When Lion was released, we linked to a page detailing how to create your own bootable Lion drive. But if you absolutely must have a GUI and don’t want to go mucking around in the app package, you might find this little tool useful. → Read More
It’s been a few months now since HTC CEO Peter Chou announced that the company will no longer be locking bootloaders on their devices, and enthusiasts have had nothing to show for it. Many of HTC’s recent devices are still locked up tight, prompting many to wonder when they would deliver on their promise. Thanks to an updated Facebook post and a well-timed tweet, though, we now have the… → Read More
If there is one thing I could say about most websites, it is that they are ugly. I mean really. Just atrocious. There are generally so many things going wrong that we have all had to completely reconfigure our expectations just to exist in this noisy, cluttered, pixelated world. It’s difficult to stretch one’s mind far enough to even imagine what the web would look like with the clarity and… → Read More
Gleaning electricity from radio signals isn’t super-efficient (or a new concept), but it’s possible technically. Two companies from Japan have recently come up with new devices that can do just that: one is harvesting energy from cell phone signals, the other uses a rectifying antenna (Rectenna) to produce energy. → Read More
Two big pieces of news today in the Zynga/Vostu lawsuit (details on lawsuit here and here). In addition to that first lawsuit filed in California, Zynga also quietly sued Vostu on its home turf in Brazil (lawsuit embedded below, but it’s in Portugese).
Zynga dragged Google into that lawsuit, apparently because Orkut, popular in Brazil, is hosting the Vostu games that Zynga says are ripoffs. … → Read More
Facebook has confirmed to us that Mark Zuckerberg’s sister Randi Zuckerberg will be leaving Facebook to start her own social media consulting company RtoZMedia.
The other Zuckerberg had spent six years at Facebook, becoming Director of Marketing in 2009 and leading the company’s Facebook Live programs among other social media-ey initiatives. → Read More
Wow. Clearwire has just dropped a bit of a bombshell today, so I’ll spare you my usual theatrics: the operators of the nation’s first 4G network, having sensed the momentum that its LTE rival is gaining, has announced that they will add “LTE Advanced-ready” technology to its previously WiMax-only 4G service. → Read More
Love them or hate them, one thing holds true of Facebook games: they’re crazy addictive. So addictive, in fact, that full-grown adults are having trouble pulling themselves away from the social network, all because of a few virtual strawberries.
Luckily, a new iPad app has emerged that will let you play some of your favorite Flash-based Facebook games outside where the sun shines, instead of… → Read More
Tesla has released their shareholder statement for Q2 2011, and while it doesn’t make for the most exciting reading, it’s at least full of fairly good news. They’ve been on cruise control for quite a while now, if you will, designing and testing their Model S sedan, but there are plenty of pitfalls that could have afflicted the process, techniques and technologies that could have failed to pan… → Read More
gocarshare.com, a car-sharing website that helps passengers find drivers who are travelling to similar locations and vice versa, has launched an iPhone app. Aimed a Summer festival goers, the app maps your current location and displays a list of nearby people to share a car with. Let’s hope they’re all friendly. → Read More
Would you even consider buying a car online? FinanceAcar thinks a lot of people actually will, in time, and has built an online car marketplace and price comparison website to cater to their needs.
The company today announced that it has raised a round of financing, the size of which was not disclosed, from Anthemis Group and angel investors like Dominic Collins (former Group Director of… → Read More
Internet services company Web.com has acquired domain registrar and hosting provider Network Solutions for $405 million in cash plus 18 million shares of Web.com stock, valuing the transaction as $560.8 million
Network Solutions, which is currently owned by private equity firm General Atlantic, provides domain registration, e-commerce, search engine optimation, other online promotion services… → Read More
It’s an established fact that tweeting about your breakfast is a serious faux pas, on par with ‘Liking’ your own Facebook status update. However, recent trends indicate that tweeting a photo of your breakfast is perfectly acceptable, and in some cases, even encouraged. Your friends don’t want to read about your oatmeal — but they’d love to see it with their own eyes, preferably after it’s… → Read More
In the past, I’ve been critical of Google for trying to dance around directly calling out their competitors who are actively attempting to screw them. Today, they’re no longer dancing.
In a post just put up on the main Google Blog, Google SVP and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond takes shot after shot at Google’s competitors. By name, he calls out Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle. What’s this all… → Read More
Web measurement firm Comscore has acquired online ad verification service Adxpose for $22 million. Originally founded as Mpire in 2005, the Seattle-based startup switched from a widget advertising platform called WidgetBucks to an ad campaign measurement tool last year when it recapitalized with a $3 million infusion from DFJ and Ignition Partners. The $22 million purchase price is roughly equal… → Read More
The world of ‘tag management’ is not exactly a sexy one, but it’s vital for working out the stats and analytics around web sites. These days sites can be running hundreds of tags tracking advertising and pretty much everything you can think of. The problem is, if you open the hood it’s a mess in there, and nearly all of these tags are proprietary. So what if someone just open-sourced the tag… → Read More
This past June, we noted that Instagram hit a big milestone: 5 million users. At the time, the total number of photos shared on the service was at 95 million, and given the rate of growth, they expected to pass 100 million shortly. Well, they missed pointing out that milestone, but today, not even two months later, they’re pointing out another one: 150 million photos.
That’s 150 million photos… → Read More
Broadcast services company Red Bee Media is acquiring a UK tech company, TV Genius, which has a content discovery platform for personalisation, search, recommendations and enhanced TV guides. The price has not been disclosed but we understand it’s between £5m and £8m. → Read More
While the idea of a reunited Korea is one that never dies, it’s also one that seems rather unlikely in the short term. Well thanks to the work of augmented reality artist Mark Skwarek, tourists and South Korean nationals are afforded a glimpse of what was, and someday may be. → Read More
Whose tweets lead to more actual sales, Ashton Kutcher’s or Kevin Rose’s? The answer is not immediately obvious. Kutcher boasts 7.3 million Twitter followers to Rose’s 1.3 million, but a recent promotion run by design shopping site Fab.com suggests that raw numbers don’t always translate to more sales.
Both Kutcher and Rose recently tweeted out a link that gave their followers $10 off any… → Read More
Thus spoke Howard Hartenbaum, a partner at August Capital, when he sat down with me last week at our Mobile First CrunchUp event in Palo Alto. For Hartenbaum, who admitted to being “tired” of being pitched “social” start-ups, mobile is the inevitable future of digital businesses – so inevitable, indeed, that he thinks the word will eventually disappear because it will become so… → Read More
Now this is what we call weird. It would be one thing if Netflix accidentally activated its (currently illegal) Facebook “Share” button. But it’s looking like Netflix accidentally posted a “Don’t Share This” Facebook button. Curious? Entirely. Let’s delve deeper. → Read More
After Pioneer decided to shut down its TV business in 2009, Hitachi yesterday announced they are ready to stop producing and outsourcing all production of TVs to makers in Taiwan and other Asian countries. And even though Hitachi said they will continue selling TVs in the future, this sounds very much like a long goodbye. → Read More
Skype’s been popping up in headlines recently, mostly because of their “will they/won’t” they iPad app release. While it’s true that Apple’s iOS is a huge priority for companies looking to expand into the mobile space, let’s not forget that Microsoft paid out a cool $8.5 billion to pick up the communication juggernaut this past May. The big question, then, is where is the love for… → Read More
German VC firm, Earlybird caught some flack last month with their nonsense presentation claiming that European VC was outperforming the US.
Sarah Lacy and Mike Butcher comprehensively dismantled the claims here and then Bessemer Venture Partners’ David Cowan followed up, highlighting the amusing fact that the report was actually based on the work of Earlybird’s summer intern.
In this… → Read More
Remember when Google was hacked by Chinese spies about 18 months ago? Well, that just scratched the surface of some of the more serious and persistent hacking operations over the past few years. In a detailed blog post that is both eye-opening and a brilliant piece of marketing, McAfee’s VP of Threat Research Dmitri Alperovitch lays out the details of Operation Shady RAT (Remote Access Tool), an… → Read More
As we heard earlier this Spring, American Airlines became one of the first North American airlines to begin testing Gogo’s in-flight streaming video to personal devices for passengers. Today, the company is announcing a broader roll out of the new entertainment product to its entire fleet of 767 aircrafts, mainly on routes between New York’s JFK, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
We’ve also… → Read More
Nissan Leaf owners, take note. The Leaf companion app is now available in both Android and BlackBerry flavors. These smartphone apps follow the steps of the iOS version that launched alongside the Leaf earlier this year. All the key features are here: battery level meter, charging schedule, estimated range, and climate control functions.
The apps themselves are free to download, owning a Leaf… → Read More
Storm8 is about to become an even bigger powerhouse in mobile gaming.
We’re hearing from multiple sources that the development shop, which focuses exclusively on mobile games, is raising a massive round in the ballpark of $300 million — at a $1 billion valuation. It’s not totally clear who is investing, but we’re hearing that the deal includes Accel Partners and Technology Crossover… → Read More
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