One of the minor but noteworthy things Nokia announced today at its Nokia World event in London is the release of an updated version of its augmented reality browser Live View, previously available in early beta. You can download the app here.
Note that the app is still in beta, but the updated version brings many goodies if you’re into the whole augmented reality thing (and if you use a compatible Nokia phone). → Read More
It’s nice and early in London, and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has finally put to rest months of speculation today by unveiling Nokia’s first batch of Windows Phones at the Nokia World conference. It’s been a long time coming — news of a Nokia/Microsoft partnership first broke back in February — but Nokia has at long last debuted the Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800. → Read More
Red Gate this morning announced that it has acquired Cerebrata, an India-based maker of tools that helps developers build applications that run on Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform. In fact, Cerebrate is not only a Microsoft partner but also one of their BizSpark startups.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we’re told Cerebrata will continue to operate its own website and services, and its development team will be kept in place for the ‘foreseeable future’. → Read More
We’re all waiting for Nokia to unveil their new Windows Phones already, but Nokia’s clearly going to make us wait a bit longer. The Nokia Asha series is the first to take the stage, and according to Nokia’s Blanca Juti, it’s all about being “affordable, irresistable, and easy to use.” → Read More
Here are some highlights of yesterday’s posts on TechCrunch Gadgets: → Read More
Exclusive - Kik is today launching new Symbian and Windows Phone apps at the Nokia World event in London.
The nifty cross-platform messaging app is making its debut on Symbian, albeit in private beta, and the Windows Phone 7 has been updated and redesigned specifically for version 7.5 (Mango). → Read More
The Linux Foundation is rocking out in Prague this week and they’ve got some interesting news to share. In addition to adding five new European members and the one year anniversary of the Foundation’s Yocto Project, they’re announcing their “Long Term Support Initiative” to foster a stable kernel release suitable for use in consumer electronic devices. It aims to provide “both an annual release of a Linux kernel suitable for supporting the lifespan of consumer electronics products and regular updates of those releases for two years.” The list of companies involved in the LTSI is a list of household CE names: Hitachi, LG Electronics, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, Sony, Toshiba. → Read More
I’m no proponent of cheap phones (after a few years of monthly dues, that money you save up front is a drop in the bucket) — but if you insist, T-Mobile’s got a new one for you. They’ve just announced the Exhibit 4G II, a mid-range Android handset that’ll set you back just $30 with contract — or, if you’re looking to steer clear of commitments, a still rather-wallet-friendly $200. → Read More
Viewing web video content on three different devices is likely to yield three different outcomes. Even if it’s possible to get the whole video to play properly, often there are inconsistencies in how the player reports itself, how the video is requested and cached, and how it is filtered or displayed. It’s bad enough for a user, but for advertising it could be fatal. If you can’t guarantee the content, how can you guarantee the ad?
Brightcove is taking this problem head-on with a new set of HTML5-compatible “smart players” and an ecosystem that tries to recognize and account for the discrepancies between Webkit renderers, OSes, and so on. → Read More
Re- live the awesome and way too brief cameo by Googler Marissa Mayer in “Ed Lee: 2 Legit 2 Quit” over and over and over again with this cascade of jazzy gifs. It’s nothing short of mesmerizing.
Sidenote: There is no way in hell this will make Techmeme.
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It wouldn’t be right to say that the ever-popular Macworld Expo has been struggling, exactly, but ever since Apple stopped being an official attendee, they have perhaps been struggling for identity. The old de facto Apple conference and expo has become a second-string event, with Apple focusing on retail and much of the ecosystem revolving around software.
With this in mind, the expo has decided to dig in and rebrand. First, a change of clothes: “The brand is evolving from Macworld [Expo] to Macworld|iWorld to illustrate that the show is about the whole ecosystem of Apple products,” says the expo’s general manager, Paul Kent. The pipe and double name are, I’m guessing, a temporary compromise designed to introduce the new name without spooking longtime attendees. → Read More
Atlassian, the enterprise software company, has really hit its stride over the last few years. Founded in 2002 in Sydney, the company has today built a solid base of 26,000 customers, which include some big names like Facebook, Zynga, Cisco, and Adobe. In July of last year, the startup raised $60 million from Accel to scale and ramp up M&A. Since then, the company has bought Bitbucket and SourceTree to allow developers to host their source code in Bitbucket (or any other hosting platform) and then manage that source using SourceTree.
Since the beginning, Atlassian’s goal has been to create software development and collaboration tools that enable enterprise teams to quickly and easily plan, build, and launch products. The startup’s flagship software products, like JIRA and Confluence, let software development teams take advantage of issue and project tracking in an effort to improve speed of development and code quality as well as giving those teams a single place collaborate, share, and discuss files, minutes, specs, mockups, diagrams, etc. → Read More
Google has already confessed that the Nexus S would get the Ice Cream Sandwich update, but if you’re not the type to wait — and really, who is these days? — you can load up a mostly complete version of Android 4.0 right now.
Yep, thanks to some intrepid folks on the xda-developer forums, you too can enjoy Ice Cream Sandwich on the Nexus S before its official release. Before you dive into the deep end though, be aware that your device has to be rooted before you can take part. → Read More
Twitter is testing out new design changes which makes the main Twitter timeline expandable so that you can see media and related information right in the timeline instead of off to the side or clicking off to another page. We’ve gotten a couple of reports about this change, which only a few people are seeing, (and Twitter confirms it is a “small test”). Patrick Bisch of Pinglio blogged about the changes and even made a screencast (which you can watch below).
The changes are subtle, but they manage to simplify an already simple service. You can “open” up a tweet to see how many people retweeted it, the threaded conversation related to that tweet, or related photos and videos. For instance, here is a screenshot of a reply tweet along with the original tweet
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Amazon’s third quarter profits are down a stunning 73 percent. The stock is getting slammed in after-hours trading (down $28 right now). And yet revenues were up 44 percent to $10.9 billion and on the conference call today Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak says, “We expect to have a record quarter in terms of device sales in Q4.”
As well it should. Amazon announced a new line of Kindles in September, including a tablet, the Kindle Fire. Orders for the new Kindles are double what they were the last time Amazon launched a new line, and it is “building millions more” Kindle Fires than it had anticipated, according to CEO Jeff Bezos. So where did all the money go?
Amazon is ramping up investments in the backend infrastructure to support all the digital media it expects people will want to consume on their Kindles, especially their Kindle Fires. It is spending a lot of money on both technology and content. → Read More
We’re big fans of the home 3D printer here. It’s a truly disruptive technology, though for now the cost is still a bit too high, and the uses aren’t quite practical enough, for it to be a household item just yet. But that hasn’t stopped people from putting it to good use.
Project Shellter is one of the most interesting applications of the technology I’ve seen. The project aims to produce artificial shells for hermit crabs using a MakerBot, which would otherwise have to be supplied by harvesting spare shells from the ocean. It sounds a bit precious, yes, but it’s indicative of a promising trend of using fabrication tech for novel and helpful purposes. → Read More
IBM’s board of directors has just named Virginia M. Rometty as the company’s new CEO and president, replacing Samuel J. Palmisano, who currently is IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. Palmisano will remain chairman of the board. Rometty will become CEO effective January 1, 2012.
Rometty was previously senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy. Rometty joined IBM in 1981 as a systems engineer. She was previously senior vice president of IBM Global Business Services, and then was promoted to global sales leader. In her most recent role with Big Blue, She is accountable for revenue, profit, and client satisfaction in the 170 global markets and for the company’s worldwide sales results, which exceeded $99 billion in 2010. → Read More
Amazon reported third quarter earnings today. Net income decreased 73% to $63 million in the third quarter, or $0.14 per diluted share, compared with net income of $231 million, or $0.51 per diluted share, in third quarter 2010. The e-commerce giant missed Wall Street expectations; analysts expected a profit of $0.25 cents per share on $10.91 billion in revenue.
Net sales increased 44% to $10.88 billion in the third quarter, compared with $7.56 billion in third quarter 2010. Operating income was $79 million in the third quarter, compared with $268 million in third quarter 2010.
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