Hey, remember back in the old days when you could post a picture on Twitter and not have it ransacked by news organisations and picture agencies? Yeah, those days are gone. All these picture sharing apps are looking lovingly at the feed of images coming in and licking their lips. Whether you like it or not, one day these apps will have to monetize and there is gold in them there photos…
So… → Read More
Motorola officially stated the WiFi Xooms would get Android 3.1 in “the coming weeks” but some owners are already seeing the update. Clearly YMMV but here’s our take on Android 3.1. Moto’s press statement on the matter is after the jump. → Read More
Today during the press Q&A after the Chrome OS/Chromebook keynote, Google co-founder Sergey Brin joined the panel to share his thoughts on the new products and Google in general. Since the end goal of Chrome OS is clearly to end Windows dominance both in the workplace and the world in general, someone asked what percentage of Google employees still use Windows machines at work?
“I’d probably… → Read More
One of the most popular games in the history of computer gaming is making its way over to Facebook this summer, as Sid Meier attempts to transform his ultra-popular Civilization series into Civ World. All of the core components of Meier’s original Civilization series, which earned him the title of “Father of Computer Gaming,” will still be present in Civ World, but the Facebook environment… → Read More
To me, the most interesting aspect of Google’s Chromebook unveiling today may have been a sort of rallying cry that was more or less whispered. At first when Chrome head Sundar Pichai said it on stage, I was sure he’d get an ear-full from the Google PR team and that would be that. But when he said it again in the press Q&A.
Users are free to jailbreak and hack Chromebooks. In fact, Google… → Read More
This is just crazy. The Xoom, which was supposed to be Google’s pet Honeycomb tablet, came out three months ago and the microSD card slot still doesn’t work. Oh, it’s not a Android or Honeycomb thing. The slot works fine in every other Honeycomb tablet. It’s a Motorola thing and it’s ridiculous.
Updates have came and gone and none of them including the brand new Android 3.1 update allows the Xoom… → Read More
One of the most important pieces in the Android ecosystem is Android Market — Google’s application storefront that comes pre-installed on the vast majority of Android devices. Yes, there are third-party markets (Amazon launched a rival in March), but with 4.5 billion app installs so far, the official Market is where most of the action is. Today at a breakaway session at Google I/O, Eric Chu… → Read More
Headed off to the beach? Don’t forget your big, black bulky watch! MWave has a few special deals on Casio digital watches with atomic timekeeping functions and high-test cases. They range from $50 to $70 and one even has analog hands for that classic look. → Read More
Earlier this week, I spent a most enjoyable day at the SFMusicTech Summit, the Bay Area’s top Internet music event put on by the digital impressario Brian Zisk. The highpoint for me of the summit was interviewing Brandon Boyd and Mike Einziger from the chart topping rock band Incubus.
From Einziger’s limousine jokes to Boyd’s confession on “feeling dirty” about self-promotion to both… → Read More
Facebook has launched a new feature today for photo tagging that is sure to make brands and celebs happy. Now, you can tag photos with a brand, product, company or person’s Facebook page, similar to the way you tag your friends in photos.
Facebook says that a Page can be tagged anywhere that someone can view a photo in the photo viewer. These photos will appear on the Photos tab on the Page, and… → Read More
Consumer solid-state drives will be all the rage in 2012, according to research firm Gartner, which claims that falling prices will make SSDs a primary storage option for everyday consumers.
Roughly a year from now, in the second half of 2012, Gartner predicts that mainstream PC SSD prices will drop to just $1 per gigabyte, which means that the product will fall within Joe Sixpack’s budget. → Read More
The more time (and money) that you invest in a music streaming service like Spotify, building playlists, adding favourites and so forth, the more locked in to that service you potentially become. But it doesn’t have to be that way, says Scandinavian competitor WiMP (operated by Aspiro), which today introduces import and export of playlists along with a call to the industry to settle on a standard… → Read More
Google has updated the web portal for Android Market with app suggestions, which are generated based on others’ downloads. Basically, every time you install an app, the Android Market will offer up a few applications that other people (who’ve downloaded the application you just installed) have also chosen. → Read More
Combining a Netduino Plus and a Geiger counter kit, a technical program manager at Microsoft named Fabien Royer created a tweeting radiation level monitor. Royer claims that his experience in France during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster has made him a bit tense when it comes to matters of radiation poisoning and government transparency. According to Royer, the French government downplayed the… → Read More
Google Product VP Sundar Pichai announced today at Google I/O that the Chromebooks functionality for consumers will be expanded for businesses. According to Pichai, more than 50% of IT companies today are still running the ten-year-old Windows XP software despite the fact that it will be phased out in 2014. In addition, that fact that users are increasingly using their laptops to move in and out… → Read More
While it hasn’t always been clear just how big of a bet Google was going to make on Chrome OS, after Google I/O today, it seems very clear that they’re very serious. With the launch of Chromebooks, Google is aiming to strike right at the heart of Microsoft and the Windows stronghold. But they know that one big hold up remains before a browser-based OS can be everywhere: offline access.
With that… → Read More
Vacation rentals giant HomeAway has made an acquisition today—social vacation rentals platform Second Porch. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Second Porch, which launched in 2009, helps you find and share vacation rentals through your social circle on Facebook. The site’s Facebook app allows owners create a free property listing that can be broadcast to your Facebook friends. The app also… → Read More
We’ve been pretty patient, waiting around for a manufacturer to step up to the challenge that the iPad 2 presents to all tablet makers, but it seems that the wait may be coming to a close with Huadian’s latest project: an iPad 2 clone.
Huadian claims that its iPad 2 look-alike will have the same 8.8mm thickness as Apple’s smash-hit slate, will feature a 9.7-inch capacitive screen. Huadian… → Read More
The Google Chromebook is here — for real, this time. Google first announced the nondescript Cr-48 Chrome OS Notebook back in December of 2010 but the production version, now called Chromebook, was just announced at Google I/O 2011.
The idea is the same as the original in that it’s basically a barebones computer that runs Google Chrome OS. In many ways the philosophy is a lot like Apple’s iPad… → Read More
“One of the reasons we’ve been angry is that we haven’t been able to bring Angry Birds to the web,” a Rovio developer noted on stage today at Google I/O. Well guess what? Thanks to the Chrome Web Store, it’s finally here.
And that’s not all. Google’s Sundar Pichai also had some more to share about the Chrome Web Store. In the first three months since launch, they’ve seen 17 million app… → Read More
Using WebGL complete with local storage, you will soon be able to play Angry Birds online or offline in your Chrome browser. The game plays at a full 60 frames per second – more than sufficient for the high-res experience that is Angry Birds. → Read More
BillShrink, a service that wants to provide consumers with the best deals on their common purchases like a phone bill, credit card bill or TV service, is announcing the addition of four new features to its Statement Rewards product, which is an integration of the BillShrink platform into users’ online bank statements, allowing consumers to get rewards recommendations for their… → Read More
Alan Chang, president of the up-and-coming ViewSonic, recently state that he expects tablets to replace 70% of the entrenched netbook market, a move that makes perfect sense. Netbooks were a strange mistake in the long timeline of computing equipment and the formerly niche tablets are about to push netbooks into the shadows. → Read More
America’s first pipeline-fed, retail hydrogen fueling station opened in Torrance, California, within Los Angeles county on Tuesday. The station will provide hydrogen for fuel cell and hybrid vehicles in the area. It was built through a joint effort by Toyota, Air Products and Shell alternative energies, with funding from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) and the U.S. → Read More
Chrome’s user base “more than doubled” in the past year with browser uptake increasing from 70 million to 160 million thanks to Linux, Windows, and OS X versions of the browser finally reaching parity. Google is touting speed and security as their major priorities with each Chrome release. → Read More
At Disrupt NYC, we’re all about startups. We’ve culled two dozen of the hottest startups from over 500 applicants to launch at the event (which starts May 23, get tickets here). We are also bringing startups well on their way to disrupting existing markets onstage to share their experiences.
Two sessions I am particularly excited about will bring the founders of Airbnb, Uber, and Quora to… → Read More
We’re here at Google’s I/O conference in San Francisco where we’re about to get a huge dose of Chrome. We suspect this will be the launch of Chrome OS. Tune in to our live notes below for all the details.
Google VP Sundar Pichai has taken the stage.
Last year announced that 70 million users were on the Chrome browser. They’re now at 160 million active users.
last year were at Chrome 4. Didn’t… → Read More
Remember a few months ago when you kind of cared about the Cisco Cius and then you realized it was just a little screen made for video meetings and wasn’t really a consumer device? Well, prepare for that realization again because AT&T is about to provide HSPA+ data service for this thing and presumably sell it to government and institutional buyers. → Read More
Boxee Box owners rejoice! It’s new firmware time! Boxee previously committed to a three month update cycle, which meant the next firmware was coming out sometime this month. Boxee just so happened to announce it this morning and it brings a world of changes to the little streamer including 16 new languages supported out of the box.
There’s so much more, though, too. The browser reportedly got a… → Read More
The horological highlight from Hublot this year was the long-named “Cathedral” Minute Repeater Tourbillon and Column Wheel Chronograph watch. In a King Power style case, this watch boasts a case formed out of carbon fiber and a very complex movement that has (Yup, you guessed it!) the time, a tourbillon, a minute repeater, and a chronograph. → Read More
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