How important is mobile to Facebook? Already, 350 million of its 800 million monthly active users are on mobile devices, and that number is just going to get bigger. “Fundamentally we view it as a really big shift for our company, as fundamental as the shift from desktop apps to the Internet,” Facebook CTO Bret Taylor tells me in the TCTV interview above (which was shot at the Web 2.0 Summit… → Read More
Is Jeff Bezos really like a “giant-brained alien?” In categorizing the Amazon founder’s unusual genius, Google (and former Amazon) engineer Steve Yegge compares Bezos and those like him to “hyper-intelligent aliens with a tangential interest in human affairs.” He is not trying to be disrespectful. He is just trying to explain how to go about pitching an idea to someone like Bezos. (The… → Read More
Like many of you I’ve been watching the steady stream of incremental Steve Jobs-related news stories for the past couple days, resulting from the imminent launch of Walter Issacson’s Jobs biography:
Jobs came up with the name Apple while on a fruitarian diet, he gave up Christianity at age 13, he loved King Lear, he was disappointed in President Obama, his first job was at Atari, he valued… → Read More
So I don’t seem biased, because I really don’t care, here’s the Call of Duty: Modern War 3 trailer. You know, the other first person shooter launching this fall, which has been mostly overshadowed by another. The trailer calls MW3 the most anticipated game in history but that’s certainly up for debate. However, Battlefield 3 couldn’t have stolen all of Call of Duty’s fans. It is the best-selling… → Read More
This stuff writes itself. At the grand opening of a new Windows Store in Seattle folks were camping out for most of the night only to stream in, breathlessly ready to partake in the one exciting product Microsoft could offer – a free concert by the Black Keys. → Read More
Steve Jobs was the ultimate showman. As such, it should be no surprise that he realized the power of following up a great performance with an encore. But unlike many musicians who treat encores as a given add-on for each show, Jobs seemed to recognize that encores are much more powerful if they’re used judiciously. The Steve Jobs encore was the “One more thing…” He didn’t use it all the time… → Read More
It transpires that the government of Nunavut, a remote territory of Canada between Hudson bay and Baffin bay, recently acquired some new digital cameras for the purpose of creating driver’s licenses. The files created by the cameras, presumably a handful of megabytes unless they’re using Hasselblads, were too big to be effectively emailed for processing due to the extreme limitations of internet… → Read More
We here at TechCrunch love startups, and we love the programs, networks, accelerators, and funds that help these startups grow and take over the world. There are a lot of them out there, and for entrepreneurs, it’s all about finding the right fit. First Growth Venture Network, also known as “FGVN” or “First Growth”, may not be as well known as awesome accelerators and incubators like Y Combinator… → Read More
When Facebook CTO Bret Taylor was in high school, he had a backpack covered in patches that helped him express who he was and what things he was interested in. He thinks that your Facebook page is becoming more and more like that backpack. It is a reflection of your identity: where you’ve been, what you are thinking, what music you listen to, and photos of yourself and your friends.
In the… → Read More
The author of several classic histories of pop music including Rip It Up And Start Again, Generation Ecstasy and Retromania, Simon Reynolds is as well placed as anyone to understand how the Internet has changed the music industry.
But while Reynolds might not go as far as critics like Jaron Lanier, he is nonetheless far from optimistic about the impact of the Internet on the music industry. As… → Read More
Is this a contrarian view? I can’t even tell any more. On one hand, Google Plus now has 40 million users, it’s the fastest-growing social-networking site in history, and its users have uploaded 3.4 billion photos. On the other, Google is mum about how many of those users are actually active; some say that its traffic has declined significantly from its peak; Google’s own management didn’t much use… → Read More
The Gillmor Gang — John Borthwick, Robert Scoble, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — rebounded from a seven and a half minute gap to explore the mysteries of the Siri platform. As machines give up being trained by us and reciprocate by rewarding us for compliant behavior, our gestures are being finetuned to a social pitch.
While no one was looking, Apple has provided a fresh and… → Read More
See Mr. Fauxcredible over there? He needs a name and Wyse wants to give an iPhone 4S to the reader who comes up with the best one for him.
Pocketcloud by Wyse is a remote desktop solution for IT folks and they’re trying to jazz up their marketing. To that end, they asked if I would “crowdsource” their mascot and ask you folks for some help. To enter, simply drop a name below in comments. Enter… → Read More
For the past week, I’ve been testing the alpha version of the Everpix service, which aims to automatically centralize and organize all your digital photos, both online and off. I’m happy to report that, so far, it works as advertised.
In case you missed it, Everpix, a creation of ex-Apple engineers, was one of this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt finalists. Using a small utility that runs on your… → Read More
OnLive offered a challenge to their community: Get 62,791 likes on its Facebook page and all users would get one game for $1. Well, OnLive’s fans came through, and as of this post’s writing, the Facebook page in question has 67,938 Likes. OnLive made good on its promise. Starting yesterday, all users will their next game for $1. Best yet, there isn’t any silly small print. All games currently… → Read More
San Francisco-based HiGear, a peer-to-peer car-sharing service focused on luxury vehicles, is expanding to L.A. starting November 1st. The move is part of the company’s continued expansion plans that will see it arrive in five additional markets, including Portland and San Diego, by year-end.
Unlike other car-sharing services, HiGear specializes in “high-end” auto brands only, including… → Read More
Twitter CEO and former improv comedian Dick Costolo gave an almost hour long talk at the opening dinner of Web 2.0 Summit this week, peppered with his own unique brand of humor and insight. → Read More
Five years ago, I was working for a Belgian company that published the only weekly IT magazine in the country, Data News. I was not a reporter, but in charge of its online media products. When it was announced that Microsoft founder Bill Gates would be coming to Brussels to, for the first time, pitch Windows Vista to enterprise customers and partners at the MS Business Innovation Event, I jumped… → Read More
Here are some of yesterday’s posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: → Read More
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