It seems like it was just yesterday that the major airlines were finally dragged kicking and screaming into offering in-flight wi-fi. But now that it’s just another feature of flying, they’re going to be scrambling to differentiate or at least agree on what seems reasonable to offer. American is leading the pack this time, or so it says, by being the first to test streaming video services. → Read More
TechCrunch Disrupt winner Qwiki launched its iPad app in the App Store a less than a week ago and after 11 days has hit the quarter of a million downloads milestone. This is notable for an iPad app, especially when compared to other highly publicized iOS app milestones; It took iPhone app Instagram six days to hit 100K, SoundTracking two weeks to hit 250K and FourSquare a whopping seven months to… → Read More
A few weeks ago, a video entered wide circulation in the tech press for two reasons: 1) it featured lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Apple employees talking about their difficulties growing up. And 2) it was very, very well made. But the truth is that the It Gets Better Project has been around since last September, when columnist and author Dan Savage kicked things off with his own… → Read More
One upon a time, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer interrupted a speech at a developer’s conference with a chant that would set the Internet ablaze. “Developers, developers, developers, developers” was quickly put on the web and just as quickly mixed, remixed, and placed on the mantle of pure Internet gold. But to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever crafted an actual song around it.
Until now. → Read More
Mousepads haven’t really advanced much for a long time, but it’s worth noting when a nice one like Razer’s Goliathus gets a little tweak. They’ve added a little edge reinforcement to the things so they don’t fray. I found that the greater danger to cloth mats after a long time is dirt and oil soaking in and making it overly reflective (not all sensors are good for… → Read More
If you have even the slightest hint of a creative streak, you may be interested in COLOURlovers, a startup whose products let you easily express yourself using shapes and colors, even if you aren’t particularly good at it. The Y Combinator-backed company has built up a community around creating color palettes, a matching iPhone app, and even a tool for sprucing up your Twitter profile. And now… → Read More
Peer-to-peer education startup Skillshare, which just launched in April, raised a $550,000 angel round, according to an SEC filing. Investors in the New York City startup include Founder Collective, SV Angel, Collaborative Fund, David Tisch, and Scott Heiferman.
Skillshare is a community where people can offer classes to other members. People sign up online, and meet in person for real classes… → Read More
We recently reviewed the Zoom Q3HD, a pocket cam (like your Flips and Playsports) with a little extra love given to the audio side of things. Olympus has decided to take that route as well with its new LS-20M… a pocket cam with a little extra love given to the audio side of things. What, I said it was the same route. → Read More
Dell finally made the M18x official last month. The 16lbs gaming *air quotes* notebook went on sale earlier today and can be spec’d out to the max. Prices start out at $1999, but that’s for the basic model and as we all know, basic models are for chumps. → Read More
Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Sleep! Go visit a hobby shop to play D&D Encounters! This kinder, gentler version of D&D is designed to allow relative noobs to experience the thrill of pretending to be a paladin. D&D Encounters is, in essence, a way to play a quick, single adventure in one or two hours with a dedicated DM. You type your ZIP code here and reserve a slot. Then you head… → Read More
Remember the LG enV Pro? Intended to launch back in November 2010 on Verizon as the first clamshell Android device, it sort of just… disappeared. Nearly 6 months after its first lap around the rumor mill, we’ve yet to see a thing.
While VZW may have scrapped it (or just delayed it indefinitely) for reasons unknown, it looks like LG hasn’t given up on it just yet; this morning, the enV Pro is… → Read More
Ever since late last year, LG has been struggling against the worldwide menace of LCD bezels. I think it’s great, personally — thin-bezel displays means nice multi-monitor setups, more efficient use of space, etc. Their new Blade notebooks mostly use it to look cool, but there ain’t nothing wrong with that, either. → Read More
Social networking is definitely no longer targeting just the young adult demographic – and Kima Ventures wants a piece of the larger social networking pie. Xavier Niel and Jérémie Berrebi’s seed fund has just announced a $150K investment in YellowBrck, a Foursquare-like social network for parents. → Read More
Google has seven major product groups. Advertising, Commerce & Local, Mobile (Android), Social, Chrome, YouTube and Search. Search is, of course, Google’s first and most important product. But that group actually no longer exists internally. As of April, when Larry Page took over as CEO of the company, the search group was renamed the “knowledge group” internally.
Google confirms the change. → Read More
We heard yesterday that Sunday night’s announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death drew the highest sustained rate of tweets ever according to Twitter and Google has revealed an impressive stat showing the impact of the event on Google search.
Google says that between 7:30 and 8:30 pm PST (which was right around the time the news broke over Twitter), Google saw an one million percent increase in… → Read More
Netflix is blowing the doors off its business, with $3 billion in annualized revenue and a $12 billion market cap driven by the transition to streaming online video. In terms of hours watched, streaming surpassed DVDs for Netflix in the fourth quarter, but CEO Reed Hastings has been preparing for this moment for more than decade. The name Netflix itself always held the promise of movies… → Read More
Poor, poor Michael Scott. Just days after he finally gathered up the gusto to leave Dunder-Mifflin, ol’ Scranton, PA is at long last getting support for T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network. Sure, Holly is cute and all — but come on, it’s 21 megabit per second wireless data! Surely that’d have been enough to make him stay? Maybe? Hopefully? Dang it, Steve Carell, just come back. Also… → Read More
Google Ad chief Susan Wojcicki has some advice for Web companies wondering if their products will be a success. Reminiscing about the early days of AdSense to Steven Levy at Wired’s business conference here in New York City, she says: “You know really soon if your product is going to be successful. That is what I love about the Web. When we turned on AdSense, within the first hour we had people… → Read More
Way back at TechCrunch 50 2008 we saw the launch of GoPlanIt, a startup that looked to help you generate a travel itinerary in just a few clicks. The company was addressing a problem that everyone has, and while it was entering a crowded space, it looked like it had some potential. And then the market went to hell, startup funding dried up, and people stopped traveling. So founder Steve Chen (not… → Read More
Just in time for Mother’s Day, co-founders Antoine Grant and Stuart Felkner are launching responsibly, a gift giving platform with a social good component. responsibly (yes, small “r”) is basically a daily deals site that lets you donate 100% of an item’s purchase price to US public schools in need of project supplies and funds.
responsibly allows you to choose the specific education project… → Read More
Hey, remember those Italian guys who spent 2 years trying to get their startup funded in Italy and raised $101K in 19 days when they arrived in the States? There’s a tendency on this side of the Atlantic to criticize European investors but it turns out they may not be so different from their American counterparts after all. The proof? It has just surfaced that Jimmy Fairly – a brand new “buy one… → Read More
It’s exactly like the Colorware version of the original iPad just with the iPad 2. You follow? They’ll paint yours for $400 or you can order a new one directly from Colorware starting at $900. → Read More
This fighter-size UAV is called the Phantom Ray and may have played a part in the recent events in Pakistan. Designed around the Boeing X-45, this UAV recently flew to 7,500 feet at 204 mph and has been spotted making flights in Afghanistan as well as test flights at Edwards AFB. → Read More
Xobni, the social email plugin that makes your inbox smarter, is going to make your Outlook email more productive today with the launch of a Gadget Store with apps from collaboration and productivity services such as Dropbox, Evernote, JIRA, Klout, Salesforce, WebEx, and Yammer.
Xobni’s social email plugins essentially makes your e-mail smarter (Xobni is inbox spelled backwards). The plugin… → Read More
Things are looking up all over. Sirius just reported that they had a great quarter thanks to new car sales. They are up 118% new subscribers from Q1 2010 and hit 20 million subscribers, up 2 million from the same period last year.
Subscriber growth accelerates. Strong auto sales drove net subscriber additions in the first quarter of 2011 to 373,064, up 118% from 171,441 in the first quarter of… → Read More
Friendfund, the group payments startup that lets friends club together to make a purchase, has announced an undisclosed round of funding from a group on Angel investors described as, well, friends (I’m not making this up). The investment was led by Bjoern von Siemens in partnership with Linden VC.
However, cheesy PR aside, Friendfund is operating in an increasingly crowded and hot space right… → Read More
These days there are records for being the first person to the office, or finding the biggest pebble on your driveway, so let’s not freak out here, but Guinness World Records has indeed confirmed that LG’s Optimus 2x is the world’s first dual-core smartphone. You and I knew that already, of course — we already reviewed the thing, and confirmed it’s the most powerful… → Read More
As if the real product, the Kohler Numi, isn’t crazy enough with it’s remote control and $6400 price tag. But really, I’m all for a panini maker in the bathroom. I knew something was missing from my lunchtime baths. Video after the jump. → Read More
Some people like mice. Other people like trackpads. Apple likes both as long as they come with their credit cards.
The updated iMacs offer both as options for no additional cost. During the build process, buyers are presented with the option of either the the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, or, for an extra $69, they could get both. The standard Apple Mouse is also available for those not digging… → Read More
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