The nominations have been tabulated and the votes are in. Over 300,000 nominations were calculated across 20 categories. Along with our partners GigaOm and VentureBeat, we are very proud to announce the finalists for 2011′s best in technology. Voting begins now.
For 2011, we’ve added some new categories. Best Location App, Best Cloud Services and Biggest Social Impact join the Crunchies ranks this year. You’ll also find Best Social App (Google+ is up against Facebook Timeline, the New New Twitter, Instagram, and Path 2.0), the NYC-dominated category of Best Shopping App, Best New Startup and the year’s best VC’s and Angel Investors. Newcomers like Task Rabbit’s Leah Busque and Keith Rabois for his angel investments (Airbnb, LinkedIn, Yammer, Path, YouTube) made the list of finalists, as well as industry favorites such as Marc Andreessen, Jack Dorsey, Mark Pincus and Ron Conway.
In addition to today’s announcement of the Finalists, we are happy to release our next batch of tickets through Eventbrite. The release begins now, so act fast and get them while you can. → Read More
The claims are magnificent: “The latest, top-tier, high-performance games…on over 500 million mobile devices.” The results are slightly less than spectacular, but still impressive enough to completely shake up the mobile gaming scene. For the first time, you can play real games (as in titles previously only available on full-fledged gaming consoles) on a relatively low power device such as a tablet or smartphone. Thanks to Onlive’s just-launched mobile app, DiRT 3, Assasin’s Creed Revelations, L.A. Noire and many more titles are now playable on most recent Android devices including the Kindle Fire, iPad and soon, the iPhone.
Onlive is by nature gaming done different. Instead of relying on local media, games are streamed thanks to today’s generous bandwidth. Available starting today, Onlive is no longer restricted to a TV or computer. The entire system and its ever-growing library of games (currently around 200 titles) are now playable on a select number of mobile devices. I found that it’s almost true console gaming on the go. Like the traditional Onlive service, it’s not perfect but still pretty neat. → 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 available are eligible including Dues Ex: Human Revolution, DiRT 3, Red Faction: Armageddon and the rest of OnLive’s library. Nice. Let me suggest DiRT 3; Dues Ex is boring. → Read More
Game reviews are always inadequate, in that while they can describe how it feels to control your guy, or how the level design is frustrating, you can only kind of get it. Video reviews help, but you can never be sure you and the reviewer are on the same page — more so than with books and movies, I’d say. OnLive and GameSpot are hoping to change that up a bit by adding instant game demos to reviews, so if you’re curious how a game plays, you can just… play it. → Read More
Cloud gaming service OnLive has been getting better and better. We had a blast checking out the OnLive booth at E3 this year, and you better believe the service’s usage will have gone up since GameStop inadvertently gave OnLive a ton of great publicity yesterday.
But OnLive isn’t resting on its laurels, as new user-requested features are rolling out today. → Read More
OnLive did E3 big this year. The remote gaming company launched a ton of new games, a universal controller, and displayed their tablet apps. In fact more than a few of our commenters disagreed with our dueling assertion that the Wii U and the Vita won E3 this year; they thought OnLive deserved our meaningless nod. That’s why we made sure we spent sometime at OnLive’s rocking E3 booth.
There’s no questioning the platform’s huge potential. The company seems ready to embed their system in nearly any relevant device and it’s already found in select HDTVs, tablets, computers, and set-top boxes. While I firmly believe it’s not as good as the real thing, OnLive certainly brings proper gaming to systems and devices that would otherwise be left out of the fun. Want to play Duke Nukem Forever using just your Vizio HDTV or Macbook? No problem with Onlive. → Read More
OnLive ain’t new, but they’ve been updating their service and are showing off a few interesting new features here at E3. We spent some time at their booth, hearing about the service and the improvements they’re making. We saw a little footage of From Dust and heard about their cool tablet interface.
Head on inside for the video. → Read More
THQ has teamed up with OnLive, whereby if you pre-order Homefront, the game that features a “nuclear-armed Korean People’s Army [invading] the USA,” you’ll get a free OnLive system. Said system would normally run you $99. → Read More
According to WSJ report, HTC has purchased at $40 million stake in streaming game company OnLive, a move that points to HTC’s impetus towards content distribution alongside their standard handset manufacturing business.
HTC also bough Saffron Digital, a streaming video business that specializes in sending DRM-protected video streams. The idea, then, is for HTC’s Sense UI to move from the handset to the television, an optimistic move that could place HTC branding on more than just phones. → Read More
As OnLive has continued to grow and prove itself not to be an elaborate hoax, it has become clear that their streaming tech is seriously good. So good, in fact, that some speculated that they might get into the business of streaming movies. OnLive CEO Steven Perlman corrected these wild ideas, noting that even when he had earlier said that OnLive could do what Netflix does, he had qualified that statement by noting that Netflix’s strength is really in its library. → Read More
OnLive is quickly turning into a major force in the gaming and mobile fields. The on-demand gaming service launched last summer but that was just the beginning it seems. A movie streaming service is apparently on tap and the just-announced mobile viewer apps clearly shows that the crazy compression scheme can be used for other applications as well. Ever wanted to run Autodesk’s Maya on your iPad? Yeah, this app can make it happen. → Read More
Netflix is currently the big dog of the movie streaming game but offerings from several established companies might put up a bit of fight. Amazon and Onlive are both said to be working on a similar service, but let’s kill something straight away. These are not Netflix killers, m’kay? Just because a massive entity such as Amazon or a lively start-up as Onlive decides to wet their feet in a different space doesn’t mean the current swimmers need to watch for shit in the pool right away. Netflix’s storied success should gently lead these companies and others into the deep end and not the very effective sink or swim method Netflix experienced years ago. → Read More
I get OnLive. I’ve played with the new unit for a few days now and it’s clearly for a household like mine where video games isn’t a major affair. It allows someone like myself to pick up the controller, browse the selection of games and then start playing any of the available games nearly immediately. The just-announced PlayPack counters the biggest hurdle for casual gamers: the high initial cost of games.
Starting today for OnLive Game System owners, this flat-rate plan grants access to a sizable chunk of the OnLive library. Better even yet, since the plan is in beta until January 15, 2011 when it will be available to all OnLive members, this pack is available free of charge till then. Who doesn’t like free games? No one, that’s who. → Read More
I get OnLive. I’ve played with the new unit for a few days now and it’s clearly for a household like mine where video games isn’t a major affair. It allows someone like myself to pick up the controller, browse the selection of games and then start playing any of the available games nearly immediately. The just-announced PlayPack counters the biggest hurdle for casual gamers: the high initial cost of games.
Starting today for OnLive Game System owners, this flat-rate plan grants access to a sizable chunk of the OnLive library. Better even yet, since the plan is in beta until January 15, 2011 when it will be available to all OnLive members, this pack is available free of charge till then. Who doesn’t like free games? No one, that’s who. → Read More
It was quite a while back when we first tried out OnLive, and got our first look at the “microconsole” and wireless controller. So long back, in fact, I was wondering whether they’d abandoned that avenue of sales altogether. But no! They were just lying in wait for the 2010 holiday season to drop the sucker on our laps. → Read More
Everyone’s favorite game-streaming service, OnLive, has changed up its business plan: instead of charging you for access and for games, they’re only going to charge you for games.
Since they only went live a few months ago, I’m guessing they weren’t seeing retention rates as high as they’d like. Maybe not. Whatever the reason is, you’re the beneficiary. → Read More
Get thee to the downloadery for OnLive now works on Macs. You can download a small file to bring up the OnLive client and play Assassisn’s Creed and other exciting games.
As you recall, OnLive is essentially a game streaming engine for Macs and PCs. All of the heavy lifting happens in the cloud and the company simply streams audio and video to your desktop. Think of it as video-on-demand on crack. → Read More
Take that, naysayers! OnLive, the cloud gaming service designed to allow you to play almost any game over the Internet is going live on June 17 and, thanks to a partnership with AT&T, the service is free the first year and $4.95/month after that. You can attempt to sign up here. OnLive has also released a roster of games including hits like Asassin’s Creed II, Dragon Age: Origins, and Just Cause 2. How do you access it? The service will run in a browser on a Mac or PC and will be available to stream via OnLive’s MicroConsole TV adapter. Click through for full release. → Read More
One of the bigger stories this past week was OnLive heading to the UK. The service promises to make PC gaming more accessible by hosting all of the hardware—you simply supply a broadband connection and a Web browser, and you’ll be playing the likes of Mass Effect 2 in no time. If it works as described, great. There’s nothing wrong with exposing PC gaming to more people. → Read More
OnLive, the streaming video game service that threatens to change the way people perceive gaming, has signed a deal with with British Telecommunications. The deal means that Britons will be able to play games like Mass Effect 2 and Assassin’s Creed II over their broadband connection (and it also means that BT will buy a small stake in the company). No UK launch date has been announced. The U.S. launch is still on schedule for June 17. → Read More
