot on the official Lenovo YouTube channel and now the notebook appeared — along with most of its stats — on a Lenovo notebook comparison screen. The damn thing is even listed on Amazon. → Read More
I have no idea if Lady Gaga, Jessica Alba or Cameron Diaz have good taste. But whoever is designing their fashion accessories is also selling pieces on Boticca.com. The London-based startup that launched it’s high-end designer marketplace in October 2010 has been getting quite a bit of attention from investors over the last few months. Finally, the team is announcing that it has closed a £1.5… → Read More
I’m trying to put this thing into a position where I can really test it out but basically it’s a wireless hard drive. It’s called the Seagate GoFlex Satellite and it contains a small battery, a 802.11g/n radio, and a 500GB hard drive. To use it, you connect it to a data source – your computer, NAS, etc. – and drag over files you might want to use or share with others. → Read More
Tech industry insider and Mobile Review Editor Eldar Murtazin hit us with what could be the most shocking bit of leaked Nokia news since his infamous N8 hands-on last year. What happened? This morning Murtazin posted some crucial information regarding the ongoing Microsoft/Nokia deal on his personal blog. → Read More
It’s no secret that eBay has been pushing a significant mobile strategy of late, and today the company is rolling out a new app in its mobile family—an eBay Motors iPhone app.
eBay said it made sense to launch a dedicated app for the Motors vertical (one of the company’s strongest auction place verticals) , which sells cars, parts and accessories, because the volume of purchases made via eBay’s… → Read More
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