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    Devon Steampunk Tread 1 Watch Looks Like Something An Extraordinary Gentleman Would Wear

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    California-based watch maker Devon made a name for themselves a few years ago when they released the Tread 1. The modern looking electro-mechanical timepiece dazzled people with its tread-based system to indicate the time. It was large, highly unorthodox for a high-end timepieces, and a little crazy. A full review of the Devon Tread 1 is here.
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    May 25th, 2012

    Sweating The Small Stuff: Sotheby’s Selling Original Steve Jobs Note About Atari Circuit Improvements

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    The auction house Sotheby’s is selling an official memo from Steve Jobs to Atari about improving the World Cup Football game. The pages – stamped and signed by Jobs himself – describe circuit diagrams and paddle layouts. Delightfully, the stamp says “All-One Farm Design” and features a Buddhist mantra, “gate gate paragate parasangate bodhi svahdl.” As you do.
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    May 25th, 2012

    Gadget Of The Week: The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0

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    There are plenty of ways to get your flight school kicks with your smartphone or tablet — this missile shooting Griffin chopper comes to mind — but few manage to ooze as much style (or cost as much money) as Parrot’s AR.Drone 2.0.

    Getting the thing ready to fly is surprisingly simple. Once you’ve popped the battery into place, and turned the thing on, the Drone creates its own Wi-Fi network that the control device connects to. From there, just fire up the FreeFlight app on your iOS or Android device and you’re off to the races.
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    May 25th, 2012

    Talking (And Rocking) With gTar Creator Incident

    Sure, UberConference took home the Disrupt Cup and its accompanying $50,000 (giant) check. But it could be argued that Incident, makers of the gTar, had already won. The company’s Kickstarter project skyrocketed from $10,000 in funding before stepping on the Disrupt stage, to a current $220,000.

    This is big, considering that Disrupt is a web/software conference and a hardware startup went all the way to the very end. Even Michael Arrington was impressed, which says quite a bit. But none were more impressed or intrigued than myself, which is why I wrangled the Incident guys together backstage and begged and pleaded to play the gTar.

    Kindly, they obliged. → Read More

    May 25th, 2012

    Up Close With The Xetum Stinson

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    You no doubt are familiar with the Xetum brand, based out of California.  If not, just have a look over at to the side of the page. In the past, we’ve reviewed their Tyndall model; today, we’ll be taking a look at the Stinson.

    The Stinson presents as a very minimalistic three-hander, and it does it with style.  I say that for two reasons – first, it’s an extremely clean dial.  Second, the lugless design (well, to be honest, they’re hidden in the case) helps for a cleaner appearance. → Read More

    May 23rd, 2012

    Backstage At Disrupt NYC 2012 With MakerBot’s Bre Pettis

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    Bre Pettis of MakerBot stopped by our little show today and spent some time on the stage with John Biggs and other notables in the manufacturing space. But afterwards Pettis, co-founder and CEO of MakerBot, joined me on the TCTV couch to geek out a bit over the fantastic MakerBot Replicator. The company also has two MakerBot Replicators printing out random doodads and toys in our first ever Hardware Alley. → Read More

    May 23rd, 2012

    New York Hardware Buffs Weigh In On China, Embracing Niches, And How To Start Making Things

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    Earlier this morning, our own John Biggs was joined on stage by a handful of New York-based makers who have made a name for themselves by building physical things (or in one case, building something that builds other things). Biggs kicked off the panel with a simple question: — can we bring manufacturing back?

    Bre Pettis, CEO of Makerbot Industries, has two shifts of workers putting together all of his Makerbots in Brooklyn, and had a bit of advice for hardware creators looking to shift production to China. He recommended that until makers need to produce runs of 50,000-100,000 units, they’re much better off keeping the production process in the United States. It helps to keep makers intimate with their tech, not to mention makes it easier for them to handle any unexpected issues faster. → Read More

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    May 22nd, 2012

    Re-live 1993 With ThinkGeek’s New Super Famicom-Inspired Wii Controller

    famiwii

    A Wiimote turned on its side makes for a perfectly serviceable controller when plowing through retro games from the Wii Shop Channel, and the Classic Controller isn’t bad either, but I wouldn’t call either of them an ideal solution.

    On the other hand, ThinkGeek’s new Super Famicom controller for the Wii manages to come pretty damned close, especially if you’re a gamer who spends your time steeped in the past. → Read More

    May 22nd, 2012

    Incident’s gTar Tops $120,000 On Kickstarter (That’s $110K In Less Than 24 Hours)

    gtar

    Kickstarter is a great place to launch a product. Remember the Pebble smart watch, which saw over $1 million in funding in its first 28 hours on the site, and surpassing $3 million well over a month before their stated goal?

    Disrupt, which just so happens to be underway as I type these very words, is also an excellent place to launch your product. We’ve seen countless companies rise to almost instantaneous success after stepping off of our stage, like Soluto, Mint.com, Redbeacon, and GroupMe.

    So it should be no surprise that Incident’s now-famous gTar, which was launched both on the Disrupt Battlefield stage and on Kickstarter, has made upwards of $120,000 on Kickstarter since launching on our stage yesterday. → Read More

    May 22nd, 2012

    Larry Page Spotted Wearing Google Glasses In England!

    larry page google glasses

    There hasn’t been a whole lot of news coming out of the Google Zeitgeist event taking place in a posh hotel on the outskirts of London this week, but Google’s making some other news in England: its CEO Larry Page has been spotted wearing Google Glasses.

    The pictures of Page wearing the super-funky augmented reality eyewear are possibly the first — although his Google co-founder Sergey Brin has also been seen wearing them in the wild. Today’s pictures come courtesy of a Google employee, who posted them — where else? — on Google+.
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    May 22nd, 2012

    Sonos Launches The Sonos Sub (Woofer, Not Sandwich)

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    Sonos has just gotten really deep (get it?) with their new Sonos Sub, a wireless subwoofer that connects to any Sonos system and adds just a bit more oomph to the musical proceedings. The sub costs $699 and offers (according to the press release) “thick layers of bottomless sound that let you hear and feel the weight of every chord, kick, splash and roll.”
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    May 21st, 2012

    Sprint’s EVO 4G LTE Has Cleared U.S. Customs, Pre-Orders To Be Filled As Early As May 24

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    Sprint’s launch plans for the HTC EVO 4G LTE were ruined last week when shipments of their shiny new Android handset were held up by United States Customs, but we’re hearing that they may been hitting doorsteps and store shelves sooner than expected.

    According to Sprint, the devices are now currently sitting safely in Sprint’s warehouses and are expected to start trickling out into the world “on or around May 24.” → Read More

    May 21st, 2012

    The Power Of Disrupt: gTar Raises $30,000 On Kickstarter In Two Hours

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    Incident took the stage this afternoon at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC and debuted the gTar. It’s safe to say that they are already a major contender for the Disrupt Cup.

    The startup wowed the crowd with their iPhone-powered teaching guitar. The judges loved it. The crowd loved. And most importantly, fans turned to the startup’s Kickstarter campaign where funding took off like a rocket. Prior to hitting the stage, the gTar had raised just a touch above $10,000. Now, almost exactly two hours after their Disrupt debut, their Kickstarter funding (a.k.a. pre-orders) is north of $42,000 and rising fast. → Read More

    May 21st, 2012

    Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, And Others Will Share Wi-Fi Hot Spots

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    Imagine for a moment that you are sitting in your front yard in a lawn chair, sipping lemonade while attempting to read the latest news on your WiFi-only iPad. You’re just out of range of your WiFi signal. Your neighbor’s signal is super strong, but that selfish hooligan didn’t leave it wide open for you to leach onto. Wouldn’t you love to be able to use a portion of his spectrum anyway while away from your own?

    Well, you still can’t, however… → Read More

    May 21st, 2012

    Incident Launches The gTar at Disrupt, An iPhone-Powered Electronic Teaching Guitar

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    The gTar by Incident is disruption defined. It takes the guitar, an instrument with a steep learning curve, and adds a bit of digital wizardry in the form of an embedded iPhone to make learning dramatically easier. The company brags that their modern take on the guitar allows for three levels of difficulty, rather than the traditional single really difficult one. But thanks to the iPhone and a clever app, this $450 electronic guitar essentially teaches users the ins and outs of the instrument.

    The startup recently turned to Kickstarter to raise $100,000. However today they gave the crowd at Disrupt a musical treat — a demonstration at Startup Alley. And the device seemed to work as advertised. → Read More

    May 21st, 2012

    Apple Wants Immediate Ban On Galaxy Tab 10.1 In The USA

    appleSherrif

    On Friday May 18th, Apple filed a motion for a U.S. preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1. This follows a ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Northern District of California), siding with Apple on the question of whether Samsung is in violation of an iPad-related design patent (U.S. Patent No. D504,889). According to Foss Patents, the source of this story, the request could be valid and is likely to be upheld.

    Samsung has until May 25th at high noon to respond. (OK not really…about the high noon thing).

    What does it mean though? Will the Galaxy Tab 10.1 disappear from U.S. shores if Apple emerges victoriously with their injunction? → Read More

    May 21st, 2012

    Comcast Is Finally Rolling Out The X1, Its Set-top Box In The Cloud

    X1 MainMenu_guide

    Comcast announced Monday that it will make its newest set-top box available in Boston over the coming weeks, with a rollout planned across the entire country later this year. It’s also introducing a mobile app to control the set-top box from the iPhone or iPad.

    The new set-top box comes after several years of development. Comcast has been working hard to develop a new set-top box that would take all of the smarts out of the box and put it in the network, essentially allowing the cable provider to launch new services and update the new features without having to totally rewrite applications or push out new firmware. → Read More

    May 20th, 2012

    TC/Gadgets Webcast: Live From Disrupt NYC

    This week we recorded live from the show floor at Disrupt NYC. We sat through 24 hours straight of hot-rod hacking at the Hackathon and now we’re preparing for the main show and, most important, the brand new Hardware Alley where we’ll have loads of great hardware start-ups for you guys to check out.
    → Read More

    May 20th, 2012

    New Project, Roominate, Offers A Fully-Wired Dollhouse For Kids

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    Teaching kids – especially little girls – about electronics is a hard job. First, there’s the electricity. Then there’s the sense that soldering, wiring, and lining up LEDs is considerably less fun than watching Tangled. This project, called Roominate, aims to change the way girls think about electricity.

    The kit consists of a set of tiny furniture with built-in wires and switches. You can wire up your dollhouse however you like, adding lamps and switches. $49 gets you one regular room and $95 gets you a “duplex.” → Read More

    May 20th, 2012

    SpaceX To Attempt A Second Launch On Tuesday, May 22

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    SpaceX and Elon Musk will not be held from the history books. Last night the company announced that engineers were currently replacing a faulty valve on engine #5, and if successful pending a data review today, the company would attempt a second launch on Tuesday, May 22nd. This comes as SpaceX’s maiden voyage to the International Space Station was cut a half second short by an automated safety function built into the rocket. → Read More

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    Crunchbase

    Soteira — Received $375k in Debt funding
    5.25.2012
    Z Glass Design — Company added to CrunchBase
    5.26.2012
    NextView Ventures — Invested in TurningArt.
    5.23.2012
    Compliance11 — Acquired by Compliance11, Inc..
    11.15.2012
    Facebook — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:FB.
    5.18.2012
    Compliance11 — Acquired by Compliance11, Inc..
    11.15.2012
    Bolt | Peters — Acquired by Facebook for $50M.
    6.21.2012
    GlobalEnglish — Acquired by Pearson for $90M.
    5.25.2012
    Chick Approved — Acquired by Lockerz.
    5.25.2012
    PowerReviews — Acquired by Bazaarvoice for $151M.
    5.24.2012
    Soteira — Received $375k in Debt funding
    5.25.2012
    Spectra Analysis — Received $125k in Debt funding
    5.25.2012
    Exec — Received $3.3M in Seed funding
    5.25.2012
    SecureKey Technologies — Received $30M in Series B funding from Intel Capital, VISA, Rogers Ventures, and TELUS
    5.25.2012
    Xtreme Power — Received $10M in Series D funding from Sail Capital Partners
    5.25.2012
    NextView Ventures — Invested in TurningArt.
    5.23.2012
    TELUS — Invested in SecureKey Technologies.
    5.25.2012
    5.25.2012
    VISA — Invested in SecureKey Technologies.
    5.25.2012
    5.25.2012
    Facebook — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:FB.
    5.18.2012
    Z Glass Design — Company added to CrunchBase
    5.26.2012
    Digital Hype Networks — Company added to CrunchBase
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    Minggler — Company added to CrunchBase
    5.26.2012
    Soteira — Company added to CrunchBase
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    RapidValue Solutions — Company added to CrunchBase
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    Google Chromium — Product added to CrunchBase
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    mywheebox — Product added to CrunchBase
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    The Permissioner — Product added to CrunchBase
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