This TokyoFlash concept watch looks like it might be great for motorcyclists and other folks who have their wrists at eye-level most of the day. The watch has a digital display that is almost unreadable head on but appears, magically, when looked at at an angle. → Read More
I’ve never really been a fan of anything “rugged” — all that heft and rubber tends to push me in another direction. However, the Motorola Defy for T-Mobile did spark my interest with its bright, sharp screen, nice size and shape, and the ability to swim.
This was a strong seller for T-Mobile priced at just $100 on-contract (and $50 elsewhere). But according to TIMN, the Defy’s successor (being called the Defy+) will be more suited for T-Mobile’s betrothed than for the pink carrier itself, sporting AT&T’s 850 / 1900 / 2100 HSPA bands. → Read More
Are you friends with your local barkeep, barista, or leather salesman? We&Co is a way to let them know you care. This iPhone app, launched on July 15, allows businesses to register their employees and then visitors can rate those employees (with an emphasis on positive criticism) and add them to your “favorite people” collection. Think of it as Yelp with considerably more granularity.
I suppose the question then is “Why?” Why use an app when you can thank them yourself? Well, presumably, the aggregate score will encourage others to frequent the employee’s place of business, thereby gaining them more tips and potential creepy stalkers. It also puts a name to the faces you see every day at your local eateries, drinkeries, and provisionaries. → Read More
With U.S. mobile ad revenues expected to hit $2.8 billion by 2015, according to BIA/Kelsey, it’s becoming pretty clear that mobile advertising is growing like gangbusters. This is largely thanks to the rising ubiquity of smartphones, as comScore showed in its May report, which included the eye-grabbing fact that 76.8 million Americans now own a smartphone.
Of course, the big players in mobile OSes, Android, iOS, RIM, Symbian, and Windows, continue to duke it out for market share, with Android currently leading the way. However, the most intense battle has been set between Android and iOS, and thanks to a nifty infographic from inneractive, the mobile ad mediation platform, we have a peek into which of the two is winning the battle over mobile advertising. → Read More
The board of directors of Verizon Communications has promoted COO Lowell McAdam to president and CEO of the company. Ivan Seidenberg will step down from the CEO role at the end of this month, completing a CEO succession plan that has been under way since last year. → Read More
Short Version
As a long-time fan of Olympus’ Micro 4/3s series of cameras, I came to the E-P3 expecting good things. I was not disappointed. The camera is like Mini Cooper or a Smart car: it gets you where you need to go, you have fun on the way, and the resulting savings in size, bulk, and, in some ways, price makes it a great second camera for a DSLR buff or a great first camera for someone just getting started in the world of removable lens shooters. → Read More
Diversion, a Los Angeles-based social gaming studio backed by Shawn Fanning and Michael Eisner – who are billed as ‘founding advisors’ – has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Google chairman Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures, Hearst Corporation and Eisner’s The Tornante Company. → Read More
Our sources in Turkey (local tech blog Webrazzi) tell us Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Tiger Global have invested between $25 million and $30 million in private shopping site Trendyol. → Read More
Sony is discontinuing yet another format: after killing the cassette Walkman last year and deciding to stop producing MiniDisc Walkmans just 2 weeks ago, the company today announced [JP] in Japan they won’t be supporting the 8mm video format anymore. Sony was one of the several Japanese and American (i.e. Polaroid) tech powerhouses that established the format format back in the 1980s.
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Back in the old days, if you wanted to record your Bruce-Springstein-esque yowlings in the comfort of your bedroom you had to use an old Tascam four track and slap down the music at a quality that was questionable at best.
Now, with the advent of micro-recorders like the Boss Micro BR BR-80, you can sound like a pro without much assistance. The device records to SD/SDHC and supports full eight-track recording, effects, as well as playback control so you can play along with your favorite records. You can also use this as an effects unit when connected to a PC or Mac via USB. It also includes a small condenser mic for recording quick audio sketches.
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After the discovery of a fake Apple store in Kunming, China caught the blogosphere’s attention, MICGadget ran down a selection of some of the more impressive fakes that have cropped up over the past few months, perhaps culminating in the Giger-esque egg pod version full of iPhones, Macs, and (though not for sale) the iPad 2.
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Yes, Apple had a massive quarter. But just how masive? This chart from Asymco puts Apple’s incredible revenue growth in perspective. Apple grew revenues by 82 percent last quarter, which is unprecedented growth for a company of its size with $28.6 billion in quarterly revenues.
As you can see from the chart, nearly all the growth in sales is coming from the iPhone (gray) and the iPad (blue). In fact, 71 percent of Apple’s sales and 78 percent of its profits now come from iOS devices. And the iPad alone is cannibalizing Mac sales. → Read More
Earlier today, Google started banning brands who had signed up for Google+ profiles when they weren’t supposed to. Some were outraged by this, but the truth is that Google has said from the beginning that Google+ was meant for real people only for now, and that brand/company support would be coming. This is why TechCrunch hasn’t set up a Google+ account. Google asked us to wait. So, we waited.
Like total schmucks.
Turns out, Google is actually just fine with letting those brands/companies keep the accounts they set up, as long as a person is assigned to the account. Or something. Further, they’re now re-thinking the whole brand thing in general. → Read More
After warning people about it for weeks, Google began enforcing its ban on all Google business profiles this morning, to much consternation from, well, businesses. Yes Google did warn people at the launch of Google+ that any non-human pages would be killed and that people shouldn’t be surprised that the pages were killed…
But of course, like when anything is axed on the Internet, people were up in arms. Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan wrote an “Open Letter To Google+ On The Subject Of Brand Pages” and, emboldened, my colleague MG Siegler wrote the elegantly titled “Fucktard+.” → Read More
Nearbuy Systems, the maker of indoor positioning solutions, announced today that it has raised $1 million in seed funding. The seed round was led by Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, Innovation Endeavors, and Metamorphic Ventures. The funding will be used to bring Nearbuy’s technology to retail stores across the U.S.
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A few minutes ago, the Instagram team noticed their servers blowing up. What happened? Were they under attack? DDoS? No.
Bieber happened.
Yes, Justin Bieber just signed up for Instagram. And he tweeted out his first picture to his 11 million+ followers. The result? Boom.
After I saw the tweet, I reached out to Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, and he confirmed the massive influx as a result of Bieber. He us Bieber is gaining about 50 followers a minute at this point. All thanks to one picture. Of traffic. It has 234 likes already. And that number is also rapidly growing. Systrom says he’s also getting one comment every 10 seconds or so. These numbers are unprecedented for the already popular photo-sharing service. → Read More
Google Places looks different. It is cleaner, and there is a much bigger emphasis on user reviews and photos. And not just any reviews from all over the Web, but reviews written by Google users themselves. This should be a welcome change to third-party sources of reviews like Yelp and TripAdviser who have long complained that Google was building Google Places on the backs of their content while at the same time trying to replace them.
Now Google Places no longer shows those reviews on Places pages for a specific venue, nor does it count them in the total number of reviews which it shows for each place. Instead, it links to the reviews from sites like Yelp, Zagat, and Citysearch separately and breaks out total review counts for each site. → Read More
Earlier today, Microsoft reported their Q4 numbers. They were good — a record for the quarter, even. And because it was the end of their fiscal year, Microsoft also stated their yearly numbers. Those were even better. The big number: $69.94 billion in revenue for the year. A new record for the company. Yes, for all the talk of Microsoft being in decline, they made more money than ever before.
But if those numbers are a “wow!”, then what do we call rival Apple’s numbers? I think we have to call them “holy shit!” → Read More
